Nashville Wife

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Easter

Merry Christmas 2018!

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Christmas Opryland Hotel NashvilleMerry Christmas to all of my wonderful blog readers! How are you celebrating? What I love about holidays like Christmas, New Year’s, and Easter is that they are celebrated by people across the world, each with their own traditions. It’s just really neat to me to think about millions (if not billions) of folks from different countries and backgrounds, although thousands of miles apart, all focused on the same thing at the same time.

This year, Mr. Handsome and I are on baby watch. Perhaps our son will make his appearance tonight or tomorrow. Although he still isn’t due for another two weeks, I have been having quite a few contractions. We haven’t decided for sure what our plans are for the day, but we are going to make homemade deep dish pizza for dinner, which is something that he always did with his family growing up, and we are planning to watch The Sound of Music later. (Mr. Handsome isn’t a huge fan of Christmas movies.)

 

Giveaway: Piano CDs

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Hope your Easter was lovely. How did you celebrate? Did you take part in any pranks for April Fool’s Day? Or maybe someone pranked you?

In celebration of spring, I am giving away 2 sets of 2 CDs from award-winning pianist Anna Ferraro. To enter, follow the prompts on the Rafflecopter widget below. I have embedded a YouTube video below, as well.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

Photo courtesy of Anna Ferraro

Easter Weekend

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A few readers have asked how we celebrated Easter. We had quite the weekend! Mr. Handsome is an avid fisherman, so we spent some time fishing and were able to provide a meal for 17 friends and family members. Mr. Handsome and I each caught a 20-inch large mouth bass.

Mr. Handsome also did a painting party for his youngest sister, Lena, and her three closest friends. Lena was celebrating her 15th birthday with a sleepover and had “reserved” Mr. Handsome several months prior. He was honored that his sister wanted him to be part of her birthday celebration.

(Mr. Handsome is the oldest of seven, and it’s neat to watch him interact with his younger siblings. He takes his role as firstborn very seriously and is a great leader. There is a big age gap between the oldest five and the youngest two, which makes for a neat dynamic.)

The girls were very sweet, and their paintings all turned out really well. One accidentally dropped her painting on the new hardwood floors that my father-in-law had recently installed. He heard it fall and had a minor freak-out moment but was thankfully able to wipe the paint off the wood. And Mr. Handsome was somehow able to help the girl fix her painting.

oil painting lesson
oil painting lesson
oil painting lesson

Since Mr. Handsome and I have been married, we have always gotten together with both of our extended families (his parents, siblings, grandparents, and cousins and my parents, brother, and sister-in-law) for Easter. Everyone enjoys that tradition because it allows both sides of the family to have more time with us, and it prevents Mr. Handsome and me from having to travel to multiple gatherings. We sang Easter hymns, ate BBQ, and played cards. The guys, who are huge basketball fans, watched the March Madness semifinals.

And, of course, we dressed up in our Easter best and attended church. How did you celebrate the holiday?

My Tennessee Easter Egg–Featured in Food Network Magazine

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Nashville Wife in Food Network MagazineHappy First Day of Spring! We had plenty of spring weather earlier this month, although, ironically, today feels more like winter. But never mind the wind and rain–I have an exciting announcement to share with all my wonderful readers.

A few months ago, I was contacted by a representative from Food Network Magazine and asked to play a role in the April edition. The issue has officially hit the newsstands, so I am finally able to share the details of my involvement.

In celebration of Easter, Food Network Magazine wrote a story that features a decorated Easter egg from all 50 states, and I was given the honor of decorating the Tennessee egg. Naturally, I decided to tap into my husband’s artistic talent to create this unique work of art. (For those who don’t know, Mr. Handsome is a painter.) The two of us had a blast working together on this project.

We chose a banjo to represent the Americana, country, and bluegrass music that Tennessee has helped mold and create. We chose a river to represent the great waterways that flow through Tennessee and set the state apart as a center for industry and trade. We superimposed these images over the Great Smoky Mountains, which represent the beauty of nature that all Tennesseans know and love.

We did several practice runs, some with hard boiled eggs and others with “empty” eggs, and tried a few different designs. (If you poke a hole in both ends of an egg, you can blow the yolk out and be left with just the shell.) We always started with a pencil sketch.

