I figured this would be a timely post to help parents and children color their Easter Eggs naturally this weekend. Initially we weren’t planning to dye eggs with Everly this year for a number of reasons.

1. I hate the smell, taste and concept of hard boiled eggs. It makes me want to puke and with a pregnant, heightened sense of smell it will be even more yucky to me now.
2. I don’t want to buy white grocery store eggs just to dye them and then not eat them.
3. Everly isn’t quite at the age where she’ll care about not being given the chance to decorate eggs.
4. Is she even old enough to enjoy the egg dying process? I am not too sure.

Instead we got a handful of plastic eggs to fill with trinkets. Now that Nathan has discovered that brown eggs can be dyed and that they look vivid and amazing we are going to give dying them a try after all. He is going to be the one eating them after this is all said and done though.

I began my natural dye research after it was clear Everly’s 2nd birthday (in just 2 months) will be Elmo themed. She’s 100% Elmo all the time now so an Elmo cake is in order. However, the idea of red dye drenched frosting, with all it’s chemical nastiness wasn’t an exciting prospect for me so I began my research to find out ways to make natural dye easily.

I found a ton of info and not surprisingly, all sorts regular stuff can be easily used to make dye. You just need to know some basics about the dying process first.

Dye Recipe Instructions for eggs:

Image source: Flickr

Select a dyeing agent (outlined below) and place it in the pot. Add 1 quart water and 2 tablespoons white vinegar to pot; if more water is necessary to cover ingredients, proportionally increase the amount of vinegar. Bring to a boil, then lower heat. Allow the ingredients to simmer for 30 minutes. Strain dye into a bowl.

Note: If you are using the dyes to make colored icing or dry items like play dough, omit the vinegar (I’ll post more details about coloring icing and other dry items later).

Seems simple enough right? You are just heating the dye ingredients to extract the colors and juices used for dye. These are a handful of dye ingredients you can round up for your dying:

For Green Dye:
Dried powdered spinach will make a yellowish green. Add 1 teaspoon vinegar to 2 tablespoons powdered spinach and 1 cup boiling water| Add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and the dye will turn green, and if you allow it to stand for several hours to overnight, it will turn a dark yellow or orange

For Red Dye:
Use 4 cups chopped cabbage to get a red dye. Also, dark red beets will make a red or pink shade (depending on how many you use.) You can use them in the wet form, if you smash them, and strain the juice through cheese cloth. You can also use dried red beets to make a great pink or red icing (perfect for valentines day). Red onion skins can also be used with very little water, boil and then strain through cheese cloth.

For Yellow Dye:
3 tablespoons turmeric works well for a yellow dye. About 4 cups of onion skins will make a deep yellowish gold color.

For Brown Dye:
Try 1 quart strong black coffee with the cold-dipping method for a nice brown color. Also, 1 tablespoon instant coffee (or loose tea) can be used. Tea and coffee produce different shades of brown, so you might to experiment with this one. For an even different color (darker) brown try cocoa powder instead of coffee.

For Blue Dye:
Red cabbage juice used with the cold-dipping method can get a blue dye color. Also, blackberry juice or fruit gives a reddish blue result or blueberry juice or fruit can be used for a blue gray result.

For Purple Dye:
Try 1/2 cup violet blossoms for a nice purple dye. You can also use lavender with 1/8 cup lemon juice, it will causes a chemical reaction and makes a pretty lavender color.

For Pink Dye:
Red cabbage makes a pink color well. Also, dried dark red beets will make a red or pink shade (depending on how much you use.) You can use them in the wet form, if you smash them, and strain the juice through cheese cloth. You can also use dried red beets.

Dye dipping methods do vary depending on the color you want to achieve and the process you wish to take. Cold-dipping produces subtle, translucent shades, but can result in uneven coloring unless the eggs are rotated vigilantly while in the dye. The plus is cold dipping is often a better choice for children who are doing the dying and decorating. The boiling method gets a richer, more even color but makes multi-colored eggs difficult and can be too scary for some parents to allow their children to do. The basic instructions for both methods of dipping are below.

