Easter blessings

Easter morning welcomed us bright and early with sunshine and warmth. What a perfect setting to a fabulous day! The morning festivities started early as we had plans and deadlines to meet all before noon.

It was a lovely start on a beautiful morning to praise Him!

The Easter bunny delivered {with help from mom :)} fun filled baskets loaded with goodies. We don’t often have candy or sweets in our home so on Easter and Christmas it’s a treat to receive your favorite sweets. There are many and they are meant to last awhile and they do ~ I just threw out candy from Christmas.

Mr. Easter bunny gifted me a pretty white and pink basket of Godiva chocolates {I’ll be hiding those in a safe place} and a lovely lily. Oh, the fragrant beauty!

It wouldn’t be a holiday without a few funny photos. Do little boys ever really grow up? I hope not, I still enjoy the silly side of Nicholas :)

Translated: seriously mom, stop taking pictures!

 {I was so excited to have Nicholas home for Easter! It's really hard on me having him so far away}

Due to a tight schedule this year, we decided to go out for brunch. At first I was a little disappointed that we weren’t going to have our traditional family meal but quickly rebounded when I realized how nice it was outside and I was going to get to spend my afternoon playing out in the sunshine rather than be stuck in the kitchen!

Nicholas helped me get my greenhouse up and in operation. I’m really off schedule with Easter and my spring break being so late this year. With the extra help, I even had time to get a few trays planted and tucked away in the greenhouse. With the nice weather on the horizen, I'm looking forward to planting my garden.


We also did some raking, cleaned and placed the screens in the windows, placed new cocoa liners in the window boxes, and prepped the herb garden.

Thanks for the help Nicholas; it’s greatly appreciated!

Our holiday ended perfectly with a little family time.  Hand and foot canasta is a card game that we have played for years. In fact, it may be the first card game Nicholas actually learned how to play when he was just a little guy.  We also enjoyed a few of our favorite snacks. I could eat brie with every meal!  Our treat tier was our last {gluttonous} over the top yummy treat. 

It’s back to healthy eating for all!

We had a glorious Easter. 

As I reflect, my heart reminds me that I am truly blessed with a wonderful husband and son.

His blessings are enormous and not to be taken for granted!

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Egg~cellent Idea

I'm really late in posting these ideas but life seems to get in the way and take away from my blogging time. It also doesn't help that my picture files are having issues and I can't find all of them that I wanted to show you.

Last year a clever friend of mine created the most adorable Easter egg trees. I knew then and there that I was going to borrow her idea this Easter. She spray painted her tree in a soft pink. As much as I love the color, I went with creme with the theory that it will go with all my other Easter decor. I created two of these egg topiaries for my home. One for the living room and one for the dinning room.

This was not only an easy project but it turn out so darn adorable! I'm going to keep my eyes open for an egg wreath on the after Easter sale table next.





Once the egg trees were dry, I hot glued spanish moss into the crevices around the eggs. This too was very easily done and adds so much to the finished project.



The smaller egg tree came in an urn. The larger one needed a little something to dress it up so I placed him in a pewter serving piece that was just waiting for something special.



With the crafty bug in my system, I moved on to an Easter egg tree. Once again, oh so easy with a fabulous turn out!



I found the pink gilded eggs at HomeGoods and the paper mache eggs at Michael's. I already had a healthy stash of Martha Stewart glitter in my art room.



The "tree" is a branch from my yard that {yep, you guessed it} I spray painted then mounted in a larger urn that I had on hand.

To create the glittered eggs, I coated them in craft glue, sprinkled on the glitter, and let them dry. For the hangers, I used narrow satin ribbon which I adhered with a dab of hot glue.




 I must admit that I'm really enjoying the new additions to my Easter decor this year. There is just something about a homemade item that brings a little welcomed warmth to a home.

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I have proof ...

by the blooms, if not the weather, that spring has sprung.





I'm really really ready to be outdoors after our marathon winter. With some luck, I hope to have my green house up by the weekend so I can start some of my seeds and pick up plants when I find them at the local garden shops.






