September Acres

~I just finished reading 'The One & Only' by Emily Giffin .  I've read all her books except her newest one ('First Comes Love') and I think 'The One & Only' is my favorite so far. I highly recommend it. I am excited to dig into 'First Comes Love' soon. ~Easter is Sunday and I know most of us are knee deep in preparation. *One of our family traditions is making these sticky buns for Easter morning.  I usually only make them on Christmas and Easter as they are pretty rich and I want them to be a treat.  Kind of how my Grandma made ebelskiver's for us when we were little - we wanted them everyday but she made them on rare occasion and everyone of her grandchildren remembers how special they were. If she had made them every time we asked (i e. every morning) they wouldn't have been special and we'd likely not remember them as fondly as we do. *I am forever looking for wreaths for our front door.  We have double doors  s...

Every year I write about candy-free Easter basket filler ideas. We are bombarded right after Valentine's Day with Peeps, chocolate bunnies and Cadbury Creme Eggs every time we enter a store..  There has to be more to an Easter basket than sugar, right?  No matter the size of the basket, non-sugar goodies are a must for Easter.  While I don't want Easter to turn into another Christmas-like gift giving holiday, I am always searching for gift ideas to pass on to the Easter Bunny.  Here are 25 non-candy Easter basket ideas (some new ideas, some are old stand-by's) for kids of all ages: For Little Kids (0-8 years or so) Coloring Books and Crayons - there are awesome Easter Bunny & Religious coloring books out there this time of year - a great place to check is your local dollar store.  Legos - I love the   'Friends'   line that is out for girls now.  The usual cars and trucks and airplanes are still out there for the boys. Small Play Charac...

www.kraftrecipes.com When we were younger we made a  bunny cake  each year.  We started a tradition a few years ago after my husband and daughter reluctantly tried real coconut (as opposed to the flakes from the bag) and low and behold they liked it.  Yippee.  That means we make this cake each year!  I still leave the bow coconut free just in case we have a guest that doesn't like coconut. I also make these  sticky buns  for Easter morning.  It can't hurt to have another 'sweet' tradition! What are your Easter food traditions?

I love a great table scape. Easter is an especially fun time to make your table extra pretty.  All the pastels make it really fun to put together. Start out with white dinner plates and the sky's the limit. Here are a few really cute and easy ways to add Easter to your table. You don't have to go out and buy an entire new set of dinnerware (not a bad idea though, if it's in your budget.)  One or two whimsical little touches will work just fine.  I love this 5 section bunny egg holder from World Market.  Wouldn't it be cute with dyed eggs in it?  And it's only $6.99. Be still my heart! I am in love with these little bunny plates from Pottery Barn .  They are perfect right on top of your white plates. This bunny serving bowl from Williams-Sonoma is just too cute for words.  And there's dinnerware to match.  Perfect! Add a little fun to your table with these bunny napkin rings from Crate & Barrel .  Wouldn't they be...

I posted this a couple of years ago but it's almost time for the Easter Bunny to make his appearance again so I thought it might be useful to all of you bunny helpers out there. I've made a couple of changes to the post but some of the sugar-free treats are tried and true... Peeps, chocolate bunnies and Cadbury Creme Eggs.  There has to be more to an Easter Basket than sugar, right?  With the size of baskets these days (that's another post, for another time) non-sugar goodies are a must for Easter.  While I don't want Easter to turn into another Christmas-like gift giving holiday, I am always searching for gift ideas to pass on to the Easter Bunny.  Here are my 20 sugar-free Easter basket ideas for kids of all ages: For Little Kids (0-8 years or so) Bubbles Playdoh  Coloring Books and Crayons - there are awesome Easter Bunny & Religious coloring books out there this time of year.  Legos - I love the  'Friends'  line that is out fo...

I saw a cute burlap Easter bunny flag in the Pottery Barn a while back for $39 (it is no longer available).  I didn't think the price was too bad but I knew I could make something similar and just as cute. Pottery Barn  I actually ended up making two of these - one using burlap and one using drop cloth.  And I added a cute pom pom tail to both.  I made the hanging rod with a dowel and two finials painted black to resemble wrought iron. For the drop cloth bunny I painted the bunny (I just Googled 'bunny silhouette' and picked out a bunny, printed it and traced around the bunny on the drop cloth with chalk.) I sewed the edges, making a pocket for the rod.  I added a bow to the neck, a button for the eye and the pom pom for the tail. Here's the burlap bunny. I traced the bunny freehand on white flannel and sewed it on the burlap. I used the same type of dowel/finial for the rod. I added a pom pom for his tail, too. I ha...

