Celebrating Spring!

     These days we have been consuming a lot of eggs- like every day pretty much for breakfast- they are the new- old favourite around these parts- especially when topped with salsa and avocado- maybe a smattering of feta- delish and now I am faintly hungry. Needless to say we have several empty egg cartons loitering around the recycling station just waiting to be returned to the egg vendors at the Farmer's Market- the thing is- said recycling station is also in our studio- AKA craft room- so I see those egg cartons a lot and they were begging to be used in a craft!

    Hearkening back to my own Spring days in the old school house- which is way too long ago so we won't say how far back we are hearkening to- I had a vague recollection of Spring flowers made from egg cartons! Eureka! Surely I am the only mother to think of this since the 1980's! I clearly must be some sort of  craft genius!

      We get all set up- adding a few things like colourful tiny cup cake holders for variegation in texture- along with the basic paints and pipe cleaners- the great thing is this is all stuff we have in the house! We are happily painting away and I am basking in my ingenuity when The Boy pipes up "oh yeah we all ready made these at school last week". Totally nonchalant like in an off handed manner that reveals he clearly is unaware that my world as most clever mom is crumbling!

     The Littles continue to happily make a giant mess paint as I ponder this new information- we finish up the painting and I mop down the walls before assembling the flowers onto the pipe cleaners and adding crepe paper leaves- OK I added the crepe paper leaves because at this point two out of three crafters have moved on to better things- Miss Lo is the last crafter standing.

    So although a few kiddos were not so into this craft and my world was shattered at least Miss Lo had a great time- especially after she put together her bouquet and started re-enacting her role as flower girl from her older cousin's wedding last summer. This is the perfect craft for a girly- girl who is into flowers and pink- not so great for boys who really just want to paint all of their flowers black and brown!

      Just to let you know I googled egg carton flowers after we were all done our own project- and there is a plethora of really lovely designs out there- I was shocked that grown women with no toddlers in sight have devoted what seems like a fair amount of time and energy to crafting with egg cartons! I am impressed and humbled at how far this beloved school days craft has evolved- it might be old hat on the interwebs but it was brand new and totally awesome to one crafty gal on a rainy Spring day- and that is good enough for me!