Easy Easter Eggs

      Every April Fool's Day my mom would always call me up and try to 'fool' me. This usually involved some kind of unlikely pregnancy or unexpected marriage of someone we knew.
Needless to say, I usually was NOT fooled. But we carry on this silly tradition, with my girls, and friends and husband.  Every new year is a challenge, because my daughters are pretty saavy about this day.
     But, I got EVERYONE this time. hee hee... I guess that makes the Queen of the April Fools (not sure I like that title) but it was fun anyway.
     ...But onto our project for today. Easter is only 2 days away, so get your eggs ready...

Today's project is:    EASY colored EASTER eggs

You will need:
scarves or ties that are 100% silk
    (look in thrift shops)
onion skins (dry)
     save throughout the year, if you can
eggs (not boiled yet)
thin material (like old cotton pillowcases),
or nylon stockings
twist ties (or string)

Now there are two projects of eggs. The traditional eggs I've always made since childhood was a project I did with my mom every year. You start saving the onion skins throughout the year. I always wondered what that paper bag under the kitchen sink held, til one day I peeked and found the skins.

Then of course, she saved her knee high nylons, or old cotton pillowcases for this project, too. She was my original "recycler".

You take an egg, wrap the onion skins around it (the best you can) and slip it into the toe of the nylon stocking, or into the center of a cotton rag. Then you twist tie it shut. If you are using a stocking, you can stack several into one. see photo ->

Then you boil them as usual for 10 minutes (I put them into a pot of water, then get it boiling and start timing. I don't like to drop them into boiling water, because they tend to crack). Unwrap when cool, and you will find wonderfully marbelized brownish colored eggs. (I tried using red onion skins hoping for pink or red eggs, but no, they just are powerful enough to dye).

Now the second Easy Easter Egg dying project is using silk ties or scarves.
If you wrap the egg tightly against the fabric, twist tie it and boil for 10 min.  When you unwrap these eggs, you will be amazed that the pattern on the silk scarf or tie comes off onto the eggs.

When ever I make and give these as gifts, people are so amazed and totally confounded about how I got the color onto them. But it's soooo easy, I hate to tell them that, so I just smile and say "it's my secret".

tip of the day:
Today's tip is more of a suggestion of yet again, one of our Easter traditions.
We would have 'egg wars' on Easter morning. It was usually before we went to church, so we would have a little something to eat to hold us over until the big Easter brunch later.
Everyone would select an egg from our collection, and holding it in your fist with only the end showing, we would clunk them against each other. Then we would turn it over and hit the other end. The one whose egg did not crack was the winner! (of course this all a matter of where the air bubble is when you boil the egg, but it's fun and a nice tradition to pass on)

That's all for this week... HAPPY EASTER!!
:D