Thursday, March 18, 2010

This year's Pysanky Egg

Last year I took my first ever class in pysanky egg dyeing. I had a great time and learned some interesting things about the history and meaning of these eggs in the process.

(The egg I made last year is the back one with the red star.)

I was thrilled this class was being offered again (and this time my mom came with me)!

Working on a different design from last year I started drawing on the white egg first with pencil then with the wax "pen" called a kistka.


Then I dipped in yellow. The lines I waxed will resist the dye and stay white.


I added more wax to the areas I wanted to remain yellow and dipped in orange.


Now red


And for my final color I picked to dip my egg in blue

(I rinsed the egg between the red dye and dipping it into the blue to get a brighter blue color.)

Now for the best part- melting off all the layers of wax to reveal each color.


It's so rewarding because when the egg comes out of that final dye color is looks like a total mess. It's hard to believe that under the hours of wax and dye are these beautiful colors and delicate patterns... but there they are just waiting to be revealed!


Mom did really well with her first egg! Here she is waxing,


and melting the wax off with her candle


And mom's final egg


She liked so much that she'll be doing the class again with me next year, along with my sister and mother-in-law.


Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Super Easy Decorated Dog Collar


This weekend Lucy is going to the watch her dad run the St. Pat's race and then she's going to be at the parade.

She needed an appropriate collar.

I found a spool of Shamrock ribbon at the craft store that I liked and a plain green collar at the pet store.


With a little fabric glue I attached the ribbon right down the center.



Almost instantly, Lucy's had a new collar!



My cute little model posing for the camera. That's her good side.


Sunday, March 14, 2010

Pot o' gold cupcakes


If you can't find actual gold at the end of a rainbow- cupcakes might be the next best thing.

After what was truthfully many, many hours of trial and error I wound up with a plate full of Lucky golden cupcakes for St. Pat's day.


I started with a boxed yellow cake mix.


I really wanted to get the idea of a pot with a "gold" cupcake inside. After experimenting with a few methods I found coating the sides of the cupcake worked the best.


To coat them I stuck a fork into the top of the cupcake (the holes will get covered later by the frosting) and placed my other hand on the bottom, then spun the sides into melted dark chocolate. I placed the chocolate covered cakes onto a parchment lined baking sheet and put them into the refrigerator for a few minutes until the chocolate was set.


Using food gel I dyed buttercream frosting in rainbow colors.

I'm not great at piping but I did a fairly simple technique of putting two colors at a time, side by side into a pastry bag and piped the frosting in three separate layers.


Red and Orange was first, then I switched pastry bags and did a few rounds with yellow/green, finally I topped each one with blue/purple.


Finally I stuck a chocolate coin into the top of each cupcake.


The chocolate coating on the cupcakes tastes so yummy!

And I love how colorful they are!

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