Monkey Cake

Who wouldn't want a monkey cake for their birthday? My sister-in-law Ginny decided to make one for her friend Alex's birthday recently. She sent photos of the final product today, and I thought it was so cute that it needed a wider audience... hence this post. Perhaps best of all, the cake was banana with chocolate frosting. Sounds delicious and looks too cute to eat. The inspiration is from a Martha Stewart recipe, which can be found here.

Happy Birthday Alex!

Crafting Food into Words

I haven't been working on anything crafty today, except an article on the Middle Eastern markets in the City of Buffalo for Buffalo Rising. Stay tuned... I'll let you know when the article's done and gets posted.

Felting a Bag: Steps Two and Three

I've finished steps two and three of my felted bag. After washing and drying this bag five times, I finally achieved a felted look! I also achieved complete domination over our laundry pile. After some thorough cat inspection (FYI: Mochi approves), I sewed the handle into a tube and wove it through the holes in the top of the bag. Now I've got to figure out if I want to add to this bag by needle felting a design or not. I'm going to sit with the un-needle felted bag for a while and see if the crafty spirits move me in that direction.

Great Apron Pattern

Over at one of my favorite blogs, Montessori By Hand, blogger Meg McElwee has created a pattern for a great apron, called the Emmeline Apron. You can pre-order your pattern today, to be shipped on February 8, 2008.

Felting a Bag: Step One

I've finally finished crocheting a huge bag. It's in the process of being felted right now, so the only photo I've got is of step one, which is the pre-felting stage. I'm felting the bag and the handle separately and will sew the whole thing together after I finish making several trips down to the washing machine to shrink this puppy as much as possible. You can't really tell from the photo, but I've crocheted holes near the top perimeter of the bag so that I can weave the handle around after the felting's done. Okay, back to the basement for felting #4. One good aspect of this project is that I'm getting a lot of laundry done.

Geographically Relevant Outlet Covers

Yesterday my sister and I worked on a project for her new condo: decoupaging outlet covers. We decided to use an old (and I do mean old-- we're talking Soviet Union era) atlas to cover her many electrical (light switch, plug and cable) outlet covers. We decided to do each one based on a place she's lived or visited. So now she's got covers featuring maps of Mongolia and France (above), Kenya, Spain, The Philippines, California, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Virginia (some of which are below). We wound up re-doing the black and silver cover because we didn't like it.

Stinky But Cheap: Making Your Own Pore Cleaning Strips

I've been meaning to try making my own pore cleaning strips for a while. The idea behind these is the same as the ones that you can find on the drugstore shelf (like Biore, above). I don't use these on a regular basis (in fact, I'm rather a minimalist when it comes to skin care and make-up-- water and facial soap pretty much comprise my daily routine) but when I saw this recipe on Bath and Body Recipes, it looked like too much fun to pass up.

The bottom line? The recipe (see below) seemed to work pretty well, but it stank. I think anytime you warm up milk and brush it on your face, it's bound to be, well, a smell adventure, but there's something about the mixture of milk and gelatin that really didn't appeal to me. At all.

That being said, it was fun. And there are tons (787 at the moment, to be exact) of do-it-yourself bath and body recipes on the website, so check it out.

This recipe makes a pore cleaning "strip" which works just like those sold in popular drugstores.

1 T Knox unflavored gelatin
1-1/2 T milk

Mix two ingredients and microwave for 10 seconds to slightly warm. Using a clean cosmetic brush, apply to nose and chin area. Avoid delicate eye area. Rinse brush immediately. Allow mixture on nose and chin to dry for 10-15 minutes. Mixture will dry quite stiff and form a "stiff film." Peel off the film and stare at all the little porcupine quills that used to be in your nose pores (one of the chief entertainment factors with B'Strips!).

Bath and Body Recipes