Gilded easter eggs: a tutorial

What you need:

• Metallic craft foil (I used the one I found at my local craft store, Jones Tones, but there are many brands)
• Double-sided adhesive tape
• Eggs

This year I went hunting for white eggs as almost all the eggs you get here, in Melbourne at least, are the brown variety. I tracked some down at the Victoria Market and I’m now obsessed with their creamy, milky purity.

Contrary to popular belief, the shells of white eggs are not bleached. White eggs are produced by certain breeds of chook.

What to do:

1. Blow or boil your eggs.

2. Use double-sided tape to create adhesive patterns on your eggs.

3. Rub the dull side of your metallic foil sheet over your sticky bits – or follow the instructions in your pack. Which all sounds vaguely inappropriate but it’s up to you as to how far you want to take that. I am personally known for taking things one step too far so you can guess where I am likely to end up.

You can use strips of double sided tape applied to baking paper and a paper punch to create tiny bunny stickers as I did in the first photo in the post.

Or for something more ornate, a border paper punch is a little fiddly but creates a beautiful result.

Or you can just cut strips of your tape to create this simple effect.

However, no matter what method you use, there is no doubt that playdough eggs rolled in glitter produce the most spectacular eggs. As Olive’s creation here attests.

 

God, how I love a glittery finger.

Ice skating on the beach

Spring is so very sprung here in the Southern part of the world, but before I kick off my shoes and go running naked through fields of flowers just yet, I did want to share one last wintry adventure with you.

And for those of you in the North (ooooh, sounding very Game of Thrones there – but not meaning to suggest you’re wildlings – not that there’s anything wrong with that) this might be a little teaser of what’s just around your seasonal corner.

Here in Australia, we don’t go in for any of that indoor or frozen lake skating rubbish (the kind of rubbish that’s on my bucket list). Nah, we just chuck a tent up on the beach. On.the.beach. ‘

It felt incongruous to be skating around on ice while people walked past on the beach and lights twinkled on the water. Incongruously fun.

I know these photos are blurry and bit dark (camera phone shots – I LOVE camera phones) but they do kind of capture the cosy zooming-ness of it all.

a. thank Gaga for this plastic balancing seal. I would have been on my arse the entire time without it. And the kids can sit on them. Genius really.
b see the lights reflecting on the water behind us?
c. this little one was not letting go.

This last one kind of sums it up. Blurry, golden-light-tinged good fun.

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