DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

Milk cartons used as molds create cube-shaped hypertufa vessels, each sized for a single succulent. The tint variations are achieved by mixing in masonry stains. HOW-TO Pots with a Personal Touch: Hypertufa 1 Years ago at a flower show, a group of rustic garden containers caught my eye. They were made from a stonelike material known as hypertufa, which mimics a type of rock. As a crafts editor for Martha Stewart Living and a ceramicist, I was intrigued to learn that the planters were composed of just three accessible, inexpensive substances: perlite, Portland cement, and peat moss. When I realized pots so impressive could be shaped using basic molds, they became even more appealing. It's not often that a process as rudimentary as making mud pies yields such a sophisticated result. Faux Bois Planter Mold Leaf-Embossed Tabletop Mold More Container Garden Ideas Hypertufa was developed in the 1930s to replicate the stone troughs that w...

    The Badwater Ultra marathon  describes itself as  "the world's toughest foot race".  It is a 135-mile course starting at 282 feet  below sea level in the Badwater Basin, in California's Death Valley, and ending at an elevation of 8360 feet  at Whitney Portal, the trail head to Mount Whitney. It takes place annually in mid-July, when the weather conditions are most extreme and temperatures over 120 °F, even in the shade, are not uncommon. Consequently, very few people—even among ultramarathoners—are capable of finishing this grueling race.       Course     Originally, the run was conceived as being between the lowest and the highest points in the contiguous United States:  Badwater, Death Valley (−282 ft) and Mt. Whitney's summit (14,505 ft). The two are only eighty miles apart on the map, but the land route between the two points is substantially longer, 146 miles, because of detou...

Colorful Spiral Cookies Just try to be in a bad mood around one of these. Impossible! I was naturally drawn to these because of the bright, eye-catching swirl, not to mention the jumbo sprinkles-encrusted edges!  If anything, these should be the  SB  mascot, because they are everything I love.  Bright, happy, buttery and delicious. Also  versatile ! I spied these first  here , (green-tea version) and then  here  (peppermint version).  I've looked at these countless times, and I'm not sure why I didn't make these earlier.  Maybe because the dough is made in the food processor and I really hate digging / lugging that thing out of my pantry. I soon vowed to make my food processor more accessible because it did all of the work! Now I kinda wish all doughs could be made in the food processor. Another thing I love about these is that they are SLICE and BAKE. You could easily put the unused portion ...