Easter eggs — pleasure in simple things

Tag: Easter eggs

boycotting egg painting

March

Wow! This is my first post of 2023! Since I started this blog in 2012, never before have I had such a lapse in posts! It is very sad to think I haven’t been using my creative side in quite some time!

The good news is that I have been busy organizing myself in finances, work, and wellness and making great progress!

I’m happy to say, I do now, have a couple projects in the works!

One is a coffee table and the second is the transformation of a coat closet into a pantry. (More on these projects as they develop!)

Normally, at this time of year, I would already be working on Easter eggs…coming up with a theme and painting them appropriately. This year, in a kind of personal protest against grocery prices, I decided not to paint eggs. I don’t normally buy eggs, except at Easter time, and I decided I am not going to purchase them to paint this year.

For the purposes of this post, I am including photos of one of my favorite past Easter egg themes – topiary. (Cactus, picnic, and constellation were also some of my most favorite themes).

I enjoy having some of the topiary eggs out in a bowl – I don’t think skipping a year of painting eggs will bother me! I did put out a little bit of Easter/Spring décor – have you? Remember to bring in some cut branches (magnolia, forsythia, etc.) – it’s the perfect time to force blooming!

I’m counting down the days when the clocks will change because I really dislike leaving for work in the dark and coming home from work in the dark!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Comments Off on boycotting egg painting | diy, garden, holiday

topiary painted easter eggs

March

Yes, I was struggling for an Easter egg theme this year. They usually come so easily for me. But that wasn’t the case this year, until… I was up all night recently, working on a research project, and it just came to me! Probably because I have been thinking so much lately about how I will continue enhancing my ‘virgin’ garden this spring.

So, in the wee hours of the morning, I grabbed a marker and an egg and drew a topiary. After I had one done, I just kept going!

The next day, I added some green, gold, and brown paint accents as a final touch.

Viola! My topiary Easter egg series for 2021!

Because I always make my designs on hollowed out eggs, I keep them indefinitely. This series is sure to be on display again in the future!

Thanks for stopping by!

I hope you are inspired to decorate some eggs in a new way!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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painting easter eggs

March

Usually, every year, I come up with an Easter egg decorating theme before Lent begins. I’ve done constellations, picnic items, succulents, etc. This year is the first year that I had no light bulb moment ‘telling’ me what my year’s theme should be! I guess with COVID isolation I’m just not ‘out and about’ enough to get the creative juices flowing!

I decided to start painting and see what happened. I started with a couple different bunny designs. That felt a little too ordinary.

Next, I did a carrot design. Once I added the eyes and expressions it felt a little more creative than the rabbits! So now I am thinking maybe I will do a vegetable theme?

I’ll see what happens!

Right now I am taking a little painting break to enjoy the fabulous weather we are having here in Connecticut!

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a fabulous weekend and remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Comments Off on painting easter eggs | diy, holiday

diy constellation easter eggs

March

I love dyeing Easter eggs. Each year I like to come up with a new egg decorating idea. And, I love creating a themed series of decorated eggs! Remember the picnic theme, for example? (Click here to see.) This year I decided to create a series of Easter eggs depicting the astrological constellations.

I started by creating a backdrop for my star formations! I added purple and a little bit of black paste food coloring to a ½ cup of boiling water with a teaspoon of white vinegar. I used this to dye my eggs. Once the eggs were dry, I used an old kindergarten technique to splatter white paint onto each egg. This simply involves loading a stiff brush or toothbrush with paint and splattering it onto the eggs using a finger or popsicle stick flicked against the bristles of the brush. (Something I first used when creating leaf prints in kindergarten art class!)

Now that a night sky is created on the eggs, I can go ahead and create the individual star formations. For this, I am using little stick-on crystals from the craft store. I created a graphic for myself to use as reference for the placement of the stars for each constellation. I decided to use a thin white marker to add some definition to the star arrangement – even though this wouldn’t happen in the actual sky! I included a graphic here for you to use as reference when creating your own eggs designs.

These eggs are easy to create and I think they are really cool looking. Have fun with it! Create an egg with your own sign, the signs of each family member, or all twelve signs!

I made mine on emptied out eggs so that I can display them for Easter each year.

I hope I have inspired you to create some astrological sign designed Easter eggs!

Thank you for stopping by!

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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picnic themed easter eggs

April

It is hard for me to believe I have not yet posted one decorated egg this year! You may already know I am so obsessed with the whole egg dyeing process! With Easter only two short days away, I am sharing a few of this year’s decorated eggs today on Friday field trip.

Every year, I try to decorate, at least a few of my eggs, differently than I have ever done before. This year, I created picnic themed Easter eggs! Using dye and adding some watercolor detail, I chose three picnic icons and created my interpretations on eggs! The icons? A watermelon, a red checked tablecloth – complete with ants – and a corn on the cob! You know you can’t have a picnic without these items, right?

