Cardboard Stool

Today’s  project comes to us from Dangerously Fun. Although they mention buying fresh cardboard from an art supply store, this is a great use for large pieces that line wooden pallets, or breakaway boxes you can pick up from your local grocery store.

This near-danger free, easy to make stool is a beautiful, functional use for cardboard.  View my Etsy for more beautiful, functional recycle/upcycle products.

Materials

• A. 3/8″ cardboard, 30″ x 40″
• B. 3/8″ cardboard, 23.5″ x 48″
• C. 3/8″ cardboard, 24″ x 72″
• D. White Glue

Tools

• E. Compass
• F. Box Cutter
• G. Straight Edge

Directions

1. Cut and fold part A, which will form the seat. It is made of multiple 11.5″ diameter circles folded over each other to make a strong sitting surface. The narrow strip is folded around the circumferance of all of the circles to hide the edges.
2. Cut and fold part B, which is the weight-bearing element in the stool. It is just a large sheet that is rolled into a tight cylinder. You can make folding easier and more precise by using a straight edge and a blunt instrument to score parallel lines into one side of the cardboard. The cardboard will then fold nicely along these lines.
3. Cut and fold part C, which is mainly decorative. This piece has thin diamonds cut out of it, allowing the middle to be pressed in when it is rolled up. The result is an hour glass shape.
4. Test fit the parts, and then start gluing things together. It will look most impressive if none of the glue is visible.
5. Let the glue dry fully before you sit on the stool. If you have built the stool well it will be quite sturdy, but you should sit fairly still. Tilting or leaning will wear it out quickly.

Easy Strawberry Jam

Strawberry Jam

3 3/4 cups crushed strawberries
1/4 cup lemon juice
7 cups sugar
1 package Certo Liquid Pectin

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees F.  Wash and rinse 8 one cup jam jars. Drain the jars of excess water and place them upright on a cookie sheet.  Place the cookie sheet in the 225 degree oven for a minimum of 10 minutes. This will sterilize the jars. You can keep the jars in the oven until the jam is ready to be poured into the jars.

Place the washed lids and seals in a medium saucepan filled with water along with a set of metal tongs, which will be used to place the lids on the jars.  Boil them for at least ten minutes.

Use a potato masher to crush the berries, one layer at a time. With liquid measuring cup measure out the 3 3/4 cups of berries. Pour the berries into a large saucepan. Add the sugar and lemon juice. Do not reduce the amount of sugar, the full amount must be used for the jam to set. Turn the heat to high and bring to a full rolling boil. Let boil for one full minute.

Remove from heat and stir in the package of liquid pectin. Skim the foam from the top with a large flat metal spoon and stir the jam for 5 minutes to distribute the fruit evenly.

Remove the cookie sheet with the jam jars from the oven. With a small ladle, fill the jars with jam, leaving 1/4 inch of space from the rim. Using the tongs (cover your hand as the tong handle may be hot from being in the boiling water) remove the seals from the water, one at a time. Shake excess water from the seal and place on the jar. Then, still using the tongs, remove the rings. Again, shake off excess water and place the rings over the seals and tighten firmly.

The jam will take about 12-24 hours to set. The seals should pull down as the jars cool and you may hear clicking sounds as the seals form. If the fruit has settled to the top, turn the jars over to redistribute as they cool.

Jars may be kept unopened up to one year on the shelf.

from Radishes and Rhubarb

Speedo Summer Pavilion

Tree Hugger has a really interesting article featuring recycled Speedos. The Chelsea College of Art & Design in London was given 600 Speedo swimsuits that Speedo was no longer going to be able to sell due to competition rule changes. The students at the school took that swimsuits and and built a structure reminiscent of some spider webs to provide shade in the summer.

It’s a really interesting looking structure and the students at Chelsea College are clearly an innovative bunch. Speedo should be commended for recycling the suits they couldn’t sell and the college should be commended for encouraging students to innovate with recycled materials. Take a look at my Etsy store for some more examples of recycled fabric turned into something useful.

Blackberry Lemonade

Summer in your mouth from Taste of Home
Ingredients

• 4 cups water, divided
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
• 1 cup blackberries

Directions

• In a large saucepan, bring 2 cups water and sugar to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat. Stir in the lemon juice, lemon peel and remaining water; cool slightly.
• In a blender, combine 1 cup of lemon mixture and the blackberries; cover and process until blended. Strain and discard seeds. Pour blackberry mixture and remaining lemon mixture into a pitcher; stir well.  Refrigerate until chilled. Serve over ice. Yield: about 1-1/2 quarts.

Nutrition Facts: 1 serving (1 cup) equals 152 calories, trace fat (trace saturated fat), 0 cholesterol, 1 mg sodium, 40 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, trace protein.

