Easter Mantle

My grandma is the ultimate holiday decorator (see here and here). She recently handed-down some Easter decorations to me and I incorporated them into what I already had.

I'm loving how my mantle turned out for Easter.

My grandma gave me the little ornaments I used to make the garland and the figurines as well as the eggs inside the mason jars. I love decorating for holidays especially with things that have meaning.

Are you excited for Easter? I went shopping yesterday for an Easter dress or skirt and they are rare and hard to find! Any tips for finding an Easter-worthy dress?

Lemony Glazed Ham Steaks

Easter is fast approaching. Ham is a traditional Easter food for our family as it is with many others. This recipe can be used with leftover ham OR on the big day. Why not? It's also the fastest real dinner I've ever made. Seriously.

Two 1 lb ham steaks (you can purchase these in the deli section if you can't find them)
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp mustard (honey mustard is a great option or adding honey to your mustard)
1.5 Tbsp lemon juice
3/4 tsp lemon peel, grated
1 lemon, thinly sliced

1. Preheat broiler. Assemble glaze: In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, mustard, lemon juice and lemon peel.

2. Place ham slice in a large broiling pan. Broil for 2 minutes; brush with some of the glaze and broil for another 5 minutes. Turn over and broil for 2 more minutes.

3. Arrange lemon slices on top of steaks; brush on remaining glaze. Broil for 5 more minutes or until glaze is bubbling.

Makes 8 servings, 225 calories each.

**You can also cook the ham in a skillet using the same instructions. When using leftover ham, spread the glaze on heavily and then heat it up in a microwave or skillet. The glaze prevents the ham from drying out.

(That's extra glaze on the plate. You'll want to LICK IT CLEAN!)

Recipe care of my husband's aunt. She graciously prepared a book of simple Sunday dinners and gave it to me. I'll be sharing more!

Chocolate Dipped Peeps on Skewers

When I think of Easter candy a few items pop into my mind: Cadbury Mini Eggs (my fave), the egg shaped bubble gum my mom always got us and, of course, Peeps! Do you have any leftovers? We didn't even buy any this year--a luxury of not having children. Here's an idea for those extra Peeps. The process is simple:

Start with Peeps. I thought the bunnies would be cuter and maybe a little easier to dip. Heat up your chocolate. I like to get the kind in the microwaveable container. 

 

Then get to dippin'! I had to swirl mine around a little bit. I alternated with dipping bunnies' ears and bodies. 

For cooling purposes, I laid them on a sheet of wax paper.

Next, skewer the bunnies and serve. 

My favorite one! It reminds me of Mickey Mouse

One more shot

Have fun!

Crepe Cake and My Easter Bonnet

First of all, Happy Birthday Jordan!! My mom is visiting Jordan right now and I hope they have a great day all together---wish I could be there!!

Yes, I used the same picture from last year. It still works!

Last year I decided I wanted to make some type of headpiece for Easter but ran out of time when it came down to it. I made a tiny hair bow instead. This year I went BIG!

Dress: JC Penney, Head Piece: DIY by me, Shoes: DSW (I wore heels to church)

Crappy cell phone close up!

I used this tutorial, but instead of using real silk organza, which would have been lighter and fluffier, I used some " special occasion" fabric. Still cute, but wish I would have gone for the organza!

Another thing I conquered was a crepe cake! I saw a crepe cake on a cooking show years ago and was intrigued. I came across sever pins on Pinterest, including Martha Stewart's version. I decided to use this recipe. 

The first crepe!

The cake, assembled! 

Sliced! Look at those layers!

Topped with strawberries, a perfect combination

The crepe cake was impressive and delicious but total prep time was over 3 hours, starting the night before (heating and cooling milk, browning butter, ice baths...) and then making 20 perfect crepes (that took an hour alone) and finally assembling the cake (the fun part!). I'm not sure when or if I'll make it again, but it won't be any time soon =) Although I feel pretty expert in making crepes!

How was your Easter?

Easter Decor

Have I mentioned my mother the decorator? No, I don't mean interior decorator. I mean holiday decorator. Her house is transformed at Christmas, and to a lesser degree, all other holidays. Here are a couple of the decorations she has created for Easter.

To make these, you need styrofoam eggs, Easter themed napkins,  craft crystals, and white glue. Tear out the parts of the napkin you like. Put a coat of glue on the egg, and then gently add the pictures from the napkins. Then cover the entire egg with another coat of glue. Roll the egg in the crystals and allow to dry.

These are painted wooden eggs.

We hope you have a happy Easter. Here is a link to a video entitled "He is Risen."

Mini Easter Symbols

This post is for Miriam Parker who specially requested I post the mini version

Last year my mom posted this tutorial for an Easter Symbols Basket. As a teenager we made mini-versions of this and I have since also made these with some of the children in our congregation. The symbols are all the same but just much smaller.

