I woke up yesterday morning to see the sun shining so blindingly bright in my kitchen, I had to grab my phone to take a picture of the magnolia blossoms before a cloud rolled by and spoiled the look. It inspired me to set my Easter table and make a blog post. Over the weekend I made a quick little craft that was easy and fun and came out so cute.  My plan was to put the wood bead bunnies into plastic eggs for an Easter egg hunt but I love them so much I decided to use them to decorate my Easter table. My grandson is spending the night tonight and I imagine when he sees them he'll want to play with them right away! The tutorial is at the end of this post. 

The flowers are helleborus and come from one plant that grows in the shade under my sewing room window.

I made the Easter egg tree this week with blown eggs from my neighbor's chickens. They are very prolific at this time of year and every week or so I wake up to find a dozen gorgeous eggs on my front porch. The colors don't show up that well but there are some blues and greens among the browns. She cannot give them to a more appreciative neighbor! I'll make sure she is supplied with flowers and tomatoes this summer. 

I'm also planning a luscious works-in-progress knitting post with some gorgeous yarn and new patterns.

We've been working super hard in the garden and things are really coming together. The weather has been gorgeous too so I'm hoping to have a good gardening post sometime in April.

Wood Bead Bunnies how-to 

It's as easy as it looks. I had all the supplies on hand but they are readily available at craft stores or online.

The heads were hot-glued to the body. I added a dab of white glue to the bead hole and poked the ears into the hole with a skewer. I ended up not using the sharpie for the eyes as it bled into the wood. Instead I used a wood skewer dipped in black acrylic paint and dotted on the eyes and nose. For the pink cheeks I used a Q-Tip dipped in water and a tiny dash of pink watercolor. I opted out of a mouth and instead made whiskers out of embroidery thread tied in a knot and attached them with a tiny dot of white glue. I meant to make a felt collar but remembered I had this awesome leaf ribbon and loved the way it looked.

Don't forget to add the bunny tails!

They turned out pretty darn cute.

I know I've told you that I read a lot, but I don't often share what I'm reading because there are already so many good book reviews available. Still, I have to tell you about Shuggie Bain as it really touched me. It takes place in 1980s Glasgow about a little boy living with his alcoholic mother. You find out early on that Shuggie is different from the other boys, "no right", and everyone, and you too, know what he's about except Shuggie himself. Everyone tries to change him except his mother, which is really the only good thing she does as a mother. When he is finally old enough to begin gathering some self awareness or insight about himself, he has neither the time nor the tools to do so because he has spent all his young life taking care of his mother. She and Shuggie have been abandoned by everyone; husbands, boyfriends and  the older siblings. It's a heartbreaking story but one I could not stop reading. When I was away from the book I would be thinking, how is little Shuggie getting along? and I would run back to it. It's the same reason why I can't stop watching Shameless (it's on its last season and Frank was finally diagnosed with alcohol induced dementia, about time I'd say) and why I couldn't stop watching Breaking Bad. Shuggie Bain is a great read with excellent character development, and if you've read it, I'd love to know what you think. BTW, I get all my books from my local library using the free Libby app for both audiobooks and print books. I read reviews online or in the paper, then go on my app and place a hold. Sometimes it takes months but I don't mind. I just finished We Run The Tides and really did love it because I loved immersing myself in the 1980s Seacliff neighborhood of San Francisco. I've got The Royal Governess to read next after I finish up Infinite Country, which I don't think I love as much as everyone else seems to.  If I run out of recent releases to read, I go back and reread a Jane Austin, an Ivan Doig, or a Willa Cather. 

I'm sharing pictures of MORE marmalade. Because of my success with the kumquat marmalade, last week I made a lime marmalade from the limes from our little lime tree. They are yellow and might look like lemons, but they are limes. If you allow limes to ripen on the tree the skin will turn yellow and they will get juicier and sweeter but the pulp will remain green. The next batch I made was from Meyer Lemons from my neighbor's yard. Both are so good and taste nothing at all like the store bought marmalade, which we don't like at all. Carter loves it and requests marmalade soldiers for snack time--toast with crusts removed, buttered and marmaladed, then cut into fingers. Very British! The recipe I used was the very easy Three Ingredient Marmalade from the It's Not Complicated blog. It uses fruit, sugar and water. You use a candy thermometer to make sure it sets up properly so does not need added pectin. I handed some out to neighbors saying, "Even marmalade haters will love this marmalade". I should make one more batch as I seem to be giving a lot away!

Also, you can see I'm messing around with my Waterlogue app. It's a time waster but is totally fun.