Vanilla Scented House

I have a teenager, an occasionally funky smelling 15 year old teenage boy. He lives in our living room and only goes to his room to sleep or to lay in bed and watch videos. However, the whole house can end up having that funky teenage smell. I found this pin on Pinterest and was so excited to try it. My house ended up smelling delicious! I used more vanilla than suggested because I had such an overpowering smell to conquer. 

How to Make Your Whole House Smell Good

Hush / Sensory Bottles

Another thing that I've tried from Pinterest was a gift for my nephews. I created Hush / Sensory / Calm Down / Whatever You Want to Call Them bottles. I have a secret board filled with ideas for babies and toddlers, things that I can make or buy for Q and D. 

There are SO MANY different versions to choose from but a few of my favourites are:

Hush Bottles

Another Sensory Bottle

Jellyfish in a Bottle

Tornado in a Bottle

And a link to someone who has collected bottle posts

These are the bottles that I created for Q. I included one that has a couple of rubber balls, another one with beads that rattle, and they all have glitter and food colouring as well as clear dishwashing soap, Aleene's Tacky Glue and clear baby oil. I also used some glittery Elmer's Glue. 

They're very simple to create but it's trial and error. I messed up a few bottles because the colours didn't mix well or there were weird lumps. 

 These are the bottles with everything settled.

These are the bottles after I shook them up.

This is a little bag that I bought in the craft section of Walmart. I bought the iron on letters but glued them on with E6000, my most favourite brand of glue. 

If you're going to be giving these bottles to toddlers, I highly recommend gluing the lids down with E6000. I put the glue high up around the rim of the bottle (right where a person's lips would touch) and then twisted the lid on tight. I know bottles go into the mouths of toddlers so I didn't want Q to put the bottle in his mouth and get glue in it.

Dichroic and PMC Snowflake Necklace

One of my most favourite pieces that I created at home was a combination of dichroic glass and PMC (Precious Metal Clay). I used the paper version of PMC that is absolutely brilliant. You can fold it into origami shapes (my Chinese throwing star will be another post), use it in a typewriter to add text (shown on the amphora necklace that I created for my sister in my previous post PMC (Precious Metal Clay) Certification Class), or even use craft punches to punch shapes in the PMC paper. 

In this case, I punched out snowflakes and used them in another project. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the leftovers until I saw a gorgeous piece of dichroic that seemed to need the PMC. 

To make sure that the PMC stays in place, you need to use the PMC paste (also called slip). It helps to mold the PMC onto the shape as well. 

When working with clay and glass, it's best to work the glass first (in my opinion) because it requires a higher firing temperature. I believe, but I don't know for sure since I haven't tried it, that you can fire the clay piece with the glass after the clay has already turned to metal but I'll have to experiment with that. For now, I recommend firing all the glass pieces first and then the clay. 

Be careful because there is shrinkage with the clay so if you're creating pieces with glass, leave enough room for the clay to shrink around the glass.

I know there are talented photographers that can capture the beauty and sparkle of dichroic glass but I, unfortunately, am not one of them.

I believe that this piece ended up with my sister who swore that she would provide fantastic advertisement for me. I think she held up her end of the bargain when I was able to go to her work and sell quite a few pieces.

The day that I fired this piece, I fired a few others in my kiln.

My turtle necklace didn't turn out quite as well as I would have liked but that's for another post. It was pretty good for my first attempt at home. =) 

Robert Frost's "Fire and Ice"

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

-Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963)

Bella Glass Studios

5 years ago, when I got that wild hair which led me to glass fusing and PMC (Precious Metal Clay), I discovered Bella Glass Studios. Every glass fusing class that I have taken has been at that location including some very amazing classes with guest instructors.

The first class that I took was Beginning Fusing. From their website "One of the best, most inclusive Beginning Fusing classes around! Now is your chance to explore the creative designs of warm glass. This is the perfect class to learn all the basics, and more, about fusing glass. In this class you will learn the fundamentals of kiln forming while creating your own exciting fused glass and slumped glass pieces. Supplies and kiln fees are included for a total of 4 projects; a vase, 4x6 picture frame, 2 coasters & 2 jewelry pieces. This class is a great price for all the knowledge and numerous projects you get to take home with you! (After firing of course.)." It's only $125 and you learn to cut glass, grind glass, and all about fusing glass.

(Yes, I stole this picture from the Bella Glass site. I'll have to add in the picture of my pieces.)