These are the scriptures that go along with the symbols:

1. Matthew 26:39 "... O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me..." (Sacrament cup)

2. Matthew 26:14-15 "...And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver." (nickel)

3. Matthew 27:1-2 "And when they bound Him, they led Him away." (piece of rope)

4. Matthew 27:24-26 "...He took water and washed his hands." (soap)

5. Matthew 27:28-30 "...and put on Him a scarlet robe." (red fabric)

6. Matthew 27:31-32 "..Him they compelled to bear His Cross." (cross)

7. Matthew 27:35-36 "And they crucified Him, and parted his garments, casting lots." (dice)

8. Matthew 27:50-51, 54 "and the earth did quake..." (dirt)

9. Matthew 27:59-60 "...he wrapped it in clean, white linen" (white fabric)

10. Matthew 27:60, 65-66 "And he rolled a great stone (stone)

11. Mark 16:1 "Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, had brought sweet spices." (spices)

12. Matthew 28:6 "He is not here; For He is risen, as He said." (empty box)

I forgot to add the 12 on the empty box. 

These would be great to make with the kids in Primary or in the YW/YM (youth) programs. I have had mine around 10 years so it is something to keep safe and get out each year as a reminder of the symbols of this Easter season. 

Watercolor Easter Cards

Sometime last year I became a tiny bit obsessed with watercolors. I wanted so badly to try them, but the local class was $84, with $100 worth of supplies. It seemed like an investment I wasn't ready to make. A few weeks ago I decided to get some cheap supplies and just try to see if I liked it. $15 later and I was set. I decided my first project would be greeting cards for Easter. After brainstorming I came up with these:

The eggs were cut with my Silhouette Cameo. One of the best features about the Silhouette Studio (software program for the Silhouette) is the "Trace" feature. I can take any picture and trace it and have a shape for free. I found an egg shape online and saved it. Then I opened it in Silhouette Studio, used the trace feature and had a free shape!

I used watercolor paper and dug in! While the eggs were drying, they curled up, but with glue they stayed down on the cards. I love how the watercolor looks like dyed eggs! This was a fun, simple project and perfect for my first time with watercolors!

Did you send anything fun for Easter? 

Mailing Easter Eggs!

So you may have seen this pin:

Source: giverslog.com via Jaime on Pinterest

I did sometime last year and have been patiently waiting for Spring since! Here's what I came up with for my nephew and nieces.

 

For my nephew: A growing, glow in the dark skeleton, a spinning top, a Lightning McQueen pad of paper, a Phineas and Ferb sticker and a little squirting animal.

My niece's wasn't too different: a spinning top, a Mater pad of paper, a Phineas and Ferb sticker (not pictured for some reason!), a little squirting animal and a pretty necklace.

All these small items fit inside a somewhat larger egg (it's not huge!). All my items came from the Dollar Tree, including the eggs. I will send these out soon and let you know how they fare in the mail!

Happy Easter

We'd like to wish all our readers a very happy Easter. 

To learn more about our beliefs, please go to mormon.org

Guest Posting

Hello! As you may have noticed, Mom/Diana posted on my regular day and I am posting today! The reason: I'm guest posting at Keeping It Simple today. You want to see what I'm sharing, just in time for Easter? Here's one clue:

I'm basically a hand model now.

Go already! Kaysi's waiting: Keeping It Simple

Easter Roundup

Did you know? We are fast approaching our first blogoversary! We've grown a lot in the last almost-year. Only a few of our followers were around for our Easter posts last year, so we'll kick off the season with a quick round up of our crafts from last Easter:

Homemade Peeps!

Make your Easter decorations last year after year with hollow eggs

How (and how not) to decorate eggs with natural dyes

What are you looking forward to this year for Easter?

Homemade Marshmallow Peeps!

Easter is fast approaching and I was struck by inspiration for a craft:

I thought this would be 1.) brilliant and 2.) very difficult/messy. I was pleased to be half-wrong: the marshmallows were easy to make and everything came together pretty quickly!

First, I made the outside coating for the peeps. Colored sugar is OH so difficult.

1. Start with white sugar.

2. Add food coloring.

3. Mix.

4. Mix some more.

Once your colored sugar is ready, you'll need a little bed of it for each peep. I sprayed some cooking spray on a piece of foil and put down my colored sugar:

Then it was time to make the marshmallows using a recipe courtesy of Google. Seriously, this took maybe 30 minutes:

After giving the marshmallows a couple minutes to start to set, I sprayed a spatula and the inside of a Ziploc baggie with cooking spray. I used the spatula to fill the baggie with the soft marshmallows and then piped the peeps onto their waiting beds:

The bunny is just two lines with a small circle at the base for the head (though I think trying to get the ears on top of the head is a good goal), and a larger circle below that for the body. The chick is almost a Z shape: pipe a thick line for the body, then lift up and back over the body, then forward to end in the beak. I was afraid the peeps would devolve into shapeless blobs, but they held up really well!

Sprinkle with more colored sugar (you could also shake them in a bag full of colored sugar for better coverage, but sprinkle them first: too much exposed marshmallow will stick to the inside of . . . well, anything!):

Add some chocolate sprinkle eyes:

And have a happy Easter!

I used this marshmallow recipe, but I'll tell you all about it another time!

Oh, and the best Peeps site ever: Peep Research. (What happens when they're subjected to a "fear chamber," AKA the microwave?)

This recipe was prepared at high altitude.

Linking up with:

• Tip Junkie's Tip Me Tuesday
• Beauty & Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday
• 33 Shades of Green's Tasty Tuesday