Easter Smiles

For Southern Gospel Music’s Jeff and Sheri Easter Life Is Great and Gettin’ Better
By Tim Eutin

Jeff and Sheri Easter are perhaps Southern Gospel and Christian Country music’s favorite couple. After 23 years of marriage, millions of miles on the road and numerous albums and awards, Jeff smiles when he talks about their latest Southern Gospel album, “Life Is Great and Getting’ Better”. “I think that it is the best CD that we’ve ever done. We’ve put so much into it.”

“Livin’ In The Rain” is the follow up single from the “Life is Great and Getting’ Better” album. Coming on the heels of Jeff and Sheri Easters number one Southern Gospel song, “Over and Over” it captures the spirit of this wonderful couple. “Livin In The Rain describes how Jeff and Sheri Easter like to record music as far as the feeling of it.” Comments Sheri. “I’m blessed and honest to goodness life is great and getting better! We feel like we are so blessed. We are just soaking up the blessings of the Lord”.

“Livin In The Rain features Sheri Easter backed by the Florida Boys and Vince Gill. “Originally when it started we had Allison Krauss in mind to sing with Sheri as a duet.” Jeff explains. “But she was busy producing Alan Jackson at the time and it didn’t work out. Our producer said what about Vince Gill? I said that would be awesome but I don’t think he knows us. So he called Vince and a couple of weeks later called back.”

One song that really stands out on “Life Is Great and Getting Better”, is entitled “Joshua’s Song”. This song was written by Sheri Easter and was inspired by one of her young fan’s (Joshua Lee Young) battle with cancer. This song will bring a tear to the eye of every Southern Gospel music fan that listens to it.

Jeff and Sheri Easter’s album,” Life Is Great and Getting Better”, contains twelve songs that are sure to please a variety of listeners. Songs such as “I Wouldn’t Change You If I Could”, “Daddy Hung The Moon” and “Old Chuck of Coal” are some of my favorites. It is a wonderful album.

Tim Eutin has been hosting the Morning Show on the He’s Alive Radio Network for almost a decade. He is a long time fan of Southern Gospel Music. Tune in online at http://www.hesalive.net

Tim is also the author of the popular Southern Gospel website, http://www.southern-gospel-music-lyrics.com A site born of his passion for Southern Gospel music. Perhaps you have a passion or hobby that you would enjoy writing about. See http://www.smilingcatwebbuilder.com to see how Tim turned his passion into a profitable website.

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Easter Island Heads Revisited
By Delmar Germyn

Have you ever wanted to make Easter Island style headset of Hypertufa? I’ve written a couple of articles about doing this but I keep getting asked so here’s another one. I’m going to make it short and simple and I hope it helps you.

There Is only a couple of things I can tell you, the first is don’t try to cast the whole thing at once. What I did was use a 55 gallon plastic barrel cut in half lengthwise. Then using fairly hard foam like in mattresses I carved out a rough shape of the face.

To do this I got a big spoon and drilled a couple holes in the handle and screwed it onto a stick. I then heated the stick red hot with a propane torch and used it to carve holes in the foam for the nose eyes and mouth. Be sure to stand up wind when you’re doing this or have a fan blowing from behind you the fumes are terrible.

Once I had that done I placed a sheet of thin plastic on top of it. Then I placed my Tufa onto that. You only want it to be a couple of inches thick and I didn’t worry too much about wrinkles and stuff in the plastic it just gives the face a bit of character. I covered it with plastic and let it harden overnight and then the next afternoon started building up on top of it.

Before I started to build up a put in a 2 x 4 that went almost a full length of the face with a point on the end and about 3 feet sticking out at the bottom. This was the stick it into the ground so it wouldn’t fall over. Then I just built up on top of that until I have a thickness of about 10 or 12 inches then covered again with plastic and let it harden a couple of days. Then one more application to round off the back of the head, harden it a couple more days and carefully take it out of the mold.

Be really careful when you’re taking it out if it hasn’t hardened long enough it will break. Assuming you get it without breaking it you will now see what the face looks like. If you don’t like it you can add more features by just scratching it with a wire brush and sticking on some more tufa wherever you think it means it. I usually build out the forehead and add the ears.

You can do whatever you like the nice thing is that you don’t like it is fairly easy to break off and do it again.

