Natural Dyes

Despite my advice, my pleas and warnings, you have waited till the last minute to get your egg dying supplies and now it's 8:15 PM, the friday before Easter, Jewel/Osco is out of food coloring and you're kids are crying because the Easter bunny procrastinated and said "they'll never run out of dye, it's impossible." Hey, IT'S POSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT never fear Billy Stewart is here to save you!!! So you haven't any food coloring, so the ef what? You can still dye eggs this year. Head out to your grocery store's produce section grab some beets and some onions (red or yellow work best.) You can certainly find other fruits and vegetables but in the interest of time we will just stick with these. If you have a juicer, great and if not, fine we'll work with what you have. First juice the beets in an electric juicer. If you don't have a juicer, puree and press through a fine meshed sieve. Use 1/2 cup of the juice and add 1 tablespoon of vinegar. Now dye like you would with any regular food coloring based dye bath.

Tomorrow I will go over dying with onion skins. If you want to do this go get the dry skin of yellow or red onions. Ask your grocer if you can pick through the bin and grab all the loose skins or buy in bulk. Mince and dehydrate the onions you won't need over the next 2 weeks and save for a soup or stir fry. Also grab some twist ties and cheese cloth, I know I have to. So I'll see you all in the cheese cloth section and then back here tomorrow for onion funion... I'm sick so I can say lame things like that.

Are you clumsy like me?

If so then you have broken a few of your eggs by now. I hope you haven't thrown them away yet because you can still use them. Of course the broken eggs are you're favorites and the ones you spent the most time on... MINE ARE! Bah, oh well, like I said they can still be used and they will still look amazing and no one will be the wiser. It's this simple: Take the broken egg, fill it with grass or colored cotton (I like to use a contrasting color to make it stand out) and stick a little pom pom chick in it. That's it. If you have large pieces, set them around the egg to give the impression of a hatching chick. Scatter them throughout your baskets or fill a nest with them for a unique and creative centerpiece. Disasters can be treasures if you look hard enough.

Madly Plaid

Creating a plaid pattern on an egg shell may seem difficult and time consuming but working in batches and with an easy color combination, one can make beautiful plaid eggs in no time at all. I work by the dozen and make 6 different dye baths. To start make the 3 primary and 3 secondary colors (red, blue, yellow, green, orange and purple.) Once you experiment with these try other combinations, I just find the 6 basic colors easiest and most effective.

Tape off a dozen eggs using 1/4" artist's tape. Eye ball the center of the egg (be careful because the hole you drilled can be misleading) and run 2 strands completely around the length of the egg, dividing it into quarters. Then run another piece completely around the circumference. Using a popsicle stick, bone folder or your finger name press down the tape to ensure there are no wrinkles or bubbles the dye can creep into. Using an exacto knife make a slit in the tape at each hole. Run the egg through a bamboo skewer like we did in the basics of dying only this time there should be no need for the sticky tack. If you were close to the points of the egg when "drilling" your holes to blow the contents out, the tape will be a sufficient support to hold the egg steady. Roll the eggs through their dye baths until you are satisfied with the tint (roll 4 eggs in each of the primary colors. Reserve the secondary colors for now.) After the eggs have dried remove from the skewer and remove all of the artist's tape.


Next tape of all the eggs with a 1/8" artist's tape. Using two pieces dived the colored 1/4 section of egg, now dividing the egg into eights. Next run two more pieces around the circumference, above and below the center white stripe. Leaving at least a 1/4" between the white stripe and the tape on either side.

Run the egg through a skewer the same way as you did for the first dye. Now spin these eggs through their second dye bath. If using the 6 basic colors suggested above this is how you should go about this step: Blue Eggs - 1 in Red, 1 in Yellow, 1 in Green and 1 in Purple. Red Eggs- 1 in Yellow, 1 in Blue, 1 in Orange and 1 Purple. Yellow Eggs- 1 in Blue, 1 in Red, 1 in Orange and 1 in Green. This will give you 12 gorgeous yet uniform eggs. After the eggs are completely dry pull off the tape. If you go too heavy on the first dye, some of the color might pull off with the tape. It's no big deal, the egg will look great anyway. If you go for too long in the second dye bath, the colors may bleed and the lines you've already created may blur slightly. Wear your favorite tacky golf shorts for inspiration and get mad for plaid this spring.

