Egg decorating

Egg #3, originally

uploaded by benlouelt.

I have volunteered to help Poppy's prep class decorate eggs for their Easter craft activity. I thought I would have a bit of a practice and play around with a few ideas at home today, knowing from past experience that egg dyeing can be a little tricky sometimes.

The first time Oscar and I made them, we left them out to show the Easter Bunny. THE DOG ATE THEM. Shell and all!

I'm never sure where I've gone wrong when I attempt these. The colour always comes out uneven and rarely seems as bright as those in the instructions. I thought I would try white eggs this year, but after an exhaustive search, couldn't find anything other than brown. Finally I decided to head in to Queen Vic Market and see if I could find some there. It seems that they special order them in for Easter as most people want their eggs brown shelled. I eventually ended up buying duck eggs, as the white eggs would not be in stock until Thursday. No wonder I always use brown eggs.

The duck eggs were a beautiful creamy white. Until I boiled them that is. Now I know what the colour "Duck egg blue" refers to. Okay if you are wanting blue dyed eggs, but the yellow ones ended up slightly greenish.

Anyway, these ones were a lot of fun to make, I was even happy with the spotty green one. The templates for the animal heads/wings/paws was from Martha Stewart and although my end result is no where near as cute as those, we think they are pretty good anyway.

Needless to say, they are up, safe, away from prying dog noses.

Egg cosy

Egg cosy, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

These cute egg cosies are to be made by my son's class (grades 5/6) as an Easter craft activity. I have put together small bags for the kids which will contain the instructions, pattern, coloured felt, embroidery cotton, pins, needles and scissors.

Please tell me they won't stab themselves. Or each other. Or me.

Hearts and Birds

Hearts and Birds, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

I have been wanting to attempt this pattern for a while now. The wonderful Andrea Zuill has free patterns on her great blog http://zuill.us/andreablog/2009/03/ . I had been hoarding this lovely piece of Irish linen for a while now, waiting for the right project to come along.

While my embroidery skills are far from perfect, I love the simplicity of the design. It was fast too, taking only two nights to complete. Split stitch is very forgiving, giving a nice, neat result. Just don't look at the back. Some things should remain secret.

Swimming

Swimming, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

Today I swam 30 laps - 750 metres. Not much I will admit, but certainly more than the ten I could do two weeks ago.
Back towards the end of last year, Ben went on a super crazy health/fitness kick and the weight has just fallen off. I did not. It also occurred to me that I hadn't swum laps for a quarter of a century. Yes twenty five years had passed.

Back many many years ago I actually did squad training a couple of nights a week. I would ride my bike to the Olympic Pool after school, regardless of weather, swim, and ride home again.

A series of events made this all fall by the wayside. I went to a boarding school that didn't have an accessible pool, became a teenager who suddenly had better things to do, then discovered clubbing and only wanted to sleep in any spare time I had left over.

Now, two kids later, and with spare time on my hands, I need to swim. The alternative forms of exercise aren't so appealing. I don't like running (too sweaty) or walking (too boring) and am no longer twenty so clubbing would be just plain unattractive but I do like swimming.

With swimming in mind, I have bought a beautiful piece of Oil Cloth to sew into a swim bag. I don't have a pattern, so I guess I will just make it up as I go along.

All I need now is a floral swim cap.

Learn to Sew Cards

Learn to Sew Cards, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

Poppy has been wanting to do some sewing of her own for ages. It has been something of a challenge trying to find a basic enough project that a five year old with a short attention span can manage.

Enter the Plastic Needle.

I found these great big, multicoloured, plastic needles at RIOT craft supplies and thought they would be perfect.

I trawled through some vintage Golden Books that I had saved from my childhood, copied some of the illustrations, stuck them to thick card, sprayed with a gloss sealant and punched holes around the Bunny.

Colourful yarn threaded on to the needle completed it.

I have another eleven on the go...

Afternoon tea

Afternoon tea, originally uploaded by benlouelt.

I have broken my Easter rule of only making Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday. This is the first batch of many to come. If I am buying them every second day I may as well be baking them. These came out perfectly - super sticky due to the glaze, fruity, spicy and dense. Off to the market for more dried fruit supplies I go.

The only downfall with these is that they don't keep. The next day they may as well be paperweights, but when I read the list of ingredients of the bought ones and compare it with these, these are definitely the healthier option. If I didn't slather them with so much butter.