Coloring eggs

We dyed eggs after dinner this evening. In fact, my freshly bathed and pajama-d kids are in the process of covering said eggs with stickers. 

Which is where I'm off to...there are some stickers calling my name.

Have a very happy Easter, everyone!

Eggs-cellent decorations

My Big Martha is really talented at holiday decorations, so much so that when she is in the mood to decorate, I simply get out my storage totes of seasonal eye candy and let her do her thing.  Here's what she came up with for Easter at my house:

Isn't that mantle display gorgeous?  I love it!  Thanks, Mom!

I put the plastic eggs and bunny ears in the baskets from Easters past, so at least I contributed in some small way. The beautiful "Happy Easter" banner is from Wanessa Carolina Creations, and it is available for free download on her blog. 

My Big Martha also made a display for the media cabinet.  The carrot Easter basket is the perfect size for holding our DVDs from the library, making it both functional and decorative. Score!

Finally, here's the tablescape on the dining room buffet.  It's two Easter-themed tea sets, a bunny pitcher, candy dish and two sets of salt-and-pepper shakers.  They're bunnies, of course.

For the most part, my kids are really great at not touching any of the breakable decorations.  They understand the difference between a "pretty" and a play thing, and so far they are content to look and not touch.  Even with the jelly beans!  I wish I could say the same for myself about those.

Though I notice that the bunny salt-and-pepper shakers occasionally shift position ever so slightly.

I suspect Little Miss might have something to do with that.

Martha Monday--Easter time!

Easter is quickly approaching.  On Saturday I took the kids to an Easter egg hunt, and this Saturday we'll have breakfast with the Bunny.  Fun!

I'm not hosting Easter this year.  Instead, we'll do an egg hunt at home with the kids, and then it's off to the grandparents' houses for dinner and family fun.  What are you doing for Easter?

If you are in need of inspiration, be sure to check out Martha's Easter menus, decorations, and crafts.

If I were hosting Easter dinner, then I might have tried my hand at this table-scape: 



Maybe if I get it started now, I can have it ready in time for next year's Easter celebration. 

Happy Monday!

Spring break FAIL

So I had grand plans for a boatload of cleaning I wanted to accomplish over my spring break. 

Did the master bathroom get cleaned?  No.

Did the kitchen get cleaned?  Negative.

Did the basement get cleaned?  Meh. Kind of. I guess.

To be fair, I did have an unexpected family situation come up that required two days of my time. Then I volunteered to babysit a friend's kid so she could get some work stuff done, so there went another day. Add an unhappy Little Miss with tonsilitis to the mix, and my ideal spring break of cleaning my house from top to bottom has now been postponed until next year.     

The Big Guy and I did tackle the basement on Tuesday morning and serious progress was made. 
Here's the pile of trash:

This is the Mountain of Boxes.  With all the consolidation of STUFF going on, we have a lot of boxes left over.  It might be time to unload these via Craigslist. Do you know anyone with a move in their future? If so, let them know that all the boxes they need are in my basement.

The Big Guy made a lot of progress on his Man Cave/Rec Room.  Truthfully, it's driving me nuts that a room is set up without actual any actual walls, floor or ceiling, but this project is making him happy, so I'm trying to keep my mouth shut.

I did add a few more boxes to the garage sale pile.  It may not look like much from the picture, but each column is actually three boxes deep.  That's a lot of crap that needs to get out of my house by this summer.

This is the only remaining area of the basement that remains unidentified and unsorted.  Not cool.  I plan to tackle it in the next few weeks. 

The only task on my original "Spring Break To-Do List" that was truly completed is the take down and storage of the Easter decorations.  They were taken down, safely packed and tucked away in just under two hours.  How was this done so quickly and completely?

Easy...My Big Martha did it. 

Easter eggs

We dyed Easter eggs the other night. It was nothing fancy, no marbelizing or painting.  We didn't even use a white crayon...well, mainly that was because one wasn't included with the kit.  We simply got out six mugs and put eggs into the red, orange, yellow, teal, blue and purple dyes. 

MOM2 was on hand to help us out.  She came up with a true purple egg when she first dyed it red, and then put it in the blue bath for a while.  We also got a bright kelly green egg with the double-dipping method.  

Otherwise, there was really no difference between the purple and blue dyes, which was a bit disappointing.  And the red never seems to get bright red.  Next year, I might add a bit of food coloring to increase the red color.

