I had a fun Saturday! I started off my day dying Easter eggs, actually I started this yesterday afternoon. I tried my hand at the Dino Egg technique for the first dozen.
I began by hard boiling seven eggs. I like working in small batches, but you can certain cook all your eggs at once. While the eggs were cooking I mixed up my dyes. I used mugs, and measured out 1/2 cup of water, tablespoons of vinegar, and around 20 drops of food coloring. After the eggs finished cooking, I cooled them in a bowl of cold water with some ice cubes. I did this to cool the eggs so I could handle them with my hands. Then I gentle tapped each egg on the counter to create cracks all over the egg. I found it was easiest to tap the egg on a hard surface to begin, and then gently pressed my finger into the shell to crack the rest of the surface.
The yellow eggs I used plain yellow drops. The lighter egg in the front soaked for half the day, and the darker yellow egg in the back sat overnight. Any of the eggs you can see the cracks on only sat in the dye for two to three hours. The two blue in the front are just blue dye. The pair above them are both blue and green dye, more blue than green. The three green in a column are different variations of green and blue dye together, with more green than blue. The fourth egg to this group will appear later. The pair two in from the end were made from the same dye as the last two, but the back one I added more blue dye to, and the bottom egg I added more red dye.
I was really pleased with how this photo turned out. Long metal teaspoons are the best utensil for this activity. Plus, it's usually the only spoon we have enough clean to use a different one for each mug, and I don't feel guilty dirtying that many teaspoons. :)
This is what one egg looked like when peeled. Not as perfect as Our First Bites', but I'm still please with the results. I think I said this recently about another DIY I posted ...
I had grand expectations of attempting to make some of my own dyes out of natural ingredients. To begin I already had some food dye handy, and the only natural thing I could use at home was either coffee or turmeric. Poo. I didn't really want brown and mustard colored eggs for easter. Maybe I'll try it out on some other less pastel oriented day. I didn't really want to run out to buy a few beets, red onions, or cabbage to get fun colors. I think I'll save this natural dye idea for when it's nicer out, and there are more things I can pick from the yard to use as dye. Actually I did that for my science project in 9th grade. I made a three fold display board showing all the swatches of fabric I had dyed with different things I found around the house and yard. That was a great project, wish digital camera existed back then, and we had gotten a snap shot of it!
After my egg dying fun, I went to this great botanical garden just over the border in PA called Longwood Gardens. I went to take photos of one of my brothers and his fiance. They recently got engaged, and I offered to take a few photos of them together. I've never taken this type of portrait before, and I had a ton of fun. Though, I did have some jitters before heading out. I think I got some good photos of them. I hope they like them! E! After we were done taking cute couple photos, they went on there way, and Aaron and I stayed, and walked the grounds a bit.
The place was crawling with tourist checking out the tulip display.
I think we were a few days late though, they kind of looked sad when you looked at them up-close individually. It was hard to find a good patch for a pretty picture or two.
If you're awesome you might know what these are. Or maybe you've never been so blessed to have come across these magical nubs. They are called bald cypress knees, they are part of the tree's root structure! I think they are super awesome. Can't you imagine a gnome living inside of a knee, or a unicorn resting here to drink some water? Bald cypress trees need water to thrive, they mostly live in swamps or wetlands. Delaware is the furthest north they grow naturally in large stands.
Hope ya'll have a great holiday weekend, whatever holiday you celebrate! Happy DIYing, chris.