Cold-Dipping Method:
With this method, the eggs and the ingredients for the dye are boiled separately. Using a metal spoon, lower cooled hard-boiled eggs into a bowl of cooled dye, and let them soak for as little as 5 seconds or as long as overnight, depending on the depth of color you desire. Remove eggs with spoon, pat dry with paper towels, and let dry on a wire rack.

Boiled Method:
This method involves boiling the eggs with the dye; the heat allows the dye to saturate the shells, resulting in intense, more uniform color. Set raw eggs in a pot of strained dye; bring to a boil. Remove and dry eggs as with the cold-dipping method.

Coloring your Easter eggs in natural ways is a great activity for children to partake in. It teaches the usefulness of plants and other ingredients in nature, it spurs creativity and urges resourcefulness too; all while having fun and celebrating the Easter holiday!

It can also be a great adventure when children are given some leaway to forage around and find the ingredients for the dyes, they can even combine several ingredients, make some predictions about what color will be produced and have a fun surprise when they actually see the results of their colored their eggs.

With earth day just around the corner, why not try a new approach to Easter Egg coloring? It is fun, creative, educational and eco-friendly!

If you enjoyed this and would like more craft project inspiration you should check out some of my past projects here.

I have to tell you I am loving the toddler apron I just finished making for Everly as a Christmas gift! I knew I was set on making aprons this year but I was mildly anxious about the undertaking and didn’t have the money to buy adorable fabrics and the ones I have on hand just aren’t inspiring or fun…

I have been looking at this pile of outgrown, cute little sun dresses that Everly wore this summer and it hit me. Why not take a dress apart and make it in to an apron?

For starters, it is way less clothing construction hassle. This is always a good thing for me! Plus, it means reusing and re-purposing a perfectly good clothing item so it is eco-friendly of me and also cheap because I don’t need to buy any fabric. Double yay!

Here is a photo of Miss Everly in the dress I used for the apron. This was taken back in July when she fit in to it.

Now the dress wont zip up and it is too short to be worn as a dress anyway. It is a cute dress though and being the “visual” learner type I knew I could make this work better than going off a pattern anyway.

I basically just took a stitch ripper and deconstructed the dress piece by piece. I first separated the skirt portion from the top part, then I removed the skirt’s side zipper and continued to split the skirt’s side stitches until the skirt portion could lay open and flat on the table.

Next I pleated the skirt at the waist so it was the width I needed it to be. I used some coordinating ribbon to sew over the pleats I made and to also serve as the skirt’s waste tie. Then I tied it on the little one to check sizing and length but she wouldn’t stay still for a photo. Here is the back view, lol.

After disassembling the chest and back parts of the dress I discovered I could piece the back section to the bottom of the front section just above the joining of the skirt to lengthen the apron’s chest area.

I kept the shoulder straps and ruffles intact but simply detached them from the back portion, I also attached a length of the coordinating ribbon to the end of the shoulder straps. These lengthened shoulder straps now serve as the part that ties around her neck.

I still want to re-attach the butterfly shape that came off the back of the dress back. I thought it would make a good front pocket either on the skirt or on the top-front but I haven’t gotten that far.

I only get to sew in spurts with Everly peering over my shoulder. She even brings her step stool in so she can be at eye level with my sewing machine watching the fun.

I think it turned out pretty good for just winging it and was super easy-cheesy too. Only took me two days of sewing here and there. I say it took about 2 hours to turn the dress in to an apron and that is 2 hours of beginner sewing skills.

Now we will get some more good use and memories out of an outfit we loved so much the first time around! She should fit in it for another year or two now and it can be an item we save in her memory box once she’s too big for it.

So what kinds of crafts are you working on this holiday season or what ideas did you have? If aren’t working on anything and you need some ideas you should check out some of my past projects here.

Personally, no holiday season is complete in our home without some handcrafted gifts under the tree!

