Viking Crafts: A Lucetted Necklace/Scarf

When I was in Norway this summer, I visited the Norsk Folkemuseum to see the famous Stave Church, sample the fresh-made Lefsa and Geitost (goat cheese pronounced "Yay Toast!") in the museum's 16th century village, and check out their huge collection of Norwegian and Sami clothing, furniture and weapons. What I didn't expect to see at this museum was a massive collection of knitting and weaving tools on display. One of the tools that caught my eye was a knitting fork, also known as a lucet. 

Vikings used these lucets to make cords and clothing. Since the weather is cooling off, and since (despite previous blog entries) I don't practice many Viking habits, I wanted to use my lucet to make an insulate necklace/scarf hybrid!

I cast on my lucet by lacing one end of my yarn through the hole just under the top two prongs, and then (starting from the back to the front) wove the yarn around the prongs in the shape of a figure eight. I made the figure eight twice, and then pulled the bottom loops up over the top two loops. I re-wrapped another figure eight, pulled the bottom two loops up and over the top two, and repeated again and again until I had a very long "knitted chain."

I wound the chain around my neck so that it would be the length I wanted. Then I took two 4-inch lengths of yarn and wrapped them around two parts of the Necklace/Scarf to keep the chains in place. 

When I was all done, I was pleased with my oh-so-warm accessory. It was quick work and it got my mind racing about all the other applications I could use a knitted chain for! The lucet itself is a great crafty tool for any young boys or girls to try out too- since the steps are so few, and the result so fast!

UPDATE: Hand-made lucets are now available!! 

October Craft Parties at the Urban Craft Center!

I'm the new Craft-Party Hostess at the Urban Craft Center! 

Check out the Party Themes available for booking in October and call the UCC today. 

Radmegan's Muppet Contest: Only 2 Days Left!

There are only TWO days left to enter my Needle-Felted Swedish Chef AND My Last Supper cookbook give-away!  

I will announce the winner on Saturday October 1st!

If you have not yet entered- it's not too late! Good luck to all!!

Available Now: The Art of Craft Photography

After months of preparation researching the needs of bloggers, online craft vendors and digital camera owners...boxing up 80 pounds of radmegan crafts & shipping them across the world to use as props...flying to Austria with 45 pounds of notes, outlines, lessons and camera gear shoved in my luggage...and finally recording my digital photography lessons on-location around the Austrian countryside and from a recording studio...My first Craft Photography Training Course has been published at Video2Brain!


Watch the trailer here....

This video course takes you step-by-step through the basics of craft photography, starting with how the camera works. Radmegan shares composition techniques to make craft photos more compelling, image-editing tips that don’t require expensive software and some great resources for getting craft images blogged about, printed and seen by the masses. You’ll even do a little crafting by making three different kinds of affordable at-home and mobile “photo studios.” Whether you are taking photos of handmade crafts to sell, looking for tips on product photography, have a blog and want your images to get noticed, or just want to improve the quality of photos you plan on sharing with friends and family, this workshop can help you produce great images.

I'm so excited to share these photography lessons with you!

Read more here or go ahead and BUY NOW!!

Chilly Weather Supper: French Onion Soup

It's officially the first day of autumn! To kick off my favorite season, I made a piping hot bowl of French Onion Soup. This soup is hearty, it warms you from the inside out and its super easy to make. 

Here's the recipe I used:

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon salt
5 large sweet onions, thinly sliced
3 (14 ounce) can beef broth
1/2 cup red wine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 sprig fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
French or Italian bread, cut in thick slices and toasted
8 slices Gruyere and Havarti cheese slices, room temperature

Directions
Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and salt. Cook 35 minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are caramelized.

Add the broth, red wine, Worcestershire sauce, thyme and bay leaf. Simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove and discard the herbs. Reduce the heat to low, mix in the balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. 

Preheat oven broiler. Toast one thickly sliced piece of bread for each bowl of soup you are serving. 

Arrange oven- safe bowls on a rimmed baking sheet. Fill each bowl 2/3 full with hot soup. Top each bowl with 1 slice toasted bread, sliced Gruyere cheese and Havarti cheese. 

