Easter odds and ends

So did you score on any post Easter deals this week?  I haven't had a chance to go to Hobby Lobby or Lifeway in search of Resurrection Eggs, but I'm hoping we'll get a chance tonight when we're on our much-needed semi date night.  It's a semi date because Isabelle will be with us, but it'll be good just to spend time together.  Damian has been working on a project all week and has had to leave right after dinner to run errands or have meetings every night this week.   

I picked up plastic Easter eggs for our hunt next year at 50 cents for 42 eggs instead of $2.  I also got a PAAS egg dyeing kit for 36 cents, regularly $1.44.  This year I just used some of my Wilton icing colors and my eggs came out beautifully.  I did learn that if you don't mix it well with some warm water first, the colors separate, which gives you mystery eggs.  I plopped the eggs in the dye and never knew what colors they'd turn out!  This only happened with my purple.  From the same batch of purple dye, I got one purple egg, one bright pink egg, and three blue eggs. 

Three days before Easter, I realized I had no Easter decorations at all and no centerpiece for the table.  I decided to use ordinary things from around the house to make a centerpiece.  Then I discovered that I don't decorate in pastels at all, so I had nothing to use!  So I decided to make an Easter basket for my centerpiece.  I dyed eggs, added some fake flowers and a silver cross (a housewarming gift!), and I had my centerpiece.  It wasn't the nicest I've ever seen, but it worked in a pinch. 

Instead of hard boiling eggs and dyeing them, I wanted to hollow out my eggs so that I could use them year after year.  There are tons of instructions online for hollowing out eggs, so I won't waste time giving you the instructions, but I will say that it was a whole lot more time consuming than I ever expected!  They came out nicely though, and I can box them up carefully for us to use next year.  I'm thinking of using them to make a wreath or something for next year, but I've got plenty of time to figure that out. 

Damian was pretty impressed by my attempt at craftiness, but when I told him the centerpiece was free, he corrected me.  What about the price of the eggs?  But I was one step ahead of him and had the eggs themselves in the fridge, ready to be scrambled.  If you're careful, you can save the egg innards (that just sounds gross) and use them for breakfast the next day. 

I'm still tying up loose ends from Easter.  We had a 20 pound ham as part of our Easter dinner, thanks to Damian's work, who gave it to us at Christmas.  It was fabulous.  We still have plenty of ham, so I'm going to make some of those awesome warm ham sandwiches as easy weekend meals (thanks for the recipe, Jami!).  Here's a recipe similar to the one she sent me, in case you're not familiar with these yummy sandwiches.  I wasn't until I moved to Texarkana, but I've had them frequently at various functions, and trust me, you're missing out if you haven't tried them. 

Any extra ham will go in the freezer until I want to make split pea soup or something else.  We also have a massive ham hock from the giant ham, so I'll be making a huge pot of red beans next week, and we can get back to having Red Bean Wednesdays again.  I've really been working hard at not wasting anything, and I think it's helping my grocery bill quite a bit.  I'm trying to cook the way women did 30 years ago, not wasting anything, instead of cooking like the typical twenty-something who purchases pre-packaged everything.  It's a lost art, but it's one I'm trying to reclaim. 

It's naptime, so I've got to get some sewing done on  my niece's birthday gift. 

Random thought of the day:  Wal-Mart, I understand why you had to get rid of the fabric department, but would it be so hard to have yellow thread and bobbins on hand?  They don't take up that much space!  Now I get to fit in a trip to the fabric store today!    

I'll leave you with a picture of Isabelle in her cute bunny outfit.  She wasn't being photogenic because she just wanted the bow out of her hair.  The outfit was a baby shower gift that finally fits her.  It's got a cute little while tail on the back!