Maker's Faire Bloomsburg Children's Museum

This year the Luschas Family was lucky enough to participate in the 2nd Annual Markers Faire at the Bloomsburg Children's Museum!

Maker's Faire is a fantastic movement!  Here is a quote from their website: 
"Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and who love sharing what they can do. It’s a venue for makers to show examples of their work and interact with others about it. Many makers say they have no other place to share what they do. DIY (Do-It-Yourself) is often invisible in our communities, taking place in shops, garages and on kitchen tables. It’s typically out of the spotlight of traditional art or science or craft events. Maker Faire makes visible these projects and ideas that we don’t encounter every day."

This year, we set out our eggs and had great activities for children to take home and try.  Not only did we have a version of egg scratching, but we also had kits for children to take home and try the drop and pull method (with adult supervision of course).  

My mom and I had an amazing time!  My favorite part of the event was seeing children not only amazed with the art that we do, but being genuinely excite to take a kit and talk about how they could not wait to try it at home!  I saw a few kids so excited, that I truly think they will go home and try to learn this method.  What a great feeling to promote interest in children who otherwise would have had no idea about this old world method!

I hope we will be a part of the faire again next year.  I truly enjoyed seeing crafters show their talents to children in order to further the art and technique through the next generation!

Let's Meet the Chickens

Rob and I are extremely lucky!  We are friends with some wonderful people!  The McCays are not just fun loving people, they are extremely fun to be around and are all around wonderful giving people! 

About 2 weeks ago Rob and I visited Mike and Lisa McCay to have dinner and spend some quality time with them.  We had a delicious dinner and a great time.  During that visit, Rob and I were introduced to the chickens that lay the green eggs my mom and I use for our crafts.  Mike and Lisa raise a few Aracauna chickens!  These amazing chickens are adorable and they are great egg layers!

These eggs are amazing!  They taste great and they are extremely strong!  If anyone in the north east PA area is in need of some green eggs please lt me know, I will put in touch with the McCays!

Not only were we introduced to the chickens, we were introduced to some new born goats... Yes.. 2-3 days old to be precise! 

Isn't this guy adorable! I have to admit That Rob's picture puts mine to shame... 

I know right? That kid is too cute for words!  I tried to steal him, but I was stopped by none other than the mother...  Am I making that up?  The world may never know... 

After a tasty meal, meeting some adorable animals, and having a great time all around with our friends, we left with some eggs of course and an amazing recipe for earl grey tea liquor!  I cannot wait to try my hand at making it.  

The outdoor cat was a little minx.  She wanted as much attention as her chicken and goat counterparts.  I wanted to try to take her home as well.  Rob told me that it is bad form to attempt to steal people's pets.  I am not so sure he was right, but it kept me at bay.  Watch out Mike and Lisa, when we visit you again, the cat may be coming home with me! 

Easter... Paska... Old Egg Designs... and Egg Games!

Easter is finally over! The eggs were made, the food was prepared, and the day was bright! 

I had an amazing Easter this year with my family.  Although my husband could not be there because he had work, we still had a great day! 

This year I tried something new and made Paska bread for my family at the request of my sister Carol!  The bread turned out great!  We even took pictures with some of my older eggs! 

Isn't it funny how your designs and technique changes over time?  My old eggs are so different!  I forgot half the designs my mom has saved in her cabinet.  

I will recreate the tri-section Easter egg I have no done for at least 5 years!  I remember the border being a pain in the butt to shade to white.  Now that I have less problems with that, I think it is time to resurrect the design (pun totally intended).  You can see the design below next to the golden bird.  The purple egg with the Lamb of God.

What Easter traditions do you do with eggs?  

We play the egg cracking game!  This year I was the victor! My egg held up against everyone.  Some will say I cheated.  Sore losers I say! In the end the winner can keep and eat all the cracked eggs because it is a traditional treat you avoided during Lent.  Today, we keep the eggs for egg salad.  Normally you decorate the eggs for the game.  My mom and sister did the traditional drop and pull craft on the eggs.  They were lovely! They are under the flower arrangement in the next photo!

In the end, Easter was a success!  I cannot wait to get back to egg etching after I clean up the flour covered kitchen and get a few things put away! 

I hope to hear some great Easter/egg stories from you!  

LaSalle Academy Spring Fest

This is the third year in a row that I participated in the LaSalle Academy Sprign Fest.  Although ti is much different than it was 3 years ago (then called the Egg and Art Show), my Mom, sister and I had a fun time. 