Hobby Helps Haiti

The Chicago Tribune has a story about an 81 year old woman donating 35 years worth of her quilting work to  children in Haiti. Anita Van Ryn has been making quilts for decades, in her spare time, while watching TV. She made them out of recycled t-shirts and dresses. She wasn’t making them for anyone in particular. Then, when the earthquake hit Haiti early this year she saw someone who needed them and made the effort to get 35 of them into the hands of Haiti’s children.

Each of Van Ryn’s quilts has a name and a personal significance. Each comes from a different time in her life. There’s sure to be a story for each of them and now each of them is starting a new story in the hands of a child in need.

Quilts make great donations and also great gifts. I have several available in my Etsy store to purchase for yourself or someone you know who needs to stay warm.

Grandma Chamber’s Chili Sauce

The house smells like 1965….  I’ve commented before on my gardening adventures and this is another exercise in gardening satisfaction.  Those of you from the south that are familiar with pinto beans or purple hull peas as an entree, know the value of a good chili sauce to complement the evening’s fare.  This is a family classic.

20 lg tomatoes

6 lg onions

4 green peppers

2 hot peppers

4-1/2 c sugar

4 c vinegar

1T cinnamon

2t ginger

1t salt

1/2 t cloves

1/2t allspice

Chop and mix together all ingredients.  Boil slowly until thick (3-1/2 hours) Put in jars.  Seal with hot water bath.

Miss you, Grandma!

Ten Rules for Being Human

Ten Rules for Being Human

by Cherie Carter-Scott

1.	You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s yours to keep for the entire period.
2.	You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, “life.”
3.	There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately “work.”
4.	Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5.	Learning lessons does not end. There’s no part of life that doesn’t contain its lessons. If you’re alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6.	“There” is no better a place than “here.” When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.”
7.	Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8.	What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9.	Your answers lie within you. The answers to life’s questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10.	You will forget all this.

Mango Vegan Cupcakes

Mango Vegan Cupcakes

1 ripe mango (1 cup of puree)
1/2 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbs corn starch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 tsp sugar
1 tbs corn starch+ 2 tbs cold water  (to thicken the filling)

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 35oF and line muffin pan with cupcake liners
2. Puree the mango and mix with 1/2 cup of coconut milk. Set aside 1/2 cup of this mixture for the cake and reserve the rest for making the filling.
3. Whisk the soy milk and vinegar and set aside for a few minutes.
4. Sift flour, corn starch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and mix.
5. Using an electric mixer, beat the margarine and sugar for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, then the 1/2 cup of mango puree mix. It will look a little curdled but do not overmix. It will come together later.
6. Alternate beating in the soy milk mixture and dry ingredients, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times. Mix until just combined.
7. Fill cupcake liners two thirds full and bake for 20-22 minutes. Let them cool completely.
8. Heat 1/2 cup of the reserved mango mixture with 4tsp of sugar (use more or less depending on the sweetness of the mango).
9.  Once it bubbles add the corn starch mixture 1 tbs at a time while stirring until the mixture thickens. You may not need to use all of it. Let it cool completely.
10. Scoop out the middle of each cupcake and fill with spoonful of the filling. Replace the tops of the cupcakes if you wish.
11. Frost with buttercream or anything else!

MTV 10 Favorite Albums of the (half) Year

As the first half of 2010 draws to a close, James Montgomery lists his 10 favorite albums of the year—so far—for MTV:

• Kate Nash: “My Best Friend Is You represents Kate Nash at her most scattershot, squeaky and downright smart,” he writes. She’s made “an album that’s rough, sprawling and unafraid to get plain weird.”
• Yeasayer: Odd Blood is “perhaps the most fittingly titled album in recent memory, a wavy, dreamy listen, full of supple, electronic fields that undulate and dip, creating precipitous peaks and delving canyons. Pop music for the 22nd century and beyond.”

• LCD Soundsystem: On This Is Happening, “acerbic, sarcastic, downright hilarious” James Murphy is “like Randy Newman, only for bloggers and kids who still take drugs and dance all night, and minus the paunch and the Hawaiian shirts.”
• Vampire Weekend: Contra is “by no means an angry album; rather, it’s a determined one, a well-conceived, flawlessly executed ‘f— you’ to their detractors. Of course, they back it all up with a boatload of really great tunes, making Contra perhaps the most polite middle finger in music history.”
• The National: “Somber. Brooding. Beautiful. These are some of the things the National do better than anyone, and on High Violet, they’re doing it best.”

For the complete list—and a boatload of honorable mentions—click here.

Woo! 4th of July Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

The 4th of July without homemade ice cream is like Thanksgiving without turkey.

I’m warning you up front this recipe is Not Fat Friendly! Please exercise moderation.

4 QUARTS:

4 eggs
2 1/4 c. sugar
2 cans evaporated milk
5 c. whole milk
4 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1 can Eagle Brand milk

Beat eggs until foamy. Add sugar gradually. Beat until stiff. Add remaining and mix extremely well. Pour into ice cream freezer and freeze using rock salt and ice.