Happy Easter 2011!

We celebrated Easter with too much good food


Too much Candy!


And a little tie dying! This is the third year I've tried this technique. It's so much fun to see how they come out. Using silk from ties (or other silk fabric) cut pieces big enough to wrap the eggs, then tie the ends with yarn.


Then wrap the egg in a white or light color piece of fabric. I cut up an old pillow case. Pull the fabric close and tie the end with another piece of yarn. Put all of the eggs in water with 1/4 cup vinegar. Boil for 20 minutes. Let cool in a colander before unwrapping eggs.



You never know what you will get! The wrinkles in the fabric leave white gaps, but it kind of adds to the swirly pattern.


I like how this pastel paisley came out


The twisty marks at top look pretty cool on some.


Last year I blew a few eggs so I could keep them. I didn't take the time to do that this year and I will hate to throw them away!


Once the eggs have cooled and dried use a little dab of cooking oil to give them a shine.


Word of warning! I don't think the eggs dyed using this method should be eaten. The dye isn't necessarily food safe and it seeps through the shells.


That's a good excuse to keep them around for a while after Easter :-)


For those of you that care - there is a new Egg Pocking champion!!!!!


Yes that IS my hand! Read up on egg pocking HERE if you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about.

Flashback Friday ~The Fair

Around this time of the year I start getting excited for the upcoming Western Washington Fair in Puyallup, WA. So how about a flashback to last year's fair.


Love to look at the animals, especially cows that stick out their tongue at me


The scones are a MUST have...warm and buttery and filled with raspberry jam MMMMMMMM.


I usually pass up the rides


And the games


And head straight for the Home Arts exhibits


And lets be honest...the food is a big draw


And this is one exhibit I always look forward to. The Farmer's Granges compete with these colorful displays featuring Washington produce


And my visit would not be complete with a tour of the floral exhibit


I always look forward to the display by a local, but nationally known dahlia dealer, Connells. The tuber business is now "retired" so I'm not so sure they will have a display this year. Keeping my fingers crossed though..they are still doing cut flowers so maybe!



So back to the present :-) Here are a couple of things blooming in my yard this week. Randy insisted on taking my pic in front of our monster lily to show how tall it is! Jack in the Bean Stalk high!


I'm so excited to show you my Blue Satin Rose of Sharon that's finally blooming. Its taken a couple of years for it to do anything. It REALLY is this color!


And finally....I don't often share crafts on my blog because, well, I am just not THAT crafty, but I did crochet a little baby sleeping bag/cocoon & hat with bear ears for a friend at work that's having a baby in a couple of weeks that I wanted to share. Jigs was none too amused! On a real baby the little bag can fit under his arms. Its a cute way to keep baby from kicking their blanky off!


Here's a close up of the hat.


If you have a flashback of any kind that you'd like to share please add your link below!



I'm joining in this week for Fertilizer Friday at Tootsie Time
Check it out HERE


And for my scone and corndog I'm joining Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum
Check it out HERE. She's got the sweetest picnic happening over there!

~Sweet Dreams~

While not in the kitchen or in the garden (not to mention work) I love to squeeze some crafting in. Unfortunately I am a perennial procrastinator. I see lots of good ideas and want to try them...I even buy the materials as is evidenced by my crammed full craft room, but more often than not I lack follow through. But when I saw this crafting technique I'm about to share, I knew it would be almost instant gratification thus eliminating any appearance of procrastination!



I've mentioned before a great blog called The Graphics Fairy where the most wonderful vintage graphics are shared. Karen, who authors this blog has got to be one of the most generous ladies around for sharing these graphics from her own collection. Looks at this hysterical Easter image. You just can't find stuff like this any ole place.


She has a weekly feature called Brag Monday were readers can post blog links featuring crafts made from her free graphics. Last week I was particularly inspired by this post at the Shabby Chic Cottage that described a super easy method of printing on fabric. I couldn't believe just how easy! She's got a great pictorial but it's as easy as this.

1. Stick a piece of copy paper to the fabric you want to print on using spray adhesive.
2. Trim fabric to match paper.
3. Pick your design to print.
4. Stick your paper in printer and hit go!
5. Your done!

Here is the pretty frame I downloaded from the Graphics Fairy


I added my own text


And here is my finished product...using a cheapo document frame my office partner was going to throw in the trash. I have a blank wall and no headboard in my guest room, so thought it might be a nice accent. The fact that my printer was running out of ink helps with that shabby chic look!



I'm going to participate in Brag Monday this week...go check out all of the other creative projects HERE at the Graphics Fairy. The way these crafters use these images will blow you away!

Silk Wrapped Eggs

You could say I am a queen of unfinished projects. Half crocheted doll dresses, quilt pieces cut but not sewn together, cross stitch still in a hoop..you name it you will find it in my craft room. Including bags and bags of men's ties. I found the cutest pattern one time in a craft magazine using ties to make a skirt. You undid the seams and sewed them side by side then folded the top over and put elastic in the waist. Sounds easy enough and I bought 100s of ties a garage sales over about a year or two. But there they sit in plastic Wal-Mart bags 10-15 years later. Some bags are still at my Mom's house where I lived at the time! Poor Momma :-) Here is a small sampling.



When I saw an interesting egg dying idea using silk fabric on a blog called Our Best Bites, I knew I had to try it if for nothing else but to use up some of my poor forgotten ties! Takes a look at their pictorial and instructions. I picked some brightly colored ones hoping they would result in more colorful eggs. The most important thing is to make sure the ties you choose are silk. It's usually on the tag. (What do you think Chrisian Dior would think about one of his ties being used to dye eggs?)


But, could be on the little tag on the skinny end here



The first step is to disassemble the tie. Most come apart with minimal effort.



Once apart you will have to cut the little piece of lining at the point away as well. Then cut a piece just big enough to gather up around an egg and tie with a string. I was able to get two such pieces out of each tie. The right side of the fabric goes against the egg. I tied them up with yarn.


Aren't they cute in their little covers?



After this you wrap them each with a light colored piece of material. I cut up an old pillow case for the cloth. Then put them in a non-aluminum pot, cover with water and pour in 1/4 cup vinegar. Heat on high to boiling, then turn to medium and boil for 20 minutes.



Remove from the heat and drain without unwrapping on paper towels or in a colander. Unwrap when they are cooled. Rub with a couple of drops of cooking oil and shine with a paper towel.




The color wasn't as intense on some as on others. But they all were pretty! The effect was very swirly and tie dyed. I really would love to try more and do better next time..smoothing the fabric a bit more against the egg so the pattern is more consistent.



This one came out pretty neat~


It really is my favorite I think, so it gets two pics on the blog :-)



And this was really brightly colored. I love how the pink paisley came out.


This one had a very "tie-dye" effect


This one reminds me of moorish tiles


I thought the pattern on this one imprinted really well. It was a really ugly tie ...at least in my opinion!


This one had a really cool pattern.


I really had a lot of fun with this project. The hardest part was diassembling the ties! You could do that ahead of time. The dying part is easy and not nearly as messy as the regular kind of egg dipping. One note, I'm not so sure these eggs are safe to eat. The dyes aren't necessarily non-toxic.







Easter Bunny Approved!