Easter egg safety, coloring, and decorating tips

Coloring and hiding eggs for an Egg hunt is a traditional Easter Activity. To make sure you have a safe and happy Easter, follow these guidelines from the United States Department of Agriculture.

Australian Magazine Notebook shows you how to dye Easter Eggs using food coloring and how to create polkas dots and stripes on your eggs.

• Use only food grade dye for coloring and decorating eggs.
• Consider using plastic eggs for an Easter Egg hunt. Using real eggs could be risky, as the shells could crack during the hunt, making it easier for bacteria to enter and contaminate the egg inside. Also real eggs should only remain in unrefrigerated conditions for two hours.
• Take eggs straight home from the grocery store and refrigerate them right away. Check to be sure your refrigerator is set at 40°F or below.
• Store the eggs in their carton and in the coldest part of the refrigerator – not on the door.
• Any colored hard boiled eggs or dishes prepared from hard boiled eggs such as deviled eggs or egg salad, should be consumed within 3 to 4 days.
  

  Martha Stewart’s website has ideas on how to make glitter eggs and polka dot eggs and she will also show you how to make natural Easter Egg dyes.

Eggs coloring tips

For kids and adults

Australian Magazine Notebook shows you how to dye Easter Eggs using food coloring and how to create polkas dots and stripes on your eggs. Another simple and cool ways to get wacky stripes on your eggs, wrap a rubber band around the eggs several times (be gentle so as not to crack the shell) drop it in the dye for 20 minutes and take it out. Quick and easy stripes!

Martha Stewart’s website has ideas on how to make glitter eggs and polka dot eggs and she will also show you how to make natural Easter Egg dyes.

Real Simple shows you how to hard boil an egg and suggestions for storing your eggs in order to make them last longer. You can also find plenty of creative ways to use your Easter Eggs in recipes and dishes.

GoodHouseKeeping.com has tons of egg decorating ideas including using leaves and other nature patterns on eggs and using paper punches to create pretty patterns.

For adults

Australian Magazine Notebook has an excellent tutorial on their website on how to make cool and sophisticated, hand -painted eggs

The Martha Stewart Show will show you how to dye eggs with lacy patterns on them. Pretty.

Make sure your refrigerator is cooling correctly in order to safely store your eggs. Keeps your refrigerator cooling correctly with APWagner.com’s Refrigerator Repair Guide.  Buy any needed refrigerator parts online and do the repair yourself and save.

How to dry baseball hats, shoes, delicates in a clothes dryer; Indoor clotheslines for apartment/city dwellers

Use a clothes dryer rack to dry your delicate clothing items and other items you do not want tumbled in your clothes dryer.  A clothes dryer rack is a part made to fit inside your dryer. It’s a stationary platform that slips over the lip of your clothes dryer. Simply slip it into your clothes drier, lay your delicates onto the stationary platform, set your desired dryer time and start.

Whirlpool Clothes Dryer Rack -Sale price: $24.99. Removable dryer rack for tumble-free drying speeds drying time of delicate or heavy items.

Use a clothes dryer rack to dry items that you don’t want tumbled inside your clothes dryer, such as sneakers, shoes, sweaters, stuffed animals and baseball caps, since it prevents tumbling and keeps your items from losing their shape. The vents or holes in the rack allow warm sir to gently circulate through to the item, while it remains stationary.

A variety of clothes dryer rack choices exist, so make sure you buy one that fits your dryer. The AP Wagner Appliance Parts Website lists what types of dryers the clothes dryer racks will fit. Or, just enter your clothes dryer’s model number into the search box and you will be presented with a list of clothes dryers parts for your appliance.

Indoors clothes dryer racks, great for apartment dwellers and those with little space

People come up with such clever buzzwords and “solar drier” is one I have been seeing a lot of lately. Basically a “solar drier” is another term for the good, old fashioned, clothes line. The clothes line conjures up such wonderful images or warm summer days and fresh smelling clothes. Even if you do not have a backyard, you can still line dry your clothes.

The ClothesLineShop.com offers a number of indoor clothes drying rack solutions. Here’s a clever one, a retractable clothes rack that you can put away after using. I guess the idea is that you can mount it on a wall and then pull out the lines when you need them. When you are done, just retract the lines and put away.

Of course, you can always just buy a folding or collapsible clothes rack at a home goods store like Target, a hardware store, or even a dollar store.  Or you can use the racks in your home to use for drying like your closet’s clothes rack or the shower curtain rod. You can even use the steam from your shower to help get the wrinkles and smell out of any items of delicate clothing.

Some other tips for air-drying laundry:

• Hang items at night before bed and by morning they will be dry.
• Hang large sheets or blankets over your shower rod or hang outside between two chairs
• Hang items in your bathroom and use the steam from a shower to get wrinkle and smells out of your delicate items of clothing.
• Be sure to evenly-space out items, don’t bunch them together or they will never dry
• Take advantage of sources of natural sunlight and open windows, the breeze and warm temperatures will help dry your clothes faster