Check out our new creation!
We are bringing the hoop back…
Made from yarn, wooden hoops and hemp.
Soon to be at our Etsy store!
: )
-Mensa
Tag Archives: handmade
Oh-Organic Marshmallow Fondant, Where art thou?
Feliz cumpleaños Micaca y Isabela!!!
This birthday cake is dedicated to my crazy cool sister who turned the double douces a week ago…An easy to make fondant added a little color to this delicious chocolate cake, and who doesn’t love fondant? You can really make anything you want with it because its almost like play-dough!
The fondant was ridiculously easy to make, and because of the hype with the marshmallow-fondant recipe, I got caught up in the moment and used ingredients that were not so wholesome for our health. So sorry hermana!
So the ingredients I used?
Marshmallows= High Fructose Corn Syrup and who knows what bits and pieces of chicken parts…
Powdered Sugar= I didn’t use any organic or unbleached product…my bad.
Food Coloring= Need I say more?
So here’s the deal. I did a little research and Organic Marshmallow Fondant IS possible.
I found a couple of recipes, yet each of them always had something “off”. So i combined all my research and I think it will be as easy to make an organic fondant recipe without the extra hassle.
So here’s the recipe…
8 oz of mini VEGAN marshmallows (about 4 full cups). They do exist!
1 tbsp of water
1 pound bag of Wholesome Organic Icing Sugar..plus a little bit more for when things get sticky!
1 tbsp of Organic Light corn syrup
1 tbsp of lemon juice
Natural Food Coloring
Organic Butter
* For the Food Coloring there are MANY options. You can buy organic and natural good coloring like Maggie’s Naturals which are made of all natural plant based sources. Your local natural food store should carry some. If you want to experiment and make your own colors you can virtually achieve any of them with any product at the store. Red? Use some beets! Orange? Carrots! Yellow? Tumeric or saffron flowers. Green? You can use spinach or even buy a natural food supplement called liquid chlorophyll. Blues and Purples? Cabbage anyone? Its doable! You might just have to experiment with the recipe.
The HOW TO:
Add the water to the marshmallows. It usually calls for a minute in the microwave. Skip this step and the extra radiation and heat it the old school way. I will update this recipe when I try it in the oven, but I would start by testing it at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes in a bowl.
Use a WOODEN SPOON covered with butter. This will make the marshmallows stick less to everything and will make it easier to mix. Make sure all the clumps are gone until you have a pretty smooth marshmallow mixture, and add the corn syrup and the lemon. The corn syrup helps make it a bit more flexible so it does not crack and dry so fast, while the lemon reduces the intense sweetness it has.
Start adding the icing sugar bit by bit, and continue mixing it well into the marshmallow mix. Slowly it will start to clump up and it will become hard to keep going further with the spoon. Once you have gone through 3/4 of the sugar, you can transfer the mix to a clean surface and use your hands.
Knead and keep adding the powdered sugar until you have a smooth and malleable dough. If it’s too sticky add a bit of sugar, if it’s too dry then splash water into your hands and knead again.
To prevent it from sticking to the table and the rolling pin, I greased the surfaces with a bit of butter which made things much easier.
I made some flowers and leaves. Pretty easy! For the leaves I just cut two different shapes and with a toothpick added the lines. For the flowers I used a long flat triangle and started to curl it up from the smallest end. The colors look extremely bright, because they are extremely fake.
So now that I have the recipe and sources, I will make a second attempt to live to what I preach, and make a HEALTHIER and more CONSCIOUS birthday cake, with beautiful organic and natural colors!
-Mensa
Re-potting and Re-loving your Plants
I must admit. I need to be better about taking care of our house plants. So today I got serious! I decided to re-pot them, mix the soil around, add new soil and a little home-made plant food.
The How To’s:
1.Making the Plant Food:
Since we recently started composting, I figured that instead of buying any plant food from the store, I had to put our compost to good use.
In a blender I added some coffee grinds, a couple of eggshells, and some compost (which included apple cores, carrot peels and other goodies). I added a healthy amount of water and blended it.
A word about plant food:
Many home made recipes call for a mixture of Epson Salts, baking powder, regular salt, and household ammonia. Whatever rocks your boat. Personally, adding ammonia, which is considered to be a toxic substance, to anything seems a little crazy to me. Its a natural and organic compound produced and used for growth of many plants, but having a jug of ammonia in the house does not seem like the best and most eco-friendly solution. (If it gets in our water ways it can be extremely harmful). So sticking with all-natural, non-toxic, home-made plant food seems like a better solution to me.
