TIPS FOR A MORE SUSTAINABLE EASTER CELEBRATION

Happy Easter Monday everyone! Today I'll talk about how to have more sustainable Easter week celebration. I'll share some of my tips as well as my 'green' Easter day traditions. Before I get into sharing those tips, let me just say that traditional Easter customs are more likely to be environmentally conscious. So, tradition is a great way to look for inspiration. Ask your elders, relatives and friends about their Easter traditions, they can give you useful tips, advice and inspiration. Naturally, internet is also a great resource for environmentally friendly Easter. There are a lot of creative people out there that are constantly coming up with sustainable decor and recipes, so why not tap into that? Feel free to share your Easter traditions as well. A great thing about collecting green tips is that most of them can be applied to any festivity!

My Easter day 'green' ideas include: using natural egg dyes, using recycled Easter decor, not being wasteful with food and so on. It is easier to have a more sustainable Easter if you have already incorporated 'green' products into you life. For example, instead of chemical detergents, you might want to use natural cleaning products such as baking soda, vinegar, lemon and etc. Holidays shouldn't be an excuse to forget about environment. Fashion is another industry that pollutes our planet so it is good to be more conscious about our buying habits. There is nothing wrong with buying a new dress for Easter day, but make sure it's something you'll want to wear again. Fast fashion is something we should avoid. Shopping our closet and buying vintage is a lovely way to be more sustainable any time of the year.

HOW TO DYE EGGS IN RED WINE? 

What do you need to make red wine coloured eggs? You need only two things: eggs and red wine. Now, the amount of wine you're going to use will depends on the amount of eggs you want to dye. I used a litre of wine and it was enough for more than a dozen eggs. Basically,  what you need is for the wine to cover the eggs you're dyeing this way. 

The recipe for eggs coloured/dyed with red wine that I'm using myself
1. Soak the eggs in red wine (the recipe I used didn't say how long so I just soaked them for just five minutes)2. Cook the eggs in a cooking pot for 30 minutes3. Leave the eggs to cool in wine for 12 hours (perhaps the most practical way is to leave them during the night)4. Take them out, place them on a napkin  and leave them to dry.

EGGS COLOURED IN RED WINE

Eggs cooked in dark wines will be quite dark. Depending on the wine, their shade might be anything from dark purple, blue and black. They should also shine like diamonds in the sun (because of the sugar in wine). Speaking of which, it is probably a good idea to buy cheaper sweeter wines that contain more sugar, so you can enhance the shine quality of your wine cooked eggs. How do you like my wine cooked wine eggs? Is it something you'd like to try yourself?

HOW TO DYE EGGS IN ONION PEELS? 

Another all natural dying technique popular in this region is dyeing eggs by cooking them in onion peels. I love this one as well! Have a look at my old post (here) if you want to see how to dye eggs by cooking them in onion peels. This traditional technique consist from decorating the eggs with plants ( the eggs are placed in a pair of tights to secure the plants in place) and then cooking the eggs in onion peels so you get this (in my opinion) absolutely gorgeous colour. It sounds more complicated then it is. If you're not certain you can place the plants this way, you can also use wax to write and draw on eggs and then cook the eggs with onion peels. The areas you have covered with wax will be lighter. 

HOW TO DYE EGGS IN ONION PEELS? A PHOTOGRAPH ORIGINALLY POSTED IN THIS POST

HOW TO MAKE DECOUPAGE EGGS?

Besides the above mentioned natural dyeing eggs technique, I also enjoy making decoupage eggs. I have been doing decoupage eggs for years now, and I would recommend it to everyone. Honestly, it's a very simple and easy way to decorate eggs. Decoupage eggs are obviously not a completely natural and traditional way to decorate Easter eggs, but I'm pretty certain they are not exactly toxic, at least if you do it the way I do it. Let me tell you what you will need for decoupage eggs, alright? What you need for decoupage Easter eggs are three things:

1. Napkins with a cute pattern (buy recycled ones if you want to be more sustainable)
2. An egg white
3. A painting brush (optional).

Before you start your decoupage work, you'll need to take the paper napkin and remove the two layers out of three. You need only one layer, the one that contains the print or pattern you want to use. Cut or tear the paper napkins you have selected for this project. Ideally, they should have a nice pattern. You can choose whatever you like. I used the same Easter napkins I bought to decorate the house. The next thing you need to do is apply the egg white on the eggs and start applying the paper napkin bits to it. I find it easier and quicker to do when I'm using a painting brush. If you don't have a brush, you can use your hands. Once you have applied the paper napkin to the eggs, leave them to dry. I said it was pretty easy, didn't I? You can cover entire eggs with patterns cut out (or torn) from paper napkins or you can just add a small cut out of a desired print. Anyhow, I think this is much healthier option that buying Easter egg stickers that contain glue. I mean there is nothing toxic about an egg white, right? This year I applied my napkins on already coloured eggs (in wine) so the result was slightly different. I didn't feel like cooking eggs separately. If you decided to do decoupage on already dyed eggs, you should  probably colour coordinate them with your napkins (to get the best results). 

PASTEL EASTER DAY DECOR AND SUSTAINABLE TIPS

The only decor related thing I bought this year for Easter are some Easter napkins. I found 3 different uses for them:  napkins, decoration and decoupage material. All the other Easter decor items I used is either pieces I made myself or those that we had since forever. I typically do use the same decorations, I just switch them up a little bit. DIY Easter decorations are always a great idea. You can find some you can enjoy with your family. It is still not to late, as Easter celebrations can continue for a whole week after Easter. Another sustainable green decoration tip I recommend is buying potted flowers. Instead of buying floral bouquets that will quickly be thrown away, why not buy flowers that you can keep? It is also typically a more bouquet friendly option.

  I genuinely enjoy decorating my home for festivities. I see it as a wonderful opportunity to get creative. I don't see why we shouldn't use it as an opportunity to be environmentally conscious as well. Anyhow, this year I opted for pastel Easter day decor because I think it matches my predominately white furniture. Besides one much loved antique piece, all the furniture in my house is new and white. So, pastel decor seemed like a good idea. What do you think? Did I do a good job? I'm glad I managed to get everything sorted out despite being sick. I started my Easter preparations early on, so being sick didn't really get into my way. If you tend to feel stressed during the holidays, you can check out my tips for surviving the holiday season. 

I hope you all had a lovely Easter Sunday celebration (those of you that celebrate it that is).  Thank you for reading and enjoy the rest of spring festivities!