The only really tricky thing is getting out of the mold without breaking it. The other thing to pay attention to is even after you have done your de molding don’t try to move around too much. Once you’re happy with it moisten it and let a cure for about a week and a half before you try to plant it.

I’ve never made any past the neck but I guess if you wanted to you could make a shouldered sort of thing and stick the head on top of it. Most of mine I buried in the ground sometimes up to the nose. On some others I made a built-in planter on the back and planted moss or Ivy.

Even after I have some outside and planted it is summertime I run the hose on them almost every day to help them cure better. It also waters the moss. If you use moss be sure you plant your head in a shady spot where moss would normally grow. I’ve found if the moss doesn’t grow naturally where you live it’s not much use trying to grow any.

I hope this helps you some Chris and if you do get around to making a couple I wouldn’t mind seeing some pictures. I would like to put them up on my website.

Best regards and good luck, Del

An old time Seer, I have been around this Planet for 2.34 centuries. I used to travel with my dragon to fairs and teach gardening skills. I did a lot of work in the UK a couple of hundred years ago. It was me who got Queen Mary interested in Hypertufa. The old gal really liked making her own planters and statues. She even made a couple of bird baths that are still there today. Now, thanks to the Internet I can stay at my home in the new world with my wife and dog and dispense my knowledge without the hassles of passports and taxis to and from the airport.

Raven Forex

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5 Great Ideas For Your Hard-Boiled Easter Eggs by Letty Velasco

After Easter and after all that fun egg-hunting, you might find yourself a handful of those dyed boiled eggs without having any idea on what to do with them next. Well, it’s such a waste of good hard boiled eggs, so why not try a few of these tricks so that you can enjoy eating some of them. Of course, this does not limit you to those dyed Easter eggs since with such great ideas, you can always boil some eggs for you to use in these activities.

1. Deviled Eggs – When you hear of the word “deviled” in food, it specifically means something hot and spicy to the taste. Well, in many cases, you’re spot on since adding cayenne pepper, black pepper or even some horseradish in your yolk mixture will certainly give a smoking sensation to your deviled eggs. However, if you wanted to, deviled eggs can have a hint of sweet taste too. For this trick to work, you’ll have to add in some sweet gherkins or relish into the mix.

Deviled eggs are great when it comes to picnics or barbeque. With a taste that ranges from sweet to spicy, it’s definitely one thing that your whole family will love dining into.

2. Egg Salad – This one’s my favorite and it’s so easy to do. What I would like most about egg salad is to make it into a sandwich with some lightly toasted bread. Of course, you can always make traditional salad out of those hard boiled Easter eggs. Nestle the ready made eggs on top of a bed of lettuce leaves and add in a bit of chives and paprika on top. Egg salads can be made in unlimited assortment. Just grab a bowl with your favorite ingredients and add in your leftover hard boiled Easter eggs.

3. Plain Hard Boiled Eggs – Before anything else, did you know that most of the time, people are boiling eggs the wrong way? Well, you won’t mind it if you’re just making some for the Easter egg hunt. But if you’re making hard boiled eggs for dining with your family, it pays to know the right way in preparing hard boiled eggs.

Boiling eggs on top of the stove makes them rubbery. Instead, you should boil the water first, take the pot off the heat and put in the eggs into the boiled water for the length of time depending on how you want your eggs prepared. You’ll need 1-4 minutes for soft boiled eggs and about 15-17 minutes for hard boiled ones. One trick I do is to use older eggs and pierce them a little bit with a needle prior cooking. This makes the eggs easier to peel than normal ones. Once finished, simply sprinkle with a bit of pepper and salt and enjoy eating those should-be Easter eggs.

4. Scotch Eggs – I didn’t knew about this Easter food until I read it and Google’d a bit about how it’s prepared. What I know for a fact is that while the dish is called “scotch”, it’s definitely not of Scottish origin. Instead, it was made by one of the favorite food shops of the British Royal Family in London, Fortnum & Mason.

Anyway, while I admit I’m no expert, the basic idea is to roll your boiled Easter eggs in flour then wrap the whole egg in ground sausage meat. Dip the mixture in beaten eggs and roll the whole thing in some bread crumbs. Afterwards, you have to deep fry it until the sausage goes golden brown. Well, there are many other variants of the recipe, but that’s where the search engines take their play in this little dish.

