Easter eggs

It's the custom to paint eggs red on this day.
So I woke up early to finish other things and then paint my eggs in my own way, quietly and hoping that they will look good.It always causes me stress if the red ones will be nice red ones and not too dark or with white spots.
Anyway I hang a red teatowel outside, that's a custom too, to show you are painting red eggs.

 First I slowly hard boiled my eggs.I let them cool.

 Then I dipped them into water,vinegar and red paint for Easter eggs for 5 minutes.

 Yes, they are ok!Great! Here they are inside my second ceramic bowl with Georgia Ahtida's egg in the middle.

And here's my bowl in the middle of the lovely fabric strip wreath Angeliki of Poco Loco made for me!

 And here's my minimalistic Easter decoration. My ceramic bowls, red eggs, Ahtida's egg, ceramic eggs (store bought years ago), a Hama bead butterfly (I will tell you about it in a future blogpost), and the little bunny I got from the Secret Bunny Exchange from Athena (organized by Zina).

I left a couple of eggs unpainted wanting to try some decoupage techniques I recently learnt at the Fiaxto workshop at IKEA.
I used an IKEA napkin, and white glue dilluted in water.

 I took off the white sheets from the napkin and was left with only the top sheet.I cut it in small pieces. I applied some glue on the eggs and stick the napkin and apply some more glue. Let dry well.

 The two eggs are covered in only one layer and therefore the colour of the eggs shows from underneath leaving a blue and beige colour combination. I also tried with more layers and had the blue and white  colour result but the texture of the egg surface isn't as good. Also I realised I should have cut the napkin in smaller pieces.

 Do you paint eggs for Easter?What kind did you do this year?

Secret bunny 2016

Dear Zina of Efzin creations blog and etsy shop organized one more successful Easter gift exchange called #secretbunny2016.
This year I received a gift from Athena of Mummy's Little Man 

Athena sent me a little porcelain bunny covered in paper,a tealightcandle holder, some chocolate and candies, a beautiful pen, and a handmade card. Thank you Athena.
I sent my parcel to Helen of Karydotsouflo.
As I wasn't sure what Helen liked I decided to visit her blog and loved the banner.
So I started thinking about walnut shells and hedgehogs and finally I came up with copying her banner and turning it into a pyrography scene.

 Then I also cross stitched a little hedgehog family from a pattern I found on pinterest and made it into a bookmark

I then looked around my house for previously loved things I could add to my parcel.I always do that as I believe that sometimes I have too many  things I don't really need but love (usually books and handmade items) and that those could suit another person better.
I had bought a book covered box to post my parcel in so I thought of adding a book into the box too. And I had the most appropriate one The elegance of the hedgehog by Myriel Barbery!Amazing, isn't it?
I also added a walnut shell pin cushion made by dear Sonia of Cozymemories and finally a bunny I bought at the Melissa Orphanage bazaar. I added some little details on the bunny too.Oh and a card of course.
Before closing the parcel I added some chocolate and jelly candy for Helen's kids.
I really loved making this parcel and I am glad my recipient loved it too!
Apart from making this parcel I also made a couple more for two other friends.
One was for Maro aka Akamatra who was visiteing Thessaloniki and we met for coffee at Koumbi cafe
I gave her a box with chocolate.

her blog logo made with pyrography,

 a needle booklet made with aida and felt and I stitched the Stitch for Syria pattern on it,

 and a bunny from the afore mentioned bazaar.

Maro made me a lovely pouch!Thanks Maro!

I also sent Zina a small gift, her blog logo made with pyrography

and a bunny too since she is the organizer of the secret bunny exchange!
I really enjoyed all this gift making,sending and receiving once again!