The April Issue

Since Easter falls on March 31 this year, the editors of Martha Stewart Living opted to postpone their festive Easter ideas for the April issue, which arrived in my mailbox a few days ago - plenty of time before Easter. There is lots of Easter to go around in this issue, including a feature on red Easter decorations - a bold, Scandinavian take on the holiday. Decorating editor Kevin Sharkey looks back at several of the fantastical Easter baskets he has made for Martha over the years, including one with giant gilded lilies and another with a charming woodland scene. (They are all pretty spectacular!)

One of my favourite features from this issue is a look at the often-forgotten front garden. It seems strange that the first portion of land we see when we pull into the driveway is so often neglected in favour of the more popular back yard where all the landscaping ideas seem to end up. Not these front yards in Berkeley, California, though, which are overflowing with incredible botanicals. Overall, it's quite a nice issue! I still skip over all those beauty tips and hair-dyeing techniques at the front of the issue. It's a shame that such prime real estate for a magazine reader interested in home and garden is devoted to lipstick and eye shadow, but so be it. If you'd like to make these pretty eggs on the cover of the magazine, you can download the decals by clicking here. The designs were made by artist Patricia Mumau, an illustrator and calligrapher in western New York.