spEGGtacular TIE-dyed easter eggs!!!

It's no secret that I'm a craft lover. Ben refers to them as "projects" and claims that I spend all of my time on the internet searching for new projects to do. It doesn't take up ALL of my time, but it does consume a generous chunk of my day :)

I found this gem while surfing for DIY Easter decorations. It combines two things I absolutely love, thrift store shopping, and crafting. http://www.marthastewart.com/269788/silk-tie-easter-eggs

My little sister, Mallori, was in town this weekend which was great because I needed an extra set of hands for this one. I followed the directions from the website step by step except I decided to use blown eggs (which were the shells leftover from the massive amount of breakfast burritos I made last week). In theory, this was a great idea because we are still a couple of weeks away from easter, and I wanted to save the eggs for as long as possible. However, it made the boiling step quite difficult.

Here are pictures and thoughts from my EGGciting craft afternoon with Mallori!

These are the ties we used. I've been collecting them from local thrift stores around Austin. The cheapest I could find was $3 each, so please let me know if there is a place I can get them for less! As you can see from the final product, the dark blues and deep reds show up the best.

I should have done a better job at wrapping the eggs in the ties. There is a lot of white area on the eggs from the folds in the silk. I think next time I am going to try and wrap it like a tootsie roll so that the fabric is closer to the eggs.

Here is where the blown eggs caused a dilemma. Because they were hollow, the egg wouldn't sink in the pot. We had to put a salad plate on top of the eggs to hold them down under the lid. Not ideal. I'll have to think of a better way to do this, because it is really a shame to throw these pretty eggs away every year. Not to mention- boiled eggs smell terrible.

Finished product!! Don't they look great? Not too shabby for our first try. How cute would these be hanging by a ribbon on an Easter tree? Can't wait to try it again next year!

Proud Pullet Parents

Look at those tail feathers!!

Tonight is the first night our little chickadees have gone to roost on their own. They are growing up so fast!! I can't wait until they start laying eggs, hopefully in about a month or so. Maybe Ben will get an egg for his birthday!!

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy BURRITO!! Hey hey BURRITO!

I went back to work this week, which has been quite the adjustment for both of us. The house is far from spotless, I haven't cooked once this week, and our laundry is piling up. Not to mention, the healthy lifestyle we were living is slowly but surely heading in the wrong direction. 

Ben is mostly concerned about his bad breakfast habits. He's been waking up really early the last couple of weeks, and I'm not one for early mornings so he is left to fend for himself when it comes to food. 

He sent me a blog post about pre-cooking bulk breakfast burritos and freezing them for busy mornings. I needed blown eggs for an easter dying project I'm working on- So I thought this would be a good opportunity to use the yolk from those eggs. Normally I would say "Kill two birds with one stone", but that saying just doesn't seem right now that we have our lovely chickens :)

Here is the blog post:

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/02/20/bulk-breakfast-burritos-convenient-cheap-healthy-and-easier-than-you-think/

I made 2 different variations. The one on the left is just egg and breakfast sausage. The one on the right is onions, green onions, black beens and eggs. 

I chose to try 3 different types of tortillas to figure out which one froze the best (corn, white corn, and whole wheat with flax meal). Once all the cooking was complete, I put the egg mixture on a tortilla, added salsa, folded it into a burrito and wrapped it in saran wrap. Ben helped at this point, it was much easier with two people!

We have been eating them for the past 3 days. All you have to do is take off the saran wrap, loosely wrap it in a paper towel (to soak up moisture) and microwave it for about 50 seconds. They taste great! The flax meal tortillas fall apart immediately so I won't be using them again, but both corn hold up really well. My favorite one is the egg and sausage in the true corn tortilla, with a little bit of hot sauce of course :)

The best part about these quick and easy breakfast burritos is that they are high in protein and each under 180 calories. I'm not loving the amount of carbs, but for now it is a good fix for our problem. I welcome any suggestions for other quick and healthy breakfast ideas!

Complete 180

Well hello y'all!! It's been a long time since I've said that lovely southern word without a giggle or funny look coming from the people around me.

This past year has been somewhat of a crazy whirlwind. Last March I was a single, career driven young professional who ate out every meal and paid to get her laundry done. And today- I am a happily engaged housewife to be, cleaning up after my fiance in our new home and googling fun dinner recipes to try each night. Did I forget to mention... I've lived in 3 different states this year? Oh, and I own chickens. Like the title of this post- a complete 180.

I'm creating this blog to track my adventures, share my mishaps, and learn from others the tips and tricks of managing a household. Thanks for helping me along this journey!