5. Pickled Eggs – This is one of the least favorite Easter food to make from hard boiled eggs but still, it can be a great activity for the whole family to do. In making pickled eggs, you can always try gathering the kids around while making experiments on various pickling recipes. While searching, these are just some of the names of pickled eggs I can find: beet juice eggs, garlic pickled eggs, dark and spicy eggs, and pineapple pickled eggs.

Now, I have to leave you off on that one but the basic idea is that there are much you can do with your extra hard boiled Easter eggs. Easter foods basing on hard boiled eggs can be fun to make too after the hunt, and with these ideas, I hope you can make dishes your whole family will enjoy.

There are many ways for you to approach preparing some Easter food in your household. Please visit the Food Menu Blog to read more cooking ideas that you will certainly love to share with your family and friends.

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An Uninvited Guest For Easter by Katie Davies

Ask a person what animal they associate with Easter and chances are it will be a bunny or a chick. For me, it is a mouse.

When I was nine years old my mother decided to put on a bumper Easter lunch. The family had scattered after the Christmas season so it would be the first gathering of the whole clan- our family of five and both sets of grandparents for a while.

Easter week was a perfect spring postcard. The blossoms were budding on the branches in our garden by the sea and a little snail of crocuses lined the path down to the Summerhouse. I was volunteered to pick some daises to sprinkle in painted eggcups, my reluctant brothers to fetch daffodils for the vases.

My mother, meanwhile, tied on an apron and set to work preparing an enormous leg of lamb and baking the traditional treats, a simnel cake and my favorite hot cross buns.

On Easter Saturday we all pitched in to lay a special table with yellow candles and napkins and tiny fluffy chicks perched on the flower centerpiece. But on the side plates, where usually an Easter egg wrapped in a colourful ribbon would sit, there was nothing!

After much earnest negotiation, I had been given license to mastermind the Easter gifts. They were hidden away awaiting the ‘grand reveal’ on Easter Sunday morning.

When my mother first gave me the money to execute my sweet-toothed plan, I struggled make a decision. The entire family had given up chocolate for Lent, thrilling and challenging for me, hideous and irritating to my brothers. So I was consumed with craving and, feeling the anticipation a 40-day abstinence would create.

What to do? Long-time favourites? Variations on a theme? Above all, I didn’t want to be predictable. I wanted to create a memorable display.

Swinging from a huge branch at the end of our garden one day inspiration struck: I would make trees out of kitchen towel cardboard tubes to which I would attach egg-carton nests, filled with toffee candy and chocolate eggs.

I could make four or five for us all to share and embellish them with vines, leave and flowers. Which is exactly what I did.

Even though it took several painstaking sessions with coloured tissue card and paint brushes to complete the trees I was delighted to finally place the multi-coloured silver foil eggs on the shredded straw.

On Easter Saturday night I found the perfect corner to conceal them, covered with tea towels under a chair against the wall in the dining room. After which I went to bed and slept restlessly until the sun beamed through the curtains in my bedroom and awoke me early on Easter Sunday morning.

Following the service at our pretty local church, milk chocolate fantasies largely displacing prayers, I raced home eager to present the chocolate egg trees at the table in a moment of high drama.

When the lunch was ready my brothers congregated the family. Everyone was seated and patiently waiting as I announced a triumphant ‘Ta-da’ and whisked the cover off my goodies to transport to the table.

But the gasps were not the ones of admiration I had hoped for, the drama not the sort I had planned. The trees were in tatters, the leaves ripped off, the straw tumbling out and the eggs half unwrapped, half-eaten.

Whereupon Bedlam. Fearing them sabotaged I rounded on my brothers who each accused the other, before my father stepped in suggesting a mouse could be the culprit.

Which my hard-of-hearing grandpa took to be a call to arms, jumping to his feet brandishing a fork and my mother feared to be one of a number of rodents over-running her home, causing her to shriek and drop the gravy.

Followed, of course, by confusion, then reassurances, apologies and eventually the restoration of peace.

Once I had dried my tears and my father had searched in vain for a pink-nosed visitor with chocolate covered whiskers my mother tipped the untouched eggs into cocktail glasses and salvaged the surviving adornments to attach to them.

Only after a delicious meal and lots of sympathy did I recover, helped along by the first sweet taste of the much-missed chocolate.

These days I keep the chocolate out of temptations way, my children posing more of a threat, I think, than mice!

