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.