Where are you guys, I wrote to you about a week ago while the preparations for Easter were still going on. We are Orthodox, so our Easter this year was on April 12. That's why today I'll raise a toast to this beautiful sunny day with HRISTOS VASKRSE! CHRIST IS RISEN! CHRIST IS RISEN! ❤️ The main thing, besides of course being all together with our families, is coloring Easter eggs. One of them, the first one, traditionally red and the most joyful, we keep as **_The guardian egg of the home_**. This blog will be about how I dyed eggs on Good Friday. I first boiled 100 of them, really well, for about 20 minutes, because we like them hard boiled and they last longer that way, they truly are something special. Throughout the year, whenever we feel like eating a boiled egg, we tend to say it's nice, well cooked, but not like Easter eggs. And it really is always like that. I'm sure the holy water I added while they were boiling contributes to that as well, the one our priest blessed in every Orthodox home during the Easter fast.

Some people say that I'm quite slow when it comes to cooking and dyeing eggs, but I truly enjoy doing it. I really like to put in the effort so that each one looks nice and different. That's why sometimes I even dye some of them a few times until I get an interesting color or pattern. This year, as I mentioned above, I boiled 100 eggs, out of which 3 cracked during cooking and 3 after dyeing, so in total I had 94 whole decorated eggs, and I was quite satisfied. Sometimes almost a third of them crack… so then I take new ones and keep boiling more. This time that wasn't necessary. Ah yes, some people also put a cloth at the bottom of the pot to prevent cracking. I forgot to do that this time, but it's a good trick if you remember it. :D I cooked them in two large pots, 50 in each. I gently placed the previously washed eggs into the pot, covered them with water, added a generous amount of salt on top so they would peel nicely, a bit of alcohol vinegar, and of course a little holy water. Once they were well cooked, I moved on to dyeing. First, of course, I dyed the red ones. Some turned out light red, almost pink, and some a deep proper red, depending on which mix of dye packets I used. After that, I moved on to wrapping the eggs in stockings. I don't know if you're familiar with that trick, but for me it's the most interesting method every year. You need old nylon or silk stockings, pantyhose, knee highs, whatever you have stored away and no longer wear, either you or the other ladies in your household, this is where they find a great new purpose. Or you just buy them, they are quite cheap in every store.

Before putting them into the stocking, I prepared cut-out pieces from a thicker drawing paper pad (see the first photo), little plants, small leaves and white daisy flowers that I picked that morning in the yard and the woods, and onion skins from onions that had been patiently waiting for a while in a mesh bag somewhere in the corner of our storage room. 🥰 I usually push my hand through the stocking, place an egg in my palm, then add a leaf, a little flower, onion skin or the cut strips of paper, pull the stocking over it, tighten it well, and wrap it a few times tightly with sewing thread and snap it off, without any extra tying or making knots. Sometimes I even get carried away and tighten the stocking so much that the egg cracks in my hand, but that's only every once in a while. Once I did this with all the eggs, aside from the first twenty or so that I dyed red, it was time to dye the rest.

And from here on, you can see how they all turned out. My this year's collection of Easter eggs, which was successfully eaten! 😍But it still was a collection, you have to agree with me, so after thinking about it for a while while I was typing this blog, I decided it would be best for it to be part of this community, if mipiano doesn't mind. (: As I said, I always try to make each one special, different, whether it's just a shade, it doesn't matter, as long as they're not all the same. Except for the red ones, I like them to be bright red, usually without any patterns, and as I get older I realize they are the most beautiful and that there should be more and more of them. Maybe in the first photos they will look a bit pale and pastel, but those were taken before I coated the eggs with oil, which later gives them a special shine and also helps keep them fresh.

One thing that would be smart to do, but I don't do it (ofc xD) and I always say I will next year, and then I don't listen to myself again, is wearing gloves! Haha, you can see what my hands looked like, luckily the dye wasn't thaaaaat hard to remove, though it was a bit more difficult to get the color out from under my nails, but somehow I managed to get my hands in order before going to church for the Easter liturgy. The only thing left were these marks on my right index finger, I still have them, they were made by the thread I use to tie the egg in the stocking, I didn't even realize how much it had cut me.

Heeere they are, on this picture all of them, more precisely all 94 eggs. Actually, 93, because I immediately coated the guardian egg with oil and put it in a special little dish, and then into the cupboard in the kitchen where it stays for the whole year until next Easter. Do you practice that too and what do you do with the ones from last year? We always used to break the old one on Good Friday and throw it away, sometimes it gets thrown into a river so the water carries it away. Some people even eat that egg, because the guardian egg cannot really spoil, it only dries out a bit and splits inside, the yolk remains wrapped in a thin layer of egg white.

This collection was truly amazing and it almost completely disappeared within the three days of Easter. I ate the last ones from it today. And yes, we even had eggs that my mom brought, my sister brought and some that my grandma and aunt sent from home and everything got eaten. So in total, we definitely went through around 120 eggs over these few days starting from Sunday. Of course, we all ate them, we had guests, my family, my fiancé's family and some friends as well. It really was a beautiful Easter. 🥰 Some food is, of course, still left, so we'll be eating it in the coming days until we finish everything, nothing gets thrown away.

Once again, Christ is Risen! and happy Easter to you all! ❤️ Thank you for reading! Sending you hugs and kisses!

Hive Collectors

@bibana

Easter Egg Collection That Got Completely Eaten (: