Pretty Spring Baskets

My brilliant mom decided to take her hoard of useful (yet unattractive) baskets and paint them in a scheme of pinks.  She also painted the inside of them gold.  I love how they turned out and they will be a perfect little collection of baskets to use for display or to gift.  

Aren't they sweet?  Just in time for Easter.  
Since this is our last post before Easter, let me take this opportunity to say happy Good Friday and have a beautiful Easter day on Sunday!
With much love to you,

Easter Egg Envy

It's almost that time of year again, when we all start buying and dying eggs.  I love how it has kind of become an art form, what with all the crafty bloggers and DIYers out there elevating the tradition and creating new ones.
I decided to share with you the obligatory favorite Easter egg post today.  There are so many fun, creative ways to decorate your eggs now, and a quick search on pinterest and  a couple of other great blogs turned up some old favorites as well as some new ones worth trying out this year.
A lot of my favorites came from Anne Weil of the blog Flax & Twine, who recently did her own Easter egg round up.

Flax & Twine

I adore these crocheted Easter eggs.  Aren't they pretty?!  And different.  And gorgeous, really.
Here. I'll prove it.

Flax & Twine

Right now that is the blog header over at Flax & Twine.  Eggs.  3 eggs with crochet on them, and I think it is a stunning header.  Who would have thought that 3 eggs could be so damn pretty?

image via Flax & Twine

Here are some decoupaged flower eggs.  Beautiful flowers = beautiful eggs.

image via Flax & Twine

How much fun is this little man?  I don't think you even have to save him for Easter.  He'd be a fun addition to a weekend breakfast with the kiddos.

image viaCountry Living

Regardless of whether or not you think ombre is still in or on its way out, there is no denying that these are some pretty eggs!

image via Country Living

I think these eggs are gorgeous.  It may be because they are grey.  I have a thing for grey at the moment.  These particular eggs were dyed using the silk wrapping method.  It's actually a fairly simple process, but my eggs never looked that good when we dyed them using silk ties.

image via The Caroline Johansson

How about some doodle eggs for you?  These will work only if you have talent and patience.  But if you do, then you can get some beautiful graphic eggs like these too.
Want more inspiration?  You should head on over to Flax & Twine- she has a lot more gorgeous, inspiring egg pics over there.
And in the meantime, let me just wish you a happy Monday!  Hope your week is off to a fantastic start.

Happy Easter

Source: Uploaded by user via Trending Mom on Pinterest

Happy Saturday!

Well happy Saturday everyone!  I hope you are having a wonderful holiday weekend.  Today I am in need of a little inspiration to carry me through the business of Easter preparations.  Tomorrow morning we will have our egg hunt and my parents are coming for breakfast before we all go to church, so it will be busy.  I am making the most delicious egg and cheese casserole {a recipe from a friend} and I will share that with you later.  Mostly today is about being ready and freshening up the house and gardens.  

pinterest via Boden

How adorable are these little guys?  I want!

pinterest via kara's party ideas.com

Last year I hosted an Easter play date {view here} but the next time I will take a look at this sweet little party.

pinterest via etsy

I really like the chalkboard paint idea for eggs this year!

pinterest via Glitter Guide

I know that lilies are the flower of Easter, but I much prefer tulips.

pinterest via DGV

The perfect Easter breakfast/brunch table setting.  So beautiful.

pinterest via Susan Benner Rego

I hope all your preparations are going well.  Stay inspired!

Easter via Rifle Paper Co.

Easter is just days away so I am in a panic to finish all the little things that Easter requires to make little ones happy.  I also want to make a beautiful flower arrangement for my mom who hosts our Easter dinner.  Today was Gwenna's last day of pre-school before Spring break and I wanted to get her three wonderful teachers a little special something.  Target is now carrying Rifle Paper Co. products so I bought a three- pack of gorgeous journals {you will see at the end}.  I looked on Rifle Paper Co's site , only to find other fabulous products for Easter that I thought I would share with you.

Floral Easter Egg Card

Wildflower Wrapping Sheets

Decorated Easter Eggs Cards

Easter Palms Card

Here is what I put together for my daughter's teachers.  A bit of trim and pretty pencils attached to these elegant and cheery journals {available in stores} make for pretty Easter gifts.

I hope all your Easter preparations are going well!  We still have to dye eggs and...well...fit in quite a few little things.  Today, though, we are headed to the zoo.

Egg-celent

Today's post is going to be short and sweet. Just like me. Just kidding. I'm neither of those things.
These black and white eggs are pretty sweet, though, and once you've got the yolk cleared out, they seem pretty simple, too.
These graphic beauties can be found over on Obviously Sweet.

