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How Would You Complete This Necklace?


no clasp necklace
The finishing touch is still needed on this long necklace.  I put it together for someone who is tallish, about 5' 10".  She has difficulties with her hands, so this has no clasp.

The ribbons are doubled in the photo, and are a bit lightweight.  With her arthritis and other problems, a heavy chain was a no go for her.

I'm not satisfied with it though.  I was thinking about adding a wider ribbon or a lightweight chain intertwined to the ribbons. Another idea was to wind a thin type of soft braided cord to the ribbons.  I want to keep the look simple and elegant.

I know she likes monograms, so the letter charm was a nice find.  She is active in her church, so I added the other charms, a key and pearls, a bit hard to see in this photo.



What would you do to make the ribbon a little more hefty, but not weigh it down too much or make it scratchy on her neck?  I can't work with seed beads or tiny items because of vision issues.  I want to keep to soft colors- blue, brown, off white, and silvertones. Any suggestions appreciated!

P.S.  See the finished necklace in this post.
        Here is the necklace at Jewelry Making Journal.

Potato Pie for Lent or Anytime ~~ Inspired by Kevin Dundon and The Big Freeze of 2014

Lenten MealPicture this:  it was the middle of Lent.  I need to make a meatless meal but did not want to have fish, grilled cheese, eggs, waffles, french toast, etc.  It was one of those days where green salads wouldn't cut it.  Too cold and not cozy if you know what I mean.

As it was still in the bitter cold range on the other side of my front door, I did not want to venture out in the, "Is the car lock frozen?" day.  Grocery store parking lots were for the most part, unplowed.  And driving amongst the pot holes on the roads is less fun than driving bumper cars at the amusement park. Meaning, not fun at all.

I said there must be something in the house to cook which will be hot, hearty, and taste good, too.   To have a think and procrastinate, I had a sit down on the couch with my tea and turned on the tv. Flipping channels as we do, I had a glimpse of some potatoes, cream, and puff pastry.  The program was nearly over, but I got the jist of it and caught the chef's name.  A few days later I searched online and found his recipe at RTE Food.

I was inspired to make it because this was so easy to prepare and cook.  It didn't take a lot of prep time, no boiling of the potatoes ahead and premade pastry made it faster to assemble.  I had unused puff pastry in the freezer from Christmastime and wanted to make something out of it as I was sick of seeing it every time I opened the freezer door.  I also had some mixed shredded cheeses waiting to be used.

On my next shopping trip I bought the Yukon Gold potatoes, a small container of Whipping Cream, a bag of fresh whole Carrots, and a small package of fresh Asparagus Spears.  I figured the potatoes on their own wouldn't be quite hearty enough so the roasted veg would be good sides.

Kevin Dundon inspired meal
If you look at Kevin's recipe on the newspaper site above, it's easy to follow.  I changed it of course, as I didn't have fresh herbs, I used dried and I added a handful of cheese to the potato cream mixture before it went into the oven.  If I remember correctly, he suggested adding cheese- and I did!

Because the recipe used only half of the cream, the following week I made the potato cream combo again, but added thawed cooked small shrimp and thawed frozen mixed veg.  I didn't bake it in the oven, or add cheese, but served it as a meal without a pastry crust.

I imagine you could add any cooked and cut up meat or poultry and veg to the potatoes and it would be pretty tasty.  A basic potato, cream, and herb combo that was easy to make and versatile, too.  Thanks, Kevin.


Wishing You Easter Blessings

Easter from the peeps

I want to Wish You 
Happy Easter 
May God Bless You 
Keep You Well
and 
Give Peace to Everyone

Two Quick Tips: Help When You Hammer in the Kitchen (Bag It) and How Does Your Blog Look on Other Readers and Devices?



green kitchen, frugality, tenderize It was a glorious warm day on Sunday, 77 degrees. I opened the windows for a bit and enjoyed all the breeze that graciously came my way.  The only bad part of the day was all the noise.  It seemed that the weed whacker folks, the cutting the lawn before it's even grown folks, and the muffler free folks all decided that yesterday was let it all loose day.


Oh well, it still was nice while it lasted. Today it's back to winter.  That's right, 2-4 inches of the white stuff is predicted.  I hope the weather people are sun struck from Sunday and they are way off on their guess.


I have two tips for you.  First this one for the kitchen, see the photo above.  I wish I had thought of this trick before now.  I no longer have a production with layers and clean up and having little chicken bits shooting out of the layers onto me, the floor, or the appliances.  To use the recycled bag, I clean it out and when it's time to whack away, insert the meat or fowl, and hold the opening closed.  Only once a bag split open as  I took out a little too much frustration in my hammering.  But, it's all good.

Second tip.  If you want to see how your blog or site looks in a variety of electronic screens, (Kindles, Galaxy, Android, iPad, etc.) go to Quirktools to their Screenfly tab and type in your blog address or any website.  They will show how your site looks on a variety of screens.

I changed my blog header to show it better on a variety of tablets, phones, etc.  When I look at my blog statistics, it shows that some people are reading on gadgets other than a desktop.  I thought this may help readers see my page a bit easier.  It also helped to see how the images/photos line up on the gadgets.

Because I have vision issues, I don't like to scroll back and forth to read a blog post or look at the images, so I considered this in setting the overall width of my blog and now that I looked at it on Screenfly, I can see the variations in screen resolutions much better.  I know we can't please every gadget's requirements, but a couple of them might do.  Hope my little tips help.