Peeps, chocolate bunnies and Cadbury Creme Eggs.  There has to be more to an Easter Basket than sugar, right?  With the size of baskets these days (that's another post, for another time) non-sugar goodies are a must for Easter.  While I don't want Easter to turn into another Christmas-like gift giving holiday, I am always searching for gift ideas to pass on to the Easter Bunny.  Here are my 20 ideas for kids of all ages: For Little Kids (0-8 years or so) Bubbles Playdoh (we still enjoy that here at 11 years old) Coloring Books and Crayons - there are awesome Easter Bunny & Religious coloring books out there this time of year.  Legos - I love the 'Friends' line that is out for girls now.  The usual cars and trucks and airplanes are still out there for the boys. Small Play Characters - like Little People & Polly Pockets . Sidewalk Chalk Gardening tools - kid sized shovels, hoes and rakes in cute patterns start showing up in stores like...

Easter is less than three weeks away.  I know, how is that even possible?  I'm starting to get the Easter decorations out and will try to get everything in it's place by the weekend.  Luckily, I don't have a ton of St. Patrick's day decor so there won't be much competition. These little guys are out this year.  My mom took most of our Little People to her house so she brought the Easter ones over the other day.  I love the whimsy they provide when decorating for the holidays. It brings back an easier, slower time when LM was little.  Those days are behind us, but not the memories. Some of my past Easter posts have been fun to look back on so I wanted to share them in case you missed them the first time around: This Quick Easter Gift idea is great for teachers or caregivers.  It's also a sweet gift for the baker in your life. It's time to start thinking about Easter Baskets.  I love this twist on the traditional basket . I've also lis...

 Image:  Kraft recipes.com When we were younger we made a bunny cake each year.  I have wanted to make one every year because they are so cute.  And so easy.  But my husband didn't like coconut so I never made it.  Then this year he and LM reluctantly tried real coconut (as opposed to the flakes from the bag) an low and behold they liked it.  Yippee.  That means we're making this cake this year!  I decided that I will probably make the bow or ears without the coconut - just in case they changed their minds.  Pictures to follow soon! Hopefully this bunny cake will be a new tradition for our family.  For the past few years we've been making these sticky buns for Easter morning.  It can't hurt to have another 'sweet' tradition! What are your Easter food traditions?

A few years ago, I saw Ina Garten on GMA doing her Easy Sticky Bun recipe.  Easy & Sticky Bun in the same sentence?  I'm in.  So I made them that year for Christmas.  And New Year's Day.  Then I realized that due to the amount of butter and the yumminess of them I would need to make them on special occasions only.  I added Easter to the list and usually just make them for those three holidays.  With Easter coming up, I figured it was a good time to share the recipe again.   Ingredients 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature 1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed 1/2 cup pecans, chopped in very large pieces 1 package (17.3 ounces/ 2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted (I use Pepperidge Farm) For the filling: 2 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled 2/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 cup cranberries 1/2 cup white raisins Directions Preheat the oven to 400 ...

I wanted to set a special table for Easter with a fresh, spring-y look. For something really fresh I needed to shop. But I didn't want to spend very much money. A little background: I needed (wanted?) some new place mats . Something spring like. I had $19 in Kmart rewards dollars so I figured that was a good place to start. Surely I could get everything I needed for about $20, right? Wrong. The selection was s.l.i.m. There was a nice pale blue place mat I liked but there were only 3, I needed 5. And it was $5! Tucked down in the corner for $4 were these black & white toile place mats . Cute, but black for Easter? Hmmm . After standing there for about 10 minutes debating and helping out an older lady who, like me, was disappointed in the poor selection but also didn't want to drive all the way out to Wal -mart, I decided to get the black toile place mats and see what I could do with them. I also picked up 4 white napkins since I knew I could use them to make the table wo...

Bring your own bucket that is! We were at Micheals (I know, we spend way too much time there) yesterday after we went see 'Hop' - a cute movie, by the way. We took LM's friend, S, with us. We noticed Micheals was offering a FREE craft - right up my alley. The girls wanted to do this craft as soon as they saw the buckets. They provided the bucket and tons of foam stickers. If you missed the craft day the buckets are available for $1 each. Not too bad! When we were decorating the buckets I said 'you should leave these buckets out for the Easter bunny to fill when he comes, that way you will get more candy & treats since his egg won't be weighed down with baskets.' They loved this idea. So did the other moms and kids that were there. Every year I try to come up with some brilliant container to use as a basket. And the last thing we need is another basket (and the expense associated with it) so I had already come up with a 'use what we have' idea and w...

I was trying to think of something quick and fun for an Easter gift (something that wasn't candy, although this is close). I was also thinking of something fun for LM to do that was not terribly expensive. So I came up with colored sugar in a jar. We've all seen the colored sand they have at fairs and festivals - they sell a jar and then you fill it with whatever sand you want. Kids love it. Instead of sand I thought of sugar which can be used later (I love consumable gifts). I save jars whenever I can. These little ones come from mushrooms but you could use anything - even buy some fun shapes if you want. I put about 1/4 cup of sugar in a bowl with 5-6 drops of food coloring and started stirring. The drops kind of turn into clumps so there's some mashing involved too. When it's mixed to a color you like and pour the sugar in the jar. This is the parts the kids love! The pink sugar is actually some colored sugar that I had alot of. I added a cute tag and it's a g...