My life has been so blessed by the virtual friends and acquaintances that I have made on the Internet. Sometimes I marvel at how my life is enriched by new friends and new ideas because of technology. Without the Internet, I would not know these great folks, be able to associate with them, rub virtual shoulders with them, or be inspired by all of their creativity and fabulous ideas. I am a better person because of them.

If you, Dear Reader, do not ‘know’ Granmdma’s Little Pearls, I suggest you drop by her site. Wait!  What am I saying.  Don’t just do a drive-by visit, by golly.  Bookmark her site and visit it regularly.  She is one of those wonderful virtual friends.  She has some of the most clever and the most creative ideas that you ever did see!

Take, for instance, her Easter cupcakes. They are so pretty and festive.  They are almost too pretty to eat. (She has graciously allowed me to use her photo.  See?  Isn’t she wonderful?)

When my klutzy little hands saw these sweeties, they almost fainted.  They worried that those cupcakes would be complicated. (My hands were remembering my cake pop flops.)

“Never fear,” I cajoled them after reading Grandma Shelley’s directions.  “‘Twill be easy.”

My hands grumbled and snorted in disbelief.  I can’t wait to prove them wrong.  Making these cupcakes is on my to-do-with-the-grandkids-when-they-get-a-wee-bit-older list.  (Maybe they should be on my list to do now so that I will be skilled when the time comes to make them with my grand chickabiddies!)

Grandma Shelley also does some great things for her annual Grandma Camp.  Please check out the secret agent theme that she is doing this year.  Fun, fun, fun. Her ‘senior agent’ looks so authentic!  Gotta love what she did for his tie.

What are your Easter traditions that you do with your grandchildren?  Or for Grandma Camp? Leave a comment and let me know.

Such pretty pastel Easter-ness!  That’s what I discovered on Jen’s website paint cut paste — a site dedicated to inspiring young artists.

Aren’t these egg shell candles absolutely darling?  It would be so fun to have a flock of them as a centerpiece on my table!  Visit Jen’s site to learn how to make those lovely eggshell candles.

Her tutorial is exceptionally easy to follow and she has wonderful pictures that demonstrate the process.  It seems so easy that I think that even my klutzy hands could manage to make one or two of these little fellas. Maybe.

If you have teen-aged grandchildren, this would be a fabulous Easter activity to do with them.  You could even present them with their own egg cup in their Easter basket.  You can get a white egg cup for $2. (But white is so boring, don’t you think?)  Here’s a set of 4 Autumn Leaves egg cups that costs $36.  (If you’ve got some granddaughters, they would absolutely loves these egg cups!)  Here is a dozen pastel egg cups for $41 (full of soft spring/Easter color and itsy bitsy polka dots) or a set of 6 stainless steel ones (that might appeal to older grandsons) for $8.  Oh, so many choices . . .

Jen also paints wooden Easter Eggs with water colors.  Back in the dark ages of  my younger years, I painted wooden eggs.  But I made them a solid color.  And they were the colors of the day — slate blue, mauve, sage green.  Compared to Jen’s eggs, mine look so . . . so . . . so old fashioned.  (Like me, I guess!)

Her eggs are more festive and colorful!  It makes me want to re-paint the ones that I have.

(Hmmmmm. . . . I’m not sure if I could paint water colors over acrylic paint.  Guess I’d just better run out to ye olde craft store and get new ones to paint!

Once you make these eggshell candles, pray tell what are you going to do with all of the egg innards?  Make a souffle? A quiche? Scramble the darn things?

I have a better idea.  One that is much sweeter.  Make this Butterfinger Cake.

Butterfinger Cake

1 Angel Food Cake (baked)
1 cube butter softened
4 egg yolks
2 cups powdered sugar
16 ounces Cool Whip
2 medium sized Butterfinger candy bars

Put the candy bars in the freezer before you start putting this cake together. Cream the butter, egg yolks, powdered sugar and Cool Whip.  In a 9 X 13 inch pan, crumble 1/2 of the Angel Food cake into pieces.  Put 1/2 of the creamed mixture over the cake chunks.  Take the candy bars out of the freezer.  Crush one candy bar and sprinkle over the creamed mixture.  Add the rest of the crumbled up cake.  Top that with the remaining creamed mixture.  Crush the second candy bar and sprinkle on top of the cake.  Store cake in fridge.

(I’m rather lay-zeeeee!  Sometimes I think that it’s easier to buy an Angel Food cake than to make one from scratch or a cake mix.  It saves lots of time.)

This is an exceedingly rich and yummy cake.  (Here’s a question for you: can a cake be rich in flavor and not be yummy?)  You probably will only want to eat small servings — but then that means you get lots of little servings of a fabulous cake instead of pigging out on just a few huge servings.

I want to thank Jen of paint cut paste for allowing me to use her pictures and to link to her outstandingly creative ideas.  Not only is she creative and artistic, she is also generous!   (By the way, she is an artist AND an art therapist.  Yikes!  I almost feel intimidated because I am so NOT artistic.  I wonder what she would say about about my stick figure drawings — that is about as artistically advanced as I get — that only a mother could love???)

Oh, and by the way, be sure to check her site in the next day or two.  She’s brewing something intriguing with leaves that I can’t wait to see what she’s done!

NOTE: for more ideas, be sure to check out my free resource Easter Ideas.

Do you have any grandchildren that are in the process of being potty trained?  Or recently trained? Then possibly, that grandchild might enjoy the book Who’s in the Bathroom by Jeanne Willis.  (It’s good for pre-school age through first grade.)

In this book, two children are standing in line to use a public bathroom.  The line is moving exceedingly slow and it is taking them FOREVER and they needed to go to the bathroom really, really bad.

Who’s in the bathroom?
We’d all like to know.
And why are they being so terribly slow?
We’re all getting desperate. It’s our turn to go!

The children imagine all sorts of zany reasons why it’s taking so long.  Could it be a whale, a rat, a penguin, or the shepherd who is using a sheep as a toilet brush? Of course, there is potty humor.  But tasteful potty humor (in my humble opinion)  — if potty humor can be tasteful. (However, there is a slight chance that some people might be offended by the book . . .  Make sure you read it before you buy it.)

I’m thinking that this would be a fun gift to give a grandchild who is in the process of being potty trained or who was recently potty trained.  It would be fun to give the book and some ruffly panties to a granddaughter or some Spiderman BVDs to a grandson.

The summer between my freshman and sophomore year at college, I lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Just a short distance away was Hershey, Pennsylvania.  My friends in Lancaster said that the air in Hershey smelled like chocolate.  I never got to go there.  Sigh.  That town must be pure chocolate heaven.

Which brings me to today’s topic.  Not wanting to be left behind by its crafting cousins, Hershey’s has posted some Easter crafts and recipes — all spotlighting Hershey’s chocolate of course!

Go here to celebrate Easter with help from our Hershey friends.

There are directions for a Pot-o-Posies, a chick basket, and a chocolate floral bouquet. Yum-fun if you ask me.  (Even if you don’t ask me, it’s still yummy and still fun.)  There’s even directions to make a wreath from Whoppers — but it’s almost sacrilege to hot glue Whoppers to a wreath so you can’t eat the candy!

They have divine recipes for Fudgey Coconut Clusters, Peanut Butter Bunny Cakes, and Easter Basket Cupcakes.

And, Grandmothers, the best idea (at least to me anyway) is the cute bunny and chick bags that you can make.  (They have directions and a colored pattern to print and use.)

Viva le chocolate!