2. Mixing the soil
I took old soil from plants that had died due to extreme heat in our kitchen (whoops) and mixed it with new soil in a bucket. I tossed it and added a bit of the juicy plant food (mostly the water part) to moisten the soil. I added more water to the mix in order to have the soil thoroughly moist.
3. Re-potting your plants
***The most important thing I did through out this whole process was talking to my plants! Call me crazy, but I really felt like they needed to know what was going on. Imagine being pulled out of your warm comfy home and abruptly placed in a new pot! So as I did this I explained the process, was really gentle, made them feel more at ease, and made ME feel like I knew what I was doing (even though it was my first real re-potting experience!)…So it helped us all : )
-Start by having everything ready and clean. I made a mess, so cleaning as you go is definitely recommended.
– Prep your flower pot with a little dirt at the bottom. If there is a hole you can cover it using a shard of an old broken pot making sure you don’t cover the hole completely. Add a bit of the plant food that you have prepared.
-I took my first plant and flipped it gently until it loosened and came out of its pot. I dug a little around the edges and it helped to get it out. I untangled the roots a bit and watered them slightly and placed it on the pot.
-I covered and filled the pot with dirt and half way through I added a bit more of the plant food. Then I covered it completely, making sure I stayed at least half an inch from the rim (if not when you water it, it can overflow).
-Use a spray to clean the leaves of your plants if they have dirt on them, so they can breathe!
Tell your plants that they are awesome and that this is for their own good even if they hate you… ; ) Sun, water and love will make their day!
Now they will grow stronger than ever and produce beautiful blooms and strong green leaves!
-Mensa
A Little Bit of Self Promotion Never Hurt Anyone
We write a bunch of blog entries about this and that, but I want to focus a bit on our baby Mushpa y Mensa today. I am going to send out fantastically positive energy to everyone to want what we have to offer.
Listen, I want to make it, not just for us realize, but for all the other artists, inventors and nerds who desire their freedom from a job they’ve never really loved. For all those who want to believe that it is possible to be happy in what you do. I want us to be that example where people say, “See anyone can make it if they do the work and believe.” Seriously, that is all anyone needs to do and we will prove it!
Here is my shameless self promotion below.
Mushpa y Mensa Etsy Store – http://www.etsy.com/shop/MushpaYMensa
Mushpa y Mensa Blog – http://mushpamensa.wordpress.com/
Mushpa y Mensa Twitter – https://twitter.com/mushpamensa
Mushpa y Mensa Pinterest – http://pinterest.com/musphamensa/mushpa-y-mensa-we-are-two-crafty-chics/
Go check out our sites and buy one thing, maybe an amazing tablet case, or plush sweet pigs who think they are elephants and aliens who have no name, and there is even a gorgeous handmade, clay necklace!!!
Please, do us a solid and send an email to all your friends, family, enemies we don’t care who, just do it. It will take two seconds and you will be helping two people who in turn will help millions. You help us and the Universe will help you. I promise!!!!
Until next time…
-Mushpa
Better late than never!
A little lace, a little paint, a little yarn, and a gross amount of ❤❤❤.
Hey Mushpa! Here is the frame I promised you : )
Ewww!
-Mensa
DIY Body Art
Things are done better, with more love, and more rewards if you at least try to do them yourself (as opposed to having something pre-made). So why not design your own tattoo?!
So for Mushpa’s birthday, one of the things she asked was to design something to compliment the tattoo she already has.
Here are a couple of sketches of the soon-to-be-tattoo!
Why not draw something that only you imagine in your head? It is a fun process, and you get to have more of a say in every detail possible, and it is only yours!
Want some art in your body? Do it yourself! (Starting at least with the design part of it all! We can move to tattooing later…)
: D
Keep on making,
-Mensa
The Case of the Tablet – Part 2
Mensa asked me the other day why what is inside our new tablet case is the best choice currently on the market. She also wanted to know if there was any ethical consciousness involved in my selection, which of course there was!!! :]
Here’s the breakdown on why my new Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 is the best out there! Firstly, it has an android system, open source love, the best screen and processor, and it is lighter than an iPad. It’s also fast as lightning and reasonably priced.
Next, the company is Taiwan-based. Free China. Taiwan is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, and human development. I’m just saying. :]
Also the environment is another factor for me,
Asus even developed a special proprietary chip, the EPU (Energy Processing Unit), in order to coordinate and manage power usage in all of a computer’s major components. In fact, all Asus notebook computers are designed to be Energy-Star compliant. Furthermore, when it comes to the materials used to make Asus products, Asus has made a special effort to be green. There is a company directive that restricts the use of certain known hazardous materials in Asus products, and the list is actually more restrictive than that imposed on manufacturing by the European Union. In recent years, Asus has been developing hardware that can be more easily recycled, as well as offering its own take-back and recycling programs. (source: http://www.roc-taiwan-hn.com/asus.php)
The best part though is how cute it looks its new, glittery case!
