BY THE SEA, BY THE BEAUTIFUL SEA

During a giddy spring break trip to beach euphoria, I gathered a ton of shells and took the sandy, smelly treasures home only to wonder what the heck to do with them. Of course that is my favorite thing, to say “What now”, but said with feeling. See, I learned this little phrase from my son which I know I’m completely miss using according to him because when he gives a smack down, he does this in your face thing and says “What now, son?! What now?!” Anywho, that’s the way I like to draw forth my creativity. Here is "What now?" with sea shell projects and a delicious seafood recipe idea. I also spotted fish net crew socks worn with sandals at my favorite source of cash depletion, J. Crew and recalled a delightful pattern from years ago that I’ve been meaning to knit which I’ll share. During my beach romp, I found that I needed a hoodie when the sun dipped low, and if you’ll pardon my randomness as I make the connection to this very small knit hoodie promising to use only one skein (much less, really) and offering to hold your ear buds.

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WHAT NOW, SON!

with those shells, I mean. I subscribe to this line of thinking when it comes to crafts: Keep nothing and no one in your house that you do not view as beautiful and or useful.Thinking in this manner helps me decide on crafts to make or purchase, people to put up with, teehee. Anyway, so I did some research and discovered these lovelies:

the hemp tassel, in my home I hang tassels on every door, front and back, like earrings. I try to theme them and collect them on my travels. Fashioning one from beach exploration also appeals. Beach glass is the only litter I like, it looks magnificently refreshing in a floral arrangement and hold your flowers where you want them. The shell thingamajigger is actually an antique night light, seems someone made it and likely wet drilled a hole where necessary for the placement of a light bud. The top hinges to expose a night light, and there ya go: something useful. You could use it to hold small treasures like rings, coins, fragrance crystals, tooth fairy money...By the way, I would totally gild (gold leaf) that shell compilation, it's a little vanilla for me and face it, I am simply not so organic minded as to settle for basic.

CRABS

While visiting tide pools of La Jolla Beach in Cali, during a low tide, I had the

opportunity to behold the spectacular magnificence of sea anemones, crabs and meandering sea lions. I discovered the tiniest crab there, and I do mean tiny, about the size of an soy bean, and he was fascinating to behold. I held him in the palm of my hand, observing him for nearly an hour before having to go. I considered taking him home with me but how, where... airport security, it just couldn't happen. It's just as well because I don't know how I would explain this Crab cake recipe to him, and it would seem so cannibal. For you gourmet animal protein consumers, this here scrumptious crab cake recipe would dish up nicely in a clean crab shell when baked or deep fried. Or you could certainly use the openings of a large clam or other shell to get your schmancy on. Great for guests or occasions where memories are waiting to be made.

GARDENING with LAWN PRAWNS

I refer to slugs... California's landscape was lush with greenery, flora and fauna spilled from every structure, citrus trees scented the air and I was certain this was not far from Eden. I noticed also that slugs were abundant here with the humidity and the incredible greenery, California must be the ultimate salad bar for them. A slug clan can decimate a garden in mere days, so while I am a live and let live kind of girl, all bets are off in my garden. I've managed these slime balls in the past with beer in a tuna can, as lure to drown the little buggers. I

don't usually have beer on hand and have to make a special trip to get some so I was pleased to learn that grape juice will do the same thing: lure the slugs and they will drown in it. Use tuna cans because they are easy to camouflage in the garden, I partly bury them to ensure garden pests have little trouble stumbling in... and of course drowning. There are methods of discouraging slug entry to your garden, they don't enjoy dragging themselves over pennies as the cooper properties irritate them. Neither do they like scratchy surfaces. Some fellow gardeners pour salt on them or keep a screwdriver handy for impaling garden slugs. I find that all too hands on and prefer allowing them to drown overnight and then toss them out in the morning.

