My friend and I dyed Easter Eggs naturally, using the water from boiled fruits, vegetables, & spices. We added designs to our eggs by using plants from my butterfly garden as a stencil, attaching the plant to the egg with a piece of nylon before soaking it in the dye.
We used:
Onion skins
Red cabbage
Beets
Spinach
Turmeric
Blueberries
My favorite is the red cabbage - it turned out to be such a beautiful shade of blue! The beets made a lovely rose color, the onion skins turned a deep orange, turmeric a light & bright yellow, and the blueberries made a speckled gray/brown color that another friend said looked like a dinosaur egg! The spinach barely changed the egg to a pale grey, so I switched those eggs over to the turmeric instead. I think perhaps we didn't have a high enough spinach to water ratio.
Check out
Two Men and a Little Farm for a beautiful chart of color options!
Sources:Adventures in CookingBig Sis Lil SisA Storybook Life
This is going to be a good year for Sleepy Little Dragon...why?? This is the Year of the Dragon!! The year of the Water Dragon to be precise, two of my favorite things!The Chinese New Year Day is on January 23rd and the year of the Black Water Dragon begins on February 4th, 2012. Check out this page to learn more about the Chinese horoscope for this upcoming year. Find out more about how to celebrate the Chinese New Year here.Also, be sure to check out Appreciate a Dragon Day on January 16th!! Check out some dragon books from your favorite library and read all about them. Then you can do dragon-themed craft (see ideas below).
In honor of our namesake, here is a compilation of all things dragon.Quotes: Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus
'Never tickle a sleeping dragon'.
~ Hogwarts' school motto, of the Harry Potter series
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup. ~ Dilbert by Scott Adams If you don't believe in dragons,
It is curiously true
That the dragons you disparage
Choose to not believe in you.
~ Jack Prelutsky
No doubt but there is none other beeste comparable to the mightie dragon in awesome power and majestie, and few so worthie of the diligent studies of wise men.
~ Gildas Magus, Ars Draconis, 1465
If you ignore the dragon, it will eat you. If you try to confront the dragon it will overpower you. If you ride the dragon, you will take advantage of its might and power.
~ A Chinese Proverb
How to Train Your Dragon - Toothless & Hiccup
Movies
How to Train your Dragon - Toothless
Pete's Dragon - Elliot
Mulan - Mushu
Dragonheart - Draco
Harry Potter series
The Neverending Story - Falcor
Shrek - Dragon
Sleeping Beauty - Maleficent
Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Eustace
Books
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville
The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind
A Song of Fire & Ice by George R.R. Martin
The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkein
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Puff, the Magic Dragon by Peter Yarrow & Lenny Lipton
DragonSpell by Donita K. Paul
Dragon's Milk by Susan Fletcher
Who wants a Dragon? by James Mayhew
Saint George & and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges
Jane and the Dragon by Martin Baynton
Flying Dragon
Trogdor!
I discovered a wonderful new blog called
Living Locurto. She posts all kinds of wonderful templates and printables, including these wonderful
Halloween M&M gift cookies!
I made up a bunch of these jars to hand out to friends, neighbors, & Riley's teachers.
Riley helped with the pouring...
and the stirring!
Go check out the tutorial
here!
