Studio update, and better late than never, the Easter display.

My last blog post was April 18, more than 3 months ago. I had likened my life to a 3 ring circus; Ring #1, moving my studio, Ring #2, landscaping the yard, Ring #3, making new sculptures.

Ring #3 quickly went dark as I had no time or space to work on anything.

Ring #2 had a few moments in the limelight but my wife did 99% of the yard work. She did an amazing job, it looks fabulous.

Ring #1, the easy-peasy, quick-as-a-flash job of moving my upstairs studio into the garage took me by surprise, it turned into an overwhelming job at times. Ring #1 became its own 3 ring circus!

Inadequate shelving was taken down with new shelving replacing it and doubling the available shelf space; it filled very quickly. The garage doors were insulated and new weather stripping replaced the old weather stripping. I went through my vintage department store drawers, 18 of them, one at a time, purging and organizing each drawer. The sorting, organizing, and purging was also happening upstairs in my studio. The upstairs items were assimilated into the drawers in the garage.

The unwanted items were sent off to Salvation Army or to the Victoria Operatic Society.

I didn't post pictures or have anything to say because at times it was like watching paint dry, I was progressing so slowly.

Enough about the studio, it is almost completed. This is my overly late post of this year's Easter display.

This year I pulled out some of my favourite pieces from my Easter collection.

The blue plastic rabbit was mine as a child. The purple and yellow tea-cosy with hand-painted wisteria makes a great backdrop for the celluloid friction toy and the ceramic salt and pepper shaker rabbit couple.

The chenille rabbit standing on the box that once held a large chocolate covered candy egg is a favourite rabbit, I have a soft spot for items covered in or made with chenille.

The two ceramic figures although not Easter are Spring and so they have been making appearances each year on the mantle. I picked up this vintage flower basket last year and turned it into a landscape featuring the two figures.

In behind the ceramic vase of a little girl sitting on a fence, is an early chenille covered rabbit head that once belonged to my Mum. The body is long gone, it may have been a hollow chocolate egg.

The cardboard train with plastic eggs is Australian. The net bag with plastic eggs is possibly some of the first plastic eggs sold in Canada as the label tells you to "LOOK! They're plastic!"

Two chocolate moulds and two rabbits each pulling its own cart are on the lower ledge of the fireplace. The front rabbit and cart is silkscreen printed wood, the other is printed on very thick cardboard.

Happy Easter to you!

 HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! 

Have a great Easter everyone with family, friends, and food; enjoy all of those Easter treats.

The postcard pictured above is from a blog post that I called, "Grab Your Easter Bonnet Poopsie Or We'll Be Late For Church!" Enjoy the post as well as these posts showing more of my Easter postcards here, here, here, and here.

Happy Easter everyone!

Well, I have definitely been absent from my blog for a little while, I haven't posted since Saint Patrick's Day. In that post I mentioned that I had't put out the Saint Patrick's Day items for quite a few years, two weeks ago I realized why that was the case when my wife said that Easter was only two weeks away, it takes a while to unpack, display, and put away everything, plus I like a bit of a break between holiday displays.

Here is this year's Easter display. Compared to last year's display (here) this is minimal. I was going to put out my egg cups but with two large boxes, the ones that hold computer paper, I was overwhelmed and opted for a few that I had purchased this year along with what had been put out last year.

The images are quite large so enjoy perusing the photos.

The full view of this year's display. I decided to hang quite a few of my Easter baskets from the ceiling this year. The lowest hanging baskets have cardboard eggs in them.

 The baskets on the hearth are filled with cardboard eggs The one long basket on the right is holding a pink plastic egg tied with a green ribbon and a clear pink egg with silver glitter embedded in the plastic.

The rabbit tin and the pansy tin are British and would have had toffees in them. I think the small half egg tin is early. The large pink tin with the chicks may be English, I'm not certain because some of the address on the tin has been rubbed off.

I put a long strip of wood on some risers to hold some of the eggcups and assorted decorations on the mantle. I always put out the Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny salt and pepper shaker set, they are one of my favourite items.

A chocolate box with a very dapper rabbit wishing the recipient "Easter Greetings". On the mantle are a few  assorted goodies.

