HAPPY EASTER!

This is me and two of my 5 sisters, all decked out for Easter....like a hundred years ago!  I'm the one with the funky purse, stringy hair and knobby knees!  But hey...I'm all about accessorizing!

 Put on your Easter bonnet (with all the frills upon it) and enjoy your day!

EASTER SIGN REPAIR

Nothing like a last minute Easter project, right?  But this is more about a sign repair really.
I picked up this little block sign a couple of years ago at Marshall's when I was visiting my friend Judy in Arizona.  However, it didn't look like this......

It was on the clearance shelf and it was broken, sad, $2.00 and it looked more like this....

 It was obviously missing something on the top.  The sales clerk said she thought it was an egg at one time, but it had broken off where it was glued down inside.  You can see it here...

I had a plan, that did not include Easter for this sign, but I never got around to it.  This year, when I pulled it out of my box of Easter decor, I had an even better idea for it, that did involve Easter.  First things first....I drilled out the little peg that had broken off in the top, as well as drilled 4 little holes in the front corners.

I found a wooden egg at Hobby Lobby.  I spray painted it with just some primer.

 I drilled the little hole in the bottom out so that a mini dowel rod would fit into it.

To add just a touch of pretty to the front of my sign, I hot glued some buttons on to the ends of some little pegs that I made out of another mini dowel rod.  

I thought they were a little too plain, so I stuck a little pink gem in the center.  Much better. 

Almost done now....I trimmed some washi tape and applied it to the egg.  Then twisted the long dowel rod onto the base and pushed it into the new hole in the top of the sign.  I stuck the little buttons into the four holes in the corners and this little Easter sign was up on my shelf, with a cute little cast iron bunny sitting on top, just in time for the holiday.....barely.   But, there's another reason for this last minute project.  Oh yes!  Come back next week and you'll see this cute sign with an entirely different look, one I like even better than this....

    Happy Easter everyone!      

 

FAUX CABBAGE FROM COFFEE FILTERS

I made a head of cabbage for my Easter bunny out of coffee filters and you won't believe how this project came about.

 Tina at What We Keep posted a picture of a floral arrangement that had faux cabbage leaves in it that was so gorgeous, that I couldn't stop looking at it.  Click HERE and take a look at it.....I'll wait for you.
Wasn't that a beautiful arrangement and weren't those cabbage leaves cool?  If you read that post, she told you that she made them herself....by accident.  I was so fascinated by those, that I made that picture be my screensaver and looked at it all day.  Then I contacted Tina and told her I wanted to try it or something similar and asked her permission to link to her if I did.  She is so nice, of course she said "yes".  
So I set to work...... 

 I gathered some acrylic paint, a styrofoam ball, and a stack of coffee filters.  I ended up only using 2 of the colors shown.  I mixed up a little bit of the Apple Green acrylic paint with a lot of water and set the whole stack of filters in the bowl to let them soak up the color.  This happens VERY fast.

Then I mixed up some Foliage Green acrylic paint and water and flipped the filters over so just the tops were dark green.

They still absorbed the color very quickly, but you can see the effect above.
Then I spread them all out on a table and let them dry overnight.  Patience is always the hardest part of any project for me!  When they were dry, I stacked them back up and I painted the edges with a little more of the dark green, just to give them some definition.

 Using straight pins, I pinned them on to the styrofoam ball in layers, just kind of crumpling them around as I went.  I didn't get any pictures of this, because it's a two-handed job and went so fast it wasn't funny.  I kind of folded down the edges on some of the leaves in hopes of making them look more realistic, something I noticed on Tina's picture.  What do you think?

Not as cool as Tina's project, but fun in a different way.  A note about Tina and her blog.....
Did you ever notice that button on the right side of my blog that says "Proud Member of the Nothing Will Happen Club"??  Well that's how I first met Tina...by stumbling on to THIS page about the Nothing Will Happen Club.  I applied what I read there to myself, when I was stressing about blogging...you know...you've probably been there.  It changed my attitude and my blog quite honestly.  So go read about it and ask Tina if you can join...she'll let ya...then you can have a button too, and maybe even eliminate a little self-imposed stress in your life as well!
I hope you enjoyed this project and this post.  If you didn't..well...

