I collect Childcraft books that I find in charity shops. I love their illustrations and each book is packed with examples of popular drawing styles of the time.
I happen to have the holidays & customs edition, so let's see what it has for Easter.
I don't have a taxidermy bunny, but I do have a Jackalope, who surely must be some distant cousin of the Easter Bunny.
Have a great Easter break!
I remember when I was a kid, if you got an egg with a matching mug, that was big news. The free mug was pretty darn cool. Now a days there are all sorts of free gifts and varieties of Easter egg, but it's Marks & Spencer who push things one step further out there every year, with innovative egg products such as this year's show stopper- a spinning, silver chocolate disco ball.
When Smix spotted it he immediately required it! It spins in the box & he says the chocolate tastes like Magnum ice lolly chocolate. It's £10 and definitely the stand out product from the kids' range, but there are more goodies too.
The intricate Frozen castle shaped 'egg' is back this year, plus a Thomas the Tank Engine shaped chocolate delight, and Percy & Penny sweet statues.
Bendy Bob is a new addition, plus there are white chocolate options and plenty of bunnies.
Laid Back Lamb is flying off the shelves, with his wacky wool and happy face.
For your ever so cool teenager, this quirky chocolate bunny is almost too good to eat. If hipsters designed Easter eggs....
Besides your straightforward egg selection, M&S are also a great place to stock up on items for a garden east egg hunt. There are specific kits you can buy to make a hunt, or there are bundles of mini eggs you can purchase to put together a hunt yourself.
I also adore the bunny jar, which could be used to store cotton buds for your makeup area afterward.
There are hampers of different sizes and prices with all you will need for an Easter party. You'll have biscuits, sweets and plenty of chocolate.
Of course Marks and Spencer are known for their 'grown up' fancy pants eggs too. Many to choose from this year.
I like the options of nougat or fudge eggs, an alternative to the endless chocolate variety.
And don't forget Bennet! From tiny Beau, right up to Bennet who is £20 and almost a kilogram of chocolate!
The £2 Hot Cross Bun flavoured fudge just can't be missed. Make sure you pick up a pack of it to try.
Even those who don't like chocolate can enjoy these little jelly bunnies.
So what's your favourite Easter 2017 Marks & Spencer goodie?
Easter is early this year, but the weather is looking promising, should you wish to go egg hunting at the weekend. Cadbury have paired with The National Trust once again, to put on over 300 hunts across the country. Use the hunt locator on their site to see where your nearest event is being held.
It just so happened that we decided to take a spin to Mount Stewart today, one of the Northern Irish National Trust properties hosting a hunt. Their festivities run from Friday 23rd until Monday 25th, and for £1 each, your kids can take part in the lake lapping adventure. The parents get quite competitive at things too, as I remember from previous years!
Bunny hadn't visited yet, but we had a nice visit and made a little video to share with you.
Coincidentlly we had planned to make our own treasure hunt for viewers of the Smix Brix YouTube channel. My friend Pamela had told me about an app that uses augmented reality called Aurasma.
How it works is person A takes a photo of say the harp, while standing at the red hand. They add the augmented reality aspect and save to Aurasma's database. Person B will come along, open their Aurasma app and stand where they've been told to stand, and point the screen's searching circles, which hopefully will circle in, then they will have the same augmented reality animation or video pop up on their phone. It's sort of like a trigger to make your device play a fun little gif or character.
The device you are searching with has to be online as it were. A non-sim iPad wouldn't work unless you somehow can connect to wifi or someone's phone's tethering. The video above will show you exactly where to stand, and what to point your device at to view the surprise animations.
So Mount Stewart is a lot of fun this weekend. You may well bump into us again, as we will be back for the Cadbury hunt as usual. also if you haven't been in a while it's worth going to see the house renovations. Touring the grand house is included in the entrance price.
A good proportion of my hits this week come from people searching for Marks and Spencer's Easter products and finding last year's blog post. So I'm rushing in this blog post with this year's Food Hall bits and bobs so it's up to date.
There are kids' eggs, fancy pants grown up eggs, even dairy free eggs and hide & seek hunt kits. Let take a look at everything from my visit to the Sprucefield store during the week.
The fancy eggs, with the crowning glory, the limited edition, £40, purple and gold, regal chocolate Cosmic Egg.
I chose the coffee egg for my Dad. Even when I was a child I remember him often buying these little mocha bars of chocolate from M&S, when the only Food Hall was in the city centre M&S in the 80s.
The passion fruit ganache eggs are out of this world. Slightly bigger than a Creme Egg, but with a scrumptious filling of tropical creaminess.
Families with allergies to consider can pick up these dairy free eggs alongside the traditional chocolate ones.
The kids' eggs I chose to bring home were the apple shaped Colin egg, and the chocolate orange Flavour carrot. I'm not always keen on M&S's plain milk chocolate, but the Orange zested version is delicious.
I also picked the Egg Hunt kit which is on offer right now, half price at £5.
Here are the other kids' eggs in store.
There are plenty of egg sets for planning a garden Easter egg hunt.
Also various sizes of chocolate bunnies to chose from.
I spotted many Easter items amongst the biscuits and buns. M&S always have a wonderful selection of fancy hot cross buns each year. The fudge ones are a must buy, and the addition of mini mocha hot cross buns this year is a stroke of genius. The offer is two for £2.50 and you can mix and match flavours within that.
Personally I haven't gotten into the way of sending Easter cards, but if you do, M&S have a bright and breezy range to choose from.
Some more biscuits to choose from. I also imagine there will be Easter themed cakes closer to the actual Easter Sunday.
Millers' Butchers in County Fermanagh here in Northern Ireland have concocted this bizarre recipe that sounds so peculiar that it might just be delicious....
Take a Cadbury's Creme Egg, wrap it in sausage meat & deep fat fry that thing.
Would YOU try one?
Image thanks to @orielgirl1
I've shown you the gorgeous selection of Easter eggs Marks & Spencer have available this spring, but there's more to Easter than just the chocolate. They also have more flavours of hot cross buns than I thought existed, with an offer that lasts all Easter of two packs for £2.50. I mixed and matched flavours and tried the toffee and fudge, and apple varieties.
There are also delicious hot cross bun flavoured cookies, and lots of Easter treats.
And don't forget to stock up on fish for Friday.
And brighten up the house with some fresh blooms for spring.
Lots of Easter cards for friends who are far away.
We had an Easter Egg Hunt.
Easter Dinner
Bunny dinner
Cream Egg Ice cream
We then drove to Groomsport, Cockle Row for crafts and Easter babies.
Hope you all had a lovely Easter Sunday with your families and friends.
As heard on BBC Radio 6's Lauren Laverne Show.
