Vintage Ad Wednesday

 I know I've shared this Kroger Eggs commercial from 1955 with ya'll before, but it's just so darn cute.  And with Easter coming I just have to share it again!

 

 

Yes, Easter is coming!   It's time to dye eggs, prepare Jell-O salads, and find those gloves that match last year's Easter hat. 

 

And some of you may be planning to make a delicious looking ham like the one below, for Easter dinner.

 

 

Some of us might try our hands at a special Easter cake.  Don't forget the Vanilla.  I just love the colorfulness of this McCormick ad.
 

 

I've always liked Easter, it's such a happy day.  As a child I enjoyed waking up, running downstairs to see what goodies the Easter Bunny had left in my Easter basket, before dashing back up the stairs to dress up for Church.  My father played the Church organ, so we always went to Chuch.  At the end of the service I was allowed to stand next to the organ and peek through the colored glass of the large stained glass window.  After Church there was always Easter dinner.  Sometimes we had Easter at our house, sometimes we'd go to my Grandparents' house down the alley, sometimes we'd travel to my Grandmother's house in Mohall.  Wherever we went, there was always good food.

 

My childhood church in Epping.

We were taught at an early age that Easter wasn't just about jellybeans and the Easter Bunny.  After each sad Good Friday, the sunshine of Easter always arrived.  That has become a good lesson for life.  The harshness of winter always gives way to Spring and sometimes we struggle through dark times in our lives, but we can plow through these struggles with the assurance that better times are just around the corner. 

 

Until another time, have a hoppy, Spring day and a VERY HAPPY EASTER!

 

 

 

 

 

   

More Cookie Baking!

Last week was such a fun and busy week!  I baked and frosted two batches of cookies.  One batch for a family member's birthday party and one for my nieces and nephew.

 

 

 

 

Easter was a good day, aside from the fact that I was very sick with the sniffles.  Church was nice, with organ music, Easter Lilies and familiar hymns. 

 

 

Whew!  This week I plan on catching up on some reading and housework!

Until another time, have a happy, sugar-coated day!

Easter Egg Cookies Completed!

Whew!  What a busy weekend!  It's amazing how having an enjoyable project can lift one's spirits! 
Saturday morning I got up bright and early, finished my chores, and set to mixing the cookie dough.  While the dough chilled for an hour in the fridge, daughter and I watched an episode of the Walton's.  Then, it was time to cut out and bake the delicious egg shapes.  After they were baked, the cookies were layered into a cake pan, and then put into the fridge to cool completely, before they could be frosted.  If the cookies are not cooled completely, the frosting will not set properly.

By Saturday evening, I had most of the cookies frosted.  I started with the base colors and outlined each shape with "thicker" frosting.  After the outlines were fairly dry, I "flooded" each cookie with a thinner frosting of the same color.  This base coat took about 45 minutes to an hour to harden.  After the base was hardened, I started to add the decorative details.   I used thicker frosting for the details (but not too thick).

Base coat

Saturday night.  By the time I reached this far, my hands were soar from squeezing the little bottles.  I think I need to buy some different bottles.



 

Sunday afternoon, I mixed up a quarter batch of icing and finished decorating the eggs.

Here they are finished. 

I wish I had been a bit more careful with the decorative details, but these eggs were good practice.  They will make their way to daughter's Monday evening choir group!

Dyed Yarn Placemat

Back in July of 2012, darling daughter and I dyed some white Sugar-n-Cream brand yarn.  It was such a fun project and we were very excited about how the cute little balls of pastel colored yarn turned out.

 

 

Since then, the little balls of yarn have been living inside this large, glass, pickle jar just waiting to be used for something....but what?

 

Well, the other day I saw a colorful place mat in a store and it dawned on me...I can make my OWN colorful place mat for spring decorating with our little balls of yarn!

 

So I grabbed my Grandma's old crochet hook and set to work.

 

 

Well, the finished project is pretty crooked on one side (I'm not very good at crochet), but I think the colors are kind of pretty.

If you would like to see the blog post about the yarn dying that we did, click HERE, and

as always, have a happy day!

Embroidered Felt Eggs

A few years ago, I found this great little Easter egg craft on the Making Ends Meet blog.  I've made a few eggs throughout the years and am back at it again this year.  It's a fun little project!  My chicks never turn out as cute as hers do, but that's okay. 

