Easter Egg Creativity: FAIL

I'm really not all that creative but I wish I was. I'm a creative-want-a-be. I'm super jealous of my friends who have Etsy.com shops and come up with wonderous creations that end up as keepsakes for hundreds upon thousands.  My brother is off the charts artistic and clever, and creative is like his middle name. That's where those genes stopped. And four years later I came along. Without a chance at succeeding in art class (other than the teacher remembering my brother and thus bringing me under their wing), no looking at an object and seeing it for anything more than it's original purpose, and alas, no ability to come up with an idea from scratch. Rather my "ideas" come from catalog and Internet surfing.

So it should come as no surprise that I tried to come up with an idea for Easter that was maybe a pinch on the creative side and thus, it FAILED.  Here it goes....

Eloise loves the egg shakers from music class. I've searched high and low (locally) for these things and they are flat out not sold in a store in the CLT metropolitan region. Trust me. I looked and called everywhere. So I figured, I can create these on my own. It can't be that hard. Right? One trip to Target later and I've got a 12 pack of regular plastic Easter eggs and I'm filling them with orzo pasta and barley - very clever, huh?  Use food right out of the pantry!  In addition to wanting to create egg shakers for Eloise, I want to have an egg hunt this weekend and I don't want anything to be in the eggs that she could get into her mouth and choke on. She obviously isn't eating candy at this age and no other object that I could think of would give her the "shake shake shake" noise that I was going for and also pass the choking hazzard detail I had set up.  Orzo and barley was perfect.

I was so proud of myself. I had all 12 eggs ready to go. Brightly colored and perfect shakers for the Monkey. I'm nearing mom of the year, but in a good way this time:)  No calls to DSS!

Well, of course I couldn't wait until Easter. I had to let Eloise play with them right away. I handed one over and within 90 seconds, she dropped it and orzo went flying. This was inside the house. Ok, not a big deal. I knew this could happen so she played in it and scattered it much worse than it already was while I scrambled to pick up every last piece and cram it back into the egg.

Easter Egg Shaker Take 2: We head outside and I hand over 2 eggs. Now were on cement and yes, if it drops, it'll likely pop open again and we'll have orzo and barley everywhere but whatever. At least were outside (and the egg hunt will be in the grass so although my creative idea is failing by the second, I'm thinking we still have a chance.).  Within about 2 minutes, egg drops, orzo pasta everywhere and Eloise is pushing it all into the crack of the cement and into the garden.  Um.....I can't easily pick it up this time. Hmmm..... Well, I guess we're down an egg and now we have 11.

All would be fine and good but that night it rained. And it rained like our wedding day (for those who remember...yes, it was like the second tsunami that hit CLT).  Well, what happens to pasta when it gets wet??  Oh yeah. I have a front walk way that is busting with pasta literally at the seams and my garden is now swimming in orzo pasta remnants. And wouldn't you know, today is the day the first landscaper comes to give me a quote. It ought to make for a fantastic ice breaker.

Easter Egg Creativity: FAIL

Plan B: These were ordered and will be here by Saturday in time for said Easter egg hunt.