Easter Egg Trees

Wow, another holiday fast approaching - or, in my case, three! Both my grandmother and my brother are celebrating their birthdays this weekend, so it's gonna be hectic! My grandmother doesn't want a dinner, so my mother is taking her on an excursion to The Keys to see my uncle and eat lunch. But, my boyfriend and I still want to make her a Key Lime Pie and bring it for a combined Birthday/Easter dessert. My mother wants to pay us to bring a Carrot Cake as well, haha. All that and we're also talking about baking my brother a dark chocolate cake, but we're still researching recipes - if anyone has a good one please send it my way. It's baking fever!!

For our Easter dinner, my mother plans to make her amazing Clove and Pineapple covered Ham, along with a Farmer's Pasta, and a tasty salad. I plan to make roasted vegetables, an assortment of sweet potato, zucchini, carrots, garlic and onions. Mmmmm! Have you ever roasted vegetables? If not, you should get on that asap! Dig through your fridge and whip out those veggies before they go bad, slice 'em up (with skins or without - your choice), toss 'em in some olive oil, salt, pepper, chopped garlic and onions (and some garlic powder too if you want) and spread it all out on a baking sheet/cookie sheet covered in parchment paper (or foil) and slide it into a 450 degree oven for up to 30 minutes, or whenever golden and crispy. Oh-my-gosh. Heaven. Sweet, salty, crispy, juicy heaven. Roasted Sweet Potato with onions and garlic is my favorite! Oh, and Cauliflower too!

Anyway, I'm getting carried away... Oh yes, the desserts, well... As I mentioned before, my boyfriend and I are on a big baking kick, we've been making all sorts of sinful sweets lately - and before that it was pizza!! Now, if only he and I can figure out how to stop eating all of this food we've been making/successfully experimenting with. I'm blowing up fast, haha. After this weekend it's time to buckle down, major diet overhaul and back to Soy Protein shakes, and more exercise. By the way, we've been walking four miles every other day, as mentioned here, but we're shooting for every day.

So that's that. Easter is almost here and I think this year I'll go all out for my younger sister. Tomorrow I want to stop at the dollar store and pick up a few Easter staples, such as plastic eggs, jelly beans, faux grass/shredded paper, a basket or two, and whatever other goodies I find. In addition to making her a basket, I plan to decorate our Easter appetizer and dinner tables, you know - get my tablescape on. Tablescape may not be an official word, but it's one of my favorite words. Tablescapes allow for so much creativity, so I can't wait to get to it. One of the things I've seen a lot of are these decorative holiday trees with Easter eggs hanging all over them. I've dubbed them Easter Egg Trees, but they're actually just tree branches cleverly positioned in vases with artistic hand-painted or colored eggs handing from them. I already have some nice dried branches from past floral arrangements that I plan to use, I hung golden bells on them at Christmas time (forgot to blog that, grrr). So, I rounded up all of the gorgeous clever images that struck me as I soaked up the Easter inspiration on Pinterest, and here they are....

Get inspired and get creative! Armed with a dozen eggs, food coloring, acrylic paint, crayons, markers and other things from around the house such as figurines (rabbits, birds, mushrooms, owls, flowers, etc.), pretty ceramic bowls and plates, vases, candle holders, wire bird cages, etc. Go out to your yard with a knife or pair of scissors and find yourself some sturdy branches. You can also make your self an arrangement, it could be a huge palm frond with a big chunk of vivid Bougainvillea, or some Ferns with whatever flowers happen to grow in your patch of earth. If you don't have any flowers, pick up some Tulips or Lillies for a couple bucks at the grocery store and place them in a pretty vase, or whatever container you have on hand. Don't have a tablecloth? Use a pretty flowered sheet, a scarf or layered tea towels as a runner, or a piece of scrap fabric to create one. Use cake stands and unique platters to display your food and desserts, oh darn, so many ideas... As you can probably tell, I'm all wound up and ready for go! So stay tuned to see what I whip up. Enjoy these awesome ideas...

Catherine

xoxo

Other Easter posts you may like:

Kraslice: Czech Easter Eggs

Easter Decorating Ideas

Easter Egg Designs

Easter Decor

Easter Desserts and Candy

Bakerella

Cake Pops from Bakerella

Easter Basket Cupcakes from Bakerella

Martha Stewart's Spring Treats Recipes