Happy Easter

Happy Easter, beautiful people :-)

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Easy Easter Egg Dyeing

With the arrival of Spring last week, we celebrated with a little BBQ with friends on Sunday. Our hard boiled eggs needed a bit of dressing up to get in a festive mood.

To color the shells blue, we used some blue food coloring.

To make the white lines in the blue, we wrapped some rubber bands around our eggs before we cooked them.

Popped them in the blue boiling water for 10 minutes until they were hard boiled (Kitty's banana chocolate chip breakfast pancake cooking in the front here, yum yum! See what a multitasker I am :-)

We served these pretty blue eggs to our friends. They got all eaten up!

Happy Easter crafting,
Blessings and magic,
Donni

Dyeing Easter Eggs With Neck Tie Silk

 

We dye some eggs like this every Easter and it is always such an excitement to see how they are going to turn out. First, we visit a thrift store and stock up on a number of bright and colorful silk neck ties (they usually only cost us a dollar or two). They need to be 100% silk.

When we get home, we cut them up into sizes big enough to cover an egg. We take some white eggs out of the fridge and blow the yolks out of them using this method.

We wrap our cleaned out eggs in the scraps of silk from our ties. And use a rubber band to secure them tightly.

We wrap them in an old stocking. Again, a rubber band secures the egg tightly inside the stocking. 

In the past we have noticed that our hollow eggs (which are filled with air) won't submerge in the boiling water, so now we put a few golf balls into the stockings too, to weight them down when they are in the water.

Pop the golf balls into the stocking and tie a knot.

Place your eggs (and golf balls :) into a pot of boiling water (with 2 tablespoons of vinegar added) and let them simmer for 20 minutes. Allow them to cool and unwrap... you will be amazed at the pretty designs that have been transferred onto your eggs!

Each unwrapping is more fun than the last and you will have a bowl of pretty Easter eggs each with a more intricate design than the last. Have a look here to see our silk dyed Easter eggs from last year.

Happy Easter Crafting,
Blessings and magic,
Donni

Easter Finds.

I love all of my sponsors! I sometimes find myself browsing through their beautiful shops, amazed at the beauty and creativity I find there. There is something for everyone... toys, silks, kits, crafting supplies, jewelry... so please my friends, if you are in need of something special, pop on over to their buttons in the right sidebar and see what wonders they have to offer.

Here is a little Easter collection from their shops...

Welcome back Linda from Mamma4Earth -  At Mamma4Earth you will find delightful hand-knitted treasures and patterns. If it's an heirloom knitted treasure you are after for your little one or a pattern to knit one yourself, Mamma4Earth is a place you must visit. Aren't you tempted to knit this sweet unicorn?

Stubby Pencil Studio - Stubby Pencil Studio offers eco friendly kids art materials and school supplies like crayons made from soy - not petroleum; stationery, greeting cards, sketchbooks and journals made from 100% post consumer recycled paper - not virgin trees; pencils made from sustainably harvested wood and recycled newspapers - not dying forests.

If dyeing Easter eggs is a thing in your home like it is in ours at the moment, check out this eco-friendly egg dying kit.

A Child's Dream Come True ... Natural crafts, toys and more to nurture the child's sense of life and imagination. Aren't these soft pastel colors so pretty... just the thing you'll need to make pastel needle felted Easter eggs...

Natural Kids Store - a collective of artisans, creating heirloom quality and natural products for children and their families. I can't help smiling along with this sweet birthday gnome...

The Enchanted Cupboard - magical wooden toys and silks. I love this set of cute Easter Bunnies for Easter play...

Laleebu Toys - Sewn and needle felted dolls, puppets, costumes and toys. Mr White Rabbit is darling, isn't he!

Periwinkle Sky - utterly enchanting signed prints, original prints and signed original paintings. Magical art to decorate your little one's room with...

Skipping Stones - intricate handmade jewelry. Don't you need a little something special for yourself?

A Little Garden Flower and Waldorf Essentials - Waldorf inspired mentoring and homeschooling
essentials.

Thank you ALL for your continued support :-)

Blessings and magic,
Donni

A Baby Bunny

 We have had a real happening in our home. A totally unexpected delight that has brought us so much joy!

It all started on Kitty's 8th birthday at the end of December last year. My darling brother and his sweet wife were visiting us for Christmas. They said to Kitty, 'If you could choose ANYTHING for your birthday gift from us, what would it be?' She thought for a second and said, 'A baby bunny'.
'Then a baby bunny it'll be' they replied.

We spent the rest of the day driving from pet store to pet store looking for a baby bunny. Alas, it being two days after Christmas, there was not a baby bunny to be found in the whole of the city.