These are the supplies I use to created the eggs.  You can find the "how-to" directions on the Making Ends Meet blog.  They are fairly simple to make.  You will need two whole felt egg cutouts, cut one of the felt eggs across the middle.  You can use a decorative cut or a straight cut (the decorative cuts are "cuter").  Embroider designs such as vines and flowers on the two halves that were cut.  Then attach them to the back (whole) egg by stitching around the outsides.  Sometimes I use a blanket stitch, sometimes just a simple running stitch.  Do not stitch the middle, instead the middle becomes a pocket opening where a little chick will live.

 

 

To make the baby chick, I used yellow flannel (which I'm finding frays a bit too much along the cut edges.  Cotton might actually work better).  I used a circle template to draw the chick's front and back.  I satin stitched eyes and a beak (I might do a felt beak on my next chick), then added some cotton scrap wings.  I put a smaller piece of white felt in between the yellow circles, to give the chick some bulk and used a running stitch to sew the front and back together. 

 

 

So, that's what I've been up to in the evenings lately.  It is nice to work on something that I can give away, not just sit in a drawer for years on end and never be seen!  Plus, they are so nice and cheerful!  I hear this little chick saying, "Spring will soon be here!".

Until next time, have a happy, stitching day!



Dying Easter Eggs and McCormick Food Coloring

For the first time ever we dyed Easter eggs as a daycare group.  This year I have such a great group of kids and they had a blast!

The yellow and green were my favorite colors.  To make the dye we used hot water, vinegar and food coloring.

The bigger kids made two-tone eggs and even three-tone eggs.

Here's a fun, vintage advertisement to McCormick Egg Dye from 1956.

When we cleaned out Grandma Eva's house one of the things I found in her spice cabinet was this pack of vintage Schilling/McCormick food coloring.  I've researched the internet for this particular packaging (with the plastic case) and can only fine one other one like it, and they are selling it for 8$ Wow!  I would be interested to know what year they are from (I'm guessing the 70's). The package is marked 29 cents!  Food coloring now-a-days is almost 5$ a package!

You can faintly see the 29 cents on the top.

Have a Happy Day!

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on It's Way

Easter will soon be here and I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post.
Because we very rarely have people over for holidays, I usually don't decorate for any of them with the exception being Christmas.  But this year we are hosting Easter, therefore, I've been digging out my decorations and what a fun time it is.  I've also been cleaning house, organizing cupboards, and even cleaned out from under the stove (was that ever a chore!)

Today I thought I would share some of my favorite Easter things.

These are blown eggs with paper dots glued onto them like fish scales.  I made my first one ever during my highschool years just for fun.  After I married Shannan, I made a few more.  The best paper to use was from a paper note cube I'd purchased from Staples.  It had many colors as the colors melted into each other and it was swirled or twisted.  I've never been able to find another one like it (not even online) and because I've used up the one I had I can no longer make paper dot eggs.  Sad.
Then I started painting eggs.

You get the idea.  These were fun, but took lots of time.  I didn't make any of these this year.

I found these cute little deviled egg chicks on Pinterest.  I wish I knew whos blog they came from!

And how cute would these utensil carrots be for an Easter kids' table?!!  What a cool idea!

Browsing through my March 1951 Woman's Day I found many Easter related ads, mostly for shortening, and cake mixes.  This first one is for Baker's Coconut.  I appologize for the photos.  My scanner hasn't worked for years.  Until I get a new one these photos will have to do.

My Grandma Eva used to make a coconut bunny cake.  Here is a picture of my little (not so little anymore) brother and his bunny cake.  His birthday sometimes fell right around Easter, so this might've been a birthday cake.

And here's a pretty cake made with pastel toppers (candy maybe?)

And here is a Gingerbread Bunny! 

And finally, here's an ad for Swan's Down Cake Flour.  Beautiful cake!

Ha ha, the last line in the bubble makes me laugh. "A girl's best friend when she bakes for a man".  Being able to put a decent cake on the table must've been a big deal back in '51.  My husband doesn't eat or like cake (I know, crazy right?)  so my cake baking abilities were not as important in 1997 as they would've been back in the 50's.
I do wonder what the difference is between regular white flour and "cake flour".  Maybe cake flour was sweeter?  Will have to do some research.
Until tomorrow, have a Happy Day!