The Little Guy was quite involved in the process, and when they were all done, he insisting on smelling them.

The still-wet dye gave him a bright green moustache.  

Fun times! From the TMI household to yours, have a very happy (and hoppy) Easter!

Tips for a frugal Easter

Easter is only days away, and I'm busy dyeing eggs and filling baskets.  With all the cute bunny and chick stuff out there, it would be easy to go overboard, and over budget, on Easter. However, with a bit of planning and creativity, it's possible to have a nice Easter celebration without spending a lot of money.

To save money on the holiday meal:

• Have a potluck meal.  Even if you aren't having a potluck meal and someone offers to bring a dish, accept their offer! 
• Rotate holidays--if you had Easter last year, find someone else to take a turn.
• Host an Easter brunch rather than a formal dinner (breakfast foods are a lot cheaper).
• If you must go out to eat, save money by moving your celebration to Saturday instead of Sunday.

To save money on baskets:

• Don't go nuts on toys/candy/trinkets for the kids.  I'm limiting myself to $10.00 per basket. 
• Don't worry about fillers like that plastic Easter grass. It's messy and unnecessary. 
• Right after Easter, all the baskets, fillers and Easter-themed stuff will go on sale.  Think ahead to Easter 2012 as you peruse the clearance racks, and get what you need (and only what you need) at a steep discount. 

I got the Little Guy and Little Miss's basket at 90% off after last Easter for a cost of $0.99 each. The bunny ears were also 90% off, making them only $0.19.  Score!

The contents of the baskets all came from the Dollar Spot at Target. Seriously, whoever created that thing is a genius! 

I'll round out their baskets with fruit snacks (for the Little Guy) and fun crackers (for Little Miss).

To save money on entertainment:

• Look for free/cheap community events featuring the Easter bunny and egg hunts.
• Focus on activities (decorating eggs, making garlands, baking desserts) as a family rather than paying big bucks for passive entertainment.
• Combine resources with friends/neighbors to have a large-scale Easter egg hunt. 

Happy Easter planning!

PS. Did you know that I'm available for public speaking?  Neither did I!  As it turns out, I am able and willing to speak with community groups.  Kaneland WINS invited me to speak at their meeting today, and they got an abbreviated version of my "Live Well, Spend Less" class.  Thanks to Kaneland WINS for a fun lunch!  I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

Martha Monday--Easter

Easter is less than a week away!  Martha has some great Easter menus, decorations and crafts on her site.  Here are a few that are catching my eye:

These Easter egg balloons are so simple, but pure genius!

This napkin bunny fold would be perfect for a formal place setting:

Are you ready? Are you hosting a dinner, or going to one? Do you have plans to visit the Easter bunny?

As we've done since the Little Guy's first Easter, we'll attend an Easter breakfast hosted by a local community service group. Getting everyone dressed and out of the house by 8am on a Saturday is worth it for pancakes and pictures with the Easter bunny! After that, we're heading off to the first Easter dinner. My kids will get their baskets and hunt for eggs on Easter morning, and then we're back on the road for our second Easter dinner. I see a lot of chocolate eggs in my near future!

Transitioning to Easter

Because Easter is so late on the calender this year, I wanted to get my Easter decorations on display in order to enjoy them as much as possible.  So at the beginning of March, the winter decorations (all of my snowman and snowflake stuff) get put away and the Easter stuff came out. 

As you can see from the dining room table, the transition between holiday/season decorations can be a bit messy. Can you see the Little Guy back there? My son is almost completely hidden by all the winter and spring decorations on the table.



Here he is! My Little Guy was checking out the Easter eggs. 

Fortunately for me, My Big Martha took over the task of decorating.  Once the Easter boxes were out of the basement, she got started on the mantel. 

She worked with various Easter baskets to find the right height and began filling them with all the decorative eggs and figurines from the boxes.

The mantle quickly became the focal point of the room with the bunnies and baskets.

Doesn't this look great?  My Big Martha has a knack for design and decoration that has apparently skipped my generation--I certainly couldn't do that!  Already we've gotten several compliments on the mantel. 

I like the mantel (and other decorative scenes she set up) so much that I've already booked her for next Easter.  I'm trying to get her for this Halloween and Christmas, too!

Martha Monday--Hopping down the bunny trail

Easter is late this year, which is great--we all have plenty of time to get ready and celebrate the season.  Martha Stewart .com has their Easter Everything ready for you with crafts, decorations, menus and treats for your perusal. 

