Things to Make - Natural Easter Egg Dye

We rarely dye Easter eggs (mom guilt). Often we vacation around this time, so I can use that as an excuse. But truthfully I hate hard boiled eggs and the obligation to eat several of them usually weighs me down, so I avoid the whole scenario. Luckily lately both Dan and T cannot stop eating any sort of egg, so without any excuses holding me back, we had a job to do.

I've wanted to make natural egg dye ever since reading this post. We borrowed the recipes used by Sweet Fine Day and the colors turned out beautiful and vibrant. And the kids' all loved following the recipes - now I'm trying to decide what to do with the leftover dye - any suggestions?

Here's the scoop:

Ingredients: red cabbage, red beets, turmeric, eggs (preferably white)

1. Follow the recipes below to make the dye:

Blue: Simmer 4 cups of water with 1 small red cabbage (roughly chopped) for 15 minutes.

Red: Simmer 4 cups of water with 2 medium red beets (grated) for 15 minutes.

Yellow: Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and stir in 1/4 cup turmeric. Boil for 1 more minute.

2. After each of the mixtures have cooled down, mix in 1/4 cup white vinegar and strain each of the colors into bowls for dyeing.

3. Leave the eggs overnight - refrigerated- in the color bath.

4. Eat (or, if you're like me, don't eat)


HAPPY TUESDAY EVERYONE!!

Things to Do - Eastering Round II

As I mentioned last week (click here for the post), Easter has become quite a big deal around here. For Easter Sunday we had my husband's family over for brunch. I made baked granola (so yummy) using this recipe and tomato-onion-cheese-bacon strata using this Weight Watchers recipe. I love brunch, there's something so decadent yet wonderful about eating a big meal early in the day.

We also had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. I'm sick of all the candy, so I (oops, I mean the Easter Bunny) bought eggs filled with silly putty and small toys from Oriental Trading Company, which the kids loved. F even said "these are way more fun than candy eggs." My sister-in-law brought over an egg dye kit and I must say it felt wonderful to watch my children do a craft project without having to do it with them (thank you, A!). And, of course, all three kids woke up to chocolate bunnies and wonderful forest friends courtesy of the Easter Bunny (bought from Hazel Village ). I often plan on paying a little extra and buying hand-made toys for the kids, but then they want something plastic and it's so cheap I just cave. Anyways, this year I splurged and it was well worth it, the dolls are beautifully made, aesthetically gorgeous and the kids all love them. I hope all of you had a great weekend!!

MONDAY LINKS:

*These children's jackets are adorable. I sort of want one for me.

*50 Ways to Explore Nature In Your Own Backyard

*Wow.

*Cross-writing, sort of a cool idea.

*Books that Changed the Way We Think About the Earth - a great list.

*This home is just dreamy. I want it. I really do.

*I've been following Olivia Bee for a long time now through flickr and now she has a blog and she really is just great at what she does.


(I bought myself new shoes, the left foot seems happy enough but the right foot is a little confused. And I bought T an adorably cute Easter outfit, so I'm not quite sure how he ended up shirtless all day, but so it goes.)