Last week we dipped some leaves in melted bees wax. I took the ghosts off of our Halloween boo branch and replaced them with the waxed leaves.
Forgive the bad photos! I just could not get a good shot of this.
I love these, such a great way to preserve leaves. They smell good and look so pretty.
We added a few happy acorns to the branch too!
Let me start by saying, I LOVE Modge Podge! I can totally see this in my future!!!
And….. that we should have done this project a few weeks ago when the leaves were less crispy around here. They would have laid a bit flatter on the glasses.
I ordered some wax from Swan Creek Candles. These are lead free and really easy–melt and pour wax refill kits.
We went to the thrift store and bought several glass jars and containers suitable for holding candle wax. Collected some leaves and got out the modge podge and some brushes.
We “painted” the glasses with modge podge and laid our leaves down and then painted over the tops of the leaves also.
You can see how our dry leaves didn’t exactly cooperate and lay flat. But they still look great after they dry.
Next we glued our wicks into the bottoms of the jars with a hot glue gun.
We melted the wax in the microwave
We poured the hot wax into our prepared jars. Let the wax harden a bit and pull wicks to the center. When dry trim wicks down.
Then light them and ooh and ahh at the pretty candles and leaf candle holders you made!
You start with pie crust for these and because I don’t make pie crust I bought some from the refrigerated section of my grocery. That right there makes this recipe a little easier to tackle!
Roll out pie crust on a floured surface. You have to roll these rather thin. Use leaf shape cutters to cut out leaf pairs.
Fill one side of your leaves with any of the following: chocolate chips, marshmallows, peanut butter, nuts, cream cheese and jam or a combination of any of these.
Brush the edges of the leaves that hold the stuffing with an egg wash (1 egg scrambled with 1 teaspoon of water). Put matching leaf cover on top and pinch the edges together–like a pie crust.
Brush the egg wash on the tops of each mini pie and sprinkle with colored sugar and regular sugar.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes or until edges are brown.
It is hard to tell what is hiding inside each little pie so if some little people … I am not naming names…. have an issue with some of the contents of the leaves you may want to use certain shapes for certain inards …. or risk most of the little pies either torn in half or left with bites taken out of them to see if they picked the right one! Or maybe that’s just my picky family.
My kitchen has been smelling like a deli this week! It brings back fond memories of the years I spent hanging out at Bernie’s!
I shared on my twitter and face book about how great my countertop pickles tasted and was then asked by so many people for the recipe–So here it is!
I belong to an organic produce co-op. One of the other members spoke of her counter top pickles and was also asked by many of us for the recipe. She referred us to Wild Fermentation. I linked to this website back when I made fermented carrots and sauerkraut.
Basically this is what I did–Because these were not just picked out of my garden -I soaked my cucumbers in cold water in the fridge for a few hours to crisp them up. I had regular old large cucumbers not pickling ones so I cut them in half and then quartered them. I dissolved 1 Tablespoon of salt for each cup of water. I think I did 8 cups of water for the 3 large cucumbers I had. I did not have a large enough jar so I used the inner crock from one of my crock pots. Perfect!!
After stirring and stirring to dissolve the salt I gently crushed several heads of garlic-say 4 or 5 with the back of a spoon-just to crack them open and threw those in the water with a small handful of peppercorns , 4 heads of flowering dill and a small handful of fresh dill and 2 freshly washed oak leaves from the big tree. The oak , grape, sour cherry or horseradish leaves are to help keep the crunch.
I mixed all of that around and placed a plate on the top to keep the cucumbers submersed in the brine.
I then put the lid on very loosely–leaving it slightly cracked open on one side.
The next morning I noticed a few bubbles–IT”S ALIVE!!! Then there was a film that I scraped off over the next couple of days-then we tasted on day 2–delicious!! Actually we ate several!
It has been really hot here so the fermenting went quickly! I left them 1 more day and then moved them into jars (that I have been saving from our Bubbies pickles) and put them in the fridge to slow down the process.M more were eaten this morning as I moved them into the jars–lucky I ordered several more pounds of cucumbers this week!
We might need to add some Rubens to the menu!!
While clicking around in the Summer edition of Rhythm of the Home, I came across this awesome idea!! As soon as I saw the photos my heart skipped a beat and I started making a thrift store list for our own mud pie kitchen!!
It didn’t take us long to find just what we needed!!
First, I picked a nice shady spot in our yard. Not too far from the hose and close to lots of dirt and sand, sticks and leaves. All the essentials for good, messy fun. Something my kids love!
Next, we headed to the thrift store to stock our kitchen—think little and cheap. Pots, pans, muffin tins, cups, bowls, silverware…..
These make the perfect little molds and were only 30 to 50 cents a piece! Besides the fact they are pretty and shiny!!
More pretty, shiny, cheap staples that every kitchen must have… a beautiful bright yellow tea pot and pitcher.