Marbled Eggs

This technique produces some of the most interesting and elegant eggs and is one of the easiest to do. You can keep it simple and just marble plain white eggs or you can layer complimentary or contrasting dyes to create a stunning product. Pour a standard dye bath in a shallow receptacle ( a pie dish, casserole dish or high lipped dinner plate. Remember some metals react with vinegar so try to use glass or glazed dishes.) You'll want about 1/2" of the dye bathe so adjust the amount of water accordingly, as I have told you before, following the dye bath recipe exactly is completely unnecessary. As long as you have hot water, vinegar and dye, you'll be fine. Add in 1tsp- 2TBS of oil (canola, olive, vegetable, baby, whatever you have on hand is fine.) The more oil you add the more of the original color you will see (below is an example of plain white eggs that were run through the marble bath. The white spots occur because of the oil.)

It is possible to be too heavy handed with the oil and if you find that you in fact have too much oil in the dish, don't worry. Just take a paper towel and dip it into the oil spots. Repeat until you have removed enough oil. You can run a fork or whisk through the oil to break it up, making the negative (white) spaces smaller. After that, roll the egg around a few times until you are satisfied with the color and coverage. Then remove from the bath, blot with a paper towel and set aside to dry. So simple, right? These eggs will impress your friends and family. For my good friend Regina, I paired just a few marbeled eggs in a pine needle basket. The eggs started off green and orange and I ran them through contrasting dyes to get the various depths of color. They look incredible, not to toot my own horn but really... they do. Alright well get messy and get going.

Drips and Swirls

Rubber Cement is just one great material to add drips and swirls to any egg. It is easy to apply, fast drying and most importantly easy to use. I will often drip it over an egg or while the egg is securely attached to a bamboo skewer will spin the egg over a piece of wax paper and drip the rubber cement over, to create a thin, even swirl. One thing to watch out for is eggs touching each other. After the rubber cement is on the egg, do whatever you can to keep them apart. If they touch, they'll stick and bleed dye into those once crisp, clean lines. Other than that it's a sinch. Check out Toni's basket; I paired bright, festive colors with a cute tin bunny basket I found while thrift shopping. The basket needed a little clean up and some pale yellow grass. I love the uniform look of the design but with a mix a seasonal colors that make it pop.

Dying to Dye

Ready to start dying all those eggs you've prepared? GOOD! Now most everyone knows the basic 1/2 boiling water + 1teaspoon white vinegar + food coloring. Don't worry too much about that recipe, I never measure and always customize my colors. The best dye's to use are are higher quality gel dyes. It will take a little more stirring but the colors are richer and bolder and you won't regret the extra $2.00. Plus these dyes last for years and can be used in anything. Get a starter pack with a variety of colors or buy individual containers of dye. You can find Wilton and other gel and paste dyes at specialty stores and most crafting chains (Joann's, Michael's and Hobby Lobby.) If you're using hard boiled eggs all you have to do is starting dunking and dying. If you're using blown out eggs you're not quite there. I string the egg through a bamboo skewer and use a ball of sticky tack at both ends of the egg to keep it secure. I like to use the white sticky tack because after several uses, dye will mix into it and after awhile that dye will transfer to other eggs. The white just makes it easier to determine when to throw it away. Remember how I told you not use those foam egg carton but to save them? Well here's where they come in handy. As I go through stringing all my eggs on their own skewer, I stick them into the foam container to hold them until I am ready to dye. Once you're at this step just take your eggs and roll them through the dye bath, the skewers make it easy and then stick it back in the foam container to dry. This way you will have minimal if any flaws. Once they are dry remove them from the skewer and sticky tack. It's really that easy.

