Happy Easter!

My parents came up to visit me recently and brought me some truly precious treasures from my childhood. They cleaned out the rafters and brought me some awesome relics, including my collections of action figures, Breyer horses, and Beanie Babies (Ha!) that I thought were lost to the ages. But the most precious of all, pictured above, were two minuscule Easter baskets I made for them when I was in middle school, probably the year 2000.

Yup, they're that small. And guess what they're made out of? No, not plastic, but REAL EGGS! I don't know how I ever made such things as a kid; I could barely set them up to photograph them today! I remember it clear as day, using cuticle scissors to cut tiny pieces out of a hollowed-out egg. I think I broke 2 or 3 before I got two good ones. And the bases are paper pieces that I cut out of a doily. I can't even see the glue where I attached them, but they're on there real good!

I filled the basket with tiny toys, little creatures I made out of pom poms, and candies made from play dough. My favorite are the cookies; little flat disks of yellow clay wrapped in cellophane. There used to be a store in the Victorian district of Paso Robles that was the home and workshop of a woman who made the most amazingly detailed miniatures and dollhouses I've ever seen. Mom and I would go there all the time, and while we couldn't afford to buy much, my tiny brain was overcome with inspiration and the need to create tiny masterpieces. This is the closest I ever got.

I made the bow and the flowers on the baskets too. The flowers are fringed embroidery floss and wire. All of the ideas came from Martha Stewart Living, to which I had a subscription for much of my junior high and high school years. Even as a kid I was destined to be a blogger - I remember the year I made these baskets I had challenged myself to make at least one thing from each new issue of MSL that arrived in our mailbox. I didn't have a blog back then - heck, I don't even think there really was such a thing yet. But I did the challenge and all my friends and family were witnesses. This was obviously April. I remember in February I made rice krispie treats with Valentine-colored M&M's and the crayon hearts shown here.

The chick gets me. It has little feet, a little beak, and even eyes made from dots of a single strand of thread or embroidery floss. Gee whiz. There was also a big version in the container:

My dear friend Star brought me easter lillies last weekend when we had a little dinner party. I made a fantastic creamy leek soup, and I'll post the recipe/tutorial later on. Anywho, Happy Easter! May you be surrounded by tiny miracles.