April 5, 2012

Easter

So, along with my plans of fixing up the house for as free as possible, I set myself the goal of having a free Easter this year.

Okay, honestly, it won’t be capital-F Free, because we’ll use up materials around the house that we could have used on other things. But no buying chocolate bunnies, or chocolate eggs, or fancy baskets, or plasticky toys.

Well when I made this plan it was about six weeks ago and I thought I had a lot of time. And so of course I got cocky and didn’t work on things and then last weekend I was all, “wait, what? one week?” And now it’s the Wednesday before Easter.

Oooooh-kay, I might cave and supplement with a few things. But not much. Also, I have a few things lying around and packed away from my spend-thrift days when I would buy too much for Easter, or Birthday Party Treat Bags or Christmas Stockings and then put some of it away thinking, “I’ll use that next Birthday”. I won’t be able to pull that off every year – but good thrift starts with using what you have, right?

Here’s the rest of my plan.

I will be making as much homemade candy as possible. Starting with these peanut butter eggs (Recipe: Tip Junkie). If I have time, I want to try making homemade gelatin-free gummy candies too. Maybe even gelatin-free marshmallow eggs? If I don’t have time, some regular-type baking (eg, cupcakes or cinnamon buns) will go over well with the kids, fo’ sho’.

I decided to make baskets based on this tutorial by Brett Bara.

I considered various other basket solutions including sewing them out of fabric scraps, knitting them, crocheting them, etc. But I decided on this one so I could use newsprint flyers that we have around the house. The other ideas would use up materials that I could use for bigger, better projects. You don’t get much more free than flyers – which is about appropriate since the kids variously neglect, destroy or lose Easter Baskets.