It's been chilly and rainy here but my blooming beauties aren't letting a little weather hold them back. Each day I see a little more green and a little brown in our yard ~ yea!






This week I received the nicest email from a sweet woman that follows my blog. Not only does she read my posts, but her husband peeks in to see photos of our bullies, Bozley and Bentley. So here you go Jon, these are for you :)



We hired a gardener this year. He's awfully cute but not all that productive. However, does do a good job of supervising and picking out a nice sunny spot in the yard during his break time  ~ which seems to be most of the time he is outdoors!





Bentley decided  to take some time and smell the flowers ... and walk on them, chew on them and lay in them. Now if only we could get him to pick up a rake and get to work!

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What a Week

It's been an eventful week here in my little life. Each day provided a new entry for the Winner of the Week Award.


The entries ...


** my cold that won't go away ~ it's been lingering for the past couple of weeks
** sneezed on, coughed on, sneezed on, coughed on, for the past few weeks by sick students
** vomited on by very sick child at school {almost the winner}
** Bentley went lame with yet another round of tick borne disease ~ trip to Vet before school
** field mouse moved into the wall of master bedroom ~I'm in denial, there are probably more than one.
** husband is away; of course
** house is in total disarray from on going projects 
** family room is half primed because I can only work on it in the evenings


In true Hollywood style, the best was saved for last ...


After a  L   O   N    G  week I was so glad to finally have Friday behind me with the promise of a relaxing weekend on the horizon. I had plans to meet friends for dinner and the rest of the weekend was for finishing up my painting project and getting the rest of our home back in order ~ it's all been affected by our home projects.




Well, that's not exactly what LIFE had planned for Friday evening.


I arrived home to a beeping noise. The kind that a dying battery in a smoke alarm makes. After letting the dogs out of their kennels, I went upstairs to access the situation. The smoke alarm was fine. The Carbon Monoxide Detector however wasn't. Yep, it was beeping and flashing. Great, just what I needed for the final entry into my Winner of the Week contest.


Ladies and gentlemen, we have a WINNER!


After grabbing the phone, getting Bentley and Bozley, I called 911 and let them know the situation.

They arrived in style and promptly went to work. Due to the potential seriousness of the situation, they donned all their protective gear and meters.

Just before setting off to assess my home, I felt compelled to apologize for the condition of our home. Yes, I AM that neurotic! After a quick low down of our projects which have caused such havoc in our home, I felt better. Seriously, I didn't want them to think we were such slobs.



My neighbor was politely laughing at me during this "prep" time.




Bringing the detectors out from our home to have them tested.

Reviewing the equipment from our home ~ me standing numb.

 

The whole time they were in my home, I was trying to come up with a plan ... where does one go with 2 dogs, a husband away? We have a plan for just about everything but not this type of situation. I do not like being unprepared or surprised by the unknown.

In the end, all this commotion was caused by a faulty carbon monoxide detector.



Thankfully, all is well and life is back to {chaotic} normal.


I was very grateful and relieved with the news. I'll be adding a new detector to my list of things to buy this weekend.

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A Little Sunshine

We've had some sunny days this week that have put a little spring in my step, smile on my face and brightened my disposition tremendously!




With my new found energy, I made a batch of these yummy lemon and orange poppy seed muffins.





They are moist, delicious, and melt in your mouth!




The perfect way to start your day with a steaming cup of coffee or an afternoon delight.




The bite size mini muffin can be a little dangerous ~ they pop in your mouth a little too easily.
Best of all, they are the perfect gift of sunshine to share with friends and brighten their day :)





Have a fabulous Friday!


Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup poppy seeds
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2eggs
1 cup lemon flavored yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon grated orange zest



Directions


1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Lightly grease a muffin tin.
2.Combine the flour, 3/4 cup white sugar, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3.In a separate bowl mix the eggs, yogurt, vegetable oil and orange zest. Blend well and pour over the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Do no over mix!
4.Spoon batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

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