Unicorn Jewelry Box Project

I was looking at unicorn jewelry boxes as a Christmas present for Zora. They were all basically the same and plastic. So I remembered that I had gotten an older jewelry box on one of my Vintage Lindy Lou shopping trips that I was at some point going to upcycle. It is wood with a paper covering glued on.also a couple weird snaps that at one time attached something. After finally prying those off I gave it about 3 coats of gesso. I sponged different colors on for a background. I drew out designs on paper, then traced them onto the box.I added glitter, gold paint and jewels at the end. I painted Zora's name and them covered with glitter and Mod Podge. It was fun to make with all the glitter and shiny stuff!

Inside the jewelry box

All ready to go!

Starting a new painting

Starting a new painting

Building a frame for
a painting

Painting papers to glue on the background of the painting for textures

Background finished now ready to start painting (finally!)

what the eff?

A tasty summer treat for these hot summer days for the doggie girls!

These are the picture steps:

Waiting...waiting...waiting..OK where are they already?

Tuesday

May-Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day

Me and my mother, Pauline on a lunch cruise on Keuka Lake -the Keuka Maid, Hammondsport, NY

My mother, me, Grandmother Thelma and my great grandmother Hattie King

Daisy the husky pup

Painting of my mother Pauline and her horse Queenie-not finished yet.

Miss Olivia wondering what I am doing.

Daisy loves to pose for photographs!

Miss Olivia and Daisy on a walk along the canal.

Mixed media painting of Daisy.

Women in my family, mixed media

thursday painting

March 24-28

Scenes of the week

Queen Catherine Falls in Montour Falls, NY

There actually wasn't any mud where the dogs were running. Or I should say that I didn't see any. Somehow Daisy found a little wet spot in this weird red dirt and just dug herself a hole so that she could get herself wedged down in there real good.She was so covered in every spot of her

 Moroccan Casserole with Green Olives

Tons of spices and lemon

Strata

Strata 

one box fresh wilted spinach

one layer hash browns or cooked potato slices

3/4 pkg deli ham

feta 1/2 c

cheddar 1/2-3/4 cup

3 slices 1" cubes bread

5 eggs whisked

3/4 c milk

nutmeg

pepper

chives parsley

350-375

casserole dish

about 50 min

Sicily

Me and my two girlfriends taking an afternoon ocean swim break from archaeological camp.

I am using this photo for a painting I have started working on

My Husky Miss Olivia

Always a new project

Cranberry Chutney and Candied Ginger

I wake up every morning with a list of new things to do or try each day. It really gets exhausting. The grocery store had a lot of bags of organic cranberries at a cheap price so I got a lot of them. I made loads of cranberry nut bread until now I am getting a little sick of it. So I thought I would try a cranberry chutney. Watching the Great British Bake Off so many times made me wonder about the ginger that they seem to use in tons of recipes. I looked it up to see what our equivalent was to the names they kept calling it. It seems that it is a candied or crystallized ginger. In the grocery store it was more money than I wanted to pay for it so I said to myself "why don't I just make it!" 

Candied Ginger

So I got a ginger root, sliced it up, boiled it in a sugar syrup few a long time. And the result was amazing! Totally scrumptious. I never had anything like it. Especially with the syrup.

Cranberry Chutney

When I made the chutney, I used the cranberries, apple, orange juice, raisins and the amazing ginger diced up. The recipe was loosely based on this one - Orange Cranberry Chutney from Taste of Home

My Recipe for Cranberry Chutney

fresh cranberries

an apple

1/4 c juice of one orange

some raisins

candied ginger plus a little of the syrup

apple cider vinegar

honey

Just put everything in a saucepan and cook together then let cool.

Salmon Pumpkin Dog Biscuits

Salmon and Pumpkin Doggie Treats

These are the ingredients. I try to use what I can that is organic. The salmon is wild caught and low sodium-important. I used gluten free flour and coconut flower just to try them. Regular flour or whole wheat or rice would work as well.

I put 2 large eggs + shells, 1 can salmon, 1 can pumpkin in the food processor and mixed until blended. Then added 1 cup of each of the flours (2 cups total-more if too soft) slowly in and continued mixing. I chilled the dough for about an hour. Then rolled out the dough onto a floured surface. Can make a long roll, chill and slice circles off.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

They were rolled to around a 1/4 inch thick. But could be various thicknesses. I used lots of flour because the dough stuck to the counter. I have seen recipes that used 3 cups of flour instead of the 2 that I used. I used a cookie cutter to shape them and then placed them on a cookie sheet sprayed with oil. Parchment paper will work well also. 

Bake for 15 minutes. I put them back in to dry crispy at 200 degrees for 25 minutes.

And here are a few of them. The recipe makes a lot. I would keep them in the refrigerator.

My doggies went crazy for them.

Simple, quick, and inexpensive especially if you buy good quality dog treats like me.