Easter Tree

After putting together our Thankful Tree, and then our Christmas Tree, why not make an Easter Tree, too? So my kids and I decided to brighten up our days and to celebrate spring and Easter by, yes, making an Easter Tree. 

If you would like to know how to make an Easter tree, you can take a look at my tutorial here. It's one I wrote for our Thankful tree and we used the same tutorial for our Easter tree. I had kept the can to store various objects. Since it was already painted, we decided to use it again. We spruced it up a bit by hot gluing loads of foam flowers and butterflies to cover the can. I bought them at Poundland over a year ago and have been desperate to use them...to get rid of them...for a long time! I don't know why I bought them in the first place because I'm not a huge fan of foamy crafts. After decorating the can, gathering sticks, arranging sticks, and stabilising them with gravel from our drive, the kids hung our colorful eggs from the branches. I'm hoping to decorate it a bit more in the days to come....perhaps with these butterflies.

And now we have another burst of color in our house!

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I'm linking up to some of these fabulous parties.

Easter Garden

Easter is one of the most significant holidays and it has been a joy lately to teach my children that it is about more than bunnies, eggs, and chocolate. To help them experience the true reason we celebrate Easter, we made an Easter Garden. I was inspired by this Easter Garden tutorial on A Holy Experience.

Our Initial Supplies: 

Large Plant Pot, Plants, Compost, Small Plant Pot, Stones, Candles, Small Candle Holder

Supplies for Later in the Week:

Wax

Small Piece of Cloth

Butterfly

I took my little girl and boy to the garden centre and let them choose plants for our garden. We also bought a large plant pot and compost. We found all the other supplies in and around our house.

It was such fun to arrange and plant the plants together. I let the kids decide where they wanted everything. We put the small pot on its side and partially filled it with compost. Ann (A Holy Experience) suggested writing the words Grace, Resurrection, or Joy on a stone near the 'tomb' and my kids chose Joy. I'm pretty sure it's because being 3 and 4 years old, they understand what Joy is but are still trying to grasp the concepts of Grace and Resurrection.

We made a path of stones leading to the tomb and our freedom from death. I love this imagery. We filled a small candle holder with water and sunk it into the dirt to be our small pond. We then placed candles around the garden which we will light one each night leading up to Easter. Making this Easter Garden with my children was such a joy and a really special way to inspire conversation about Christ's great sacrifice and resurrection.

In the days to come, we'll do the other things suggested in the tutorial: 1) Planting seeds on Palm Sunday to represent the hope that is coming soon. 2) On Good Friday, make a wax caterpillar and cover it with cloth and place it on the tomb. 3) On Sunday, there will be a butterfly in place of the caterpillar to represent new life.

After making this, I've also realized that I love having live plants in the house. It relaxes me to glance over and see lovely green growth, such a contrast from the grey misery outside the windows. 

If you have a moment, please take a look at the tutorial on A Holy Experience. Ann uses her words in such a magical way and the symbolism of the Easter Garden may become clearer from reading her original tutorial.

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I'm linking up to some of these fabulous parties.

Infinity Scarf Crochet Pattern

I know it's the first day of spring, and probably not the best timing for a cozy, warm infinity scarf pattern, but it's still really cold where I am...and it's always winter somewhere, right? I'm really excited to be listing the pattern for this infinity scarf in my Etsy shop. I named it Tulip Fields Infinity Scarf because of the tulip stitch which is used throughout the pattern. 

On your way over to my shop, you might also want to check out the blogs of these fabulous ladies who helped test the pattern...

Sascha from A la Sascha, who has some gorgeous crochet doll patterns in her own Etsy shop

&

Shannon from Sewing Barefoot who blogs about all kinds of craft & diy loveliness

& 

Kay (my mom & partner in sales) from Jerry and Kay, who writes about her ventures in crafting, sewing, and crochet.

...and thanks to Beth, too, who doesn't have a blog but was a wonderful pattern tester. :-)

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be posting more regularly now that my big deadline for work has almost passed. I've missed my hooks, yarn, and blogging fun over the last weeks!

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I'm linking up to some of these fabulous parties...the ones that allow shops ;-)

Fleece Froggy Hat

I finally did a little sewing after months of having my machine covered up. It was to fulfill a promise I made in the fall to my friend, Jen. I told her I'd make her a fleece frog hat. She loves frogs, and she has to stand out to watch her students at recess regardless of the weather, so of course she needed a fleecy froggy hat!

I searched Google and found this great tutorial at Tracy's Treasury. Somehow, my hat turned out a bit puffier than Tracy's, most likely due to my lack of sewing lately - how quickly my skills weaken. I still think the hat is super cute and the puffiness adds even more character.

I had two more requests for this hat while I was sewing it...from my two little ones, of course! So, I'll get some more practice to sharpen my sewing skills again.