Tennessee Easter Egg tutorial

It took a bit of time to find the right medium. We first used artist-grade colored pencils (better quality than the colored pencils used by children) but decided they weren’t quite bold enough.

Tennessee Easter Egg tutorial

After spending some time wandering around our local Hobby Lobby, I ended up purchasing a small set of acrylic paints and some tiny, tiny brushes. The brushes have a max of about 10 thin bristles per brush–so small that they are nearly microscopic!

Tennessee Easter Egg tutorial
The Food Network sent me an Eggnot (a fake egg that looks and feels real) on which to do the final design. The other option was to use a real hard boiled egg for the finished product, but something about sending a hard boiled egg through the mail to New York City just seemed a little strange to me.

Of course, we made several mistakes along the way, like attempting to draw or paint on a hard boiled egg that was either too hot, which made the paint run, or too cold, which created condensation. We managed to get paint all over our fingers and dining table. Thankfully, that was before I refinished the table (tutorial coming soon) or else I might have had a small panic attack.

Tennessee Easter Egg tutorial
On a couple of the trial eggs, we added the cityscapes of the three major Tennessee cities (Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville) but decided that they made the egg look too cluttered.

Tennessee Easter Egg tutorial
After much trial and error, we came up with a design that we loved.
Tennessee Easter Egg tutorial

Be sure to pick up a copy of the April issue of Food Network Magazine to see all the creative Easter eggs reflecting our 50 states.

Food Network Magazine United States of Easter Eggs
Food Network Magazine United States of Easter Eggs

Mr. Handsome’s Great-Grandmother

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Mr. Handsome and I spent Easter weekend with family. We saw both our immediate families, as well as both sides of Mr. Handsome’s extended family. All the ladies attended a bridal shower for my almost-21-year-old sister-in-law, who is getting married in early summer. (Remember when I posted pictures of her engagement party?)

Last week, my mother-in-law called and informed us that her grandmother (Mr. Handsome’s great-grandmother) would be at the shower and suggested we bring one of Mr. Handsome’s paintings for her.

Almost 102 years old, Great-Grandma lives alone, and she is a spitfire. She and Mr. Handsome have a special bond because they both have a dry sense of humor and enjoy poking fun at each other. When I handed Great-Grandma the wrapped painting, one of the great-aunts, who has a similar sense of humor, exclaimed, “I think it’s a baseball!” As she was leaving, Great-Grandma reminded me to be sure to thank my husband for the baseball.

Amidst all the joking, Great-Grandma truly was touched to receive such a heartfelt gift. She has a dozen grandchildren and a few dozen
great-grandchildren, and she gives all of them (plus their spouses) presents  at Christmas, but very few of them acknowledge her. We’re not sure how much longer she will be with us, but we want to make her feel special while she’s here.

*Have you been down the Oregon Coast? The scene pictured in the painting is Heceta Head Lighthouse, located in Florence, Oregon. It is based on the photos we took of the lighthouse when we visited last October.

2 Million Pageviews

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Just reached 2 million pageviews on NashvilleWife.com! (2,075,803 to be exact.) I am grateful for all my lovely readers from across the globe. Check out my video message below. Wishing you and your family a blessed Easter.

Happy (Belated) Easter

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He is not here, but is risen. 
~Luke 24:6a

Happy Easter! I took the weekend off blogging, so I apologize for the late post.

Mr. Handsome and I were thrilled to be able to spend the holiday at a two-day gathering with his immediate and extended family, as well as my immediate family. (My extended family lives very far away, so we rarely see them on holidays.)

My in-laws attend church in a building that is more than 120 years old, which made for a beautiful setting for our gathering. The vibrant red front door was the perfect backdrop for our Easter picture.

On Saturday, we had lunch and dinner at the church, with plenty of games and chitchat in between. Instead of a traditional Easter egg hunt, we competed in a Scripture-based scavenger hunt, with Bible verses from the Easter story as clues. The church has an antique pipe organ, so we enjoyed playing Easter-themed hymns.

After church on Sunday, we had another meal together before saying our goodbyes. How did you celebrate Easter?