Posts Tagged ‘eco-friendly Easter’

And Speaking of Eggs…

Posted on February 19th, 2012 by Tonia 9 Comments

I found this beautiful project floating around on Pinterest and just had to share it. The source is a website in another language, so I took some time to search for directions in English and found them here!

This is definitely on my spring to-do list now…I’m imagining a kitchen full of my lady friends, huddled over our steaming pots of natural dye and gossiping. And we will definitely follow up all our hard work with carrot cake and vanilla hazelnut tea. Who’s coming over??

Reuse Tues: Egg Shells & Egg Cartons

Posted on February 14th, 2012 by Tonia 3 Comments

Next time you’re about to toss out an empty egg carton, don’t! You could be the proud owner of a gorgeous little succulent garden like this:

What a beautiful centerpiece this would make on your Easter brunch table! Click here for the tutorial.

If succulents aren’t your thing, I think it would be pretty to plant different grasses, mosses and herbs in the shells instead. Similarly, my mom plants a big pot of wheat-grass every year about a week before Easter and then nestles a bunch of dyed eggs into it once the grass gets to be a few inches high.

Homemade All-Natural Easter Egg Dye

Posted on April 21st, 2011 by Tonia 2 Comments

After a long and grueling winter, Easter is finally upon us! I love this holiday because it’s about spring, color, new life, food, and family. Whether you celebrate it or not I hope you have a wonderful weekend full of sunshine and flowers and all the treasures of the beautiful spring season. Mike and I will be celebrating with his family in Minnesota- complete with a big brunch and an Easter egg hunt.

My good friend Kara did some research and came up with several really neat ways to dye Easter eggs using regular household ingredients. What a great way to continue the fun tradition of dying eggs without having to purchase a kit from the store {they come with a bunch of plastic cups and create a lot of garbage. Boooo!} Thanks for sharing your creative and resourceful recipes with us, Kara! Here’s what she said about this project:

There are so many different options for dying eggs, and they will turn out different every time depending on how much ingredient you use, how long each egg simmers for, etc. It was a very fun afternoon project that elicited many questions from my eager three year old son {most often, “NOW can we eat them, Mommy??”}

Natural Easter Eggs

Supplies:
Dye sources
Vinegar
Jars/bowls
Canola/olive oil
Hard boiled eggs

Dye Sources:
Red cabbage {the dye looks purple-ish, but the eggs come out blue}
Beets {makes red/pink eggs}
Purple grape juice {purple}
Espresso {brown}
Raspberry Zinger Tea {gray/green/brown}
Chili powder {burnt orange/brown}
Spinach {greenish/yellow}

Steps:
1. Prepare the dye by simmering the dye-source in water.

– Red cabbage: Cut up about 2 cups of red cabbage and simmer it in about 2 cups of water for 30 minutes.
– Beets: Cut up two or three beets and simmer in 2 cups of water for about 10 – 20 minutes.
– Espresso or strong coffee: I brewed as normal about 2 cups.
– Raspberry tea: Brewed 5 tea bags in 2.5 cups of water for 15 minutes.
– Chili powder: Brewed about 1/3 cup chili powder in 2 cups water for 20 minutes
– Spinach: Brewed a very large pile of spinach in about 2 cups of water for 2.5 hours {it takes awhile to get sufficient color out of it.}
– Purple grape juice: Bring 2 cups to a simmer and remove from heat.

2. Strain the vegetables from the dye and add 1 tablespoon vinegar per 1 cup of dye.

3. Put eggs in a jar {I used 1 pint mason jars and put 2 eggs in each}

4. Fill the jars with dye to sufficiently cover the eggs.

5. Refrigerate overnight.

6. Remove eggs from dye and let dry on a paper towel.

7. Once dried the eggs may have a “chalky” appearance. I rubbed mine with olive oil to give them a shiny appearance.

Other ideas I came across that can be used as dye sources: Violet blossoms, red onion skins, hibiscus tea, red wine, canned blueberries, liquid chlorophyll, yellow delicious apple peels, orange peels, carrot tops, celery seed, cumin, tumeric, chamomile tea, green tea, dill seeds, yellow onion skins, cooked carrots, paprika, cranberries, raspberries, canned cherries with juice …. And I am sure there are many more … great opportunity to be creative!!

*If you plan on consuming the eggs they should never be unrefrigerated at any point for more than 2 hours.

Ohhhhh, so lovely! Great job, Kara. I love, love, love the colors you got from your sources! They’re such a nice change of pace from the usual pastel colors. Thanks again for sharing this project with us. Have a happy, blessed, and earth-friendly Easter, everyone!