It’s fall and we actually live somewhere that has a beautiful changing of the seasons so I wanted to try collecting and decorating with things that are found around the town this time of year.

On of the things we found by accident, while driving through a nice forest-like section of residential area were Osage Orange trees. We were calling the fruit Osage Oranges, also known as Hedgeapples but it turns out only the tree is called and Osage Orange, not the fruit. Osage Orange trees are cousin to the mulberry tree.

The Hedgeapple fruit from the Osage Orange tree isn’t orange but are instead a vivid light green with a bumpy texture and they look brilliant against the autumn tree line. This is how we came to notice them as we drove by one day.

They actually smell an awful lot like and orange peel which is where the name Osage Orange came from.

Once we noticed these Hedgeapples laying in the embankment near the road turned around, came back, pulled over and N jummped out to gather as many fallen Hedgeapples as he could for us to bring home.

We had no idea what they were but figured we could find something fun to do with them once we looked them up. Here I what I ended up doing with them:

Only the dehusked seeds are edible and I read they are quite a pain to get to so we opted to use them for their unique look. They really pop placed in a clear decorative bowl or near other decorative items in the house. I even put a few around a vase of slowers I have on the table.

Folklore says these are also a great deterrent for spiders and other bugs. Probably has something to do with the faint orange scent of them.

We are glad we pulled over and snagged some of these Hedgeapples though. They are a peculiar little fruit and I just love finding free, beautiful ways to spruce up the house and decorate for the seasons!

Yesterday our AC was out and we spent the day in a 80+ degree house waiting on the repair man. It started getting warm in the wee hours of the morning, like 3am-ish. The night was sleepless because of the uncomfortable temperature of the house and we all were up and at em quite early yesterday.

Got the call in to the repairman, N headed off to work and E and I waited around for the repairman. Of course they never come soon enough when something like an AC needs fixing. So we wandered the house in minimal clothing and tried to keep things nice and dark to keep the hot summer sun out and the temperature inside down.

I had E in just a diaper all day, even at nap time. Turns out that was a mistake because she’s able to remove the Velcro diapers if she wants to and she did just that.

We came in the get her after her afternoon nap and there she was standing up in her crib totally naked, diaper wadded up in the corner and a urine soaked bed. We lucked out because it was just a urine mess.

Today was another story, when N and E got up this morning there was poosplosion all over the crib. Much like the vomitsplosion we had a few months back. Poor thing had her diaper still on (because she wasn’t sleeping naked and thus didn’t have access to unfastening her diaper) but lots of poop leaked out all over the bed, her arms, her doll, blankets, crib bumper and everything else in that crib.

Needless to say the morning started off with a bath and some bed stripping. A poop covered laundry doesn’t scare me though. Never thought I’d be saying that. Ha, ha.

Seriously though, cloth diaper laundering has taught me lots about how to treat various messes on linens. I don’t need no stinking stain removers or heavy duty detergents either.

Just rinsed all the poop covered stuff in cold water, specifically in a cold wash & an extra rinse with NO detergent in the washer. Then I did a hot wash with Planet Detergent (my cloth diaper detergent) and then took the stuff outside to dry and sanitize.

I know I say this all the time but it is amazing how effective the sun is at removing a majority of laundry stains. It doesn’t cost money and it can lower your energy bills by drying the laundry as well as bleaching out stains. I love harnessing the power of the sun to remove poop stains, blood stains and other food stains (like pasta sauce, berry stains and more). If you haven’t already tried “sunning-out” a laundry stain I’d encourage you to do so, it is amazing!

Some other homemade laundry ideas are:

Homemade bleach (that is safe and non-toxic)

Combine 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide with about 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, add to 15 cups of cool water. Mix and use int he wash as you would standard bleach. Can dilute further if you pan on soaking clothing in the beach or simply store in a cool, dry & darn location where it will keep for about four months.