Broil 5 minutes, or until bubbly and golden brown. As it softens, the cheese will cascade over the sides of the crock and form a beautifully melted crusty seal. 

Serve immediately on cool, crisp nights! Makes 6 servings.

Inspired by Twitter: Making String Gardens

Yesterday on Twitter, I received the following message: 

The url that "SarraceniaDude" sent, was to stringgardens.com a site dedicated to the art of growing plants in balls of soil and moss, and then hanging them up from strings. I'd seen these in boutiques and even in the homes of my swankier friends, but hadn't thought to attempt them on my own. I grow an awful lot of plants at home already, and these looked fairly high-maintenance considering how much water they most likely need. 

That said, the temperature has been steadily dropping, so I threw caution and common sense to the wind, and decided that if there was ever a good time to try making my own string gardens, the cool months of autumn, was it!

After looking up other string garden how-tos (namely this and this) I gathered the following materials:

- The plastic, netted bags that produce sometimes comes in

- Potting soil

- Long Fiber Sphagnum Moss

- A 1:1 mixture of peat moss and perlite

- 1 Spool of jute cord

- Decorative moss

- Sharp Scissors

- Clean, pure water

- Assorted plants (the runners off a Spider plant, some Baby Tears ground-covering from a shady party of my back yard, Scented geranium clippings, and assorted Pinguicula (one of my favorite kinds of carnivorous plant)

After using the pure water to dampen my mosses and soils, I mashed fist-sized balls of the peat-perlite mix together and placed them inside the plastic netting. I then wove a short piece of jute cord through open part of the netting to close the bag. Then, I poked holes into the dirt-ball and gently inserted the roots of my Pinguicula into each hole. I gave the entire ball a squeeze, carefully avoiding squeezing and breaking any plant leaves. Next, I took damp pieces of the Long Fiber Sphagnum Moss and wrapped them around the entire ball. I used a long (about 3-foot) piece of the jute cord to wrap around the moss- pulling the cord, adding more moss, wrapping with more cord.. etc. It was a process... 

I knew I was finished wrapping the cord when my entire ball of peat was covered, the plastic netting no longer visible, and the Pinguicula plants were snug in Sphagnum moss pieces. 

I repeated this process - instead, using potting soil (not peat/perlite) to make my Spider Plant String Garden...

...And my Baby Tear's Moss String Garden...

And my Scented Geranium String Garden...

The Pinguicula ball was hung over a table of other carnivorous plants (where I hope not to forget about it!) The rest of the string gardens are in various locations around the back-yard. While I love the look of them and wish I was the kind of organized, tidy person who could keep them indoors, I plan on watering my string gardens about twice a week, via a "soaking bucket" of pure water, making them far too messy and soggy for me to keep in the house.

What do you guys think of these? Is this something you would attempt to keep alive? Would you try growing them indoors?

A Spooky Craft Class: Needle-Felted Headstones!

I'm teaching a new class at the Urban Craft Center! Just in time for Halloween: NEEDLE FELTED HEADSTONES

What better way to decorate for Halloween than by needle-felting your very own spooky graveyard?! Learn how to needle-felt moss and lichen covered headstones that will make your house feel like a cozy, haunted home. They are perfect as a Halloween centerpiece, or for trick-or-treaters looking to cut back on the sweets!


Saturday, October 8th from 11am-2pm 
Materials included. $35 


Sign up by contacting the urban craft center by calling 310.392.0139 or emailing them at hello@theurbancraftcenter.com, or stopping by the shop, located at 2433 Main Street Santa Monica, CA 90405.



Hope to see you there!

Photo Saturday: Kew Gardens, England

The Victoria amazonica (Giant waterlily), taken at the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, in England this June. 

"The Spicy Watermelon" A Cure-All Cocktail

This week was one of emotional highs and lows, extreme temperature shifts here in Los Angeles and the development of a nagging sore throat. So today, for lunch, I decided to make something that would burn away the scratchy throat, and help brighten the emotional (and actual) gray clouds over my head. And thus, "The Spicy Watermelon, a cure-all cocktail", was born.

