Hello friends, this is Leslie Shewring visiting you today while Holly is away, and I want to show you a springtime palette of peaches, pinks, and yellows combined with a soft, putty neutral to inspire you for Easter. After a long, dark winter here on Vancouver Island, I am excited to see all the buds and blossoms on the trees. The soft pink cherry blossoms are incredible and the daffodils, forsythia and hellebores are blooming in the yard. I hope you enjoy these ideas that I've pulled together to inspire you for Easter or springtime in general.

I have been seeing so many pretty ways to decorate eggs lately. From simple dips in vegetable dyes to using rub on tattoos as décor motifs. I decided to go for a more painterly approach. I did the typical poking of the eggshell on each side, as well as poking the yoke to break it and then blowing out the inside into a bowl (lots of scrambled eggs the other morning). I used Martha Stewart acrylic craft paints to dab on my various floral and confetti patterns. It was so much fun to decorate them! I then hung them on a cherry blossom branch for a festive display.

I decided to take some of my ribbons out of their usual storage bin and hang them from pretty blue hatpins on my tack-board. I love looking at all the thin strips of color and it got me thinking about what else I can use them for...Like tying different ones simply around napkins when entertaining... Or bundling a few small bottles together to make a sweet floral arrangement. Sometimes just looking at my craft and art supplies gets me inspired. When they are all tucked away too neatly I forget they are there!

I also wanted to share with you some art supplies I have been experimenting with called PanPastels. I know they have been available for a while but I just started using them and love the effect you can get. They are similar to typical pastels but less messy and easier to control. You can apply them with various sponge like applicators and they layer really well. The hardest thing is choosing the colors, as there are so many. I am partial to the “tint” tones right now and I can see myself using them for sketching and collage.

I hope you got some ideas today and thank you for having me here Holly! I will see you all next month. - Take care, Leslie.

(photography/styling: leslie shewring)