One more thing...

... before we go into the new year and I forget about this craft! As you may know, I have a crab cookie cutter, and while I got my fill of crab-shaped cookies this year I wanted to make one more craft during the holiday season. That's when I saw this craft and modified it for you to make:

Nautical Cinnamon Ornaments

(I looked up "cinnamon crabs" to see if I could tie it into a Crabday, but no luck there, folks.)

What you need:

3/4 cup applesauce
1 cup + 2 tbsp cinnamon
Tools: bowl, cookie cutters, a straw, and ribbon or string

That's it!

Mix the applesauce and cinnamon in a bowl. You can use a spoon or your hands. This stuff is messy! I used a spoon first then finished kneading with my hands at the very end before rolling it out.

Total honesty moment here: I didn't know if my mixture was perfect. I watched this video and the woman says, "If this mixture seems too dry to you..." and I was all, "How do I know if it's too dry or wet?" I based it off of how frustrated I got when cutting the shapes out: if they crumbled (which they did), I added a bit more applesauce. If they stuck to the inside of the cookie cutter (which they did), I added a bit more cinnamon. It wasn't pretty, but at least I smelled good while doing it.

So, back to rolling out the dough: put the mixture between two sheets of plastic wrap then gently roll out to about 1/4-inch thickness.

Cut your shapes and place them on a baking sheet. Once they're on the baking sheet, you can use the straw to poke out little holes for your string or ribbon. You need to do this before they're baked!

shapes set and ready to be transferred to the baking sheet

Bake these bad boys at 200 degrees F for 2.5 hours. You can also simply leave them someplace dry for 1 or 2 days if you don't want to run your oven for that long. I did a slight combination of the two (I ran out of time with this craft and needed the oven to bake our Christmas ham!) so I let them dry for a day after they had baked for an hour and a half.

Once they're nice and dry, you can decorate them with paint or metallic markers, or leave them plain. Hang them on your tree and enjoy the warm scent of cinnamon for holidays to come! (Just don't eat 'em! Seriously. Don't.)

Some of the finished ornaments! (See the other crab ornament back there?)

Adam wanted the crab to have different colors

on the tips of its claws like a white-tipped mud crab:

Rhithropanopeus harrisii, aka cute little mud crab!

We saw these little guys all over the place when we lived on Long Island. I'm also a bit smitten because some of them are Polish (albeit invasive from North America), just like my husband and me! (We're Polish, not invasive.)

Oh geez, this post got away from me. Onward to the New Year!

Merry Christmas 2013!

Merry Christmas!

This holiday season was another one filled with friends, family, and cookies! Sherry Tamone hosted another cookie cooking extravaganza and this was our haul:

cookies, good company, and wine!

She made several crab sugar cookies for us to decorate. I took advantage of some of the broken ones by making this Frankencrab:

"I'm a monster!"

He reminded me of all the crabs and lobsters I've seen with multiple claws where they should only have one. No one can really pinpoint why that happens, but I imagine it's some sort of crossed signaling that occurs during regeneration and molting.

this claw belongs to an edible crab (Cancer pagurus) found off of the UK - 

normally their claws have a crushing strength of 90 lb/square inch, 

so I wonder if this one has 180 lbs/square inch!?!?

Frankencrab or not, everyone deserves a happy holiday!

Holiday snow [crab] balls!

Need a craft for this holiday season that's easy and inexpensive? And, of course, crab themed? Me too!

I was inspired again by Martha Stewart this year to make snow [crab] ball ornaments for around the house (remember the Martha-inspired glittered crab cards from last year?). I figured making paper ornaments out of recycled paper from my school would be the perfect way for this grad student to spread holiday cheer on little-to-no dough! (Although I will be making cookies too... does that count? Hey-oh!)

recycled papers and old folders = craft supplies

Let's get to it! The paper ornaments I found are so easy to make. They're actually little cubes with pretty designs.

I really like the look of these ornaments, but let's make them crabby!

Directions:
1. Print out 6 circles (or 3 of these templates):

so pretty!



2. Fold the edges up so that you have nice surfaces to glue your squares together into a cube.

halfway there!