It all started when my awesomely crafty friend Jessica Wilson (jek-a-go-go), came for a visit and brought with her a rattlesnake watermelon. I'm not much of a watermelon connoisseur, but this is by far the tastiest watermelon I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. I have been SAVORING it- nibbling sweet drippy bits every single day and sharing it only with my very favorite people. 

But today, I needed MORE from my melon, so I looked to the garden for help. 

To make this Spicy Watermelon Cure-All, you will need:

A Hand Blender

Medium bowl

1 Cup fresh cilantro

1 Serrano chili pepper

1 Lime

2 Cups of fresh watermelon, cubed

Raw sugar for rimming glasses

Vodka (optional)

I began by placing the melon into a bowl, and using my hand blender, liquefying it. Then, I sliced open the lime and juiced both halves into the same bowl. I pulled a large handful (about a cup) of cilantro from the garden, and then threw in the only Serrano chili my garden produced this year. I went ahead and blended everything together, reserving half of the chili at first, in case it was too spicy for me. With the scratchy throat however, the entire Serrano ended up in my cocktail. 

Next, I swept my lime rinds around the rim of a mason jar, pressed it into a small saucer of the raw sugar, added ice, and poured in myself a glass of the Spicy Watermelon Cocktail. For an ESPECIALLY rough week, I'd recommend adding a jigger of vodka to your glass at this point.

I took my cocktail outside into the grey, overcast light. It feels like autumn is just around the corner, but with this refreshingly spicy/sweet drink burning away my sore throat, and a good deal of my worries, it's easy to pretend that summer is still going strong.

Needle-Felted Candy Corn Headbands

Yesterday, I got to see one of my favorite little girls. I don't like to show up empty-handed when I go to meet friends, so I made her a needle-felted candy corn headband for Halloween. 

I had needle-felted these candy corns a few weeks ago, thinking I was the first person to have this brilliant idea. Then I saw these cute (and cheap!) kits at the Urban Craft Center! Great minds think alike, right? After I had needle-felted my corns, I thought they were adorable, but I wasn't really sure what to do with them after I'd made them. Then, I straightened up my craft room and uncovered a stockpile of cute ribbon, and an elastic headband from the pack I purchased back when I made these. Plus, my mom had just phoned me to say that she was making headbands for a friend's birthday gift... All signs pointed to HEADBANDS!

To make my Halloween headband, I began by applying a solid line of hot glue over 2/3 of the plain, elastic headband, pressing the black and white polka-dot ribbon onto it. Since this headband was going to become a gift for a 4-year old, the elastic didn't need to stretch much to fit, so a solid line of glue would work well. 

Next I took my candy corns and began stitching them together at the whites (the most narrow part of the corn) so that when they were fully stitched together, they would resemble a flower. 

After the flower shape was created, I made sure that any knots or visible threads were ONLY visible on one side. I glued accent ribbons in orange, purple, and black and white polka-dots under my candy corns (gluing them to the knotted/exposed-thread side), and careful not to let globs of hot glue sink into the center of the flower shape. Once it was set, I glued it slightly left of center, to the headband. 

I was very happy with the finished Halloween headband, and my little Goddaughter looked adorable in it!

If you have a little someone in your life you want to make a Halloween headband for, this is about a 15-minute assembly after you've made your needle-felted candy-corns! Check out the needle-felting candy corn kits from the Urban Craft Center, or if you are not ready to try needle-felting, you could alter this design by using REAL candy corns.

Either way, Halloween is coming and I cannot wait! Lots of fun classes, and crafts ahead! Stay tuned! 

Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

I rarely make salad dressing at home. It honestly never dawned on me before. Normally, if we run out of our favorite bottled brand, I'll just squeeze a lemon over my greens with salt and pepper to taste. So when I came across this recipe for homemade buttermilk ranch dressing, I had to try it. 

To make your own buttermilk ranch dressing at home, you will need:

2 cups mayonnaise

2 cups buttermilk

1 tsp salt

3 tablespoons fresh purple onion, minced

1 clove fresh garlic, minced

4 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

pepper to taste

Mix everything together in a bowl, and enjoy over salad greens, as a dip with carrot sticks, or even with pizza and chicken wings! It's a great fresh salad dressing, and so easy to make. I had some left over, so I put it in a jar with a sealed lid, and kept it in the fridge. I'd suggest using it within a week or two.

