Springster Holiday

Every year I host a spring/easter party for my family on the day before Easter. We always have a big picnic potluck (which usually ends up indoors as it did this year) and do a craft or two. This year we made yarn nests by dipping yarn in glue and draping it over a bowl. When it dries we can pop the nests out of their bowls. I'll have to post more pictures after the nests are dry and out of their bowls. We also filled egg shells with dirt and grass seed. I'm excited to see how they look when they have begun to grow.

Dying our Eggs Naturally

We decided to jump on the bandwagon and try to dye our eggs naturally this year. We used beat juice for pink, turmeric for yellow, red cabbage for blue, and paprika for red. The turmeric and beats turned out wonderful. The paprika really just turned the eggs brown. At first we thought the cabbage didn't work, but after sitting out of the water for about 30 mins they turned blue.

Anyway the way we did it was just to boil each of these herbs/veggies in about two cups of water with a splash if vinegar. Then we soaked the eggs in the pan for about 20 mins. It was definitely fun to do. I'm sure we'll try it again next year with a few more colors.

Mushrooms

I think it is time to take a swap break! I've completed 5 mushrooms for spring themed swap in my local natural parenting group. This is their first swap so it will be interesting to see how it goes. I've really been loving the patterns in my crocheted food book (I think I posted the title earlier... if not I'll be back with the title).

Tonight I'm hosting my family's Easter/spring dinner. We're going to have a big potluck picnic and do a spring themed craft. I'll have pictures up soon. Now I have to run off and start cleaning, cooking, and preparing...

New Silks

These pictures do not do these silks justice. A few moms from my natural parenting group and I put together a big play silk order. We spent one evening dying them ourselves. Its a lot of work but totally worth it. I had done this on a much larger scale about 6 months ago and it took us 9 hours! There were around 15 moms and over 150 silks to dye. This time though with 4 ladies, 4 dye colors, and only around 30 silks we were done in just a couple of hours. I really wanted brown, green and white (not dyed), for our nature table. Then of course I could not resist that royal blue and the yellow.

I'm using these to line K's easter basket, so I'm sure after sunday I'll have some great photos of him playing in the silks.

I swear this is my last post on root children

I just finished them today and they are being sent out for the swap tomorrow. I just love the way they all look lined up on the nature table. I made a couple of extras and am debating bet keeping them for myself and selling them on Etsy. I guess I'll just have to make more. Right? Ok this is the last time I will bother you with root children pictures. :)

Easter Swap items

I am so excited about the wonderful swap items I receieved for the Easter swap. The first is a "make your own bunny kit." I haven't opened it yet to get started, but hopefully I will soon. At the top is the best smelling home made soap. Next to that are beeswax crayons made from herbs! I really want to try and make some of these. Then a little blue knitted bag (K is going to love this!) And finally a little felt spring scene. All the parts store in that little pouch to the side. I can't wait to see K play with this.

The root children.

I have finished two of the root children. I have a few more in various stages of finished. Each of them has a removable coat so they can turn from a root child to a flower. They have been pretty fun to make and this is my first time working with all natural wool felt. I'm not sure that I can ever go back. :)