Representing re-birth and new beginnings, Easter is a time of joy to share with friends and family. Sending an Ecard is a fun, fresh way to celebrate this most hopeful of the calendar’s holidays.

At www.katiescards.com I have created a collection of Easter ecards that are quick to preview and just as easy to send. It’s as simple as choosing your favourite E card, personalizing and emailing it, with a low-cost membership to the site that allows you to send E-cards on other occasions also- from birthday e-cards to Christmas e-cards and every special day in-between.

The selection of 4 Easter e cards features a mixture of colourful painted eggs, adorable chicks and blossoming flowers, each e-card designed to be a heart-warming greeting to remind a loved one you care about them.

So why not be an early bloomer and choose a cheerful Ecard to send to your nearest and dearest this Easter season?

This article was written by Katie Davies who has created a collection of beautifully animated, fabulous e-cards. Find perfect greeting ecards for Birthday e cards, thanksgiving, Halloween, Valentines, mothers day, Easter E cards at www.katiescards.com

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Find Me a Gift Add the Personal Touch This Easter by Jessie Jones

The hunt is over for exclusive Easter gifts so don’t put all your Easter eggs in one shopping basket!

Once again the time has come, to search high and low for that perfect Easter present. The shops are crammed to the rafters with chirping chicks, edible eggs and beautiful Easter baskets. Every year, hundreds of us attempt to celebrate Easter in a less conventional way but we still end up consuming Cadbury’s calories! The options are always limited, until now that is! Find Me A Gift have finished first in the Easter hunt this year with a different yet equally delicious set of Easter gifts.

When those April showers make Easter holidays dark and dismal, create some light indoors with a glowing Personalised Easter Candle. This beautiful beacon is the perfect way to put a smile on anyone’s face! Personalise this gift with a name at the top (max 12 characters) and a special message (max 30 characters) at the bottom. The centre of the candle is decorated with a cuddly Easter bunny!

If you simply can’t resist dragging and dropping an egg related gift into your online basket, you’ll need to handle the Personalised Fine China Egg with care! Choose from three beautifully decorated designs including an Easter bunny, an Easter chick or an Easter egg. A stylish Easter emblem, these traditionally shaped eggs can be personalised with a name on the front (max 12 characters) and a personal message on the reverse (max 50 characters).

For little ones who prefer their Easter eggs soft on the outside and runny on the inside why not treat them to a Personalised Easter Egg Cup? Choose between an Easter chick and an Easter bunny design and personalise with your child’s name (max 15 characters). This egg-cellent keepsake puts a personal twist on classic egg and soldiers! And if your little ones are still screaming for chocolate this Easter, sweeten those teeth with a nice cup of hot chocolate in their very own Personalised Easter Mug. This is also available in either an Easter chick or Easter bunny design. Choose the design that matches your egg cup or mix it up with the other design to get the best of both!

Last but by no means least on the Easter conveyor belt is the classic cuddly toy…all together now…ahhhhh! The Personalised Easter Bunny Basket with Cadbury’s Mini Eggs is perfect for any generation! This fluffy little friend even has its own Easter jumper so you can personalise its pullover with a name (max 12 characters) in either pink or blue thread. ‘Easter Bunny 2009’ is already embroidered on the jumper so all you have to do is state the name you’d like to add. This ideal gift will still satisfy those chocolate cravings and the beautiful bunny can be kept forever, unlike an empty foil wrapper!

Chocolate is always deemed a cop out as a gift solution for any birthday, Christmas or anniversary! Find Me A Gift offer many amazing alternatives to the endless Easter gift hunt. So although Easter always involves a high calorie intake, don’t let the chocolate craze eat you up!

The credit crunch is hitting businesses across the country and people are seeking alternative stores to save money and get a bargain. Find Me a Gift offer everything online without the need for people to spend money on petrol, parking and inflated prices. With special offers and free shipping with orders over £100, this online store has everything from cheap novelty items to luxury experiences. Find Me a Gift is one of the UK’s leading online gift retailers (ranked in the Top 10 of Hitwise). Established in June 2000, the company specialises in a wide range of gadgets, experiences, toys and personalised gifts with worldwide delivery and year round sales.

Jessie Jones joined in 2008 and has been writing fabulous articles ever since! Please visit Find Me A Gift to see our fantastic range of Gifts and gadgets, there are over 2500 gifts to choose from for men, women and children! Please visit Find Me A Gift to browse our range of Easter Gifts
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