Greetings to one and all! I hope you've had a fine week thus far and that those of you here in the USA enjoyed the first flush of "Fools Spring" - high 60s one day, headed back down to 34 degrees tomorrow. Shoot me now. But still, warmer days ARE coming, I promise. And of course Easter is mere days away so I've been having some fun with eggs and dye. Yeah yeah, talk about leave it to the last minute!! Now I don't recall the last time I did some egg decorating unless it was to whip a little garnish on top of a deviled egg - I have very faint memories of doing such a thing as a wee lass and every year I tell myself I'll give it a go. 

So I had a go. And I had to blow. And blow, annnnnnnnnnd blow.... and I'm thinking to myself "oh ick, raw egg near my lips!" as I gave it my all, the dulcet tones of Billy Joel egging me on in the background. Yes that was a pun that I couldn't pass up. Now bear in mind, this was TWO eggs after much cussing, breaking and many moments to stop and wipe the eggs.....and my lips. I opted for natural methods of dyeing with blueberries and green tea and after prepping both methods, carefully set my experiments into the fridge to brew up overnight. Husband got home, saw the contents and was mildly grossed out.

Next day, checked my results and was overall, quite pleased. And then hustled my egg dyeing arse down to the grocery store (after a pit stop to the BMV to renew my ID) to get more eggs. YAY! Mission was successful despite me somehow getting home minus the milk I purchased and losing my reading glasses somewhere on route. Time to dye more eggs! Time to DYE ALL THE THINGS! Can you tell I was in the mood to get craaaaaafffffffty? 

 I mixed things up a bit by doing some eggs in more blueberries, some in the green tea again, some in dried hibiscus flowers (my favorite), some in paprika and some in coffee. Boiled water, added vinegar and this time I got smart, I opted not to blow the eggs and just dyed them after boiling them. These were just for photo purposes after all. And one can only blow eggs to so much Billy Joel. Set the concoctions in the fridge and got to work dyeing other items - every year I get stuck into dyeing fabric using a variety of methods and since I'm pretty sure I can still smell turmeric after using that to dye textiles last year, this time I went for some store bought dyes. As I plan to sell these creations, I stick to what works for me and always have plan which sometimes fails me. Like dyeing some napkins with a frayed edge - ummmmm, I liked the end results so much that I've decided to keep them! Occupational hazard I guess. But I shall make more, I swear!

Now back to the eggs. I was pretty excited this morning and got up as husband was getting set to head to work which meant it was still dark outside and most human beings are still in the land of nod. But I really wanted to see how they turned out and after husband toodleoo'ed on his merry way, I got busy and started gently easing the eggs out of the jars (handy tip to myself for next year, use shallower containers) and while some weren't as exciting as I'd hoped such as the paprika and coffee, the hibiscus and blueberry were fabulous with the green tea ones coming out fairly decent too. Because green tea dyes things yellow. Who knew? In summary, I'll be doing this one again next year but will take note of the things that I need to remember - 

1. Do this at least TWO weeks before Easter, not a few days beforehand.

2. Get better containers and more natural dye supplies like beets and cabbage.

3. Blow the eggs to AC/DC.

4. Don't lose the milk. Or the reading glasses.

So that's all the dye stuff for now. I've had a few busy days working on other projects and baking a little here and there. Since my new camera arrived, I've been constantly ticking over with ideas for things to make to take photos of and am planning some outings and adventures once it gets a little warmer. I may even have some people to photograph || GASP ||, yeah it's been a while since I've done that and I am keeping things under wraps for now since I want it all to be a surprise. Until then I'll keep taking photos of things like the scones I made on Monday. Which was quite funny since I'm not one for the style of scones here in the USA. The first time I had one was about 19 years ago and when it was given to me, I was like "what in the name of Kylie Minogue is THAT? Ploise explain!" - it had the texture and density of a charcoal brick that you put into a BBQ and had I tossed it in the direction of my husband, well, if it had hit his noggin, he'd have been concussed!!

Anyway, my wariness of scones lasted until the other year when I met a local baker who makes the most beautiful scones. So............moist. And delicious. Now I'm not one to bake them myself since I'd rather support her business but there is a flavor of scone that I'm eager as mustard to make so I had a little test run by making some lemon and lavender ones and they actually turned out quite good. That makes me hopeful that the mystery batch that I want to make will be equally as nice. 

Well my friends, that's about all the chatter for now. Not the most detailed post, nor the most instructional but that's okay. Some days you feel the vibe and other days are a bit more chill. Honestly, I just want to stop typing so I can go play with toys and wash another load of textiles to see how they turn out! So on that note, I'm outta here. Thanks for reading and I promise to be back soon with more unexciting stories. LOL.

Stay well, stay happy and if you can, be an uppppptown giiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrl!

Sam.