Atop The Egg Pile

HAPPY EASTER!!

Oh wait - it's not Easter. It's just a normal Sunday in April. Sorry if you just jetted to Target to buy Easter baskets. You still have two weeks. You can thank me for all the time you now have to plan later.

I loved Easter when I was a kid. Holidays fall into a few categories when you're a kid. There are the present holidays - Christmas and Birthdays. The EATING holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, and then the beloved candy holidays. All of these overlap with dress-up holidays as well. You don't get into the beer holidays like St. Patrick's Day and New Year's until later in life.

Easter is one of the - deeper meanings aside, of course - don't get all overly serious on me - rare trifecta holidays that is a dress-up holiday, a candy holiday, an eating holiday. Halloween only matches two - dress-up and candy. I loved it. I looked forward to my dress every year, and even though I don't really have a sweet tooth, there were some candies unique to Easter that were some of my favorites, like Robin's Eggs and those beautiful, pastel wrapped Reese's peanut butter cups. MMM. Thankfully - my mother likes black jelly beans, or there would be a landfill of those near Bryan, TX. I loved the surprise factor too - hunting for our baskets, going on Easter Egg hunts (even though 100 degrees and boiled eggs don't mix that well - throw in rattlesnakes and fire ants for the real Texas twist! :)

I decided to show some love to one of my cutest little bundles - Basket Bunch - today for a very special cause (below). I love that there's a die that cuts out little egg shapes, so I cut a bunch out of watercolor paper and watercolored them, and then perched my little bunny on top :). I used two separate stamp sets (below) for the sentiment.

InLinkz.com

It's Autism awareness month this month, and I'm participating in a hop with some friends, several of whom family members somewhere on the autism spectrum. The instructions for our projects were to use the primaries in your card since red, blue and yellow are the Autism colors.

I have several close friends with autistic children, and I've learned about the struggles these parents and children face every minute of their lives. It's overwhelming, and I can't imagine the courage it takes. I didn't know that autism was added as a special education in 1991 and now is the sixth most common classified disability in the U.S. If I look out across my friends groups, I can see the percentages in real life. I've learned a ton from these people and their challenges, not the least of which is sensitivity to the fact that sometimes a parent or friend may be dealing with a lot more than you think.


The purpose of the blog hop is to raise awareness, as you will see many people doing this month, and to raise money for Autism Speaks - an organization that funds research, provides resources and advocacy for families. You can make a tax-deductible donation of any amount at my page here. My goal was to raise $150, so if you can help in any way - please do! Even a dollar would be wonderful.

Here are a list of my friends participating today - please check out what they've created - I can't wait to see it all myself!

1. Brian King
2. Julie DiMatteo
3. Sandi MacIver
4. Mary Deatherage
5. Lydia Fielder
6. Kim Vogel
7. Amy Koenders
8. Linda Geiger
9. Lisa Curcio
10. Candy Ford
11. Lisa Pretto
12. Jari Francis
13. Jaimie Babarczy
14. Beth Hooper
15. Sue Prather

And in two weeks, make the most of that dress-up/candy/eating holiday like you are five years old! :) Loveyameanitbye.