Ukrainian Eggs

Over the weekend we (my two older girls & I) had the opportunity to learn how to make Ukrainian eggs.  After learning how they are made I will never look at them the same way again!  It it a very tedious, yet therapeutic process.  I didn’t take photos while making them as I was caught up in the learning of it myself.

For our first egg we all did the same thing and followed a pattern to learn.  I love how the black made it pop at the end.  Before I saw the end result, I didn’t like it that well.

For our second egg we were able to look through catalogs or freehand.  I decided to freehand my second one, which didn’t turn out quite as well as I envisioned it in my mind.

People take weeks to make their eggs and we made 2 in a few short hours.  It’s also much more difficult than it looks!

When I get the opportunity to try my hand at it again I will definitely plan out my drawing and colors before hand.  I also learned that I don’t have to start with white.  I can actually dye the entire egg and then add my first layer of wax.

Another very interesting fact we learned is that you don’t have to use blown eggs.  We actually used hard boiled eggs for our first “lesson”.  The egg inside seems to drive and shrivel up inside over time. We were able to shake some of the samples she showed us and hear the old egg inside shake.  It will only smell, we were told, if you crack the egg.  I did crack my freehand egg as I was taking off the wax.  I kept it to take a photo but plan to throw it out since it wasn’t a design I truly loved anyway.

Now I just need to look into the supplies so we can practice up at home!  She also told us that you can use natural materials/plants to create dyes and I’m very interested in learning how to do that as well so I guess I have a research project in the near future!

This Week

This week I’ve been taking the time to clean out all the spent plants in my greenhouse and clean up the greenhouse and other gardens as well.  It’s a reminder of the new season approaching.  Winter is the much needed rest for me.  I still have stuff growing around the property but slower growing winter crops.  I think I enjoy seeing all the season come and then, when it’s time, seeing them leave so another can take their place.

Since the cold has started to come we’ve been chatting about Christmas cards and packages we would like to get in the mail for friends and family.  My daughters have already started their handmade cards to send out!  They are always excited to put up the tree and decorations.  J & I have happily let them take over that tradition for the past few years.  I think if it weren’t for them we wouldn’t bother.

These girls are all growing so fast it’s hard to believe!  It makes my heart ache when I really take a look and notice how tall and mature they are all getting.  I know this is a part of life but it just comes so quickly!  You can check out some recent photos here as I’m working on adding photos more regularly to my website.

So how about you?  What are you up to this week?

I’m still around

Well, it’s been quite a while since I’ve written here!  I haven’t disappeared, just been crazy busy.  It’s been such a busy couple of months and has taken me some time to adjust to everything new going on.  Since August we have started our school year, I’ve started a part time job, I started 2 online classes for the month of October (which I will miss when they’re over!), I’m still trying to clear out the house of as much unwanted/unnecessary stuff as I can, trying to figure out how to revamp my website (you can check it out here) and still keeping up with the day to day household stuff which for me includes the greenhouse.

My goal for this blog (and what seems reasonable at this point!) is to write once a week and post a craft once a week.  If I have time to jump on and write/craft more than that then that’s a bonus!

I’m on my way this morning to pick up some pallets.  I will definitely be hitting Pinterest to check out all the great pallet projects I have pinned!  There are so many great things to make with pallets!  Free wood, in my mind!  So stay tuned for some kind of pallet project soon. . .

I feel like I’ve been away for so long!  We have had quite a busy August.  I think August usually ends up being one of our busiest months of the year!  We took 10 days and drove up north to visit with family and when we got back we’ve had a good many people coming through to view the house as well as starting our “official” school year.

It was a nice trip visiting with everyone, attending a cousin’s wedding, and then topping it all off with a family reunion   It was also nice to see family and friends we don’t see often and to get the opportunity to take my cousin’s wedding photos, some senior portraits and family photos for friends.  We also enjoyed staying with my Grandparents most of our visit.

I think everyone enjoyed our trip to a local amusement park (including my Mom).  I really wish I had taken my camera but I enjoy the rides so much that I just didn’t want to be stuck worrying about my camera the whole day.  This trip did teach me that about the only rides I can really handle anymore are the water rides and roller coasters.  Crazy, isn’t it?!?  Most people can handle everything but the roller coasters, lol!  I can handle a bit but nothing that goes in circles which seems to be most all the rides in the parks these day.  My middle daughter isn’t much for the large coasters but the other two will ride anything they’re tall enough to be allowed on.

Since we’ve been back I haven’t had much time to do anything except keep the house clean and order books that need to be ordered for the school year.  I do plan to start my fall veggies within the next week or so.  I also still have this dream of purging and organizing this house!  We’ve done pretty well going through and getting rid of clothes that we no longer need but the rest of the house still needs a lot of purging!  I do wish my sister lived close by when I take on projects like this.  I know she’d come over and happily help me to get things out of the house!  She tends to be better of letting go of stuff!

I look forward to getting back to crafting/art and some more Pinterest projects.  Unfortunately, this probably won’t happen until next month which technically is in a few days!  Look forward to seeing you then!

Day 30 Bottle Top Magnet – 30 Days of Pinterest

This was one of those crafts I had been seeing for a while but just never got around to trying.  Then we picked up some old fashioned root beer in the glass bottles and I had the bottle tops!  It’s a pretty simple, straight forward craft.  Here’s the tutorial for this one.  I didn’t add the magnet yet because I’m still debating on whether they should be magnets or pendants.  I also used Glossy Accents rather than the glaze sealer they used.  You just have to make sure and pop any bubbles in the glaze before it dries or you’ll see little “air bubbles” (see my 2nd pic).

Day 29 Travel Toothbrush holder – 30 Days of Pinterest

I know, I’m a bit behind on these but it’s been a crazy few weeks so I’m pretty behind on everything at this point!  For day 29 I decided to make a travel toothbrush holder.  This was probably the simplest thing I’ve made thus far.  And I think it will be quite handy when we’re traveling!  I hate everyone putting their toothbrushes in plastic baggies when we take trips!  It ends up being pretty gross.  I loved this idea because all you do is use a hand towel!  It’s simple to sew and machine washable   The pin I saw this on was another etsy pin.  The one pinned also only had 4 spots for toothbrushes and toothpaste.  Being that we’re a family of 5, I made mine with 6 slots.  One for each toothbrush and a toothpaste.  You could make as many/little slots as you need.  I think it’s cute and could be much cuter if you bought a fancy hand towel.  I, as always, just used what we had around the house so it’s nothing fancy.

Day 28 Marble Pendant – 30 Days of Pinterest

This pendant was inspired by a pin to a site with tutorials on using marbles as pendants.  I really didn’t look at any of the tutorials.  Alot of times I like to get my inspiration from something but not copy it exactly so I just took a look at the photo and made one all my own.  Here’s the orignal page that I got my inspiration from and below is what I created.