Feed the birds, tuppence a bag

Last weekend I baked doughnuts and as after deep frying anything, there is always the hassle of getting rid of the used oil.But now that winter is nearing in, I decided to put the oil to good use - and make it into bird feed.

I used coconut oil for the frying. After the doughnut frying, there was a lot of dough residue in the pan.

 I cleared the cabinets from old or near expiry date nuts and seeds and found some pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and macadamia nuts which I chucked into the oil along with some rolled oats.

Careful though! You need to let the oil cool down a little before throwing anything in, otherwise you will end up with deep fried nuts. :)

 

 

 

 I cut open some milk and juice cartons.

Out of the top piece, I cut out a square and punched a hole through it.

 Through the hole, I added a wool thread and tied a big knot to go underneath the square. 

 I placed the square to the bottom of the carton, and poured in the oil and seed mixture.

Once ready, I placed the carton outside to chill completely. And on top of the carton, I placed a skewer so that I could wrap the thread around it and keep the thread inside the oil mixture somewhat straight.

The coconut oil sets quite quickly, but it wasn´t until the next day that I cut off the carton from around the seed block and hung the bird feed "candle" to the tree. 

 

The birds have been quite keen on the seed candle, but as I am no bird expert, I am not completely sure if sesame seeds are good for birds. (I do not know why they wouldn´t be, but don´t take my word for it.)

Also, in hindsight, I think I should have added some other oil into the mixture, too.  Perhaps the coconut oil will be too hard for the birds in the wintertime? So maybe a splash of olive oil or similar would keep it softer? Do try - and report back! :)

Happy week to everyone!

Autumn crafts - dream catchers

Last weekend I went to the woods, ie. our back yard, with my daughter.

We collected a bunch of twigs, mosses and lichen, cones, blueberry stalks and other pretty autumn goodies. The mosses and other ornaments went into another use, more of which later, but the twigs were turned into homemade dream catcher type of decorations.

First, I cut the twigs into smae length pieces and tied them together with some wool yarn.

I also added a yarn to one of the tips of the triangle for hanging it later on.

 I twined in some yarn for decoration.

 Altogether, I made 3 catchers. For a square / harlequin shape I needed 4 twigs.

After securing the corners, I started to add loops of yarn on all sides.

 I continued to add loops in the previous loops until I had a kind of a web.

 

 For the grey version, I added pom poms made of the same coloured yarn. (This project is a really good way to get rid of small amounts of yarn, by the way.)

A day later, I added the last one, a white triangle.

And now they all hang in the corner of our living room extension.

This was such a simple and nice project. The feathers, if you choose to use any, cost something, but for example a bag of approximately 50 duck feathers (the small balck ones here) cost around 2 euros on eBay. For the decor, you can use pom poms, cones, crystals or just smaller twigs so this really is a low cost project.

Also, fun to do with the kids. My 2nd grader needed only help for cutting the twigs, everyhting else she did on her own. And it resulted in a very boho, colourful dream catcher.

Lovely autumn to you all!

Ikea Christmas 2016

For once, the weather in Finland is quite nice - for a September, that is. Summer weather was bad, but for some reason it has been a warm August and September. Today, even the sun is shining. Regardless, the winter is approaching. And Ikea knows it.

Christmas 2016 by Ikea:

All photos from: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/seasonal/winter_holidays/