Halloween meringue thigh bones

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. In fact I scare some of my friends with how far I go with Halloween parties (no pun intended). This year I decided to make bone meringues. Many recipes call for cream of tartar. This is not readily available in Finland, so I used this sugar company recipe:

Makes approxiamately 9-18 meringues

Ingredients
3 egg whites (room temperature)
½ tsp lemon juice
1 ¼ dl powdered sugar
1 dl granulated sugar
1 tsp potato powder

Instructions

In a metal or glass bowl, whip together egg whites, lemon juice and the sugars until they are hard, i.e. they leave a trace. Add the potato powder and whip together.

Put the ingredients into a ziplock bag and close. Cut out a corner out of one of the edges and press out the form of a bone.

Cooking:

1. 1. Cook for 1 hr. in a 100⁰C degree oven.

2. 2. Cook for another hour in a 50⁰C degree oven.

3. 3. Turn the oven off and crack the oven door a bit. Let the meringues dry over night in the oven (I didn’t do this and they turned out fine).

Hint:  You can smooth the ”dough” using the tip of a knife.

  

Colorful adult fun, friendship necklaces

Remember friendship bracelets in grade school and junior high? Girls, this takes it to the NEXT level. Possibly also because Finland's pricing on embroidery floss is insanity, but this is why crafters work. Bring on the color.

Cheerful pom-pom garland

This is soooo inspiring, I have to make one! Good thing I have both a craft club & wine meet-up and my daughter's birthday coming up. Even paid way too much for a Novita plastic pom-pom device, which broke on the first use. The clasps that hold it together came off, one permanently. Of course I no longer have the receipt, so I'm stuck with the broke one, for better for worse.. But lose faith not. I am still determined to make this cool garland.

Started winding the yarn

Got it attached before it fell on the floor and broke. I was surprised by how much yarn it ate up, I have to dig deep into my stash. If you're coming to the craft club bring your own yarn stash.

TG it stayed together and I got the yarn tied around it

Yeesh!! 25 or more (if I can't stop) to go... :)

I love coming home and seeing this above our apartment door

How to DYI you own braided leather cuff

I am a super leather cuff buff, here are some of my favorites:

I now have a new favorite, my first braided cuff

I used the instructions from this Finnish magazine to make it:

But this is pretty much the gist of it:

- You start off by cutting a strip of leather that is about the width you want your cuff and about 7 cm longer than the circumference of your wrist.

- Using a exacto knife (or a surgical knife if you happen to be in the medical profession) cut 2 slits into the middle of the strip, so that you leave 3 cm on each end and the middle is in three parts. You can trace the lines into the back of the strip with a pencil.

- You then start braiding the three strands together until you get about half way down. The other end of the strip will bunch up. Untangle the tangle by feeding it through the tangle. Do this until the braids are top surface up.

- Then drive in closures et voilah. Or, like in this magazine clipping, you can punch in holes and tie it together with a string... which has it's own charm.

You can also add a clasp instead

But if my tutorial is a bit unclear, then the tutorial on this site http://images.melissaesplin.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/braided-Leather-Bracelet.pdf is great.

Here's another idea that's pretty easy, wind some leather around a bracelet you have.

Knitted Prayer Flag Pattern

This year I have started to take compassionate charity work seriously and have looked for a project I want to put my time into. After hearing the Dalai Lama speak, I was moved to help nomadic Tibetan tribes living high up in the mountains in the area that is now China. If the kids there aren't able to go to school they won't learn Tibetan language and history, essentially Tibetan culture won't take many generations to die out. I found this organization, Danakosha Aid (http://danakoshaaid.fi/), that is helping to build a school for the kids to go to and live at. Their families will also receive aid. If you want to see a video of the area and the people go to http://youtu.be/-Nir3rQRIaU.

If you want to practice compassion as well, you can help buy donating in the form of buying this pattern I designed at ravelry.com: Tiriki Designs, contributions to Danakosha Aid. Click here!

All proceeds go to the project in full.

This pattern was designed specifically for the building and upkeep of the Gegong school (see danakoshaaid.fi or the blogposts below for more details). All donations go directly to that fund in full.

Any information or symbolism in this pattern is produced solely by the author of the pattern and do not represent the teachings of Danakosha Finland.

The use of prayer flags dates back to pre-Buddhist traditions in Tibet. It is believed that the special blessing power of what is printed on prayer flags (mantras, special prayers and auspicious symbols) is spread all over the world by the wind, therefore the flags are strung on ropes and hung from a pole or between two poles.

You can hang your banner anywhere it makes you happy. If you wish to make your flags symbolic, the prayer part of the flags can be whatever images or symbols you decide to paint, embroider or sew onto the flags (there are some Buddhist symbol suggestions in the instructions) or the prayer can simply be wishes and intentions that you knit into the flag stitch by stitch. Traditionally prayer flags are medium/dark blue (sky), white (clouds), red (fire), green (water) and yellow (earth) flags, but you can choose any colors that please you. Traditionally they are also rectangular. As knitting curls, I have made these more like traditional banners. And this knit version withstands wind well J

Have a loving day and let your spirit fly!!