Happy Easter!

My Easter centrepiece....the mini eggs didn't last long!!

Eastern urns

Brutal pictures indeed (I had a very fussy little boy in the background demanding some attention), but here is what we got up to this afternoon ....alas, my Christmas urn is FINALLY gone! After Easter I will just remove the Easter eggs and keep the pansies and pussy willows!

An egg-stra special Easter craft

I recently signed up for Martha Stewart's 'craft of the day' email. So far, the ideas have been far more elaborate than I can manage with my 2 year old. But yesterday's idea (here's the link) was simple, fun, and festive. Just crack an egg near the top, rinse it out, and fill it with some water and your favourite spring blooms. If you're not into flowers, you could fill each egg with some jelly bean treats as a table favour for each of your Easter dinner guests.

I love this craft for a few reasons. First, it's perfect for toddlers (as long as you can get them to be gentle with the egg shells!). Second, it fits well with my table dressing approach. I love a series of small arrangements on my dinner party tables instead of one large one, as they don't obstuct anyone's view. I often do a flight of small flower arrangements in small cups scattered around the table, or down a line in the middle. It's also a great way to get a lot of milage out of a cheap groceria bouquet.

We decided to one-up Martha and dip our eggs in various bowls of water dyed with food colouring. This increases the mess factor, but my daugther loved watching the egg absorb the various colours, and it was a fun way to learn about how mixing different colours create new ones.

Would you believe that the glass egg cups belonged to my Great Grandmother Smith?

Signs of spring

One of my favourite things about spring are all the gorgeous tulips available at the little grocerias.

Last weekend my sister brought a bouquet for my 2.5 year old daughter - it was the first time she officially received flowers. So sweet!

The tulips are about to bite the dust, but I couldn't help but photograph them before I threw them out; they took on a beautiful translucent quality as they died. Once my daughter wakes up from her nap we're going to pop out and buy some new ones for part of an afternoon Easter craft....stay tuned!!

Easter eggs

The spirit has not yet moved me to do anything homemade for Easter so far, but I've begun my decorating with some Shoppers Drug Mart specials (as an aside my SDM sells their milk extra cheap: $4.29 for 3 bags) (the exception is the eggs in the final photo, which I picked up at Pottery Barn on deep discount years ago).

Is the Easter bunny coming to your house next weekend?