silk tie dyed Easter eggs

This year for Easter we're making lots of pretty decorated eggs.  We have the PAAS box with little dye tablets for the girls to do this week but I also decided to do something different.  Last year I found gorgeous photos of pretty eggs that had been dyed with old silk ties.  I asked my mom to hit the local Goodwill and pick some up for me and I've been saving them all these months for this project.

Admittedly, this craft project was mostly for my enjoyment.  Almost all the work fell on my shoulders but the very last step of unwrapping the eggs to reveal the gorgeous colors, I left to the kids.  They loved it and it was so much fun.  If you spread the steps out over the course of a few days it's not really that time consuming.  It's certainly not difficult.

What you need:
White raw eggs
Patterned silk ties or cloth
Old white t-shirt or pillow case
Twist ties
White vinegar
Varnish or glaze

Step 1: Get out your selection of old silk ties.  The brighter and bolder the patterns the better.  Cut out the backing and open up the large piece of silk.

Step 2: Cut your tie into pieces that will wrap entirely around the raw egg.  We only have access to small white eggs so I was able to get 3-4 eggs wrapped with one tie.  With large white eggs you will get two eggs per tie.  Make sure the silk is tight and smooth against the egg.  Use a twist tie to hold the silk in place.  Cut the ends if they are long.

Step 3: Cut the old white t-shirt or pillow case into small pieces that you now wrap around the silk-wrapped egg.  It's not as crucial to make it smooth and tight but do your best and use a twist tie to secure the fabric.

Step 4: Place the wrapped eggs in a large pot for boiling, add 1/4 cup white vinegar to the water and set your temperature on high.  Once the water is boiling set your timer for 20 minutes.  After the 20 minutes is up, remove the eggs and let them cool completely.

This is the step I let the children complete.  It's the best part.  Unwrap the eggs and reveal the amazing patterns that have transferred to the eggs. Let them dry completely.

Step 5: Glazing the eggs.  This step is completely optional.  The eggs are certainly lovely without a sheen but we had a little bottle of Crayola bead glaze from another craft project so we painted the clear glaze on the eggs.  It enhanced the colors and made them extra gorgeous.  I've read that a little coating of olive oil would shine them up as well.

It's really fun to see which ties produced which patterns on the eggs.

We're displaying them in a pretty basket but since the boiled egg inside can't keep forever we will likely display them until Easter and then toss them.  It's not advisable to eat the eggs since you aren't sure what kind of dyes are being used and the glaze adds an extra unappetizing layer.  Better to eat the PAAS eggs!  But these ones sure are pretty.

Spooky Halloween treats and crafts with kids

It's Fall Break this week so all three of my girls are home with me.  This makes my life infinitely sweeter but infinitely more chaotic.  In preparation for our Halloween party this weekend, I have a list of things to accomplish every day.  It helps to break up the cooking, baking and crafts so I'm not up all the night for two nights before the party.  Having the girls home gives me a few more road blocks to getting the list done.  But we're working through it!

The girls are mostly a big help.  So far we've made orange popcorn balls on a stick for super kid friendly snacks, lolly pop ghosts, and spooky Halloween drawings for a diorama.  It's our second year for making these adorable meringue ghosts.

I used this basic popcorn ball recipe only adding orange food coloring with the butter and vanilla.    Next time I'll make it a darker orange because once you stir it in, the orange sort of spreads out and doesn't look as bright when on the kernels. But, I also used more than 9 cups of popcorn since I don't see the need in making the snack too sweet. Addie and Bella had so much fun helping with the popcorn balls.  They did a great job molding them.  You have to go quickly so the syrup doesn't entirely cool or else the popcorn won't hold together.

I added a thick craft stick and a Halloween bag with a tie so they won't get stale before kiddos get to munch on them.

 Did you ever have Ed Emberly's drawing books as a kid?  We had some and I remember how awesome it was to follow his step by step instructions for drawing some pretty intricate stuff.  My mom found Ed Emberley's Big Orange Drawing Book and sent it to us for our Halloween crafts.  Addie grabbed the book, paper and popsicle sticks and just ran with it.  She's so creative.  I especially love the haunted mansion.

