Spring Wall Hanging (Wreath Alternative)

I suck at hanging things up on my walls.

It took my 4.5 years to hang a clock. I'm not kidding.

Basically it's because I have no idea what I'm doing. I have super huge walls and think everything looks funny.

But then at Christmas a found a good space for a wreath (my door style doesn't work and is on the side of the house any way, so I don't see the point of hanging one on it). After Christmas I made a winter wreath that wasn't really Christmas-y so that it wasn't so blank in the space once the Christmas wreath was gone.

And then I made a valentine one.

And then I was completely uninspired on the wreath front and so I left the valentine one up for about 5 weeks too long. Yes, really.

And just when I couldn't take it anymore, I found my inspiration on Pinterest (isn't that where it all comes from lately?).

The link didn't come from a blog, it was uploaded directly by a user (not sure if it's this person's actual personal work or not, so if you know the actual source, please share!). You can find the inspiration pin here.

But I didn't have a wreath form to put it on and I didn't want to go get one. So I decided to go for a spring wall hanging instead of an actual circular wreath. The point is to not have a blank wall, so what does it matter it's shape, right?

Some ribbon, a few fake flowers, some hot glue and my cute little bird houses make me smile.

Rolled Easter Baskets

So last year, about a week before Easter, something caught my eye in blogland.

Home made Easter baskets.

Lovely, fabric, scrappy, shabby-chic, spring-y, not too big, not too small, not too juvenile, Easter baskets. They were perfect and I was utterly in love!

There was only one problem.

Time.

I had no idea if I could find supplies locally (sometimes a problem in Canada when you read American craft blogs) and since I have TWO kids there was no way I could only make only one and I had less than a week.

So I put it on the list for next year, determined to do them.

In January we had some warm weather that totally got me in the Spring mood so I dug out the tutorial and went in search of supplies.

I was able to find the cording needed at Fabricland, but no one in any fabric store (not even quilting stores) had Honeybuns (some had Jellyrolls, but that was it and they're too big). I looked on Etsy, but the only stores that carried them (including the one linked to in the tutorial) were closed or on holidays.

When I get an idea in my head, I have a hard time just waiting around, so I looked up the dimensions of the honeybuns (1.5 inches by the width of the fabric, generally 44-45 inches. 40 strips in each roll), bought a scalloped cutting wheel (they didn't have a pinking wheel. So weird) and went in search for my own fabrics to make strips out of.

This project took me a long time not because it's hard, but because I ran out of some supplies (thick thread) and couldn't get back to get some. So finally a few weeks ago I got them finished. They look great up on my mantle. And I can't wait to fill them full of fun Easter goodies this weekend. Hopefully they last for years to come!

Want to make one too? You can find the tutorial here.

Linking up to the fabulous parties in my party tab. Check em out!

Easter Dresses 2011 and a Secret

I love traditions! I remember getting a new dress on Easter as a kid growing up. Truthfully I don't know if it happened every year or not, but I've always planned for my kids to have Easter outfits.

The problem with this is getting pictures (because everything like this has to be documented, right?). Pictures must be done before we go to church as you never know what craft project or bathroom accident might befall the poor dress and the fear that the attitude of the little person inside the dress when they are cranky from hunger and in need of a nap may ruin all photo ops after church. Now, I'm going to share with you a secret, that obviously not many have figured out.

You ready?

...The 9:00am service.

Yes, I know that in most church circles this is considered the more traditional service and so they don't tend to sing the latest praise choruses or whatever, but really those are over-done anyway. Let me introduce you to everything glorious about the 9:00am service.

1. Parking spaces. Near the door. And you don't have to wait for someone else to leave to get one.

2. There are TONS of volunteers in children's church. Yup, everyone, even the volunteers, want to attend the 11:00am service. So, they all serve at 9:00am. This means that the rooms are stocked with a fantastic ratio of workers to kids, meaning your child will get more attention and thus will have less meltdowns and thus you will be less likely to be called out of the service. (and for the record, the 11:00am service is the HARDEST to get volunteers for, so there are typically double the kids and half the workers.)

3. There are no lines. When we leave the 9:00am service we see a line of parents waiting to get into our children's ministry area for the 11:00am service. When they let all these parents in, they then have to stand in ANOTHER line in front of the door to each of their children's room's while each child gets checked in. This doesn't happen at the 9:00am service. There are literally half as many kids (and double the volunteers) so the process is quick.

