Egg-asperating!

The egg saga continues...

So coats one and two of the spray paint worked great.  But when I went back the following day to do  some touch up where the color was bleeding through, my paint started crackling!  Like instantly.  

The Builder asked if I shook the can well enough as this is apparently what can happen.  Umh, YES!   I do know a thing or two about spray paint.

I have to say, I was pretty upset at first.  I mean look at that crackled mess!  And all the eggs I touched up are like this, but I didn't need to touch up all of them (does that make sense?!) so  there's not necessarily a uniformity to them

But you know....real eggs are actually all that smooth.  They actually have a subtle texture to them.  And while this is far from subtle, I think with a little speckling, these may actually just do the trick...

More to come...

The Great Egg Caper

You know when you see the perfect project.  You admire it.  You think about it.  You realize you could absolutely do THAT project and it would look fabulous in your home.  Yes, I have many of those 'ah ha!' moments.  My problem is that I always feel the need to make the project my own.  So with that for shadowing, let's start with my latest project

Source: thefrugalgirls.com viaElona on Pinterest

It's an egg garland.  Made from brown eggs.  Seriously, how much easier could it get?  I have certainly blown out eggs before.  We actually eat quite a few eggs in a week.  No issues with eggs.

My journey began with my quest for brown eggs.  You may have noticed from my last post with the table runner, I'm going for a more natural feel for Easter this year.  So I figured I would just buy 5 dozen brown eggs at Sam's or Costco and call it good.  Or...not.  Neither store carried brown and the minimum to buy was 15 dozen at Sam's.  Yeah, I don't need that many!!  Second, only my local grocer sold brown eggs, and at $3.50 a dozen, it was quickly adding up to what my egg garland could cost.

Then I have a light bulb moment.  I would simply tea dye my eggs!  I've used tea or coffee to stain many things before, and I find natural fibers dye the best.  Eggs are natural, right?  So this is what my first dozen looked like:

NOT pretty.  Certainly not anything that I would want to hang up every year.  And blown eggs are so delicate!  While I do store my holiday decor in plastic totes, it wouldn't take much for the egg garland to get smashed and broken.

Not willing to admit defeat, I thought about a few more options.  Like papermache eggs.  But I'm feeling pressured on time to make them (and I was worried they'd look homemade!) and I couldn't find any local that were what I would consider to be an affordable price.  Back to the drawing board.

I was at Hobby Lobby today exchanging bias tape when I remembered a wreath I had pinned.  I seemed to recall that she just spray painted plastic eggs to match her decor.  Could it really be so simple?  I have a ton of eggs I bought after Easter last year at Target on clearance.  My only concern was that my eggs are small, and I thought maybe I might want some a little larger.  So I picked up a couple of packets of medium-ish sized eggs, a can of paint, and headed home.

Oh. My.  Some of these eggs are BRIGHT!  I didn't think the first coat of paint did much, until I saw the top photo.  Ok, so that's toned down.  But still not neutral creamy-tannish color I'm going for.  Clearly, it's going to take several more coats of paint to get them where need them to be. I've already added second coat as I write this blog, and they're looking...better...still not quite right though.  I'm hoping the third coat is the charm!  Well, then there's the speckling to do as well.  Because I need brown speckled eggs for my garland, right?

To add insult to injury, this is what's hanging on my front door:

I didn't even bother to edit the photo, it's such a pathetic excuse for a wreath.  So I need these eggs to come out as I'm picturing them in my head to save me from total egg disgrace!

More to come...

Switching Gears

So last week it was all about the green, and this week I had to switch gears quickly for Easter next week.  Yikes!!  To say I'm behind on my Easter projects would be an understatement.  I struggle with decorating for Easter every year.  I'm not really a pastel person.  I don't own any pastel colored clothes and nothing in my home is pastel.  So I decided to go with a natural palette, following in the footsteps of my rustic look for St. Patrick's Day.  This table runner was hard to photograph, but it turned out super cute in person!  Here's a close up of the bunny's:

This project was supposed to be SO easy.  In fact, I was going to break my hard fast rule of "I don't do no-sew projects" and do a no-sew project.  That was the goal!  I started with this adorable table runner:

 

Source: eclecticallyvintage.com viaElona on Pinterest

So cute, right? She even gives step by step instructions for the bunny tails.  Adorable!  But, I decided I didn't want to paint mine on, I wanted a little more dimension.  Not a problem, I could cut my bunnies out of brown felt.  My plan was to use fabric glue and call it done.  Yeah, and if the pompoms would have glued well to the felt, it might have worked out great.  But they didn't.  To really make it a 'must' sew project, I ended up adding the cutest ribbon to the ends of the table runner...which you can't see well in the first photo, but it's there, and I love it in person.  Again, gluing it on was my intention, but ultimately, I sewed it on.  I did use my hot glue gun for the bunny tails and the bunnies themselves, which worked well.  But I still want to finish the edges with brown bias tape because, well, the unfinished edges are driving me crazy!  Which is why I generally end up with some sewing on no-sew projects.

I have two more small Easter projects I'm hoping to get done today, and then it's time to switch gears again to a project for my master bathroom.  Stay tuned!