Have A Hand Made Holiday!

The holidays are fast approaching and my mind is trending towards decorating.  I was searching Art Fire and Etsy for holiday items and came across these wonderful hand made items.  Hand made is always better than mass produced and I encourage everyone to get at least one handmade item this holiday season.

Here are my choices for the holidays.

Snowman Christmas Holiday Sign by WoodTicks

Counted Cross Stitch Pattern Peppermint Penguin by BlueMorningExpressions

Spooktacular Halloween Wreath by SolHeritage

 Christmas Candy Dish by GlassSculptureOrg

Santa Ornament by Fantasy Clay Store

Acorn Ornaments by Wyvern Designs

Pumpkin Art by SteelGoddess

Large Turkey Pumpkin Pokes by WoodnDoodads

Hand Made Give Thanks Polymer Clay Pumpkins by SkyArt

Thanksgiving Turkey Puzzle and Decor by BershireBowls

Frankenstein Halloween Canning Jar Light by UniqueShells

Primitive Halloween Witch Stovetop Covers by SleepyHollowPrims

Quick Italian or French Bread Pizza

I'm off to do my yoga practice but I thought I'd write a quick post.  Since it's Wednesday and the deadline for the Blogging Again blog post, I decided to include my recipe for a fast and easy summer time pizza.

 I hate cooking during the summer but unfortunately unless I wish to starve, I have to.  I don't have a gas grill and charcoal is just too time consuming and messy so I'm stuck with cooking inside.

I live in New England, and this summer has been reasonably mild, with low dew points and mild temperatures, but yesterday was a killer.  Temps in the 90's and dew points close to 70.  It was just a yucky, sticky day.  So I went looking in my frig for something quick to make.

If you read my Chicken Sausage and Quinoa Rice recipe post, you know how things in my frig tend to crawl to the back and sprout legs and teeth and molder into a sloppy mess.  Yesterday, I found some spaghetti sauce that hadn't quite gotten to that stage, so I pulled it out.  I had a French bread in the freezer, so out that came.

Peppers, onions and garlic, lurking in the veggie drawer were next.  There was some leftover chicken in the cold cut drawer that didn't fight too hard when I tried to retrieve it, so I figured it was still edible.  My garden supplied me with fresh basil, so I was off to the races!

Here's my recipe for French or Italian Bread Pizza.  I'm sure there's a million of them out there but here's mine.


French or Italian Bread Pizza

 French or Italian bread
Canned or home made spaghetti sauce
Peppers, onions, mushroom or whatever you like on your pizza, thinly sliced
Garlic, chopped.  (We like fresh chopped garlic on our pizza, but you can omit it if you don't.)
Fresh or dried basil
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Leftover chicken, sausage, meatball, or pepperoni, or whatever you have in the frig

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Warm the sauce up a bit to make spreading easier.

Cut bread in half lengthwise.  Spread sauce and cheese over bread.  Add thinly sliced veggies and meat.  Top with chopped garlic and basil.

Bake for 10-15 minutes and there you go!  Serve with the salad of your choice.

 This is great left over, as well.  My husband takes it for lunch and he has his co-workers drooling over his desk.  Quite messy but a hazard when you bring something home made and tasty to work!  I suggest you supply extra napkins.

Red Is For....

Red is such a vibrant color and comes in many shade and hues, from a deep blood red, to scarlet, to rose.  Red is the color of passion and it's closely related emotion, anger, because remember the line from the song, "there's a thin line between love and hate."

Red is for Valentine's and the predominant color that symbolizes Christmas.  But however you look at it, red is a wonderful color for clothing, jewelry and home decor.  Here are some fabulous reds that I found from some of my favorite shops around the web.

Catnip Pillow Set of Four by SmokyMountainAccessories

 

Scarlet Impression Jasper Bead Wire Wrap Ring by CrystalBazaar

Southwest Native American Style Hatband by AJWhatBands

Two Red Felted Bangle Bracelets by ValeriesStuff

Set of Two Firebrick Red Beverage Mugs by PotteryHeaven

Polymer Clay Red Bird Hanging Ornament by FantasyClayStore

Black and Red Stretch Flower Bracelet by WyvernDesigns

Truly Handmade

It's getting harder and harder to find truly hand made items.  Okay, I know technically, anything you put together by hand qualifies as handmade but, maybe I'm a hand made snob, because I think that at least some of the material included in a hand made piece should be, well, hand made.   I know I'll probably get some hate mail for saying that , but, so be it!

