Fixed it!

Here is the picture of the cloche I bought with the cute little winter scene on a box from Skippy Doodle Designs and Sue Parker
Love it!


As I said in my last post. I stopped by a friend's house to do some scrapping of sorts. I am not a scrapbooker, but I love paper and making things...so I made Christmas ornaments for my tree! Here are the pictures....

As you can see, I have a love affair with glitter! hehehehe...

Some more of my holiday creations are on my FB page

Time for me....

Yesterday I went back to my old stomping grounds in Saratoga County, NY to visit a fabulous store,
Schuyler Pond Home & Garden
727 Route 29 East
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

I had visited before, but yesterday was special because there was an event featuring some artists I have admired online for many years from Earth Angels

After quickly surveying the beautiful eye candy, I made a second round to decide what would come home with me. I had been looking for a cloche to put on my table and I found one at Skippy Doodle Designs.
. I also purchased another little winter scene that is now highlighted in my new cloche. I chatted with Sue Parker, of Skippy Doodle and Jen O'Connor of Earth Angels. Both woman were delightful.

I also snagged an angel ornament I have admired online for awhile now from Debbie Thibeault . It now holds a spot center stage on my tree.

On my way home I stopped by Miss Ellies, a family friend who was doing a weekend scrapbooking event with my mom, sister and niece. What fun making things, watching Christmas movies, and eating homemade chicken & dumplings. I made 4 Christmas ornaments to add to my tree. I'm enjoying decorating this year. Last year I wasn't able to because of an accident I was in. I was lucky I even had another Christmas to see. It was, however, a catalyst for change and change has happened, all for the good. So the tree went up right after Thanksgiving and decorating has been an ongoing thing since then.

To finish off my weekend,I am going to go for a ride on Jerry, and come home, watch movies and cook my kids a nice dinner. My son is home from college and I have both my children under my roof. I'm a happy girl!

As soon as I can fix the issue of not being able to upload pictures...UGHHHHHH!, I will post more pictures.

One of my preces sold on ETSY!!!!!

I am so excited that my adorable little bee pendent sold on ETSY. I have offered some of what I make for sale to support my art habit. I wish I had more time to promote and fine tune my ETSY shop, to maybe sell more. I was ecstatic when I got the e mail that this necklace sold. I packed it up and shipped it out immediately. I hope the buyer enjoys it as much as I did making it.

I am considering taking a PMC certification course in January. It will be an investment, but I will get discounted silver and other supplies. It works out that I already have the time off from my new job. Maybe it is a sign????

Lately, I have been busy making Christmas ornaments and decorating my home. I need to get some photos to post. I have made some very cute things!!!!!

Bread Pudding Recipe......Yum!!!

It's fall and time for some comfort food and of course apples! Here is a way to have both. Add a bit of coarse sea salt to the caramel sauce and have a swanky, upscale dessert being served in high end bakeries and restaurants. Enjoy!

Apple Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce

9 cup stale bread cubes (about 12 slices)
1/2 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups milk
4 medium apples
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

Caramel Sauce:
1 cup cold water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cut bread into small pieces and place in bowl. Add raisins. Pour milk over bread and raisins. Peel, core, and slice apples. Cut apples in quarters and place over bread mixture.

In bowl combine sugar, eggs and melted butter; whisk until smooth. Pour egg mixture over apples and stir to combine. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes.

Sauce: Combine water and cornstarch in microwave-safe dish, stirring until blended. Add sugar and cinnamon and whisk until dissolved. Microwave on HIGH for 2 to 3 minutes or until thickened. Check and stir halfway through cooking time. Remove; add butter and vanilla extract. Stir until butter is melted. Serve sauce over bread pudding.

Follow the signs!

Here is recycling /re purposing at its best. I found this old wood in a pile in the back. They were the perfect size to make painted signs. I sanded them lightly, painted and distressed them. I thought long and hard on how to put the wording on. I finally used my sister's Cricut and made word stencils. I copied the stencil with a pencil and then hand painted them in. Then the fun began...the distressing! I sanded, crackled, hammered, scratched, stamped, until I had the worn chipped look I love. I used a walnut stain to further deepen the patina and sealed with a polyacrylic. I am very pleased with how they came out. I gave a couple as gifts and have a few more pieces of wood to work on when the inspiration strikes me. These were a lot of fun to do and urge anyone who wants a vintage looking sign like the ones you see in catalogs and in stores, for a lot less money.

Fall Vignettes....Better late then never.

Here are a couple of my Halloween/Fall vignettes. Included in one of the pictures is my DIY Mercury Glass lamp I made from a Goodwill find. Find the link to making your own faux mercury glass here.
http://www.kelleymaria.com/2011/04/diy-mercury-glass.html

Lots of DIY projects in the works. I am finally motivated to make my house a home that shows off what I love and that makes me happy. I will share as I finish them in future posts. Happy Fall!