FISH NETS

Amy King of Boogie Knits has a sock pattern she calls Lolita Toes, I book marked it on my computer some time ago, years actually, and then I saw this look at J. Crew, where model wore pair of ankle boots with little fish net sockies... completely appealed to my parochial intermingled sense of self: socks and shoes... all sorts of shoes, socks with heels, booties, you name it. To me, those booties she is wearing, they totally call for sexy little fish net socks because how are you going to get your saunter on with no socks? Can you say "stinky" you will if you don't wear any socks. Knit some and make your own little

one skein wonders, go see Lolita toes, also at Ravelry the premiere knit and crochet pattern.

HOODIE

Speaking of knitting and the sea, it was at the oceans edge when suddenly the hoodie thing began to make sense to me. It whispered to me when the wind began to blow

"a hoodie would be nice right about now". Now, I didn't see myself knitting a hoodie, well not a life sized one, but one for my ear buds makes sense. Huge leap from hoodie to ear buds, I know - here's the connection: I don't really like shoving them all unwound into my bag because I suspect that wrapping them is going to lead to trouble. And of course, being anal retentive, I saw a pattern a long time ago for an ear bud hoodie at Wendy's Intertwinement. Seems you stuff your hoodie with ear buds peeking out of the hood and connection comes through the waist which has a draw string tie. I bet you could purchase one skein of ridiculously expensive yarn or use up something leftover for this project and be the envy of your knit-geek friends. If not, I know your inner nerd will be delighted. Knit hoodie pattern here. What? You don't knit? I don't understand that, no habla but here is how: learn with this cute and completely useless hat pattern/instructions at the big knit and incidentally enough, if you buy one of their hatted drinks, your are donating a portion of the sale goes to help feed malnourished in the UK.

AND

Underwater Nano

I've often wanted to take pictures underwater, scuba diving or of the kids and I found this and thought uou may want to know this the next time you head towards the seaside: The H2O Audio case turns an iPod nano 5G into underwater camcorder, allowing you to capture images underwater for about $80. This H2O Audio Capture Waterproof Case promises to allow you to utilize all of your favorite iPod nano (5th Gen) features including music playback and video recording, in, around, and completely underwater.

Well, what did you think? See anything you'll try? I'd love to hear from you =) Comments are always welcome (hint hint) just by clicking on the pencil.

Eat Your Damn Oatmeal

You don't have to take that tone with me...not about oatmeal.  Way back when I wore my hair in two 
braids and donned that catholic school plaid, I had a thing for oatmeal.  I recall mornings in the kitchen spent pretending my oatmeal was porridge and that my two brothers and I were the 3 bears.  I hear you laughing.   We didn't have a Goldilocks but my "porridge" was always just right.  I don't fashion my hair in two braids much anymore but my thing for old fashioned oatmeal still exists.  

Now I no longer rely on little brown packets for my oatmeal fix.  Did you know that Starbucks serves Perfect Oatmeal and Jamba juice dishes it up as well? If these leaders can do oatmeal - you know I will!

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Before Oats became the love interest of the healthy heart industry, I knew it to be one of those things I loved that was not bad for me.  There aren't enough of those so we should enjoy this at every opportunity.  Opportunity #1: veggie burgers.  I used to buy these premade and frozen and they really don't taste all that exciting so we had to fix this pronto!  This is a superb recipe I found at vegweb.com for  Garlic Potato & Oat Black Bean Burgers  that I would make and serve any man who gets all "meat and potatoes only" with me.  I'd wear a low cut dress, too and stiletto's but that is just so he'd give it a try and then I'm sure he'd love it after that and I could wear any old thing... Opportunity #2: traditionally pie crust is made with a large amount of white flour  which I find a little 

disturbing and it should be noted that there is another way that is clever and tasty and makes sense for fruit pies: Oatmeal Pie Crust recipe found here at Cooks recipes.com. made with quick cooking oats.  Feeling your oats? Bake an oatmeal pie, see picture and then make the Hey, that tastes good!: Oatmeal Pie featured in the photo.  Nectarine Raspberry fruit Crisp with Spiced-Oatmeal crumb  topping at Bon Apettite is crunchy and homey.  Give it a try.

Once when my little one developed a nuclear rash on his unmentionables, research lead me to the colloidal oatmeal bath as treatment.  Yep, it was pricey but it was magical and should be noted that it looked disgusting.  Research time: grinding store bought oatmeal in blender, food processor or coffee mill repeatedly until it's a very fine powder creates colloidal oatmeal for pennies.  As a powder it mixes with the water in such a way as to float throughout.  Careful, this will be slippery on the tub.  1/3 C. will do. Helps soothe skin irritations like eczema, pox and rashes.  My itchy boy would not go for this now and we'd maybe make some oatmeal bath bombs if he was itchy.  For me, I would add 1 c. dry milk and baking soda for something silky during the winter when the heater dries the skin.  Oatmeal facial - I recommend you grind the oats in a coffee mill but certainly not necessary - Combine 3/4 cup oatmeal with half a cup of water and cook for a few minutes, the way you'd prepare it for meals. Allow to cool. After a few minutes, add 1/4 quarter cup of honey and mix well. It is that simple. You now have an oatmeal mask great for evening moisture in skin and soothing/shrinking pores.

Warm and fuzzy:  This little nest for newborn cargo is used as a photo prop and available for sale by Crickets Creations.  This one is called Oatmeal fringe and Cricket shows a variety of colors which can be purchased from her Etsy site.

Instant Satisfactions

Often it seems that the projects in my life have such a long way to go and I need some kind of pay off NOW! So, I work on little things with immediate pay off here and that to quiet my need for accomplishment. Instant gratification I think they call it. Et vous? Well, the next time you feel that need, I hope you'll try some of the instants that have made me happy: reading, knits, cooking, decorating or share some of your own at the bottom in comments section.

Become a follower of my blog, we'll both enjoy it. I welcome comments on this article, just leave one where this article ends. Thanks.

Quite naturally, my favorite place for reading instant gratification is the micro fiction

found at http://pentenscribes.ning.com/

This site offers and excellent collection of short stories all told in 10 sentences or less. Oftentimes, you will leave feeling as though you read a very short book. A favorite quote there is "It is my ambition to say in ten sentences; what others say in a whole book."~Friedrich Nietzsche

Pieknits shares this little wrist pillow knitting pattern and several others for free. I actually use this little pillow for my elbow oftentimes and make them from scraps of yarn and stow them away to give as gifts. Organic yarns and other soft yarns make excellent candidates for this project. This little project is where I learned to knit short rows, well, sort of. It was my intro to the technique but I learned to turn short rows at Knitty.com. Knitting short rows is a technique which creates a bump out in your knitting like what you'd need for the heel of a sock or in the bosom area of a garment.

My favorite instant gratification at dinner time is Egg Foo Yung. I order this often at Asian restaurants and discovered in a miniature cookbook that a friend gave me: It literally takes about 5 minutes to prepare and can be filled with whatever vegetable or cooked meat which you have handy. I've used mushrooms to replace meat in this dish as well as shredded carrots for variety. This can be a complete meal if you want low carbs or serve over a bed of rice or try it with angel hair pasta or rice stick noodles for a light fare. The angel hair and the rice noodles cook for about 5 minutes so you can begin boiling the water before starting your foo yong, foo yung, foo young...whatever way you spell it.

As for instant decorating satisfaction, I like to accessorize with paint and little unconventional

items. For instance, I am in love with this burnt orange paint color at the moment and niche's and nooks at my house are sporting this warm and friendly new coat. Little things though, which require even less time that I play at are putting tassels of all kinds on each door knob. I just keep an eye out for them when ever I'm shopping, only buying them when on sale and hang

them like earrings from any knob or just from an antique key which fits nothing. I like ornate tassels and there was a time in my life when I would have just made one and would have used the Boutique Tassel instruction found here. I also like to put flowers around for instant pick me up. I am not a great arranger of flowers so I keep it simple and try to use unique bud or color for impact such as this little display here with deep purple calla lily and white fringed tulip. Maybe you are more creative in this area. Hey! leave me a comment or suggestion and be sure to support my sponsors by clicking on a link... that and best wishes for an excellent day =)

It's a Wrap

Do you enjoy a beautifully wrapped present?  I do so much that I want to take it all in and just look at it awhile.  Usually the gift bearer urges me on and I give in with a sigh.  When I remember, I take a picture of the wrapped present, and yes, people think I'm crazy... Anywho, we're talking about wraps this time: food wraps, knit wrap patterns, "green" gift wraps.