To create patterns and polka dots and stripes and plaids use tape and stickers and layer the dyes BUT let the egg dry completely before applying another color. Also it is important to only run the egg through the second, third, etc... bath for a few spins. If you leave it in too long the first application will run, ruining the color it is in and leaving the final color muddy. I'll go through and show exactly what I use and give examples of those techniques this weekend but for now you have the basics to get going. Experiment, have fun, make mistakes and of course make beautiful eggs!

Blowing Out Eggs

Remember being a kid and spending hours over the sink trying to blow out the contents of ONE EGG? Blowing out 30 dozen eggs may seem like a daunting task unless you know how to do it quickly and efficiently. All you'll need is; a Phillip's head screw driver, a baby nasal and ear bulb (found at any drugstore), a bowl or other receptacle for the egg and of course eggs.
Take an egg in your hand, I am right handed and hold the egg in my left and the screwdriver in my right. Hold the egg tight enough that it doesn't move around, firm yet tender. Using the tip of the screwdriver start to turn it back and forth while pressing into the egg. There is no need to make full rotations with the screwdriver, a back and forth motion will create a smooth hole.


















Martha suggests using an upholstery needle to "poke" a hole in it, I find I break more eggs this way and never have a neat, even looking hole. It is going to take a few broken eggs until you get the hang of it. "Drill" a hole in the top and the bottom of the egg, make sure it is large enough for the tip of the baby bulb. Next you will take that baby bulb and press it into the top of the hole.
















You are doing this to form an air tight seal between it and the egg, so only a little pressure is needed. Next pump away. The white and the yolk will all come out with 5-9 good squeezes over a bowl. Martha also recommends using a long piece of wire to "scramble" the yolk inside of the egg before ejecting but this process takes a considerable amount of time and for the most part I have 1-2 eggs break for every 24 due to the yolk. Most of the time these eggs would not have withstood the tests of time so no need to worry.


Throw the broken eggs into the compost heap and move on. You can save the egg contents for quiche, frittata, baking or anything else you might need egg for. I generally toss mine because there have been too many times I find a jar or two of egg guts in May, shoved to the back of the fridge and that is just not fun.

I recommend then washing the shell with a mild dish soap and purging any remaining residue with a couple squirts of warm water. Make sure all water is out of the egg and set in a PAPER egg carton to dry overnight. As I mentioned yesterday most On Sale eggs come in foam containers. These containers should never be used to dry eggs at any stage. They do not breathe and do not absorb moisture which is problematic when dying. The excess moisture will drip to the bottom and cause runs and blotches all over your finished egg. Also for some reason the foam likes to stick to the eggs and will leave your finished product marred and virtually useless in the end. So paper containers it is! The foam cartons will be used so don't toss them just yet.
Now you should have a couple dozen blown out in no time and we'll move on to dying tomorrow. Good luck and try not to get frustrated, you really will get the hang of it, just use a gentle yet deliberate hand and this process will roll on by.

Every Kind of Easter Eggs Everywhere (well...)