The appliances were a little more tricky to find. It took a second trip to the store–but we totally lucked out and found the black shelf marked $5.00 and the little book shelf marked $2.96 and both were half off.
Let me tell you– this has been a bustling kitchen… breakfasts, coffee, lunch and dinner and don’t forget dessert–lots and lots of desserts!!
Oh …and lots of soup
All served on a table the girls made out of some scraps of wood they found above the garage— and then painted with glitter paint. Yes, they are my girls!!
And when the meal is over….you must wash the dishes!
If you need any recipe suggestions, Ginger highly recommends this cook book
What’s cookin’ in your mud pie kitchen?
While I was out running the other day and listening to Sarah Parent’s podcast on Strewing (which I barely got into before my ipod died) I was trying to think of something good to strew this week. It was such a beautiful morning the sun was out, the wind was blowing and all the spring flowers and trees are in full color right now. The air smells so sweet. This wondrous time of Spring is so short. A few windy or rainy days and the flowers blow off of the trees and those Spring bulbs turn into green skeletons. So I thought we should bring Spring inside this week.
I wanted it to be more than just a small nature table–I wanted the sun, the wind, the sounds and smells of Spring. So I choose a sunny spot near the windows. Ginger and I found lots of stuff just in our own yard to bring inside. Flowers, leaves, nuts, pine cones, bark, sicks with fungus on them, seed pods, rocks, dried up daffodils, tulips etc…
Then I rummaged through my basement and cupboards to find just the right containers to sort everything into. I think it’s important to take some time to think about how you are going to display your items. They certainly are more visually pleasing and inviting if you take a little time to display them in different ways. I don’t think this would have been nearly as appealing if I just left everything in a tubby on the table mixed together. Think trays, silverware sorters, tiny bowls and boxes, cigar boxes, egg cartons, vases.
Put your specimens under glass and your immediately drawn to the little collection.
Add mirrors and you get more light and a whole new perspective!
Add magnifying glasses to get a closer look.
I put out vases of flowers too.
What’s happening in your back yard?
Bring it inside for a whole different view!
I hear some of you want to play along with What’s On My Strewing Table?! Excellent!! If you are strewing at your house and want to share, leave a link to your strewing post in the comments so we can all see what you got going on! I will try to post this regularly as a Friday Feature–but sometimes I might not get it posted until Sat. –Be patient with me!! Are you strewing this week????? Let us know about it!
This is sort of how this project felt…crazy.
First off you will need some flat leaves for this project. Next, you will need a tablecloth to decorate. A quick trip to my local thrift shop got me a gold tablecloth-perfect! You will also need fabric paint. So, a hopeful run down the one craft aisle at my grocery to find fabric paint and save me a trip to the craft store, revealed fluorescent colors. Boo!! But then out of the corner of my eye, on the clearance rack, I spied the perfect Fall colors of permanent acrylic paint. Score again! I love when things are easy and work out that way! It doesn’t usually happen, so I was indeed happy with my lucky finds!
So I cleared the way in my kitchen to spread the table cloth on the floor. My kitchen is small and my floor isn’t spic and span-eww- and the tablecloth took up all the available floor space. That meant we were constantly walking all over the tablecloth–eww again-it also meant the material kept getting wrinkled up. I begin to get annoyed.
OK-next I spread out some newspaper and paper plates with the paint, leaves and brushes.
You will also need more newspaper and a rolling pin for this project.
Paint the underside of the leaf—the veins will give you a better print.
Then carefully put the leaf, paint side down, on the tablecloth and cover it with wax paper or a sheet of newspaper. Carefully so that the paint that is all over your fingers doesn’t get all over the tablecloth. Then again-carefully, so that the leaf doesn’t slide around, roll over the top of the newspaper with your rolling pin a couple of times.
Remove the newspaper and then carefully peel your leaf back up-so that you don’t just drop it back down creating paint splots on the tablecloth. And watch were you throw your cover piece of paper-it has wet paint on it. Are you feeling my blood pressure rising??
Can you see that I was a little too invested in the product of this project!!! Part of it was this was a little messy for my kitchen floor and tables. Water colors or tempra are one thing but permanent acrylics are another. As Ginger walked over the wet paint back onto the wood floors and I am yelling, “Don’t step in the paint, wipe your hands off, don’t get that paint on my rolling pin, you’re wrinkling the tablecloth” etc… etc…. But surprisingly-they endured my fussiness and the leaf prints came out great. We plan on using this on our Thanksgiving table.
So the moral of this story is…if your looking to make this a really perfect looking tablecloth…do it your self. If your looking for a fun project for your kids…protect all surfaces and shut your mouth. Allowing the kids to make it without being over supervised (and probably taking most of the fun out of it)!! It will look great either way! Another lesson learned!
Happy Thanksgiving!!