Add Borax to the wash

Borax (Sodium Tetraborate) can be purchased at places like Walmart, a hardware store or even a local grocery store. It is a natural alternative to color-safe bleach, it naturally softens hard water and boosts the cleaning power of your existing detergent. It is also HE compatible and is an effective stain remover. Just add 1/2 cup to each wash.

What is your favorite laundry tip or your biggest laundry nemesis?

It must seem dorky that we get so much enjoyment out of hanging around the house. These days we’ve been basically landscaping, building, gardening and fixing up our house. We can hardly believe that for the first time in about 10+ years we are living somewhere for LONGER than a year. This month marks 1 year here and now that we own it we aren’t planning to go anywhere unless N gets a new job, that wont be anything we have to deal with for another year or so though.

We are enjoying our neighbors too (nobody’s dog craps on our front porch and nobody sprays vomit on our back patio or anything, can you believe it?). We really like our neighbors with the twin boys, it is a nice change from what we are used to… We’ve had one set of bad neighbors after another as some of you will probably remember. Here the tune is different.

Over the weekend we did much yard work. N is borrowed a mower from the neighbor since we still haven’t bought a mower (because we still haven’t received our home-buyers tax rebate money). Anyway, we got this letter from the HOA about how residents are responsible for mowing behind their fences and all the way down to the pond out back… So N mowed our area around the pond and he also did the neighbors area since he was letting us borrow his mower and all, plus he mowed our front yard earlier in the week.

We’ve got all sorts of stuff going in the garden too! Just got a solar powered lamp put up in our front yard since our street has no street lights and is quite dark at night. Also got more wood and fencing so N can finish up the fence, arbor and gate to the garden.

Now that we’ve got the rabbits out in the yard again and another cat has been voted out of the house… Wait! I didn’t tell you that did I?

Friday one of our cats, Jack was in the office. I heard his scratching the litter box and I looked over to see him peeing on the tile floor right in front of the box. Whodunit mystery solved! I asked N to confirm what I was seeing as I was nursing E on the couch in the living room. Sure enough, he peed on the floor right in plain sight of his owner.

So he was promptly moved outdoors again. This time he stayed out there. The first nigh was hard because he cried and scratched at our doors and windows. Last night after setting him up with a cozy box on top of the rabbit hutch he was quiet and stayed put all night long. So, yeah… Two cats are outside living now and I haven’t noticed pee or poop on the floor since the relocation of Jack.

Speaking of the garden. Here is what it looked like last summer right after we moved in and before heading off to have Tater:

This is how it’s shaping up now, a year later, thanks to the book All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!
:

And now both our cameras and both our phones are dead so I can’t share anymore photos This mama needs a new phone and digital camera for mothers day. Hint, hint N! At least I have all the vegetables I could ever want in my backyard though!

I’ve been running around the house like a madwoman cursing and going on just about every time I enter the kitchen. Everly thinks my rants are funny, I am not amused though. The cause: tiny black ants that are seeking warmth and moisture under things like the espresso machine and the water distiller. It’s a full blown Ant invasion!

We’ve been plagued by these little buggers just about all winter. How they are entering the house I have no clue but we have been super diligent about keeping the kitchen clean and keeping foods sealed and out of their reach. Still ants come and take up shop in various spots. We’ve even noticed them living in the soil of a few of our indoor plants.

Now, come spring we’ll be able to take all the indoor plants out for re-potting and we can leave them out there until they are all ant free. In the meantime we have been trying all sorts of home remedies for annihilating the ants and ending the ant invasion.

Vinegar is a great kitchen disinfectant and it also is said to destroy the invisible ant trail (so other ants can’t find their way in). We’ve been spritzing vinegar water on them to kill and stop them from returning. Did this for about two weeks now but the ant invasion is not over. We also wiped the counter down real good between killing sprees. Still the ants return.

We tried a honey, sugar and borax “bait mix” with hopes of having them take the poison borax back to the colony where all the other ants would die after consuming it. Unfortunately, none of them really touched the poison bait mix. It was out for several weeks.

