More pre-Easter fluff.

 Here is my finished basket for the church. I stated earlier that we bring a basket to the church to be blessed for our Easter Breakfast. It came out very festive.

 I made several little baskets for my female family members. I added soaps and cute little chocolates. I love these little Lindt lady bugs, sheep and bunnies. All very sweet for spring in general.

Above, is an Easter card from our friends from Poland. I assume it says Happy Easter. It has sparkles on it like a Christmas card but they did not show up in the photograph. It is nice people are thinking of us.

 I collect Victorian greeting cards. Here are a couple Spring Greeting cards and below I have a couple Easter cards.

 I also wanted to share this adorably sparkly fabric card made by a local designer. It's just precious.Well, I am off to take care of more business. Hopefully, I can get some nice pictures of our Easter festivities. Have Fun!!

Pre-Easter Prep.

 The day before Easter is always a little hectic. We decorate eggs. I always buy several different kits. This year it was Spider Man, Sesame Street and Kittens and Puppy fun. I wanted to appeal to the different age children I have. The easiest eggs are the ones where you slip on the little plastic sleeve that melt perfectly around the egg. However, the eggs this year were all too fat.

 Below are two Italian Easter Breads. We go to a Ukrainian Church and it is customary to bring a basket to the church to be blessed.  The basket usually has an Easter breakfast of eggs, kielbasa  bread and cheese. The funny thing this year is Ukrainian Easter is not for a few weeks because they follow the Julian Calender. We sort of mix The Ukrainian Christian with Roman Catholic Rites so we will celebrate tomorrow with our extended family and we will do it again in a few weeks. You really can't go wrong with two big spring holidays. In reality it is still too snowy and cold for Easter egg hunting.

 Here are the four dozen eggs. The kids should get them done in an hour.

 I needed a healthy sugar break. Nothing says Happy Easter like artificially colored pink snowballs and a cold bottle of coke. We really cut back on the sweets for lent so I need to jump back into the program. I am already thinking about my breakfast of jelly beans and chocolate.

Enjoy the Day. Off to clean my house.

Easter Beagle...sort of cute.

Wrapping up Saint Paddy's Day.

 Well, it is snowing here again in Boston.  I have already put the snow stuff away, twice.  Last year, I was tripping over boots and mittens for months and there was no snow to be seen so I didn't want to do that again. I keep all the bulky snow suits in the attic so it is a hassle to take it down.  Mother nature, I thought you would get the hint.

 Do you like these cute little kissing leprechauns?  I think they are really sweet. I decided to write a little about milk glass.  I have a bunch of it kicking around the house.  They are mostly planters. I like milk glass because it is white which makes it flexible.  It can be used for any season or any colored flower.

 This top hat looked cute for Saint Patrick's day.

 I use the round one for a planter and the square one has colored sand and little votive candles.

 Here is a little bud vase and a tiny working oil lamp.  Actually only the top is milk class. Below, is a tiny doll house accessory made of milk glass.  I think it is a mini baking dish. Very cute.

 Here is just another planter with a bayberry cinnamon  artisan candle.  Perfect as the centerpiece of a Christmas table of Valentines Day dinner.

 My kids made these funny leprechaun faces for the window. You can see how dreary it is outside. Interesting story about the prickly pear cactus shown.  My hubby saw it by the side of the road in Arizona and threw it in a paper bag and took it home.  He forgot about it for about a week and then I threw it in some dirt. About two months, later two big yellow flowers appeared on it. Truly magical! Since then, it grew two limbs that also grew two limbs. Limbs? I mean smaller cacti. Then I bought some other cacti to keep it company.  They have all really flourished. I wish I had that kind of luck with edible garden plants.

 I told you I collect any kind of vintage decoration .  Here are a few from the eighties.

 I think they capitalized on the Care Bear craze. They put a smile on my face.

 Wrapping up my rant with any every day All-American lunch.  I don't eat processed meats very often and if  I ever do eat hot dogs they have to be beef.  However, some days I really crave the comfort food from my childhood. They may not be pretty but I assure you, on this chilly March day, they really took the edge off. Complete with fried onions, Frenches Mustard and gasp....processed yellow cheese with a side order of Bushes Boston Baked Beans.  Yeah, life is good.

T'was Mighty Craic!

 It was a very nice Saint Patrick's Day. The craic (fun in Irish) was mighty! I lived in Galway, Ireland as a teenager for a few years and have visited there as well. However, I feel like no one  does Saint Paddy's Day like we do here in Beantown. We went to our relatives house who always do things up right, no matter what the occasion is.  Great food and drink and they always decorate for the holidays. The weather was cold so we decided not to go the big parade in Boston. However, the annual game of  "find the leprechaun" still happened despite the chilly wind.  The stuffed leprechaun is hidden outside and all the kid's go searching for him. The winner gets some chocolate gold coins.  However, with so many little children, there is always a couple of poor sports so we give all the participants candy and the winner gets a some cash as well.

 Below we see the food staying warm in this great multipurpose food warmer.  There is corn, turnip, potatoes as well as the boiled veggies and cabbage in the crock pot to the far right. The Irish bread featured is homemade...the real way with caraway seeds. The grey briskets were cooling down before being cut. Everything tasted fantastic for really, what I would call, somewhat bland fare.

 Here is one of my favorite relatives sporting an authentic Irish knit straight from" the old sod" and an all-inclusive Saint Paddy Day greeting for the few guests who weren't Irish.  They loved it! After all every one is Irish on this fun special day!

 There was candy right from Ireland.  My favorite is on the bottom the pile.  They are called Flake.  They are best eaten stuck into a soft serve vanilla cone.

 The hostess made this really cute chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and raspberry filling. It was just the thing with some mint chip ice cream.  There were also cup cakes for the kids sporting cute plastic shamrocks.  Very retro. We wrapped up the party with singing and some traditional dancing. A tin whistle even made an appearance ... No one minded that the song played was the theme song from, the movie , "The Fellowship of the Ring".