Greetings!
I hope you all had a blessed Easter. Christ is Risen!
OUR EASTER CELEBRATION AT HOME
Instead of a regular meal at home, or going out, Steve and I decided to make an Easter tea together at home. We had a lot of fun with it; I think Steve told me at least three times how much he enjoyed the quiet day at home doing this. Me too!
Here's what I did for planning and what Steve helped with too. I always try to keep things as simple as I can, and I did. In hindsight though, make-ahead quiche, a salad, and iced tea would have been much easier labor-wise.
But this was really FUN.
I put our pretty new dishtowels on our range as we have limited counter space so this works great as they are just the right size. I never let living in a small home deter me from anything; I just find a creative way! My favorite brand of floral dishtowels.
I love my new floral tea pot and I had the other one already. We wanted to make plenty of tea to last the whole day. We already had the wicker tray and tea set and I put a cross on there since it was Easter.
We thought ahead of what we wanted for food and bought the ingredients ahead. I made chocolate chip bars and Steve made chocolate chip raisin muffins.
For the sandwiches I made three fillings:
Salmon with capers
Tuna with chopped pickle
Vegan feta cheese with strawberry jam on top
Steve cut all the crusts off our fave GF sandwich bread, and we saved the crusts. (More on that below; don't toss those!) Once he had the crusts cut off, I cut the bread with my heart-shaped cookie cutter. We loaded everything onto to the tray (similar) and covered it with foil and put it in the fridge until we were ready to eat. (You don't want food poisoning and an emergency room visit on Easter Day. So please use your fridge.) We made our favorite Steep tea in various flavors combined for a new twist. They were wonderfully flavorful.
We ate in our little at-home bistro which I "fluffed up" recently with these and these.
I love our new little tablecloth. It stays on the table well due to the elastic and reminds me of a Monet painting. Steve loves Monet art. But if you like something else, this tablecloth comes in many colors and sizes and patterns.
I wore my new "Garden Party" dress which you can see the pink here a bit. (In other words a floral dress made of knit that is soft and comfy. And stretchy.) In the old days they called them house dresses. Anyway, to keep it fun, instead of calling it a boring-sounding house dress, I call this my "Garden Party" dress and I bought several of them in different colors along with the most comfy floral slipper-shoes I could find, which I love wearing. They even have some arch support in there, but wear like a cozy slipper. They have a nice non-slip bottom too. Perfect to wear to a real live garden party.
Just because you mature/age, doesn't mean you lose your creativity and imagination. At least not in this house, if I have anything to say about it! Everyone has some life limitations at some point in life; being aging or whatever, and I make the best of mine and carry on, making things pretty and orderly to lift our spirits.
It's my art! And sharing it on my blog and website and in my eBooks is how I help and serve others.
It can be your art too, to make your home a pretty place to live. And you can do it on a budget if you need to do that. (Unless you are a multi-millionaire, I think everyone should decorate and organize on a dollarwise budget. It increases your creativity, and gives you nice retirement money to tuck away for your later years. I know that, because I have done that myself with what I saved via my dollarwise decorating.) Here are my best tips for making a cozy pretty home on a budget.
I use these pretty stainless floral tumblers instead of glassware now. It's safer than shattered glass and they clean up really well, and I love the pretty colors. Our floral napkins make me smile. They wash, dry, and iron easily too.
During our tea planning week the weather was nice and we enjoyed our palm trees outside our dining nook window. On Easter Day it rained. And rained. It's the first time it rained on Easter Day in The Valley of the Sun in Arizona in 20 years according to the internet. But for us, that was okay as we watched sappy-style movies from bed in the afternoon, which we love doing because there is nothing icky in those. Just people falling in love, cute towns, beautiful scenery, pretty dresses and hairstyles, and young people having fun. Why not?! We use the Freevee program that came with our TV. Free makes it even better in my dollarwise lifestyle book!
LIFE INSIGHT
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, as the old cliche goes. When life rains, your plants will grow, and you can watch a cozy movie inside. In other words, you might be disappointed you were not able to dine on the patio, but trust me, you will live, and the sun will shine again.
Now for those bread crusts that we saved. Steve diced them up and put them in a cake pan. I drizzled them with olive oil, and garlic powder, and put them in the oven for about 30 minutes, tossing them once. And here's why ...
They make the most wonderful croutons for on top of salad!
OUR LIFESTYLE UPDATE
I had mentioned that Steve and I had made a new "life plan" last August that we were really excited about. But alas, several things transpired rather unexpectedly in our life after we had decided that to make us change our minds and cancel our plans. But that's okay; we are both fine with it, doing well, and we believe one of the most valuable life skills anyone can cultivate is the ability to pivot while keeping a positive attitude the best you can. We have always tried to do that in life, and we intend to keep doing that as long as we live. Is that Pollyanna? Not in our opinion. It just seems wise to do your best, jump over hurdles, and move forward.
"We can let circumstances rule us, or we can take charge and rule our lives from within."
--Earl Nightingale
May you have tea on your table, flowers in your home, and Easter Jesus in your heart.
Love, Kathryn
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