4. Your kid's friends are better behaved. Want your kid to make friends with other kids from wholesome, disciplined families? You have to be disciplined to make it to the 9:00am family. Those who can do it are typically more disciplined in other areas. They raise kids who are well-behaved, follow the rules and are generally just nice kids all around.  I've worked in our children's ministry (as staff) for 6 years and this has remained true the whole time. The 9:00am kids are just better behaved. I know there are probably some very nice kids and families who attend the 11:00am service, but nothing like the ratio of them that attend the 9!

4. The 20 minute date. This isn't my idea, but I love it (click the link to see the full context). But basically if you don't have to stand in line and get your kids into children's church right away, you and your spouse get to go sit in the church sanctuary and have a mini-date for 20 minutes before the service starts. You know, have real adult conversation without the distraction of your kids. It's the best part of my week. This doesn't work as well at the 11:00am service because of the lines.

Convinced? Try it out. You'll love it.

Still with me about the Easter dresses? Well, in order to get to the 9:00am service and have time for the 20 minute mini-date we have to be out the door by 8:30. Which means we have to have everyone ready to go at 8:15. And every Easter I make Resurrection buns (Marshmallows dipped in butter/cinnamon/sugar wrapped in a crescent roll and baked. The marshmallow melts leaving the empty "tomb") for breakfast. Which means I have to be up VERY early. There's totally a reason I don't attend sunrise services. Could you imagine?

Had to be distracted with Mommy's keys

Anyway, know that the pictures in this post are a labour of love. I sacrificed sleep to get them (and we all know how much I LOVE my sleep!). Mark thought we had enough. I would have liked about 20 more just to be sure. Of the 20 we DID take, these are the only ones worthy of showing. Ha!

Easter 2011

We had a pretty relaxed Easter, but I did make sure that we had a little bit of fun!

I skipped the egg hunt only because it was just our family together and I thought it wouldn't be as much fun with just Mady. Next year when Kate is big enough to join in the fun I think we'll do one.

On Saturday Mady and I coloured eggs while Daddy was at work. We only had one catastrophe (and really it was just a tiny crack so I just dipped the other end up to the crack). We coloured on the eggs with crayon first. It sort of worked. I didn't have white crayon and the ones we own are all washable so you had to be careful to not touch the crayon when you took them out of the water.

Mady picked the colours: Pink, Purple, Orange and Yellow.  Since I was the only adult while this was taking place and we were trying to be quick before Kate woke up from her nap, I didn't take pictures of the actual dying of eggs, but I did get them all lined up in the carton after. Totally forgot to take pictures of the actual designs. I'll get better at documenting as I mature as a mother, right??

Saturday night Mady helped me make Jell-O eggs for after our easter lunch. I would love, Love, LOVE those 3D egg molds from Kraft, but they don't ship to Canada and Kraft Canada doesn't carry them (I check to make sure this hasn't changed EVERY year. Sigh). Any american friends want to volunteer their address for next year and then ship them to me?? Pretty please? Anyway, we used my wilton egg shaped cupcake molds. They work too and have pretty designs. Here is Mady with the finished product.

Mark was even a trooper and tried to eat one (he hates Jell-O) because Mady made them. He made it about half-way through one taking the teeniest bites I've ever seen. I just laughed at him and ate two!

Earlier in the week Mady and I made her easter basket. She's quite into crafts lately so I knew she would have fun. I cut the bottom off a milk jug, watered down some paint and cut up old tissue paper (Mady picked the colours), then we rubbed the glue onto the jug and slapped on the tissue (basically modpodged it). Then I punched a hole in the sides and tied a piece of ribbon through, which you totally don't see in the picture. There is also easter grass in the bottom, but the basket was kind of full. My mom sent down some treats for the kids too so they ended up with quite a bit of stuff.

I didn't make one for kate because she would eat it (that kid eats EVERYTHING). She was napping when it was time to pull out the easter baskets so I gave her her loot later. And totally forgot to take pictures (seriously, I'm not good at this. I need to glue my camera into my hand). She got clothes and books. Next year we'll let her have some candy. A little bit. What did YOU do for Easter?