Unfortunately, being so far from home makes it near
impossible to spend holidays with family but that didn’t stop me from spending
Easter with loved ones this year. I had quite a lovely traditional Easter
celebration in southern Brazil
with the warm and welcoming family of a friend. Participating in holiday
festivities with my friend’s family made me realize that regardless of
location, language or family size, there is a familiar warmth that can be found
in the nucleus of every family holiday celebration.
There are so many great craft possibilities during Easter
time, so when I wasn’t borrowing someone else’s family, I was thinking up
Easter projects that involved a little creativity, a few cultural traditions,
and a lot of fun. That’s when I settled on my first project- “The Fruit Bearing
Egg”…
During Easter in Brazil, it is quite common to walk
into any ordinary supermarket and suddenly find yourself in a forest of low-hanging
bright and shiny plastic-wrapped chocolate eggs of all sizes. The chocolate egg
shells can be filled with anything from little candies to toys and even
jewelry. I love the buzz that surrounds these eggs but I found most of them to
be quite pricey, especially considering that what was inside most of the eggs
did not quite appeal to me. Therefore, I decided to make my own chocolate egg
and fill it with chocolate dipped fruit! My vote says it was the best decision
of the week. Not to mention, quite the money saver!
(supermarket during Easter time)
Although I made a bit of a mess, making the chocolate egg
was quite simple really and my friends LOVED it. Just some cut fruit,
sprinkles, and a few bars of melted chocolate (I’m a lover of dark chocolate
but the white chocolate and milk chocolate added a little pupil appeal). It
turned out to be an absolutely delectable bouquet full of fresh strawberries,
bananas, mangos, a pineapple, orange slices, and kiwi. Yum!
My second project for the day was “Petaled Eggs” which were
also pretty simple and so fun to make!
Even though the rain has hardly ceased since Saturday night,
I woke up on Sunday morning determined to go flower picking as a little
reminder of Easter back home. It is autumn down here but I have grown up
recognizing Easter as the official arrival of spring and the return of all the
beautiful hues that make up my father’s garden back home. After my brief nature
walk in search of “wild” growing flowers, I returned home with a good sized
bundle and put them in a basket. Seeing as it is Easter, I thought that it
would make more sense to put decorated eggs in the basket, but the flowers were
so presentable, so I decided to take the best of both worlds and cover the eggs
in my recently collected flowers.
- A variety of multi-colored flowers (I had to leave mine out to dry for a few hours)
- Hardboiled eggs
- Adhesive (I used simple white, clear-dry school glue)
Directions:
- Boil eggs and let cool and dry.
- Use your fingers or a small paintbrush to rub a good layer of glue on the egg in the spot you want to stick the flower.
- Very lightly spread glue onto the edges of the flower to ensure that it sticks completely and set the completed egg aside to let dry.
*It might be best to seal the flowers if you just happen to have clear nail polish around. I didn't and everything turned out fine.
Boom! It’s that easy.
This project kinda made me wish that egg decorating was a
year-round activity. Oh, the ideas for next year are already swirling in my head!
Anyway, I hope you lovelies have a wonderful, love-filled, chocolate-filled
holiday. Until next time!
With infinite love,
The Frohemian
