Basket Case 2023

Yeah, I decided to somewhat acknowledge Easter this year.  I did it a little different than in past years though.  Typically for short lived holidays I like to decorate the dining room, taking everything down from the walls and removing all the knick knacks.  This is a bit of a bitch to do for a holiday that can't get it's shit together and pick a day.  So this year after I took down the winter snowman display (and you better believe it stayed up til March 20) in the living room the green display rack was bare.  Typically it would have been time to finally dig out the regular decor since the holidays are over until glorious Halloween arrives back.  Then I thought ehhh... why not Easter?

It does hold a bit of a thrill to try out decorating in a different spot so here it is:

 

I think it turned out super cute since all of my Easter decor is not the common bright ass pastel puke stuff you see at Hobby Lobby.

But speaking of Hobby Lobby I did get that pastel plaid deco mesh there....

Pineapple Flower Baskets

Here is a simple and mostly diet friendly Easter dessert found in Life Magazine May 1956.

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It's an "easy-do dessert" that originally called for cut up marshmallows and pineapple, tinted coconut and jelly beans.  I went with fat free, sugar free vanilla pudding, sugar free cool whip, and no-sugar-added pineapple slices...and coconut and jelly beans (no diet option there!).

It's a nice break from all the baskets of heavy sugary calorie laden chocolate bunnies...but not from Reese's peanut butter eggs. 

 Never need a break from those!

 

Easter Decor 2022

I had never been a fan of Easter because it always seemed to be the adverse of Halloween.  Easter's  pastel sweetness made me want to barf.   I am more into all shades of black and bleak.  Easter's embrace of newness and fresh beginnings makes me uncomfortable, like being in a sterile padded cell.  I love the feeling of ancient and old.  Easter is an extrovert while I am a Halloween introvert.

But then a few years ago I started to look at Easter in a dusty, dim light and realized that decrepit old Easter stuff is very Halloween-esque and I have been slowly loving this season as well. 

This year I did a small bit of decorating in the dining room.

I also did a centerpiece for the table:

 This photo makes it appear as a display since the table cloth is kind of a back drop.  I was having back lighting issues when I took the photo so I had to take it in a wonky kind of way.

Whew!  Finally!  The holidays are officially over!  It starts with Halloween and ends with Easterween!

Spider Bunny Easterween

Have you guys seen the ridiculous trend these last few years where Halloween is being pastel puked upon?  There are pink Jack o Lanterns, lavender bats, and peach ghosts...It's hideous. Do not Easter my Halloween!   But two can play these games... I'll Halloween my Easter!

Sure, chicks pop out of eggs...but so do spiders!

For our Front Porch Spider I made him some bunny ears and a pom pom tail.

 Along with a basket of spider eggs, hatching just in time for Spring!

April Coconut Cake of the month

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For April's Coconut Cake of the month it's this "Quick Like A Bunny" design for Easter.

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I just so happened to have already made this cake back in 2017.

Making this month's entry quick for me!

 

New Easter stuffs

 Here are some "new" Easter items that I picked up this past year.

The first two are candy containers I found at an estate sale:

I paid a dollar for each of them.  

The last bit are these two plastic egg garlands I picked up at a thrift store for 1.99:

Easter isn't my jam typically.  But over the past couple of years I have been getting into it if the items are vintage and decrepit, creepy.

That bunny candy container at the top here definitely qualifies!

Fuzzy Bunny and the bunch

I bought this neat vintage Easter product promo postcard off of ebay.

I love the look of the candy gift sets shaped like bunnies.

I think they could be DiYed.

The tray of chocolate eggs is so neat.  i love the chicken graphics, the color of the foil, and the grass liner.  Why isn't stuff neat anymore?!

 Order form on the back, taunting me!

Frito Kid April Easter Party

The Frito Kid Party Ideas for Kiddies 1954 offering for April is an Easter Party.  Thankfully he got the word that Easter was going down in April this year.

The Frito-rific spread:

For the strawberry milk punch I dyed the milk pink and dolloped in mini scoops of strawberry ice cream then garnished with Frito studded strawberries.