Freaky Find Friday: Easter Errors

kkcb

We really aren't trying to be mean.  Really.  It's just that we all need a laugh now and again and there are so many laughs to be had when treasure hunting in stores or on the internet.  When I was looking for Easter ideas online recently a few images jumped out at me.  I thought I would share them with you.  The above image is a huge bail of hay.  That's not all:  I guess someone got imaginative.  I think there has been a bit of spray-painting involved.  Perhaps a few delinquent farm kids decided to deface this innocent bale.  I'm not sure what the "carrot" is made from, or the ears (that look like huge slices of like bacon).  A bit strange, in any case.  

ibtimes

Okay, this rabbit looks like it might be a feature of a spring parade.  I don't think I need to say much about how frightening this thing is.  Pretty self-explanatory.  The look on this rabbit's face is completely psycho.  Honestly, it's more Hare in Alice in Wonderland than Easter bunny.  He must be a little near-sighted as well since he is holding that egg as far away as possible.  

partycraftsecrets

 I just can't figure this one out.  It is a fancy mess:  Plastic, beads, glitter, garland and feathers.  Nothing says "Easter" like the makings of a Vegas showgirl costume.

nbcbayarea

I'm not sure the words to "Easter Parade" sung by Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn went ..."In your Easter bonnet, with all the weeds upon it...you'll be the grandest lady in the Easter Parade."  But if they did, this hat would be perfect.
Well, it is a cold rainy Friday here but I'm looking on the bright side:  It will be a prettier spring because of it!

DIY: Bunny Cake Stand

I wanted this bunny cake stand from Pottery Barn for my daughter's "Alice in Wonderland" birthday.  This was weeks before Easter.  I thought that if I waited this $50 beauty would go on sale, but it sold out before Easter came.  What was I to do?  I wanted that cake stand!!!  

Target had this bunny for $9.  I snagged one to make...

my bunny platter.  My husband cut the ears down flat.  He saw that it was hollow so he found a solution.  

He filled a ramekin (used for dip) with epoxy(PL Premium) and leveled it on the bunny ears.  The ramekin allowed for more surface area for the plate to stick to the bunny ears.  Then he attached a plate to the ramekin filled with PL Premium.  

After the PL Premium had set (around 2 days)  I spray painted the whole thing with glossy white spray paint made for ceramics.  That made it look like one piece.  

All finished and ready for the cake!

For around $13 I have an amazing bunny cake stand that I can re-use for Easter.  I even like it better than the one Pottery Barn sold out of and I saved a lot of money.

Silk Dyed Eggs

On Tuesday, I shared some of my most recent thrift store purchases, and that included these items:

They are silk ties that I got for pennies on the dollar.  Maybe.  I don't know if that is actually true, but it sounds about right; they were really cheap, because they came from thrift stores.  Why did I want silk ties from thrift stores?  Because Easter is just around the corner.  Last year I found this great tutorial from Holidash on dying eggs with old silk ties and scarves.  It was so much fun that I decided to do it again this year, and to share the results with you.  I will even tell you how to do it, in case you'd like to try it for yourself!  Here's how they turned out:

From the striped yellow tie.

Navy blue polka dot tie

three of the ties that I used

Here are three of the little pretties, up close and personal.

Step 1. Cut the ties/scarves and the white cloth into squares.  Holidash recommends 7x7.

Step 2.  Put the egg on the silk with the printed side touching the egg.  Wrap tightly.

Here's a hint: wet the square of silk to make it easier to work with.

Step 3. Wrap the white square of material around the egg.  Secure at the top with a twist tie.

Step 4. Repeat with all the eggs.

Step 5. Place eggs in a (non-reactive) pot, fill with water, and add 3 tablespoons
of white vinegar.
Boil the water for 15 minutes,  then let it cool down.

Step 6. Remove the eggs and unwrap to reveal the pretty little
surprise inside.  This is the back of the striped egg; the front has
much cleaner lines.  I love the way the stripes look, but I like this too!
Hint- you can reuse the silk squares a couple of times.

Here's the back of the polka dot egg.

And here is the lot of them that we dyed for this project.
The two that look like nothing happened have a very light
pattern.  
So here is another hint for you- the more vibrant the tie, the more colorful your
eggs will be.  If you want eggs exploding in pattern, definitely choose smaller, crazy patterned
ties- that is what we did last year.  There are so many fun ties out there- so many you would
shudder to see on an actual human being, but would look great on an egg!
I chose my ties, even though they were lighter colors, because I loved the way they looked together while they were ties.  I actually recommend choosing your ties individually- don't worry about them matching, because really, the crazier, more colorful the tie, the crazier, more fun the egg!
Having said that, I knew I would have a lot of left over tie after this project, and I am intending on using the remnants, so that also played a part in my choosing those colors and patterns.  Especially the navy blue with polka dots.  I love that one!

*Update: I think I forgot to mention that you should NOT eat the eggs after you dye them using this method!! 

When I went to the Salvation Army today, they were having a sale- all clothes 50% off, including ties, so I picked up these:

  I was really hoping to get a rose off of this one.

And I did!  Yay!!

For your viewing pleasure, here is the Holidash video- I find watching these tutorials makes it so much easier to actually do the project!

~Lori