i got my bead on...

when my mom was here recently, we went to shipwreck beads out in lacey.  this place was friggin huge!  mom said it was like a big warehouse of beads and she was not joking.  it. was. awesome.

i haven't done much beading in years.  after the ridiculousness of my last year of college and the bead projects i did, i was a little burnt out.  i've been working on a single loomwork piece for over 10 years now and have yet to even get halfway done.  i will finish that thing before i die though.

so, blowing some money (thanks mom and debbie!!) at the bead store for some new necklaces and earrings was a nice change of pace.  i came home and pulled out some supplies and started in.

(this is not the extent of my boxes of beads by a loooong shot)

here's what i have done so far.  some easy necklaces and earrings.

there are matching earrings for the flower necklace and the bracelet and earrings under it are also a set.

i really liked these black and gold beads.  so pretty!

 quite a while ago i put some cork board in a picture frame i had so i could easily hang up my earrings and be able to see them as well.  i've also given some of these to friends as gifts.

i finally found a long frame i liked so i could hang my necklaces.  there's all sorts of room for more necklaces!!

now i just have to get the rest of the items made from my trip to the bead store!  YAY!  

my mom's delicious marinated veggies!

a couple of months ago my friend sarah and i had lunch and a canned food trade and i gave her one of my jars of my marinated veggies i made from my moms delicious recipe.  yesterday she decided to dive into the jar and apparently loved it and wanted the recipe.  

so here it is!!

my mom's delicious marinated veggies

the marinade:

• 1 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 cup oil (i used safflower)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1/2 tablespoon garlic salt

the veggies:

corn, tomato, cucumber, red and green peppers, olives, onion, broccoli, carrot, really whatever veggies you want.

so basically, i just used as many veggies as i wanted and made enough of the marinade to cover the veggies.  you chop all the veggies up as small (or large) as you want and put into a container, cover with the marinade and refrigerate for one week.

after the week is up, take them out of the fridge and can them using a simple canning type.  i boil my jars for 15 minutes, the lids for 5, fill them with the food, put the lids on and boil for 10 minutes.  done.  so simple.  

here is the book i use for my canning, it's super simple to read and follow the instructions: small batch preserving.  i think it's a great book and there are fantastic recipes in there.  like the recipe for raspberry grapefruit honey jelly that i make except i use blackberries instead of raspberries.  there's also pickled ginger in there.  i really need to make that.  i loooooooove pickled ginger. mmmmmmm.......

still scanning...

it's true...i'm still scanning the film from me and mom's trip down highway 101 last july.  here are some good shots!

the last roll of color:

oh god...this was trees of mystery in klamath, oregon.  i forget just how much i hate heights until i'm up in a friggin' gondola.  i spent the ride back down sitting down on the floor of the extremely flimsy gondola.  i think i'm gonna throw up...

eureka, california

the boardwalk, eureka california.  unfortunately on this boardwalk, there are no vampires.  hahahaha!

the last shot of color film for the trip. eureka, california.

and some from the first roll of black and white!  all black and white photos were taken with my holga 120N.

willapa national wildlife refugee, outside longbeach, washington.

long beach, washington.

ok! now only 4 more rolls of black and white to scan!

and here's one of seattle:

6:30 am, downtown...

prehistoric gardens...

and i'm still scanning the film from me and mom's trip down highway 101 in july.  we went to this great place called the prehistoric gardens in oregon.  it was great.  big enormous dinosaurs in this lush forest setting.  i had both my cameras with me...my kowa six, which i was only shooting color, and my holga, which i was using for black and white.  i took exactly one shot with the kowa six.  in color.  the rest of the shots from this awesome place are in black and white.  am i stupid?

don't answer that question.

cheese sticker coffee table...

a couple of weeks ago i went back to idaho for my step-sisters graduation from college.  i took some pics, but not too many.  i'll probably stick them up on their own post tomorrow.  anyway...my mom had found this cute, kind of crappy looking little coffee table.  and since i really like to cover wooden furniture with cheese stickers it came home with me be covered.

here it is before i did anything to it:

usually, i just use cheese stickers to cover the whole thing, but my mom sent home a bunch of bird and flower magazines with me so i got the bright idea to decoupage birds and butterflies on there also.  here's the ones i decided on.  

i figure one for wrapping around the base of each leg and 2 for the top of the coffee table.  i want to do this double fan design i thought of and that will give the corners an even better focus point.  and i thought that the birds would also kind of blend in with the cheese stickers my mom wanted, kind of like how birds blend in with trees and bushes at the same time they stand out in them.

i even managed not to slice my twinkies up using an x-acto knife:

i did the legs first just to get them out of the way.  here they are, drying from the ceiling after i put the first coat of modge podge on them:

i really like how they came out.  the birds and butterflies wrap around the bottoms, so you have to go all around them to see the whole thing.

then here are the stickers my mom wanted for the top of the table:

she really only told me about the oval ones.  i chose the green to make a nice checkerboard pattern for the bottom.  i have the oval ones on my kitchen table that i covered years ago.  you can kind of see the pattern in earlier posts with ravioli :)

but then i also chose a different sticker for the diagonal line down the middle and the edging around the coffee table.

here's my drawing of my guide lines for sticking the stickers on:

looks like a spiderweb.  apart from these lines, everything else is just stuck on by eyeballing it.

then almost halfway done putting the top stickers on:

now here is the bottom:

i like to do checkerboards on the bottom of tables and chairs.  it's easy and always looks nice.  even though you don't look at the bottom of tables and chairs, i can't leave them undone.  i'll know that it's totally finished.

and the final product!!!:

now i just have to put a million coats of clear finish on it.  that should take a couple of weeks.  i always coat it first with the modge podge and then with a clear lacquer of some kind.  this time i'm using a water based polyfinish.  the only problem is that it isn't very thick, so you gotta put like 30 coats on.  no shit.  takes forever.

but i really like how the birds came out with the stickers.  i hope my mom likes it...i think she will!!