easter eggs

While looking up a recipe for sloppy joes, the week before Easter, I saw this post.

Dying Easter eggs with old silk ties?

Looked cool and sounded right up my alley.

except, we don't have too many old ties lying around

and no Goodwill to hit up.

plus my kids won't even eat hard-boiled eggs

but-

I'm really good at not following recipes (substituting here and there)

and I thought I'd give it a try- my way.

I'm converted. No mess, great results. No more PAAS for me.

First, we blew out a bunch of eggs so we could decorate and keep empty, intact egg shells.

Asher loved this part and helped with my little novice photo tutorial.

1.2.3.4.

(before you begin, I recommend washing all the eggs)

1. carefully poke hole in top of egg (we used a push pin from our bulletin board)
2. poke wooden ka-bob skewer through hole in top and carefully out the bottom. (poke around a little inside to try to break up the yolk)
3. place mouth over hole and blow egg contents into a bowl.
4. once egg is out, clean egg again and set to dry. Whip up something yummy with all those eggs. We made a yummy green chili quiche recipe to come.

then we grabbed some silk, cut it up, and wrapped the eggs.

My friend lives among lots of the fabric/ textile stores, so I asked her to see what she could find on her way to my house. She wasn't able to get any scraps, but she spent about $5 on a yard of bright, detailed floral silk. It ended up being perfect! I love it.

(sidenote: they do sell PAAS egg dying kits at our grocery store, for more money than the silk)

All the eggs are dyed from the same piece of fabric. We probably used 1/2 yard to dye 15 eggs.

1.2.3.4.

1. wrap each egg with the printed (shiny) side of silk facing touching surface of the egg. wrap again with a layer of plain cotton sheeting (don't know why, I just followed directions) don't use rubber bands- we tried that and they broke upon hitting hot water. We used string.
2. place eggs in pot of hot water mixed with vinegar (I didn't measure) place something (like a smaller sized pot lid) on top of floating eggs to keep them under the water- leave 20 minutes (again- don't know how long is really necessary, but it worked)
3. remove eggs with tongs. carefully (it's hot) unwrap to reveal the magic!
4. TA- DA!! Can you believe it?!? I was maybe even more giddy than the kids when I saw such beautiful results.

I think I might dye our eggs this way every year.

I loved the results and the kids really enjoyed the reveal of each egg.

oh and no mess