A Thought for Good Friday

Today I woke up to snow.  Yes.  Snow in April.  At 6:30 AM I hauled the garbage and recycling out to the curb through the white stuff in my brown Mary Jane shoes.  At 6:32 AM I could no longer feel my feet.  I realize that we should be over such storm patterns by now, but sometimes snow just happens.  Even on Good Friday.  It isn't the way I would choose to ring in the Easter weekend, but it feels like a meaningful reminder to me of the season:  Easter isn't about eggs and bunnies and candy; Easter is realizing that even in the worst of conditions--even when our fragile limbs are laden with things we can hardly bear--our lives can and will be better through our Savior and His atonement for us.  

My Friday dawned bleak and gray, but as Joseph B. Wirthlin once said, 

"No matter how dark your Friday, Sunday will always come." 

 May your Good Friday be full of reminders of Easter Sunday to come . . .

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Beatrix Potter's Easter: Glitter Ornaments

“I remember I used to half believe and wholly play with fairies when I was a child. What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense.”

 -Beatrix Potter

 

My budget tends toward the eighty cent range for all crafts, and this one happened to fit that bill.

(Aside from the glitter. What is WITH the price of glitter?! It's metal shavings! I am going to learn to make my own glitter. Just kidding, but seriously. The price of that stuff is insane.)

Pottery Barn Kids had these awesome versions of these for sale a while back, and these are a little knock off of those. I need to find some cute little beads to add sometime...

I cut out little prints of Beatrix Potter art

rolled the edges in glue and glitter

let a five year old knock them off the counter while still wet so the glitter is a little funky now.

(Gives em that 'lived in' feel, I think.)

And hung them on a tree branch in a vase. 

A tree branch covered in thorns, because all of our branches are covered in thorns.

And Hubby remarks, "You just stuck a weed in a vase." 

Yep. Yep I did.

Happy Easter!

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Beatrix Potter's Easter: Jute Easter Eggs

Peter Rabbit's Easter wouldn't be Easter without the celebratory efforts of his mother.  My Easter wouldn't be Easter without Great-Grandma.  Every year I take my children to her house for our family's annual Easter Egg Hunt.  Great-Grandma is 82 going on 27.  She has a bigger social life and a better body than I do.  (Why in heaven didn't I get those genes?!) The Easter Egg Hunt is only one of many parties that she hosts throughout the year.  In preparation for the hunt, Grandma writes the names of each of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren on Easter eggs and then fills them with coins, treats, and coupons.  At last year's hunt, my boys got coupons for a special sleepover at her house.  They went swimming, made pizzas, watched movies, and basked in everything "Great-Grandma".  Because of her, Easter egg hunts aren't just fun---they are magic.

In honor of Mrs. Rabbit and my sweet Grandma, I decided to devote a little extra effort to the Easter eggs around here.  I didn't fill any with money or candy or coupons, but I did give their bright plastic exteriors a new "look."

With a glue gun and a few yards of jute twine, I took a large plastic Easter egg from looking like this . . .

to looking like this . . .

I love the earthy look of these little eggs, especially when paired with a nest.

Someday I might up the Easter ante by putting little surprises inside my eggs.  Until then, I'm happy to let Grandma be the egg hunt hero.

Our grandma with 16 of her 21 great-grandchildren

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Stuff and Nonsense - At The Picket Fence - The French Country Cottage - The DIY Dreamer - Whipperberry - Shabby Nest -

Beatrix Potter's Easter: A Spring Wreath

What Beatrix Potter's Easter would be complete without a spring wreath featuring a rabbit?  I took my plain old magnolia wreath and hung a little "Happy Easter" plaque in the center.  Unfortunately, when I first stepped back to look at the wreath, I frowned.  I know it sounds ridiculous, but the rabbit looked unhappy to be bedecked in blossoms.  I succumbed to imagination and surrounded his little world with some Spanish moss.  

(It's as close to a grassy field as I could get.)  

I don't know if he feels better, but I do.

Many happy Easter greetings to you and your visitors!


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