2 Clever Blog

Aftermath

Pink ::

When I see....

half-eaten carrots on my doorstep,




smashed eggs and confetti all over my yard,





basket grass in my vacuum,

it can mean only one thing...
A wonderful Easter was spent with family and friends
celebrating the greatest Gift ever given.

Thanks Pink for the wonderful words and artwork.
I hope everyone had as wonderful a day as I had.

Happy Belated Easter :: Think

Truly The Best Nest

Happy Easter Think::

So how was your day?  Was it crazy busy or crazy wonderful?  Mine was a little bit of both.   I have to tell you how grateful I was to Kristin for sending me the most darling idea (Thanks Kristin) of name plates for Easter Dinner. 

Directions::
To make these, I melted a bag of butterscotch chips in the microwave and then stirred in almost a full bag of chow mein noodles. Stir to coat the noodles and then push a bit of the mixture into a very small greased bowl. Add some robins egg candies, let it harden in the fridge and you have a nest. I then wrote the names out on little pieces of cardstock, added ribbon, and then glued it onto a toothpick. The toothpick then can stick right into the finished nest. Very cute and easy!
                                                                                                                Kristin::

Thanks Kristin You are a Gem for sharing this idea and I thought that this is a darling idea for a baby shower with a nest theme.  Or for a moving gift along with the book The Best Nest.

My little Pinks loved the new tradition and Mr. Pink ate almost all of the nests.  (I had no idea they would be so yummy to eat)

My oldest Pink is growing up.  She wore a beautiful Easter dress with silk covered buttons, ruffled collar and a big tied bow in the back.  I was teary at how grown up she looked.  The dress is amazing and I got it here (only cheaper than listed)  It is a dreamy dress and perfect if you are in the need of something fancy yet classy.  If I had a super flat tummy like her I would have one made for me in my size!

Off to bed to mope that I didn't get White House Easter Egg roll tickets for the morning.  We may be watching Hannah Montana at the theater instead.  Yea me!

Happy Easter::
Pink

We love Ewe!

Dear Think Family::

We love Ewe so much! We hope you have a wonderful Easter Weekend. 
Through all of our crazy crafting and ideas, we take a minute to be grateful for meeting you in Nashville, Tennessee, in a library/cafeteria/gym that held our Church meetings every Sunday.  Where we celebrated the resurrection of our Savior until a new building could be built.  So I hope our chocolate bunnies, carrot dishes, and office supply sheep don't get in the way of remembering the joy of what brought our 2 families together.
We love Ewe!

The Pinks::

So now it is out who the artist is between Think and I.  Oh my poor little one eared lamb.  Yes it is a lamb in case you could not tell!

Happy Easter Weekend Eavesdroppers. 
We love you 2!!!

Fat Free :: Sugar Free Chocolate Bunny Recipe

Think::

So have I told you lately I can't get enough of Sculpey clay.  We have made so many things in the past few weeks that I will show you later. But this was this weeks was the Fat Free Chocolate Bunny.   We used the chocolate color brown color (1657) and one of our Wilton Cookie Cutters.

I used a pink clay for the nose and some crystal stickers after I baked it for 20 minutes. 

I have kind of become obsessed lately with making dough ornaments after doing those Shamrocks.  I made my salt dough and added cocoa to try to make the bunnies - but it just did not quite work.

The pink velvet ribbon is so perfect to hang on his ears.  This is a great necklace to wear.  Add a pin back to pin your favorite Easter Sweater (hee hee) or use them as ornaments on little hooks in your house.  

Am I on posting overload today or what??

Pink::

Bunny Salad

Pink :: I love how easy this one is.

I'm racing around to get all my Easter ideas going today. Can you tell?
This is one we do every year, either at Easter dinner or a few days before.
Little Think loves to help me make them

green leaf lettuce + canned pears + cottage cheese
+ raisins + red hots + sliced almonds =

I soooo wish I could claim the cleverness as being my own but it is out of a cookbook that my husband had as a child. Betty Crocker's New Boys and Girls Cookbook published in 1965. Full of great stuff. I should really do an entire post about it.

Look how cute their platter of bunnies looks on page 57.

They look like mommy bunnies discussing
where they find their carrots on sale or something.

Speaking of carrots, I got my Cartoon Carrots to put outside Easter Eve today . They are huge!!! They are about 24 inches from end to end. I was not sure they would even fit in my fridge but since they were the only ones at the store I got them. Hope the Easter Bunny appreciates them!

Eating the salad bunny's bum as I type :: Think

Clever Carrot Tutorial

The Cartoon Carrots

Think::

Every year we stick a bunch of carrots with the root and greenery on our doorstep on the night before Easter to attract any bunnies in the area.  I only ever see these in the grocery store during Easter time, but I am sure it is because that is the only time I ever look for them. 
My kids go nuts when I buy them, they think are straight out of a cartoon.  I have realized it is because they only ever see carrots in a bag cut and shaved ready to eat.  It makes me feel old to tell them, "When I was a kid we had to cut the green off and shave them ourselves"  Interesting huh.

