Easter Re-Cap

We had such a beautiful Easter Party! In big part to my husband and my sister-in-law who stayed up with me working till 1am the night before. I will never figure out how I can spend two months planning something and end up doing 75% of the work the night before. I was doing this in high school, college and even at work! It isn't procrastination, it is probably more about being unrealistic with what I have time to pull off without being up all night. Ah well.

This runner is from Williams of Sonoma (found on clearance a few years ago). 

 

Centerpieces are milk glass vases filled with tulips and Gerber daisies. 

I didn't exactly finish this runner before the party. It isn't lined and the bias tape didn't make it to the edges. But actually it still looked great on the table. 

These cupcakes are copies of these. I used gel icing tubes to decorate the cookies. 

This cookie recipe + this fresh strawberry cupcake and cream cheese frosting recipe. 

Napkin Rings made by my sister in law; tutorial here. 

They have carrot napkin packets ;)

So excited about the egg hunt! We must have done a good job with the build up. 

There was a cricut banner, by my sister in law again. For some reason you can't see any of the cute ribbons or flowers in the photo but they are there!

Oh these girls!

And the ham was delicious!

More Easter posts here. 

Easter Tree and Easy Egg Votives All Done!

Things are coming together for the Easter party this Saturday. This post is a follow up to this one from earlier in the week. 

These easy egg votives (inspiration from Martha,) are all ready for the adult tables. I used a Dremel to drill a hole in each egg (you could also use a safety pin to start the hole) and then scissors to make small cuts to allow me to break away the amount of shell I wanted. I dyed them with a dollar store kit. I removed the votives from their metal cups. I put a piece of tape on the bottom of each candle to hold the wick in place. Then I hot-glued ribbon around each metal cup and put it all together. Can't wait to see them on the table. 

This Easter tree is arguably the silliest craft I have ever made. It is pretty fun though. Ava loves it. Hopefully we will get to make some more ornaments for it before the party or maybe some leaves like the one from Bird's Party. It is just a branch lightly spray painted pink stuck in some floral foam in a bucket. 

Ava's favorite part is the pom-pom ball baby chick peeping out of the real egg shell.

My favorite part are the bird ornaments we made a few weeks ago. I printed this template on watercolor paper that I cut down to fit in my printer. I just gave Ava a watercolor palette and let her go to work and they came out so pretty. 

We had these wooden eggs for a while in an Easter craft kit from PBK. We painted and dipped them and just had fun with them. 

Oh and this is what the branch looked like before the transformation to holiday weirdness.

Getting Ready for Easter or How to Look Like a Super Chef

So we have been planning for a while to do something special for Easter this year. I must be having withdrawals from the crazy big Easter egg hunt I planned last year at work. And in case you haven't seen the TV ads Easter is the new Christmas. We have invited over a whole bunch of friends and we are hosting an egg hunt and a potluck lunch the Saturday before Easter. Somehow I lost track of an entire week and I just realized today that our big Easter party is in less than two weeks!

Here is basically what I have planned -
1. Everyone with a child that is hunting for eggs is bringing 24 plastic eggs with at least half stuffed with something other than candy.
2. I am planning on cooking a big ham and this recipe looks good. I especially like the commenter that said this recipe "will make you look like a super chef" - I am sold. I will also make bread and cookies. Everyone else is bringing the rest!

3. We are working on an Easter tree. Ava and I already made a bunch of ornaments for it now I just have to actually make the tree. I will definitely post the finished project asap because I vowed on Facebook to blog everyday for the next 14 days. So far it is turning out really cool! This easter tree is adorable! This one is very fun but I wish she would have posted what the base looks like.

4. I am going to try really hard to make these bunny cupcakes. I have been perfecting this cookie recipe and I really don't love decorating a million cookies so these seem actually a little more fun. Maybe my sister-in-law will come save me and help decorate the actual cupcake parts ;)

5. There are so many fun things to print out for Easter. Like these baskets or these eggs and bunnies or bunny straw covers or an entire party or don't forget vintage printables here is a really good roundup.

6. I want to make the tables look really cute with minimal fussiness. I really like the idea of entertaining more than the actual act of it. I almost always end up with big stacks of plates in the kitchen where you serve your self and then go find somewhere comfortable to sit. These egg votives are really cool. Probably some egg votives and tulips in milk glass and a spring table cloth will do.

Toddler Easter Dresses on the Brain

I have been thinking of Easter Dresses. Ava's dress last year was pretty casual from Gymboree. I loved it because she wore it all summer without the onesie under it and looked so adorable! Plus some of Ava's dresses have been really dressy and i think a more casual easter dress is fun. I haven't been totally impressed with the selections at Old Navy, Target, Children's Place or Gymboree this year - which is odd because they usually all can come up with some cute spring dresses.

Last Year's Dress

This is my niece Elliana's dress, from the Daisy Fields line at Baby Gap - Adorable!

I am considering this Fresh Yama dress from Matilda Jane for Ava, gosh their clothes are so adorable!

These luna luna bubble sets are cute! But really they look a lot more casual in person. I love Luna Luna and Ava has had a couple of really gorgeous outfits from them. 

Lilly Pulitzer Eleanor Dress - So sixties - so cute! Ava also might be a bit too chubby baby still and it may be a little stiff looking on her. I am not totally sure about the tigers but Ava would adore them!

There are also quite a few that have popped up on ebay NWT that are just perfect!