I thought I'd share a little silliness with you all about entering eggs in the Masters Program through the International Egg Art Guild.


This is an incomplete list of Do-s and Don'ts, Happiness and Frustrations that occur when you put alot of pressure upon yourself.  I'm sure I will add more folly later.  I can laugh about all of these now, knowing that I've learned something... .

Pysanky:
1. (FYI- I keep my wax melted in a tart warmer)....Don' t watch a suspenseful/ scary movie when doing pysanky. If you jump out of your skin, you might knock the melted wax over onto the floor where it hardens into a large black splop on your hardwood floor. (Aaargh..... ..that's the pirate in me!)
2. Always keep a pastry scraper and Goo Gone on hand. The scraper will gently scrape the wax from the floor without scratching the hardwood. Goo Gone cleans up any remaining wax and then everything looks like normal when dear Hubby walks in the door; therefore avoiding the "I told you so-s"......( hee hee)
3. When washing your eggs off that have a plug in the hole.....don' t use overly warm water. The air warms inside the egg....expanding. ......pop. .....the side blows out. (I always wanted that egg for doing a diorama instead)
4. If you have cuts on your hands, wear gloves when using vinegar or "The Works" or you will be yelling "Owie, Owie, Owie". On the good side......they won't get infected as they will be soooo clean!

Filigree:
1. If your carving area is in the garage and it's cold, cold, cold.......be sure to warm your egg before carving. Eggs shatter much easier when they are shivering. (I can use those pieces for crushed eggshell ornaments)
2. If your carving area is in the garage and it's cold, cold, cold.......be sure to warm your own body with heaters. Straight lines turn into squiggles when you are shivering. (Another diorama egg on the way!)

Decoupage:
1. Don't tell your budding artistic daughter that has just learned how to write in cursive that you have colored pencils..... .....they quickly start disappearing. But you soon have colorful "I Love You Mom" keepsakes that are worth their weight in gold.
2. Be sure to tell your budding artistic daughter that the little tiny scissors are mine and to not touch them, or you will be wasting lots of time looking for them. But you soon have colorful paper snowflakes that say "I Love You Mom" that can completely cover your refrigerator. ......... ........and lots of little tiny bits of paper in someone's bedroom that need to be vacuumed up.
3. If you want to be truly successful in creating decoupage eggs, shave your entire body, including your head, pluck all your eyelashes, and do all your decoupage in a 500 gallons size ziplock bag. Since that isn't going to happen, be sure to carefully inspect your egg before the latest layer has dried, so you can lift off that eyelash before that layer of glaze has dried.

Eggs in General:
Eggs are going to break and crack. It's Murphy's law! So, prepare yourself ahead of time and just relax and go with the flow. But, you can also avoid serious damage by not putting a whole tray of eggs on the counter just below the cupboard that has a bottle of honey that was put in there cockeyed. When you open that cupboard door, gravity can cause that honey bottle to land in such a way that every egg is broken. (Gee, I get to do more crushed eggshell ornaments!)

So, my goals today are:
1. Draw more pysanky.
2. Dig out that eyelash.
3. Warm my body and egg before attempting to go back to the garage.
4. Wash some more eggs.
5. Wear gloves