With Spring's official arrival and Easter just around the corner, many of us are excited to start spreading dyed eggs and fresh flowers around our homes. If you're like me, you started this weeks ago. A little over the top, maybe but with Winter melting away I have been anxiously awaiting Easter. I have made it a point over the past few years to start dying blown out eggs and making arrangements for friends and family. It's something I have loved doing and usually start in February.
When I lived in New Orleans I would walk around the bayou collecting stray duck and goose eggs (it is important for me to make two things clear; A) If you are going to go collecting eggs from the bayou only collect eggs you see randomly on the ground. Do not go into a duck's or goose's nest and steal their fertilized eggs! (Ducks tend to nest near the water in bushes and weeds. They will build a den with tunnels and escape routes to the water. Geese will build nests farther away from the water in ground nests. They then cover the eggs with grass, roots and plants. So be careful where you step and what you take.) B)I have no idea if this is legal. It is New Orleans and I'm sure many other people do this and no one really cares but if you get caught and it is ILLEGAL, we've never met.)
Making these baskets are relatively inexpensive and the supplies required (eggs, food colouring, vinegar and water) are, for the most part, usually in your kitchen. Each year I dye between 20 and 35 dozen eggs and with that amount if I cared what kind of eggs I was using and where they came from, the price would sky rocket. I usually just head to my local discount grocery and buy whatever is on sale($.99-1.50 per dozen.)I also search online and at local specialty markets for a variety of eggs. Goose, duck, pigeon, quail and many other eggs look great when dyed and mixed in with chicken eggs. They will make your baskets unique. Remember to search for these in advance because procrastination will lead to "out of stock" and higher prices. Don't worry about it if you can't or don't want to use them, chicken eggs when properly arranged are stunning on their own.
For the baskets I head to thrift stores and garage sales. Buying for any holiday is something I keep in the back of my mind all year long. If I'm at a tag sale in July and find a few great baskets, I'll buy them and stash them for the next 7 months. It's just better to be prepared than rushing around at the last minute. I use a variety of dyes and dying techniques, too many to list on this post but I do promise to share how-to's this week but for now just the supplies. Another thing to save that will be helpful later on are paper egg cartons. Most of the cheapest eggs come in foam containers (save these too, I'll explain everything in a dying how-to.)
Other things you will need and may want are different varieties of grass, moss, hay, paper shreddings and other nesting materials. These are items I accumulate from a variety of places (Dollar stores, craft stores, Walgreens, etc...) With the right eye you'll find much more than green plastic grass. You might want to glitter your eggs or add stripes or polka-dots. You might want to make them plaid or patterned, maybe even marbled. To achieve this, most of the time you will only need rubber cement, tape, stickers and rubber bands. Some of the other more complicated and elaborate eggs require olive oil, onion skins, pressed flowers and even silk ties. I find a trip to Staples sufficient to get a wide variety finished. The best tape I have found and I have tried them all, I tell you what, is Artist's Tape. It's basically like electrical tape but specially designed to form a tight bond and remove cleanly. It comes in a wide variety of widths and I'll buy one of each for several dozen eggs. Variety is key. Remember that and get a bag of assorted rubber bands too. As for stickers, it has been hit or miss so far. I have tried them all and it has really been trial and error. Some need to be removed immediately after being submerged, other's need to dry for a day and then be heated off in the oven but this usually leaves gum all over the egg. Try to find vinyl stickers (letters and shapes, remember the image will not show on the final result.) Unglossed paper stickers are not suitable for dying.
The only other thing you really need are dying receptacles. If you are using hard boiled eggs any waterproof container is fine but remember that the egg should be fully submerged to ensure an even coloring. I find jam ball jars are the best for dying hard boiled eggs. They're transparent so you can see the colors easily and they are the perfect size for a basic egg dye recipe. If you are using blown out eggs, the best containers are 3/4 cup ramekins (you will also need bamboo skewers and sticky tack, the white kind.)
Now go get all those supplies and meet back here to learn how blow out eggs and then the dying and decorating how to's. I am going to try to nip the flu in the bud with a nice citrus steam and some herbal tea.

Holy Crafts!

Chris was gone by the time I had gotten out of bed yesterday. I did the usual Saturday morning sprawl about the apartment. Now I might be crazy and that's OK if I am but I have watched a Harry Potter marathon all weekend and YES that means I have watched all 6 movies twice. I am officially a loser BUT it is justified. I haven't really been watching it, I've been tearing up the house, making messes and crafting like crazy. Yesterday I deco-paged a recipe box I bought at Village Discount's half off sale. It was $.70, what a deal, I know. Anyway I bought it with the intention of refinishing it for a more permanent home for my most used recipes. I know most of them by heart but can never fully trust my memory especially with items that will be eaten. I wanted a home for these recipes on the countertop but needed to box to match the color scheme and feel of the kitchen. So I started the project by cleaning the box, getting all that thrift store film and dust wiped off. After it was all cleaned I took the dimensions, made stencils, cut out patterned cardstock and slapped that bitch together. (I am well aware that you will never hear Martha say anything like that but if I was already Martha Stewart, this blog would be dead. So shit.) It looks great and now I'm pulling recipes so I can fill it up.

