Making an Easter Tree

Today, the girls and I wanted to make an Easter Tree to celebrate the upcoming holiday. We wanted to create something natural for our table, that would represent life, and also be somewhat shaped like a cross. I thumbed through my Easter Craft Book and found just what we were hoping for, though we wanted something a little more organic looking, so we headed outside to find some branches or vines and thought that our Apple Blossoms would be perfect...

Cut some off and headed inside...

What you will need:

1. branches or vines and scissors to cut them

2. dowel rods and/or bamboo skewers or sticks even - one long one (dowel rod) and then three skewers long, medium, and short on the top

3. twisties, pipecleaners, or florist tape to secure the vines to the rod and skewers

4. a pot and some dirt or sand (rocks to help secure your tree)

5. decorations (felted eggs, real eggs, flowers, or whatever you want to decorate with)

We started with wire, but had to abandon it for something easier to manipulate.  The wire cut right through our vine.  So we used what we had on hand - green twisties and green pipecleaners. 

We laid the dowel rod in the center and then attached the longest skewer and worked our way up the rod, placing the medium one in the center and the shortest one near the top.  We cut the vines to fit and then attached them to the rod and skewers, going up the dowel rod first.

We then headed outside, held it in the pot and placed small rocks inside to help hold it upright before we filled it with potting soil.

Once it was all filled (we had placed ours in a small round pot and then in a large rectangular 'pot'), we brought it inside and filled in the ground level with the remaining apple blossoms.  Because this is a succulent, we should be able to keep it going with spritzes of water and hopefully it will rejenerate, as well!

 Finally, the girls added some hanging eggs that their Gramy had sent to them last year, though you can wetfelt eggs to add with strings, or decorate in any way you want!  And voila!  You have an Easter Tree :)

 I have some other posts on preparing for the Easter season if you click on the "Easter" link.  Enjoy and I'd love to see your Easter Tree if you have or will make one!  If anyone emails a photo and/or link to your blog, I'd love to put up your photos to share!

Happy Easter!

Easter Day

Christ the Lord is risen today!
Angels rolled the stone away
From the tomb wherein He lay!

Little children, come and sing,
"Glory, glory to the King,
Christ the Lord of everything!"

~by Evaleen Stein

This past week (since Tuesday), my poor Charley has been quite ill - sore throat, fever, vomiting, exhaustion, tears over not feeling well...to conjunctivitis...


We've been treating her homeopathically and her eyes look so much better this morning. This picture was of her last night...she had so much yellowish/greenish goop in her eyes and they both got really red by the end of the night...


The illness threw a bit of a wrench in my Easter plans, but we still managed to participate in our main traditions...


We boiled lots of eggs to dye...


We made our Easter Egg Ring Bread - I love the endless circle of this bread for Easter as it represents the eternity of life. I found it in All Year Round, but you can basically take any basic dough recipe and then braid it and bake it with stones wrapped in foil which will make holes in the dough.


And then you can place your dyed eggs in the holes...


We made some hot crossed buns to have for breakfast Easter morning.


And we dyed eggs. We used this tutorial and they came out beautifully!


I made my annual Pascal Lamb Cake, a Polish tradition handed down through the generations on my mother's side. Here is a picture of last year's cake - this year's cake didn't hold together well and the head fell off to the point where I couldn't secure it back on (drat!), but we ate it anyway :D


And here is what the Easter Bunny left for the girls...(bunnies, chickens, chicks in eggs...)


The tomb was open and our angel hovered above (one of the first things I needle felted - very primitive, but I love it because of that!)


Two baby lambs tucked inside a wet felted egg...(don't Charley's eyes look so much better now...)


Discovering the goodies...


Our Syrendell Sprites were holding painted eggs!


Our Lenten Garden was overflowing with life! Needle-felted eggs hanging from the branches, butterflies, bunnies...


Needle felted twin chickies in a single basket (one of my favorite representations as a momma of twins) :D


Another view of the dish garden...


And what has now become my most treasured Easter possession...a vintage bunny that my mom sent to me last year from my dear Granny's home. My Gran passed just before Thanksgiving and it's amazing how the things that were hers have taken on an unexplainable priceless value to me. I am going to have a post on some of her vintage treasures that I have down the line...


And an egg tree that I made for my shop...(shop announcement and a fun giveaway will be happening this week to celebrate)!


Well, I hope you all had a marvelous holiday weekend and are ready to hit Spring head on now! Happy, Happy Easter!

Good Friday

Maundy Thursday

Holy Thursday

~by William Blake

'Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,
Came children walking two and two, in read, and blue, and green:
Grey-headed beadles walked before, with wands as white as snow,
Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames waters flow.

Oh what a multitude they seemed, these flowers of London town!
Seated in companies they sit, with radiance all their own.
The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,
Thousands of little boys and girls raising their innocent hands.

Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,
Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among:
Beneath them sit the aged man, wise guardians of the poor.
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.

"The Last Supper"

by David Newbatt


Our Lenten Table has really taken off. I've been adding to it daily during Holy Week...


Moss, Snooks our Syrendell snail, and a Lepidolite from San Diego.


