You can make pickles without canning!

One week our CSA box came with more cucumbers than we knew what to do with.

Someone suggested making pickles, but so far I’ve shied away from anything that involves actual canning. The combination of glass jars + boiling water + my klutziness sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

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So I was really excited to learn you could make refrigerator pickles without the whole scary canning process. As the name would suggest, they need to remain chilled and not on a shelf.

I shared a few jars with family. They were as excited as if I’d done something really brilliant and difficult, when, in reality, it was much easier than conquering my fear of canning.

I’ll tell you how I did it, as long as everyone agrees to keep thinking (or at least acting like) I’m brilliant.

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EatingWell’s post on “How to pickle anything” was the key. I decided to make sour/dill pickles, seasoned with various combinations of fresh oregano, green onions, garlic, dill, turmeric, and cumin seeds.

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Following their guide, I sliced cucumbers, piled them in just-washed jars, added seasonings, and then made the brine to poured over the top.

The next day it was time for a taste test – and we had pickles! It was almost like magic. They were great on sandwiches and turkey burgers and even just piled on the plate as a side dish. Refrigerator pickles keep for about a month and the flavor gets stronger, so they were pretty intense by the end.

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From there, you can experiment with seasonings and even use the same recipe with different vegetables.

Brilliant, right?

Constructing Costumes, Characters, and Time-Traveling Cars

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At Phoenix Comicon, I attended 5 panels where authors, cosplayers, and time-machine builders gave advice about their respective crafts.

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Character Clothing

Four authors and a comic book artist shared about the role clothing plays in their works and what to keep in mind when you consider how your characters dress.

1. What Are They Wearing?:

Is the clothing functional in the environment? If not, make sure the character feels its effects. –Travis Hanson

Try making the costume of one of your characters and wearing it for day. Feel what it’s like to move around in what they wear. Sensory input can really inform your writing. –Leanna Renee Hieber

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Cosplay

2. A Beginner’s Guide to Foam Smithing:

New cosplayers often start working with foam, because it’s fairly easy to work with and cheap. If something you try doesn’t work, you’re probably only out about 50 cents.

Foam doesn’t have to be something you move on from. You can incorporate many different materials into your costume. It also uses many of same tools as Sintra and other thermoplastics. [Check out the Tools and Materials list in our DIY Armor post.]

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3. Cosplay Like a Pro: Less Stress, More Fun!

You notice the flaws of a costume you’ve been working on but others won’t. They see the overall picture.

Remember the 10-foot rule: your costume doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to look good from 10 feet away. If someone wants to get closer than that, that’s when you suddenly have a panel to rush off to.

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4. We are ALL Wonder Women! with Heather Ann Cosplay, Stray Kat Cosplay, and Whitney.

Even if you feel you don’t look like the character or aren’t sure about your costume, you can feel like Wonder Woman. –Stray Kat Cosplay

Watching Wonder Woman inspired little girls that
they could stand up for themselves and others. –Whitney

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Time Machine

Oliver and Terry Holler used parts they found and made to turn a DeLorean into a far out Back to the Future time machine. With it, they have traveled to all 50 states to fund raise for a future Parkinson’s Disease cure (a cause close to my heart because of my cousin Allison).

5. Back to the Future: Adventures in a DeLorean Time Machine:

The great thing about making something yourself is then you can fix it.

Money comes and goes. Time only goes.

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Thank you to Phoenix Comicon for providing media passes.

Try Today Friday

Over on our Facebook page, I’ve been doing something I call Try Today Friday. I share a craft idea, travel app, recipe tip, or some other useful thing simple enough to try out that evening. The ingredients/supplies are things you probably have on hand, could easily pick up on your way home, or just download.

Scarf tying tutorial by Schmutzie

Some examples from past Try Today Fridays:

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For now, #TryTodayFriday only happens on the Facebook page. So like us and make sure to stop by there on Fridays!

Scarf photo via Schmutzie. Calendar via Things I Should Do

Microblog Mondays

Cactus Craft

I keep coming across neat cactus-related ideas and thought you guys would like to check these out.

Cactus at The Farm South Mountain

1. Paper

Simple yet fabulous-looking paper cacti project via The House That Lars Built!

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2. Plastic

Plastic bottle cacti by Veronika Richterová. While she has special processes for creating her cactus art, it’d be fun to try making a simpler version of these.

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3. Planters

We featured these upcycled water bottle planters by A Beautiful Mess on our Facebook page in a Try Today Friday post, but I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss them!

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4. Pincushion

Sewing Lab has a tutorial for a cute stuffed fabric cactus that’s the perfect place for pins and needles.

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5. Possibilities

C2C Gallery in Grand Haven, Michigan suggests using cactus seeds in artwork. What they had in mind were Helen Otterson’s botanical-inspired ceramics. (Like Succulent Blossom.) But it made me wonder about using seeds in collage to add some depth and texture.

Have you ever created something inspired by cactus or using actual parts of a cactus plant?

Succulent Blossom By Helen Otterson

Top photo taken by me at The Farm at South Mountain. Other photos via their respective sites.

Open to creativity

About a dozen people of all ages showed up for my workshop at Southwest Maker Fest Saturday.

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I talked a little about making minimalist travel journals that you can start during your trip. Then I gave everyone an envelope with odds and ends to represent what you might pick up on your travels — attraction flyers, paper scraps, coffee sleeves, Travelcraft Journal stickers, etc. Then I set them loose to create something that told the story of their day.

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Because the room I was assigned to was in a children’s museum, some of the parents assumed it was a “kid thing” and were surprised when I handed them an envelope to create one too. Also, the open-endedness of the project freaked a few people out a bit at first.

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But, by the end, everyone — kids and adults — really got creative and made some fabulous things. They journaled, they drew, some of them went outside the booklet format and got architectural, building things with their materials.

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I love seeing people open up to creativity.

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Microblog Mondays