Yes, you read that title right.  I’m sharing an Easter post with you today.  “But wait Brie,” you are thinking to yourself.  “Easter has already happened?  Don’t you know that you should now be showing us Mother’s Day ideas or end of the school year gifts?  What kind of a blogger are you?”

Well the answer is that I’m a keeping-it-real-blogger and here’s the truth, I just did not have the time to set up a decorated Easter table weeks ago, take pictures, and then take it all down just to set it up again later.  It’s a good thing I managed to get it up for Easter at all!  But I was really pleased with the way it turned out and hey, Easter is one of those things that comes around every single year so if you like an idea you can always pin it for next year!

In all seriousness this past weekend was an absolutely beautiful holiday and we spent it with our dearest friends and loved every minute of it.  A perfect Easter.

Since we were hosting dinner and had invited several of our friends over, I wanted to make the meal a little more special than normal.  I started by coming up with a color scheme for my table- green, yellow, white, and black.  And then I got to work making some cute little place cards for each person.

Supplies needed: two shades of green scrapbook paper, toothpicks, ribbon, double sided tape, and Styrofoam eggs.  (I found my eggs at the Dollar Tree.)  Here’s the how to:

#1- Cut two strips of paper 2 inches tall and 6 inches long.

#2- Cut each strip into little triangles, varying them in size and width.  This is your grass.

#3- Using some double sided tape make your grass into a circle so it looks like a little crown.

#4- With more tape wrap the second piece of grass around the first.

#5- Tie a ribbon around the grass and bend the edges in random places to give it a more natural grass look.

#6- Using a toothpick and some additional paper make a little pennant.

#7- Stick the end of the toothpick into the top of the Styrofoam egg.

And done!  Cute little place cards!  If you don’t have Styrofoam eggs you could write on plastic eggs with a marker instead.  Then you could also slip a little piece of candy into the plastic egg for each guest as well.  Another fun variation.  Here’s how they looked on the table and how it all came together.

I’m pretty proud of the fact that the only things I had to buy for the table were the eggs and the yellow napkins.  Everything else I already had on hand!   Creating a color coordinated table is probably easier than you think.  I simply went through each room of my house and looked for any items in green, yellow, white, or black.  Separate these items may look random, but when grouped and arranged together they don’t look random at all.  Even items that don’t really say “Easter” work as long as they match.  Shopping your own home can be easy and definitely the most budget friendly way to create a centerpiece.

Hopefully you don’t mind seeing a holiday project after the holiday has passed!  And hopefully you had just as wonderful an Easter as well.

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And now just one more thing… I thought I’d share something kind of fun that happened this week, one of my posts was used in this week’s issue of Woman’s World Magazine!  Remember these dish cloth pillows?  Well now you’ll also find them on page 39 of WWM!  It may be a little tiny piece in a magazine, but I was pretty excited to see my  name in print.  One thing to check off my bucket list!

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A couple of weeks ago reader Mary left me a comment letting me know that she missed my holiday shelf posts and well now Mary, this post is for you!!  I really appreciate when people leave feedback like that because sometimes as a blogger I don’t really know which posts people like over others.  So thank you Mary!

It is true that I have been slacking in the holiday shelf department.  My home has been sadly holiday-decorating-less for the last several months.  For some reason I am just feeling extra busy lately (may have something to do with a crawling 10 month old who is into everything and doesn’t like to nap) and so I set up my shelf to be neutral and haven’t touched it in months.  Here is how it has been looking:

A simple paper banner, some flowers in a milk bottle, lantern, bird, little box…nice and neutral items that blend in with my every day decor.  The best part though were these fun little prints I made for the frames underneath.  Oh Boston, Mass…you have my heart.

I’ve been thinking of creating prints like this for different cities & states and adding them to my Etsy shop.  What do you all think?  Would anybody be interested in something like this?

After reading Mary’s comment I decided that she was right and that I could find 5 minutes in my day to change out this shelf.  And honestly, that is really about all it took.   I made a few quick changes and wham…the shelf is now ready for Easter!  Good thing, since it is only a couple of weeks away.

To make the easy switch I added a new paper banner (the same one I saved from last year), some pink flowers and a new ribbon around the milk bottle, a nest in front of the bird, some ceramic bunnies, a bright bottle in place of the lantern, and some white eggs in the box.

I also changed out the frames, using my Go Blooming Crazy Print in one and then I quickly changed the text in the other to make it say Spring has Sprung.

So there you go, it is possible to decorate your home for a holiday in just a few minutes, I’m living proof!  I’ll try to remember this when Easter is over and my shelf is just waiting for a new look.  No promises though.  :)

And in not really related news, that 10 month old I was talking about?  She’s pretty much the most adorable thing in the world.   I appreciate you sticking with me even though my blogging has slowed down a little.  But when you look at this face can you blame me for wanting to spend more time with her rather than on my computer?!

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