A needle felted nest with 3 blue eggs...


A beautiful amethyst crystal, along with some flower fairies I made last year and a lovely Lenten candle...


And our grotto/cave stands empty...


Tonight, I will read to them from "The Easter Story Book" by Ineke Verschuren the story from the Gospel of John called "Jesus Washes His Disciples' Feet".

We will be having a very simple meal tonight, centered around homemade Lenten bread, some homemade Lentil Soup, a basket of grapes and some water placed in a jug.

Here's the Lentil Soup recipe my mother in law gave me. We used water instead of beef broth, but mmmmmmmm....is it good!

Enjoy and celebrate loving each other today!

Holy Week: Preparing for Easter - Tufty Cones!

Well, this has been another week of virus'! One of the twins is down with a fever and my main computer picked up a nasty, nasty virus which might require a trip to the repair shop. So, not only do I have to blog on my 10 year old laptop which has seen much betters days (it's not only super slow, but also survived having a heavy plant dropped on it which broke the screen. Miraculously, the computer survived and served me well, but had to be hooked up to a monitor and is no longer really a laptop)...also, my nice camera software is too intense for my weak *laptop* so my pictures will be a bit lacking, but this is such an important week and we wanted to share some of our preparations :D So my posts will be a bit short...

Today is 5 days until Easter Sunday, so we prepared our Tufty Cones. To do this, your pine cones must be opened already (dry them out) and then place a bit of water in a dish of some kind, add some moss to soak it up a bit. Place your pine cones in the water/moss. Sprinkle some grass seeds into the openings of the cones and with the moisture, the cones will shut, sealing in the grass seeds. While the cones begin to soak up the water, the seeds are watered and voila! In 5 days, we should have some shoots! Keep the dish watered throughout the five days to keep the cones shut and place on your seasonal table to await the "birth" of the grasses. This is a nice natural way to bring a focus on the Resurrection.

Celebrating the Spring Equinox

The Magic Piper

There piped a piper in the wood
Strange music -- soft and sweet --
And all the little wild things
Came hurrying to his feet.

They sat around him on the grass,
Enchanted, unafraid,
And listened, as with shining eyes
Sweet melodies he made.

The wood grew green, and flowers sprang up,
The birds began to sing;
For the music it was magic,
And the piper's name was -- Spring!

~by E.L. Marsh

Today, we celebrate the Vernal Equinox as we welcome the spring. We started a tradition last year of planting our Lenten dish garden on the first day of spring.

This past week was not a fun one. Elena got a nasty stomach flu that lasted 50 hours so we're a bit behind, but will catch up this week.

All those eggs that Tony so painstakingly blew out were finally put to good use today!

In anticipation of Easter, we decided to paint some eggs with acrylic paints. We wanted to be able to keep these (and even hang them from a tree), so they were blown out first and then painted.


Some of them, we layed a base color on first and allowed it to dry. Other eggs were just painted in one sitting.


They dried in the sun and were ready for a second coat.


We just let them dry and will later thread them with yarn to hang from an egg tree. They can be sprayed with a light coat of hairspray to give them a shine and seal the paint for longer preservation or just left as is...


A happy birthday (on St. Patty's Day) to our now 12 year old corgimix, Farley! Doesn't he look so handsome!

And then we planted our Lenten Dish Garden...

We like to place a blooming branch in the dish. Last year, I ended up using some modeling clay to hold it in place. This year, I tried a piece of floral foam, held in with a bit of tacky glue. I think the clay worked a bit better so I'd recommend that if you have some available. Stick your branch in...

Layer your dirt and then some grass seeds. We like to put in a shell to serve as a little pond, so we place that down over the area it will rest so we don't grow grass underneath it...

One more layer of dirt...

Then give it a little soaking of water and be sure to mist it daily. The seeds should sprout within 5-7 days. We'll be adding to it as the days unfold...

To celebrate Lent and Easter, we placed ours on a purple silk (purple being the color of Lent) and with rocks, we built a *cave* to symbolize the tomb of Jesus. It will sit until Good Friday when we will place a rock over the front of it until Easter morning...

The Resurrection story is a bit too intense still at this tender age, but we like to bring some concrete elements of this most important Christian holiday to the forefront this way.

There are a few books I recommend for Christians celebrating this season with their children:

~ One is called, "Stories for the Festivals of the Year: Told for Children" by Irene Johanson. It contains stories for Easter, Ascension & Whitsun, St. Johnstide, Michaelmas, Christmas, the Epiphany, and Holy Week.

~ The second is "The Easter Story Book" collected by Ineke Verschuren. The nice thing about this book, as with Vershuren's other book, "The Christmas Story Book", is that the stories are marked for the appropriate age. Some of the tales are appropriate for children as young as 5 years old. It covers Holy Week, Easter, From Easter to Pentecost, Midsummer/Feast of St. John.

~ Finally, we've enjoyed "The Emperor's Vision and Other Christ Legends" by Selma Lagerlöf. This one can be used for Christmas, as well. It can also be found at Bob & Nancy's here.

Happy Spring to you all and enjoy the return of the light in the Northern Hemisphere!!!!