Words to live by................................................

courtesy of

Home is where your heart is

It's funny..... when my life was in a turmoil, I could have cared less what color the walls were painted or making my house a home. I was just so concerned with surviving.

I saved this picture awhile ago. I am not sure where it came from, but I love this room! I could go in and sit and just relax! I am discovering my style, what moves me and what I want to envelope me. I have always loved anything rusty, chipped paint, fabrics and items with lots of texture. So this is my inspiration for creating my home. As I progress, I will post pictures. I still rent, so I am limited in what I can do. As I take inventory of what I already own, I have found I have already collected pieces that will fit into my vision. I just need to put it all together. So with fresh eyes and a new vision....I forge ahead.

Redefining my passion

I am at a crossroads in my life where I need to analyze what direction I want my life to go. Years ago my passion was dogs, and their care. I groomed them, I raised them, I showed them. They were my life. My personal life took a turn for the worse and I had to give it all up except the grooming job I have held since I was a teenager. The job I had, was very stressful and complicated, and ate away at the passion I had for the profession. Then my accident. Now it's 10 months later and am healed enough to think about what I want to do with my life. My divorce is finally final and I am free from the chain around my neck that was drowning me. With that, I have been able to enjoy things that make me happy and fire a passion with me. I have taken an interest in decorating my house. I just plain ole, didn't care before. I do now. I love vintage. I love re purposed items. I like unique items that one does not find in everyone else's home. I love my horses. Going to the barn is my church. It brings me peace and every stress in the world goes away. And I love to create things. I paint. I sculpt. I take pictures. I am enamored with mixed media. And thoroughly enjoy designing art jewelry pieces. Unfortunately, the things that I am passionate about cannot support my family. I have considered renting a vendors booth, and offering things I make and/or re purpose for sale through there. I am going to dabble in re doing furniture. As I do this I will post my progress on my blog. I have already done a few things and I will share pictures as I go. Maybe , in time, I will be able to make a living at this. I have included a picture of an item in my kitchen. I use it as a coffee station and it holds some of my larger pots and pans. It has a wine rack, but I rarely keep enough wine around to use that. I sanded the wood top and used a graphic from and my TAP transfer paper to put a french inspired graphic on the top. I spray painted the base a flat black with spray paint. All in all a very easy redo.

The before picture was in a previous post.

I have been doing a bit of reorganizing my craft/art studio and decorating for the season and having fun doing it. I will post pictures when everything is complete. So off the computer and on to some organizing and maybe some painting and then a riding lesson this afternoon. A wonderful way to enjoy this nice fall day.

I big fat heart this!

This dresser is painted with chalk paint from Anne Sloan. I just adore this in all it's perfect blue, distressed, perfectness. This project was from http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com. I drool over the stuff on this blog on almost a daily basis. I have inherited an antique secretary from my mother in law, that needs some love. I have been surfing the web looking for ideas, and this may be it! I finally have some time & energy to work on some projects around the house. I will post pictures...stay tuned!!!!!

Doing the right thing

Sometimes I am challenged and succumb to levels that other people live by. I remind myself often, that to be happy, truly happy, in life, that you need to surround yourself with positive, ethical, motivated people. Thank Goodness, I do not hold on to anger long. Anger makes me sour and hateful, feelings I do not like. That does not mean, I will allow people to walk all over me either.


 The older I get, the more obvious it is, how different folks can interpret any one situation. I remind myself of this and try to be more understanding and accepting of those involved. There is only so much one can do, when having done something unselfish, for a good cause is misinterpreted and taken advantage of. It was not about my ego, it was about helping and making a difference. The sad thing about this is that I will think twice about helping again. Most likely I will help, but I will definitely be more aware of the egos around me.


As for the lesson I have learned from this situation. I will distance myself from those that make me sad and angry, and continue to look for companions that inspire me. I have come a long way. There was a day when I would have fed off the negativity, like a piranha. Now, it is like water off a ducks back. You live and you learn!

I want my daughter to learn these lessons. I am not sure if she gets it or not, but I am happy to say, she isn't into gossip and drama that would hurt people. She has gotten hurt a lot in the past few years and understands the damage that it can do. Life is truly too short. Each and every day, one needs to do something that will make themselves happy. Look for those things however small they may be. Life is not about egos, it is about people, and nature, and love and beauty. I started by doing small things for myself, that I could not do when working a stressful job with an alcoholic husband, who didn't work at home. I made some changes, some, not my own idea, and have moved forward.A year ago, I was a very sad, frustrated, negative person. Today, I look forward to each day and am thankful for those positive people in it.

