Beet It!

The Tri-Valley Arthritis Walk is a few days away and I decided that Team Emma should show some unity by dressing alike. Em's favorite color is pink, so I asked everyone to wear a pink shirt if they have one. Then it occurred to me that neither Barry nor Liam have pink shirts. What to do? What to do?

I went to two thrift stores and was disappointed to find only dress shirts and polo shirts in pink for men. Barry wouldn't want to wear either during a 5K walk in the heat, so I decided to buy a plain, white t-shirt for him instead. When I got home, I went through Emma's old baby clothes in hopes of finding something pink for Liam. That didn't work out so well. All the pink tops we have in the correct size are over-the-top girly, or long sleeved. I did find a few plain, white onesies, so I grabbed those and headed to the kitchen.

I decided to get creative and MAKE pink shirts. When I told Barry my plan, he suggested I not only dye them, but tie-dye them. (I love this man.)

I don't have any cloth dye around my house and I'm feeling kind of hippie about unnecessary, harsh chemicals these days, so I didn't buy any. I used beet juice instead, which I did happen to have on hand. (A few weeks ago, Barry visited a friend who grows a lot of delicious, organic produce. He came home with a ginormous basket FULL of beets and carrots. He cooked a bunch of the beets and, for some unknown reason, decided to save the remaining juice in a jar in the fridge.)

I did a little online research, watched this video, and tested my luck.

AWESOME! (Please ignore my backyard.)

As you can see, the results varied widely. Liam's onesie and the smaller shirt on the left (maybe for me, maybe a dress for Emma) look pretty good and obviously pink. They were dyed in the juice from Barry's original batch of beets, which were cooked for a loooong time. His shirt didn't turn out so pink, but that because we were running out of juice and I had to come up with some more, quickly, so it was much less concentrated. Still, I'm happy. The boys got pink shirts out of the deal, and I had fun!

I'm so proud of this one!

From everything I've read online, I fully expect the color to wash out entirely on the first wash. I'm okay with that, as long as they last through the walk on Saturday. I just hope the color doesn't bleed onto our skin and turn my family pink.