Jute Wrapped Easter Eggs

It's time to get ready for Easter!  I love this time of year.  Even though our winter wasn't bad, it is a relief to see the grass turn green and the flowers bloom. So I decided to dress up some extra Easter eggs I had lying around.  I had been seeing some cute jute-wrapped eggs on pinterest like these..so I thought I'd try it.  

Once again...I need crafts that are next to impossible to mess up, and these fit the bill.  Other great part?  They were FREE.  I had everything I needed already at home!  Yay!

What you will need:

-Plastic Easter Eggs (I used 8)

-Glue gun (low-temp is better because your fingers touch the glue a lot)

-Jute twine

-Paint (whatever colors you want)

- White spray paint (Maybe...If your project turns out like mine)

So here's the step-by step:

1. wrap jute on itself several times to get started

2.  Add a dot of glue to the egg.  (At first I started on the bottom of the eggs, but I found they were more interesting if you just pick a random spot!)

3.  Add your starting wrap and then keep going. Continue wrapping and adding glue.

4.  Continue wrapping-making sure that no egg is showing underneath the string.

5.  Clip the string

6.  Finish wrapping and glue down the ends

The finished product looks something like this: 

 I thought that these eggs were beautiful, but they weren't as cheerful or festive as I wanted so I decided to paint.  I was too lazy to go the store for the right colors, so I made-do with what I had and mixed my own.  DON'T DO THAT.  It wasn't too bad, but it would be way less hassle to just have the right color to begin with. Better yet, use spray paint if you have it.

Here's the colors I used:

 I had them all done and put them in a bowl - but I just wasn't happy with them.  In fact, I think I can safely say that I hated them. Sad day!  Not what I wanted!  The colors dried a lot darker than I thought they would. I was just about to throw them away (A plus to doing free projects - You're not tied to them) when I remembered that I had an almost empty can of white spray paint I decided to try one more thing.

I hit them all with just a light dusting of white paint.  Thankfully, I really liked the results!  The white paint muted the colors and made them more 'Easter-y' and it also brought out the texture of the jute again, which was kind of lost in the paint.

Finally - SUCCESS!!

So the moral of this story is to be patient and wait for the actual colors you want to use instead of improvising.   But even with the little paint-color hiccup I think this project turned out well.

Another good thing is that this project is easy to personalize.  You can leave the jute it's natural color, or you can paint them however bright or muted you want.  It might also be fun to experiment with patterns!

So there you have it.  A quick, easy, FREE project that can be adapted to fit your individual tastes.

"Purdy-neat, huh?"

Vinegar + Color + Baking Soda = Fizzy Fun

I was perusing pinterest this morning and came across an ingeniously simple idea from this pin.  Why didn't I think of that?!? It was so easy and inexpensive - not to mention my son had an absolute ball!  He saw me loading the pictures for this post and said "FUN! FUN!"

So here's what you do.  It's pretty self explanatory, and I don't think it's possible to mess this up....but here's the play-by-play anyway.


You will Need:

White Vinegar, Small dishes (I used custard cups), food coloring, baking soda, medicine dropper

 The Setup:

I just put a little vinegar in each dish.  Then we chose our colors - I did 4 drops of each.  I covered the bottom of an 8x8 pan with the soda

 Have at it!

The Beginning

Adding a few more colors

 Finishing up:

We had a grand finale at the end where we dumped the rest of the vinegar in the pan all at the same time.  J's reaction was (with a look of awe and wonder) "oh, Nice!"

J had a great time 'drawing' in the sludge at the bottom.  See?  The fun never stops!  He could have played like that forever, but I cut the fun short.  I seem to have a sensitivity to vinegar, and I was getting pretty itchy!


So that was our morning.  A cheap, easy, super fun activity that could entertain kids of all ages, and even the adults that are young at heart!

"purdy neat, huh?"

Allergy Friendly Homemade Oreos

Can I just start by saying that there is something special about oreos. They just have a special way of making a bad day good and a good day better.  I L-O-V-E oreos.  Sadly, I'm too cheap to buy the real ones, and the store brand just aren't the same.   


So last night we were trying to reach an agreement on a family-home-evening treat.  We were having trouble agreeing on something until we saw a recipe for homemade oreos. Immediate concurrence that those would be great.  Now....I just had to figure out how to adapt them to fit our son's food allergies.....


OH HAPPY DAY!  The only thing I needed to replace was one little egg.  I can do that!  


So Here's what we came up with.  I don't know who to give credit to for the original recipe because every recipe I looked at was exactly the same.  So kudos and props to whoever came up with these oh-so-delicious-even-better-than-the-real-thing cookies. YUM!


Allergy Friendly Homemade Oreos


Cookie
1 1/4 Cup Flour
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
1/2 Cup Cocoa
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Salt
10 Tbs. (1 stick +2 TBS) *Dairy Free margarine
1 1/2 tsp. *Egg replacer + 2 TBS Water


Filling
1/4 Cup Dairy Free Margarine
1/4 Cup Shortening
2 Cups Powdered Sugar
2 tsp. Vanilla


 Mix egg replacer & water in a small bowl. Combine dry ingredients. Add egg replacer mixture and margarine to the dry mixture.  Mix until a firm dough forms.  Form dough into small balls (About a tsp.) & place on a cookie sheet. Flatten each ball with the back of a spoon.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 6 mins.  Move to a wire rack & let cool.  
When the cookies are cool, pair cookies by size.   Pipe Frosting onto cookies and smoosh together. ENJOY!


*For this recipe I used bestlife buttery spread and Ener-g Egg Replacer



I had another idea for these cookies, but I got vetoed.  I really really love mint oreos.  I wanted to put a little mint extract into the filling and tint it green, but my family out-voted me.  If anybody tries it, snap a picture and tell me how it goes.  I thought that sounded delicious.






I was VERY impressed with how these turned out.  Usually I like the allergy friendly stuff we make, but I can tell that we're missing out on the 'real' ingredients.  With these cookies you couldn't tell at all! They are even better than real oreos! We enjoyed ours with a mug of milk.


A kitchen success!  

"Purdy-Neat, huh?"