Towards the end of our search, the word 'baby' disappeared from our search criteria and any old bunny would do. Kitty already had a beloved bunny at home... a girl bunny called BunBuns and when we finally decided upon a bunny in that last store, we made doubly sure that our new pet was a girl. 'Yes, yes!' the young girl behind the counter told us,  'she is definitely a girl'.

Toffee Toots, a caramel brown bunny, came home with us to loving sounds from Teddy and Kitty in the back of the car. Sadly, Toffee Toots escaped from her cage the next day and hours and hours of searching declared her to be lost forever. Lots of tears and regrets were had by all. And that was that! Or so we thought.

BunBuns became the beloved bunny once more. Here is a photo of beloved BunBuns. Kitty got her for her 6th birthday, two years ago. We kept her in a cage and she bit anyone who ventured to put their hand inside. I couldn't bear a caged animal and so we decided to let her free in the yard and hope for the best. She lives in a warren under the deck. We feed her every day and pet her very occasionally when she lets us catch her.

So, back to our story. Ten days ago, A Good Man came home from work and was startled by a baby bunny in our yard. 'Have you guys got another bunny?' he asked as he came through the door. 'I thought the last one was such an ordeal that you declared that you were DONE with new bunnies!'

'No!' Kitty and I replied in unison. Out we went to see and, sure enough, there was a baby bunny! Just then BunBuns thumped her feet and the baby bunny hopped under the deck with her and disappeared down into the warren. Kitty and I were stunned! A baby bunny!!

Meet Baby BunBuns...

Oh my gosh, she surely must be the cutest bunny in the world!

As there has been a hawk on the fence, we have brought her inside. 

The children are utterly in love.

Now this is the part that brings me the MOST joy of all. Every morning BunBuns (mommy bunny) is waiting on the deck for us when we wake up (we have tried to keep her inside overnight but she pleads desperately for us to let her out and we just cant keep her in against her will). We open the door and she, our outside bunny, hops happily inside. She jumps straight onto the couch and waits for us to bring Baby Buns to her. Baby Buns dives under her mom, lies on her back with her feet straight up in the air and nurses, her ears pinned back and her eyes tightly shut. This beautiful ritual goes on twice a day, morning and dusk and both mom and baby seem totally undisturbed by our close proximity. Us being there doesn't bother them at all.

After nursing they love for a little wile and then BunBuns jumps down from the couch, has some food we've set out for her and then asks to be let out again. Baby Buns goes frisking about for a while, totally un-worried that her mom has left. It's amazing.

Often, during the day, BunBuns will come into the house again to see her baby. They will nuzzle for a little and then BunBuns will lie down on the carpet for a rest. She is too sweet!

So, isn't it uncanny how Kitty got her birthday wish after all... a baby bunny!

Blessings and magic,
Donni

More Easter Egg Dyeing

Teddy had so much fun dyeing hard boiled eggs last weekend (you can read all about it and see the gorgeous colored eggs we dyed in this post) that he requested we do it again this weekend. Four-year-olds love to repeat things over and over again, don't they... OK, I said, lets dye eggs for Daddy's lunches for the coming week. We set to work...

Again, we used what we already had in the fridge... blueberries, beetroot, red cabbage and red onion skins.

We set four pots of water to boil. Popped the above natural dye ingredients into each pot, added about 2 tablespoons of vinegar to each pot. Added our raw white eggs and let them boil for about 10 minutes.

They are so pretty. The softest colors from natural dye.

 

Lucky Daddy when he opens his lunch pail this week :-)

Hmmmm, I wonder what we'll be dyeing next week, lol.

Happy Easter crafting,
Blessings and magic,
Donni

Easter SALE at Fairyfolk

Fairyfolk is having an Easter SALE, exclusive for my precious readers. If you use the coupon code EasterOnions at Etsy checkout, your total will be recalculated to give you a 15% discount on your entire order. This weekend only, Friends, so don't leave it too long :-) And this discount isn't only for Easter goodies, so if you have been wanting a Fairyfolk treasure, now is the time to splash out and save!

Here is a small sampling of the EASTER GOODIES you will find at Fairyfolk...

Needle Felted Easter Bunnies in colorful woolen eggs.

 Easter Candy will be eaten up but this little guy will be a friend forever.

Birds in nests.

 Bunnies in nests.

Easter Eggs

Hollow Wool Eggs for a NO-Plastic Easter

Easter Garlands

Pretty Flower Fairy Necklaces

And Bunny Noses

 Spring Nests

 DIY Spring Nest Kits

Click on this link to see all that is available in Fairyfolk.

Remember to add the code EasterOnions in the coupon box at Etsy Checkout for your discount to take effect.

Happy Easter shopping!

Blessings and magic,
Donni