The Easter Tag

Hey guys!

I hope you're all having a great Good Friday so far.

I recently saw The Easter Tag on a few blogs, and thought it would be fun to give it a go, so that is what I'm going to do. 

If you want to know how I typically celebrate Easter, what my plans are this Easter weekend, or what my favourite Easter treat is, keep reading!

1. Do you celebrate Easter?

I do celebrate Easter with my family, but not as a religious holiday. It's more about celebrating the return of spring, appreciating pretty pastel-coloured things, and enjoying a meal with my family. I had to do the whole religious thing when I was growing up- church, learning about the Easter story, Christian-related Easter activities at school etc.- as I was raised catholic and went to a catholic primary school, but it wasn't my thing. Sorry, Dad.

2. What was favourite thing about Easter growing up?

I'm not going to lie, when I was growing up, my favourite thing was receiving a bunch of Easter eggs from my family. I mean, what kid doesn't love receiving chocolate wrapped in brightly-coloured packaging?!

3. What are you plans for Easter this year?

I'll probably spend the morning enjoying the Bunny Day Easter event on Animal Crossing while watching Steel Magnolias (my favourite Easter film), and then hand out Easter eggs to my family. We're planning to enjoy our annual Easter roast together in the afternoon- which is basically like Christmas Dinner- and if the weather's good, we might host it in the garden so my sister and brother-in-law can join us. (Yay for the rule of six)! After that, I'll probably just enjoy an Easter egg, and watch some Easter TV. I'll also make some Easter crackers and table favours today or tomorrow ready for our Easter meal, and spend Easter Monday watching movies and eating chocolate. A pretty typical Easter in our house.

4. Do you colour eggs?

I never have, but I've always wanted to.

5. Do you have Easter traditions?

We always exchange Easter eggs in the morning, and have a big Christmas-style family roast around the table on Easter Sunday afternoon, with a turkey and all the trimmings. I also have to watch Steel Magnolias every year and have done every year since I was little because it's the best Easter film ever!

6. Favourite Easter treat?

When it comes to Easter treats, you can't beat a Cadbury Easter egg or Mini Eggs- as chocolate goes, few things beat them. I'm also loving Terry's Chocolate Orange Mini Eggs, and Cadbury Orange Mousse Bunnies a lot right now. Why is orange milk chocolate so good?!

7. Least favourite Easter treat?

Nestle Easter eggs are always a big disappointment.

8. Do you hunt / hide eggs?

No, I don't think I even went on an Easter egg hunt when I was a child. Easter wasn't a big thing in England when I was growing up; it was mostly family roasts, a store-bought Easter egg, and church, if you were religious. Nobody I knew did Easter egg hunts, or even decorated their homes for Easter. I'd love to throw an Easter egg hunt now, but there aren't any young kids in the family to throw one for.

9. Do you get pictures with the Easter Bunny?

Wait, The Easter Bunny does photo-ops now??

10. What do you typically put in Easter baskets?

I've never put together an Easter basket, but I have been known to send Easter parcels to friends and relatives. I usually just include a selection of mini Easter eggs and bunnies, and wrap them in pastel-coloured tissue paper and ribbons for them to unwrap. Last year, I also included Easter crackers I'd handmade. I love putting Easter parcels together!

And that's The Easter Tag.

I tag... anyone who wants to give this tag a go! If you decide to do The Easter Tag, send me your links; I'd love to read your answers!

What are your plans for the Easter weekend?

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Easter On Lockdown 2020

How was everyone's Easter? Did you do anything to celebrate it this year despite being on lockdown? I hope it was a lovely one.

We decided to try to keep Easter as normal as possible to reclaim a little normality back in our lives, and have something lovely to look forward to amidst the craziness. We totally nailed it, as well! Apart from a couple of minute differences, it wasn't any different to any other Easter we've had. It ended up being a lovely weekend, and it was great to have the distraction from reality.

On Good Friday, I put up Easter decorations in my bedroom so I could feel festive while resting in bed. I never actually managed to take any photos of my room decorated for Easter this year because I was in too much pain to move around, but it looked very similar to last year's efforts, so I've included a photo from last Easter instead. 

I spent the Saturday afternoon making homemade Easter crackers and table favours ready for our family meal on Easter Sunday. As I still had supplies left over from last year and didn't want to put anyone in danger packing and delivering a new online craft order, I just ended up making the same pastel pom pom crackers as last year- with contrasting pastel satin ribbons and pom pom buttons. I filled them with mini chocolate bunnies from Hotel Chocolat, which I snagged online from John Lewis with 30% off before Easter. The solid caramel chocolate bunnies were sooo good. 

