I saw some pictures of pysanky on Thursday and remembered that I had a few jars of dye around from years ago. I wasn't totally sure they'd still be good but decided I would give them a try anyway. It was a lot of fun to spend my afternoon drawing on eggs and watching them change colour. I got kind of messy but that gardener's scrub was great for getting the dye out of my fingers. I used whole eggs and only cracked one of the six I decorated (and fortunately it was only a crack not a complete break and I didn't get any egg in my dye). Now I really want to find a wooden bowl to display them in.








I hope everyone had a lovely long weekend.

My seeds are planted! Making the pots was pretty fun and rather messy. I used an empty jam jar to roll quarter sheets of newspaper and then filled them with potting  mix with a spoon. I ended up with eighteen little pots: seven with seeds for the traditional tall yellow sunflowers and the remaining eleven area a slightly shorter and spikier looking version sporting deep red tones. I can't wait to see what they look like but it's going to be a while yet.

When I was all done potting I cleaned up the table and washed my hands and still had a lot of dirt under my nails. I remembered reading Erin's post about a gardener's hand scrub and quickly whipped up a jarful (the same jar I'd used for making my pots actually). I then washed my hands a second time. The scrub works so beautifully I made up a second jar to give to my sister whose been giving me all sorts of gardening direction.


ps. I may have to find a new spot to keep my collectin of pots - our kitchen table smells a lot like potting soil - it's a little weird when you're eating.

Yesterday morning my feet were cold. I went looking for a pair of socks and found the only clean ones in my mending box. I sat down with my darning egg and picked a pair to work on.


These are my Lucy socks (that was the name of the yarn). The first pair of socks I made for myself and the second pair ever. I made them when we went to Nova Scotia for our honeymoon and British Columbia for my sister's wedding so they've got some nice memories attached to them.

After a while my socks didn't have holes anymore.


After a little more reinforcing they were keeping my feet warm.


There was another pair of socks nearby that needed reinforcing. This time it's pre-darning reinforcement. Do you recognize the socks? I promise a proper post once I've got some fun pictures to share.


Eventually I stopped thinking about socks ...

... and started thinking about slippers

... and which style to make:

The square toe?


Or the round toe?


I haven't made up my mind yet, but that's okay because I haven't decided what fabric I want to use either.

Right now I need to go make some newspaper pots and plant my sunflower seeds so they'll have a chance to bloom this summer.