I do love this month, as Spring seems to really show itself with so many beautiful new flowers popping up, fresh green buds on the trees, and increased sunshine (at least in our state!) Mother Nature isn't the only busy one however, as April has been exceptionally crowded with activities and deadlines. I know how fast time flies, but it really zoomed by me this month. I have been doing my usual juggling of being family manager, express courier, animal trainer, general contractor, landscaper, chef, and bootcamp-ee. I personally celebrated another birthday (yay), and wrestled with the idea of doing a last minute event for Easter, which I did. On top of all that, I have been working hard on building a website and designing for an upcoming children's birthday party in May.
Easter was a small family event, but even so, I wanted to liven it up a little with some personality. I had virtually no budget to do much, but I got lucky with some themed decorations at my local Dollar Tree as well as already having most of the items I needed to create my own Easter decor.
I started with my color palette, which was a selection of pastels in blue, green, lavender and pink. White was the cohesive link to pull the colors together. For my tablescape, I had a sweet little white tablecloth with blue edged cut-outs that I put on top of some cornflower-y blue flat sheets onto the dining table. In the center I placed a white ceramic flower pot and tray which held the "Easter Tree". I made it by trimming a few of the small branches off our own large cherry tree, and placing them in floral foam inside the pot. Some of the Easter eggs the kids and I had dyed became the ornaments with the help of some fishing line and a glue gun :)
Our cherry tree along with our five apple trees came in handy again as I scraped the beautiful moss off their trunks for my natural Easter "grass". I lay the moss along the mid-line of the table, (kind of like a table runner would sit.) I arranged eggs along the moss, and the dishes were placed around these decorations. For fun I put more Easter eggs around the edge of the flower pot tray, inside the branches and placed some chocolate bunnies inside the bottom edge of flower pot. I made a simple little "Happy Easter" banner out of cardstock circles I cut out (without use of a Cricut!), with glued on letters I printed off my computer and pastel blue yarn I already had. The plates we used are beautiful China, and so perfect for the pastel palette! I had an idea to fold some napkins into cute formal pocket folds, where I placed a fancy damask pattern card (blank inside and also from the Dollar Tree), in which I wrote a personal Happy Easter message to all guests. A fun decorated cookie was placed with each napkin.
The other related project I jumped on for some Spring-time fun, was making cookies themed for Easter. I have this sugar cookie recipe I loooove and I use it whenever I have a reason to make decorated cookies! So anyone who has done flooded cookies knows that it takes a little time, but it is so much fun and worth it in the end when your creations bring another level to your celebration.
All in all, it was a laid back Easter but also a lot of fun because we all get so busy, sometimes we forget how a little extra decor can put you in the mood to celebrate! The cookies definitely put a big smile on the kids' faces! :-) Lucky ducks got away with fun Easter baskets filled with their individual favorite candies, big bubble wands, and they each got kites to fly in the Spring winds! As for the adults, they had smiles on their faces when presented with the feast of the afternoon. A platter full of ribs with meat that slides off the bone, grilled chicken drumsticks, smoked bone-in ham, yukon mashed potatoes, golden corn bread, watermelon fruit basket and strawberry shortcake for dessert.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, and is enjoying a lovely Spring season!
Affectionately,
Anna Banana