 Lolly pop ghosts are a super easy kid craft for Halloween.  We use Tootsie Pops, facial tissue, bakers twine and a black marker.  This year I dug up some googly eyes which were a lot of fun.  Check out the clever ghost on the left who has a spooky pirate patch for an eye.

all in the details

This weekend I am catering my first large-ish brunch for a friend/client of mine.  I have a whole slew of food and sweets I am making this week in preparation for her big delivery.  One thing I am excited about doing are the treat bags for the children's take-away party gift.  All the kids get a little bag of homemade caramel corn as a thank you.

I couldn't stop at just bagging the caramel corn.  For me parties are all about the little details.  The pretty appetizer plates, labeled drinks or personalized napkins.  I love adding small do-it-yourself details to my parties.

For the caramel corn bag I made little thank you tags with stamped green bees to go with my friend's Hungry Caterpillar/bug theme for her son's first birthday.  Once again baker's twine really tied it all together (pun intended)!  I am obsessed with the versatility of baker's twine.

DIY: Baby’s Breath bird nests

Baby’s Breath is the perfect Spring flower to use for Easter decorations.  I love how simple and sweet the little white flowers are.  Used in large amounts it can make a big impact.

These little birds nests are by far my favorite idea I've had this week.  They look so sweet holding tiny blue eggs on our mantel.

You will need

Deep cereal bowl

Baby’s Breath

Wax or parchment paper

Hot glue gun

Place a small square of wax or parchment paper in the bottom of a bowl. Place snipped baby’s breath blooms in a bowl with the blooms on the outer edge forming a more shallow space in the middle.  

Place a heavy jar or object in the middle to help shape the nest.  

Using a hot glue gun, coat the middle of the nest with glue and place another small square on top of the glue and weight it down again. 

When ready to use the nest, remove it from the bowl and peal off the paper. The baby’s breath may flatten out a bit but can be reshaped in the bowl again overnight.  I like the way they spread over time.  

Fill with pretty dyed Easter eggs and place them on your mantel or use as a table centerpiece.  

decorating for Easter

I vowed this year I'd have things a bit more put together than last Easter. Lucky for me, this week is Spring break and the girls have been eager to get crafty and decorate.  Here is what we've been up to.

Turning our Halloween branches into Spring branches with Baby's Breath, floral wire and stuffed birds. Baby' Breath bird nests (see my DIY)

spooky no more!

Making glittery Easter egg ornaments for the tree.

Easter egg bunting for our mantel (bunting obsessed I tell you!)

Dying adorable little Ethiopian eggs

Eggs resting on my mini muffin tin!  Tiny eggs are more fun!

thirty four

My spectacular husband turns thirty four tomorrow and we are lucky enough to have his mother in town visiting on his birthday.  She's a crafty card maker and was tickled to get the task of cutting out my triangles for Justin's birthday bunting.  I'm slightly obsessed with hanging bunting on our mantel.  Can you tell?  He celebrates the day before St. Patrick's day every year so I couldn't help but showcase some green. 

I can't wait to celebrate with our family tomorrow.  Of all the cakes I make he's requested the same thing that he does every year.  Carrot cake!  I can't complain.  It's delicious.  

Thirty four is going to be a wonderful year for my love. I can just tell!  

Valentine heart bunting

I whirled myself into a flurry of surprise Valentine preparations last night after my daughters were fast asleep. I made heart shaped muffins with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting for breakfast (shoot-that's actually a cupcake.  Yup!  They ate cupcakes for breakfast today).  I hung streamers that started at our chandelier but then the long tails wrapped all around the room ending in a hidden spot and attached to their Valentines surprise.  A different color streamer for each girl!

I also spent a good hour and a half stitching stuffed paper hearts for my Valentine bunting.  Bunting sounds cuter than garland doesn't it?  Anyway, I cut out the hearts and then had a fabulous idea to hand stitch two hearts together and stuff the middle with bits of paper towel so they looked like little heart pillows.  Four needle wounds to my thumb and 5 heart shaped muffins later; I had them stuffed and stitched but not hung.

Thank goodness for Aunt Megan leaving these adorable metal hanging clips.  All I had to do was punch a little hole in the hearts and hang them on a hook.  I used bakers twine on the mantel and clipped the little hearts on.  Sometimes the best craft ideas are last minute and a bit of a race to get done.  What good would a Valentine bunting do me on February 15th?

What do you think?  I think the stitching adds so much character to the paper!  Happy Valentines Day!

