4/10/2009

My bags are packed

We had planned to be on the road today, struggling through Atlanta traffic right about now, perhaps. Headed for a beautiful Georgia Easter weekend with family. Things are a little up in the air now because Keith injured his back two days ago and is unable to do much more than lie still. He is in a lot of pain.

I'm trying to be one of those relaxed, go-with-the-flow people I admire. It's nobody's fault, it can't be helped. Just one of those things. Anyone who has traveled long distances with young children knows it is a science to prepare for such trips. Snacks, diapers and clothes all laid out and rationed for a set amount of time. I'm trying not to pull out my hair as all these carefully planned details fall apart. Not to mention the plans of those who wait for us.

So, in the spirit of spontaneity we did some egg dyeing. I hadn't planned to do eggs this year but here we are and Easter is coming. I've always wanted to try some natural materials for dye. Family fun has some good instructions for making your own colors with food stuffs, most of which I had on hand.

Ethan helped me label the eggs as they soaked so we would remember which was which. We tried grape juice, beet juice, red cabbage leaves, yellow onion leaves, turmeric and coffee grounds. I let them soak for hours.













The biggest letdown was the beet juice which I thought would have worked much better but ended up just barely pink. The others did better than I anticipated. The blue was made with the red cabbage leaves and the yellow, the turmeric.













The beautiful brown one? Coffee grounds, of course. Now I'm more motivated than ever to brush my teeth after that big cup o' joe.

8 comments:

Emma Christensen said...

Gorgeous eggs! Hope you have a nice Easter weekend, no matter where you are. :)

KJ said...

Wow. I'm impressed with the color of those eggs and what you used to make them that way!

And I'll pray for extra grace.... and I hope you'll make it to GA sometime this weekend! Love to you and your family!

gretchen said...

The eggs are beautiful! You continue to be one of those amazingly creative people I so admire, even as you and I both may fall short of the "relaxed, go-with-the-flow" type. Still, it's good to have something to strive for, and your dyeing the eggs shows a great resilience of spirit! Flexibility, Plan B, all that good stuff...

In the mean time: Keith, be healed!!!

kw said...

Yeah..i always get irked by dyes that go awry.It is a tricky thing and online they make it sound so easy. Stupid online people...we just used food coloring...the blue came out awesome though!

gretchen said...

Please tell me you're at least on the way!

gretchen again said...

(This is Sunday night)

La La Palooza said...

The blue and yellow ones are nice. I had no idea, or well, just never thought about dying eggs with natural substances. Neato!

the Joneses said...

I've been drinking coffee this week so I'll be a nice mama while Darren is gone; and thank you SO much for that coffee egg because I think of it every time I take a drink now.

I tagged you on my blog. I don't normally do tags, but I'm interested in this subject.

-- SJ