Anyway put the cartoon carrots on your radar next time you are at the grocery store so you can attract any bunnies that may come your way.

Pink::

The Clever Carrot

Think::

Here is a sew simple sewing project to do with the littles.  We folded a piece of fabric in half (right sides together) and then cut a triangle.  Sewed the raw edge. Stuffed with batting.  Gathered the top.  Sewed shut and tied with green ribbon.  We love getting our carrots out each Easter - the girls love knowing they made them.  We may make some more this year so if I do I will take photos of the process unless this totally makes sense to you.

If you don't have this book this is a great one to read after making the carrots and teaching our children to dream and have faith!

Happy Monday.  Only one more week until Spring Break, can't wait!
Pink::

Eggs-actly This Many Days to Easter

Pink :: You are killing me with your Easter-i-ness

That cake looks yummy and your egg tree is beautiful. I had seen you egg tree before but thank you for the "tutorial" about how to make it. I especially love the subtle egg colors. Totally my style as you know.

I'm finally getting my mind tuned to Spring and Easter. I just ordered these online::

Wooden Nesting Eggs like those Russian Dolls!
Found them at this website for $20.

www.goldencockerel.com

I love those Russian dolls. I still remember the Sesame Street that had that nesting dolls count down on it. Do you remember it? That episode was one of my favorites along with the real kittens crawling around in the dollhouse. ahhhhh...the 70's were great.

Not sure yet how I'm going to finish these yet. Shall I

A :: paint them in a range of beautiful subtle colors

B :: cover them with art papers  (got plenty of those laying around here)

C:: Go crazy and let everyone in the family paint an egg or two however they want

So what do you think? A, B, or C?

What I do know is that I'm going to number them so we can use them as a countdown for the week before Easter. Maybe put some references to Bible verses to read on that day on them too. This set is a set of 7 but they have other doll sets with more in them. You could paint them like bunnies if you have skills. I often thought of painting a set like our family. They would have to be super simplified but wouldn't it be fun to have and let your kids & grandkids play with? Check out the set of 70 nesting doll. Its $7200 dollars! The pressure to paint them beautifully would do me in for sure. wow.

Alright. I'll post more Easter stuff from my house as I get around to unpacking it. Little Think is getting very impatient about it.

Waiting for your vote :: Think

The Best Nest!

 

Dear Think::

Another Easter tradition that the little pinks and I do is to make this cake every year for Easter Sunday.  I have no idea what made me think of it other than I had this bird and wanted to do something with it.

• We make two round cakes, obviously any kind you want. 
• Frost with white icing and add colored coconut.
• To get that lime green color, it is easiest if you buy the food dye in the neon colors.
• I use my favorite Cadbury eggs that come in the purple bag. 
• Use  branches that are green enough to bend

and I bet you will never guess where I got my awesome glass cake plate?  yep Goodwill.  $2.99

hope this gives you enough time to pick up the necessities to make it too!
Pink::

Easter Tree Tradition!

  

Dear Think::

I am starting to dye my eggs for my Easter tree.  The girls and I make this every year.

Here is what we do::

• blow out a slew of eggs.  This is always so fun and we have serious headaches after wards.  We have learned that there is no need to make super tiny holes.  Make it easy on yourself and make them larger than a pin hole.
• I blow the eggs first and then dye them.  It is probably easier to do it the other way first but after years of making this tree it is just my system.  You will want to wash and dry out those eggs really well or you will have one stinky house after a few days. 
• dye the eggs with regular dye kit but use a tea bag for each cup to give them more of a washed, natural feel.  I boil the tea bags with each dye tablet and then put the blown eggs in warm water.
• if possible find branches that have buds on them and fill your vase with water and watch them bloom.  I also think the greener adds to the natural look of the tree.
• The vase I use is a old pitcher and bowl I found at Goodwill in Nashville for $7.00.  I often think I don't have room for it in my house and think I will get rid of it, but then think "What will I put my Easter tree in if I get rid of it!"  You will note on the bottom photo that the handle was cracked and glued.  This did not detour me from buying it and I think adds to character of my container.
•  
• don't use cutesy ribbon. (not that you have any of that in your house)  Go to the yarn section of a craft store and find some really interesting and wonderful fibers.  This is also much cheaper than ribbon and easy because it is so small.  If you can find wool embroidery thread that is wonderful too.  On this egg above I used a wool brown thread and then tied a bow on top to cover my large hole for blowing with the yarn
• 
• tie some yarn in bows and add them to the tree as well as on top to hide the large holes that make blowing them so much easier. One year I even added some funky flower beads to the top and the bottom.
•  We add small bird nests and have even added a few natural looking birds over the years.  
• I fill the bowl up with some ceramic eggs, so that is why those look extra shiny!

Let me know if you make one this year.  These photos are from a few years ago so I will let you know what changes and new things we come up with this year.

Spring is almost here! (at least for us that is)
Pink::