Entertaining

All The Springy Things

April showers, et cetera et cetera

The school I attended up through the sixth grade was technically Protestant – the hint being its name, Trinity – and students were required to attend Chapel each week, but, oddly enough, the student body was predominantly Jewish. So was the student body at Dalton, where I spent the remainder of my grade school years. And so was I, sort of – my dad is Jewish. Except my mom is a lapsed Protestant. And both of them are atheists. So I guess you could say that when it came to holidays, religion didn’t exactly play a big role – we essentially cherrypicked the ones that seemed to make sense to us to celebrate, and celebrated those in a way that made sense to us, too.

Easter was never really a big deal in our house; it always came upon me out of nowhere, like an afterthought to Valentine’s Day (the Easter Bunny usually delivered my basket of creme eggs in the morning, shortly after my parents had ushered me back into bed; it appears that I wasn’t the only one who Easter took by surprise). Once, when I was in fifth grade, a friend of mine took me to an Easter service with her family. I remember being excited to dress up in my favorite plaid skirt, and I remember the kids got to go up on stage to pet a rabbit, but that’s about it.

As an adult, I still tend to forget about Easter until it’s actually there, but my experience of it is generally lovely nonetheless. I enjoy that it’s a day that families tend to spend together. I enjoy hiding plastic eggs around the yard for our kids to find, and how everyone seems determined to pretend spring is finally there even if it’s not, and how it always feels like a good day to go for a walk.

So here, in celebration of Easter (and the season, more generally) are a few of my favorite Spring-y things.

1/11

Making Peep Sushi (a.k.a. "Peepshi")

Now that we’ve established that you’re making Peepshi, because of course you are, click through the link so I can tell you how to do it.

2/11

Easter Strawberry Cream Cake

This dessert is all casually elegant, sort of like if the Hamptons died and came back as a pastry.

3/11

The Potential for an Easter Bunny Encounter

#neverforget #scarybunny

4/11

Dresses and Bare Legs and Flats

I wore this to shoot a 2012 Jordan in the House episode about – yes – Spring decor, and it’s still one of my favorite looks ever. (That hair! I had nothing to do with it, obviously.)

5/11

Fresh, Light Bedding

Good-bye heavy wool blankets; hello white on white on white (with flowers).

6/11

Spring Cleaning Everything, Everywhere

CLEAN ALL THE THINGS.

Like the garage.

And the bathrooms.

And the gross pet spots.

And all those other places that you forget to clean all year long but may feel inspired to clean now, because it’s Spring.

7/11

Planting Season Is Here

I grew up scared of grass (because bugs, and dirt, and possibly heroin needles) – and now my garden is one of my favorite places on the planet to hang out in. Over the past few years I’ve taught myself about xeriscaping, and growing plants from cuttings, and when to plant bulbs, and all sorts of other things I never in a million years thought I’d know. (Still not a huge fan of grass, though.)

8/11

Bare Skin and Freckles

More sunlight hours = happy, glowy skin = as little makeup as possible.

9/11

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Sometimes all the farmer’s market bounty is so impressive that even I can’t help but make a salad (like this Cucumber and Watermelon Salad with Hoisin Dressing).

10/11

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere

That’s Lucy enjoying her fabulous new spring hairdo at a garden party I once threw that was meant to be outdoors, and ended up being indoors (thanks, April)…but ended up being a total Spring Explosion nevertheless.

11/11

The Fact That This Photo Exists

Bonus Spring-related thing that makes me happy: When I search the word “spring” on my site, this photo pops up.

What is happening here? Do I think what Stephen Baldwin is saying is extremely interesting, or am I just silently recalling his star turn in the 1994 masterpiece Threesome?

Why is there an arrow pointing to my necklace that helpfully indicates that it is, in fact, a necklace?

So many questions.

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