A new project has been added to the site that shows how to make cold poured candles. This is an extremely simple technique for making a rustic looking candle with lots of texture.

See: Cold Pour Candle Project

This recipe is a sugar cookie variant for cinnamon lovers.

See: Cinnamon Swirl Cookie Recipe

It has been a while since I wrote about absurdities, so lets try this one. Is there no one in the automotive industry that can recognize a bad ad when they see it? I won’t mention any names here because I refuse to give any publicity to companies that seem to be in the business of annoying me.

The past month or so has seen TV viewers bombarded with car ads suggesting they make great Holiday gifts. I have never noticed this in previous holiday seasons so I assume it is a new trend. I have never received or given such a lavish gift, and I’m pretty sure such giving is well beyond the means of the vast majority of U.S. residents (including me). So I asked myself what would make several automotive companies push their high priced products as Christmas presents? Are they trying to make us feel cheap or Inadequate? Are they trying to rub our nose in the fact we can’t afford such lavish gifts? I certainly don’t have a good answer for this, but find these ads rather offensive and really don’t understand how this type of ad can possibly sell more cars.

The absurdities of car ads doesn’t end there though. Over the past year or so, I have seen many car ads that try to entice folks to buy because they have a free satellite radio. Now maybe I have a distorted perspective, but are there many folks stupid enough to buy a $40,000 vehicle because it comes with a “free” satellite radio package worth $200? How generous - a whopping 1/2% discount!

Then there is the German car maker whose ads are plainly intended to be funny. A few of them actually are (very few), but most are about as funny as a toothache and just as annoying. The worst part is, they run the funny ads infrequently for a few weeks but run the annoying ads constantly for months. They obviously have a big advertising budget, so why not hire an ad agency that can get their message out without irritating the entire population?

What happened to the good old days when they used attractive men and women to sell cars? The advertising crowd seems to have lost sight of this basic motivation - folks plucking down a year or two’s pay want to think it will make them more attractive, macho, virile, etc… even if it isn’t true. The folks selling small trucks seem to have the concept, why not for cars?

Now couple that with comedy and you will have ads that folks talk about in a positive way.

This fun project shows how to make life size roses with chocolate. This is a simple sculpting process that does not require a mold. Illustrated step by step instructions. Although this project article deals only with chocolate, the same technique may be used with most clay type sculpting mediums such as polymer clay.

See: Sculpting Chocolate Roses

Learn how to make chocolate for sculpting from easily obtained materials. Instructions include recipe and illustrated step by step directions. This is the first of several articles related to sculpting chocolate.

See: Making Sculpted Chocolate

A  new project article has been uploaded to the site which shows how to make candles which look like blueberry muffins. These are a great faux food candle which don’t require a candle mold.

See: Blueberry Muffin Candle

After a very pleasant Christmas morning with my family, I was very disappointed to find that Santa’s reindeer had left a little surprise under the tree behind the presents.

My Grandmother’s rolled sugar cookie recipe. My all time favorite cookie.

See: Grandma’s Sugar Cookies

A great gingerbread recipe along with illustrated decorating instructions.

See: Gingerbread Cookies

My latest article shows how to make chocolate truffles that resemble miniature snowballs. Illustrated and includes a truffle recipe for chocolate coatings.

See: Snowball Truffle Chocolate Project