Happy Easter!

Take a look at some ideas to entertain the children and make your home look fabulous this Easter... We’re all looking forward to the Easter weekend and school holidays! However your Easter celebrations are planned, weather-permitting, hopefully there can be some sunny outings as well as Easter lunch, an egg-hunt and perhaps a little bit of time for creative home-making. Linda Parker has some great ideas... Easter Egg Hunts Of course, it’s easy-peasy to set up an Easter egg hunt in your own garden (or indoors if it’s cold and wet!) but if you fancy a bit more of a full-on even, take a look at the National Trust Easter Egg Hunts  find your nearest one here, they run up to the 28 ^th April.  If you’re creating your own, try to get some breakfast organised first, if you want to at least try and attempt to stave off the inevitable sugar rush from morning chocolate consumption! This pretty Harvesting Basket in Buttermilk from Annabel James is perfect for egg-hunters – and it will look fabulous on the kitchen work surface  too afterwards. The Icing on the Biscuit! Ok, hands up, I totally admit that my biscuit-icing skills are next to non-existent! So it’s lucky that the Biscuiteers can supply beautiful, jewel-like iced biscuits which are perfect for Easter presents and celebrations – and they are a thoughtful alternative to chocolate eggs! On the other hand, getting creative with the children and making your own Easter biscuits could be a fun pre-Easter activity. A nice and easy child-friendly recipe for Jamie Oliver’s Lemon Butter Biscuits could do the job, perhaps just with a little dab of white icing and some lemon zest. Happy Easter If you’re likely to have friends and relatives call in through the Easter period (not just to inspect your new Anwyl home!) it’s nice to have some treats on hand to offer … Waitrose is my go-to destination for celebratory cakes, try the Easter Spiced Panettone  and the delicious Easter Colomba Cake, in the shape of a white dove. Maybe phone ahead to check availability and ordering details. Lunchtime Dramas! The idea of adding a dramatic centrepiece hanging arrangement is rather tempting, although perhaps caution may be required if you’re considering putting hooks into a newly finished and painted ceiling! This delightful forsythia and greenery focal point arrangement may be a bit adventurous – so perhaps it’s more sensible to stick to posies of seasonal flowers, decorative painted eggs and colourful seasonal accessories. All of which are available from Dobbies, follow the link to find out about Easter workshops and even Easter Bunny breakfast dates … Holiday Party If the weather is nice, the holiday could potentially accommodate a little bit of a party! Decorations can be easily rustled up, tableware and accessories are all available from Dunelm, even including Easter Bunny cushions. Choose yellow, pink, blue and gold accessories for a pretty Easter look … and keep an out for the Bunny bowls, salt and pepper shakers and egg cups.       Creative Easter Ideas We can’t resist these cushions, left and right, from the Voyage Maison Collection, available from Bridgman and available by mail order, with other floral, spring-like designs available too. So you don’t have to go trekking out to the shops to get some seasonal influences in your home. And centre, we’d like to introduce you to the Carrot napkins available from Ginger Ray, simple enough to make and get the kids involved – perhaps string them around the house as little garlands! Hoppy Easter!   Bearing Gifts It seems that Easter is fast catching up with Christmas as far as decorative and seasonal ideas go, we love these pretty decs by Gisela Graham, click on the link to find your nearest stockist, there are hundreds throughout the UK. These are just a selection, but rather inspiring we think, beautiful enough to give as Easter keep-sakes, and personally, I’m thinking of getting the glue gun out and re-vamping some of my old Xmas decs as well!   Yummy Bunnies As if anyone needed another excuse to have a look at what’s going on at Easter at the National Trust, here’s another reason … you can purchase chocolates and goodies too! Such as Hot Cross Bun Fudge, which quite frankly, I would probably walk across hot coals for!! Shop here.