Purple Mountain Girl

The pieces in the Jubilee Collection are made from combinations of semi-precious gemstones and are available in sterling silver or 14K gold-fill. Included is a necklace that features as many as seven different gemstones.

 

Artisan Jewelry Designer, Tammy Morris of Cloverleaf Handcrafted Jewelry is releasing the brand-new Jubilee Collection, and each product will be individually made by the designer herself. The Jubilee Collection will be released on June 8, 2018.

Just finished this rack for keeping track of my earrings inventory.  Very easy, especially if you can sweet talk your husband into building the frame for you AND drilling all the holes!
Materials:
2-1 X 3 pine boards
1-1 X 2 pine boards
1-roll (50 ft) of electrical wire, 14 stranded THHN

Cut all of the pine boards in half.  Use the 3 X 1 halved pine boards to build a simple square frame.  Trim the halved 1 X 2 to fit inside the frame to reinforce the square that you created and screw these to the inside of the frame.

Drill holes all down the sides at whatever distance apart you need for whatever you want to hang here.  We drilled the first hole at 3/4", then at 2-3/4" all the way down.

String the electrical wire through the entire rack and secure each end, one at the top and one at the bottom very tightly.  I stuck a nail in the hole with the wire, wrapped the wire around the nail and tied a simple knot at the end.  It took about an hour to make the whole thing!

The task that took the longest was creating little tags for each design and hanging those!

The overall size is completely customizable so this little project is a great way to use up left-over wood.

I know-I'm my own guest...  Maybe that's a faux pas in blogging land but there's some really good info here and I want to share it with as many people as possible!  So enjoy~

Ikea has these great one inch thick photo frames for $1.99 so I bought 4 for my kids' photos.








However, I didn't look very closely at them during my shopping euphoria and therefore, didn't see that hanging these was not going to be a simple task.









I looked through my toolbox and found some size 8d 2-1/2" nails and #8-10x1 plastic anchors.  I popped a hole in the drywall by hammering an #8 screw in.  I hammered in the anchor then hammered in the nail.  I had to hammer the nail in to pop it through the anchor.







I found that if you don't hammer the nail all the way in as far as you need it, there's room for your hand behind the frame as you try to fit the nail head into the bracket.  After you make that connection, gently push the frame against the wall.








Very easy, it only took me 10 minutes to hang four frames!  If you try this, let me know how it works for you OR if you have another idea, please share~Happy Hanging! 

Every Friday night is breakfast night at our house.  My family of three guys really look forward to it now that it's an established routine.  I would enjoy it too, if I didn't have to become a short-order cook every time we have anything with eggs.  We're part of an egg co-op and get a LOT of eggs so most Breakfast Nights, we have eggs.  Ergo, most Friday nights, I am a short-order cook.

One week, my kids asked for omelettes and I said yes, as I inwardly groaned.  As I was preparing to stand over a hot pan for the next 30 minutes, I had an idea: why not bake them in the oven.  Of course, there are expectations for the appearance of omelettes so dragging out my trusty parchment paper, I 'crafted' a method to make semi-circles just as if I was working at a diner.

After you've made up your 'omelette batter' with eggs and milk, grab a large round pan.  The one I use is a stoneware baker and has a diameter of about 12 inches.  Tear off a piece of parchment paper about three or four inches longer that the pan.  Fold it in half, then settle it in the baking dish, making sure that the edges go up the side of the pan. 



You should have a high ridge through the middle of your pan.  This acts as a separator for your eggs, also creating a lovely semi-circle shaped omelette.



I actually pour the egg mixture into each side, then add each person's preferred ingredients, gently mixing them.  Figure out what works best for you but I figure the less dishes to clean, the better!

You shouldn't need any oil or butter; the omelette comes right off the paper.  Bake these at 350° for about 12-15 minutes, they don't take long at all.  I also tried doing this with aluminum foil and it just doesn't work.  The omelettes stick and fall to pieces when you try to get them out.  I don't like to cook with aluminum foil anyway.



I bake all four omelettes at once, with everyone's order and I don't have to slave over a large frying pan.  I guess there's also something to be said about the lower calories and all, but that just means I can add more cheese to mine.

We've started making smoothies in our house.  Well, my husband started making them. And when my husband makes food he doesn't worry about superfluous things like flavor or texture.  It's all about nutritional value and using up whatever's in the fridge.  Since this was my kids first experience with smoothies, they weren't very excited.  Neither was I...

Until I started buying frozen fruit at Costco!  I've been trying to get rid of processed food in our house and had heard that frozen was better than canned.  I made a frozen pineapple smoothie and WOW! did it taste good!  So now, my boys and I are not afraid of smoothies anymore.  I actually made one for breakfast today and, since the (super-picky) 12-year-old approved,  I thought that you might also.

Here it is:

Pineapple Cherry Smoothie

About 15 1" pieces of frozen pineapple
About 15 frozen cherries
1 smallish banana
1/2 cup almond milk
1-2 tablespoons flax meal

Throw it all in a blender and smoothie it up.

CAVEAT: Don't drink this too fast.  Brainfreeze!