I'm not saying that those jewelry designers who use their eye for design and color and string together purchased beads and/or stones are not artists.  But I always like to see something that was actually formed by their own hands included, as well.  I'm in awe of those who can wire wrap a bead or stone and not have it look like a three year old did it. (My wire wrapping skills are on par with said three year old).

I like hand drawn, hand painted, hand sculpted.  Most likely, that's why I like to work with polymer clay.   I've chosen a few truly hand made items from the Art Fire Bloggers Guild for this post.


Polymer Clay Bracelet byCraftsOfThePast Polly Creamica Designer

Corduroy Fedora by Hat-A-Tude

  

Dolphins by KanweieneaKreations

Terracotta Lampwork Earrings by ShadowdogDesigns

3-D Daffodill Wall Hanging by CouchBeeCreations

Blue/Pink Cotton Summer Shawl by AndreaDsigns

And I'm not above adding one of my own pieces to the mix!
Bohemian Beaded Batick Bracelet by WyvernDesigns

Come and Get It! Hand Made Doggy Place Mat For Your Messy Eater

My dog, Finn, is an extremely messy eater and drinker.  He eats mostly dry food and along with the crunch, crunch, slurp, slurp comes the sound of him spitting pieces of food out onto the floor.  I don't know why.  All the food pieces are the same.  It's not like some are steak flavored and, oh so, yummy and some are ginger flavored, which he hates and will bark and snarl at me when I grate fresh ginger for my tea.   But whatever the reason, I'm always stepping on pieces of spit-out food.  Sometimes, they are just pulverized under my foot, but sometimes they slide underfoot and I end up doing the splits across the kitchen floor.  That is not pleasant, as my body is no longer built to perform such acrobatic acts and I often limp for days after doing myself a mischief.


After my last unintended acrobatic feat, I decided to make him a place mat.  Not that it will stop him from spitting out food but hopefully, I'll take more notice and avoid any further mishaps.

So here's my tutorial for Finn's Favorite Place Mat.

Materials

 29" X 17" piece of canvas
Metal yardstick
Artists Acrylic  gesso
Base coat color(I used an ugly green that I had on hand. But once I added the copper glaze, it kind of looks like copper with a green patina.)
Metallic acrylic paint (Folk Art copper, plum, emerald green black, champagne, taupe)
Sea sponge
Assorted brushes
1 1/2" tall Alphabet stencils (You can purchase them or make your own, like I did, out of ordinary card stock)
pencil for tracing
MinWax Polycrylic sealer

Step 1:  Cut out a rectangle of canvas measuring 29" X 17" or the size of your choice, making sure to include a 2" border on all 4 sides.


Step 2:  Using gesso, cover the surface of the canvas.  Allow the gesso to dry according to the directions between coats.  I gave each side 2 coats of gesso.

Step 3: Paint the entire surface, with base coat.  Let dry.

Step 4:  Mix copper metallic paint with a glazing medium.   Paint a thin coat over half the canvas at a time and pounce over surface with the sea sponge, to create the textured look surface.  Be sure to blot the sponge on paper towels occasionally to remove excess paint and glaze.  Repeat with with the other half of the canvas.  Let dry and repeat on the other side of canvas.

Step 5:  Using metal ruler and pencil, draw a two inch border around all sides of the canvas.  With either purchased stencils or hand made stencils trace the saying"EAT, DRINK, AND BE FURRY", along the top and bottom of the place mat.  Also trace the paw print in each corner.

Step 6:  Using black metallic paint, fill in the letters and paw prints.

Step 7:  Using a bowl with a larger circumference that your dog's food and water bowl trace two circles in the center of the mat.  Trace a smaller circle inside those circles.  Although it's hard to see that's what I did in the picture below.

Step 8:  Paint the outer(larger) circle with emerald green and the inner (smaller) circle with plum.  Also trace and paint the bone motif on either sides of the circles.

Step 8:  After everything is completely dry, coat the front and back of the place mat with the polycrylic sealer.  Give each side 2 coats and let dry the recommended time between coats.

Once you're through, you'll have a wonderful washable doggy place mat for your furry companion!