"Nothing Will Happen"!!! 

Thanks Tina....You are Awesome!

Linking up to any or all of the fine parties listed at the bottom of this page as well as HERE and....... 
  

EGG VASE and ENVY

I have zero animals here at Silo Hill Farm.  We're more of an ag farm, pumpkins, hay and corn.  But....I want some animals.  I have two blog friends, Maureen at It's All Connected and Marci at Stone Cottage Adventures, who have chickens.   I made this project with them in mind.  It would have been fun to make it with real eggs, from my own chickens.  (A girl can dream can't she?)

Every time either one of them write a post about their chickens...I'm all ears eyes and I read those posts several times.  They let me know that although chickens are fun and cute...they are also messy and a lot of work...rain, snow or shine! 
If you want to read about one of Maureen's chicken adventures, check out How Did A Chicken Get In My Bathtub?.  If you want to know some of the cutest chicken names ever and see a great recipe for deviled eggs, Check out Marci's post Got Eggs?.   I'm sure that neither of them realize how much I love their chicken posts, nor that each one just contributes to my ever growing affliction of Chicken Envy.  This Missouri farm girl from the Greater Chicago Area wants some chickens......but first....I need a chicken coop...because we have coyotes. *sigh*  If you have some plans for an awesome chicken coop that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, please let me know.
In the meantime, I'll just look at my little egg vase, with the faux eggs (but real straw!) and keep reading Maureen and Marci's posts and dream.

Linking up to any or all of the fine parties listed at the bottom of this page as well as HERE and .......

EASTER EGG HOLDER

Here is a fun Easter project that cost me a whole 50 cents.

 I was at a tea room that also had some antique booths in it and you could kind of browse around while you were waiting for your lunch.  They had a table in the very back that was just piled with stuff that had no price tags on it and mostly looked like trash.  The owner said one of her booth owners had a relative who had moved into a nursing home and this was all just some leftover stuff that she brought in.  It was all going away in a couple of days and I could just make an offer on anything I wanted.  I found a few items, including this little brass rabbit egg holder and paid her a quarter for it.

I cleaned it up and gave it a shot of silver spray paint.  Then I spray painted the top of an outdoor porchlight that I picked up at our Habitat for Humanity, last year also for a quarter.  I love those old porch lights, they have a million parts and pieces and if you look at them long enough, you can see a lot of projects in one little light.

 Then I just put them both together, stuck some faux flowers in that cute rabbits paws, put a beautiful beaded egg on top and snapped a few pictures for you.

 He's kind of shiny, and hard to get a good picture of, but then so are 2 quarters.

 Enjoy your day and keep your eye out for some of those old porch lights!

Linking up to any or all of the fine parties listed HERE, and at the bottom of this page.

EASTER PEDESTAL INSPIRED BY "THRIFT MY HOUSE"

I made this Easter pedestal project last week.....

 When Sherry from Thrift My House did a guest post for us at the Inspiration Cafe on DIY Cake Plates and Pedestals, I was just in awe.  It was such a great post!  (I must not have been the only one who loved it, because that post has had over 3,000 pageviews at the Inspiration Cafe!)  Check out some of the projects she did a for us in that tutorial......

Stunning, right?  She is so talented and really, if you're not following her at Thrift My House, you are missing some great stuff!  The pedestal that caught my eye was that blue one, right in the middle.  Not because it's blue, but because I had a vase shaped just like it...and a rogue candlestick as well.  After following Sherry's easy tutorial, I gathered my newly made pedestal and a few supplies.....

.....a bag of moss, and some river stones.  I began to layer the rocks in the pedestal and tuck in some pieces of the moss that I had cut and decided to add a few little pieces of some faux floral buds for a splash of color.

I made sure I had a little level spot near the top to put  a rabbit figurine on......

.....and added a floral bow to the bottom for some spring color.....

Easy as can be and a fun addition to my own DIY Easter decor, which is rapidly growing.

