"I wish I could hunt eggs...I love to hunt eggs"

(That's a movie quote. Quick, what movie is it from?)We had a lovely Easter weekend. On Saturday we had a visit from G&G J (up from Arizona for the weekend). It's always nice to see them, and we got to watch the morning session of General Conference with them.Saturday afternoon included more conference watching, as well as last minute Easter prep.

This is what the blackberry-dyed eggs looked like...And these are the mini cookies in the eggs : )Saturday night we drove up to G&G N's house to spend the night. The next morning the girls found their Easter baskets, which included new sunglasses for Monkey (she was most enthusiastic about the cookies in the egg, though!)...and a leotard & tutu set for Chick (it took her a while to try it on, but she's been dancing for the past two days).

We ate cinnamon rolls (my first time making them. They were yumm-y. I used this recipe)We chilled out with the G's.We watched more General Conference.We played with G'ma's toy stash (I love the juxtaposition of this picture!).We played with cousins.We ate delicious Easter food. My sister made the cookies--aren't they amazing? And, of course, we hunted eggs.Lastly, we watched Monkey give lots of hugs and kisses to the hedgehog. {I had to write about this, because there was some discussion about getting it in writing why G'ma would leave the hedgehog to Monkey in her last will & testament}

Eggs-perimenting

Growing up we colored our eggs using the Paas kits from the store. Its been many years since I've colored eggs, but felt that I had to this year because Chick is old enough to care & to help do it.

I don't have a problem with the store-bought kits, but I decided that with all of the cool ways to color eggs naturally, I'd go ahead and try that route.

We tried: silk tie-dyed eggs, fern & flower wrapped egg (just one), and various foods-- cherries, paprika, tumeric, spinach & parsley, & dandelions (good reference article here...I found it after I'd done my eggs). For decorations we used stickers & rubber bands. The silk tie ones & the fern & flower were hollowed out first, since not all of the ingredients were edible.

My helpers...

the silk ones. Super easy and cool looking! They remind me of the book "Gwendolyn the Miracle Hen". The fern & periwinkle didn't turn out very well, so I redid it using silk, but not for very long, so it's pale.

The cherry & paprika dyed... (suprisingly not red except for one spot)

The spinach & parsleys didn't turn out well, so I added them back in with the dandelion & turmeric, which turned out the best. (This picture is all of the food dyed eggs, except for the two that we'd already eaten!)

All my eggs in one...er, plate.

If I get more eggs I'm going to do some in blackberries & with the girls' initials on them for in their baskets. Also in their baskets--I'm going to try mini oatmeal-raisin cookies to put in large crystal-cut plastic eggs. I don't really want to do candy, and I think o-r cookies are a good enough balance between fun & indulgent and healthy.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have my other "egg-sperimental" project to show : )

More Easter pics

These cookies met with several catastrophes, but were cute anyhow, and tasted delicious.

My sister J is now a Grandma. Here the grandmas were comparing babies. I think Babe was quite taken with baby O.

This is where Chick was taught that the answer to "Who's your favorite cousin?" is always "Jake." Another cousin also taught her that the answer to any other question is "Matt Damon."

Grandma N is always the life of the party...

44 pintucks (and 21 ruffles) later

I would like to start by saying that somehow (unintentionally) I have over-represented my sewing abilities on this blog. A few of my MANY, MANY readers (ha ha) have gotten the impression that I'm a better seamstress than I am in reality. I'm glad that I've been able to fool you. Hooray for the internet & 2-dimensionality.

That said, Chick's Easter dress is all that I had hoped for, and I am actually proud of having been able to make it! I did use a pattern for general shape of the bodice & skirt, but I altered them. I drafted the sleeves, and I added the lining (which has tulle added) & ruffles & pintucks. I did buttons & buttonholes down the back, rather than a zipper like the pattern used. It's not really complicated in design, but I'm happy to have gotten the dresses to be so similar.

I studied the original dress. It was a great learning experience. It helped me remember when I was in college--in drawing classes I was given assignments to copy famous works of art, in poetry classes I had to analyze famous poems and write my own using the exact same pattern & grammar, and I think most religions recommend studying and following their Master. I've always learned a lot from these exercises, so it's no great surprise that I learned so much from studying a sewn dress that I loved. For instance, I didn't notice at first that the pintucks and ruffles were in different patterns.

ANYHOW, here are the pictures!

Curly Locks, curly locks, wilt thou be mine?

Hunting eggs with cousin K