Flashback Friday: Easter Dinner Decor

Do I get extra credit for blogging about our Easter Dinner before Mother’s Day is here.  I like to look at it as helping you get a headstart on next year’s Easter (not me being really behind in posting).

One day I was given a bunch of beautiful pastel goblets by a friend who was moving out of town. And that very day I knew that I must host Easter dinner to justify their existence in my house–if for no other reason.  I had some of these blue plates and just a couple of months before, found a bunch more of them at Goodwill.  Again, existence justified!  The tumblers/flower pots are a ridiculous 29 cents @ IKEA and I had already purchased several of them for my Chocolate Dinner, so getting a few more for this was a no brainer.  I’m not sure when the idea for wheatgrass came about, but between the goal of having real grass on the table, and the pots being an earthy tone, instead of a pastel, my somewhat “earthy Easter” began to take shape.

Here is one angle of the forest of wheatgrass and wine glasses (I actually wrote “wine” there because it alliterated–I’m not too up on my stemwear since I don’t drink alcohol.  It is a wine glass, isn’t it?).  Our wheat grass grew like magic in less than a week (go here for the beginnings).  I have since had a few people tell me that they didn’t have such good luck.  I must say my dh was extremely diligent in spraying those wheat berries with water several times a day, and we put them in the sun for a few hours each day.  At any rate, I almost had to give my experiments hair cuts before the big day because they grew so well.  It is a shame that I am not posting this earlier, because this fun wheatgrass idea (via Be Different Act Normal) would look lovely on a Mother’s Day table.  A reader mentioned the idea of using wheat grass for a Kentucky Derby party.  It could be fun for any sports-themed party (you know, any sport that is played on grass).  Or even just on top of picnic tables for a summer-themed party.  I’m sure this isn’t the last you’ll see of wheatgrass from me!

At each place setting was a pot of wheatgrass and a dyed egg with the name or initials of the guest.  Some got to use nicknames because I couldn’t fit more than four or five letters on an egg.

I used scrapbooking stickers to spell the names before dying them.  I had a few re-do’s if the letters weren’t adhered completely or the color was too light (this was a problem because we used natural dyes, in keeping with the earthy theme).

Hopefully you can read what the centerpiece spells out.  I used larger stickers on these eggs, and just did one per egg.  I was going to post about what I learned about using natural dyes, but I think I will save that for next year.  We did cheat and added some food coloring to the natural dyes by the end of our egg dying.  I don’t think the kids could have had the patience to wait for the natural dye alone, but by leaving the natural materials (blueberries, spinach, orange rind, etc.) in the dye, we still got fun mottled looks and colors that are a bit softer than what you would get from the technicolor kits you can buy.

I didn’t get a close up of the bunny napkin fold, but will instead refer you to Martha, who’s bunny napkins are far more perfectly executed.  The were a bit of a pain in the behind since they all needed to be ironed thoroughly and still didn’t fold too neatly, but I liked having a fun napkin fold on the plate, since the eggs acted as the place cards and there was nothing else going on on the plate.

These don’t quite look like Martha’s beauties we were seeking to replicate, but they were pretty yummy all the same.  Initially, I was going to go for the old green-dyed coconut to look like Easter grass, but since we were going earthy (and it sounded yummy) I opted for the more natural toasted coconut to make the cupcakes into nests.  I’d love to find longer coconut as like Martha used, but jelly beans were a lot less labor intensive than her little birds.

The meal turned out really well (I was glad I snagged a ham when it was on a ridiculous sale).   And having more natural elements–like live grass, and realistic colored eggs–made it easier for me to make the connection between our Easter dinner and the rebirth of Spring that happens at Easter time, which reminds us of our Savior’s resurrection.

I hope you will come back tomorrow (and through the weekend) to celebrate Mother’s Day with our Magnificent Motherhood Celebration!