So...hop on over to the Inspiration Cafe and see the post on DIY Cake Plates and Pedestals, and then head over to Thrift My House and follow Sherry so you don't miss any of her awesome and inspiring projects.  Thank you Sherry....you rock!!!
Oh...and if any of you think you might like to guest post for us at the Inspiration Cafe...let me know, we'd love to have you and who knows?....maybe your post will get 3,000+ page views!

Linking up to any or all of the fine parties listed at the bottom of this page and HERE, as well as....

INSPIRATION SERIES - EASTER CLOCHE

Easter's on it's way to the Inspiration Cafe and it's my turn to share! I've got an awesome tutorial for making a seasonal cloche that you can tweak using whatever little decor items you have in your own craft stash.

So put your Easter bonnet on and head on over to the Inspiration Cafe where we're always serving up something wonderful!  Just click on the door and we'll take you there!

 If you would like to guest post at the Inspiration Cafe, we'd love for you to let one of us know, or go HERE to our submissions page.
If you've never written a guest post before, that's OK, we're happy to teach you how with this easy step-by-step tutorial HERE.  It's easier than you might think and a great way to get exposure for your blog! 

EASTER CANDY - EASY and AWESOME

I'm not really done with St. Patrick's Day projects, but I made some really cute Easter candy last weekend and I wanted to share it with you today.
Are these not the cutest little things?  (They're just a little bigger than a quarter.)

I found these adorable miniature chocolate bunnies at The Dollar General for $1. 

You can find them wherever Russell Stover Candies are sold.  The package is about the size of a package of m&m's, so you can imagine how tiny these chocolate bunnies are with 60 in a pack.  Perfect size for just about anything.  
Remember at Valentines when I posted about the Valentine Cherry Fudge with only two ingredients?  Just store-bought frosting and white chocolate chips!

Well, I had one good blog friend tell me she made that and followed the recipe and it was very good, but turned out softer than mine.  I'm particularly fond of that girl and it drove me crazy trying to figure that out because it turned out so perfectly for me.  So, I was determined to play with the recipe and see if I could figure out what may have gone wrong.
I played around with flavors, because you can make this with any flavor that canned frosting comes in.  I tried lemon, using inexpensive store brand Creamy Lemon frosting and white chocolate chips.   Turned out perfectly, not to mention so creamy and the lemon flavor was really good.

Then I tried Chocolate...using the Whipped Chocolate Frosting and  chocolate almond bark instead of chips.  Turned out perfectly and I have to say, that this was definitely the most fudge-like of all of the combinations.  For both the lemon and the chocolate, I used a little silicone ice cube tray from the dollar store for a mold.

 Next up....buttercream.  This is where I decided to go all Easter, because I remembered the buttercream eggs of my childhood.  I used the Whipped Buttercream frosting from Betty Crocker for these......

They turned out perfect and the cuteness overload of kissing bunnies is fabulous, but I will say that I found the buttercream flavor to be almost too rich by itself.  I decided to see if I could layer the buttercream and chocolate to tone it down a little......

  I used the plastic molds that the chocolate almond bark came in to make these little buttercream topped chocolate bars. I cut one in half so you could see the inside and how it kind of layered itself.  The chocolate definitely toned down the richness of the buttercream, not to mention made them look like little frosted cake bites.  
I just used some little foil mini cupcake papers to make some of them look like little cupcakes. 

So....to wrap up this rather long post on making some awesome Easter candy...
Just melt a bag of chips (white or chocolate) in the microwave and stir in a can of store-bought frosting (whatever flavor you like).  Spoon it into the mold of your choice.  I have used ice cube molds, the plastic molds almond bark comes in, tin foil mini cupcake papers and I've even used cookie cutters laid out on wax paper. (You can see an example of that HERE.) The recipe is very forgiving...if it starts to get hard, you can just stick it back in the microwave for 10 seconds and it's soft again.  Then, put them in the fridge for an hour.  Take them out, run a knife around the edges and unmold.  So awesome and so easy!

Once again, I would like to give credit to The Lady With the Red Rocker blog, where I first found this recipe.  She made strawberry.  Now I want to try strawberry and chocolate next!  

  Linking Up to any or all of the fine parties listed at the bottom of this page as well as HERE and......