Easter in the Garden... with Crayons!

Who says setting up a dining table for Easter brunch has to be fussy?
Or expensive?
Or require you dashing around from store to store looking for the perfect flower or accent?
When chances are you probably already have exactly what you need if you looked around your house and gathered it all up.
I challenged myself to put together an easy-breezy garden table setting that would be fun for Easter by using anything I already had around the house.
You could too.

My picks:

Plain ole brown kraft wrapping paper
Potted plants from the garden
Candles
Galvanized charger plates
White plates
Fake flower stems
Galvanized buckets
Fake grass squares
Green and white linens
Crayons
Brown eggs from the fridge

I started out using the brown kraft paper as a runner down the center of my farm table. You can even use brown painter's paper.

It protects the table while adding a neutral texture and it gives kids a place to color during meals.

Bonus! Especially when my 6-year-old typically lasts about 15 seconds and then wants to jet.

My older kids love to play tic-tac-toe or hangman.

The crayons add a great punch of color with the flowers.

I then started gathering an assortment of jars and buckets to stagger down the center of the table.

My only criteria: they had to already be growing in my garden.

I snagged a potted lavender plant, some wildflowers, and herbs. I mixed them with some artificial lavender Thistle Ball Stems that I had picked up at Magnolia Market on a recent trip.

Here's a closer look at those beauties.

I think you can mix artificial and real and it works.

What I love about using live plants, though, is that after the holiday I can keep them growing the garden.

It's fun to reuse when possible for the next occasion.

I then hit my kitchen and took out some charger plates and layered them with some white milk glass plates.

To add a fun touch of green, I took artificial grass squares I had picked up at local 99 Cent store and placed them under the plates. I plan to reuse these in my kids Easter baskets.

Linens were next. I chose a green-and-white striped napkin set I had picked up a few weeks back at Target from Hearth & Hand with Magnolia. These come in a cute little 4-pack. You can use any linens you have, including mixing and matching patterns and colors.

The final touch: brown eggs that I hard-boiled and then plopped on some cake stands. There's something about a cake stand, and it's playful height, that makes even an uncolored egg look special.

Plus, I figure they would be a great snack for guests as they're waiting for the main attraction.