The Fickle Hobbyist

I was perusing the aisles of the local Dollar Tree when these little buckets caught my eye.  There were 3 in a pack, and they were in the wedding section.  Maybe you’ve seen them.

I know, I unwrapped them before I could take a photo.  I was just so anxious to get started.  I’ve been wanting to use quail eggs in crafts and thought these would be cute to use with them.

I stuck in a little square of floral foam to give it a little bit of a base, but you could use anything here, even wadded up paper or something. 

While at the Dollar Tree, I also picked up a bag of Spanish Moss.  I hot glued a little bit of this to cover up the floral foam.

When that was covered, I grabbed a little more moss and formed a small circle as to make a nest. 

Then I glued this down.  To make the indention in the middle of the nest more pronounced, I just used my finger to press down on the floral foam.

(yes I realize I have super bendy fingers.  My husband is always grossed out by how much I can bend them backward.  Can anyone else bend their thumb backward so that it makes a C shape??  lol) 

I had taken a trip to the Hong Kong Market here in Houston because I wanted so badly to pick up some quail eggs.  I have to say, the one that that keeps me from visiting Asian markets more often is the smell.  Every one I’ve been to was rank from the seafood.  Bleh.  But they DO have some awesome things in there, so I’m sure I’ll go back, just when I have a stuffed up nose or something.

I bought three dozen quail eggs for various projects.  For this one I blew three eggs.  If you’ve never done this before, it’s really easy.  Poke the top most part of the egg shell with a needle, and do the same on the bottom.  I usually make the bottom hole just a little bigger because it’s tough to get the yolk to come through just a pin hole sized hole.  And, because I’m finicky, I wash the eggs thoroughly because…gross.  Put your mouth over the hole in the top and BLOW.  You’ll see all the insides squirt out.  I always try my best to rinse the inside out as well, just because I want them clean.  If you’d like to skip this step, there are various places you can buy already blown quail eggs.  Check etsy. 

Then, glue your egg inside of the little “nest” you made.

Aren’t they cute?  The buckets come with little “thank you” tags (for favors) and I thought it would be cute if you numbered these using the tags.  I just haven’t got around to that yet.  lol

Just to add a little something to the display, I used the dollar store foam wreath and hot glued some Spanish Moss onto it as well.

I just pulled handfuls of moss out of the bag and stretched them into long pieces, put some glue down, and wrapped the moss around the glue.  It helps to hold the moss in place with your palm while the glue cools.  But don’t hold it too tight cause you will SO burn yourself.  You’ll end up with this.

I had planned to add the quail eggs to the wreath like I saw at Living with Lindsay’s, but I had a different idea, so I ran with it.  I had picked up a 3 tiered cake display set at GW for $9.99 the other day (stoked!) and put the two smaller sizes on top of each other.  On the bottom tier I laid the wreath down, on the top I put the buckets.  I think it looks cute!

And there you have it!  The whole thing cost me $3 for the dollar store items.  A dozen quail eggs was $1.29, so you do the math.  Super inexpensive, but I love the way they look.  Am I the only one who loves quail eggs?  I think they’re so cute and delicate. 

-Autumn

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Fun with Quail Eggs”