Now remember how I was talking about piles and messes and scraps, well today was the day to start taking care of that. I have devoted the past 6 hours to picking up, sweeping and dusting... and dying eggs. Hey, I have 4 more days until Chris gets back and if they do 55mph the entire time again, maybe 5. So don't judge, you do it to. But really the place is a lot cleaner and the egg dying has not created a huge mess. I'm currently working on a basket for Cece at work. She and her mom gave Chris and me a great assortment of herbs, dried flowers and spreads from their farm in Ohio back in the fall. Well I saved the basket it came in and the blueberry print ribbon AND... can you guess where this is going?... I'm making them a blueberry inspired Easter basket! I know I shouldn't get this excited over colored eggs but it's starting to look amazing. I have dyed a couple dozen eggs various shades of blues, lavenders and indigo's and plan on making a beautiful blue sugar egg. I think it will be quite impressive and can't wait to see her reaction. Well it's time to walk the dogs and wait by the phone for a goodnight call from Chris. Ugh, it is after all only 4 more days, 4 long days. At least I my craft room is prepared for the onslaught.

Getting Ready for Easter Madness

I may have disappeared for a bit but that is only because I'm currently preparing for Easter Madness! Chris leaves for a 6 day vacation on Saturday and I will be all by myself with the dogs, turtles and fish... oh and Martha of course. Naturally I am taking this time to get everything out of the way, and I do mean EVERYTHING! I have been getting ready this past week; planning what needs to get done, creating shopping lists, shopping for those needed items and blowing out eggs. I spent Monday afternoon zipping through the west side of Chicago in search of "exotic" eggs. For all you Easter fanatics out there, you probably know by now that you can purchase a wide variety of eggs, already blown out for sale online BUT with a little research you can find duck, goose, quail, guinea fowl and other bird eggs in your own neighborhood. I used Google to find the best place in Chicago to get these eggs and found John's Live Poultry on Fullerton. I had my reservations about visiting John's knowing full well that there would be live chickens, rabbits, quail, ducks and other animals in cages just waiting to be someones next meal. To my surprise the sad, dank image I had created in my head was far from the reality at John's. I walked into find a large, deli-esque room that was practically empty except for the glass, refridgerator counter, cash register and employees. All the animals were behind a wall and virtually blocked from view and because I had no desire to purchase a live animal, there was no reason for me to cross to the other side. I talked to the kid behind the counter, no goose or duck eggs that day but plenty of quail eggs. He was really helpful and told me to give him a call next week and he should have a couple dozen for me. The prices are half of what you'd find online and even though I probably spent the difference in gas, the experience was worth it. I have a feeling I will be a familiar face at John's each spring... I will just remember to call ahead. On top of the beautiful quail eggs from John's Live Poultry, I also picked up plenty of egg decorating supplies (rubber cement, stickers, artist tape, etc...) and of course dozens and dozens of chicken eggs. So the next few days are going to be filled with blowing out eggs and preparing the craft room for a major onslaught. Basically it's gonna be great (of course not TOO great because Chris will in fact be gone and as great as Easter projects are, they never really seem too interested in chatting or cuddling. Trust me, I've tried.) More to come, I promise to get some how to's up and tips for decorating for Easter. Now to hang out with Chris before bed... does anyone else hate this time change thing?

Sugar Heaven! Yes, it really does exist.

