Egg Decorating

Years ago, a family friend invited my brother and I to her home for Ukrainian egg decorating. We had beeswax and the kistka (stylus) to draw the wax designs onto the egg. It was a lot of fun, and we kept our eggs for years. We did not blow out our eggs, but left them raw. My mom had stored them safely in a basket, and we would take them out again each year.

I do not remember how many eggs we decorated, and they must have broken throughout the years. When the eggs did break, there was not much of a mess, and they did not smell as the insides had long since dried up. Raw eggs last longer than hard boiled eggs, especially out of the fridge. If you decorate hard boiled eggs, they need to be refrigerated, and either eaten or thrown out within a couple of days. Make sure you use food safe dyes if you are planning on eating them.

I tried to find out information on leaving eggs raw while decorating them, but every site says to blow them out. Martha Stewart said to blow out the insides after decorating, but I cannot see spending all the time decorating your eggs only to have them crack and crumble when you try to get holes big enough to blow out the contents. I guess for safety reasons, no one can promote leaving the egg raw. We never had issues. I wasted more eggs trying to blow them out.

I bought a cheap Paas decorating kit at our grocery store the week before Easter. It was on sale for a buck. I did not want to hardboil a bunch of eggs. I wanted to keep the decorated eggs for a few days. I tried to blow out the eggs Friday morning, but gave up after two failed attempts. Even with tape to prevent large cracks in the shell, my eggs were not cooperating. I gave up, and we used the eggs to make breakfast (French Toast).

A couple days later, I came across Mexican Confetti eggs. The tops of the raw eggs are broken off. The shells are decorated, and then filled with confetti and sealed with tissue paper matching the colour of the eggs. I figured this would be an easier way to clean out my eggs, and if we chose to make them into confetti eggs we could do so. I really do not feel like cleaning up confetti from all over my house! Although, I am sure the kids would love it.

I covered the dining room table with newspaper and we decorated four egg shells. I actually had to use six eggs to get four usable shells. Cracking just the top of a raw egg is a lot harder than it looks. We used vinegar with the red and orange tablets, and lemon juice with the blue and green tablets. I could not say that the vinegar made significantly more vibrant colours than the lemon juice. We used the vinegar with the brighter colours, so it was not a fair comparison.

I was trying so hard to not make a mess. Then, I got my hair in the green dye, and dripped it on my hardwood floor, dining room chair and daughter. Luckily I wiped it up quickly enough to prevent staining. How did I get my hair in the dye? I was trying to hear if the green tablet had dissolved, and stopped fizzing. Yes, next time I will tie up my hair, or not listen as closely.

We let the eggs dry while we were at the grandparents for Easter dinner. The following day, I helped the kids decorate the eggs with sparkles and sequins. They turned out well. I was thinking if I could find some biodegradable confetti, these would be fun things to use at a birthday party, or something. Maybe I should see if there are still egg decorating kits at the store.

All this crafting (making window clings as well) still did not keep my kids out of trouble. They decided my son's chest of drawers would make a great hiding place. They broke two drawers, and are lucky no one was crushed when the whole thing fell over. This was proceeded by my son writing on my daughter's door with pen. Is the only solution to ink removal repainting? I am ready for nicer weather so my kids can destroy things outside of the house.

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