Eggstra Fun Easter Table

This years Easter dinner table was so much fun.  Many hours were spent knitting and felting easter eggs and embroidering them with initials and flowers. It all started innocently enough with finding 2 concrete planters at Home Goods.  They were filled with dirt and planted with grass seed for the center of the table, around which would be the knit and felted handmade eggs.  Simple enough right?

The grass grew outside and the eggs began to take shape, and what started as a simple knitting and felting project with an array of beautiful colors quickly turned into a major project.  Surprise!

The dining table is quite long so it needed a focal point, and a glass bowl filled with pansy’s provided a burst of color for very little money.  Cut flowers are wonderful from the florist, but when you can use what’s in your own yard, or what’s on sale why not?  Pansy’s were only a few dollars for a whole pack of eight.  Once the table was grounded with living plants, it was simple to gather the chicks and eggs to create a spring garden in bloom with the grass and pansy’s.  Reagan played with the grass and eggs all during dinner, checking out each eggs decorations and creating holes for them to nest in.  So sweet.

Now the confession.  This would have been a ‘gracious plenty’ as grandma used to say, but another fun thought popped into my mind.  Why not make egg place cards in little pots for the kids to have?  See the question mark eggs?  They are the two little ones that will be at the table next Easter.  Can’t wait to meet them (note to self: get another high chair)!

The grandkids also had their places.

Looks like I forgot to take an individual photo of Johnnie’s egg, but here are the families grouped together.  Even the dogs  got into the party.

The girls who love their puppies loved their doggie eggs.

Right now Jack (4) is fascinated with worms, so we found a pattern for knitting them.  Isn’t it cute?    Well, I hope you had a  blessed Easter with your family.  Spring is here and it’s time to celebrate that winter is gone, and new life abounds.

Enjoy your spring sunshine,

Laurie

Blooming Kitchen Sink

They bloomed!  The little orchids, that is.  What a gift of color behind the kitchen sink.  We’ve been antiquing and found some wonderful copper pots that work beautifully for holding the plants, too.   I love the warmth of the copper coupled with the delicate pink petals, and  the weathered ceramic finial is a great backdrop with all its curves and moss. Isn’t it wonderful?  This is the first place I go in the morning to see if another orchid opened.  Now that’s something to smile about while making the first cup of coffee, isn’t it?

Blessings to you this weekend,

Laurie

{images:Laurie Ashbach}

Inside-Outside

It’s February in Minnesota, and there’s a sharp contrast between inside and outside.  During a recent photo walk on a frosty morning these images were like discovering an icy breath.  Crystals blown into being on every branch and blade.  It took my breath away.

This week a surprise opened inside, as three of my orchids bloomed.  With all the icy whiteness outside it was such a contrast to see the blushing pinks of the tropical flower quietly open its petals.  The big orchid had not bloomed for at least a dozen years.  Summers it would reside on the north deck outside, lucky to get watered.  Winters it would come inside and be equally ignored as it sat on the laundry room floor.  One day a new stem emerged and a few weeks later….. another breathtaking miracle.

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

Acts 17:24-25

May God take your breath away in seeing or experiencing His beauty this weekend!  See you soon with more from the little blooming orchids.

Gifts abound,

Laurie

{images:Laurie Ashbach}