Jam-making is one of those things that’s seemed a bit daunting to me. It requires special ingredients and chemistry and precision – not things that tend to happen in my kitchen. Then right around Christmas, Patricia over at Eat Drink Better shared this awesome-looking recipe for Meyer Lemon Marmalade. It didn’t require anything special or any finesse, and it felt like the perfect way to get started with jam-making.

My Meyer lemons are preserved in salt, so those were out for this recipe, but our CSA just happened to bring us some oranges, and it felt like a sign. This jam was ON. Here’s the recipe that I adapted from Eat Drink Better:

Orange Marmalade Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 oranges, washed and scrubbed
• 1 1/4c sugar
• Lots of water

Directions

1. Halve your oranges and juice them into a small bowl. Set the bowl aside.
2. Slice your oranges into the thinnest strips that you can manage. Check out the lemon recipe for a photo of how thinly she sliced hers.
3. Put the orange slices into a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring them to a boil and let them boil for one minute. After that minute’s up, dump them in a colander, rinse, and repeat this process once more.
4. Place the rinsed orange slices back into the pot, add the sugar and the juice that you reserved, and bring them to a boil one final time. Reduce the heat to medium low, and boil, stirring occasionally. Patricia recommended boiling for 30 minutes, but mine took more like 40-50 minutes to thicken up.
5. Once things are looking nice and marmalade-y, either use your immersion blender or transfer the goods to an upright blender and pulse a bit until you’ve got the texture that you like. I prefer a chunkier marmalade, so I did minimal blending.

That’s it! This recipe made 2 pints of marmalade. Enjoy your marmalade on toast or in yummy recipes, like this marmalade cake that my friend Bonnie made not too long ago. YUM!

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© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2012. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: how to make jam, jam recipe, marmalade recipe, orange marmalade, orange marmalade recipe, orange preserves, preserves

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I’ve hinted about this on Facebook and on Twitter, and I’m super excited to tell you guys about a project I’m working on this month! A local conference center here in Atlanta is shifting their catering to a more farm-to-table menu, and they’re throwing a launch party to celebrate! One of the features they wanted for the party was a craft project that their 200 guests could take part in, and I am pleased as punch that they asked me to run the crafts table at the event!

Since this event all about food, I pitched them a food-themed craft project. Something that guests could take home. Something that screams Georgia. Something that can help out a local farm, too! We’re going to make lovely Mason jar cornbread mixes, featuring organic cornmeal from one of my favorite local farms!

I want to also include a one-sheeter with some ideas on how folks can re-use their Mason jars when they’re empty. Mason jars are super handy! You can use them to store food, of course, but they also make great crafty storage. Put some dry beans or rice in the bottom, drop a tea light in there, and you have an instant votive! There are lots of other simple ways to reuse these suckers, too! What’s your favorite Mason jar craft project?

I needed to whip up a sample of the cornbread mix for my meeting with the congress center folks later this week, so I took a few photos, in case you want to make your own Georgia Cornbread mix! This recipe is adapted from The Post Punk Kitchen’s amazing cornbread recipe. I upped the sweetener a bit, since I like a sweeter cornbread, and instead of canola oil (which is often genetically modified), I used olive oil. The olive oil gives it a richer flavor, and I just love this cornbread!

Vegan Cornbread Mix

In a quart-sized Mason jar, combine:

• 2c organic cornmeal
• 1c white flour
• 2t baking powder

Cover your jar, and give it a good shake to mix up the ingredients, then you’re ready to decorate! I kept it simple, tying a recipe card to the top and making a simple label for the top. If you want to use my recipe card, you can download a printable one right here. Print it out, cut it out, then punch a hole and use some ribbon, twine, or homemade ribbon to tie to to your jar.

To make the label, just take the circular top of the Mason jar (not the ring, but the disc), and use that as your template. Trace it onto your paper, decorate how you like, and cut it out. Remember when you’re decorating that the ring has a little lip on it, so leave yourself around 1/4″ of space around the edges of your label. I used a Sharpie and cut out a sweet little heart from an old security envelope to decorate my lid.

Once the label is done, you’ll put the metal lid on the jar, put the label on top of the lid, then screw down the ring to secure it in place. Voila! You’re ready to gift some tasty, vegan Georgia cornbread. YUM!

Related Posts:

• Handmade Holiday: Homemade Bitters

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post tags: cornbread recipe, Mason jar crafts, printable, printable recipe card, vegan cornbread, vegan cornbread mix

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Homemade almond milk tastes really different from the store bought variety. It doesn’t have thickeners or stabilizers, which leaves it tasting a bit lighter and much nuttier than the kind in the box.

Ever since having an awesome latte made with raw almond milk at Green Wave Cafe in Ft. Lauderdale over the holidays, I have been wanting to sort out how to make almond milk at home. I’ve been reading lots of recipes and sort of cobbled this together based on a few that looked good. This recipe makes about 2 cups of almond milk, and you can use the leftover meal to make around 2 cups of almond flour. There’s something satisfying about not tossing a single thing in the compost, and these recipes together use every bit of those almonds!

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Post tags: almond milk, homemade almond milk, how to make almond flour, how to make almond milk, vegan milk, vegan recipe

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Don’t you just love a pom pom? They’re just so cheery and sweet. They’re also super simple to make!

All of the pom pom tutorials I’ve seen call for using yarn. I love me some pretty yarn, but why keep your pom pom making so hedged in, when really you can incorporate all kinds of fun materials into your poms! As long as what you’re using is long and skinny, it’s fair game. Here’s how to make your very own repurposed pom poms!

