The painting of the eggs

Up until this year, the girls and I have dyed hard-cooked Easter eggs in the traditional manner, you know, with the Paas dye you buy at the grocery store that either does or does not require white vinegar: I never can remember which until we get home and discover that we've no white vinegar, necessitating a return trip to the grocery.

This year, we turned to a more traditional craft, which is that of blowing all the eggy stuff out of the shell (and if you feel about eggs the way I do, you'll understand what a HERO I am for doing this craft with my children) and then painting the shell. The girls were all gung-ho for the painting, but no so much on the egg-blowing. They insisted that I should be the lucky one who should have the treat of emptying all those shells, but I flat-out refused, tartly saying a few words about the many hours of labor I went through and the possibility of an untimely aneurysm and they eventually gave in, but not without a lot of eeeeeewww-ing and eeeyuuuuuuck-ing.

I chose simple pastel craft paints with a nice metallic gold for the painting of religious symbols and we had a lot of fun sitting at the dining room table yesterday afternoon and crafting away. Now that the eggs are completely dry, they need to be treated this afternoon with the glossy fixative spray I bought so that they can be carefully placed in our Easter basket and taken to the church tomorrow.

If you want to see some really nice painted eggs, check out these pretties, done in the fine old Polish tradition, and these cuties, done in a more American primitive style. Both are just lovely and, er....better than ours.