Thank you Mensa!
<3
– Mushpa
Crazy Crayons!
So we can recycle paper, plastic, aluminum and many other miscellaneous items, but how about recycling art supplies?
Did you know that more than 12 MILLION CRAYONS (which equals to about 120,000 pounds) are made in the US EVERY DAY?…that’s about 60 TONS of crayons made EVERY DAY! And crayons are made with petroleum based wax which end up in our landfills…How Eco is that? Not so much…
This really cool program called Crazy Crayons, takes all your old broken, unused and un-loved crayons from your schools, homes and studios and revamps them into 100% RECYCLED CRAYONS!
They also sell Fire Starters, perfect for lighting up your campfire or fire place with ease. This is another way they recycle and reuse ALL of the crayons, by using the wax covered crayon wrapers. Simply place a handful on top of wood or your fire pit and BOOM! Warmth that comes from a recycled source!
If you want to participate in the program make sure to check out their site where they give you all the details on how to prep your soon-to-be-recylced crayons, ideas for collecting unwanted crayons, and directions on how to best ship your old crayons!
———————- o ———————–
Two MINI DIY PROJECTS:
1.Make Some Funky Crayons
-Take all your old crayons from around your house
-Peel them and break them into small little pieces and put them in an old cookie mold
-Preheat oven to 250 degrees and bake for about 15-20 minutes until they have all melted.
-Patiently wait until they have cooled…Pop them out, and start a new coloring adventure!
2. Melt some Crayons into Wall Art
-Take a blank canvas or a slab of old wood and align peeled crayons on top of canvass
-Glue them down with either a hot glue gun or strong all purpose glue and wait until they dry
-Take a blow dryer and hold over crayons until they begin to melt…and HAVE FUN! It might take a minute for the full effect to take place and for all crayons to melt, but it is a relaxing and easy project that can add a little color to any wall! :]
Keep on coloring!
❤
-Mensa
The Case of the Tablet – Part 1
This is our most recent creation. A tablet case. Wooden buttons, hemp string and felt made from recycled plastic bottles! Perfect… Except for the tablet that could potentially goes inside…
I will let Mushpa (aka IT Phenomenon) take over on what makes tablets and other technological goodies a choice of ethical consciousness.
I have been guilty of buying into the Apple craze, but my iPod did not come from the best of the environments, and the workers that made my little music player work, have not been treated too well either…
So Mushpa, do you mind filling us in on why it is that inside this new case there should be, according to current research, the best choice of tablet currently in the market?
Meanwhile, check out our new product at our Etsy store, and remember, we can always custom make you case with your colors of choice!
-Mensa
The American Dream
Let’s start like this, I made a commitment to write one entry a day, everyday in the Mushpa y Mensa blog. It isn’t that hard. It doesn’t really have to be about anything specific, just vaguely related to Mushpa y Mensa’s philosophy, ideology or really just the general vibe, so why is it that days have gone by and I have not done one entry? This lead me to the question, what is it that holds people back from being successful? More specifically, what is holding me back from being successful? Am I really stopping myself from what I want to do to go to an arbitrary 9-5 job? What is the point? What am I trying to prove? Why is it for others I can go above and beyond? Why can I make other people successful, rich, enlightened, but not for myself? I have better ideas, I will do better things for humanity, I have the skills and ability to do anything, and I am charming, so what gives? Is it the fact that for the formative years of my life I went to school and was brainwashed into believing that success is based on not only my career choice, but on my monetary value? Is it really so simple in its complexity?
I was saying to Mensa last night, what if we couldn’t get a job working for anyone? What if we had to work for ourselves to make money to survive? If this was our only option to have food, shelter, and comfort, well then I know Mushpa y Mensa would already be on Forbes 50 Most Innovative (and profitable) Companies’ list! Question is, why does it seem that I can’t make it successful without the fear of starvation and homelessness?
When we are children we are told and believe that we can do anything we want, that we can become anything we want. Then as we mature we are made to believe that this is a dangerous way of thinking. The funny thing is it is not dangerous for us to believe, it is dangerous for those wanting to make and control the majority of wealth in the world. Greedy children who never learned how to share. I want the American Dream I was promised. I want what I deserve and the only way I am going to get it is to believe not only in myself, but that if I do the work, if I do the right thing and have faith in this universe, I will attain this…happiness…success…serenity. I want to live my life, not just survive it. I don’t want to get to the end of the road and think, “Is that all there is?”, so today guess what?
I did my blog entry. :]
Much love,
Muspha