Halloween party prep

We have been planning our annual Halloween Kids party for weeks now (okay, I have been planning).  But the kids have been helping and putting their own spin on things too.  Since Ashlynn's birthday is close to Halloween, we are combining the party this year so we can celebrate her turning one.  I imagine we'll be throwing a Halloween Birthday party for Ashlynn for many years to come.  If I'm lucky, that is.

I adore Halloween and with every passing year as the girls get older, we are having more and more fun decorating for Halloween and getting into the spooky spirit of the holiday. It's truly an American holiday and I personally think it's a kids holiday more than anything else. I really loved being a teensie bit afraid as a kid during this time of year and passing it on to my kids is fun.  Plus the candy! Adelaide and Arabella are enjoying the spiders and pumpkins.  Addie's drawing elaborate Halloween scenes complete with ghosts, witches and bats.  We're watching The Nightmare Before Christmas and listening to old Disney Halloween songs.  It's loads of fun.

This entire week is devoted to party planning.  My baking business has helped me become more organized so the party planning is going much more efficiently this time around.  I have lists of what needs to get accomplished  (cooking and decorating) every day.  So far I am on track.  I'm also choosing a menu that can be prepared partially in advance so I can make some things days before hand and only a few things the day of the party.

I know that the idea of planning and executing a big first birthday party for 40 or so people sounds like a nightmare to some people but for me, this is where I shine.  I love the planning and preparations just as much as I love the day of the party and celebrating with my family.  I love setting a menu and sorting through the desserts (clearly my favorite part).  I love being creative with decorating.  Making everything look spectacular is always a personal challenge of mine.  The week before the party is the fun part for me.  I devote myself to getting it right and I love incorporating my children in the fun.  They love to be involved and help.

Want to see how we've decorated for the party?

Cheesecloth ghosts.  Have you made these before?  The girls and I first made some the last Halloween in the Philippines.  They didn't make the cut for our HHE so we made some new ones this week.  They are so much fun and kid friendly.  All you need is balloons, tape, vases, coat hangers, Argo laundry starch (or corn starch), and cheesecloth.  Addie added the cut out spooky eyes and mouths.  The ghosts that weren't starchy enough to stand on their own, are hanging from the archway to the kitchen.  My favorite part is getting my hands all gooey with the starch.

Spooky art work.  We covered all our framed art on the walls with black construction paper and then added spooky silhouettes in white.  Addie's ghosts are my favorite.  The entire family worked on the haunted house.  Dad drew the backbones of the house and then Addie and I drew in the spooky monsters and such.

Mice.  This craft is for adults.  It takes a bit of time to trace out the mice, first onto card board and then onto the black paper.  My poor hands were arthritic after all the cutting.  The girls had fun helping me tape them all over the house as if our home was infested with creepy mice!  I added the mouse holes for fun.  Ashlynn's already picked some of the mice from the walls so that means I'll be cutting out a few replacements the night before the party!

Spooky branches.  I've been waiting to do this Halloween craft for years.  There were no sticks in the Philippines unless I wanted black palm branches in the house and that just didn't feel right.  This year I sent my gardener out in the neighborhood in search of yard debris piles we could scrounge gnarly branches from to spray paint black.  In an hour he had my thorny branches for the light fixtures and some great branches for the table arrangements.  Two cans of black spray paint cost me $15 here in Addis Ababa but I figured it was one of my only expenses when it came to decorating.  It was worth it because they look so amazing.  I arranged some in the vases (I used Ethiopian orange lentils at the bottom of my vase) on the buffet and one large branch in a floor vase.  The thorny ones were hung with floral wire from the light fixtures.  They look really spooky and awesome!

Pipe cleaner spiders.  My parents sent a great big box of Halloween supplies which included some Styrofoam pumpkins, candy, and goody bags. It was so much fun to receive!  They also sent black pipe cleaners which I sat last night and twisted into creepy crawly spiders.  It's not as hard as it looks.  I simply cut four pipe cleaners in half for the eight legs and twisted another pipe cleaner around the middle of them and then created a bulbous knot of pipe cleaner on the back end for a "realistic" looking arachnid.  I bent the legs and tied black thread around the body to hang a few from the branches.  The girls went gaga over these!

Black bats.  Template at Martha Stewart's website (same for the mice).  Another grown up task.  Just trace out the bats, cut, fold, thread and hang.  

Do you decorate for Halloween? I'm having a lot of fun with it here in Ethiopia because architecturally  our home is great for decorating! Do you have a costume?  I don't and I really wish I did this year!