March? What? Where did winter go? In the PNW, March is a month of erratic weather. We can have snow, hail, rain, sunshine, warmth, gloom, lightening, and white puffy clouds -- all in the same week. Despite the climate craziness, I try to send positive vibes out into the universe and think spring.
Sunday afternoon, I was getting out some spring decor pieces and found the egg carton filled with a dozen of my DIY painted and speckled eggs. Maybe you remember, I painted these a couple of years ago. I'm mentioning them again because a) it took me a couple of weeks to blow out enough eggs to do a dozen without cracking the shells, and b) this is a super frugal decor project. (I'd say super frugal is when you turn compost items into home decor, don't you think?)
To get the clean eggs, I pricked both ends of each egg with a straight pin, making the hole in the flat end of the egg larger than the hole at the pointed end. To blow out the insides, I blew through the smaller hole. After blowing a batch of eggs for cooking, I washed the eggs in a bowl of warm soapy water, submerging the eggs and allowing water to seep inside. I then shook the soapy water around inside the eggs and blew out the soapy water as I had blown out the eggs originally. I placed the eggs on a heat register to thoroughly dry. Any warm spot will work, even an oven that is cooling from use in baking.
When I had a dozen cleaned and dried egg shells, I used a small dab of paintable caulk to seal the holes on both ends of each egg. Once the caulk dried I hand-painted each egg a solid color with acrylic paints. Going for a natural look, I chose a pale green, pale blue, and tan for my set of eggs. I also think speckled eggs would be pretty in pastels, such as pink, yellow, lavender, and green.
After the base layer of acrylic paint had dried, I put all of the eggs into a cardboard box, then placed the box in the bottom of the bathtub for speckling. This part can get messy and might be a good project for outdoors, weather-permitting. But the bathtub worked and was easy to clean afterward.
To speckle the eggs, I dipped an old toothbrush into dark brown acrylic paint and flicked it over the eggs, turning them over a couple of times to ensure they were covered on all sides with speckling.
Once dried, I used them in an arrangement, nested in with some moss.
If all of this seems like a lot of work for some spring decor, consider this -- I have saved and re-displayed these eggs several years in a row now. I keep the eggs in an egg carton from one year to the next. By being careful with handling them, I haven't lost a single egg yet.
Ah spring -- new life, painted eggs, crocuses blooming, birds chirping, and a bunny sighting. Spring stirs hope in my winter-weary spirit.
What says spring to you?
