Home Design with Kevin Sharkey

Traditional Irish soda bread is a treat usually reserved for St. Patrick's Day, but it's so tasty I could eat it year-round. Recently, Alexis made me this currant-studded loaf and when I was diving in to eat it, I also uncovered some interesting facts about the recipe.

As is tradition, Irish soda bread is often made with caraway seeds and currants. Did you know that caraway seeds are a spice made from dried fruit of a plant called Carum carvi?

Currants, likewise, are also a fruit. There are two distinct fruits that are called currants. One is dried zante grape, similar to a raisin, and the other is a fresh tiny berry related to the gooseberry. Both caraway seeds and currants are frequently used in baking, such as the amazing Irish Soda Bread Alexis made me. I love this recipe from the New York Times (click for recipe).

I hope you had a chance to see the video of my Easter basket construction last week. Martha loved the final product, and I had my best work day of the year so far putting it all together. This is the kind of project I truly love to do.

I thought I'd share my own pictures of the process so you can see how beautiful, simple, and unique all the components were. My best advice for gathering a good stock of crafting supplies is to always be on the lookout, even out of season, and to store your selected bounty with great care. You never know when you will need a sturdy basket, quality silk flowers, or lengths of ribbon from a previous project.

As you can see, I prepped my supplies as orderly as a chef setting up his mise-en-place. A clean, well-lit, and open workspace is critical for a happy crafter—you want to be able to move around and style easily.

Take a look:

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1 A proper Easter basket wouldn't be right without a little natural habitat for the bunny. This moss I nestled in the basket was fresh from the earth.

2 Before you begin crafting anything, take stock of your supplies and consider a palette. Pastels abounded in my glittered egg, silk flower, and butterfly selection, but the purple really caught my eye.

3 A few yards of vintage lavender ribbon just needed a quick starching, and those mushroom caps went from red to amethyst with a careful coat of glitter from Martha Stewart Crafts.

4 Purple has always been the color of royalty and is particularly traditional for the Easter holiday. Well-placed tufts of pink and green lent both depth and softness to the bold hue, down to the ribbon that tied it all together.

5 The project was well documented for all of our readers and contest participants on social media. Here I'm gearing up for the big basket with a little one for Martha, inspired by the story in April's issue of Martha Stewart Living.

6 I was really in my element during this project and hardly noticed all the documentation. The basket came together so smoothly, with a little planning and lot of creative license.

7 How gorgeous are these glittered mushroom caps? I mixed a couple sizes of glitter for a more textured finish, and they really brought the whole basket together.

8 Butterflies are such a delicate and unique finishing touch. You can see in this shot how their placement helps to balance the color palette where it might have gotten too purple-y.

9 This baby bunny seems happy in his new home.

10 Voila! The final basket was shipped to the talented winner of our #MSLeaster contest; I hope you enjoyed the process and results as much as I did!

Don't you think it turned out well? I hope the winner loved her prize, and that you all had a safe, hoppy, holiday weekend.

For the April 2013 issue of Martha Stewart Living, on newsstands now, I took a little trip down memory lane, recreating some of my favorite Easter baskets I've made for Martha. We wanted to see what you've been making for Easter so we put out the call on Instagram for your best crafts. The winner will receive a special, custom-made basket from me. Visit the Living blog to see the winning entry and watch the video below for my basket how-to.

P.S. Get the glitter I used to make the mushrooms here.