It's a quarter-till easter egg time! Sure, you might be thinking Easter is still far away... but for me, when everyone else is flashing their mardi gras beads, I'm thinking about eggs. I LOVE decorating easter eggs, it definitely comes from a combination of my mother's lifelong interest in Ukranian easter eggs, and Martha Stewart's obsession with eggs. Every spring her magazine does something egg-cellent and my mom and I have tried many of her ideas, including fake Limoges eggs with hinges that allow the shell to open into two parts, with a delightful scene inside (!), to origami-paper-covered, to onion-skin dyed, and more.

But for me the be-all-end-all is the magnificent Ukranian egg, and I'm looking forward to breaking out my Ukranian dyes, bees wax cake, candles and tools. Some years I only manage to decorate one egg -- I have spent as long as six hours working on one egg! -- and other years I make a slew. Stay tuned for some eggy inspiration in the coming weeks.

The pic above is totally inspirational - handpainted eggs by the artist Jeana Sohn, as featured today on design*sponge.