Happy Easter

Wishing you all a very Happy and Blessed Easter!

Jennifer ♥

Easter Bonnet

Never saw you look quite so pretty before

Never saw you dressed quite so lovely what's more

I could hardly wait to keep our date this lovely

Easter Morning...

And my heart beat fast as I came through the door.

For in your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it

You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter Parade.

When my Mom was a little girl, my Nana made all of her and her sister's Easter outfits herself. They all had a new dress, new coat, new white gloves and a new little Easter bonnet for Easter Sunday.

When my sister and I were growing up, my Mom did the same for us. We always had a new outfit for Easter. I love that some things never change. Your Easter hat says so much about you. I couldn't wait to get to church Easter Morning to see what hat Mrs. S. had on. She was in my Nana's altar society and her hats were straight out of a Hollywood movie of the 1950's.

In perusing Flickr, I came across a few Easter Bonnet clad ladies of yore and I thought I would share them with you. What is it about that brand new Easter outfit and hat? Enjoy!

(Flower embellishment: Pugly Pixel Freebie. All images found on Flickr)

Eggstraordinary

A small Easter Round-Up, as we move closer and closer to the Easter Bunny coming. Here are 3 "eggstraordinary" ideas from 3  places I like to visit! Enjoy!

1) Abby Try Again, has created a carton of confetti filled eggs to brighten up any Easter party:

2)The gang at PoppyTalk have constructed painted eggs with a hidden message inside:

3)Molly at The Purl Bee has designed 3 different Spring time coloured bags, to hold all the eggs and surprises you find at the Easter Egg Hunt:

(All images are copyrighted to their respective Blog, Easter banner created by J. Michie)

Jelly Bean Happiness

Goose Girl & Foxy LOVE jellybeans! I bet you didn't know that about them!

YIPPEE!

YIPEEEE! School is out for Easter Break and I am very excited!

(Image by Kelly Reemtsen, I'm Not Falling For You, "Yippee" added by Jennifer Michie)

*Kelly Reemtsen is an artist I have only recently discovered and I really enjoy her work. This series in particular where surreal headless 1950's/60's clad women, holding everyday household and gardening objects fill the canvas before you. I love the differing shades of yellow used in the above image, it is so simple, yet so complex.

Do You Remember?

Do you remember our Easter basket and this beautiful pink box from Rococo?

It was the one piece of Easter candy amongst all the others that I was saving till last! I opened it last night and here is what was inside:

It was divine! I think the chocolate just tasted better because it was in the shape of ducks and lambs and bunnies! I even shared, which was a very hard thing to do with such scrumptious chocolate in front of me!

Even the tissue paper was beautifully designed with images of vintage chocolate molds, I just love it! It was well worth the wait! I just knew it was going to be delicious when I saw it was wrapped with such a girly pink gingham ribbon! It is just happiness!

The Holiday

I have the couch to myself, our Easter package has arrived from my wonderful parents and I am sitting curled up with a blanket and some jelly beans (I love the pink colored ones) and as the key holder of the remote control I am blissfully watching the wonderfully delightful movie "The Holiday"! What could be better than a Christmas movie on TV?

Right now, I can't think of anything better than this, this is happiness! I love this film, I would move in to that cottage tomorrow. It is a shame that it doesn't really exist, because I am in love with it - her kitchen, with its duck egg blue cabinets and giant fireplace,  her glorious bookshelves and inviting looking furniture.

I can relate to living in something so cramped and cozy, unfortunately though, I don't have a fireplace in my bedroom like Kate Winslet does, that would be a dream. But, that is probably a good thing, because between that and my very comfy fluffy bed, I might never leave my room...


Hope there is a little drop of rainbow happiness in your day!








(Images from the Hooked on Houses Blog)

Thank You Easter Bunny!

We must have been really good this year, because when we went to bed our basket looked like this:

But, when we woke up, it looked like this:

Thank you Easter Bunny! How did you know I love Rococo's chocolate, especially wrapped in pink gingham?

Happy Easter

 I hope the Easter Bunny has filled your baskets' with lots of goodies!

The Country Bunny

This my friends, is one of my most treasured books. The pages are very lovingly worn and well read. It was placed in my Easter Basket many, many moons ago by the Easter Bunny and is one of my favorite books! Not only for the story itself but for the beautiful images.

