Happy Easter!

Every Easter Sunday growing up we would say a responsive reading at our church that my dad wrote. And every Easter Sunday since I wake up with these words in my head:

He is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed!
He is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed!
People of God, whom do you seek?
Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified one.
(then there's a whole middle part that I seem to have not memorized...)
The grave could not hold him.
The cross could not contain him.
And nothing will ever be the same!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Today I actually got my hymnal out to look up my favorite Easter hymns. Made me think I should make a set of hymn cards for Easter. I've always meant to make a set for Christmas...

This was my third year hosting Easter and I think I'm getting the hang of it! It helps greatly that I have a family that brings almost all of the food. What a dream. This year I decided to throw some brunch items into the menu, but it ended up being a crazy amount of food. We could have had twenty more people here and I think everyone still would have been fed and full. I'll adjust for next year. Oh but I love hosting for this day. And I love decorating for Easter. Everything becomes so colorful and cheerful. I got three bundles of tulips at the grocery store and and used peeps again for the place cards. Some peeps were partially eaten by the time the guests arrived, thanks to my sneaky children, but I still like using them. And this year we made an Easter Egg tree. My mom always cut a lilac branch the week of Easter, put it in a coffee can filled with rocks and water and by Easter it would have green leaves. Ivar and Elsie loved having an Easter tree and even put the eggs on themselves (I later spread them out onto more than one branch).

Elsie told me she wanted to be "a pretty pink princess" for Easter, so I splurged and got her a new dress at Target. She wore it proudly all day long, part of the time with her winter coat on while in the house... The kids loved hunting for their Easter baskets (hidden in the same places as last year) and really loved the outdoor egg hunt with all the cousins. Auntie Lisa led the pack outside and later we had everyone taking a turn at chopping wood with the ax and walking across a slack line tied between to trees.

Most people got in a nap at some point in the afternoon as the rest of us sat and talked and ate our way through the nine desserts to choose from. It was a really nice day and made for a lovely easter.

I'll end with my favorite moment...finding five family members talking theology in my downstairs bathroom while visiting the awkward adolescent chickens. Of all the rooms in my home, who knew the downstairs bathroom would be the hub of conversation and togetherness!

Elsie's Room

I love it when other people post their diy decorating ideas. And I appreciate it when a blogger I follow lets me look into their home. It's sort of like watching an episode of House Hunters. So I thought it would be fun to show you around.

Some of you will care. Others of you can just scroll through the pictures and consider this post read. Like you, Rory.

There is another perk. Having taken these pictures for my blog means that I have taken pictures of all of the rooms in my house when they were once clean. (You should know they were not all clean on the same day.) This is a little gift to myself so that I can look at these pictures later and say, "oh that's a nice room when the laundry is all put away and the garbage is emptied and Ivar's toys aren't spread out everywhere."

My photography isn't amazing. Wish I had a wide angle lens like the guy who came and took pictures for selling our Minneapolis house. Those pictures were lovely. But I tried my best.

Elsie's room is a fun room to start with because it was basically one huge diy project. I didn't have money to spend on her nursery, so I had to get creative. And I did. See those three pictures over her crib? I bought the frames at a farm sale in Nebraska years ago. I think they were 3 for a buck and are handmade. And the art inside is from my favorite kids book with the artwork by Jill McDonald. More on her another time...I adore her. But all this to say, I bought the book for ten dollars and filled four (one frame is on the other side of the room) frames by cutting up the pages.

It felt a little terrible to cut up a book, but I have another copy of this one. And now I  can look at and love her art every single day.

The next diy project cost three dollars. I found this butterfly wrapping paper at a local gift shop and loved it. Wasn't sure what I would do with it, but knew it was for Elsie's nursery  In the end, I used modge podge to stick it on top of an end table. And I filled three frames with the leftovers. I already had the frames from Ikea...so for four bucks I got more art and a cool table.

When we were staging our home to sell in Minneapolis, I bought a few frames at Ikea. Turns out you can paint them without having to prime or sand them. And they look great. I painted these for my Hymn Cards.

The whole nursery color scheme was based around this little horse pictured below. This was Elsie's first gift, given by my Grandma B at her funeral. Someone (was it Sarah? Aunt Louie? Aunt Jan?) had the good idea when Grandma was dying to have her snuggle with a new stuffed animal for each of the great grandbabies who were still growing inside of their mama's. When it was given to me I thought, if this baby is a girl, we're decorating a nursery around these fun colors.

The pennant was from my sister-in-law Lisa and the dresser was the biggest splurge, from Ikea and worth every dime. The drawers open smoothly and the height is perfection for a changing table. Ivar has the smaller version and I'm thinking Rory and I may get the tall and skinny model. Our home may very well be sponsored in part by the Hemnes Dresser from Ikea one day.

And finally, I initially hung this baby quilt in the window as a temporary "until I make a curtain that fits." The colors are more pastel than the rest of the room, but I do adore the quilt. And it comes with special memories. However, whenever anyone sees Elsie's room for the first time they mention this quilt-as-a-curtain idea as their favorite part. It makes me laugh because I spent time and thought crafting the rest of the room, and this curtain has become the main talking point! And those socks had to be added. Every time I see them I hold her a little longer. Babies grow so fast! How on earth did those socks fit her once?!!

That's my design on a dime. Literally, dimes. Other than the dresser, I maybe spent forty bucks on the whole thing. I give all the credit to the hours of my life spent watching HGTV. 

**Just looked through this post and realized I am lacking some very helpful wide shots of the whole room...I'll work on that for future home tour posts. :)