Despite my whining, the sugar eggs ARE worth the hassle. I spent my last day off cleaning the apartment and ridding it of "The Stick." It was quite a project but I also managed to finally pitch that old, massive, unused microwave circa 1968 and reorganized the "storage" area. If you haven't been to our apartment, you should know now that I allow only a select few to use the back staircase. It's where every holiday goes to hibernate for 11months and all that extra, random crap that you hate and love and hate and can never find anywhere to keep, gets stashed. I organized all that so now the landlord can stop bugging us with concerns of an antique avalanche. So after cleaning and sweeping and dusting and organizing I sat down with the pieces to my second sugar egg. Now that all the clutter was gone, all I had to do was pipe and decorate. It's amazing how satisfying it was to be able to sit down and just decorate and not have to do any of that prep work. I love prep work but the clean up, well now I know why Martha Stewart has interns, one day, one day. I finished the interior last night and assembled the egg and set aside to dry for the night. At 11pm I had the sudden urge to start dying Easter eggs. Chris still inquires what I'm doing but now he just laughs instead of urging me to wait for tomorrow. I was able to get a basket done and the apartment is now not only clean but it's looking like Easter around here. I am surprised at how chipper and alert I feel considering it was my first day back to the real world. I screamed like Janet Leigh when the alarm went off at 5:50 and started crying "I can't, I can't." I guess I could because today when I got home I was ready to go. Chris and I played a little Wii and then went right to work making gum paste flowers and did all the finishing touches on the second sugar egg. It is incredible! I am tooting my own horn, I don't care how it looks! I love it. I am making these as gifts but I really don't want to part with any I've made or am making. I will probably be whistling a different tune when there are 20 of these enormous things around the apartment and we have critters coming in for a snack. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens come Good Friday. Now it's time for a relaxing, non sugared night with Chris and the dogs.

I am in Sugar Hell.

I had been looking forward to my 4 day weekend filled with crafting, cleaning and getting Easter decorations out and up for forever it seemed. Now don't get me wrong, I've really enjoyed being able to sleep in and do whatever I've wanted for the past 3 days. I am just not getting as much done as I had hoped... and planned. I started off Friday with pressed sugar eggs, knowing this project would take the longest because of the many LONG resting times they require. I had ordered the molds and they came that night... I really should have drawn out the dimensions to get a feel for how large the "jumbo" mold was. Well... it REALLY IS JUMBO!! I'm not kidding, it probably takes about 3 lbs of sugar for the finished, hollowed out egg. This project has become so large and overwhelming I've only been able to get 3 baskets done, I haven't blown out any eggs for dying and the apartment looks like the second dustbowl has swept through. Of course I know this is my fault. I took on too much, wanted to make too many and didn't have enough molds or space to accommodate the amount of eggs I was going for. Instead of 48lbs of sugar, I probably should have started with 8. Instead of gigantic, T-rex eggs, I probably should have stuck with a goose or a duck egg. Also if I didn't have the patience of a 6 year old, off his adderall, I could have saved the devastation of having large and substantial pieces crumbling in my clumsy man hands. YES, I know Martha, when you say let rest at least 3 hours, you mean it. I just thought that setting the heat at 80, turning off the humidifier and giving them 1 hour and 45 minutes would suffice. My bad. While the finished products are spectacular (yes I will say so myself) the mess it has created, is not. I feel like we went to the beach and invited 35 friends back to our apartment to shake off. That scenario is actually more preferable seeing as sand isn't sticky. We sweep every couple of hours and yet there's still sugar everywhere. It's stuck to the bottom of my feet, in between my toes, in my hair, clothes and yes... it's somehow managed to make its way into my boxer briefs. I really could tough it out if it wasn't so god damn sticky. I'm about 5 more hand washes away from exposing cartilage. My Saint Ives bottle is down to nothing and I've resorted to using my Burt's Beeswax chap stick on my knuckles. So what am I saying... I'm not even sure. Yes, it's a fun project. Yes, it is a bit time consuming. Yes, if you live in an apartment, and this is very important, if you live in an apartment you should not make ostrich sized eggs! It's just too much. Reference the mold cavity size (not just the picture) before using your boyfriends credit card to order the molds (you only get one shot at that.) In the end you may have mice, ants or a sugar beach throughout your house BUT you WILL have an Easter gift that will amaze your friends and family.