I can still remember how excited I was for this first class (as much excitement as with the PMC class). I had no idea that it would set me up for a life long love of glass fusing and creating. Shannon (the owner) and her daughter Michelle plus their incredible staff are such warm and wonderful people. You learn so much and they're so helpful and encouraging. Every class that I've been to has been this way. When they have those guest instructors, either Shannon or Michelle (or both!) are around, often assisting in whatever ways they can. 

If you feel that creative energy inside you and you don't know how to release it, try glass fusing at Bella Glass. I've gone every year except this past one to their ornament fusing class. I have seen people say that they have no spark of creativity anywhere in their body and they end up creating some of the most gorgeous ornaments. I often end up overthinking the process instead of just going with my instincts. 

I highly recommend Bella Glass Studios and their very talented and terrific employees. In another post, I'll discuss some of the other classes that I've taken their with guest instructors.

7 More Pinterest Tips and Tricks to Help You Gain Followers

These tips and tricks won't really help you gain followers but it will help you as a Pinner.

1. Use the Like button sparingly. It's more for your benefit than the benefit of people whose pins you post. I wanted to "thank" people so I was liking everything when I first started on Pinterest. The Like button is a sorter and you can go to your main Pinterest page and view the pins that you've liked. It's better to save it for pins you really love.

2. Edit the pin descriptions to suit you. I am advising this if you're starting out on Pinterest. Here is where I don't take my own advice because I rarely edit my pin descriptions unless the previous poster posted something I hate and wouldn't want people thinking that I said or if their description is grammatically incorrect.

3. SPELL YOUR BOARD NAMES CORRECTLY! I can't tell you the number of times that I've gone to follow a board and thought seriously about not doing it because the person doesn't take 2 seconds to google the word and spell it correctly. We all make mistakes but board names should be something that's easy to do and easy to fix. (You can change the name at any point.) This may sound very anal retentive but for many people, spelling really matters. If you want to gain followers, this is just something small that can help.

    For Example, there are more boards than I can count that talk about "peeking interest":

4. Interact with other pinners. If you see something that another pinner would like, send it to them. I mostly send pins to just my real life friends but I have sent certain pins to other pinners. Also, if you are tagged in a message about awesome pinners, participate and tag them plus a few others. 

5. If you plan on doing things based on pins you've seen, make a board for what you've accomplished. Whether it's a recipe, craft or anything else, it's nice to have a record of what works and what doesn't.

6. If you pin from an external website, make sure you give credit. Always, always, always give credit when you are borrowing from someone or you're using their content.

7. If you think that you're going to become addicted and pin lots of things, create another account. Split things up so that you have certain similar categories in the same account. (House stuff and recipes together and craftiness in another account...) Make sure that you're friends with your secondary account and that way you can send pins between them like you would to any other friend.

Or if you have a business, you can post things related to business on on account and have a separate account for personal things. I probably should have done this initially but I had no idea how addicted I would become. :)

Bonus Tip: If your boards aren't working for you, don't be afraid to rearrange, combine, delete, or even split. This goes along with #7, Don't be afraid that you'll mess up., from the previous post 7 Pinterest Tips and Tricks to Help You Gain Followers. I created a board for general business and craft fairs that contains information on both. I didn't realize how many fantastic ideas I would find and I'm going to have to create a secondary board.

Another example is that I don't actually sew, knit or crochet and I was originally going to create separate boards for all 3 (because maybe, someday, I might get into that stuff) but it didn't make sense to have so many boards for things I don't even do yet. I created the singular board and I can expand at another time.

4th of July Flag Cake

Flag Cake Prep Time: 15 min Total Time: 15 min Makes: 12 servings, 1 square each

2 pt. strawberries 1 pkg. (12 oz.) frozen pound cake, thawed, cut into 14 slices 1-1/3 cups blueberries, divided 1 tub (12 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

SLICE 1 cup of the strawberries; set aside. Halve remaining strawberries; set aside. LINE bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish with cake slices. Top with sliced strawberries and 1 cup of the blueberries. Spread whipped topping evenly over berries. PLACE strawberry halves and remaining 1/3 cup blueberries on whipped topping to create a flag design. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Sherlock

Every week I'll do a review of a tv show, movie, band/artist, book or author, etc. This week I am reviewing the tv show Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. 

My friend Jason has excellent taste in tv shows. He introduced me to Sherlock and Battlestar Galactica (the new version) as well. If you're not into modern version of classics, I totally understand that. My dad doesn't like modernized things (and I must say that I tried Joss Whedon's version of Much Ado About Nothing and I couldn't watch more than a few minutes. I definitely prefer the Kenneth Branagh version which I will review at a later date) but I bribed him into watching Sherlock.