Du Bose Heyward wrote it for his daughter, Jennifer. This was a fact that I did not know until I was older and since it said on the cover "as told to Jennifer", I thought for the longest time it had been written just for me!




If you have never had the great fortune of reading this book. It is about a country bunny who has always wanted to be an Easter Bunny. She is a very organized and wonderful mother, each of her children have a responsibility in their home, so everyone works together. After learning that there is a search for a new Easter Bunny she sets out with her children to compete for a place alongside the other bunnies.  She earns her place through hard work, resourcefulness, intelligence but most importantly her kindness.

One day a little country girl bunny with a brown skin
and a little cotton-ball of a tail said, "Some day I shall
grow up to be the Easter Bunny: you wait and see!"
Then all of the big white bunnies who lived in fine houses,
and the Jack Rabbits with long legs who can run fast,
laughed at the little Cottontail and told her to go
back to the country and eat a carrot.
But she said, "Wait and see!"

On Easter Eve after delivering so many baskets of eggs to all the little boys and girls she is given the great task by Grandfather Bunny to make one more delivery to bring one very special egg to a very sick child.  She succeeds in the end with the help of Grandfather Bunny's wisdom and the magical golden shoes.

While in college I had the great opportunity to intern at the Gibbes Museum of Art which holds the original images to this book. Every Easter the prints are carefully taken out of storage and put into a side gallery that doubles as a classroom. I had the privilege of teaching kindergarteners and 1st & 2nd graders the principles of printing and color mixing using these images. As with many older printings the color was created by a layering effect.

I would pick up my little munchkins in the main entry way, they were always adorable, a little fidgety standing there in a small huddled group. The girls usually all dressed up by the Mama's with a big bow in their hair, because they were on a school field trip, the boys in little khaki shorts with polo shirts and normally untied shoes.  It was my class to teach, so I ran it how I saw fit. I would take them into the dollhouse miniatures gallery first and watch their little faces as they climbed up onto the plinths especially built for little people and with noses pressed against the glass they would stare into the cases of miniature rooms and houses, all built as elfin sized replicas of historic homes.

Next, we would cross the hall and go into the Japanese Print Room, where I would begin to talk about carving a design and how you layered colors, using a different carved block for each new color.  From there we marched on to the "Bunny Room" and there faces were always magical to see as they stared at the prints on the wall of a book many of them had read or been read to numerous times in their young lives.

We would talk about the process layering  and mixing color and we would read the book; have an Easter Egg hunt (the eggs held inside a "puzzle" piece of the images on the wall they had to match) and do a little coloring exercise too.  The days I got to teach them were always a day I looked forward too, because without fail, if nothing else I said or showed them grabbed their attention, that room always did because of Majorie Flack's sweet images and the beautiful words written by Du Bose Heyward.

I wish I had the Country Bunny's golden shoes on today, because with a few good leaps I could skip across this ocean between me and my family and be their Easter Bunny hopping in through the door and visiting with them for this most special of Holidays.

Quick as A Rabbit

I went to the gorgeous Susan Branch's website today and saw this bunny cake on her homepage. He is too cute not to share! Wouldn't he be fun to make for all the little people coming to your Easter party?

(Image copyright Susan Branch)

Going on A Twig Hunt!

This past weekend we went on our annual twig hunt for the Easter Egg tree. Normally we come back with a selection of different sized branches, but this year we actually found a fallen branch that looked more like a little German Christmas tree. So, home it came with us to be decorated.

The woods are very slowly starting to come to life. Daffodils are peaking their crowned heads up, polka dotting everywhere with sunshine yellow. We came across 2 muntjacs who were making their way down to the pond to drink, they saw us and leaped and bounded in the other direction. The smaller one, however, stopped behind a tree and just watched us for a little while as we watched him.

It was cold on Sunday, so even though we were bundled up we didn't last long in the woods the damp just oozed in to your pores. But the smell of fresh earth and clean air was so nice after a winter of not being able to walk in the woods, it wasn't too long though before we headed home to decorate our tree.




It was bigger than we thought! The scale of the woods made our little branch look "little". It wasn't until we got home and tried to get it  through the door we realized we had a problem!

After some laughing and cutting down the longer branches and trimming away some of the bottom we finally got it up. It is my first bit of Easter and there will be more to come this week. If the sunshine won't be outside, I can at least bring it inside!

