Decorating Your Easter Tree

I love Easter! For me its always a time when we know winter is definitely behind us and we have the summer to look forward to. Its such a colourful time of year.....and a great excuse to sneak in some chocolate to the house too! An Easter tree is a simple way of bringing some colour into your home and something that is becoming more popular here in Ireland but we are way behind the likes of Germany, Austria and other Eastern European countries where the Easter tree tradition began. Easter egg trees usually are either real outdoor trees or indoor plants or branches that have beautifully coloured eggs hung upon them. In Germany people may find decorated trees outside during the Easter season, though many people also have them in their homes

An Easter tree in Germany. Isn't this just fabulous!






Making your own Easter tree is very easy and can be as large or as small as you like. Work with what you have and time you have to do it. A couple of small ones placed on your table on Easter Sunday or a feature tree on a side table or sideboard would be sure to brighten up your home. Followers on my Facebook page will be familiar with my own tree I decorated a couple of weeks ago



To make your own tree you will need

Jug/vase/any utensil

Branches

Flowers - optional

Oasis - optional

Decorations - all of the decorations on my tree are available on my website www.dressmyhome.ie/easter.html

In my tree I used branches from a beech tree, which, I stole from my Fathers garden, but any branches will work. Easter egg decorations are usually very light so the branches do not need to be as a strong as beech.

Basically I started off with getting the branches. Don't cut them too short at first to allow for trimming when arranging them.

I also used a few flowers but you would get away with not adding flowers.

Oasis may also come in handy if you find they just wont stay in place for you. This may be useful for lighter branches.

Once you have the branches in place, add your decorations.

Another option is to get a tin of spray paint in your local hardware and paint the branches. I did this  a couple of years ago and then used the branches after Easter just on their own in a jug. You could also add decorations to it at Christmas too!

Here are some more ideas for creating your Easter Tree.

 

 

 

 

 

Hope this has been of some help. I would love to see some of your Easter trees so please post them to my facebook page. I have still some Easter decorations available on my website at www.dressmyhome.ie/easter.html but stock is limited so hurry.......

Pauline:)

Kitchen Table Revamp

A couple of years ago we moved into the house we are in now. The plan at the time was to have our own house built within a few years but as you all know the recession really hit so we put off building for another couple of years. At the time when we moved in we didn't want to be spending too much on furniture that would not suit our new house so I started looking up donedeal for some bargains, specifically a kitchen table. I was looking for about a week when an ad was placed for a kitchen table and chairs in Longford, so I went to have a look. It turned out I actually knew the person selling the items and we done a deal for €200 for a table and six chairs. I was delighted with it! It was a good strong, extend able table in good condition and suited us perfect. I always had the intention of doing something with it to blend in with the rest of the kitchen but again as you all know...time just flys by! Up until a few weeks ago it was covered with an oil cloth. Below are before and after pictures. Hope you like it! I love it now and it will definitely be coming with us whenever we move!

Here's how I did it!

I knew I wanted to paint the legs so this part was straight forward. The top of it I was not sure what to do. I bought a cheap sander for €22 and sanded down the top of it. Initially I was thinking of putting a darker varnish on it so I got a tin of ronseal walnut varnish and put in a couple of coats....left it for a few days but it was not growing on me and it had to go. I got out the sander again and the darker colour, when sanded, was bringing out the grain lovely and giving it a distressed look. Again I left it for a few days. This time it was really growing on me so now there is no way I am going to put anything on the top. I just rubbed in some boiled linseed oil to help bring out the grain a bit more and that's it. Happy Days:)