Whether you are planning a gathering with friends in your back garden or a picnic in the park, you will want to dress your table or picnic blanket to create a sense of Easter celebration.
Handy for a picnic is the Alessi picnic basket, which is elegant like a handbag and small enough to carry by foot to the park (alessi.com). I will be packing the Fat Boy Picnic Lounge, a large picnic blanket in the style of an elegant oriental rug, which is not only waterproof, it can also be secured by pinning it to the grass so it does not fly away with the first gust of wind, which might be necessary with the unpredictable English Spring weather (fatboy.com). I will be serving my guests some Pimm’s or elderflower water in an unbreakable “crystal” pitcher by Guzzini with some sausages from the portable Eva Solo charcoal table BBQ (fratelliguzzini.com) (evasolo.com). As a treat and something different to the usual chocolate eggs, I will add some English Garden Flowers Macarons by Oh la la! to the picnic basket (ohlala.co).
I cannot wait to host guests again in my back garden. I love dressing the table with a linen tablecloth, colourful vintage glassware and lots of spring blossom. I will use small rattan baskets filled with chocolate eggs and some sweet Easter bunnies crackers from Meri Meri for the children to decorate the table (mermeri.co.uk). Another easy homemade Easter decoration are leaf printed hard boiled eggs. Simply fill some jam jars with hot water, two table spoons of distilled vinegar and egg ink and pick some flowers or leaves (ideally with a defined outline). Then place the flower or leaf on the egg and fix it in place with a piece of pre-cut sheer tights (10 denier or similar cut into tubes around 15cm long), which you pull over the egg and secure with string or elastic band. After dipping the egg in the paint for 5 minutes, remove the tight and leaf/flower to reveal beautifully leaf printed Easter eggs. If you place them on a platter or in a little basket with some moss, they make a beautiful Easter centre piece.
To keep my guests warm in the evening, I have some old Swiss army blankets at the ready as well as some colourful throws by Fermob (fermob.com). For outdoor lighting I love the portable Singapour collection by Market Set. These lantern-style lights look great in the back garden but can also easily be carried to the park (marketset.fr).
