Easter - All In Pink

This year we hosted about 40 people and decorated in pink, white, and a little gray (represented in our silver and the newspaper eggs I made on the cheap. Here are a few pics of the day:

A little chalk board art from our kitchen... "He is risen!" "He is risen indeed!" (Does anyone else teach their kids this greeting and response every year? I'm afraid it is a little bit of a lost greeting in this generation. But I digress.)

We started the morning with Easter baskets for the kids and an Easter egg hunt in the living room. Then Chad headed to church (the price of being a pastor!) and the kids and I ate a yummy breakfast of quiche, cinnamon rolls and fruit.  We put the final touches on ourselves and the house (so it was ready for the par-tay!) and headed out the door for church at Resonate. 

Here's how the house looked when the guests arrived:

The kitchen table - branches adorned with blown-out eggs in pink, white, and newspaper. Antique linen with a pink border topped the table that could seat twelve.

The dining table, seating six, got a smaller centerpiece, including a matching antique linen napkin.

Silverware was wrapped in pink napkins secured with twine. A drink station was set up at the end of the buffet.

A mix of antique china for the adults and sturdier white plates for the kids started the buffet line.

A stack of dessert plates and extra napkins lay in wait for the dessert buffet later.

 

Homemade Easter cookies also lay in wait - yum!

Fresh strawberries in a beautiful crystal pedestal.

Outside on the back deck, tables in white linen topped with pink primroses overlooked the yard.

The kids' table was wrapped with butcher paper, play-doh and colored pencils.

A bench for kids to put their empty baskets - all waiting for the BIG egg hunt in our yard after lunch.

We had so much fun with our friends! Everyone brought amazing food for our Easter Potluck. After lunch & dessert (& very full tummies), the guys scattered and hid around 200 eggs in our backyard for the kids to hunt. And we watched in entertaining amazement as the 12 kids found every one in about 4 minutes! (Including knocking them out of very tall trees!) So cute, so impressive!

Some Easter touches on our kitchen shelves.

A little close up of a sweet springtime card a got from a friend, and a basket of  extra pink and newspaper eggs.

Here's a close up of the eggs - dyed pink and Mod-Podged in newspaper. Fun, cheap  and easy!

As the last guests left, we had a pretty clean house and yard still (except for a stack of china in the sink).  Chad and the kids sacked out for a few hours - tired from the yard work and cleaning we all did on Saturday and a full day of fun, friends and food on Sunday. Although I'm sadly missing pictures of the actual party guests and our family, I do have this picture of the napping aftermath... Adorable.

Zander and Daddy napping in their matching and blue gingham shirt and bow tie.

What a great day of celebrating the GREATEST gift! Christ died so that we may live, and live abundantly. What a beautiful picture of Grace, Forgiveness, Mercy, Sacrifice and Love. There is no greater reason to celebrate. He covered our sins, He conquered death. He is risen!

A Yellow and Green Easter

Here are pictures from another Easter we hosted a few years back at our last house. I love moss, so this was a fun theme to decorate for! I went on a "moss hunt" the morning before, gathering all sorts of moss from here and there around town. I created green mossy knolls on silver platters for mini daffodils to peak out from. It was fairly easy and a lot of fun to create!

Mossy knolls were built up around mini daffodils, creating our yellow and green theme.

The mossy rocks on either side were purchased at the dollar store (a bag of them for a buck!)

Here's a close up of the eggs. And you can see another one on the coffee table in the background.

I rolled the eggs in coffee grounds when they were still wet with dye, to give them a natural look.

I loved how the earthy speckles on the eggs complemented the earthy moss they were nestled in.

We used our different collections of white china - with gold and silver rims, and green leaves & blossoms.

Another close up of some of our yellow and green eggs and decor.

Outside the yellow, white & mossy green theme greeted guests.

I filled yellow wire baskets ($1 ea) with free moss and yellow pansies.

A large basket greeted guests - to put their filled eggs in to be hidden for the kids later.

Abby shows off her favorite egg she dyed herself.

Zoe shows off one of her eggs. This was three years ago, she looks so young!

A gorgeous spring day on the Palouse. I miss this huge old yard for its amazing views of the surrounding fields.

What a beautiful day to celebrate and what a fun way to do it! I hope you all have a wonderful Easter.  I look forward to sharing about how this year's Easter decor is shaping up. But above all, I love celebrating the whole meaning of Easter - Christ died, so that we may live. What a precious picture of LOVE. There is nothing more beautiful.

~ 2 Corinthians 5:15-17 ~  

¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves 

but for him who died for them and was raised again.  

¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. 

Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] 

The old has gone, the new is here!

A Blue and Brown Easter

I love hosting holidays. And I love our community. So the chance to host Easter for a small group of our friends is wonderful! I also love doing different themes for the decor. A few years back, at our old house, I did a blue and brown theme for the decor. Here are some pictures from that special day. I hope this will help give you some ideas for your Easter...

Blue and Brown ~

Blue-dyed eggshell centerpieces on each table. the eggs are nestled in moss.

Fill the eggshells with water and blue and white flowers, add blue candy eggs.

Coffee bar - I used my blue and brown transferware china for the occasion.

Different shades ob blue, white and natural brown eggs fill the hurricane glass for the buffet centerpiece.

The dessert buffet - complete with blue and white candy eggs!

Dessert Table with blue and white tablecloth and polka-dot napkins.

Everyone brought filled eggs to hide and share, this large basket with ribbon was used to disperse them.

This year even our family dressed in blue!

Sweet Abby, I loved this blue and white striped dress.

Our spunky Zoe - always the clown!

Xavier's first Easter with us - I love his sweet face in this picture.

A visiting lamb to pet made this an especially memorable Easter for the kids!

What a sweet memory this Easter was for us in our old house! I hope it gave you some inspiration. Next post will highlight another Easter decor theme... yellow and green! Stay tuned!

Easter Decor

With Easter only weeks away, I thought I'd post some fun ideas this week for entertaining on Easter.  Today I'll show you some decorating ideas.

Last year we hosted Easter dinner and an Easter Egg Hunt at our home.  What started out as small quiet idea blew up into 45 people!  I. was. in. heaven.  I love entertaining and always dreamed of having a big enough house to do things like this.  Wish granted.  

To prepare, I started weeks ahead of time, gathering ideas and supplies. I did a daffodil inspired theme using green & yellow, lots of nice china & silver, and my old friend - moss.  The centerpieces are always where I like to start - they are the focal point of the whole meal.  So I gathered mini daffodils, silver platters, piles of gathered moss, and some specially died eggs (that I'll show you how to make later).  Here are the final results:

Easter Centerpiece - close up (notice the coffee table in the background has a similar arrangement).

 

 

I wanted the centerpieces to look like little grassy, mossy knolls with daffodils growing, and eggs nestled around them.  I used all sorts of things (paper bowls & cups, wadded up paper) to build up the mound around the pots of daffodils.  Then the morning before Easter, I went to my previously scouted spots and gathered all sorts of cool and different kinds of moss.  I carefully cut and shaped the mosses around their new landscapes - and voila!  Here's some good shots of the different mosses:

 With the extra moss, flowers and eggs, I decorated the rest of the house.  Here's a few shots of random decor here and there:

The Easter Egg cards were from some extra inventory I still had from my stationery line ages ago, back when Stardust Designs was Stardust Stationery.  Stay tuned for a tutorial on the dyed eggs, the flower baskets and more pics from that beautiful Easter Day.

Touches O' Green

I promised to show some of the touches of green that are around the house in honor of Spring and St. Patrick's Day too.  As I've admitted before, I am a true Northwest girl and I love me some moss.  This is a great option in early Spring before the flowers are out in full force.

This week, I've been showing small pieces of our front porch.  So here it is put altogether.  The Spring Wreath and the Mossy Urns only cost me about $10 total.  The rest I already had, including the old Christmas bows that I stuck in the big urn (they're a place holder until I can plant some flowers).  Its pretty simple and green - but that suits me fine for early Spring.  Plus, it didn't cost much so I can use the money I saved for flowers next month. 

Here's a better "during" picture (the colors are truer in this pic)...

Now, going inside I have a few touches o' green in the living room and dining room... 

I bought [fake] moss balls at the Dollar Store.  They come in a bag of maybe 7-10 and are usually near the vases.  Its hit-or-miss when they're in stock, so you have to keep an eye out for them!

On the dining table I have an old set of china displayed (pictured above) that my mom got for me ages ago.  Then last year while antiquing, I found some matching pieces on their dollar shelves.  What a deal!  I love bringing it out every Spring.

Here are a few more pics from around the house...

And in the kitchen...  I try to always keep the sink area pretty, since I'm staring at it so much!  The urn hides all the ugly unsightly sink stuff (sponge, scrub brush, SOS pad, drain plug, etc).  Its easy to reach and helps the sink look tidier when people are over.

So, there you have it.  A wee bit o' green before St Patty's Day. Anybody making green mashed potatoes or maybe something authentically Irish?  This year, I'm making homemade Pea Soup w/ ham.  Happy St Patrick's Day!