Hosting my Craft Group Friends ~ Easter Crafting ~ 🐰🐣🐥

Greetings lovely friends & readers

In my dining-room today a freshly picked jug of hydrangeas, just starting to turn autumnal colours  ...  & Sid's artwork hanging above.

 

Sid has gone on a 3 week holiday with his parents but he gifted me this handmade card & chocolate bunnies before he left.  He tells me its an Easter Taco  (!!)

It was my turn to host the craft group ladies on March 30th for some Easter crafting.  I'd spent time on Pinterest looking for projects & what appealed to me were the 2 images above.  I was looking for simple projects that we could complete & also trying to use up supplies already on hand.

A week prior I sat & made up my version of the "Nest peat pot" & then I did a painted version too, thinking the ladies could choose which one they would like to create.  I sat & dry brushed some peat pots so they were already painted.  

I like to set my table just a little bit special when I host the ladies so I went with an Easter theme, made chocolate cupcakes again & used Dee's basket from my last post as a centerpiece.  It was certainly a chocolate overload but we had a delicious morning tea & lunch.  

I'd had to send to Temu for the wooden discs to make the bunny faces, so I'd also ordered Easter paper serviettes, Easter cupcake wrappers & a pack of 4 sweet wooden bunnies that were a hanging ornament.  I set each place setting with these as a wee gift.  The ladies were just delighted.  🐰

At Christmas my friend Shirley had told me about TV frame art on YouTube ... so I searched for Easter TV frame art & found this stunning picture, which you can get for your TV - completely free.  A shame there's no music to accompany this but it was very eye catching & looked so real & lifelike.

Though our group was only 4 in number we had a most enjoyable day.  We made the peat pots in the morning, stopped for lunch & then made the wire bunny plant pokes. 

I found this tutorial on Instagram.  I'll put a link * here * but am unsure if you need to be on Instagram for the link to work.  These are made using the center of egg cartons as their dresses, were honestly just the sweetest little things & I would love to make a group of these bunnies.  

* Here * is the Pinterest link to them.

One of the ladies Sharlaine, gifted me this wonderful Pinocchio.  She had purchased him thrifting but decided she no longer had a place for him & offered him to me.  I just adore him & he will be stunning at Christmas time ... I may have to make a wee setting for my Pinocchio.

The next day while I still had all my supplies out, I made this terracotta pot egg, it's a polystyrene egg decorated with a transfer & I've given it a few coats of varnish.  I'd seen this on Pinterest too but can no longer find the image.

I wanted to make up a gift for our Rural Delivery lady.  She gives us free newspapers when she has any left over & is just such a kind person all-round.  I took one of the leftover painted peat pots, mod-podged the paper serviette onto it, coated again with mod-podge to seal it  .  .  .  .  .  .

.  .  .  .  .  .  filled it with shredded paper & choccy eggs & then tied it all up with cellophane.  Such an easy but effective small gift at Easter time.  She was thrilled & left me the sweetest note in my letterbox.

                                              This is especially for You dear Willie ...

 Blackie, our eldest cat, is going through a phase of returning to his feral ways - he does this from time to time. 

 He must be 13 or 14 now, was wild for quite sometime before I bought him inside & tamed him (tried to) 

 He sleeps along the fence line in the paddock & every night I am out there with my torch looking for him.  I no longer call him as he ignores me/is deaf, but I walk along 'til I find him, pick him up & bring him inside for the night. 

 The other night I could not find him & had to leave him outside all night.  Next morning when I did my usual walk here he is tucked into the undergrowth with "a (quite dead) friend" - perhaps its Easter bunny ??  Considering he's older now & by the way he walks, has joint pain - he must still be able to run fast to catch rabbits.  

Wishing you a wonderful peace-filled Easter celebration dear friends - do you have plans?  I'd love to hear them if you feel like leaving me a comment.               

 Ours will be quiet as The Mr is in full autumn calving mode.  I have firewood to stack, hens to feed for friends, & - hopefully - a rabbit to sew.  

Sending much love & friendship to you all,

Late March Days

Greetings lovely friends & readers

On my bench today, Roses Remember Me & Heaven Scent, both gifted when Mum passed away.  I picked these yesterday as tight buds & by this morning they have opened.

 

This variety are the mini bell peppers which I grew this year for a change

Last weekend I picked all my peppers & pulled the plants out, along with the rest of my Basil which had gone to seed.  I dug over my veggie garden with a tray of worm castings, lime & 2 bags of compost.  According to my moon calendar, Tuesday 24th - 31st is very good planting time for anything that produces above ground & I plan to plant my brassicas this weekend.

I pulled out my black scabiosa a couple of weeks ago & pressed some of the remaining flower heads as well as saved lots of seeds.  I made some envelopes using scrapbooking paper, filled them with seeds & added the pressed flower - these are to be tucked into gifts.

When I went to purchase Easter bags for the Grandchildren this year I was shocked to see a price tag of $9.99, which I refuse to pay.

  I had some brown kraft bags which are 20 cents each at the supermarket so I cut out rabbit shapes using scrapbooking paper & tied their initials onto the bags - just perfect & the cost was zero.

  I have filled them with a large Egg each & an Easter activity book.  I will also do baking for the families.  The price of chocolate is very expensive here at the moment.

I decided to do an Easter table last week as my outdoor table needed a good scrub down.  I just used decor from previous Easters & kept it very simple this year.

The topiary rabbit ears that I made in * this post * was looking very brown & bare so I pulled off what I could,  then glued on some fresh green moss, which I had in my stash.  It looked much better & I am trying to remembering to spritz it with water every few days. 