This mat should not be immersed in water.  Just wipe it clean with a damp cloth.

Creatures!

Everyone has a most favorite creature and , no doubt, a least favorite.  Some people have a deep aversion to snakes, spiders, or bats.  Most people love dogs, cats or anything furry and cuddly.  The only creatures that I dislike are blood suckers.  No I don't mean vampires, although, if I met one, I might be adverse to letting it come too close.  I mean ticks, mosquitoes, horse flies and the like.  I happen to love snakes, lizards, toads, frogs, and bats.  But then, I've been told that I'm not normal in that respect.  But, whatever your favorite animal is, you're sure to love these handmade beauties from the Blogging Again Ring on Face Book.





Halloween Rate Yarn Wreath by SolHeritage  started out as a joke between the creator and her Dad.  It features two "faux" rats, one of which is clutching an eyeball!
Perfectly macabre for Halloween!

Mrs. Hoot and Owlivia by TLYarnCrafts  are hand crocheted pushies, made to order by their creator.  20% of all revinue from these little cuties goes to support non-profit programs that support women and girls inn leadership, sports, and the arts.

Angelina Ballerina Ornament by FantasyClayStore  
This little  mouse ornament is polymer clay over glass and is lightweight.  It would be a wonderful addition to any Christmas tree or little girl's room.

Scraps of glass were added to these Ceramic Butterfly Wine Glass Charms by Pottery Heaven  to create the different colors on each butterfly.

 

And since I'm not totally selfless, I thought I'd add my Quote The Raven Nevermore Earrings by WyverndDesigns 

I hope you enjoy these creature finds as much as I enjoyed finding them.

Chicken Sausage and Quinoa and Brown Rice Quick Skillet Dinner

Last night, I was in a quandry about what to make for supper.  We eat a lot, and I mean, a lot of chicken breast dishes, like 5 times a week, so I really was not in the mood for chicken.  I was standing in front of my open refrigerator door, staring blankly at its contents (as I am wont to do on occasion. Okay, more than on occasion, more like every night, trying to decide what to make), when I realized that I had a package of chicken sausage (I know, technically it's still chicken but at least it's in a different form),  hidden in the back of the cold cut drawer.  I didn't hide it there on purpose but things in my frig have a tendency to crawl to the back and molder,  for some strange reason.

Anyway, I pulled out the sausage, it had not yet grown legs or teeth, so it didn't put up much of a fight,  and set it on my counter.  "What do you want to go along with you?"  I asked it.  I do talk to my food, sometimes.  It hasn't yet answered, but I haven't given up hope.  True to form, the sausage stayed silent on the subject so I was left on my own. 

I didn't want to spend a lot of prep time on supper.  After all, I have better things to do, like take a nap, or maybe watch paint dry.  So back into the frig for some mushrooms, celery, and green peppers. They had not crawled to the back of the frig but only because they were trapped in the veggie drawer.  I also grabbed garlic and a package of that 90 second microwave rice, some red hot pepper flakes, and creole seasoning I bought because my local store was out of Adobo.

So, chop, chop, slice slice, I cut up all the ingredients, including the chicken sausage, popped it into my skillet with some olive oil and voila!, instant (almost) supper.  I added the quinoa and rice last, just to warm it up.

It was pretty good, if I do say so myself and took less than thirty minutes from blank stare to table.  I'm including the recipe, minus pictures because we ate it too fast for pictures, just in case you'd like to try it yourself.


 Chicken Sausage and Quinoa(pronounced kin-wa) and Brown Rice Quick Skillet Dinner  Serves 3, unless your really hungry, then only 2

1 package Alfresco Smoked Andouille Chicken Sausage
1 package Seeds of Change Quinoa and Brown Rice (microwave kind)
1/2 green pepper, slice
1 medium onion, sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
Creole seasoning and red hot pepper flakes to taste
fresh ground black pepper
olive oil

Saute the onions, peppers, and celery in the olive oil until just tender.  Add garlic and chicken sausage, adding a bit more olive oil, if necessary.  Saute until chicken sausage is warmed, the sausage is already fully cooked, so warming is all that's necessary.  Add the package of rice with water, as instructed in the package directions, and cook for a few minutes.
Serve with your favorite veggie, we had corn on the cob,   and maybe some garlic bread.

This is a quick and easy supper and it's pretty healthy as well.  Enjoy!