Welch House 1900: Easter

Easter is such a fun holiday to decorate for and I was so excited to be included in this wonderful "Hop into Easter" blog hop hosted by my dear friend Amber at Follow The Yellow Brick Home. Thank you so much Amber for hosting!

If you are coming over from Emily's beautiful home at Le Cultivateur I would like to welcome you to Welch House!

I do love Easter and springtime, but I have to be honest when I say that I have such a hard time decorating for this time of year! I don't have a lot of Easter decor or spring decor, and the items I do have seem to clash with one another. This year I decided to only bring out my very favorite items for the holiday and those items were my small collection of Faux chocolate bunnies.

I have been collecting these cuties for a long time now, and as much as I love them, I have the hardest time blending them into my Easter decor.

After some thought, a light bulb went off in my head...why don't I group them together and create a sweet bunny vignette instead of spreading them all over the house!?

I really didn't want to spend any money on this idea so I started "shopping" my house. As I started digging through cabinets and armoires I realized that I had quite the collection of urns and other "urn-like" items...but how would I be able to make them all flow together? Another light bulb goes off in my head...gold paint. I absolutely love gold gilded mirrors and dressers, why not gild my urns? So I did just that and added a bit of dark wax to age them. Perfect!

I decided to showcase each of my bunnies in their very own urn pedestals. I filled each one with some Spanish moss and a few colored eggs. I absolutely love the way it turned out! Everything you see on top of my piano aside from the bunnies, I have thrifted for just a few dollars each. In fact the mirror I found at a garage sale for $12 and the chandelier for only $5 at another garage sale last summer.

These two sweet little bunnies I grouped together and they look like they are giving each other a kiss.

The tall bunnies on the ends are my very favorites. I bought them at JoAnne Fabrics years ago and I love their vintage vibe.

With all of the bunnies lined up on the piano it just reminded me of an Easter Parade line up. I am going to do this set up every year I think. It will be fun to search for more chocolate rabbits and pretty containers to display them in, throughout the year.

On the dining room mantel I decided to display another chocolate rabbit in a very rustic basket.

I added soft pink satin ribbons to the sides.

Speaking of bunnies....

There seems to be one more that popped up recently here at Welch House.

Meet the newest addition to our family...a sweet girl that we named Antoinette.

We've had her since late February and she is much bigger now! These are just some of the very first photos that I snapped a couple of weeks after she arrived at her forever home.

We love her!

Also here is a sneak peek at my next blog post...I cant wait to share it with you.

Thank you so much for visiting! I hope you enjoyed seeing my "Parade of Bunnies!"

Next up is Decorate and More with Tip where I'm sure you will find more beautiful Easter inspiration!!

-Larissa

Follow The Yellow Brick Home

Have A Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

My Thrift Store Addiction

Calypso In the Country

Virginia Sweet Pea

Blue Sky At Home

Debbee's Buzz

The Red Painted Cottage

Celebrate and Decorate

White Arrows Home

Le Cultivateur

Welch House 1900

Decorate and More with Tip

Today I wanted to share how to make a buttered lamb for your Easter table. Now I have only been making these for seven or eight years and once a year at that. Many people are taught at a young age to make beautiful buttered lambs and it is a cherished tradition passed down through the generations for the Easter holiday. Fun fact: I showed my five year old a picture of my buttery masterpiece and asked him what he thought it was....after thinking very hard, his first guess was a unicorn with crazy hair. Geez...lol. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder...lets get started so you can create your own unicorn, I mean lamb. lol

Supplies needed:

-2 sticks of cold butter

- 1 Tablespoon of butter, softened

- 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon

- 2 whole cloves

- garlic press

-toothpicks

First thing you need to do is cut a third from the end of one stick of butter. Place the larger piece of butter on the serving dish to use as the lamb 's body. Spread some of the softened butter on the cut edge of the smaller piece and position on top of the larger piece of butter to create lamb's head. Your lamb should look like the photo below.

Cut a diagonal slice from two corners of the second stick of butter as shown in photo below. These pieces will become the ears of your lamb. Spread some softened butter on one end of each piece and attach to lamb's head. At this point my butter ears began to get soft so I was able to mold them a bit to make them more realistic looking. If the butter gets too soft to work with just refrigerate for a bit to firm it up.

Next you will need to cut a 1/4 inch slice from the other end of the stick of butter. Then you will cut that slice in half diagonally. You will now have a triangle. Spread some softened butter on the flat end of the triangle and attach it to the lamb's head to create a nose.

Your lamb now should be looking similar to the photo below. What I would do next is go ahead and insert the cloves right above the nose for the lamb's eyes. I did this step last on my lamb and ended up disturbing some of the curls, so I think it would be easier to do it at this point.

Cut remaining butter and reserved triangle to fit into a garlic press.

Squeeze butter through press in batches. Use toothpicks to curl pieces. Beginning at the top and working down, place curls on body.

Your lamb should be starting to look more "lamb-like"! This project can be very tedious so be kind and patient with yourself. Remember perfection is not the goal...its the memories!

Once you have completed your darling Easter lamb, you will need to dip your toothpick into the ground cinnamon to create some nostrils.

He is finished!! This buttered lamb is a wonderful addition to an Easter table. When I bring mine to Easter dinner I always get a lot of compliments on him even though he is not perfect!

This year I'm hoping to make another one with my little boy. I think kids would really enjoy this project and I bet their little lamb creations would look so sweet!!

I had to include a photo of some pretty blooms!