For the table favours, I filled pastel-striped cone bags from Hobbycraft with mini Lindt, M&Ms, Smarties, and Cadbury eggs, which was all we could scavenge this Easter. I usually add in more variety and fancier brands, but for obvious reasons, I couldn't be fussy this year, and was grateful I was able to find anything to give at all.

I had a lazy Easter Sunday morning watching Steel Magnolias (my favourite Easter film that I have to watch every Easter without fail) for the millionth time, and enjoying the Easter themed Bunny Day event on Animal Crossing New Horizons. (Who else is playing ACNH? I'm addicted!) It put me in such a chilled mood for the rest of the day.

I then exchanged Easter eggs with my family. I managed to pick some up from Cadbury's Gifts Direct online a few weeks before Easter, which was a relief as our supermarkets ran out as soon as lockdown began, If I'd waited any longer, I would have missed out as they had such high demand they had to keep pausing new orders.

This was my Easter loot. My parents gave me a chocolate orange Easter egg, and the egg tasted just like a chocolate orange. OMG it was amazing! My sister got me a Galaxy egg, and I treated myself to a Cadbury one, because why not?

Around lunch time, I somehow found the courage to brave the Everest that is The Stairs so I could set the table for Easter lunch. I hadn't been downstairs since early February because my arthritis and fibromyalgia have both been so bad this year, and I've been struggling to bare weight on my knees and feet because the arthritis has been so painful. I've barely even strayed from my bed since Boxing Day. I had the worst aching, radiating pain in my leg on Easter Sunday, so getting out of bed and hobbling down the stairs wasn't the easiest or most sensible thing I've done. I was in agony, but I'm stubborn AF, and wanted to enjoy Easter lunch with my family, and make the table look pretty for it, so I powered through, with a little help from my Mum who did most of the leg work to and from the kitchen.

I made our Easter table super colourful using my favourite Easter table linens and pastel crockery. (You know you're getting old when you have favourite tableware, and look forward to using them)! I bought the table linens from John Lewis a couple of years ago, and started collecting the Port Meirion x Sophie Conran Colour Pop china around the same time. I still bloody love them; the colours are such a mood-lifter.

I added in my handmade Easter crackers, and pastel-striped bags of mini Easter eggs to every plate, plus a couple of egg-shaped bowls full of chocolate eggs to the table, which we were munching on as we got ready for lunch. The only thing that was missing was some fresh spring flowers. I think the table looked really cheerful, and the parents seemed to like it, too. Apparently I'm a creature of habit, though; the first photo is this year's table, and the second was what I came up with last year. Well, if it ain't broke...

We sat down for our meal around half two, and had a turkey roast with all the trimmings, Christmas-style. My Mum actually managed to find us a turkey crown from the local butchers (we'd normally get a whole frozen turkey but couldn't get one anywhere), and all the ingredients to make my homemade trifle. We just swapped the usual raspberries and blackberries from a local farm shop for a bag of mixed frozen berries from the supermarket, and it was almost as good as usual. The food was all delicious, and the only real difference to the meal this year was having regular roast potatoes instead of delicious goose fat ones, which was regretable but not the end of the world. My sister and brother-in-law were also missing from the meal- but they weren't going to be able to get the time off work to visit this Easter, anyway, virus or no virus.

The sun was shining and we had the patio doors open while we ate, with The Beatles playing cheerful tunes of days gone by in the background. It was a lovely meal, and just what we needed during these not-so-lovely times.

After lunch, I crawled back up to bed, and continued to play Animal Crossing while watching some TV. I was going to watch another Easter film, but I think I ended up binge-watching The Big Bang Theory again. I read for a while, and had turkey sandwiches and leftover trifle for tea later in the evening. It was a good day.

Easter Monday was spent watching The Sound of Music (another Easter ritual I observe almost every year), and playing more Animal Crossing while munching on some Easter chocolate, and eating more leftover trifle.

It was just the kind of Easter I was hoping for, and even though we were on lockdown, it really wasn't that different than it would normally be. We always celebrate Easter at home and never go anywhere on Easter Sunday or Monday, so I'm pleased lockdown didn't ruin our Easter. It was just a shame my sister and brother-in-law couldn't make it, and that my Dad was unable to go to church over Easter, which is important to him, but considering we were on lockdown during a global pandemic, I think it was a success, and far better than any of us expected it to be.

