Enter "Not Martha"
The unveiling of her work to Mabel customers comes at a perfect time because one of Megan's highlight topics include the treatment of Easter eggs. I discuss how to color your own eggs naturally, (click here for one of my earliest PDF files) but Megan has really added a new dimension to crafting with eggs. Before I discuss her ideas I will mention if you know how to make a small hole in an empty egg shell you can fill the shell up with melted dark chocolate. When it cools, it can be decorated. When the shell is taken off, you a have a perfectly shaped true chocolate egg. I melt my chocolate in the microwave for a few short seconds until melted. I insist on making my own chocolates for Easter They are much more affordable and quality cannot compare. Fall of 2003, after the hot summer is over, the Mabel White Company will be offering wholesale chocolate coins on the site along with some candy molds. Small and cute soap molds could also be used for making your own chocolates. To see Megan's outstanding archives of stuff to make click here.
Megan really knows how to decorate an
Easter egg! Click
here to see a ton of beautiful and inspirational ideas of egg decorating projects.
The photo to the right is not even her line of Easter egg ideas, it is a project she
calls "Tiny
Piņatas" that you can put gifts or surprises in and as she states in her
site "these work perfectly for my you-have-to-destroy-it-to-open-it thing I'm
always looking for." And she adds "I also plan on using these for Easter
eggs." It appears balloons are instrumental in this project, but the sky
is the limit on the results. Click here for
Tiny Piņatas.
I notice having "wine charms" is such a neat thing, artists are even selling sets with holiday themes and a myriad of other events. I understand weddings is another major market for wine charm makers.
In the endless pursuit of soap
packaging ideas, we came across this photo. Here the
Making Ceramic Tiles and Other Pottery Pursuits Everyone loves hand painted ceramic and glass. If you have clay in your back yard, all the better! Getting into ceramics and pottery is a real commitment, but with good taste, the rewards are breath taking. The pottery to the left facilitates the use of contemporary shapes and bright colors such as bright yellow with pink. Recently at a craft
show we saw the most beautiful hand made tiles that were 3D in effect. It was
enough to make a person want to redo their entire kitchen and bathroom. A few tiles
had the broken mosaic look with a half of a cup protruding. As we get into the
world of pottery, making hand made tiles is most likely the easiest learning curve
for us and if the patterns come out right, one we can use to actually revamp our
kitchens. Making our own tiles, we can save tons of money and still have that
very rich look. It can't be that hard and we are game! We also decided, as an
alternative to the time consuming two bake process we could use the same sponge ware
techniques described below which allows you to paint simple white tiles, anyway you
like, and simply coat when done with a two coat Delta glaze. If this is OKAY
to use for food service, it must be fine for making your own hand painted tiles.
Home Depot sells plain white and bisque colored tiles for about 30 to 70 cents each.
This would
This month we discuss three very novel and easy to prepare foods. The first one is Toffee Apple Salad and just one of those things you want to eat every bit of. The second is cheesy baked potatoes salad which is just one of those great ideas we wonder why we did not think of it ourselves. The last food item is pan seared tuna. You know, that excellent appetizer that costs a small fortune? It is so easy to make and you can do it for under $5.
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I have been asked often enough
"Where did you come up with the name Mabel White?" In my hobby days
it was Martha White. It was just a nick name people assigned to me related to
the Martha White instant mix company. They are known in the south for great
instant mixes such as biscuits and brownies. When Martha became a business, I
had to change the name because I seemed to be entering the home improvement market
and did not want the real "Martha" to sue me. I was not worried
about the baking company--they love the site. But the craft company needed a name
that started with an "M" because I already had MW on the back ground of
thousands of web pages. A contest ensued over the internet between myself and
at least a hundred other people. We sought a name that was old fashioned, yet
contemporary. We voted on every M name there was and the e-mail was always
full regarding this topic. Everyone involved had open minds, but nothing
seemed to be marketable. This contest went on for three full days and I could
not believe no one could not agree on a name. On the third night I went to bed
and read a piece of mail. A customer had addressed the envelope to the Mabel
White Company instead of Martha White and that is how the company name was
founded. So, we are no longer Martha.
Megan beat me to this article. I do not
even drink wine but I find the new wine charms to be so beautiful. So much, that I
made a few to go around the bottles of wine I cook with. I did not know how
easy they were to make, I think I paid $25 for the first one of mine--just to get
the inspiration. When I bought it, I learned the wine glass charms are supposed to
serve a functional purpose--so you know which glass of
wine is yours. Since I
have not been invited to any M. Stewart parties, or forgot where I have been the
night before, I guess I would not know the etiquette behind wine charms. Aside
from that introspection, they are so pretty and as Megan says, so very easy to
make. 
photographer used
cinnamon sticks to adorn one, a dried pansy for another and a maple leaf for yet
another. 
be a great project for
kids! Who knows what designs they may come up with. We are going to try
to plaster broken coffee cups onto our designs and then coat them. You could
make a splash board for your kitchen, cut out one whole section of counter and
replace with the tile, mount four of them to make one wall hanging, and so much
more! 
longer.