My Easter Weekend

"Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life."  

S.D. Gordon

The Easter Weekend absolutely whizzed past this year, not helped by the fact I was working Good Friday and the Saturday so just had the last two days off to try and cram as much chocolate, flowers and period drama box sets in as possible - but I managed! ;)

I always feel very nostalgic decorating my home for the Easter weekend (see my past blog post HERE). I had a great Easter holiday trip to Sweden a couple of years ago where I was swept up in the feather branches, Easter Witches and delicious cardamom buns that are traditions over there, and I brought back a suitcase full of antique decorations.

A tradition in our house is to put together a display of branches for our hanging ornaments, and these twisted hazel branches work brilliantly. I am not religious, so for me it's a time for celebrating spring and all the rejuvenation and promise it brings us...and the food!

I found these little antique chocolate moulds at Tweseldown Artisan Market a couple of weeks ago, they were only a few pounds but they just made me smile, particularly the standing lamb! My treasured rabbit jug is by Elisabeth Bailey and was purchased at a craft fair at Loseley Park, and I put it pride of place with a fresh bunch of daffodils - I'm sure you can tell how I love having these seasonal collections!

After receiving a new Filofax for my birthday (a blog post on that coming later on!) I have been coveting stationery, and couldn't resist these bunny related items from The Journal Shop - my new favourite website, and the lovely printable bunny pattern is from Design Is Yay. I was cooking for my family on Sunday so I customised my plan for the day, luckily the lamb and roast potatoes were a success!

I'm not going to lie to you dear readers, the truth is, I watched six straight hours of Pride and Prejudice...and don't regret a second of it! Anyone else guilty??

Meanwhile in the garden, there are more splashes of colour appearing as the Camelias and Tulips begin to bloom, and the jolly wild Primroses are still going strong. I sowed a selection of salad greens and herb seeds in my raised beds, and I know it'll soon be very busy outside in the garden again! I do have a few projects planned so I am looking forward to more fresh air and hopefully even some sunshine!

I really do love this time of year! Hope you had a wonderful Bank Holiday weekend too!

Thanks for reading,

Katie

My Easter Weekend

Well I can honestly say that was the nicest Easter Bank Holiday i've had in many years! I was quite happy pottering around the garden on the Saturday, swapping eggs with the family on Sunday, followed by the Easter Feast and sleepily settling down to watch David Copperfield. It was a shame to have such soggy weather on Sunday, but then again, I was too busy in the kitchen to have gone outside!

For me, Easter is all about family, flowers and of course, food. I gave into my inner child and whipped up the classic chocolate nest cakes (luckily. narrowly avoiding the UK Mini Eggs shortage!) and cooked traditional Lamb for the dinner, recipe from the Yeo Valley Farmhouse Cookbook that I would highly recommend, it was a winner! 

I did try and get some seasonal easter decorations throughout the house, I was very pleased to spot the Victorian Easter Card at my local antiques centre, I used to have a rabbit just like that! I was sad to see the last bunches of daffodils until next year, but I'm very glad it's now bluebell season instead. My local woodland has wild english bluebells....but I'm afraid I have naughty spanish ones in my garden - they weren't planted on purpose I promise, but whilst they're here, I will enjoy them! 

Mum&I had a rule not to buy each other easter eggs, so I was very excited to receive my first cup of tea in my 'Insead-Of' easter present, a new Emma Bridgewater indeed! I did brave the rain to pick fresh chard and kale for the Sunday Lunch, after chopping back the kale to the bare stems after the butterfly massacre of '13, it's bounced back to life and very tasty it is too!

Hope your weekend was a good one! Let's try and carry that Springtime Easter joy in our hearts through to the end of the week, roll on the weekend!

Katie

Hej Hej Gothenburg! (Swedish Easter Part 1)

For the last week I have been in Sweden with Bruce whilst he was setting up his solo show 'Cold Air Rising' at Box Gallery, Gothenburg. We were lucky enough to stay with our good friend Thom, who was a fantastic guide around the city (as well as a fantastic help with Bruces show!) and we had a really lovely Easter weekend! Momentously, it was my first ever plane journey - so needless to say I was a little nervous, but I did just fine, and I even flew home on my own, so it's another New Years Resolution crossed off the list!

Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden, but has a very relaxed and friendly feel, with lots of interesting streets to find coffee, secondhand goods and general nice things! (I blew the budget and came back with a very heavy suitcase!) One of the first landmarks to greet us after arriving was the famous Universeum Dinosaur, quite striking against the city skyline to say the least!

Easter was a great time to visit Sweden (even if it was a bit quiet for the first few days!) as they have some super traditions at this time of year which were lovely to see! These birch twigs decorated with feathers were all around town, in many windows and shops. This tradition dates back to the 19th century and is thought to encourage the arrival of spring as the twigs magically sprout their new colours!