As always I worked on eggs during the show and bought a lot of cool stuff!! Not only did I get an awesome straw cake tester, I also bought a handmade wooden chip and dip lazy susan! I now need to have a party with a baked cake and chips and dip.  

I also bought some amazing cupcakes from a culinary graduate who now is a chef at the school!  All his cupcakes were Disney themed.  I bought the red velvet rose cupcake... Beauty and the Beast.  It was fantastic!  I even bought a dozen for the office ladies.  I am sure all will be gone before the end of the day!

Although there may have been less traffic than I would have liked at this craft show, we had a lot of fun, and both my mom and I were able to get a lot of work done with our egg crafts.  She worked on drop and pull eggs and I had a chance to shade many eggs throughout the two day event. 

Now... Easter is coming, and I am excited to get my baking on! 

Don't worry, I will still be working on eggs regularly.

Than green man is coming... I hope to show it to you in a couple days. Stay tuned!

And the Winner is...

GREEN MAN!

Today I will attempt the Green Man egg!  I hope to complete it on a larger egg.  I made a quick sketch today just to see how it would look on an egg shape...  Wish me luck and I thank everyone who voted!

Mondays... Why Have Them?

Mondays... Am I right? Why do we have to have Mondays?

After a two craft show weekend, this particular Monday was particulary hard to get through.

This past weekend my kom, sister, and I went to Rockville Maryland and Uniontown Pennsylvania.  I had an amazing time in Uniontown!  The Eggstravaganza was so much fun!

I bought tools, amazing food, and some great egg shells.

Take a look at some of the photos and mark your calendars for March 18, 2018!

This awesome guy and his mom had wonderful pysanky eggs as well as white and green chicken eggs for sale!  My mom and I ended up buying some eggs for crafting! 

Did I mention the baked goods were spectacular!  I bought far too many cookies, but I am not complaining.  There were even cookies with amazing piped icing making pysanky egg cookies!!!

** I ended up adding to my collection with one of these items! The middle egg with a bank of red flowers.  I have it hanging at home! I love his work!!

Aren't these spiky eggs cool? I had to share this new style of egg art! It's a great idea to gets kids interested!

My mom and sister are great helpers! My mom's eggs looked amazing in the new egg carrier display she purchased.  My sisters photos of Lithuanian and Easter eggs made some popular greeting cards!

Larry came with his countless eggs! I can't believe he has this many ready for sale!!! Great job Larry!!

My sister and I ate soup and cookies, hung out, and had an all around blast!

I was excited to see this modern marvel... an EGG MOBILE!  I thought I was gaga over eggs, but these ladies put me to shame! Loved this car and told my husband that our next car needs to have an egg on the side! He's skeptical. 

The craft show was full of egg artists, egg supplies, great food, and even more amazing people!  As always, I cannot wait to come back to Uniontown, Pennsylvania.  March 18, 2018 here we come!

Wednesday Poll

It's Wednesday and I need some motivation and thought I would conduct a poll to determine my next egg design.  I recently completed most of the normal designs I like to have for craft shows.  Now I need to make some new designs that are a little different from what i usually do.

Check out the Poll on the left side of this post and vote today!

Here are the options:

1. Celtic Green Man:  The Celtic pagan green man has a face made from leaves, branches, nuts, and any natural elements.  I see oak leaves and acorns as the usual elements.  Lithuania was the last pagan country and has strong connections with oak leaves and acorns.  I thought molding these two pagan elements together would be interesting and fun.  Here are some ideas for the egg:

2.  Wolf:  Lithuania has a special relationship with wolves.  There is the iron wolf as well as the attraction to nature again.  I was hoping to do a new wolf design with howling.  I did a howling wolf in the past but I do not have a photo of it to replicate. 

3.  Poppies:  Maybe its the fact I'm listening to the music from the Wizard of Oz lately or maybe it's because Spring is finally popping out all over.  Either way, the idea of a poppy egg sounds bright and festive.  I never attempted this flower and it may be a nice change from the lilacs and roses I usually do. 

So what do you think? Green Man, Wolf, or Poppies?

The Poll is up and I cannot wait to see the winner! I will close the poll Wednesday of next week! Thanks in advance for voting!

Don't forget to vote on the poll to the left of this post at the top of the page!