I love dying quail eggs. They just look so darn pretty. This year I hard boiled up a bunch. I dyed some of them blue and placed them in a paper nest, and as for the others; they were deviled! I used this basic RECIPE. They were a great tiny treat!
**Great photos taken by the mister**
What a weekend! It was filled with excitement, sunshine, sweets, friends, and love.
The weather was sunny and 75 in Portland! I know, I can't believe it either. Our good friends shared their lovely yard with which was the ideal setting for our easter table! My vision this year was white with tiny pops (or sprinkles!) of pastel. The fact that we could make that vision come to life out on the grass with sunshine on our faces was just amazing.
Here are the details...
I made white paper nests for every place setting and put a nonpareil covered egg and some yellow, white, and pink cadbury mini eggs in each. The little miss got a special coordinating sugar cookie in the shape of a flower in her nest. My vision for the nonpareils went beyond just the eggs: I covered some glass candles and a small vase as well! I used the same method of painting on the glue and then sprinkling on the nonpareils. So easy! AND it all washes off!
For flowers: a tiny white cup filled with slightly blushed creamy white tulips cut down very short, white ranunculus and white freesia in a tight bouquet placed in a vintage vase that sat high in the tablescape, and lastly a tiny POP of yellow ranunculus placed in the small vase covered in nonpareils. Remember the eggs that I grew grass in last year? Well, this year the grass was replaced with a tiny succulent.
There were also a few all white hard boiled eggs on there, some sitting upon a small pile of nonpareils.
It was fresh and sweet and just perfect for our alfresco dining. It really couldn't have been a better way to end the weekend after all the excitement of the MSLiving contest.
Oh, and did I mention the bunny cake?!
See the whole post here: http://livingblog.marthastewart.com/2013/03/inspiredeastercontest.html
Let's just start by saying I NEVER win anything! I put my picture of the nonpareil eggs up on instagram yesterday with the #msleaster just for fun. Imagine my sheer delight when I received a message this morning from Martha Stewart Living- They liked the eggs and chose my picture as the winner of their Inspired Easter Contest!
Now I anxiously await my prize of a custom Easter basket! Me. I actually won. Wow. (I'll be sure to share a picture after it arrives.)
So exciting. Or shall I say EGGciting. Sorry, couldn't resist.
UPDATE: It arrived! It's not every day you get an overnight package from Martha Stewart Headquarters. Woo Hoo!
Thanks, Kevin and Martha Stewart Living!
I LOVE the sparkly purple mushrooms!
As I held this beautiful pastel mixture of nonpareils in my hand I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them: cover eggs!
I started with blown out white eggs that were rinsed and completely dried. Then with a paintbrush I applied a thin, even layer of strong hold white glue to the egg. I didn't dip it in the bowl of nonpareils because I knew they would clump up or possibly bleed colors. Instead, I used a spoon and gave the egg a shower of pastel sprinkles. Handling them very delicately, I set them upon small mouthed sake cups to dry overnight. Now I just have to figure out how I'll showcase them on our easter table. What did the little miss say when she saw them? "Mmmm, yummy!"
I love the idea of eggs filled with confetti with one exception: I don't want to clean them up.
Last year, I decided that all of those rainbow sprinkles I had could be put to good use; they became the confetti in our eggs!
I made a rather large hole at the bottom of my egg so that the insides would fall out without actually having to blow them out. After rinsing completely, I dyed them different colors and let them dry. Using a small funnel, I filled the eggs about halfway with rainbow sprinkles. I put some glue around the hole and placed a piece of tissue paper over it to keep the sprinkles in. For a finishing touch, I glued a small piece of fringed tissue paper garland (that you can find in party stores or on etsy) on top of the piece of tissue paper covering the hole. Presto!
The confetti egg had a similar weight to a real egg, so I decided not to tell the little miss that I did anything special and got some spoons out for a good, old fashioned egg race. She wasn't quite three yet and didn't really understand why we would ever ask her to run a race carrying a spoon with an egg on it. She was nervous about dropping it. Of course, it didn't take long to fall off the spoon. Her worried eyes opened wide...
SPLAT! SURPRISE! Rainbow Sprinkles!
The best part, beyond the big smile on Clementine's face? The rain could clean them up for us!
{Click on the picture to learn more}
Easter is a week a way and I'm starting to pull together everything I need to create this year's tablescape.
Just in case you're looking for a little inspiration yourself, here are some easter ideas from the past taken from our FAVORITES page. Click on a picture for more details.
Something about a bowl full of tissue paper pieces really makes me smile.
This is a great project to do with the kids. You just need tissue paper cut into small squares, glue, a paintbrush, and either card stock cut into the shape of an egg or step it up with a real blown out egg. Glue the tissue paper on. (If doing a paper egg, let pieces overhang the edges of the egg and trim them off after the glue dries.) Overlap colors. Paint glue over top of the tissue paper to achieve that sort of translucent layered look. Add some fine glitter for a little sparkle. Let it dry.