Hanging below that is a ceramic plaque from Israel that I purchased one Christmas, it was in a bag of assorted Christmas decorations. It depicts the moment when God is telling Abraham not to sacrifice his son but that He would provide the sacrifice, a ram caught in a thicket, that ram is a reference to Jesus, the Lamb of God. (God had asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, this was a test to see if he trusted God. Abraham kept telling his son that God would provide the sacrifice.)

More eggcups, eggs, and milliner's flowers.

At the far right of the mantle is a bag of some of the first plastic eggs in their plastic mesh bag, a Dresden Easter image of two gold bells and a chick in a Japanese basket, a pink 1960s bunny with chenille feet, paws, and ears, a glittered candy container of a top hat and cane toting chick, with a wooden rabbit in the background.

Check out other Easter blog posts that I have done over the years here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Some of my vintage Easter decorations

  HAPPY EASTER  

  EVERYONE!  

I decided to put out a nice big selection of my Easter decorations this year. We don't have a lot of space for displaying everything so usually it is just the mantle that gets decorated. Babies and toddlers definitely limit where things can be displayed. This year my wife is in Toronto for an extended visit with our daughter and her family helping with their brand new baby boy... I wish that I was there!

All of the images are fairly large so that you can see the items quite easily, just click on them for a better look.

As you can see all of the fun items are at the level that a child would love to get their little fingers into and rightly so these are childhood toys. This picture shows the left side of the display, the Easter baskets on the hearth, cardboard eggs in baskets, toys, decorations, and vases... I love it!

Here is a closer look at the items on the two trees. The trees were made from some branches that I built out of wire and painted cotton batting. I have used them over the years in window displays as well as at home. The narrow necked vases were filled with marble sand and then the branches stuck in the neck opening and then topped off with more sand. Vintage cellophane Easter grass hides the messiness of the neck opening. The sand is important, it gives a heavy base to stop the tree from toppling over.

Here is a close-up of the items at the base of the trees. The rabbit that is hanging from the tree is a box or little girl's purse from Japan.

This side view of the trees gives you a better look at the hanging cardboard eggs.

This is the view as you sit in the stuffed chair looking at the mantle.

The side table beside the stuffed chair has two metal baskets filled with cardboard eggs. A clear glass rabbit jelly mould rests on the table in front of them. Flip the top of the plastic eggs and the chick's head pops up making a tiny squeak as it emerges.

Of all of the cardboard eggs this is my favourite one. It is double sided and tells a humorous story. I have never come across another example like this.

Here is the mantle display, the close-up images are below. I didn't get fancy around the mirror, I kind of wish that I had, but time was short.

The bird standing by its nest is made of glue and sawdust I believe; I had to repair the section of the body where one of the legs enters the body and saw what it was made of. The nest is made of rattan woven with strips of loofa. It is standing on a base of cork tree bark. I bought this in the 1990's just after Christmas for around $1.75. The price may be wrong but it was not much more. The ribbon is still attached to it that held the chocolate egg in the nest. There is a foil tag that says, "Fry" on it, most likely Fry's chocolate but I could be wrong.

I have a few of my egg cups on display in amongst the rabbit candy containers.

The tall goofy looking buck toothed rabbit is English made of wired foam rubber. I wouldn't move the arms now to reposition it as I would possibly break off an arm or leg!

Two antique chocolate moulds stand in front of a white plastic rabbit, an advertising bank for Wamsutta Mills.

The centre of the mantle is a little less congested! The purple and yellow textile with hand-painted wisteria blossoms is a tea cosy. It is flanked on either side by two 1960's chocolate boxes. Standing in front of the tea cosy are two ceramic figurines marked Japan on the bottom that remind me of 1950's Italian fashion photography.

Centred between the figurines is one of my favourite items, this salt and pepper shaker set. The hand-painted detail is delightful. The heads are the salt and pepper shakers, lift one out, use it, place it back, and the head nods back and forth. Like I said this is one of my favourite items.

The plaque that is hanging under the mantle was in a bag of Christmas items that I purchased several years ago. It is made in Israel and depicts the moment that God tells Abraham not to sacrifice his son but that He would supply a lamb. Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket. I forgot to mention that God had asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son as a test to see if he trusted God and would obey Him.

^{Genesis 22 verse 15} The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, “I swear by myself, declares theLord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspring^[b] all nations on earth will be blessed,^[c] because you have obeyed me.”

