It may seem that the Easter holidays have been cancelled thanks to the closure of schools, social distancing and lockdown measures, but as the Queen has said, we now need it more than ever. The prospect of celebrating Easter and springtime in general may seem gloomy, but it doesn’t have to be. We have fewer resources to decorate our homes, true, but the silver lining comes from findings in cognitive research which suggest that when we have fewer resources, we are actually more creative.
So, since our click-and-collect culture of mass consumerism is off-limits for the moment, embrace this chance to be more creative as you celebrate the season.
Decorations
You are unlikely to have any visitors this Easter holiday, but a well-presented doorway will still inspire you as you go for your bout of daily exercise. Why not try an Easter or spring wreath? The 33cm Egg Easter Wreath from Lights4Fun binds together pastel eggs with supple twigs and intertwines these with small LED lights. You can use items from Hobbycraft to recreate it instead of purchasing. Go online and purchase a Rattan Grapevine Wreath, and go to the supermarket for a packet of Mini Eggs. You can PVA-glue a selection of the Mini Eggs to the wreath, then insert some artificial daisies from Hobbycraft alongside the eggs, and finally, you can repurpose the Christmas lights you have in the attic to bring the ensemble to life.
Our worlds have contracted enormously over the last month. The city is our living room, and the farthest horizon is the garden gate. The most appropriate Easter style for this vast territory would be wicker furniture. Rattan wicker is currently the most popular variety. A climbing vine that hails from Malaysia, rattan’s lightweight yet durably springy structure makes it perfect for garden furniture, which must withstand everything from the occasional bump to 12-hour lounge-a-thons. Cube tables and dining sets are chic yet understated and can be rearranged to suit your garden. If you are willing to spend a little more money and effort, go for redwood patio furniture. If you have a wooden patio, a slightly darker or lighter shade of redwood chair will offset your patio beautifully, giving it an appearance of richness and variety that it would otherwise lack. Unlike rattan, however, redwood furniture, although durable, will require periodic cleaning and varnishing.
Cooking
For the kids this Easter, you can’t go wrong with chocolate corn-flake cakes. You only need half a bar of chocolate, golden syrup, cornflakes, and some Mini Eggs . The cakes have been a mainstay of spring fêtes and community festivals for decades, and for good reason.
For a special family dinner, try roast chicken. This recipe is versatile since you can have whatever vegetables you want with it, but it is also simple since the only real essentials are a chicken, chicken stock cubes, gravy, potatoes, and peas or mixed vegetables. To refine the dish, baste in salted butter and garlic cloves, and season with bay leaves, pinch salt, and black pepper.
How are celebrities coping?
Entertainment writers like Mark Kennedy claim that the lockdown has changed the way we interact with celebrities. We now see them in a more genuine light, at home, in front of their bathroom mirrors, occasionally dishevelled, and sometimes as bored out of their minds as we are . We see Liam Hemsworth, shirtless, in bed, telling us to ‘stay at home, stay in bed’. Justin Bieber parades around his multi-million-dollar mansion in a onesie playing ‘The Floor is Lava’, for the benefit of 9 million spectators. David Beckham stages elaborate Easter-egg hunts with his children, and even cheekily pilfers some Mini Eggs from his eight-year-old son, Harper-Seven. To all of these stories there is an air of endorsement. They could just as well be posing for the ‘stay-at-home’ campaign as for GQ, Armani, or Calvin Klein.
Nevertheless, some celebrities are using the opportunity of lockdown to forge more candid, personal relationships with their fan base. Rochelle (formerly of The Saturdays) and her boyfriend Marvin (formerly of JLS) have begun posting images of their children as they frolic in the April sun on an enormous square trampoline. Rochelle has been frank about this being a new step for her since she has previously shielded her children from the predatory camera flashes of the paparazzi. Perhaps this is a signal of things to come? If celebrities are allowed to see that they can be more sincere and honest with their fans, maybe it will continue after the lockdown, and we can see them as human beings instead of avatars for movies and designer fragrances.
However you are spending the Easter holidays, we hope you have fun!
Even more fun with some stylish suggestions in Lady Popular Fashion Arena
Image by FotografieLink via Pixabay
Image by Alexas_Fotos via Pixabay