I am loving this Easter Egg Garland:

If I host Easter this year, then my hope is to make everything look like this:

Isn't that gorgeous?  The garland, cupcake picks and treat bags all match.  I love it!

To get the Little Guy geared up for Easter (Little Miss is still to little), I'm looking at this gallery of crafts for kids.  I really like these marbleized eggs:

Dyeing Easter eggs has to be one of the funnest things to do during the season.  I can't wait!

What do you have planned for Easter?

Bunny mix

Since we are hosting Easter for the first time ever, the Little Guy and I decided to make favors for our guests.

Okay, I decided to make favors.  The Little Guy is just along for the ride.

I thought doing a bunny trail mix would be great for all ages coming to dinner on Saturday.  Ingredients included Kashi Heart-to-Heart cereal (honey flavor), raisins, Easter M&Ms, cheddar Chickadees (Market Pantry brand from Target) and chocolate bunnies that I made with a Wilton mold.  I had thought about including pretzels, but decided against it at the last minute.

Everything but the chocolate bunnies was mixed together.  You can see that the Little Guy really enjoys those M&Ms.  The bunnies were added 2-3 at a time to each bag to ensure even distribution. 

The Little Guy scooped up the mixture and poured it into the bags.  This was a fun afternoon for us!

Here's the finished product:

The treat bags are in the shape of carrots (these are from Wilton, I believe).  Isn't that too cute? 

Happy Easter, everyone!

Martha Monday--Easter Menus

Easter is less than a week away.  Like any other holiday, we'll celebrate three times over the course of three days and two weekends to make sure we see as much family as possible.  This year, I'll be hosting one of the Easters. 

This is a first for me.

Sure, I've done Thanksgiving and Christmas, but never an Easter.  Gird your loins, people.

For those of you looking to go all Martha on Easter, you can see a sampling of menus here.  I'm particularly intrigued by this "Easy Easter Dinner"...

...because nothing says "Easy" like hosting your first-ever Easter for the in-laws, right?!

Here's my menu:

Ham
Green bean casserole
Au gratin potatoes
Corn casserole
Glazed carrots
Devilled eggs
Bread and butter
Magic jello mousse

Dessert:

Carrot cake cupcakes
Lemon cupcakes
Twisted krispies
Easter M&M cookies

The Little Guy and I will be tackling the cupcakes and maybe even some Easter candy this week.  For your viewing (and salivating pleasure), here's the Easter dessert I came up with last year:

It's a coconut cake covered with peanut M&Ms and candy bunnies.  I called it "Easter Island."  You can read all about it here.  While that was fun, I'm going to try something new this year.  Stay tuned!

Martha Monday!

Two weeks ago, I entered Barley in Martha Stewart's Easter Pet Contest with this picture.

I had high hopes, because not only did he have a five-star rating and a bunch of views of his picture, but his picture was also tagged ("face") by the judges!

Sadly, Barley didn't win, nor did he make it as a finalist.

Instead, this borderline psychotic pup won...

Seriously, I am just not impressed with that dog or the picture. It's so staged! Where's the soulfulness, the longing, the look that says "Why are you making me wear bunny ears?" I think Barley conveyed that last thought especially well.

Let's take another look at the dog that should have won the Easter pet contest:

How could we not have won this contest???

Out of all the finalists, and if Barley hadn't been in the running, I would have picked this guy for the winner. Seriously, a dog dressed as a lamb? That's hilarious!

You can view the winner and finalists here. Next time, I think Martha should judge the contest and not her website lackeys. With her good taste, I just know she would have picked Barley as the winner.

Now, how do I break the news to Barley? Maybe a doggie treat will soften the blow.

Easter cake

For today's family gathering, I made the TMI version of coconut cake. But, since it was Easter, I decided to fancy it up a bit.

First, I made the cake and frosting per my instructions here. Then, I made little bunnies with Wilton candy melts and the Lil' Bunnies Candy Mold.

I dyed some shredded coconut green for the grass.

That's not mold, that's the green coconut "grass." Bunnies need lots and lots of grass.

And since there was so much "grass" on the cake, I added lots and lots of bunnies. And peanut M&Ms.

And more bunnies. Because they multiply like that, you know.

And then, I added the biggest bunny of all. To rule over all the other bunnies. In the bunnyland that is this Easter cake.

Because what's Easter without the big chocolate bunny? Certainly not a TMI Easter, that's for sure.

Happy Easter, everyone!