So, I went to Walmart yesterday and as I was making my way through the store, I saw the little Easter egg kits and I was very tempted to buy one. Quickly, I remembered all the time and money I've spent on Easter eggs in the last few years and decided I should use my resources elsewhere this year.
Last year, I covered 1 dozen eggs with tiny glass beads and another dozen with glitter. They were pretty, but I don't think they were worth the $25 I spent on them. They sat on the table as a centerpiece for about a week, so they weren't edible. I meant to take them to some kids at church so they could hunt them, but alas, I forgot and ended up throwing them away. It was a sad day, but that was nothing compared to the Martha Stewart incedent of 1998. Two of my friends and I spent days gathering all the right ingredients for these "naturally dyed" eggs that "Martha" showed how to make in her magazine that year. We had purple cabbage, spinach, beets, turmeric, onion skin, and all sorts of vegetables and spices that were supposed to, when boiled in water or wrapped around the egg, dye the egg all sorts of fascinating shades. After shopping for all the special stuff, we spent several hours working on the eggs. It was all very exciting until we brought the eggs out of the dye: they were all varying shades of brown. Now, you may or may not be aware that you can buy brown eggs at the store: no dying required. It was rather dissappointing. We ended up putting food coloring in with the so-called "natural dyes" and acting like we had made something special.
I'm not messing with eggs this year. Next time I do dye eggs, I'll just buy the most basic, inexpensive kit possible, make plain old Easter eggs, and call it good.