This red cyclamen was in a plastic pot but I planted it in Mums old concrete urn.  Less is More I kept telling myself ... & I did remove quite a few items. 

A couple of hours after I'd finished it I came outside to find an Easter Bunny had taken up residence there .... of the ginger variety (!!) 😉🐈

I'd been trying to catch up with my friend Dee for awhile now so I invited her to afternoon tea last Tuesday.  I'd seen these simple egg pockets on Instagram - go * here * for the tutorial -  I drew my egg shape & sewed it up using this Paris fabric I had (Dee is French).  I filled my pocket with an easter serviette, chocs & a wooden bunny ornament.  I thought it looked so sweet on the white plate. 

I made a batch of simple chocolate cupcakes with frosting & I added a choccy egg to the tops.  These honestly turned out so delicious that I had to send the remainder home with Dee for her teenage sons, otherwise they would have ended up in my mouth (!!)  😑

Dee presented me with this stunning Easter basket, handmade by herself.  I just adored it ... filled with potting mix & some miniature white violas planted in it, along with eggs & rabbits 💓💓

Be still my beating heart.

Dee just used a thrifted basket that she had in her stash

 

Some faux eggs tucked in but the ones in the "broken egg" are edible - how spoilt was I !!??  

It's sitting on my dining table where I can enjoy it & I am trying to remembering to spritz the plants & moss with water.

My Easter treat-to-myself this year was the purchase of these delightful vintage egg cups off Trademe, an auction site here in New Zealand.  I just loved them & think they will be NOT packed away when the Easter decor is.  Look at that darling pink lamb .  .  .  .  

Wishing you all a most wonderful weekend dear friends,

I have more to share but I will save it for another post ... it's my turn to host the craft girls on Monday for an Easter craft so I will be back after that to share with you all,

Sending much love & friendship out to you all,

Some Round-the-House Projects - & - Some Creative Projects . . . . . . . .

Greetings lovely friends & readers

(Warning ... photo heavy post - long & waffly sorry)

 On my table today - beautiful hydrangeas in my Wrendale Jug

I snapped this sunset pic two nights ago from my back deck - just lovely with the cows grazing in the house paddock.

Last weekend my youngest son came & built a new deck on my Cottage.  (This is the cottage I used to run as a craft shop - that is another blog post all on it's own).  

Though I've forgotten to take a before pic, the deck was very rotten & I'd actually gone through it in two places.  I helped Kayne pull up the old timber which came away easily.  My son trained as a Builder though he no longer builds but will do odd jobs for cash (& sandwiches) 😉

At the end of Day 1 it was looking good but he still had the edge to finish & also drill & nail it off properly.

Prior to this being done I'd had to cut all my plants away from the deck in order to make it easier access for Kayne.  

Unoiled                                            Oiled with two coats

Day two & we have a completion.  During the week I've oiled it twice but I'll still give it another coat, maybe two. 

I'm thrilled with how it turned out & am reluctant to put back all the old junk treasures that I had on it. 

My task for last weekend was to slowly burn all the old deck timber on my rubbish heap, as well as keep Kayne supplied in a steady stream of curried-egg/ham sandwiches & homemade Lemon cordial. 

We have had the trees cut up that fell down in * this post *.  I now have a large pile of mulch to distribute on my gardens.  Does anyone else get as excited about fresh garden mulch as I do??  

I must admit though, I wish I could wiggle my nose & the job was done 😉

The tree men left the huge stump in the ground so The Mr bought home the farm tractor today & lifted it out for me, as well as removing some of the huge timber rings that I could not lift.  Gosh it makes life so much easier when you have the heavy-lifting tools to do the job.

Here he is lifting out some of the huge wood rings & here is the stump on the back tray, ready to go to the burning hole at the farm.  

It did not take long for a certain golden eyed girl 😺to come check out all the farm smells on the tractor. 

During the big storm we had last January our neighbor lost trees that fell over power lines - power was out for over 8 hours while it was repaired.  He has slowly been having a large thicket of trees removed along the road verge.  

So I was surprised (& delighted) to see them continue down the paddock.  For the 25+ years that we have lived here we have looked out onto this large thicket of trees.  I would call it a hedgerow but it was many trees planted together, not singular trees.  It has never bothered me but now that they are removing them & opening it up - Oh My!!!  The light has come in & I can see the stunning Maungatautari Ranges in the distance.  You can see the digger working away in my photo & the gap appearing in the right hand pic.  This is taken standing on my deck, but zooming in.  

Slowly the gap widens.  Yesterday they began burning the huge heaps of rubbish, two fires behind the depot yard, which was a bit nerve wracking as it was windy.  

This pic was taken just before I sat down to type this post - standing just outside my kitchen door.  I cannot explain the Joy that this fills me with, seeing the view across the farmland.

  The Mr has told me I am Not to tell the neighbor how happy this has made me as he would be out there replanting the trees in the blink of an eye (our neighbor is a difficult man) 😉

Some creative projects also happened this past week - I sat in the sun on my deck & painted these two silver dishes that had belonged to my late Mum.  I did one in Shabby Pink & the other in Vintage White chalkpaint & then added some decor transfers to them. 

They look lovely amongst some of my Easter decor.

You may remember other silver trays of Mums that I painted in * this post *. 

I completed an order for 10 applique tea-towels for an old friend/customer.   I haven't done these since 2018 when I closed my craft cottage & I'd forgotten how much work they were.  Amanda requested 6 golly ones & 4 hen ones ... these are currently in the post on their way to her.  

Thank you so much dear friends, if you've stayed through this lengthy post, 

With these uncertain times in the world currently, I hope you do find something to smile about in the week ahead.

Sending much love & friendship out to you all,