Monkey Lobster

getting crafty

It's been a long time since I've been crafty. And although my studio is still not set up, when Elsa asked me to make her a pair of red woolen mittens like Laura Ingall's Ma made her, how could I resist? 

If you want to join along here is a great photo tutorial and a printable pattern. To felt the sweaters, throw them in the machine with a pair of jeans to help agitate the fibers and wash and dry on hot. The sewing process is pretty quick and forgiving, and the wool can be shaped by pulling, tugging and sculpting to get the fit just right. Once you start, it's hard to stop.

ukrainian eggs

Can I begin by saying that is one of the most fun crafts I've ever done!!!!!  I mean, crafting by candle light?  Elsa and I did one egg each yesterday.  I set up a little dying station, a drying area (push pins stuck into a piece of cardboard to hold the eggs up), and a plate with a candle, a pencil and the two wax writing tool.  It takes up very little space and will remain on my kitchen counter for a few weeks I think.  It was surprisingly not a very messy project.
 

We started by schetching on the eggs with a pencil and then dipped the eggs in the first colour.
 

Then we covered the areas that we wanted to stay yellow with the wax, and dipped the eggs in the next colour.  We did this just one more time, but will experiment with more colours next time.

 

Then came the fun part. We carefully melted and wiped the wax off the egg and unveiled the design.

I used a brown egg, laid by one of our own girls. I am pleased with the colours and think that it held the dye even better than the white egg.  We followed directions from this book and bought supplies at our local art supply store. 

Please try this........................you won't regret it.

 

Easier than pie

Maybe not easier, but this particular cake is surely as easy.

So the cake starts here, not so pretty.

I first covered the cake with a "crumb coat", a thin layer of frosting to lock in all the crumbs and create a smooth surface.

Then I filled a pastry bag and "star" tip with chocolate frosting.  I squeezed little starts along the bottom and then did a zig-zag around the edge of the cake. Here is a great site for tools and tips, Micheals crafts stores also have loads of tips and things.

I continued my zig-zag all the way into the middle of the cake and arranged strawberries in the center. 

Piled on some the chocolate covered strawberries, and finally covered up some blemishes with a star here and there.

The kids (and chickens) all loved it.

Making giant bubbles

These bubbles are just so much fun.

Here is what you'll need................wooden dowels, wool or cotton yarn and a bit of glue.  We made "child sized" giant bubble wants.  The dowels are cut about 3 feet long, grown-up ones could be 3 times that size for enormous bubbles.

Tie string on and wrap around dowel 6-8 inches, this will absorb the bubble solution and keep bubble from popping.   We spread a little bit of glue to secure the wool yarn.Tie on a "D" shape with another piece of yarn.  Again this is a child sized giant wand, the strait part is about 2 1/2-3 feet wide, a bigger one could be as wide as the span of your arms.

I used this recipe and let it sit overnight, and made it in a bucket with a lid.

The bubbles take a little practice.  

Fairy furniture

I've been thinking about making some furniture for our fairy gardens for a while now, it was much easier than I expected.

We collected sticks and bark and cut them into pieces with clippers.

Laid them out and glued them together.  The hot glue provides a LOT of room for mistakes by filling in places where pieces where not cut perfectly.  

And the glue gun was REALLY fun for Elsa, so satisfying to have that instant gratification. 

 Here is a site for some inspiration.  This site  has some pretty magical things going on and kits you can purchase, I also liked  this one.  We are expecting many visitors and hopefully some more furniture too.

instructions for a no-dig garden

I feel very strongly about the superiority of permanent-no-dig garden beds. Yes these are strong words I use here, but it's just where I stand. No dig gardens have so many benefits, but one of them is how easy they are to make. Here is a brief how-to.

You start with cardboard or news paper; it blocks the sun and kills the grass.  The grass starts to decompose (as does the cardboard) and invites worms to feast.  The worms provide their highly valuable castings to your garden bed. Be sure to overlap the cardboard otherwise grass will start to come up through the cracks. Appliance stores are a great place to find HUGE cardboard boxes.

You then add a couple of inches of decomposed compost.  This is what the plant will grow in.  You can contact your extension service for good local sources.  

On top of the compost you add "the mulch" - again a couple of inches. Straw was available but you can also use fall leaves (run them over with a mower the get them decomposing faster) or even shredded paper.  This adds a layer of air and decomposing materials that create an ideal environment for beneficial micro-organisms.

On top of the mulch you add again more compost, enough to completely cover the mulch and any cardboard peeking out.

Give it a little smoothing and you're ready. Really.

Your first season, deeply rooted crops like roots may not grow well because of the cardboard, but after a season you should be ready to seed carrots as well. For plants like tomato starts you can cut a slit in the carboard and drop the roots into that.

I have been been using no-dig permanent beds for 5 years now and I find them very easy to maintain. I find it even more managable to cover and mulch the paths between the beds as well. This kills the grasses and weeds right next to the beds and prevent them from entering the beds. But if you are planing on leaving grass between the beds I would recomend mesuring your lawn mower and designing your beds to make mowing easy.

Fairy garden

If you build it they will come............

The neighborhood kids (ages 10 and 14) have taken an interest in Elsa's discovery of the existence of fairies.  We thought that a little garden would encourage some more sightings.

garden markers

I had a few cedar shingles left and cut them up into little garden markers, although it would have been much easier to just buy a few at the garden center.  After some sanding, drawing, and painting our veggies came to life, not the mention the conversation about the parts of the plant.

Needle felting

My mother in law (a non-crafter you should know) made this cute little guy during todays "crafternoon", under my masterful guidance of course.  So here are the steps, I think the photos say it all but let me know if there are any details missing. If you are new to needle felting read this tutorial first.

After seeing these runaway eggs on The Wool Food Mama, here is a version of my own.

And some more shots of needle felted sculptures in the making.

Some of us still stuck on Felted Balls  

New and Improved

Although Elsa loves her snack pack , it's a harder sell for Ben.  He thought that gunk was going to get stuck in the corners.  So I cut the corners off.

And with my newly acquired computer literacy, now you can........ Download Snack pack pattern.

Never too late to learn something new.

1. Iron on waterproofing material (follow manufacturers intrusions).

2. Cut out fabric.

3. Sew on velcro.

4. Fold and press.

5. Sew up side, along top and back down.

6. Fill with snacks and say goodbye to plastic baggies.

I am dreaming of owning a serger one day.