I dyed an egg part red and part green for the watermelon egg, then used watercolor paints to add some additional detail.

The corn on the cob egg started as a yellow dyed egg.

For the picnic tablecloth egg, I applied red watercolor paint to a white egg using a small square cut from a kitchen sponge. Using a sponge, rather than a paintbrush, I was able to add some texture to the egg. Then, I just added the obligatory picnic visitors with some glue!

Did you come up with some new creations in egg dyeing this year?

Thanks so much for stopping by. For those who celebrate – wishing you and those you love. a very blessed Easter.

Have a wonderful weekend. Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie xo

Sharing with Fridays Unfolded, The Shabby Nest, Craftberry Bush, and French Country Cottage.

Comments Off on picnic themed easter eggs | food & festivities, holiday, inspiration

easter fortune eggs

March

Today I am sharing a really quick and fun Easter takeaway idea.

For this project, I used plastic, fillable Easter eggs. It is so very uncharacteristic of me to use these brightly colored eggs! And, I have to admit, it was very hard for me to resist transforming the plastic eggs by painting them in neutral hues and adding speckles!

With that said, I decided to use the eggs I had on hand to create some ‘fortune eggs.’

I filled each egg with a mini version of my favorite Easter treat – the Cadbury crème egg (they are so cute!) – in addition to a favorite quote. These small eggs don’t fit much more. I was able to squeeze in two additional little candies inside each egg.

You may wish to use a bible quote or fortune in place of the quote. If you are creating this for a family party, you may want to write up some favorite family memories to include in the eggs.

These ‘fortune eggs’ are great when you are beyond the Easter egg hunt stage. It is the perfect opportunity to provide your friends and/or family with a little treat to celebrate Easter! So fun!

I hope I have inspired you to come up with your own version of ‘fortune eggs!’

Thanks for stopping by! Remember to find pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing with Craftberry Bush, Sand & Sisal, Coastal Charm, and Crafts a la Mode.

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shades of gray…and purple

April

Here comes the egg lady! I joked around this week that the late night cashier at the grocery store’s ’10 items or less’ aisle must call me that! It is probably true…I have stopped in late night at the grocery store so often lately – each time for just a carton of white eggs!

I already admitted I have an egg dyeing obsession…but it looks like I am now down to my last batch for the year. It’s Easter week and, since I’m making all the desserts for Easter dinner, I have no more time to dye eggs!

Any free time I have this week will now be spent planning and making the Easter desserts!

I dyed my last batch of eggs in shades of gray. I love neutral shades for egg dyeing, but gray dyed eggs are particularly beautiful. The best way to make gray dye is to simply mix 1/2 cup of room temperature water, 1 tablespoon of white vinegar, and some black paste food coloring.

Because I put together a vignette with a pretty iridescent purple glass I picked up in the clearance section at Anthropologie, I decided to dye a couple of my last dozen of eggs purple before putting them into the gray dye.

I made various shades of gray eggs by varying the time in the dye. I also rubbed off some of the color on the eggs so the wouldn’t look “too perfect.”

The irregular shading gives them so much character!

So that is it…the last of this year’s egg dyeing! :( I hope you will try dyeing some gray eggs, if you haven’t already! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by! Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing with StoneGable, Sand & Sisal, Coastal Charm

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coastal egg decorating

April

Today for Friday field trip, I’m kicking it back to kindergarten. I’m adapting some old school techniques to egg decorating to create some Easter eggs to use in my coastal décor.

I am using two easy techniques that you – like me – probably used in grade school, but may not have thought about using in creating your Easter egg designs!

It was probably earlier than kindergarten when my siblings and I discovered this first technique. ..purely by accident. During our egg dyeing sessions, inevitably, the hard boiled eggs we were preparing to dye were constantly being dropped by our young, clumsy hands during our egg dyeing frenzy.

We would soon learn that the many cracks these drops created in the shells would cause the eggs inside to take on the dye. When it came time to eat the eggs, no one wanted to eat the ones that had been cracked and dyed with the spider web-like effect. Of course, as we got older, this became a cool effect that we would purposely emulate and enhance – learning by experience (the obvious) that the longer the egg remained in the dye, the more pronounced the design would appear.

It made me smile this month when I saw a full page in the current Real Simple magazine giving instructions to create this very same effect on an Easter egg. The instructions said to crack the egg with a spoon…or, (not mentioned in the magazine) drop egg continually on a table while excitedly anticipating the Easter bunny’s arrival!

The second old school technique I use on eggs wasn’t used on eggs at all back in kindergarten. We used it to create a leaf painting. Various shaped leaves were placed on a paper and paint, in fall colors, was splattered over the leaves. When the leaves were removed, their shapes would appear, like magic, against the splattered background.

The splattering was done with an old toothbrush and a Popsicle stick. Rubbing the Popsicle stick across a paint filled toothbrush created a beautiful splattered effect. I used this very same technique to create the eggs shown here – using brown paint on eggs dyed in sea glass colors.