27 March 2016 –
Happy Easter everyone!!! Did the Easter Bunny make an appearance at your house? He hasn't shown up at our house yet but I think that's due to the fact that Ava and Mark are currently in Shanghai working on getting Ava's scuba diving certification (pool portion of the certification) completed. I think Mr. Easter Bunny will make an appearance after Ava and Mark return home. 🙂
Here are some photos from earlier this week:
Easter tree in a lovely copper pot that Mark recently brought home for me from India:
Lovely orchids. Annika helped pick them out yesterday. I've finally gotten several of my previous orchids to rebloom!
A rather eclectic approach to Easter (a Christian holiday)….a Buddha with pussy willow branches and pots of colorful flowers:
Ava loved coloring eggs this year. Sadly, Annika didn't participate (she claimed she had too much homework).
*******
This year I tried making two natural dyes. This one is a pot of red cabbage:
And here's a pot of red beets:
I simmered both of the vegetables with water until the color was the right shade (I wanted deep colors so I simmered the pots for a long time). After the dye was the correct color, I strained the liquid through a sieve and allowed it to cool. I poured the natural dyes into mason jars and placed (very carefully) four hard-boiled eggs into each jar and then placed those jars in the refrigerator. I let the eggs sit in the dye for several hours before removing them and drying them off on a paper towel.
*****
A rainbow of Easter eggs (these are made with regular purchased dye):
These are the eggs that were dyed using the natural dyes. The brownish eggs are the ones dyed with beets and the blue ones are the ones dyed with red cabbage. I really love the blue ones! The beet ones aren't very impressive. Maybe next time I should try making beet dye by juicing the beets and not cooking them.
Yes, I do love this blue color!!! (red cabbage dyed Easter egg)
I love rainbows!
Do you see that egg in the lower left corner? Mark created that rainbow egg.
************
OH! And regarding Ava's scuba diving….she did it! She successfully completed the pool portion of her junior open water scuba diving certification. Way to go, Ava!!!!