easter weekend

We had to start Easter with the dying of eggs, and that means hours of pondering the optimal designs followed by a couple hours of trying to pull off those designs.  This year, Nathan got ambitious, and while the eggs didn't turn out quite right, he gained valuable experience for next year.  (Kristin here: actually, his eggs were awesome...and yes, he did work for several hours.)

Here Nathan is cutting a design out of masking tape rings on his main egg.  While time consuming, this method has potential for small areas so long as the tape does not bunch up anywhere.  The places where the tape bunches will allow dye through.  Also, cutting requires carefully cutting with the knife tip as the long edge requires enough pressure to crack the shell.

In the spirit of Easter, Nathan hid the few eggs we had around the apartment for Kristin to find.

 The M&M egg found a nice ride with some friends.

One of the green eggs thought it might blend in nestled into the camo Snuggie, but something about the shades of green just weren't working for it.

The puzzle egg got devious and hid amongst some puzzle pieces.

The yellow egg didn't really fit in anywhere.  It tried hiding under a wedding bell, but that just meant Kristin had an audible hint since he's no silent ninja.

The second green egg hid in a candle stick.  It wasn't a great hiding spot, but it was high enough to be decent.

The final egg hid out under the coffee table with a movie the Easter Bunny left for Kristin.

While the colors came out much more dulled than intended, the general design came out alright.  For one thing, when dying yellow over darker colors, the yellow should be mixed a little light on the vinegar.

Through a mishap with the dye, some of my yellow areas came out as light blue, but you can still see the crisscross pattern.  Next year should be better.

The puzzle egg ended up with a nice blue to green fade, but the ink outlining the pieces smeared, even an hour after the pieces were drawn.  And, as mentioned above, the dye ran through where the tape bunched up.

Changing the subject...Kristin decided that it would be only appropriate to pick her first carrot for Easter dinner. 

It was a tad small...

...but it looked great on the salad! 

And speaking of food, here's what we ate.

Kristin made some of the most amazing cinnamon rolls!  Seriously...they were amazing.

For dinner, we ate some squash casserole...

...Nathan's famous deviled eggs...

...a delicious blueberry, bacon, blue cheese, and caramelized pecan salad...

...homemade rolls...

...and of course, Easter ham.

 

The recipes for just about all of that will be going up on Kristin's blog soon.  It made some enjoyable leftovers!