Jesus was the lamb that God provided mankind. Just like Christmas Jesus is the reason for the season! HAHAHA!!!! and I love all of the silly bunnies, chicks, and other decorations that have nothing to do with Easter but are such a delight to see.

I picked up these two jadite rabbits this year. Tucked in between them is the head of a rabbit covered in multi-coloured chenille. It was my mum's I think and all that is left is the head, I wish that I had the body to go with it, it would have been a wonderful piece.

The brown chenille rabbit with the red coat is another one of my favourite pieces. Who am I kidding I have more than "quite a few" favourite pieces! The blue rabbit pulling the pink cart was mine as a child. The celluloid friction toy "Easter on Parade" I bought in the early 1980's for $7.50, that was a lot of money back then, especially for a young family on a tight budget.

This shows the right side of the hearth and the raised display areas. The cardboard box in the shape of a train that is filled with the original plastic Easter eggs is from Australia, it was produced in the early 1960s I believe. The very realistic baby chick eggcup beside it looks contemporary but is marked Japan on the bottom, I think that it may be from the 1960s as well but I am not certain about that.

The metal Easter half egg is early I believe but again I have never seen one before and do not have a date for it. The rabbit jumping over the red mushrooms is a florist vase or planter. The chicks standing between the egg shells are a salt and pepper set. The little ceramic rabbit beside the basket would have held a chocolate egg or a group of eggs but afterwards I don't know what the use would be as it is to large to be used for an eggcup.

I stuck the chenille chick floral pick in behind the little rabbit girl hand puppet so that it looks like she is holding it. I really like the florist vase with the little girl sitting on the fence as the blue bird looks at her singing merrily she reminds me of my wife.

The label on the plastic eggs on the wall says "A Lido Toy.  LOOK!  Eggs snap open and closed for easy filling. PLASTIC Easter Eggs." These are possibly some of the first plastic Easter eggs, the wording and the graphic presentation suggest this. The reverse is printed in French so it is obviously a Canadian item.

The gold foil duck and chick I purchased at a florist wholesaler in the early 1990s, I liked them and thought that they were interesting.

The three purple tulips are joined at the top of the stems just under the flower petls and form a vase with three openings.

And now down to the hearth. I have collected vintage Easter baskets over the years, I haven't seen any for at least ten years now. Most of these baskets are Japanese. The early Japanese Easter baskets are made of wood veneer, bamboo was used later and still is in use today. Bamboo is stronger and less likely to break, you can see that some of the handles on the veneer baskets have broken.

The dark baskets in the background are from the 1950s.

I have several halves of cardboard eggs. The other half may have gone missing over the years before I purchased it or possibly not. Chocolatiers would purchase the cardboard eggs and then use each half separately filling the half with chocolates and candy then possibly wrapping it in cellophane or a fancy ribbon. The cost of one egg would serve as a container for two items for sale on their counters.

The large box of chenille chicks may have been sold from the box along with the rest of the trinkets to create an Easter basket or it may have come from a candy store. I have no idea of the original store that it came from but it is fun to imagine a scenario around an almost full box of pastel chicks. Oh, I bought it from an incredible antique store that had tons of holiday items in stock. Unfortunately it is long gone, even the building has been demolished.

Lots of cardboard eggs and candy tins. I am not certain of the age of the egg shaped candy tin. The purple tin with the pansies is a British toffee tin. The pale blue tin with rabbit playing the violin is marked "Hong Kong" on the back.

In the centre of the cluster of baskets and other doodahs on the hearth I have tried to give some semblance of order with this tidy bit of a display. The rabbit wearing an Easter bonnet is a British toffee tin.In front of it are two hard plastic cake toppers. Two baskets flank it on either side filled with more chenille chicks, roosters, and rabbits. The yellow ceramic rabbit would have been filled with candies and chocolates. A pulp cardboard rabbit is on either side, they are identical except one is white and the other pink.

And that as they say is that! I have other blog posts showing Easter cards, postcards, egg dye packets, and a recipe for Hot Cross Buns. Click here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Happy Easter!

We have made these hot cross buns for a very long time now and I thought that I would pass the recipe on. It comes from an old cookbook published by the Vancouver Sun called "Edith Adams Bread Book". Good ol' Edith Adams was a ficticious character. I hope you enjoy them.

This image is from a Victorian book called"Children's Songs With Music". The inscription on the inside reads "Dear Irene, with Grannies best love. Xmas 96.