We have been told by neighbors to get some commercial ant bait/ poison since they had the same issue that was solved this way. It is just with our zoo of animals and Everly we aren’t jazzed about any kind of bug poison in the house. We try to limit our toxic chemical usage. We don’t even use bleach…

Anyway, today I’ve resulted to making up a different/ less toxic bait mixture. I found it here and am using the yeast, molasses and sugar one. So far the ants are drawn to it, hopefully it does kill them. We wont know if it’s worked for another week or so though.

That means another week of becoming pissed every time we enter the kitchen and see the little bastards on the counter. Everly will be amused at least. Here is what the madness looks like today:

“Ants, ants, go away. Don’t come back another day…” May this ant invasion end very soon, please let it end soon.

Earlier in the week N wanted to make up a batch of ladyfingers. The goal was to make homemade Tiramisu, one of his favorite desserts but you need ladyfingers to make it. We searched high and low for ladyfingers in the stores last weekend, nobody sells them.

Being the baker that I am I suggest that we just make them, “they can’t be THAT hard” I said. So N gave them a whirl and ran in to some major egg white consistency issues. The whole beat until soft peaks form part was just not happening for him so he added more sugar, then more flour and also a touch of baking soda…

Well the mixture did not seem to look like what was described and we knew it was super messed up but just for fun we saw it through. Instead of piping lady fingers he just spread the mixture on to a baking sheet and popped it in to see how it would turn out.

The consensus was that the concoction didn’t taste like ladyfingers, though the spongy texture was close… Recipe failed, okay we knew that.

After looking over his recipe (from an old antique cook book) I was amazed at how vague and nondescript the directions were. Plus there wasn’t a real “stabilizer” ingredient in the recipe so how would the eggs do what they were supposed to?

After doing some research I offered to make his lady fingers for him on Friday. He promised not to be butt hurt about it and said it would help so I did it using this recipe and I think they turned out good (N will have to be the true judge to this though).

Here is what I learned:

1. Egg temperature is important! In the recipe N used and also in this one and this one there is no mention of egg temperature unlike the recipe I used. Apparently egg temperature is important and using eggs straight from the refrigerator is not helpful in achieving the desired consistency. I think this was one of the reasons why his egg whites never got stiff.
2. Egg temperature can be achieved quickly. Just soak your eggs in some warm water for several minutes and they’ll warm up. You don’t have to leave them on the counter to come to temperature all day, yay and duh.
3. Warm eggs are harder to separate. When I make lady fingers again I’ll be separating the yolk from the whites before allowing them to get to room temperature. Separating them warm is way harder and messier!
4. Don’t over mix when it says fold in. The foamy egg whites are fluffy and full of air. When you combine them with the yolk/ flour mixture it says fold in for a reason. Keeping the airy texture is important to keeping the ladyfingers spongy. Don’t over mix it.
5. When thorough detailed instructions are provided it is best to follow them exactly. I know duh right? Seriously though, just because you are combining ingredients doesn’t mean you can use your mixer etc. I (and many others) have the tendency to get ahead with recipes and overlook key bits of information. With lady fingers this is not good.

Here is how the process unfolded in my kitchen in photos:

My top search terms right now are homemade gift ideas. There is no doubt that the economy is impacting the way people are thinking about holiday shopping. People would rather make things to give as gifts because it saves money.

I personally like creative homemade, do-it-yourself gifts because they are more from the heart than store bought ones. Plus I have a blast making gifts for people cause I am crafty like that.

Now since so many are flocking here in search of homemade holiday gift ideas and craft projects I wanted to take a second to suggest some easy gift ideas for you to try this holiday season. If you want to check out the instructions just click on the linked text! you have a project you have written about on your blog use mister linky below to share the link with us.

