Shwish-shwish-shwish. Welcome to the soothing sounds of marker on some kind of egg-shaped crafting canvas.
The craft alarm is not allowed in this space. It has been replaced by smooth jazz.
Not really, but if I were to choose background music for creating marker art on an egg-shaped piece of (wood? papier mâché? cardboard?) I’d choose smooth jazz. If it worked for Beth in Life After Beth, then it could work for my zombie-rattled nerves. (News flash: it doesn’t take much to upset this apple cart.)
In any case, a few weeks ago, some co-workers decided to hold an egg-hunt with an opportunity to create egg decorations, and I think I found my moment of Zen. The last egg hunt that I participated in, when I was maybe eight years old, ended in a flood of tears and no eggs or prizes, but now, at fifty-two, I have redeemed myself. I found some eggs. They were filled with candy and some bunny-shape erasers, which I hid in plastic plants on my desk at work, which is the best thing you can ever do with bunny-shaped erasers. (Why ruin them by erasing anything?)
I also decorated, to the best of my ability. Did I have the best egg in the room? Most certainly not. Did I create the best egg decoration I’ve ever created in my life? Shell, yeah! Instead of panicking when I saw the paints and eggs, I just calmly reached for some markers and imagined what I wanted to create, and then I did it.
Okay, it wasn’t quite what I imagined. (I imagined some pretty great stuff.) However, I did come up with something decorative that at least wasn’t dripping with glue. And for that, I am grateful.
To sum up:
–Set the mood with smooth jazz.
–Don’t go ambitious with the paints and glitter. Just use markers.
–Hide things, find them, and then act surprised. (Fake it ‘til you make it.)
–Enjoy the journey.
–Take a picture. (But don’t compare it with others.)
–Dip the egg in white paint, start over again with new colors, and crank up the volume on the smooth jazz and/or adult contemporary to liven things up.
Your Turn: If you decorate and/or hide eggs, which do you enjoy more? Hiding eggs? Or decorating them?
Fixin' Leaks and Leeks 
I gave up on the egg decorating when my daughter was till in elementary school.
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We mostly just dip the eggs into dye and let them sit there–then call it a day 🙂 Decorating the one egg, though, was a fun activity and change of pace–and I only had to do one 🙂
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Hi Cecilia. Your office sounds like a good place to work in. Not many offices would have an egg decoration/egg hunt event.
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I am super lucky to have such wonderful, creative co-workers!
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Oh boy. I sure admire those who can, but I’m definitely one who can’t. Any egg decorating I’ve done looks like it might have fallen out of Jurassic Park.
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Ha! Yes–I’m no expert, but this was a fun exercise.
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Seriously, are you ever too old to get jazzed over an egg hunt? I think not!
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It was sooo much fun! Usually, I’m the one hiding the eggs at home. I loved participating.
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I’ve never decorated eggs. I eat three a day and the shells just get discarded. Maybe one day I’ll be inspired, but for now, I marvel at the intact shell before I tap them on the counter and let the contents spill into a container ready for me to make scrambled eggs each morning.
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The days leading up to Easter, I kept seeing videos for removing egg shells in one piece–it was super fascinating!
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“Shell, yeah!” Haha! I don’t decorate eggs, but I do enjoy hiding them for the kids. I’m glad you found your zen!
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Ha! Yes–it was actually relaxing. I don’t think it’ll become a habit, but it was a fun change of pace.
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When I was young there used to be a craze for sticking painted (empty) eggshells on the spikes of a plant called mother in law’s tongue. In retrospect it must have been hideous but it was fun and I guess it silenced that mother in law!
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I have never heard of that plant before, but now I have to look it up 🙂
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