Enjoy!

Photo Saturday: Charelston Harbour, Cornwall England

Taken this June at Charleston Harbour in Cornwall, England

Making Chocolate Mousse

A couple of weekends ago, I attended my niece's wedding shower. During that trip, I was let in on a few family recipes- all favorites of the bride-to-be. One of her dessert requests for the shower was this chocolate mousse. 

I had never made a chocolate mousse before, and was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to make- even in a bustling and heavily-trafficked kitchen. The final-product photos I took of this recipe are admittedly not my finest, and I feel that I have only the mousse to blame for this. One bite, and I immediately understood why my niece had requested the creamy, rich, and airy dessert. I completely forgot about my camera, the shower, or really anything at all as I sunk into the luscious creaminess that IS this chocolate mousse. Have a glass of milk or cup of coffee handy when you try this one out. It's one to savor. Just be sure to take pictures BEFORE you take your first taste, otherwise... yea, you may forget completely. Here's the recipe:


8 oz. chocolate
6 tbsp butter
pinch of salt
3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup whipping cream + more for final topping


Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler. In a second bowl, beat the egg yolks by hand, and add a pinch of salt. Slowly add the yolks to the chocolate, while stirring constantly.

  

In another bowl, beat the egg whites and sugar until stiff peaks form. 
In a third bowl, beat the whipping cream until light and fluffy.

Fold the chocolate and egg white mixture together, and then fold in the whipped cream.

Chill for one hour. Scoop and serve, after dolloping each with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. 

Note that the original recipe (origin unknown) suggests adding 1/4 cup coffee when melting the chocolate and butter in the double boiler together! I might have to try that next!

Also, if this recipe is too involved, you could always try the Swedish Chef's recipe below! 

And speaking of Swedish Chef! Don't forget to check out the contest I posted earlier this week! 

Radmegan's Muppet Contest!

As you probably know, I am not Jim Henson, genius creator of the Muppets. So I can't in good conscious sell the needle-felted Muppets I've been having so much fun making*. I can however, give them away. And what better way, than with a contest? To spice up this contest, I'm giving away my latest needle-felted Muppet, The Swedish Chef!!, WITH the awesome cookbook My Last Supper, by Melanie Dunea.

My Last Supper is an incredible book of recipes and stories from 50 great chefs who dish on what their last meal would be, if given the choice. Also, I bought 2 copies of it on accident, so rather than return one, I'd prefer to make one available to a lucky blog-follower!


Below are some of the behind-the-scenes photos of the making of the Swedish Chef, who will also be mailed to that same lucky winner... 

After watching about 50 Swedish Chef videos online, and singing his "Bork Bork Bork" song along with each one, I have to admit, I'm already sad to see him leave my kitchen...

Hopefully, your kitchen will be full of love and Swedish meatballs so that he will feel right at home. 

Without embarrassing him, I just want you to know what an awesome guy the Swedish Chef is. He's fun-loving, a great cook, and he totally wasn't bitter about being excluded from the list of 50 "Great Chefs" featured in My Last Supper. 

In fact, he decided to have a little fun with the cover of the book, and even posed over the faces of some of the chefs featured (as seen above posing over Jaques Pepin.)

That said, who wants to win my Needle-Felted Swedish Chef & the cookbook My Last Supper??

Here's How to Enter:

How to enter:  Be a follower of Radmegan In Words and Pictures and leave me a comment telling me so. (MANDATORY in order to win. This contest is a thank you to all of my blog followers. Not a follower yet? Click the "Follow Me" link on the right-side of this blog, just under the email subscription box)

Additional entries: Blog, Tweet, Facebook, etc. about this giveaway and leave me a comment with the url linking to your blog/Tweet/FB post. Leave a separate comment for each to count as an entry!

The winner will be chosen at random on the evening of September 30th, 2011, and announced here on October 1st, 2011. 

Good luck to you all! And thanks for reading!

* If you would like to discuss a trade for a needle-felted Muppet, or some other arrangement, please feel free to email me at Megan at radmegan dot com. Thanks friends!


THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED: Winner posted here!