My husband loves to hang the eggs on the tree. The first year we were married I found a German Easter Egg kit to dye eggs with. We searched and searched for white eggs since the grocery stores here only carry brown. Eventually, we found some lighter colored ones and after carefully blowing them out we spent an afternoon dyeing them.

He had never dyed an egg before, as this is not a British Easter tradition and it was such a delight to watch his sweet face light up as he hovered over his little pile of eggs making sure they changed to just the hue he wanted. That is how it should be, the simple things should never cease to please us!

Some Bunny Loves You

These bunnies are too cute for words! I saw them this weekend posted at The Purl Bee blog. They would be adorable set around a child's place setting at an Easter table (or for grown-up kids too). I would love one at mine!

I come from a very large family of extended aunts, uncles & cousins. Both of my parents are 1 of 8 children and it doesn't matter how old I am, or how long I have been married, I am still at the children's table when we go to my grandparent's house for family events. But, hey, you have more fun with those little people anyway, and with these little finger puppets we would be having a ball!

These bunnies would even be cute tucked in an Easter basket as a surprise from the Easter Bunny, you just have to have one small fun thing hidden amongst all the jelly beans and peeps and chocolate placed in the Easter grass of your basket!

To make your own little bunny Fu-Fu finger puppets follow the directions here:






(Images copyright The Purl Bee, embellishments, Jennifer Michie)

Pom Pom Bunny Girl

This elfin sized Pom-Pom Bunny, by the very lovely Jennifer Murphy has been in my little project file for awhile now. I don't think she is going to be made this Easter, with all the other projects I have on the go at the moment...

But, her vintage sweetness would look very cute on my kitchen table or next to my Easter egg tree. I need the rain to hold off on Saturday so we can go on our twig hunt. Easter is almost here and I haven't collected twigs yet for my tree, once that is done we can get the eggs out to hang up and really feel like Spring is here.

To make your own Pom-Pom Bunny Girl follow the directions below:

 

Tools and Materials
Yarn
Waxed thread
Scissors
Felt
Felt glue (such as Beacon's)
Hemostat
Tiny black beads
Pink embroidery floss
Needle
Heavy thread
Chenille stem
Paper cupcake liners
Pinking sheers
Ribbon
Vintage flowers (optional)
Small circle of wood
Off-white paint
Paintbrush
Pink paper

Pom-Pom Bunny How-To1. Print Bunny How-To PDF to follow along with when creating the pom-pom bunnies. Make two separate pom-poms of equal size by winding yarn around two fingers. Tie pom-pom tightly in middle with waxed thread.

2. Use scissors to clip loops and create frayed ends. Trim a larger pom-pom into an oval for the body. Trim a smaller pom-pom to create a head.

3. Cut ears out of felt. Fold and glue the bottom of each ear to give it dimension, and hold into place with a hemostat until dry.

4. Glue ears into the head with felt glue.

5. Glue bead eyes into place.

6. String pink embroidery floss through the space where the nose should be. Trim.

7. Knot a double-threaded needle with heavy thread; pull through and clip long for whiskers.

8. Open a space in the body for the arms and legs made of chenille stems. Glue chenille stem into pom-pom body.

9. Fold chenille stem in half so cut end gets hidden inside the pom-pom for both the arms and legs. Fold legs vertically, and arms horizontally. For the legs, fold them so the bunny becomes the desired height.

10. Glue head onto body.

11. To make the bunny's skirt, cut the circular bottoms of two paper cupcake liners with pinking sheers.

12. Glue the two pieces together at the waist.

13. Tie a bow around bunny's neck using ribbon.

14. With glue, tack the skirt onto the bunny on the front, back, and under each arm. Dab small dots of glue around the top of the skirt and attach.

15. Bend the bunny's arms. Glue on vintage flowers for decoration.

16. To create a base, paint a small circle of wood off-white. Trace the circle on pink paper.

17. Cut just inside line with pinking sheers and glue onto the wooden base.

18. Bend the bunny's feet at the ankle. Glue feet onto the wooden base.

(All images & tutorial text copyright Martha Stewart)

Hopping Along

Ooh! I know we are now in the second day of Lent and we should be being good, but, I couldn't help it! Tonight I ran to the grocery store to pick up some bread and he just jumped right into my basket and hopped home with me!

And, he was delicious!