To be clear, I felted a sweater (and didn't watch carefully so I REALLY felted it). It ended up making the felt about 3/16" thick and I cut the noodles 1/4" wide (probably more like linguini than spaghetti, but the girls aren't that into authenticity). I'm not sure how well slicing up craft felt into 1/4" pieces would work in terms of durability, but it's worth a try, I suppose.

I had to de-lurk to post my most recent (and totally easy) crafty creation. I'm trying to overhaul my girls' play kitchen with handcrafted all-natural items (I'm just too spooked by the Made in China food in there now). So, the other day I grabbed an old holey wool sweater and some wool batting. Felted the sweater and sliced away. Wet felted some balls, and voila! spaghetti and meatballs (hope the photo works)



I gave slightly more specific instructions on my blog here. I also ran with the inspiration and tried to make a useful resource there that lists a lot of free patterns, tutorials, craft supply resources, and whatnot for making play food. I hope that this helps somebody and inspires them as I am always inspired when I spend time here.

Aunt Teen's Fudge (allrecipes.com), Easy English Toffee (epicurious.com), homemade marshmallows (epicurious.com) packaged with cocoa mix.

If you want to apply the same principle to larger cookies, a regular drinking glass will make nice round cookies (just dip it in flour between each cookie so they don't stick in there forever).

My favorite base for "tea" blends is rooibos (which is technically a tisane since it isn't real "tea" but whatever). Anyway, I like it blended with some lavender and vanilla bean, or with lavender and rose. When I was pregnant, I would blend red raspberry leaf, red clover, and mint. You can really just follow your nose and mix in what makes sense to you. Have fun!

Throw in some bone-in chicken and 2 cans of crushed pineapple with the juice. Add S&P and seasoning of choice (tarragon is good) Cook on low for a few hours. Throw in 1 c. uncooked rice and mix up a bit. Continue to cook on low 3-5 more hours until done. Easy and healthy!

A recipe from my mother that combines garlic, honey, curry, vegetable oil, S&P. Great served all saucy over rice. So good!

Rice pudding gets my vote. I also had a friend make some dairy free, soy free, gluten free hot cocoa recently that was awesome. She used some coconut milk to give it some of that creamy mouthfeel. It was yum!

I keep this tutorial http://www.neauveau.com/recycledyarn.html bookmarked for that very reason (I sure wish I knew how to hyperlink properly here).

I do most of my crafty thrift shopping at the "big name" stores like Goodwill. Should I be searching out smaller stores for better prices?