Easter EGG-stravaganza

As a little girl, my mom always wanted to find one of these fluffy chicks in her Easter basket, but the Easter Bunny never brought one. Since I wasn't able to make Valentines for my family I decided that I would do a little something for Easter.

It all started with these bunnies. I had the polymer clay already and just needed the eye pins.

 

I opted to forgo the glitter. And while they are supposed to be egg shaped, mine turned out looking more like torpedoes. Her tutorial is really great! And at the bottom is a link to these carrots:

 

SUPER cute! Right? I had to make these too. And since I had already purchased the eye pins for hanging all I needed to complete the carrots was the florist tape used to make the leaves.

 

Again, I chose not to mess with the glitter.

 

All these Easter things needed something to go in. So I researched and found a tutorial for weaving your very own baskets out of brown paper grocery sacks. The instructions are easy to follow. How hard could it be? The first basket took me over 2 hours to weave. By the time I got to the last basket I had cut my time to just over an hour.

 

A tiny bunny and a little carrot were not enough to fill these baskets so my next brilliant idea was to hollow out egg shells and decorate them.

 

Let me just say that chalkboard painting delicate egg shells is a lot harder than you would think it would be. But I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how they turned out. (So did the recipients).

 Next I tried Mod Podge. Also extremely challenging and MESSY.

 

Painting was the easiest, except for the baseball pattern I attempted.

You would think that I had done enough by this point, but I still felt like the baskets needed something else.

 

I picked out some fabrics that coordinated with the items I'd already made and sketched out a simple bunny silhouette. Snip snip with the pinking shears and instant bunny plush!

 

Here are the assembled baskets before I wrapped them in cellophane. One for my mom, my sister, my brother, and my grandma. I don't think my brother was exactly thrilled with all the handmade cuteness, but he got EXTRA Reece's Peanut Butter Eggs in his basket to compensate. 

These turned out to be a much bigger project than I originally envisioned, but the work spread out over 3 weeks made it not too bad. And the reactions made the effort all worthwhile. 

 

I hope everyone had a happy Easter. Ours was a little bittersweet. I have never been more grateful to my Savior for the gift of the Atonement and Resurrection than I am this year. It was wonderful to be surrounded by loving family.

I didn't end up baking any eggs to color. I made breakfast eggs and blueberry muffins instead. Nothing better than a weekend full of good food and love!

BAKED not Boiled

Last year I read somewhere (a blog? twitter? pinterest?) about baked eggs being the BEST way ever to cook eggs. No cracking. And they REALLY do appear to taste creamier.

Ready for the directions? Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. That's it. You can place them right on the oven rack. The first time I tried it I put a layer of foil down (as seen in the pic) because I didn't know if the eggs would fall through. They won't. I have also since seen that some people bake their eggs in muffin tins to keep the eggs from rolling around.

When you take the eggs out of the oven they might have brown spots on the shell---this washes off with cold water.

NOW you're ready to color them! Hopefully in your house you have help and don't have to be solely responsible for all the Easter egg fun. Like me. EVERY year.

Happy baking!

p.s. I might have shared this last year? I don't remember. Sorry if it's a repeat.

Mark S. Wilde

 

Mark S. Wilde

April 22, 1952-February 8, 2013

4 weeks ago my life changed. Not a day has passed that I haven't thought about my dad. He taught me so much. He was such a shining example to me. He touched so many lives in his quiet way. He will be missed in more ways than I can even comprehend. 

His physical suffering is finally over. Last October the doctors informed us that there was nothing more they could do, after a year and a half of treatments for stage IV bladder cancer. They gave us 9-12 months. He was gone in 4. So much faster than we expected. Hospice was such a blessing.

I wanted more than anything to pay tribute to my dad at his funeral. I have been blessed with an overwhelming peace and comfort. With my emotions mostly in check, I was able to share the memories I treasure. So many friends and family traveled to be there for dad's service. Their love and support has been amazing. While the it was a little on the long side, almost everybody in attendance told us that it was the best funeral they had ever been to. People said they could have sat there all day listening to and learning more about dad.

While there is joy that dad is no longer suffering, the grief in the separation can be a heavy burden. I am so grateful to have the close family that I do. I have the greatest mom, sister and brother a girl could ask for. I know that we are an eternal family and that we will be together again.

There will be so many things to come, so many times dad will be missed. I'm sure there will be future blog posts about the grieving process and posts about happy remembrances.  My dad is my hero and I am grateful to have had the time I had with him.

