I was in college when I first discovered my love for hosting. Each year that I stayed at Franciscan for Easter, I would host a big brunch with my roommates for our other friends. It became a tradition of sorts and I thrived in the role of hostess every year.

I think one of the main reasons I enjoy hosting so much is that I love creating beautiful spaces, welcoming people into them, and giving them the space to find rest in beauty. So when Deirdre (my roommate) and I decided to stay in Steubenville for Easter this year it was a no-brainer that we would be hosting an Easter brunch. I knew I wanted to put together a beautiful Easter table where our friends could experience the beauty of spring and the joy of the Resurrection. Thanks to some Pinterest inspiration, I decided to go with a light blue and sea green theme. I found inexpensive dusty blue and sea green taper candles on amazon (which I am kind of obsessed with) and turquoise cloth napkins. A simple white chiffon runner and lots of flowers brought my vision to life. I haven’t shared many pictures of our house yet (I will share more in the future because interior design is another thing I love) so consider this a little sneak peek into our living room & dining room.

The other reason I enjoy hosting is that I love to feed people good food. Without a doubt, the pièce de résistance of our brunch was the homemade cinnamon rolls. I have used this same recipe every Easter for the past 5 or 6 years and they are the best cinnamon rolls ever (I’m not exaggerating, these things are legendary). Baking is also up there in my favorite things, so I wasn’t content to just make the cinnamon rolls. I also made a raspberry & cream cheese danish (although that recipe could be considered “cheating” because it used premade crescent dough haha). My dad’s egg casserole recipe (which I definitely under-salted – remember baking is my forte, not cooking), bacon, mimosas, yogurt cups, and these incredible sweet potato goat cheese appetizers completed our feast.

After brunch we hung out in our living room for awhile and then everyone dispersed for a midday break. Deirdre and I took a long walk in the glorious sunshine and talked about how all of creation seemed to know that Jesus had risen. Later that night our friends came back for a praise and worship session in our living room. It was the perfect way to end Easter Sunday and start the the Easter season!

Happy Easter my dear friends!

If you are scrolling through this you have probably picked up on the fact that I love flowers. I love having fresh flowers in my house at all times. I love having flowers on the front porch. I love everything about gardens. And I of course love photographing flowers. (Actually, it was photographing flowers when I was 12 and 13 that made me fall in love with photography in the first place.)

I tend to photograph flowers every single spring because I just can’t help myself. But this year I have two new lenses in my camera bag which are game changers. These new lenses allow me to get macro shots of the flowers that I’ve never been able to capture before and so I had a lot of fun capturing the beauty of our spring garden.

Xoxo,
Mary Kate