111. Easter Eggs - Christina Sinclair: Salty Sam's Fun Blog for Children

March 31st, 2017

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Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children

Number 111

Easter Eggs

Hello Everyone

Last week, l was talking about Christmas trees, and this week, l am going to tell you about the traditions of Easter.

Children usually love Christmas, but they like Easter too because it means the coming of spring and better weather, and of course chocolate. You will see lots of chocolate eggs in the shops right now.

The name comes from the Pagan festival of Eostre which was celebrated in the springtime. The main symbols of this celebration were the hare and the egg.

The hare has become the Easter Bunny and the eggs have become – well mostly chocolate!

The word Eostre was Christianized into Easter and has become one of the main Christian festivals.

Whatever your religion; spring is a time of rebirth. Nature is springing into life with glorious abundance.

The egg is a symbol of new life and we like to give them as presents at Easter.

Different countries in Europe have different traditional ways of decorating eggs. Sometimes people draw pictures on them with wax and then dye them. ln this way the pictures are white where the dye hasn’t penetrated the egg shell and the backgrounds are coloured where it does. An easy way to do this is to use onion skins which create an orangey-brown colour.

Other people just paint the shells with a paint brush.

The most expensive eggs in the world were made by a company called The House of Fabergé just over a hundred years ago. They cost a lot of money because they were crafted in precious metals and encrusted with jewels.

Bill and Bob prefer the chocolate variety; which is just as well because they are much more affordable!

On most Easter egg hunts the children compete to collect as many eggs as they can and the person who collects the most gets a prize but in our family we do things differently.

When the whole family meets up at Auntie Alice’s house at Easter all the children have an Easter egg hunt.

Lots of eggs are hidden in the garden. Auntie Alice makes some of them herself and hides little presents inside. They are wrapped up in coloured foil and each child has a colour that they look for. lf they find an egg that is not their colour, they have to leave it. This way all the children get the same number of eggs. The eggs for the younger children are left lower down so that they have a chance to see them.

The trouble is that, if not all the eggs are found Auntie Alice has a habit of forgetting where she has hidden them so we all have to go out and look – before the foxes come along and eat them instead!

lf you wanted to have your own Easter egg hunt like this and you buy your eggs already wrapped, you can mark the eggs by tying coloured yarn or ribbon around them.

Of course you will have to make your own, if you want to put presents inside.

Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!

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Love and kisses

Salty Sam

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www.christina-sinclair.com

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Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week

Bill: What did the egg say to the whisk?

Bob: l don’t know what did the egg say to the whisk?

Bill: l know when l’m beaten!

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Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.

Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com

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Picture Gallery

A hare has a longer body than a rabbit

Faberge eggs often contained jewelled presents inside

Easter egg moulds

The inside of a real egg

Painted eggs that open like Russian dolls

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desk THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK

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This week I have another knitting pattern for you.

Auntie Alice has finished writing out the pattern for another sweater she knitted for Emily’s twelve inch doll, so I can give it to you here. It goes with the black jeans pattern on Blog Post 87.

NEWSDESK MINIMAKE

12” DOLL GREEN SWEATER

GREEN SWEATER FRONT (KNIT ONE)

Using 3½mm knitting needles and green dk yarn cast on 20 stitches

Purl 1 row

P7 k1 p2 k2 k1 p7

K7 p1 p2 k2 p1 k7

P7 k1 k2 p2 k1 p7

K7 p1 k2 p2 p1 k7

Repeat the last 4 rows 5 times

Knit 1 row

Cast off

GREEN SWEATER BACK (KNIT ONE)

Using 3½mm knitting needles and green dk yarn cast on 18 stitches

Purl 1 row

Knit 23 rows of stocking stitch

Knit 1 row

Cast off

SLEEVES (KNIT TWO)

Using 3½mm knitting needles and green dk yarn cast on 10 stitches

Purl 1 row

Knit 20 rows of stocking stitch

Cast off loosely

(You can cast on 12 stitches if you want looser sleeves or if your knitting is very tight)

TO MAKE UP

Use over-sewing to sew the garment together to ensure fit and reduce bulk in the seams

Sew shoulder seams up 2cm/¾inch from arm end

Sew sleeves to shoulder

Sew underarm and side seams

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Quick Quiz

What is the name of:-

A vehicle with one wheel
A mythical beast with one horn
The one thing that contains everything
A vehicle with two wheels
A vision aid adapted for two eyes
An animal with two feet
A vehicle with three wheels
A mathematical figure with three sides and three corners
A dinosaur with three horns

BLOW MY FOGHORN!!!

