pinned it. did it. {with doña}

Note from Liz: I'm so happy to share that Meg, who is a frequent "Pinned it. Did it." contributor here on my site, had her baby on Monday! Mama and baby girl are doing well! Meg will be taking a break from guest posting for a bit but will be back later this summer.

And I'm happy to share that my friend Doña is going to share a few columns with us over the next few weeks! First up is her gorgeous natural-dyed eggs DIY. Oh my goodness these are gorgeous! Read on for her column...

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Last Easter we had cousins visiting from England. Did you know in England they don’t dye eggs like we do in the US? Instead they decorate them with markers and stickers. Last year I made sure we had an Easter egg dyeing day, so my young cousin could experience the American way of colored eggs. Unfortunately the experience was a little disappointing, at least for me. The dyes from the little tablets I dissolved in water and vinegar just weren’t very vibrant. Yet the mess they left on my counter was epic.

This year I wanted to try something different. I’ve always been intrigued by natural, vegetable based dyes and I’ve seen some really gorgeous colors on yarn and fabrics dyed this way. So when I came across a few images of vegetable-dyed Easter eggs, I knew that’s what I wanted to try. 

There’s something just so appealing to me in these natural hues. I picked one post that had good, clear instructions and collected all of my ingredients together. I wanted a range of colors, so I used red cabbage (for blue), skins from brown onions (for dark orange), turmeric (for yellow), beets (for red), and a combination of carrot tops and parsley (for green).

Full disclosure here - I didn’t involve my 3-year-old in this process at all. I wanted to do a “dry” run to make sure it worked and also to figure out how messy it was going to be (it was messy - my butcher block has a big red beet circle!). I started the whole process, including hard-boiling the eggs - after she went to bed one night this week. I also wanted to test out what I’ve discovered is the most important tip for dyeing eggs with vegetable dyes - let them sit in the color over night. 

The whole process went surprisingly fast, even though the color pots all needed to be simmered for 30 minutes. I just used all the saucepans and burners I had!

By morning I had this - success!

I used both brown and white eggs. I thought there would be more difference in the final colors, but the difference is actually pretty subtle. The only color that didn’t really work was the yellow/green from the carrot tops and parsley. The color is barely yellow green and very light. Though I really love the pattern the leaves left on the shell.

I am so impressed with the depth of the dye saturation with this method. It is really obvious here, where part of the egg was not completely covered by the dye water.

I’ll definitely be doing this method of egg dyeing again. I also saved the bowls of colored water and I’m going to try dying some natural-colored sock yarn in the remaining dye to see how the colors turn out. 

You can find all the pins I’ve collected for vegetable dyed eggs as well as other fun egg decorating methods on my Spring pinboard on Pinterest. Follow me on Instagram see the yarn dyeing results and to see what other fun Easter crafts we come up with! 

Doña Bumgarner is a writer, artist, mama and a craft project-collector from way back. She loves Pinterest and uses it to help solve a household dilemma at least once a week (see her “pinned and done” board). She lives in Santa Cruz with her partner, their little one and his almost grown one, and a collection of cats and chickens. She writes about the practice of moms holding space for their own well being in the midst of raising a family on her blog, Nurtured Mama.  

Note from Liz: Over here in my corner, I'm trying to "use Pinterest for good." I really see it as a community of people trying to see the beauty and possibility in their lives. I'm adding a few new features here on my blog inspired by or directly about Pinterest as a way to invite others to look for this beauty within a social media community. Connect with me on Pinterest here. Read other "Pinned it. Did it." columns here.