I had fully intended to post my Thanksgiving tablescape today but I can’t let the opportunity slip by without wishing my most loyal follower, most frequent commenter, my best friend, one of my two favorite people in the world, my beautiful (inside and out) daughter – a Happy Birthday!

Marissa Lynn, I love you to the moon and back! Ever since you’ve lived away from home, basically since your freshman year in college, my favorite thing about Thanksgiving has been that it is so close to your birthday. You always come home for Thanksgiving, which means I always get to celebrate YOU!

I’ll keep with the Thanksgiving posts and show a few photos of the Thanksgiving centerpieces I made. How gorgeous are these Velvet Queen Sunflowers!

They really do look and feel like velvet. I found them at Trader Joe’s and went crazy over them.

I used my orange and green pumpkin soup tureens as the vessels for the flowers. I then set those, along with their lids, atop wood slabs that were set on top of dyed and natural burlap runners.

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Today and tomorrow will round out the posts from Easter. The problem is, I can’t decide which to do first, the dessert or the tablescape. So while I’m thinking about it – I’ll begin with this, the last entry from my Austin trip.

First, there was our boat cruise on Lady Bird Lake to watch the bats, then we got on the lake once again. This time on WaterBikes.

It’s an easy and fun way to cruise down the river and you’re just about guaranteed to stay dry. It would take some real effort to tip one of these over or fall off. I like staying dry! Plus, look at that gorgeous view of downtown Austin. Totally worth it!

We had a good variety of meals while I was there. I already told you about the Gospel Brunch at Stubb’s BBQ. We also enjoyed wonderful seafood at the very cute and quaint Clark’s Oyster Bar where we, of course, had oysters.

Our high-end night out was at Lenoir Restaurant, a farm-to-table – prix-fixe menu, sort of place.

What I enjoyed most about Lenoir was that they let you choose your three prix-fixe items from any part of the menu you wish. Generally, you must pick one dish from each category; let’s say one from Field, one from Sea, one from Land, and/or a dish from Dream. Here, you can have all three of your selections from Sea if that’s what you want to do. Nice!

Clockwise from the Top we had: Tuna Crudo, Cashew Ginger Soup, Braised Pork, Smoked Duck, Herb Stozzapreti, and Almond Crusted Snapper. I think this was Marissa’s favorite meal of the weekend.

My favorite was at a place much more casual, El Alma, which is within walking distance from the kids’ apartment. Marissa had the vegetarian Enchiladas Placeras, while Jeff and I had the Shrimp and Crab Relleno. The best Relleno I’ve had in a very long time! I’ll be dreaming about it until I get my fix the next time I visit!

That wraps up Austin. And posting that helped me decide that today it would be best to share the Easter tablescape with you. The dessert, a cake, has so many photos to go along with it, that I’ll save that for tomorrow when I have no more travel photos to share.

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I know! It’s only been 10 days since my self-induced “break” – but it’s the day before Easter and I can’t help myself!

Just in case you haven’t already figured out your Easter meal decor, and since there is still time to get to Costco or the grocery store… I felt like I should at least share this cheap and easy floral display today.

I was at Costco yesterday to buy Easter supper stuff. I knew I wanted to get the carrot soup taken care of, well ahead of time, and I didn’t have the patience or the time to go to the grocery store to buy the carrots.  Instead, I bought a huge 10-pound bag of carrots at Costco!

Laziness wins out over practicability!

I knew that having an extra 6 pounds of carrots in my house wasn’t a problem because if I peel, trim and cut them, Dave will have those polished off in a matter of days. He LOVES carrots!

I also picked up three bunches of tulips and one huge bundle of white stock.  I knew what the plan for the tulips was but hadn’t given much thought to the stock until this morning while I was peeling the 4 pounds of carrots for the soup…

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That pretty much sums up my Easter theme this year. Lots of eggs, a plethora of birdcages, with plenty of moss, twigs, and natural materials. Yesterday I showed you my moss table runner and moss-covered pots, and today some of my egg ideas.  And tomorrow, some easy and kid-friendly Easter cupcakes.

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