The pink and yellow bunny cookies are sugar cookies with pink icing and golden yellow crushed Fritos on top. 

 To finish it out are eggfuls of Fritos!

Fiddle Faddle Lambie Cake

For Easter this year I made this scrumptious Fiddle Faddle/ Crunch n' Munch/ Cracker Jack encrusted lamb cake.  It's innards are just prefab cake mix and tub icing.

Ever since seeing Rob and Monica's adorable Lamb cake last year and then finding out about a lamb cake contest (of which monica was one of the top winner's last year!) I had to put it on my future 'To-Do' for this season.  I already had a lamb cake mold of which I picked up from a thrift (bought it because of Charles Phoenix's Easter Meatloaf of lamb recipe idea).  I had not meatloafed it just yet since we aren't big fans of the dish but I just loved the idea.  We also usually do coconut rabbit cakes as our Easter tradition so lambie cake pan has been collecting dust until this year.

Luckily I tend to plan stuff a couple of months in advance.
This cake was the last thing I was able to mull over and buy it's components right before the coronapocalypse.  I thought the caramel corn would have a neat look as the fur.  I used the dredges of broken bits from the bottom of the bag for low profile facial covering.  The facial features are left over black icing I had on hand already.

This cake was super yummy and I recommend that a layer of crunchy caramel corn to be incorporated into all cakes.  It should become the new side component to cake replacing that bland mushy ice cream yesterday's news!

Speaking of yesterday's news, here are a few past Eastery confectionery posts to hop to:
Easter Bunny Banquet
Quick Like a Bunny Cake
A Peepin' Easter Treat Tree
Easter Droppings
Delicious Glamour Egg Cake

Easter Decor 2020

This year I found a way to do Easter adornments using my own slightly gothy and deteriorated decorating style!

I already owned pretty much everything seen.  I collect old stuffed animals and a few years ago realized most of them were rabbits, which meant they could do a grand easter showing. 

I picked up the easter baskets over the last few years just so we each had something for Mr. Cottontail to place a few treats in.  I am using them as display for now until Easter Eve.

Some of my new vintage Easter purchases this year.

Sweet little honeycomb hunny bunnies!

I am nuts about those vintage Meyercord water decals depicting lively stuffed animals (check out PB's nursery)!

I printed out a few that featured bunnies and a chick (Easter appropriate) on a large format printer at our local library several months ago to use as wall decor. 

I placed the 'new' napkins inside little woven wicker basket purses along with some plastic grass and eggs.  The runner table covering thingie underneath is a piece of remnant wall paper found at an estate sale.

I love spun satin ball critters!  These little guys are all from estate sales over the last 2 years.  I got the plastic flowers from a church rummage sale,  the basket and clear Easter grass are from a thrift store.

I threw everything together and am calling it the centerpiece! 

The area on top of the china cabinet is always hard to photograph due to being back-lit but I was able to snap this pic during a moment of overcast.
These most adorable bunnies are over 2 1/2 feet tall and in pristine condition.  I found them at estate sales several years back.

So there you have it!  My first full fledged Easter decorating.  I was able to find a way to come to a compromise with this pastely pukey holiday and do it mmmmyyyy waaay!

Bitten off all your chocolate bunny ears and need some additional sweets to enjoy?!
Click on the 'easter' label below left for some past Easterific posts.
And for virtual Easter adornments hop over to my Basket Case Pinterest Board
🐣  🐣  🐣

Easter Egg Kit Garland

I've got a thing for vintage papery stuff, especially if it's packaging.  I think everything I bought for easter this season has all been papery in some way.  I also have a thing for making wreaths and garlands.  I didn't make a wreath for easter this year, although I had full intentions of doing so.
The world got in the way, but I was able to pull a cute garland together.

Vintage Easter egg dye kits are some of my favorite packaging.  I only own two but there are plenty of great examples out in internet land.

I found four designs that I thought looked nice together and printed them out.  I then backed each in pink cardstock that I cut the edges with a pair of scalloped scissors. 

Lastly I attached the prints to some decorative trim I had in my stash.  I also ended each side with some scrap ribbon and rick rack.

You can find these designs along with many more on my Pinterest Easter Egg Kits Board.