Decorating Your Easter Eggs

There are many ways to decorate your Easter eggs. Before starting the decorating process, you will need to decide on what you want to do with your egg. Depending on whether you want to eat your decorated eggs, or save them for reuse year after year, the process will be different.

• Hard-boiled Eggs - If you would like to make your Easter eggs part of your holiday meal, you'll need to hard-boil them first. If so, keep them refrigerated after decorating them. As long as you don't use acrylic paint, they should be safe to eat.

• Hollowed Eggs - If you want to keep your eggs long after Easter, you can hollow them out. Poke a small hole into each end of the egg. Put one end to your mouth and blow the contents out of the shell. Then, rinse the shell with water to clean it out. After it dries, it can be decorated and kept for years to come.

When you have your eggs ready, whether by hard-boiling them or hollowing them out, you can begin decorating them. The most common method involves making a solution of:

• 1/4 Teaspoon of food coloring
• 3/4 Cup of hot water
• 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar

Place the three items into a small bowl, using additional bowls for each color you want. Once the solutions are mixed, place the eggs into each bowl. The longer you let them sit, the more pronounced the color will be. When you want to take the eggs out, use a slotted spoon and put the eggs aside to dry. If desired, you can polish the dried eggs by applying a very small amount of vegetable oil to the eggs with a piece of cloth.

A fun technique for hollowed eggs is to create a quick Decoupage using tissue paper and white glue.  Create mosaics designs and geographic shapes by snipping or tearing small shards of color.  Dip a small paint brush in white glue pick up the pieces of paper with the glued tip and place on egg smoothing the glue to adhere.  Finish with a final top coat of glue and allow to dry.  This technique is not recommended for hard-boiled eggs that you plan to eat later.

And remember to follow proper Food Safety Techniques to protect your family from Food Borne Illness.


Deborah

Old Dominion Concierge

"We Run Your Errands"

Easter Egg Safety Tips

Easter just wouldn't be Easter without the all important egg hunt.

You know where the kids spend Saturday afternoon dye coloring eggs and then we as parents hide them outside in the yard, usually on a very hot sunny Sunday.  These eggs spend in most cases several hours outside, under logs, behind bushes and in the limbs of trees for hours before they are found and eaten.  That's scary!

Eggs are among the foods that potentially harbor salmonella bacteria. To reduce the chance of illness, always observe safe cooking and handling of boiled eggs.  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advises refrigeration of hard-boiled eggs within two hours of cooking, for health and safety.

Read more: How Long Can Hard Boiled Eggs Be Left Unrefrigerated? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_5179730_long-boiled-eggs-left-unrefrigerated_.html#ixzz1HZWcSOha

Deborah

Old Dominion Concierge

"We Run Your Errands"

Celebrity Maternity Concierge to premiere on Bravo!

Bravo Presents ‘Pregnant in Heels’ with Maternity Concierge Rosie Pope

Rosie Pope, maternity concierge, is the subject of a new series Bravo will be birthing next month called “Pregnant in Heels.”....read more

Six Steps To A More Organized Day

These six tasks may already be part of your daily routine, if they are that's great!

If not, you'll want to add them right away!  You'll see results in a matter of days.  

Starting your day organized and put together only leads to good things to come for the remainder of the day.  Cleaning as you go and clearing the path you walk on will keep you moving forward and not looking backwards for items misplaced or stuffed away in clutter.



Try these six simple tips daily:


1. Make the Bed
 A  made bed makes the whole room seem more orderly, which makes it less likely that you'll let other things -- such as clothes and papers -- pile up around it.
2. Manage Clutter
 Whenever you leave a room, take a quick look around for anything that isn't where it should be. Pick it up and put it where it belongs. Insist that everyone in the household do the same.
3. Sort the Mail
 Take a few minutes to open, read, and sort mail as soon as you bring it inside. Keep a trash bin near your sorting area for junk mail. Drop other mail into one of four in-boxes: personal correspondence, bills, catalogs, and filing.
4. Clean as You Cook
 Instead of filling the sink with pots and dishes, wash them or put them in the dishwasher as you prepare a meal.
5. Wipe Up Spills While They're Fresh
 Whether it's gravy on the cook-top or makeup on the bathroom sink, almost anything is faster and easier to remove if you attend to it immediately.
6. Sweep the Kitchen Floor
 Every evening once you've finished washing up after dinner, sweep the floor. This will keep tough-to-clean dirt and grime from building up, which will make the weekly mopping much quicker.

If all else fails, hire a staff to attend to these items.  I know several great housekeeping companies that will get your housekeeping detail back on track. 

Deborah

Old Dominion Concierge

"We Run Your Errands"

Enter to Win a $25 Home Depot Gift Certificate!

Spring is blooming and it's time to whisk away the dust and clutter! 

For households in which Spring Cleaning is an annual ritual, this helpful checklist from MarthaStewart.com makes sure no job gets left behind.

From the smallest of chores to the biggest of projects, many common tasks are covered, including:

• Vacuuming and shampooing rugs
• Waxing wooden furniture and non-wood floors
• Dusting books and shelves
• Resealing grout lines in kitchens and bathrooms
• Clean and/or launder window treatments

Enter to Win a $25 Home Depot Gift Certificate!  Simply complete the following tasks and your name will be added to the bucket of contestants.  If you are selected as the winner I will email your eGift card to the email address you have provided.  

Contest To-do List:

1. Subscribe to the Old Dominion Concierge Newsletter
2. Subscribe to Old Dominion Concierge Blog Feed
3. Follow us on Twitter at @olddomconcierge
4. "Like Us" on Facebook 
5. Refer a New Client

Enter as many time as you wish.  For each action you complete your name will be automatically entered into the drawing.  The drawing will be held on April 15th!

Good Luck! 





Deborah

Old Dominion Concierge

"We Run Your Errands"