In this series of videos, Melinda Cerritos of Four Paws Pantry in Virginia goes over the basics of making her doggy trail mix. She uses dry breakfast cereals, carob chips, butter, cheese powder, Pupperoni, and brown gravy mix. None of these are terribly healthy for your dog, so you wouldn’t want to feed this constantly — it’s a treat for a reason!

In the second video, she talks about how to pick the best ingredients for the trail mix, explaining how for smaller dogs the cereals can easily be broken in half to accommodate them. The Pupperoni pre-packaged treats can also be substituted for your dog’s favorite treat.

Part three goes over the ingredients measurements, part four gets down to business with making the trail mix, part five is the baking, and part six is storage.

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Video: How to Make Doggy Trail Mix

My husband, who has owned two separate ferrets at two separate times when he was a young adult, loves them but says the biggest drawback that he found was the smell. Even with both of them having been neutered, he said they still have a distinct odor, even if it’s not as strong as it would normally be.

Anyway, even though they’re not a pet I think we’ll ever have, Monkeysee has some great instructional videos on caring for a pet ferret. In the videos, Robin Hochgertel of Ferrets First talks about proper diet, grooming and hygiene, training, housing requirements, toys and playtime, outdoor safety, and medical issues.

Do you have ferrets? What advice would you give to a new ferret owner?

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How to Care for a Ferret

Does your sewing machine affect your social life?

How about your energy at the end of the day?

Well, even if you haven’t, this clip of Betty Hutton singing “The Sewing Machine” is sure to make any seamstress (sewer just doesn’t look right, somehow) smile or even laugh…

Admittedly, I don’t get out and do a lot of dancing these days, but it’s still a fun little bit of sewing humor

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Your Daily Dose of Sewing Humor

With the popularity of home cooking shows, celebrity chefs and a huge amount of information about them on the internet, , though, I’ve become a little more accepting of the cute little yellow pests as a form of nourishment. This doesn’t, however, mean I’ve tried them yet!

So when I came across the video series at MonkeySee about making your own dandelion wine, I was intrigued. I’ve heard of it before in more a passing kind of way — a link online or a mention from a tv chef — but I’d never given much thought to trying it, much less making my own!

In the video series, Phil Tonks of Grandview Winery explains the basics of dandelion wine making, and to be honest, it doesn’t look that difficult!

He explains that it’s important to pick dandelions that have not been sprayed and to choose plants that are about a foot long and whose flowers, which are what is used to make the wine, have not turned white. (Even the dandelion leaves don’t go to waste — they can be used in a fresh, nutritious salad!)

It takes eight cups of just dandelion petals (no green) to make one gallon of wine!

The next video is about the equipment used in making the dandelion wine. Then there’s the dandelion fermentation process, racking the wine, and bottling the wine.

Have you ever had dandelion wine? Have you ever tried making it?

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Make Your Own Dandelion Wine

Grumpy.

It can pull, twist, wrinkle and generally be a pain to deal with it.  But honestly, it really doesn’t have to be.  Amy from Angry Chicken , has put together a little instructional video for working with bias tape – and how can you resist a sewing tutorial with puppets?

I personally prefer to pin my bias tape, especially if I’m sewing a long strip of it.  If you have a walking foot, they can also be very handy for bias tape stitching.

So now you can finish binding your blankets, crafts and quilts – without swearing

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Sewing Bias Tape… Without Swearing

Comedian Leslie Hall is known for her over-the-top embellished sweaters (check out her tongue in cheek gallery on her website)  In this video she celebrates the creation of the "worlds largest gem sweater"… complete with backup knitters!

Put down the beverages while you watch though…

See, isn’t a little laughter a good way to start the day?  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go make something sparkly

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Crafty Giggles for the Weekend

The team from Threadbanger have come up with a great way to breathe new life into an elderly wool sweater.  Just make sure your sweater is actually wool, because it won’t felt otherwise.

There are so many options for making a felted wool sweat your own – the sky really is the limit.  So have fun, don’t be afraid to be creative and explore your notions cupboard

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Upcycling Thrift Store Wool Sweaters

The plant fibers dissolve, leaving a sheer mesh of the synthetic – creating a lacey, elegant fabric.

Here are two different videos explaining some basic devore techniques.  In the first one, fiber artist Dionne Swift explains the basic process, and the fabrics used:

The second video shows how to use devore to create a cutwork piece.

Just remember, any time you’re using chemicals in your studio – take the appropriate precautions!

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You’re Doing WHAT To That Fabric?

Threadbanger has a great how-to video for transforming a dated 80s dress (save money and hit the thrift store!) into a dress that will wow the crowd today.

This is still a pretty challenging DIY project, but it’s a great way to save some $$$ and create a unique dress – all at the same time!

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DIY Prom

I once dyed some raw mohair (from my own goats) using onions.  It produces the most gorgeous deep golden yellow!  Unfortunately, it smells incredible…

And not incredible in a good way!

I’m not sure if it was just the combination of goat and onion, but I’d highly recommend dyeing outside, or in a well-ventilated area.  I just don’t think my family appreciated the odor…

The fiber was amazing to work with though!

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Natural Fabric Dyes