Happy Easter!

It's now 12:30am and that means it's officially Easter. The Easter Bunny should be visiting our house between 4am-6am. In the past he's visited as early as 2am and since Ciara likes to wake up in the middle of the night, I had to leave him a note to come later so she doesn't get to excited and not be able to go back to bed. I hear he's super busy this year, but be on the lookout, he might be making some surprise stops throughout the day.

To start things off, I think we all need a little giggle with this Easter Rabbit "Rap" video.

I can finally show off the Easter Treats I chose for the year. When someone on MHH  posted these Easter S'mores from Pittypat Paperie I knew I had to make them. Who doesn't love S'mores or peeps? Making sure you have the ingredients and printing off the labels may take a bit of time, but putting them together doesn't take much time at all. I do suggest you shop early for the chocolate mini bars if you want them in Easter colors. They do tend to go fast. But as you can see on Pittypatty, she just used the regular Hershey wrapped bars.

I'm excited for Ciara to see her surprise in the morning. Her favorite quote and poster, is the "Keep Calm and Carry On" theme that looks like this. 

On of her other favorite things to do is bake cupcakes. She's become the Go To girl for cupcake baking since she started High School. When I ran across these items at Barnes and Noble a few months ago, I knew I had to have them for her Easter Basket. I have a feeling she's going to go bonkers over them. 

I bought her the bookmark, the journal, a little mini quote book and some cupcake note cards she can use for various things.

Bird Cage Redo...Just in time for Easter!

I've been trying to paint this birdcage since I bought it several weeks ago at a garage sale, but the weather just hasn't been cooperating. Needless to say, I've been painting this cage 1 coat at a time....and it's finally done. I decorated it with some pastel eggs and Ivy I bought and It's now officially sitting on my porch. How long it will stay there before my daughter steals it, I don't know?? I think I even surprised my husband. I found him "touching" it last night when I turned the corner to check out my paint job I assume. Made me laugh to myself for sure! Here's the big reveal.....

 BEFORE

               

 AFTER

Moss Monogram Project

I've seen these Pottery Barn, Moss Monograms all over the blog world and knew I wanted to make one for my front door. I usually keep a wreath on my front door, during the different seasons, but thought this would be perfect to change it up a bit. 

Pottery Barn charges $79.00 for a live 

moss monogram 

 For $10.00, I made this copy

Last summer, painting my front door was on my to do list and it never got done. After taking these photos, I'm thinking it needs to be done sooner, then later. Better yet, a new door all together would be great!  But, I'll let my perfectionism go and show you the steps to making this monogram.

I started out with a monogram letter and bag of 

moss from Hobby Lobby.

I hot glued varies sizes of moss to the letter, starting on one side and working my way to the other. 

Once the moss was covering the entire piece, I turned it over, hot glued a piece of ribbon to both sides of the letter. Once I had it on the door, I tied a bow to bring it to the preferred length on my door. 

There are 1,000 options for doing this project, so here is a link to a Google Search that will show you variations on the same project.

 

I wanted to make this piece badly, but didn't realize it would 

take personal sacrifice to do so. I had only 

glued on 3 pieces, when I dropped some hot glue on my 

hand. I reacted by wiping it off with the other 

hand and burned two more fingers. Lesson learned...Listen 

when they say to keep a glass of water near 

when you are working with a hot glue gun. 

Ducky Rolls

Rhodes has these Ducky Dinner rolls posted on their website. 

They look super easy and really cute! 

Mini Jelly Bean Cupcakes

My niece Shaelyn was hanging out with me today and it's becoming a tradition for us to make mini cupcakes with the cupcake maker I bought her for Christmas. We mixed up 1 cake mix and she was a trooper filling the machine each and every time the buzzer went off. She's officially crashed on the couch now, so I think she's officially had her share of baking cupcakes today.

We started with a white cake mix. Be sure to follow the white cake instructions, that don't include the yokes of the eggs. This keeps the batter white, rather then yellow. The mini cupcake machine cooks rather quickly, so once you get a batch going, it literally only takes 2-3 more minutes. We only coat the machine every 2 or 3 bathes and very lightly when we do.

 

We also started with a white frosting and used the McCormick NEON food colors to make the Easter pastel colors we wanted.You can also follow the instructions on the box and use this same food coloring for Easter eggs.

Once the cupcakes were frosted with purple, green and blue, we topped them off with 1 Jolly Rancher Jelly Bean.

 

On the white frosted cupcakes I used some Easter Bunny sprinkles. I think she's going to like them all when she wakes up. We agreed that when she woke up, she'd finish frosting the ones I set aside for her. 

Duct Tape Easter Basket

In honor of my daughter making her first Duct Tape Tote Bag, I did some research on Easter projects made with Duct Tape. This Easter Basket basket was the first piece I came across. If you want something different, check out the instructions at Chica and Jo. 

This seller on Etsy has made an Easter Lily out of Duct Tape. 

Jelly Bean Art

These pieces of Jelly Bean Art are rather amazing. Each 

piece can take up to 6 months. Any takers on 

duplicating this new form of art?  

Westminsters Celebrates 100 Years!!

When I was at the College Hill Library last night, I noticed a book near the check out shelf that was celebrating Westminsters 100th Centennial Anniversary. Today on Facebook, The Bagel Bakery posted photos of the cake and 1,700 cupcakes they made for the official celebration. This is the same cupcake shop that made Ciara's Giant Birthday Cupcakes. Sharing cupcakes is always fun, so here are a few photos of the cake and cupcakes served at the party. 

Easter Push Pops

Lisa at MHH, shared this Love From The Oven  link with us today and I'm thinking WOW...who thinks of these things??? These are absolutely too cute! Anyone...young or "old" would love to receive one of these. If I didn't already have my Easter goody idea picked out, I would make these in a  heart beat. I'd have to hijack my nieces mini cupcake maker I bought her for Christmas. 

On another note, for those of you who have Family Home Evening with little ones...and maybe not so little ones, I found this posting on Or So She Says.... that gives a great idea for including home skills into a fun, active FHE lessons. Personally, I suggest the book Parenting Breakthrough, for all ages of children in the home. It really breaks things down into age appropriate activities and gives a good perspective on what every teen should be able to do on their own before leaving home.