Hopefully next year we'll all be able to enjoy Easter out of lockdown with out families and friends, and all the little things we usually enjoy but couldn't do this year.

Did you celebrate Easter this year? How did you make the best of it on lockdown?

50 Things I Love About Spring

I love Spring time. There are so many great things about it, from the weather to the fashion, and the pretty flowers to the daylight- and everything in between. There are so many reasons why I love this time of year, and just for fun, I've compiled a list of fifty things I love about Spring to share with you today.

1. The evenings are finally getting lighter and the days are getting longer.

2. It won't be pitch black at 4pm for a good seven months or so! Yay!

3. The weather is finally getting warmer after an eternity of bitter cold.

4. There's beautiful blossom blooming almost everywhere you turn, which has to be one of my favourite things ever.

5. Spring time brings Easter which brings chocolate and that's A-OK with me!

6. Wearing pretty pastel nail polishes.

7. Seeing lambs, calves and other cute baby animals in the countryside.

8. Finally getting some decent daylight for taking blog photos in.

9. Having much more time to take blog photos in daylight, not just a half-hour window.

10. Seeing the green beginning to return to the trees, bushes, and plants after months with nothing but grey, stark. lifeless scenery.

11. When the cheerful yellow daffodils start flowering, and everywhere is suddenly colourful again.

12. Feeling less like hibernating and more eager to go out and about to do stuff because there's more daylight.

13. Saying "goodbye" and "good-riddance" to SAD for a couple of seasons.

14. Sitting by an open window and watching / listening to the April showers.

15. Retiring Autumn / Winter fashion for another year and embracing new season clothes.

16. Ditching jewel colours for pretty pastels and bright coloured clothing. Goodbye burgundy and teal, hello lilac and mint!

17. Watching Steel Magnolias because it is the most perfect Easter / Spring movie ever. Fact!

18. Easter brings Cadbury Easter eggs and for some reason, they taste so much better than ordinary Dairy Milk chocolate bars. Honestly, they do!

19. Looking forward to holidays, day trips, and all the other fun things we want to do over the next few months.

20. The smell of the season's first freshly cut grass.

21. Oxford, The Cotswolds, and my home town all look so pretty during the Spring.

22. Having decent light for hobbies like cross stitching, crafting, drawing, and reading.

23. Freshly washed bedding somehow smells so much better in the Spring.

24. The new season feels like a fresh start; a new chapter in life.

25. The sound of birdsong through open windows.

26. All things mint green, coral, lilac, and lemon.

27. Spending time outside in the garden without freezing to death.

28. Swapping Winter boots for ballet pumps and sandals.

29. Filling the house with fresh daffodils and tulips.

30. How colourful the world suddenly becomes when the Spring flowers, such as daffodils, tulips, primroses, and crocuses, flower at the same time.

31. Taking random drives in the countryside with the windows down and some happy songs up loud, just to enjoy the sunshine.

32. Eating the first ripe summer fruits and berries of the year.

33. Seeing so many magnolia trees in bloom. 

34. Embracing floral prints and motifs.

35. Spending time with the puppy in the garden and watching her smell the Spring flowers, play, chase after bees, and watch the butterflies flutter about, because it's all so new to her.

36. Planting sunflower from seeds and watching them grow.

37. Curling up with a good book while the rain drums against the window.

38. The return of flamingo and fruit-themed fashion and homeware.

39. Exploring new places in the sunshine.

40. Dawdling around cemeteries in the sunshine, because they're so peaceful at this time of year.

41. Breaking out the gingham, one of my favourite prints.

42. Taking walks in the countryside with the sun on my skin.

43. Making daisy chains and feeling like a five year old again.

44. Being able to sit outside at cafés, coffee shops, beer gardens, and in the garden without freezing.

45. Feeling a warm breeze from open windows, instead of a blast of Arctic air.

46. Seeing lawns full of daisies and buttercups, and meadows full of flowers.

47. Spending Easter Sunday with my family, and sitting down for a good meal together.

48. No longer needing a heavy coat to stay warm, just a light jacket or long-sleeved cardigan.

49. Taking trips to the zoo, which are usually filled with adorable new baby animals to coo over.

50. It's finally light in the morning and in the evening! Hurray!

Feel free to write your own list of things you love about Spring.

What do you love most about Spring?