(and yes, those are mini clothes pins)

3. Add a ribbon or fishing line and hang with glee!

For the daring decorator, you can also make this behemoth using 20 circles!

this ball is made up of old Christmas cards -

brilliant! But not crabby enough!!

Directions:

1. Print out 20 circles (or 10 of these templates):

2. Bend the edges up and glue 5 of the circles together to form a dome. Do the same with 5 other circles so that you have 2 domes. These will be the top and bottom of your ornament.

3. To each dome, attach 5 more circles along the bottom edge to make a sort of jagged row/star shape. Do you see where this is going?

4. Glue the jagged edges of the top and bottom dome together to get your ball! Don't forget to add string or ribbon so you can hang it proudly in your home!

If you want to make your own crab design, here are some blanks:

oh, the joys of creative freedom!

And if you want to make a king crab ball to go with your snow crab balls, click here for the directions to make this crab pod from World Animal Day:

another Martha-inspired, crab-tastic ball!

Happy decorating and

Happy Holidays!

Shopping for a crab lover?

Don't worry, I've got you covered! Whether you're hunting for a Christmas crab gift, a Chanukkah crab present, or simply a winter holiday crab treat, here are some ideas:

Robotic crabs! (And not like those tricky fiddler crab robots.)

These HEXBUG crabs walk around, react to loud noises,

and hide under dark places!

This little gal is another robotic crab, but this time in hermit crab form:

the catch with these Xia-Xia crabs is you can trade their shells!

If you want to go the more hand-crafted route, never fear because Etsy is here!

You can make your own horseshoe crab! So cute and unique!

(If you don't know how to crochet, there's a link to pre-made beauties.)

Finally, for those Krab lovers (fake crab meat really made out of a

ground pollock product called surimi), there's this adorable

plush California sushi roll! Yum!

OK, so I totally realize that only one of these products I've shown you can even be considered a true crab (that is, a brachyuran crab), which doesn't include hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs, or fake crab "meat". But that's not stopping me from enjoying these crab goodies! So happy shopping!

Merry Christmas!

How fitting is it that the most wonderful time of the year has its own island (Christmas Island) and that island is also called “the kingdom of the crabs” and “the crabbiest place in the world”? Two happier things couldn’t be combined!

Coconut crab (Birgus latro)

(photos from ag.gov.au)

Christmas Island red crabs (Gecarcoidea natalis)

heading to sea

Christmas Island is home to 20 terrestrial and intertidal crabs, including coconut crabs (a personal favorite: I’ve seen these guys in the Solomon Islands) and red crabs. The latter are famous for their massive march to the sea from their jungle home:

(I strongly encourage you to watch all the National Geographic videos on the red crab migration [millions of crab babies!!], but I’ll warn you now: you will come to hate yellow crazy ants!)

SO MANY BABIES!

Red crabs undergo an incredible physiological change when embarking on their journey: they have to get their muscles from couch-potato to marathon-runner, which involves changes in their gene expression (rather than an 18 week training program. Lucky!). Scientists from the University of Bristol just published an article on red crab leg muscles, and it is covered quite splendidly here.

I’ll leave you with my take on a Christmas Island Christmas tree:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Red crab reading:

Postel, U., F. Thompson, G. Barker, M. Viney, and S. Morris. 2010. Migration-related changes in gene expression in leg muscle of the Christmas Island red crab Gecarcoidea natalis: seasonal preparation for long-distance walking. Journal of Experimental Biology 213: 1740-1750.

Glittered holiday crab cards

Taking a page from Martha Stewart, I decided to share a fun card idea with you:

Step 1:

Download this crab cutout and print it on white paper or cardstock (you can also make a template to trace onto your paper each time). Cut along the black lines, leaving the tips of the legs and the sides of the claws connected where the blue dashed line runs. (Don't cut the legs and chelae off though, and try not to eyestalk-ablate them.)

Step 2:

Fold your crab! If you used a template you don’t have to worry about lines showing, but if you just printed directly onto the cardstock, make sure the printed side is face down. Add glitter!! I used glitter paint, but Martha is a fan of the glue-glitter combo.

Step 3:

Glue your crab to a cardstock background (I used yellow, but you could use whichever color you prefer) and delight a loved one with your home-made card!

I linked up to this blog: