Little Carved Carrot Hearts

We do not vaccinate.  

SO...with that, we count on fresh air, lots of fruits and vegetables, lots of sleep, copious amounts of clean, cold water, and carved carrot hearts.

Today, I made a delicious turkey and vegetable soup, with chickpeas, kale, corn, celery, garlic, onion, and...lots of little carved carrot hearts.

Not only is this just the cutest thing ever, it's well known to have great power to keep illness at bay, I swear!

We've made it through this cold/flu season without incident (so far)....knock on wood! :)

I'm sure it's the carrots.

These are rather self explanatory to make....simple, even.  Cut a "v" shape in the top, then use your peeler to shape the rest.  Easy peasy...it's the love that goes into this extra step that keeps illness at bay.

Enjoy!

Paleo Friendly Baked Eggs in Avacado Halves

These are heavenly.  

While baking, the shells of the avocados take on a smokey flavor and enhance the entire dish.  JUST delicious.

So here's how:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Halve your avocado, sprinkle inside with a bit of extra virgin olive oil, some cracked sea salt and some thyme.

Crack your (preferably organic) egg, discarding about half of the white, into the cavities.

Sprinkle top with a tad more extra virgin olive oil, more thyme, and a bit more sea salt.

Bake for about 10 minutes, checking your eggs every few minutes after that, and when they are done to your liking, remove from the oven.

Here's the hard part:  Let them cool a bit so that the flavors can continue to meld just a little.

Then, enjoy.  I like to have a piece of fruit alongside, these are savory and salty and smoky and just amazing!  

I hope you love these as much as I do.  Zero preservatives, zero high fructose corn syrup, no artificial anything, just simple, delicious, whole foods.
ava

Buckeye Brownies!

This is my husband's all-time favorite treat. 

He recently traveled for business and was gone for 2 weeks.  While away, he called and asked me to MAIL him some!  I had to pass, as i was certain that these would arrive in a big gloppy mess after enduring the trip through the mail.  SO...I made him a pan, and here's how:

First:  Make a 9x13 pan of brownies!

Here's my favorite recipe, but you can actually even use a box mix if you so desire.  Your call.

BUCKEYE BROWNIES

2 cups white sugar

 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

 1/2 cup baking cocoa

 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

 1 teaspoon baking powder

 1 cup vegetable oil

 4 eggs

 2 tablespoons light corn syrup

 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 17 oz  jar Jif Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter

2 tbsp salted butter (not margarine)

6 oz semi sweet chocolate chips

_______________________

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking pan.

Combine white sugar, flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. Whisk oil, eggs, corn syrup, and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture; Spread into prepared baking pan.

Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Easy enough. 

When your brownies have cooled, about 20-30 minutes, remove the lid and foil from your peanut butter jar and place the whole thing in your microwave and warm for about 30 seconds.  Watch carefully. If this boils over, you'll have a real mess on your hands.  Spread on top of cooled brownies.

When THAT layer is cool, melt your chocolate chips with the 2 tbsp of butter and stir with your whisk until glossy.  Spread atop the cooled peanut butter layer.

Allow to settle for an hour, and cut.  

Makes 36 delicious brownies.


Enjoy!

Tutorial Time! I Made My Very Own Handmade Sign!

Welp, I bit the bullet and did something I thought I would hate...pained a sign.  It looks hard, and it looks fussy, messy, and I hate painting intricate things.  Give me an old dresser and I'll paint that all day.  Ask me to paint a leaf?  Or a spiral or a cottage rose and you're on your own.

So, here's what I did:  I made this! 

Not bad, eh?  It cost me a whole  $0.53.  Yes, fifty-three cents.  I had most of the materials on hand, and I found the wood at the Habitat For Humanity Re-Sale Shop.  It's an old cabinet from someone's kitchen.

Here's how I did this.

Coat your old cabinet with a couple of coats of primer.  I found this in our garage, so I used this.

This stuff is goopy and snotty and smelly, so use a foam brush that you can just toss.  Let it dry really well and give it a couple of coats of acrylic paint.  I used these:

Here's one that's on my workbench, waiting for a little more love.

Now, we're going to get down to business, and I apologize for not having photos of this step, but I was getting down to business!

Print your message out on your printer, to the exact size that you want your letters on your sign.

Cut them out and tape them very gingerly onto your painted board, with a piece of ordinary carbon paper underneath.

I used this:

I had this laying around, but I believe you can purchase this at Office Max or Staples for less than $2.00.  

NOW....trace around your letters.  Take your time.  Use a ballpoint pen and push hard enough to leave a bit of an indent in your wood.  This helps the paint "stay in the lines,."  Use a teeny tiny pointed brush...here's a photo of my brush collection. Yes, I have a problem.  I love craft supplies.

The super pointy one?  That's the one.  Outline your letters, then fill in with a thicker brush.  Take your time, take breaks....relaxxxxx.

When you are satisfied with your masterpiece, give it a light sanding....I used "finishing" sandpaper (pictured above)...I sanded a bit heavier along the edges, and lighter over the letters, but the overall effect was "weathered."  I think I did great.  Here's a closeup.  See my corneres, there?  And the white kind of showing through toward the bottom?

I considered an antiquing finish as well, but I was simply tickled with what I had, so I finished off with a light varnish, added a couple of sawtooth hangers and BOOM.  I made a sign for fifty-three cents.

I would estimate that had I purchased all of my materials, this would have still cost less than $20.00 to make!  

OK, your turn!  Really, give it a shot!  This project only took a couple of days due to drying time, and was well worth it! 

Here is my next victim! I found this sweet thing hanging out at the end of someone's driveway on trash day!

What should I do with THIS little sweetie?

New in my Etsy Shop! Lake Michigan Sea Glass Necklace!

I designed this darling necklace with center drilled sea glass from my personal collection. Here, I have used three similarly shaped pieces in powder blue, petal pink, and a misty, minty green. These have been mounted on a sturdy length of solid sterling wire, with sterling silver ball spacer beads, and neatly wire wrapped onto a dainty sterling chain.

Because sea glass is SO unique, I only have this one available at the moment!  Sea glass is hard to find, but  I am not complaining...the time it takes to find these is well worth the time I get to spend combing the beach!

You can find this necklace here;  http://www.karmabeads.etsy.com

New Design! A Tiny Perfume Bottle with One Tiny Wish!

I found these tiny crystal perfume bottles at our local bead shop here in Grand Haven and I knew exactly what I was going to do with them!

And I just love what happened!  

As luck would have it, the tiny little hollow area is the very size I needed to hide one tiny dandelion seed!  Can you see it?

:)

Then, I wrapped a couple of perfect little freshwater pearls to the clasp and hung one on the pendant and voila....a wish necklace, for you from KarmaBeads on Etsy.

I hope you love this too!

It's The Great Pumpkin (earrings!)

I'm kind of in some type of earring phase, I suppose, but I've had these darling little orange pumpkin beads in my stash for a while now, and with this cooler weather, well, I can't help myself!  Had to!

What do you think?  :)  I hope you love them! 

It won't be long now until we're carving our Halloween pumpkins!  I adore fall!