It's an amazing show with a fantastic cast. I wasn't sure about Andrew Scott's Moriarty at first but he's now one of my favourite characters. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Sherlock with the right amount of snarkiness and reclusiveness. Martin Freeman has a ball as a cheeky yet world-weary Watson who puts up with all of Sherlock's eccentricities. 

Another character that I was unsure of initially was Amanda Abbington's Mary. She's Martin Freeman's real life partner and they have incredible on screen chemistry which is fantastic for a couple that has been together so long. They play off each other as well as Freeman and Cumberbatch do (Sherlock and Watson have been accused of having a homosexual relationship or even just an attraction to each other for ages and so do the Cumberbatch/Freeman duo). Abbington is a joy to watch as is Una Stubbs who plays Mrs. Hudson. 

The writing is brilliant and the characters are well developed. Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat are fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work and they incorporate storylines from the books into their scripts. Mark Gatiss makes appearances as Sherlock's older brother, Mycroft and he does it with style and panache. 

Louise Brealey (Molly Hooper) and Rupert Graves (DI Lestrade) round out the cast. Lara Pulver plays Irene Adler and Benedict Cumberbatch's real life parents (Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton) make a couple of appearances as Sherlock and Mycroft's parents.

It's very easy to see that everyone has so much fun working on these productions. Unfortunately, there aren't very many (only 3 seasons have been produced with 3 1.5 hour episodes each plus a short) but there will be a Christmas special this year and then a new season in 2016. With Freeman's and Cumberbatch's popularity increasing, making these episodes becomes even more difficult but both actors are committed to playing these characters for as long as they can. 

I don't want to go too much into the plot of the episodes beyond already having mentioned that the writing is wonderful. I highly suggest that you watch this amazing show and become as Sherlocked as so many of us are. 

Butterbeer at Starbucks

One of the things that I've done from Pinterest is try the "Butterbeer recipe" from Starbucks. It is ridiculously good and I highly recommend that you try it! This was the first thing that I actually tried from Pinterest. It was an easy step and now I've created things because of it. 

PMC (Precious Metal Clay) Certification Class

Almost 5 years ago I took some jewelry classes upon a whim. I decided that I wanted to learn how to fuse glass (I'll talk about that in another post) and I wanted to learn about Precious Metal Clay (PMC). 

According to Wikipedia, "Metal clay is a crafting medium consisting of very small particles of metal such as silver, gold, bronze, or copper mixed with an organic binder and water for use in making jewelry, beads and small sculptures." Basically, it's like working with any other form of clay except that when you fire it in a kiln, it turns into metal.

PMC is just one of the types of metal clay out there and it has two varieties, silver and gold clays. BRONZClay and COPPRClay are two more products from the same company. Art Clay is another brand with a few varieties. Hadar Jacobson also has her own type of clay called Hadar's Clay. According to her website, "Hadar's Clay™ is available in copper (Quick-Fire and Traditional/Flex), bronze (Quick-Fire and Traditional/Flex), steel, Pearl Grey™ Steel 
(Traditional and XT), White Bronze, and Rose Bronze." I learned about PMC and took my classes from PMC Connection. 

Picture of the variety of Hadar's Clay

I don't even remember what prompted these decisions but they were some of the best of my life. I became a certified PMC artisan with an incredible teacher. Unfortunately, it appears that she's no longer teaching. I went to her gorgeous house in Loveland for the 2 day class and spent the night at La Quinta.

During the course of the class we learned about PMC and created 4 different projects. We made items with a PMC syringe, an amphora, a ring and a necklace. I didn't do very well with the PMC syringe because I have shaky hands so I'm not posting the picture of the Es that I made for my sister. I also made her the amphora necklace with snowflakes on it.

For my youngest sister, I made a ring with a flying pig on it. The pictures for that didn't turn out well so I sadly won't be posting those either.

My favourite thing that I made was the other necklace. I did not create the glass cabochon that I used in the necklace (I hadn't taken my glass class yet) though.

If you have that twitchy crafty feeling and you're unsure of what to do, I highly recommend taking the PMC classes from PMC Connection. Not only do you become a certified PMC artisan, you also get to use the discounted rate for supplies on their website. That discount was incredibly nice when I bought my own kiln.

Maya Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman"

Since I'm new to blogging and I'm just working out the beginnings of my jewelry store, I will continue to post other things like recipes, movie reviews, etc. Once I get more into the jewelry and have more content, I will post more of that. For now, some Wednesday inspiration. =)

I LOVE this poem. Maya Angelou is an amazing writer with an even more amazing history. I highly recommend her autobiographies (ALL of them) but first, start with this poem, this wonderful tribute to the spirit of a woman and her inner beauty/mystique that reflects outwardly...

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.