1. Turn scrap fabric in to braided usefulness by making your very own braided rag rug. These are super easy, have tons of character and can be used almost anywhere in the house.
2. Make a sentimental gift and clear out some closet space by taking all those stored clothing items you can’t bear to throw away and turning them in to a functional throw or quilt. Anyone can make their own t-shirt quilt quickly and easily just in time for holiday gift giving. Use baby clothes, shirts or just about any special piece of fabric and turn those memories in to a great gift for someone special.
3. Have an environmental lover on your gift list? You can make several fun earth friendly gift items (like a biodegradable bird feeder or a shoe scraper) that they will enjoy and they’ll love that you took and interest in being earth friendly too.
4. Have some small trinkets to give? Why not make your own paper gift box using origami? It is super easy, it is fun for kids and you can decorate them exactly the way you want them. You can even make them hang from the Christmas tree.
5. Got a cell phone fanatic on your gift list? You can make them a cute cellphone cozy out of fabric or yarn to keep their phone protected and also in style this holiday season. Theses are also insanely easy to make and can be oh, so unique and personalized.
6. Know someone who is in need of some new bedding this holiday season? Put your sewing skills to work and make them a homemade duvet cover or comforter. Don’t worry even a beginning sewer (me) can do this and it is pretty fun too!

Now I know you have a project you are just dieing to share with us. If you have written about on your blog use mister linky below to share the link with us. If you don’t have a link to share but want to just tell us about your project just use the comment field below to do so.

Just wanted to share the gorgeous soap I just got in the mail today from Maiden53. It is a bar of fresh and energizing tangerine soap, yum! I love handmade soap for a number of reasons. The main one is because homemade soap is usually more natural and it leaves my skin feeling so nice.

After checking out the Garland Prarie Soaps page I got really excited about the occation soaps idea. N and I have been brainstorming fun wedding favor ideas and homemade soaps are a really good idea! With our forest wedding theme we wanted to encorporate the scents and textures of the forest in to the wedding reception. Giving individually wrapped homemade soaps to our guests is a very cute idea. Fun!

Thanks Maiden53 for the bar of soap tell Nicole it is beautiful and I can’t wait to use it! I am also loving the textures and colors of it, I know that can’t be easy to do.

If you want a chance to win a free bar of Garlan Prarie Soap head on over to Nicole‘s blog for her friday soap giveaway.

On Sunday (when I found out I was pregnant and won my wedding dress on ebay) N and I also went to the Englebrecht Apple Orchard where we collected 2 10lb bags of apples and had some quality time.

In October we love to pick our own apples and make all kinds of yummy stuff, we even have preserved our apple creations for future enjoyment in past years. This year we thought it would be yummy and fun to get a ton of apples and have some fun in the kitchen.

We paid $8.00 for the 20lbs of apples, that is not a bad price at all. Plus we got to pick all the apples ourselves which was fun. I was woozy and overheated but that didn’t stop me from climbing a tree to pluck some apples.

Tonight I made a batch of pumpkin apple soup that was so yummy. I also washed the remainder of the 20lbs of apples in preparation for this weekends preserving madness and now we are seeking out fun apple recipes.

So, what do you do to get in the fall spirit? Do you have any fun apples recipes you could share?

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* Updated to include pumpkin apple recipe

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a medium saucepan, add 1 chopped onion and 2 cored and peeled green apples. Saute onions, apples and butter over medium heat until soft.

Next add 1 tablespoon of flour to the sauce pan, stir and cook for 2-3 minuites.

After cooking flour and sauteed items gradually whisk in 4 cups of chicken broth.

Then stir in 3 cups of canned pumpkin, 2 tablespoons of packed brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1 teaspoon of ginger to the mixture. Bring to  boil, reduce heat cover and simmer for 25 minuite.

Next transfer to a blender, food processor or take a blending wand to the mixture. The goal is to puree it until smooth.

When all is pureed return to pan, add 1 cup of apple cider (or apple juice), 1/2 cup of half and half, and 2 tablespoons of garlic salt. Mix and warm on stove, taste test and add salt and pepper as needed.

This made us about a 12 servings of soup that we transferred to jars and froze for later enjoyment. Yum!