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Thank you! I am still trying to improve my "in the field" ID skills. Humboldt is a great place to practice!

Hi Stacey! You are right. THANKS! As I mentioned to Sara above, I am still trying to "up my game" on "in the field" identification. Thanks for sharing with my other viewers. We all need to try and get the word out about natives and embrace others who are trying to learn and bring biodiversity into their yards. Together we can help save the planet!

That is a GREAT tip. I will have to try this!

You bet!

THANKS! I wash them by hand with woolight in a sink with cold water, and hang dry. Then if need be, use a luke-warm iron to get any wrinkles out gently, or a steamer. Good luck with your project!

How? Can you share? That would be great because then you only make what you need!

Hi Renuka! Thanks for stopping by. I explain it all in the video, including how to position the oven door. You can put your own spice mix to your liking on these, but I used balsamic, marjoram, basil, salt and pepper. You can go spicier. More Mediterranean? Middle Eastern flavors? It's up to you. Dry in the oven for 10-12 hours, depending.

Yay! It's a great little town.

I appreciate that!

GREAT TIP!!

You can add anything in these....strawberry jam, ANY fruit spread really, nuts, raisins, just use your imagination !

Shoot. Yes, I guess I jumped over that part! I am so sorry. So yes, I mounded it up on the back to the size I wanted, and as it sits it gets harder and more pliable, so it was easily shaped into a base. It sort of was liek working with wet bread dough, that eventually comes together. Then I kept patting the top-down as flat as possible with the palm of my hand so it would sit as flat as possible on the ground when I turned it right side up, which at the end of the day didn't even matter because what I did was dig a little hole in the dirt for the base, to set the birdbath in my garden bed. SO flat is good but not as necessary as I thought originally. I hope that helps! Again, sorry I got too zealous with editing!

It was! Thanks!

@@TheUrbanDomesticDiva Thanks for replying to me it makes me feel special because people say I'm not special ):

btw you so cool because you have like 42 thousand views on this vid you must be rich

i wish i was rich :( :(

Yes, we did not mix the cement well enough and the first one was crumbly. You have to get that water mixed in well. It has held up though, even with the weather extremes.

THANK SO MUCH!!

Yes! If you did that they would last years!

nice tip!

So glad I can help! Now get in the kitchen and get cooking! LOL!

The ball jars claim 18 mos. and I can attest to that! I have found the plum and roma tomatoes to be the best for this, they have more pulp/flesh vs liquid. Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

@@TheUrbanDomesticDiva tomato water is delicious. The serve it in Michelin restaurants. all you do is crush the tomatoes, put them in fine cloth suspended over a bowl over night and all the excess tomato water separates. I might try it that way :)

Nice tip!

Thank YOU! Now get in the kitchen and get cooking! ;)

I actually did not use one, I just used outdoor acrylic paint to color it. It stayed outside last winter on accident, and it still looks good! But if you wish to seal it, Eco_Advance looks like a nice option (on Amazon), and it is nontoxic so it won't leach into the water to affect birds and pollinators. If anyone else in the community has any recommendations for Sue, please share! Thanks a lot for coming by! Good luck with your project!

Great tip! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Laura! I just saw your comment because the almighty youtube was holding a bunch of my comments w/o me knowing. :( I would definitely look into native flowering plants for Wyoming. Native plants do much better than hybrids/cultivars because they have grown accustomed to the climate, soil and pollinators. This looks like a good list! www.americansouthwest.net/plants/wildflowers/wyoming.shtml I plant native and non-natives (like my poor roses!) in my beds, but my natives do MUCH better and studies show that bees are 4 times more likely to pollinate a native flower vs a non-native. And I am ALL about helping the bees right now. Thanks for stopping by! Wyoming sounds much more scenic than Chi-town. :)

@@TheUrbanDomesticDiva I am so grateful for your reply! Thank you for the advice because this old dog needs some new gardener tips. My garden looks like it has been abandoned lol. Life has taken over my life!

Great tips! Thanks for sharing with the community!

These are AWESOME plus-ups. Thank you for sharing this with us. Is portland cement easy to find? I would love to try this technique on the next few stones I need to make to finish the woodland garden path. Thank you for stopping by the channel!

Ooo. I would say yes, especially if hung because the metal is lightweight AND can stand up to weather. Once you add mosaics and grout, it will "gain some weight" so you don't want the surface to add extra weight to it. Like my video suggests, scratch up the metal a little before starting. Good luck with your project! Ours has been outside through polar vortexes and harsh winters for years and it has held up just fine. Good luck with your project! Feel free to post your picture on my facebook page and share it with the community! Would love to see it!!

Thank you! I am bound and determined to make these PERFECT! I found one more recipe in a new German baking cookbook that I am going to try this December. ROUND 3! Thanks for the advice. Maybe third time is the charm. I also think I need to use more Hartshorn next time too.

@@TheUrbanDomesticDiva at the bottom of this link is the recipe i use with great success blog.springerlejoy.com/classic-springerle-cookies/

@@movourneen Thank you, I will check it out. I am curious about butter. It seems many traditional German versions just use the eggs and no fat, but one of the cookie mold companies uses a whole stick of butter. What have you found? I even asked my neighbor who is Austrian and an amazing baker, hoping she had a version of this in her cookbooks (I know Austrian baking is different than German, but they are close and maybe she had something), and she had never made them. She did say that mine tasted like the real deal. But I am not happy with how they rose and they could have been more tender.

@@TheUrbanDomesticDiva ​ I've looked at many books going back to the early 1900s and they are like the link I sent you. Some have old family recipes that I personally suspect may have been a recipe that just happened to work with the molds. One of the cookie companies does have butter in their recipe. Those using that recipe feels the butter keeps the cookies longer or perhaps have a little different taste. I've made that recipe but the butter causes a different rise - top and bottom and sometimes the tops crack after cooling so I stopped using it. If you go to Facebook, I am an administrator for The Springerle Appreciation group. We have many recipes there and tons of advice. I have done a bunch of HELP documents. It is an interesting group and I think you would enjoy it. The recipes in the files are for use by the members of the group. -- Be sure to answer the questions upon joining.

Hi there! You can skim coat some grout to fill in on the top. My mosaic address number video shows how to work with grout. Also check out epoxy resin? I have not tried resin, and not sure how well it would stand up to weather. But it would fill in the grooves and give you a shiny flat surface, I think?

Thank so much! They are holding up pretty well, polar vortexes and all! Thanks for stopping by!

Interesting. Good to know! Thanks for sharing with the community!

You're right boil the water first once if cools down a bit add the ingredients that's what was done where I worked.

@@charizmaticchronicles Thanks for the tip! I love when viewers share their tips, ideas and inspiration with my creative community. GREAT tip! Thank you!

Oo, tricky question. It depends on size of your mold. For my big molds that are the oil drip pans fro the dollar store, I would say a 1/4 of a bag? Or you can buy a small canister of quickcrete versus the heavy bags (which I hate carrying in and out of the car).

Thanks!

Hi there! That is a GREAT question. I found that the cement gets them buried enough that it sort of smooths them out. In fact, if you see in the last part of the video I need to brush off a lot of the cement to unearth the tiles a bit. I go barefoot on mine and my footsies are fine. But if you are concerned, maybe use flatter mosaic tiles from craft stores or home improvement tiles found in the bath dept, they will sit flat and have smoother edges. Broken plates and such will have sharper edges and maybe a concern. Good luck with your project!

good luck with your project!

Yes! All you need is the texture and shape so that should work as long as the veining is deep enough. Just be sure to use vaseline or spray it down with oil so it releases. Should work great! Good luck with your project!