Catching Up

Well, it's been a while since my last post. Work has been busy, we've been visiting with family, and life has just been kind of tiring lately!

We stayed in town for Easter again this year, and once again my husband and I did the Martha Stewart Silk Tie Eggs. I tried to be prepared this year, and instead of using ties straight out of the closet, I picked a few up at the PTA Thrift store for $1 each. Not bad. If you haven't tried this craft before, it really is a lot of fun.

We had dinner at Ben and Jason's again this year. I insisted on brining dessert so I could make myself practice the cake decorating skills. I used Martha's recipe for Meyer Lemon Anniversary Cake. Clearly, it was not tiered, but it was soaked with lemon simple syrup and was filled with homemade lemon curd. The frosting is Swiss meringue buttercream, which apparently doesn't take coloring very well. What was supposed to be buttercup ended up being peach....oh well. The bunny is in color flow, and was a generous gift from Laura D. The daisies are in royal icing.

A notable element of Easter dinner was the striking table decor. I'm not really sure where Ben found the time (or patience!) to weave yards upon yards of brightly colored ribbon on the table. I was flabbergasted. I will definitely be stealing this idea at some point.

My most recent cake was a birthday cake for my mother-in-law who happened to be in town visiting on her birthday, although we waited until the weekend to celebrate with cake. I had purchased teal icing color from Michael's and I was anxious to try it. I made a bunch of purple daisies a while back, so I wanted them to really contrast on the icing color. I basket-weaved around the sides as well. My penmenship needs some work, but other than that, I was pleased with how it came out.

Easter Eggs....

So....I didn't really do much "work" this weekend, but I was able to cross off a couple things from my "Easter crafts I would really like to try but don't have the time list." It was sooooooo awesome. I lost track of how many eggs I bought.

Below are pictures of egg craft #1. I saw this idea in Martha Stewart Living (April 2006). You use a Dremel tool to make ~1/2 inch hole in the bottom of the egg, blow the egg out, and sterilize. (My husband did all the drilling....thanks honey!)

After the sterilizing, you dye the eggs with food coloring, and let them dry for two days... That's why this project is so intense, you need a lot of advance planning, which generally is not my forte.
After the eggs are completely dry inside, you fill them completely with chocolate, or make them into chocolate truffles, which is what we did. The finished products are shown below, on display.

Here's a link for the actual instructions (Chocolate Egg How-To)
We had to take a break from all the eggs to see UNC dominate Mount Saint Mary's in the first round of NCAAs at the RBC Center in Raleigh....



Next up was my husband's favorite-ever egg project, straight from the creative archives of Martha Stewart. A couple years ago, she had this lady on who uses cut up silk neck ties for dying Easter eggs. We raided my husband's closet for ties that he never wears any more and got to work. Here is a picture of the first batch twist tied up with silk touching the egg and covered with a square of old white tee-shirt. You just boil them for 20-25 minutes.......

.....and you get this! You have to try it... Here's the link: Silk Tie Easter Eggs

I'd like to take a moment to point out other fine examples of Easter baking and crafting.

Example 1: Chocolate cake with chocolate rolled fondant.... The finale to a 21 course Easter dinner at the home of our friends Ben and Jason.

Example 2: Eggstra special handmade card from Laura D.

Another one of these baby sweaters that I'm trying to finish up. I've pledged to only knit at home while I am watching reality television.

My evening activity... New purchase from Barnes and Noble.