confetti, confectionary and anti-consumerism

I've never really celebrated Easter before. Before kids it was just another chocolate based long weekend. We were remniscing today  about Easter 2008. I was recovering from surgery, D had just quit his job so we could go travelling. We bought leftover eggs from a corner shop and played Mario Kart for four days.

I'm still a handmade punk at heart though. And I felt truly rebellious using The Financial Times to make cascarones.

It wasn't entirely an act of anti-capitalism though. I just love the natural peachy colour that looks so good with my white china and subtle palette.

I love the idea of plants instead of flowers on the table, plus I've had a packet of cress seeds tucked in the back of a notebook forever. I just washed out the shells and allowed them to air dry, popped a damp cotton wool ball in the bottom and sprinkled in some seeds. I was hoping they'd grow super long and I could draw faces on the eggs and cut crazy hairstyles like the Play-Dough Barber Shop. But it was not to be.

I made these message eggs too - let me tell you trying to get the egg out of this little hole was not easy. I later read you should make a smaller hole in the top and blow the contents out, but I never do things the easy way. There are no shots of these message eggs in action, because I filled them with ultrafine glitter and instantly regretted it. Little Vin had glitter in his eyelashes.

You know we love brunch in this house, like our love day breakfast and our pancake day celebration... we had poached eggs with those pods I bought for David and Hot Cross Cookies:

See, I'm not really a fan of the Hot Cross Bun, so I made a sugar cookie with a little cinnamon and orange zest, rolled them into balls and dotted with currants and and icing cross. I love playing a little with tradition, and I really loved these cookies.

Oh, and the cascarones. I haven't used papier mache since I was at infant school and it was so much fun. Sticky fingers and endless possibilities right? (yes, we had a Blue Peter Tracey Island). I think they made the eggs a little tough to smash though. See...

That is one hundred percent toddler effort right there. He did it though, and loved them. A whole evening with a hole punch and a whole lot of sweeping up later, but so worth it.

Cascarones are a Mexican treat, like a mini pinata and they're meant for smashing over heads (don't worry, it is supposed to bring luck!) They're doing the rounds on the blogs right now. Jordan Ferney posted a fun game here.

So friends, was your day filled with confetti, sparkles and sugar?