Happy Easter

I can't believe that it's april already - though the weather still doesn't let up. windier than the last few days - still as cold and unfriendly as it was.... yesterday morning I hoped that DS might be too old for an easter egg hunt outside - he may be a cool teenager, but with stuff like that  he still behaves like a five year old:) luckily Dobby is too lazy now to "help" with the egg hunt - when she was younger you could always hear her successes - loud crunching meant that she had found an egg:) when I see all the work people go through to colour their eggs I have a bad conscience - but I don't like cold boiled eggs, so I have to do the job right before breakfast on easter sunday. not enough time to go fancy with tights, leaves etc. - just enough to use food colours and a simple dip:

 I put some food colourings into a mug, add a bit of water and some vinegar and dye the hot, just-boiled eggs for maybe 2 minutes. the yellow needs a bit more of the dye, because all the eggs I can buy here are brown. and I never get proper purples - they always turn out brown with a purple tinge:) luckily we found all the eggs - a few years ago we missed one and much later, when Michael cut the grass he hit it with the mower - you wouldn't believe the disgusting smell! the dogs were delighted though....

 the leftover dyes work well on wool - this is teeswater top that I "painted" and steamed after breakfast....

 and to prove that the lemon tree didn't only do one lemon (and to make you envious:)  - my whole harvest:) for now.... the last one is still a bit green - but what I find odd is that apparently all the fruits ripen now - even though some are still extremely small. we discussed our first pickings for some time - and decided to do a marmelade with it..... they are untreated, so there's no problem with using the peel in it.

 

on saturday we had a group meeting with the Connacht Textile Crafters again. the demo this time was the making and decorating of felt beads. not the usual round felt balls; you first make the bead from a piece of dyed felt (like the paper beads kids make), roll it up into different shapes and then start decorating. with metallic yarns, fine wires, beads etc... I am not really a jewelry buff, so I decided to skip making a necklace - and just made two beads, for a pair of earrings. I finished the first, but ran out of time for the second. I still have to do the embroidery and put everything together, but I can do this at home, because I took some materials with me. other than that I was extremely unproductive at the meeting!:( I already know that I never finish much, but making a single crochet hexagon must be the absolute low point for me:( and even though they are extremely simple to make - I even managed to choose a wrong colour once:) maybe I shouldn't take anything at all and just chatter and watch and do nothing at all?