Silk Dyed Eggs

I did manage to work up four eggs. I emptied their contents (breakfast this morning) and wrapped the dried eggshells in silk squares from ties. You put the right side up against the egg. I had a hard time getting them as smooth as I wanted. That's how you get the best transfer. Next time I might actually sew sections together so there isn't so much overlap.

I have to admit I have no clue why you then put them in another bag unless it's to keep the colors from bleeding onto one another. Or maybe it offers a bit more of a buffer as they bang into each other. I used an enameled wire cage to hold these down once they were in the pot of water. Then I had to add a few more heavy glass pieces to hold that down. Some grease or something caught fire underneath the burner and I had to deal with that. I asked my son today if he spilled anything out of the skillet when he was cooking yesterday and he said no. I'll take his word for it this time. (smile)

I made a quick trip into Goodwill last night, mostly looking for some kind of small colander that I could use, but I checked out the ties while I was there and got 3 more, plus I found these wonderful egg cups! This is one of a pair I bought. I don't typically use egg cups but these were the perfect find!

The bags have simmered the required amount of time and poured the water out and let them drain in the same blue basket that was holding them down. I could see a little color came through a few of the bags but not too strongly. I wonder if I had enough vinegar?

Finally I take them out of the bags and the silk coverings. Here's a closeup of the first view.

Aren't they pretty in the egg cups? Wouldn't that be a lovely, if somewhat time-consuming, way to serve eggs?

And the other two. I still want to run ribbon through the holes for hanging and add some beads and lace to each end too.

Blogger had some issues and I think I only lost the last line of this post which was....

Happy Easter!

Egg Inspiration!

I haven't done any egg decorating in ages. All the grandkids except the baby and great-grandson are teens. We've just kind of gotten out of the habit. I was in the grocery last night and found some neon-color food coloring, on sale. I still wasn't planning to dye Easter eggs but I bought it anyway. And then this morning, while surfing the blogs in my sidebars, I found this really really COOL way to decorate eggs. I haven't been this excited about egg-coloring since I don't know when!

Actually, the initial post was about Puffed French Toast from Sugar Bee Crafts, a scrumptious recipe that had my mouth watering. The recipe was originally from Our Best Bites, a food blog. I keep food blogs bookmarked in my favorites but there is NO ROOM to put them on this blog. This was a new one to me so I went to the home page and THAT'S where I first saw the instructions to blow eggs out for dying.

I've blown out eggs before - you know - poke a hole at both ends and BLOW with your mouth. She did no such potentially explode-in-your-face act. She was smart! She uses those baby bulb syringes to force the air in and the egg contents out. She also gives a few tips about breaking up the egg inside so it will come out easier. Where have I been that I didn't know about this before?

But there was more! She showed how to thread a ribbon through to hang with and suggested even adding beads. Oh! A woman after my own heart! She also gave a link within her blog about dying eggs with silk fabric. Hmmmmmm....gotta check that out!

Aren't these absolutely gorgeous? From silk ties! You can find the intructions HERE! I couldn't believe how easy it looks! I haven't tried it yet, but it's definitely on my to-do list.

Now...I don't have to explain what this has to do with tatting do I? Really? Only if you haven't tatted around an egg yet. I know...most of you tat around a plastic egg, or styrofoam satin egg, or a wooden egg....but wouldn't this be an even more stunning egg with tatting on it? Hanging from a little Easter Egg tree? I can see a bit of tatted lace at each end where the ribbon comes out. If you don't have the time or patience to tat a whole egg, what a nice little touch!

Oh, and one more fabulous thing about the Our Best Bite site. There is an option to print the recipe. When you click on that, it pops up out of the web page context for printing and also offers a pdf version to save. How cool is that? I want to know how to do that. I guess it's because it is actually a website and not a blog that it can be done but I so wish I had that capability on my blog. It also applied to the eggs shown here. I clicked on "print recipe" and it popped up as a pdf file so I just saved it and will print it when I actually have time to try it.

ps...just remembered I made these Marbled Eggs or Tea Eggs a few years ago. That's why I love my blog. A great memory booster!

pps....Stephanie Lynn from Under the Table and Dreaming has listed the links and photos of 50 Ways to Decorate Easter Eggs!