Wanna in El Paso

I have always loved skirted tables, and almost every room I create winds up with at least one.

Among my early efforts was this little Easter setting which was in the kitchen of my McKinley wallhanger house. (The kitchen window had balloon shades made of the same yellow checked gingham.) Now it occupies a small glass cheese dome in my kitchen during the Easter season.

In those days one could buy packets from Lisa Van Scyoc (not sure of spelling) containing great little paper projects and directions for making all kinds of themed goodies to go along with the various fold-up items. Unfortunately, I cannot remember her trade name and I understand she no longer sells these, but they were a great resource before the internet and printers made such projects so easy to make oneself.

The little cartons and packages on the table I scored, cut, folded and filled with bits of cotton or Fimo eggs.

This package includes real Easter grass snipped finely.

There are malted milk and chocolate covered candy eggs,

and jelly bean eggs, all made from Fimo.

The Easter bunny is my creation. His body is made from different sizes of pompoms. His ears are little slivers of painted paper and his somewhat-misshapen fat cheeks are made of tiny white pompom halves.

The little Fimo pips were made from Lisa's directions.

Two items from Lisa's Easter packet were used in my Easter Egg Dyeing Dome: the chocolate egg carton (the chocolate marshmallow eggs in the carton were made from brown-covered white Fimo) and the box for the chocolate bunny. The chocolate bunny in the box (although hard to see here) is holding a carrot and is a repainted piece.

EASTER DINNER

This Easter dinner table was made in my early days and sits seasonally on a table in the living room.

I found the glass box at Joann's at a great price in an-after Easter clearance.

All the foods for our holiday meal were made from Fimo (even the cream cheese in the celery, plucked up with a needle for creamy texture), except for the coconut and the red beads and resin used in the cranberry sauce.

The paper daffodils and tulips were made by my friend Sandi,

and the white bunny was originally meant to hang as an ornament on an Easter tree.

We have ham,

whole berry cranberry sauce and candied sweet potatoes,

fresh asparagus with cheese sauce,

a relish plate with stuffed celery, cherry tomatoes, deviled eggs (forgot the paprika) and black olives,

and hot cross buns. (I think my grandchildren really have tried to taste everything in this setting!)

For dessert there is coconut cake with a chocolate bunny (wearing a pink bow) on top.

The base of the cake is scrap Fimo - ugly colors and odd bits left from previous projects wrapped with a thin layer of white Fimo. The coconut on the cake is real coconut, run through a coffee grinder. In those days I never thought about attracting bugs. I've watched the cake closely over the years and never saw that any critter liked it enough to eat it. Since the pieces were so miniscule, maybe they weren't enough for the bugs to bother with.

Over the years one of the chocolate bunny's ears has disappeared. I made this when my oldest grandsons were little, and have always suspected one may have tried to see if it was real chocolate, although nobody ever confessed. However, if one of them was guilty, I figure the taste he got from the baked clay was enough punishment.

RABBITS

Wanna see lots more rabbit and rabbit-themed items? Check out Dollhouses: The McKinley House.

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