Hi, I just started felting and am having a great time needle felting different kinds of mushrooms. I made a chanterelle and the shape is right but If I could make the characteristic ridges on the underside of the cap and stem, It would be perfect. Here is a picture of a real chanterelle I found for reference.

I was thinking I could try embroidery floss. but I was just wondering if there was a better needle felting technique to create ridges.

Thanks

So today I was blind baking my pie crust for my Thanksgiving pecan pie(yum). I don't bake often enough to buy fancy pie weights for blind baking, so I used some black beans I had in the cupboard. Everytime I do this I think what a waste of perfectly good beans. (as far as I know you can't cook them up after baking them)
So I was thinking about different things one might use as pie weights. The two things I thought of were, river rocks, and glass marbles. The rocks would have to be well washed of course. Does anyone see a problem with baking rocks or marbles for twenty minutes or so at a time?
The worst thing I can imagine is a rock exploding from some trapped water or something. That also seems unlikely.

what do you think?
Safe
or a time bomb

Jessica

I made some chai tea yesterday, so worth making from scratch. It is the best chai I have ever had.

This cookbook is amazing as well It has about a million recipes from all across India and all that I have tried have been excellent. Some of them are a little daunting though with exotic hard to find ingredients, and even the cooking techniques are unfamiliar. That's one of the reasons I decided to make the Masala Chai Tea, i had all the ingredients on hand and it is a simple process, although more involved than I would have thought. You boil for exact amounts of times before adding ingredients. Seems a little fussy, but the end result is amazing.
If you like chai I would strongly recommend making it from scratch at least once. It is delicious, comforting and exotic at the same time.



http://makingmpls.blogspot.com/2012/11/making-chai-masala-tea-weekend-project.html

I recently remembered a pasta recipe that I hadn't used in a while. It's just as easy and delicious as I remember

All you need is
pasta
can of Roma tomatoes
kalamata olives
garlic
basil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper

Just crush tomatoes and mix everything together except Parmesan. Use a fair amount of EVO and salt and pepper. Then while your pasta is cooking just heat your sauce up add cooked pasta and cook together until not runny. Top with shaved Parmesan.
It is so good. Its so simple but delicious. Food magic.


For a step by step check my blog.http://makingmpls.blogspot.com/2012/11/fast-foodie-friday-easy-pasta-dinner-in.html
Thanks for looking!

Hi fellow Minnesotans,
My blog Making Minneapolis, is a crafty blog with a local theme. I am looking to fill my sidebar heading (Shop local MN Online) with links to online sites by fellow Minnesota crafters (Etsy sites, websites, blogs).
If you are interested you can post your link here or pm me. I will also be having guest bloggers as a regular feature, so again if you are interested let me know. And tell all your crafty Minnesota friends.
Here is a link to my blog
http://makingmpls.blogspot.com/

Thanks,
Jessica

I was just recently admiring these tiny books http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=402443.0 and planning to make my own. When I went to find some light cardboard to use, I came up empty handed. So my brain churned up this Idea for me to make instead. A book made from a vintage matchbook. I call it the matchbooklet.


I love how it turned out! I made another one from scratch, as in no matchbook just using thin packaging cardboard, and with more pages that also turned out cool.(will post later)
I have a tutorial on my blog for the matchbooklet if you are interested.
http://makingmpls.blogspot.com/2012/02/recycled-crafts-how-to-make-book-from.html
New Template so you don't need a matchbook http://makingmpls.blogspot.com/2012/03/recycled-crafts-how-to-make-tiny-book.html
I am new to the paper craft boards, I like it here, It is very inspiring to see all the art made from paper!
Thanks,
Jessica

 
I made this for my hubby and my daughter for valentine's day.

Not sure how it ended up to be fish themed, but I like how it turned out.

Thanks for looking!

I gave my sister these legwarmers for Christmas to help her spread cheer wherever she goes. Been waiting to post this until after I had given them to her, so as not to spoil the surprise. These were super easy to make. The hardest part is getting your hands on an oversized holiday sweater, as they are getting more popular to wear. At least around here.


For a brief how to and a picture of the sweater before, here is my blog page about it
http://makingmpls.blogspot.com/2011/12/recycled-crafts-upcycle-your-christmas.html

Make some cute mushroom ornaments!

I tried a dozen times and don't know what I am doing wrong.

Code:

[url=http://makingmpls.blogspot.com/]My Blog
[url=http://artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/Courgette/]My Shop[/url]
[url=http://pinterest.com/pufferbelly/]pinterest[/url]

this is what I have right now. there used to be the url code after where it says My Blog but it kept showing up in my signature so I deleted it. I just want it to look simple not a bunch of web addresses.

Thanks for any help