I hope those of you who celebrate Easter, had a nice weekend. Well, actually I hope all of you did!
We had a very good time with our pal Andrea and her friend Heather, who was visiting from Montreal. They came over for dinner on Saturday.
We don’t celebrate the religious aspect of Easter (Aside: growing up in a Catholic home, I have a vivid memory of being a kid and trying to explain to my neighbourhood friend Sandy, what Easter was really about. I recall much doubt on her part about a man rising from the dead. I felt so frustrated that she didn’t believe that it had really happened. Yeah, right … preach Little Lou.)
Rather we view this holiday as a celebration of the arrival of spring.
Here’s a little look around our place. Note, I’m not one to miss out on a chance to decorate! …
In the kitchen I hung the garland I made last year (shown in this post).
On the table is a new-to-me small vintage tablecloth.
I got this at an estate sale I helped organize last summer. My main role in regards to the sale, was spotting and pricing any vintage collectibles amoungst the huge number of things to be sorted. I fell for this cloth immediately upon finding it tucked away in the linen closet. But of course, my job was to ready things for sale, so I put it out with a display of seasonal items I’d set up in a corner. During the sale, I even showed it to a few people. Nobody was interested and it was still there at the end of the sale. So, with permission from the owner, who really just wanted everything gone, I got it, along with a bunch of other great items. (He offered the things to me at no charge, since it was all heading to the thrift store after the sale anyway, but I insisted on paying something. All in all, I got a great deal on some lovely items.
This green bird was something I picked up at the end-of-season sale at a shop called Urban Barn on Queen Street West last August, after seeing one at the home of our friends Kim and Chris. I got it, along with a hedgehog, to use outside on the deck but brought it in for the winter for safe keeping.
In that vase, and the green one on the table, are branches from our forsythia bush. It’s much too early for this to bloom outside, but I read that you can force this plant to flower inside, and I’ve been wanting to try doing that for years, but kept forgetting to cut some branches and bring them inside. This year I remembered but not earlier enough to have flowers for Easter. I cut it on Friday, but the flowers didn’t open until this morning (Tuesday), which is, of course, long after our company has come and gone. So, while they were here it looked like I’d just stuck some branches in a vase. It looks very pretty now, though!
Speaking of bare branches being stuck into vases, these ones are on permanent display above the china cabinet in the dining room area. For the holiday, they were adorned with the ornaments I made last year (also found here in this post).
While we’re in the dining area, here’s the table, set up for dinner.
Selected from my collection of vintage Corelle plates, these “Spring Blossom” ones were suitable for the occasion …
Here’s the living room area …
We use regular bedroom pillows on the sofa and chair, that I change up easily with pillow-cases or shams. In this case, polka-dots seemed like a good choice for Easter.
One time when my mother was visiting, I found Daisy the Lamb propped up on the bed after she left …
I got this candy dish at Michael’s last week. I couldn’t resist its vintage look and 50% sale tag, and brought it home for $3.50.
These rolly-poly chicks are toys meant for cats. And I did in fact buy them for Eddie, however, decided they were a bit too cute to be destroyed by him.
I’m not big on fake flowers, but do quite like this bouquet of vintage plastic ones my sister gave me at Christmas. According to the fantastic original packaging, they’re actually a ring to go around a candle, which seems dangerous to me, so that might be why they’re still around, in great shape, because people were afraid to use them. The package holds three rings, each in a different colour combo, so I’ll be able to change this display up easily.
Here’s a thrifted porcelain rabbit (bought during this shopping trip), along with the crowned squirrel that my friend Julie gave me. I set them up with a festive golden egg.
Wow, looking at these pictures after the fact, you could just as soon call this post, “Using Thrifted Items in you Home”. there are so many things shown here that I got at the thrift store!
Now, onto the dinner party …
Regular readers might know that Andrea is a very skilled baker. She brought this beautiful (and delicious) cake. It’s lemon and blueberries on the inside, with a lemon cream cheese icing.
Heather brought a nice bottle of wine from Canada’s Niagara Region … Trius Gamay Noir. (Yes, this is a picture of the empty bottle, which was taken this morning. We didn’t drink this on Saturday. Nick and I enjoyed it with our dinner last night. Very tasty, indeed.)
The evening began with a fun chat in the living room, accompanied by a pitcher of Nick’s Sinners’ Tea …
Eddie is never one to miss a get-together …
Dinner included an appetizer of this salad, made with sauteed mushrooms, goat’s cheese and toasted pine nuts.
Serving dessert …
It was so good.
Then the camera was put away for the night!
More drinks were served, and we played a game (did an activity?) with the x-box and Youtube, that we often do when friends come over. This is how it goes : In turn, each player is given the controller and picks a music video. Then we all watch it. Preference is given to live performances. It’s a lot of fun, with plenty of singing along, and new band introductions. We played until after 2.
The evening was a good time and it was certainly a delight to make a new friend.
The next day, Easter Sunday, was rather low key. We ate left-overs, played x-box (we’re both playing Fallout 4 at the moment, and loving it!).
Small gifts were exchanged …
Nick got me some Lush bath stuff. I can’t get enough of it …
There were a couple of bombs, both that I haven’t tried before — Dragon’s Egg and Pink. And a choice available only around Easter time — the Bubble Bar Carrots. I especially love the scent of the Dragon’s Egg.
Since I knew we’d be getting a generous dessert from Andrea, with most of what remained after dinner staying with us, I thought we’d have enough treats for the weekend, so I gave him an IOU for a batch of homemade cookies.
And since you haven’t already seen enough pictures in this post (haha), here are a few of Eddie …
What’s he looking at, you ask?
Apparently Eddie is a fan of Lush too!
Thanks very much for checking out what we got up to. I hope you’re having a good week.
xo loulou