--Natalie

http://philostepher.tumblr.com/post/15620117505

"It is very difficult to know people . . . For men and women are not themselves; they are also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or the farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives' tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can't come to know by hearsay, you can only know them if you have lived them"

W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge, 1943

I read this quote in the forward to a book I read a few months ago and it really stuck with me. I'm not really a New Year's resolution making person; but everyday I want to try to be more understanding, patient and kind to the people I come in contact with---family, friends, coworkers, and strangers alike.

Christmas in a Jar

Confession: most of my Christmas decorations are still packed. Usually I can't wait to put my keepsakes out on display.  Despite this funk, I find myself still enjoying doing things for others. I came across this idea trolling through tumblr. Christmas in a jar! What a great alternative to the traditional plate of goodies. 

Luckily for me, my parents have a dehydrator. Drying the fruit became a labor of love. It took days and days. I watched carefully to make sure the fruit didn't over dry and brown. I am beyond ecstatic with how it all turned out. Beautiful! I can't stop admiring these apple, orange and lemon slices.

Then the challenge became finding the spices. Who knew cinnamon sticks were so expensive!?! And tis the season for cloves to be completely sold out. A little whole all-spice, ground nutmeg and bay leaves. Mmmmm!

Once I had all my ingredients gathered I set out my jars and began the assembly. 

Every item was decoratively placed in the jar. And then rearranged. And rearranged. I really enjoyed putting these together.

Time to finish them. Coffee filters are very inexpensive. (And we'll have enough to make these jars every year for the next 50+ years.)

 Desiree hand lettered the tags, then printed them on brown paper.

Tie them up with some string and DONE.

I didn't have enough stuff left over to make up one for myself. I'm not sure how WONDERFUL the concoction smells, but if it is anything like it smells dry it must be DIVINE.

If you were lucky enough to get one from us, will you please let us know how it smells? (I reduced the cloves by half, because they can be very strong and some people don't care for the scent.) If I can find cheaper spices, making these may become a yearly Christmas tradition.

Santa. One for you, and you, and me.

 

My Mom made this Santa over 30 years ago. It is one of the few Christmas decorations that has survived and still manages to make it out of the attic every year. He's just missing the bells that used to be on his boots. Isn't he ADORABLE? I love him. Every year when he gets unpacked Mom says, "Someday I'll make another one." She was never really happy with the fabrics she chose, but at the time she was a young married with little money. A few years ago I uncovered the pattern. And since then every year have said, "I'm going to make my OWN Santa." Well . . . last year we set aside Thanksgiving weekend to each make a Santa. That's 3. One for Mom, one for Desiree and one for me. 

 We bought our fabric before the big weekend and I pre-cut it so all we would have to do is assemble them. I also crocheted little circles to use for cheeks.

 

Beards are tricky things!

 

Face and arms DONE. Now to stuff the body!

 

Desiree was never too excited about this project, but she walked right into the fabric store and chose hers in 5 minutes. I secretly had her type of Santa in mind for my own, but let her have first fabric choice.

 

Mom wanted hers to match her living room. She also went a little bit crazy with the fringe for Santa's beard.

 

My Santa is still missing the pom pom for his hat because I can't find the right color yarn to make it. I named him Thaddeus.

 

I absolutely LOVE the fact that we all used the same pattern, but each Santa has his own personality.

 

And somehow my Santa turned out to be the shrimpy one. Appropriate since I am the runt of the family.

It took ALL weekend to finish. There was some minor swearing, but memories were made nonetheless. Now I'm the one saying "Someday I'll make another one."

I'm grateful for so many things---too many to list---but I am especially grateful for all of our friends and family who support our handmade businesses. I would be remiss if I didn't share with you all the great things going on at FlyAKite!

The teddy bears we made as stocking stuffers for Children's Hospital are now available for purchase.

 

NEW crochet Snowflake Star Ornaments in white or natural.

 

With every purchase starting today through Cyber Monday you will receive a single Snowflake Star Ornament in either white or natural. If you have a preference, just let us know in the notes to seller.

PLUS you can save 20% off your entire purchase with coupon code HAPPYHOLIDAYS. The discount is good on regular AND sale prices. FYI all FlyAKite stockings are now 50% off! There are some great savings to be had!

If you're a Sylvia-Louise fan we are also running a CLEARANCE SALE on all remaining  ready-made bags. Up to 75% off! When they're gone, they're gone.