Spicy Hot Cross Buns

Sift together 4 cups all-purpose flour with 2 teaspoons cinnamon, ½ teaspoon allspice, and ½ teaspoon cloves.

Add ¾ cup washed raisins, 1/3 –1/2 cup of mixed peel, ½ cup chopped cherries (opt.)

Dissolve a teaspoon of sugar in ¼ cup warm water; sprinkle with 1 package yeast. Proof for 10 minutes and then stir well.

Heat 1-cup water; add 1-teaspoon salt, ¼ cup sugar, 2 tablespoons soft shortening, and 1 beaten egg. Mix well. When lukewarm add yeast.

Pour into well in flour, stirring until liquid disappears. Form into a ball and knead for 2 minutes. Brush top with melted butter, cover with damp then dry towels. Let rise double. Punch down. Put ball of dough on lightly floured board; cover; rest 10 minutes. Cut in two; form into cylinders. Cut each cylinder in to 9 parts. Form into slightly flat balls. Put in 2 greased 9” square pans or 2” apart on baking sheets. Cover and let rise. Cut crosses in tops. 

Bake. After 15 minutes brush with glaze of 2 tablespoons sugar and two tablespoons of hot milk or hot water. Finish baking. Reglaze. Cool on racks. Frost in creases if desired. Makes 18 buns. BAKE: 375 deg. F for 20 – 25 minutes.

My adaptation to the recipe

I use whole-wheat flour. It does make them denser but they are very tasty. Add 1 tablespoon off fresh lemon juice for every 4 cups of wholewheat flour and it will make your wholewheat bread less dense.

Any time it mentions sifting I put the flour and /or spices into a large bowl and incorporate them with a French whisk. Using a whisk to fluff up the flour is so much faster and tidier.

I use ½ a cup not 1/3 of peel, plus I use candied citron. I make a quadruple batch of buns so when I measure out the mixed peel I measure 1 cup candied citron and 1 cup mixed peel. The raisins must be washed, it helps to plump them up when baking so that they are soft otherwise they tend to be hard. I do a mix of 1 cup golden raisins, 1 cup dark raisins, 1 cup sultanas, and 1 cup currants.

I don’t like to use shortening so I substitute it with butter. We try to use honey in place of sugar. The hot cross buns are baked in two large pans. One pan is left unglazed and the other I glaze with the sugar/milk solution. I like the sugar for glazing. Have fun baking.

Happy Easter Everyone!

I hope you have a wonderful Easter with lots of family, friends, and chocolate!

Happy Easter!

 HAPPY EASTER! 

Have a relaxing Easter visiting with family and friends.

Remember... don't eat all of those Easter goodies in one go.

A Little Tour of My Brain, Part 16 - Easter Postcards - Flowers and Crosses

 Happy Easter Everyone! 

Have fun hunting for Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies. Enjoy dinner with friends and family. Have a very relaxing weekend.

Here are the last of the Easter images for this year. Years ago I bought a group of Easter postcards on Ebay and these cards were part of that group. I love flowers and the flowers pictured on the postcards were not what we commonly see today, especially associated with Easter. None of the following cards were used. They may have been old store stock. The first group of six cards are quite beautiful. All of the cards have the cross in various forms on it accompanied by flowers. The colours and draughtsmanship are superb. They are embossed as well. The crosses are gold ink and the design that you see on each cross is accomplished by the embossing process.

I was looking up the language of flowers to see if there was any meaning in the flowers. Dahlias stand for elegance and dignity. I do not know what the deep red colour would mean in conjunction with the flower.

In the language of flowers the red rose stands for true love while the pink rose stands for desire, passion, joy of life, youth, and energy.

The passion flower stands for faith and religious fervour.

The day lily stands for wealth, pride, and prosperity. These cards may or may not be sending these wishes to the recipient but this was a time when people were reserved, supposedly.

Morning glory is such a lovely flower. The sentiment sent would be one of affection.

Majesty and honour, purity of heart, virginity, it's heavenly to be with you, and youth are the messages sent with lilies.

These two cards are more traditionally religious in their treatment. The embossing is very beautiful and they have a lacquer finish on the surface.

Whether or not any sentiments were implied, the unusual crosses paired with the uncommon flowers make for very beautiful images.