Easter Tree

I had so much fun putting up my Easter tree yesterday. It’s one of my favorite rites of spring! I love having a tree in my living room, even if it’s fake.

The tree itself is kind of weird. It’s made of white-painted rusty metal and really doesn’t look a bit like a tree. But I load it up with silk flowers and glittery glass ladybugs and birds—and when I’m all done, the effect is quite charming, I think.

Making Easter ornaments is how I get through the gray, dreary days of January and February. I like to sit at the dining room table, up to my elbows in pastel felt, ribbon, and seed pearls, and create very poorly sewn bunnies, chicks, lambs, and other baby farm animals. The fact that they all tend to have some sort of deformity—uneven eyes, maybe, or one small leg and one big one—only makes them more endearing to me.

When I’m sewing, I like to listen to audiobooks and run my trusty little space heater as the chandelier makes rainbows on the walls. It’s so cozy listening to somebody read me a story. Buntin, our passionate tortie, likes to nap on the table, on a tuffet of felt scraps, as I work and the tale unfolds around us. She’s very devoted. Sometimes Rob will come by and praise her purity of heart: “Oh, look at sweet little Buntie,” he might say. “All the other cats want treats, but Buntin just wants to be friends.”