How-To: Make Garlands from Fall Flowers
Fall is here! Decorate for the season with fresh flowers that are blooming right now. I used marigolds and mums to create two garlands. They are perfect for autumn weddings, Day of the Dead shrines, Thanksgiving, or just because you want to bring some warm colors into your home. They are easy to create, and if you purchase the flowers living from a nursery, you can plant your leftovers!Read this article | Comment on this article blog.craftzine.com |
Crafts festival features third world artisans (Abilene Reporter-News)
The craft fair at First Christian Church on Friday evening and Saturday brought gratification to a lot of people who came to purchase handmade crafts — to both sellers and buyers. Most importantly, it provided an income for skilled artisans, most of them below the poverty level, who live in some 38 third world countries. The fair continues today at the church, 1420 N. 3rd St., from 2-5 p.m ... us.rd.yahoo.com |
Recipe: Green Chile Stew
A recent article in the Los Angeles Times reports that New Mexico expats (and those in the know) can now find good quality green chile in the freezer section of grocery stores in southern California. I've checked up here in northern Cali, and we're not so lucky. So, as a good NM native living elsewhere, I have my green chile shipped in.Years ago I'd show up at the greyhound bus station to pick up a pungent burlap sack of fresh green chile. I'd rush it home and we'd grill them on the outside barbecue, let them cool, then stuff them in quart-sized ziploc bags and pop them in the freezer. If we were discriminating in our usage, this could last us 2 years.When that process got to be too time-consuming (can you say kids?), we instructed any and all guests from New Mexico to bring a small ice chest with them when they came to visit. This ice chest needed to be crammed full of hot, roasted, frozen green chile.TSA regulations messed up that plan, plus our friends and family grew tired of schlepping us heavy frozen items, so we've now taken to ordering them online. This works pretty well, although one person's "hot" might be my "mild," and some years the most popular varieties might sell out before I realize my stash is low.My darling husband recently found 2 packages of roasted green chile in the bottom of our freezer, and there was much rejoicing! We'll use one package to add some spice to the leftover turkey in the guise of Green Chile Stew. Served with warmed flour tortillas and a Caesar salad, this is one of our family's favorites. Enjoy!Read this article | Comment on this article blog.craftzine.com |
AXM Paper Space Scale Models
It's been established that I am a full-on space geek, and when I was a kid, I remember building a scale plastic model of the space shuttle fondly. The orbiter of said model still hangs above my desk today (the solid rocket boosters, external fuel tank and crawler are all long gone). These amazing scale models, made completely of paper, have me itching to build a new shuttle model for my collection. The orbiter pictured above (Endeavour) holds special meaning for me. I just learned that I'll be covering the launch of Endeavour in February for MAKE Magazine. Aside from a privilege to share the experience, information and stories with our readers, it's a life dream achieved. I've wanted to see a shuttle launch since I was 10 years old. Think I can whip one of these models up before the launch? [via Geek Crafts and my Space Tweep pal, @ageekmom]Read this article | Comment on this article blog.craftzine.com |
Craft Spaces: Small Apartments
When I moved into my current apartment three years ago, I somehow managed to go from 800 square feet to less than 600 like that. I lost a lot of my open crafting space, so I needed to get creative to how I stored my materials, equipment and finished projects. However in all this, I acquired more closets and a solution to my craft space dilemma.If you've got a linen closet you don't use or double closets in a bedroom like I do, you can have an organized craft space in just a matter of hours. All you need are some storage items, maybe some shelves and good cleaning music.Read this article | Comment on this article blog.craftzine.com |