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© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2012. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: crafty reuse, green crafts, how to make a pompom, pompom, pompom tutorial, repurposed, reuse, reuse fabric scraps, upcycling

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I have been sweater obsessed lately! Ever since turning one of Dave’s shrunken sweaters into an infinity scarf, I’ve been thinking of fun ways to take sweaters apart and repurpose them. I made that sweater wrap not too long ago and a few other sweatery things, and in the end I was left with a pile of sleeves.

The thing about repurposing is that it can actually be quite wasteful. Take my sweater obsession, right? If I tossed those sleeves into the bin, could I really say that I upcycled a sweater? the whole idea is to divert waste from the landfill, right?

I ran across a really cute asymmetrical cowl on Pinterest not too long ago, but it required knitting, which isn’t my strong suit. It looked like the perfect project to use up some of those sweater sleeves!

How to Make a Cowl from a Sweater Sleeve

Materials

• thrifted sweater
• sewing machine, thread, pins, iron
• vintage button

1. You need to get that sleeve off of your sweater. Trim the sleeve off right along the seam.

2. Once the sleeve is detached, turn it inside-out, then sew along the edge that you just cut using your machine’s zig zag stitch.

3. Flip your sleeve so it’s right side out, then iron it well.

4. It’s time to try it on! Grab a straight pin, and head to the mirror. Put the cowl around your neck until it’s sitting just right. Put the straight pin into the bottom piece of sweater in the center of where the two ends overlap. This is where your button will go.

5. Sew on your button.

6. Sew the button hole. You might need to put the cowl on again to make sure you put the button hole in the right place. Use a pin again to mark the bottom of your button hole, then send it through your machine on the button hole setting (mine does one-step button holes, but some machines do 4-steps).

Voila! A cute cowl with no knitting required!

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• How to Make a Fabric Scrap PomPom
• What is Upcycling?
• What does green mean?

© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2012. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: DIY cowl, DIY scarf, reuse, sweater craft project, sweater crafts, upcycling

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I keep seeing amazing washi tape craft projects all over the place and wanted to join in the fun! The trouble with washi tape is that it can be pretty pricey. It’s also made with all new materials and shipped across the world to stores here in the U.S. Rather than drop a bunch of cash on something that didn’t totally fit into my crafty philosophy, I decided to try out making my own!

If you’re not familiar with washi tape, it’s decorative Japanese paper tape. You can use it to wrap packages beautifully, in scrap booking, for art projects, to spice up your gift wrapping, or anywhere else that you’d use clear tape.

My inspiration for this project was the fabric paper tape from Annekata. She used glue to attach fabric to the back of brown paper packing tape. I wanted my washi tape to be a bit more traditional, so I decided to try using double-sided tape and a couple of different sorts of paper to see what worked best. Since I wasn’t planning to use the tape right away, I needed to create a backing. Wax paper worked perfectly!*

Ready to whip up some washi tape?

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Post tags: DIY washi tape, how to make washi tape, make your own washi tape, reuse, washi tape, wax paper

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Have you guys seen those fragrance oil sticks at the store? They absorb scented oils from a little jar and diffuse the scents in to whatever room they’re in. Pretty cool, right?

The trouble with those store-bought fragrance sticks is right in the name: fragrance. The term “fragrance” is completely unregulated, and it can refer to a slough of different chemicals. Some of these chemicals are harmless, but others are harsh toxins and even carcinogens. Suddenly, those fragrances smell a lot less sweet.

Luckily, it’s super simple to whip up fragrance sticks at home with natural scents and recycled materials. Check it!

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Post tags: aromatherapy, DIY fragrance sticks, DIY home, DIY home decor, essential oils, fragrance, fragrance sticks

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My travel schedule last month was crazy, and at the same time, Bill and I really upped the intensity of our runs. I love to travel, and speed training is a fun challenge, but I think those things combined are the reason that I’m having some icky breakouts lately. Boo! Rather than buy a pricey face scrub in a single-use plastic container, why not whip up your own homemade face scrub with ingredients from the pantry?

It took all of 5 minutes to make this scrub, and I can’t wait to start exfoliating! You might be tempted to go for a bigger batch, but because this is food-based you want smaller batches that you replace a bit more frequently. Better to make this once a week or so than to realize that your face scrub is spoiled, right?

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© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2012. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: beauty products, DIY beauty, DIY face scrub, facial scrub, handmade, homemade face scrub, oatmeal scrub

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Dave and I have a super cute floor lamp with a paper shade. We’ve had this thing for years, but for some reason a few weeks ago was when the cats finally noticed that they hadn’t gotten around to destroying it yet.

This tutorial is for repairing a lamp shade shade that’s torn on the bottom, but! I’ve got some variations at the end, in case the tear on your paper lamp shade is in a different place.(. . .)
Click here to read on!

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Post tags: DIY, how to repair a lamp shade, how to repair a paper lantern, mending, repair, repair a lamp shade

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I really wanted to call this “How to Make a Repurposed Sweater Wrap from an Ugly Sweatervest Thing That Made You Look Like You Were Pregnant,” but that seemed a little long for a title.

Do you ever pick something up at the thrift store that is less cute at home than it seemed at the store? This happened to me with a sweater vest thing that I bought. I thought it would make a nice extra layer without being too warm to go from outdoors to indoors. Unfortunately, the sort of odd cut of this thing made me look like I was pregnant. Seriously, I wore it out once, and 3 people asked if I was expecting. Ack!

I’m sure not all of you have a weird sweatervest thing laying around, but you could totally do this same tutorial with any oversized sweater, and I’ll include instructions for that below!

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© Becky for Glue and Glitter, 2011. | Permalink | 3 comments
Post tags: crafting with sweaters, DIY, how to make a sweater wrap, sweater craft project, sweater wrap

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