Easter eggs and other stuff.

Quite a while ago now, I spotted a link on Facebook (thank you to whoever it was who put it there, apologies that I can't remember who you are to give you credit!), that I thought might be a nice idea to try.  It was called Easter Egg Treats and looked pretty straightforward, but very effective.  So having made some chocolate egg halves and wrapped them up, I had a go myself to see how it turned out.  I discovered that when they say water balloons, they really do mean that, as the result wasn't brilliant!  So having ordered some water balloons from ebay, we waited and they arrived today.  I had already made some chocolate egg halves, as I said, but since I was making some rum truffle filled chocolates for A for Easter (he's been away for a couple of days and got back this evening), I used the left over tempered chocolate to make some more and wrapped them.



The chocolate egg halves

Then I found that the first stage of this particular craft activity is by far the hardest:  getting the chocolates inside the balloons.  Eventually, with the help of M and a pair of thin chopsticks, we ended up with 9 chicken egg sized balloons, each with a couple of egg halves inside.  The other 11 balloons in the pack all perished in the attempts!


Some of the successful attempts.

M decided that she's done her contribution towards this particular activity and went elsewhere to do her own crafty thing, making Easter presents for various people, the results of which I am sure we will be seeing tomorrow!  So K and I continued...

We mixed 'gloopy glue' with water.

Dipped embroidery thread in it and wound it round the balloons.

Using two or three different colours.

Then, having put the clean, dry socks away, we hung them to dry. 

And hopefully by tomorrow they will be dry enough
 for us to pop the balloons and reveal the final result!

K & M have also been working on a big project, that I have only recently been allowed to know about.  It has involved pooling resources to make a purchase and making various things.  I'm not allowed to say any more yet, but will be allowed to once it all comes together.

I have also finished reading The Tales of Beadle the Bard, which we have all enjoyed.  K has said that she really liked Dumbledore's notes on the tales more than the tales themselves and I must admit that I have found them brilliant.  I must share an extract which had me laughing out loud and having to explain myself to the girls.  It is in the notes for 'Babbity Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump' on the particular point that not even magic can truly bring the dead back to life:

As the eminent wizarding philosopher Bertrand de Pensées-Profondes writes in his celebrated work A Study into the Possibility of Reversing the Actual and Metaphysical Effects of Natural Death, with Particular Regard to the Reintegration of Essence and Matter: 'Give it up.  It's never going to happen.'
(for the non-French speakers - Bertrand de Pensées-Profondes translates as Bertrand of Deep-Thoughts).