I love it when people become followers of my blog.   I welcome comments.

I'm pleased that the United States is embracing the concept of going green, I've noticed almost every public place  has recycling opportunities readily available.  For me, recycling is not really a fad and I hope it isn't for you either. Once, a rather Bohemian Californian friend gave me a gift wrapped in a scarf held together with a lovely vintage pin.  I knew immediately that it was three gifts, a great idea, and something I would be sure to do whenever the opportunity presented itself.  Years later, I do not recall what was inside but I can still see the divine wrapping and remember the glorious feelings it imparted.  There is an actual term for this style of gift presenting, it is furoshki, an eco friendly japanese culture concept which promotes caring for the environment and reducing waste.  These can continue on as gift wraps or become scarf adornments but mostly know that they needn't be avant garde or ostentatious, a nice subtle fabric may be more to the liking and still absolutely wonderful.  Bobo wrapping scarf design has videos on making these lovely presentations found here. 

Do you ever want to just bring along bottles of wine to a dinner gathering but wish to do it with a touch of panache? Of course you do and that is why this 2 bottle wrap  these from BoBo comes in 48" styles :

Cuisine Wraps:

Abeego all natural and reusable food wrap is eco friendly food storage.  Really, though, I want to share a little recipe for food wraps.  Not necessary I know, because you can figure this out on your own but consider these recipes a little food inspiration:  recipes are a click away for an Asian lettuce wraps, avocado lettuce wrap, healthy food wraps,  tortilla and lettuce base wraps. If you try any of these, I'd love to hear about it.  Please leave a comment after you wipe your hands and don't talk with your mouth full.  

Random thought, but people remark about the word gay like it's a negative thing so much so that I receive cringes whenever I use it.  Get a grip people because it's a lovely word and I love the gay little things which go along with being feminine, particularly the wraps I get to wear on cool evenings out.  I saw some wonderful potentials to knit and come on, you should share some of yours with me.  The ones I saw were at Ravelry, Knitty , and Stitch Diva and even unconventional places like this German site I found called Wollmeise which had this dazzling moebius wrap.   Not to worry though because there is an English translation for this pattern on the same page a little further down.  At left, right and center below are pattern source for Stolen Moments wrap, knit tissue cozy,  crochet Garden party wrap.

  

Ok, your turn, share a favorite wrap pattern with us here in comments.  Can't wait. ~Olive 

Vino Bella "Beautiful Wine"

I don't know about you, but I enjoy the occasional glass of wine.  I'm not exactly what one would consider a wine snob and here's proof:  if I open a bottle of wine and don't finish it, I recycle it by adding ice and club soda to it the next day and rather enjoy that, also.  Ratio for me is half bubbly, half wine and sure, you can call it a wine spritzer if you want.  I find it refreshing and so have my guests.   After you drink your wine there's all that stuff left over which have recycle written all over it.  You know, the bottle, the cork, the bladder if you drink box wine... ok, maybe it's not a lot of stuff but you know what?  Recycle it!  Some folks actually save the corks!  Hehe, you knew that didn't you?  I know you know but  I don't believe I've ever seen these put to creative use in real life so I'm am going to throw some ideas out there.  Let me know if you use one of these recycle ideas, ok?  Call me...kidding...just leave me a comment.