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weekend

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lt’s the Weekend!

HOW TO MAKE EASTER EGGS

METHOD ONE

Draw a simple design on a cold, hardboiled egg using white crayon before you start dyeing if you want a white pattern on your egg.
Half fill an old cup with water then mix in 1 tablespoon of vinegar and several drops of food colouring.
Leave the water to get to room temperature and carefully drop in your egg.
When it has absorbed enough colour take it out with a spoon and leave it on a wad of kitchen paper (put on top of a small plastic tray) to dry.

TIPS

To get a marbled effect you can put a tablespoon of cooking oil into the water as well and move the egg around a little as it absorbs the dye.
You can make your own dyes by using different colour fruit juices like cranberry or grape or blueberry, or different colour teas, or vegetable juices like beetroot or carrot. Spices like paprika or chilli powder work as well.

Food colouring will give you vibrant colours and food dyes will give you pastel colours.

With this base you could then paint pictures onto your eggs.

METHOD TWO

You will need to buy Easter egg moulds.
Melt some chocolate very gently in a bowl over some hot water in a saucepan (you might need an adult to do this part for you).
Paint a layer of melted chocolate into your moulds making sure that you get the chocolate right up to the edge using a wide brush.
Leave a thin layer to dry then add another layer.
Add as many layers as you need to make the egg as thick as you want it, but don’t be tempted to put a really thick layer on all at once.
Don’t put the chocolate in the fridge; let it set in a cool place.
When the chocolate is ready to come out of the moulds stick the two halves together by using some more melted chocolate, again using a brush.
If your egg breaks, you can melt the broken pieces and start again – maybe next time you will need to make it thicker.
If you put a little gift inside, the person getting it will be very surprised.
You could also make little solid chocolate hearts, stars, bunnies or chicks to put inside it by using more chocolate moulds.

Eggs can be put in a presentation basket

*If you want to plan an Easter egg hunt, you may want to start to search out little presents to put in home-made eggs way before time.

And if you need an idea for a little present to put in a large chocolate egg that you have made in a mould, this little Easter bunny might be just what you are looking for.

Don’t forget to wrap him up before you put him in an egg so that the chocolate won’t spoil him.

HOW TO MAKE A MlNl EASTER BUNNY

Cut two bunny sides out of white felt flipping the pattern over the second time you cut a side out.
Cut a strip of white felt 23cm/9½ inches long by 2cm/¾ inch wide.
Embroider the eyes and whiskers on each side using 2 strands of pink embroidery thread.
Over-sew the strip of felt to one side of the bunny starting just above the tail wrong sides together.
Tuck the end under and sew across.
Sew the other side onto the strip in the same way – it is really important to match the sides up well otherwise the bunny will become twisted – this is not easy so take a lot of care.
Stuff just before you seal up the last side – but don’t overstuff otherwise the bunny will not have a flat base on which to stand up.
Pinch together the 2 sides at the base of the ears behind and sew a few stitches across to secure using white sewing thread.
Pinch together the 2 sides at the base of the ears in front and sew a few stitches across to secure using white sewing thread.
Then continue to sew down the front of the face to the nose.
Sew on a pink nose with a few stitches and a line down into the mouth which should appear when you pinch the face together.
Sew a pompom tail on top of the place where the strip was joined together.

*It is really important to sew the second side on to match the first – it may help to put a pin at the tip of the ear and nose as you line up the second side so that it doesn’t slip as you start sewing.

*This project is not for a sewing newbie – if you think that it will be too difficult for you, you could make a bunny brooch to put on a hat. Just sew the two sides together with a tiny amount of stuffing between and then sew a brooch pin on the back. Don’t forget to embroider on the eyes and whiskers before you construct the brooch.