Egg Dyeing?

So since I have several dozen chickens I tend to have a grip of eggs on hand at any point.  Rather than do productive things with my Sunday, I spent a chunk of my afternoon dying eggs for no good reason.  I don't think I had dyed eggs in years and years, but it was extremely easy and sort of fun.  Probably would be more interesting if you had small children though.

Things you need:

• Eggs (hardboil them first)
• Hot Water
• White Vinegar
• Food Coloring
• Coffee Cups
• Spoons
• Tape or Vinyl
• Exacto Knife
• Paper Towels
• Crayons

First off, hardboil your eggs to make them easier to work with.  I generally put about 8 cups of water in a stock pot and add 12 - 18 eggs at once.  Turn the heat to high, and after about 15 minutes your eggs should be ready.  In the meantime boil water in a teapot to make your dye.  Collect a number of coffee mugs (one for each color you plan to tackle) and put one teaspoon of vinegar in each.  Add one cup of hot water and then anywhere from 2-20 drops of food coloring depending on how intense you want your colors to be.  

Once the eggs are boiled and you have decided on your colors you can cut decals out of tape or vinyl to apply to your eggs to achieve desired patterns, or color gradation.  You can also use crayons to draw on your eggs to keep the dye from latching on to certain areas.  Once the eggs are sufficiently decorated drop them in your dye and stir it egg around a few times.  Within a few seconds you will notice the colors start to sink in.  Keep the eggs in the dye however long you like to achieve your desired hue.  Once you are content you can remove the eggs from the dye, and dry off with a paper towel.  Remove any tape or vinyl you applied and re-dye in the same or other hues to get color variations if you like.