That wine bottle, sometimes it comes in a divine color like blue and almost seems shameful to throw it away.  Don't! Clean it out, remove the label, add a cotton ball or a few to slow the flow of the water, then shove a wine pourer thing in the opening. Now, place a finger over the spout and invert the bottle before shoving it into a large thirsty plant.  Will drip water like one of those $15 globes and hold more water. (^_~) I've also done this with the bulbous plastic Pom bottles and pierced the cap and inverted into smaller plant. It was a wonderful, hacked discovery that can come in handy when you are going on vacation.  Corks are also something you can toss into your garden like you would mulch.

Will you look at this?  It's a thumb drive...or flash drive or USB drive or memory stick, WHATEVER! but it's inside of a cork!  You can remove the deco

rative outer case of your existing USB mem stick and strip it to these minimal styles presented.  What every hi-tech wino needs, right?  If you're not all that brave (wimp) you should know that these are available at Smediart but of course if you cut a cork in half, trace the thumb drive with exacto knife and remove cork pulp until you have the proper fit, then match seams and glue closed (removing excess glue with wet cloth) you'd have yourself one, too.  F. F. Coppola designed some just like these and distributed them in 2007 in limited quantities.  This key fob on the right made at RePlayGround gives example to what I mean about the bead and key chain.  RePlayGround also has a kit for this key chain project ava

ilable for $3 each.  

Cut a cork in half and then snug a round cork half up against a book to steady cut a straight line.  Then slice through it, a shallow 1/4 inch with an exacto knife to create a slot - you've made place card holders or savvy way to introduce menu items on your buffet table.  Wine efficienado's have wine stoppers.  A decorative way to create a gallant wine stopper is to attach an ornamental knob such as ones to that go one kitchen cabinets and have a place into the top of the knob allowing one to screw it into a cork with glue on the threads.  Allow to dry completely and you have yourself a stylish wine bottle stopper.

I must admit I find wine glass charms necessary when entertaining one or more friends.  Germaphobe, maybe.   My solution has been to use mix matched wine glasses found at garage sales.  Recently, having collected some sea glass or beach glass, and having a "now what" moment these charms were created.  My sea glass comes from the shores of Lake Eerie but you can purchase sea glass at hobby stores along with any of these elements presented.  Add a  jump ring to a wine glass charm ring then, not too close to an edge or it may break Drill a small hole, then attach the jump ring combo.  All of the sea glass will have different sizes and shapes but when you get to the bottom of your wine glass you may not remember what your charm looked like.  You slush!  This is why I recommend using a metallic paint pen, add a number or letter for distinction.  Hand wash please.

Corks, especially very ornamental ones would also make  fantastic refrigerator magnets. Use length of cork or cut into coins.  Use an exacto to cut and gouge out a small space for a round, super strong magnet and glue it inside of this created space.  It's important to use a strong glue because of the strength of the magnet.  Try Gorilla glue, and follow directions or don't come crying to me.  E6000 is also a good adhesive choice.  Allow generous overnight drying time.  

Knit a gnome outfit...why? Why would anyone do this?  If you knit, you know why (^_~) so here's the pattern.  The pattern is by Manne and translated into English by Saartje. I have knit sillier things...well, maybe not but that doesn't mean you can't.

I recommend using something natural like twine, sisal or hemp for this project. I think you may as well do this, also: make knitting needle point protectors.  You can lend some spiff by adding a beautiful bead with a head pin.  Corks sliced into coins have been used to hold stitches onto needles, crochet hooks also.

Being the inquisitive type, I took apart a wine box and found this great metallic bladder inside.  You'll recall, I'm not a wine snob and Black Box Wines sometimes show up at my house at random but I recommend you use a large box of wine for this project. Box wines are said to be more eco-friendly and several wineries are introducig wines in 3 to 4 liter Bag-in-box (BIB) packaging.  I only use wine in bottles for entertaining ... say that's nice - but doesn't this look like a pillow when inflated? I thought so, too!  By sewing up a terry cloth towel *pillow case and adding suction cup hooks to the top corners or in the center back, this would be a luxurous treat for when you linger in the bathtub or jacuzzi/hot tub.  *pillowcase instructions courtesy Lil Blue Boo