There were plenty of gorgeous flowers around the city, I found it difficult not to return with a bunch of blooms everyday, there were so many lovely florists en-route. The Antique shops in Haga had some fantastic window displays of Easter themed items, I returned with lots of handmade items to bring out every year for Easter decorations, hooray!

There was more coffee and cinnamon baked goods on offer than I could have ever imagined, but I must admit I didn't take part in Fika every day, I can't take that amount of caffeine and sugar, my loss entirely! I did bring home a fantastic Nordic cookbook, I fully intend with cracking on with 'the classics', rye bread, beetroot salad and cinnamon buns ASAP!

I know holiday snaps can be rather tiresome, so i'll leave with a very beautiful Swedish sunset! I hope you enjoyed a very happy Easter too!

Monthly Wish List - March

I fully admit to being a truly lazy blogger this month! I celebrated my 24th Birthday last weekend, and was quite unprepared to accept it was even March! 2013 is certainly flying by, as I now have a part time job again, the week is zooming by without me getting much done at home, I believe they call that 'the real world', so no complaints, just need to get myself organised better!

As I am spending the next week in Sweden, I thought the Wish List should have a decidedly Easter theme, as I have been embracing it in the home all month, even though i won't be here for the weekend itself!

First up, an absolutely beautiful Tiffany & Co letter opener, with easter rabbits hiding in the grass, c1890. It went for £376 on Ebay and I can definitely see why, anything delicate, silver and animal themed will always be popular, but this is a particularly lovely example, It would bring a smile every time you used at it, although I would save it for special pen pal letters only, not waste it on boring old bank statements!

Continuing on the Mad March Hare/Easter Bunny theme, this Art Deco toy teapot would sit perfectly on your easter table, the painted design is simple, but that strong deco shape ensures it would make an impact, even if it was child-size! Just a shame it wasn't the whole set, I would imagine that would be snapped up even quicker!

Just one more bunny for the road! A mashup of two very British designers, Emma Bridgewater (Love-it-or-hate-it!) and Mark Hearld, who is always on my 'Wish List', I thought his last book was absolutely stunning and I will save up to buy one of his prints soon! The image of the Hare is common in Folk Art, and thats what really springs to mind with this simple design, I like it a lot!

Finally (it's a short Wish List this month!) a little taster of Swedish Easter. If you read my blog post from last year HERE about my beautiful easter book 'Lotta's Easter Suprise by Astrid Lindgren', you'll see that dressing girls as Witches is a Swedish tradition at Easter to mark the story of witches travelling to Blåkulla- a legendary meadow - where the devil would hold court during the sabbath. So think of it as trick or treating for Easter eggs! This postcard is an excellent example of this tradition, if I spot any such postcard on my trip, I will be a very happy bunny!

 I am very much looking forward to the Easter Break, I hope it's a lovely one for you too! Just having no more snow would be a start!!

Just one more Eastertide idea from the super Miranda Hart - TOAST SPOONS!! A true necessity.

Thanks for reading!

Katie

Trip to Lymington

Back in the Easter break, the family and I headed to Lymington (which is just south of The New Forest) for a weekend. Our hotel was only moments away from the quay, so we could walk off all the lovely dinners, and despite some foreboding clouds, we escaped the rain!

One of the most interesting features of Lymington is the Sea Water Baths, which was built in 1833, and would have been one of the largest on the south coast. Mrs Beeston, who took over the baths in November 1872 following her husband’s death capitalised on the growing public health interest in sea water and mud by using an inlet from the Salterns and advertising her “strengthening sea baths”

The baths continued under several different owners until 1929 when they were taken over the by the Lymington Corporation. The 1930s were something of a golden period for outdoors baths and lidos with people flocking to bathe on bank holidays in the summer - look at those amazing costumes!

This was the off-season baths when we visited (with some foreboding rain clouds naturally!) You could still clearly see some of the 1930s Art Deco influences in the design. I would love to see it in use during the summer, i bet it's quite chilly! The bottom of the pool is covered in sand and shells from last years sea water.

We also took a bracing walk around the salt marshes, which is a top birdwatching spot and very popular! For hundreds of years until the mid 19th century a major salt industry thrived along this coastline. As you walk along there are a series of lagoons that were used to collect the seawater.  Once evaporation had taken place the brine solution was drawn off by wind pumps into metal basins, and heated until only the salt remained. Amazing that once such a busy industrial operation can now be such a natural beauty spot!

Windswept! 

I came home with quite a few new books, here were some that had beautiful covers, but i had to sadly leave behind! I would highly recommend a few days stay in Lymington, we were at the lovely Stanwell House Hotel.

Hope you've had a good week, despite the April monsoons!

Katie