Benefit Horse Show

So, this past Sunday was our benefit horse show at the farm to promote the cause of finding adoptive homes for  ex racehorses, who have been injured or are not fast enough from entering the slaughter pipeline. Unfortunately, we did not get the entries we were hoping for. We also has T-shirts made for the event and still have LOTS left over! I designed the logo and I think the shirt came out fantastic! If anyone is interested in purchasing a T-shirt and helping the horses go towww.thinkyourride.com and to the "pay here" link.

The silent auction bombed! I had so many great items. People were so generous with their donations. I am not giving up!  I am taking what I still have  and doing an online auction. Hopefully this will do better
.
On a good note, a thoroughbred was adopted out AND it is being boarded at our farm. His name is "Laud Lazarus". So we get to see & play with him.

We also received lots of media attention and maybe more people will take a look at one of these amazing horses, when looking for a new horse.


My daughter, Mariah rode my horse "Jerry" and was Reserve Grand Champion OTTB for the day. Her horse, Hoy, is injured and could only be shown in the parade and in hand classes...which he won!

All in all a good day and I am very proud of what we all accomplished.

Projects....

In my kitchen I have an old wine rack with a wood block that I want to refinish. I want to paint the base a charcoal black and then using a vintage image from http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com, paint a sign on the wood.I plan on painting my kitchen a dove grey with black & white toile curtains and red accents. I love typography and signs and am going for a french country feel. I think the wine rack will fit in nicely.

My next project will be a vintage pastry table with an metal top. I would like to use a red chalk paint on this and re finish the wood side table in a natural stain.

My 3rd project is a birdhouse my sister in law owns that her father made. She loves the ocean and Cape Cod, so I thought I would decorate it in an ocean theme. Need to think on this for awhile.

So with these 3 projects and everything else that i want to do, I should be able to stay very busy. I can't start on any of this, this week. The benefit horse show I have been working on for 7 months is on Sunday. So many last minute details to work on.

Playin with PMC

I wanted to share some pieces I made with precious metal clay. I took a rings class ( the second time) with Nancy Miller   nancymillerjewelry.com.

I was thrilled with the end results and came away with lots of inspiration and my head spinning with ideas. That's usually what happens. Now I have a sketchbook next to my bed. I am sure I am not the only one who comes up with great ideas in the middle of the night only to forget them in the morning. Instead of my head spinning with no real sense of direction, I can look at my sketches and focus on what it is I want to complete. If you read my blog or know me, you know that I love my horses. I incorporate what I love into my jewelry. I have an Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/Giggleworks where I hope some of the pieces will sell to help to support my PMC habit. Silver is VERY expensive lately so I need to limit how much I use it. The bracelet I finished yesterday ( pictured) has a metal clay focal  and then I combined it with leather and some sterling. The horse head on the PMC is from a sketch I did. I made a PPP ( photo polymer plate) of it and transferred the image to the clay. I then dried, sanded, fired, patina ed and polished. It sat on the work table for weeks until I was inspired to finish it.


I love the wrap bracelets that are so the rage lately and am teaching myself how to make one. My first attempt is coming out good. I just need to get more beads to finish it. I am going to make some PMC components to add to them. I am also working on making horsehair bracelets. I will post pictures when I get one done. All the horses are wondering why I am following them around with a pair of scissors. LOL!

Ohhhh.....the rings! I am keeping the square one and am finishing the other by adding an image and resin into the frame. That one is going to my Momma.

I'm gonna make more............they were so rewarding to do. I loved the finished product!

Tribute to the OTTB Benefit Show

For six months I have worked at organizing a horse show that will celebrate the versatility of the thoroughbred horse after their job on the race track is over...making them an OTTB! OTTB stands for off the track throughbred. All proceeds from the show will go to Ak

indale Thoroughbred Rescue, in Pawling, NY.www.akindalehorserescue.org.


This cause is close to my heart because my two adopted horses are OTTB's. They are wonderful guys who make me extremely happy and are a joy to me on a daily basis. It pains me to know that many horses with the same qualities as my boys end up in the slaughterhouse pipeline to eventually end up on a European or Japanese dinner table. It is illegal for a slaughterhouse to kill horses in the US, but kill buyers buy unwanted horses at auction and ship them over the borders to Canada & Mexico to meet a brutal fate.

By bringing attention to this issue we hope to make the public aware of what happens when the race is over and encourage potential horse owners to consider one of these horses for their next show horse, trail horse, or pasture companion. They have a bad reputation as being "hot, unruly, and unpredictable".

What these rescues do( Akindale is only one of many) is to take in horses that have been injured, unmotivated, or too slow to race. They evaluate them and re train them as well as heal their mental and physical wellbeing. They then are made available for adoption .

I board at a farm, Shadowbrook Farms Equine Facility, whos owner, Cherie Pettit, has created a 3 part program, called "Think Your Ride"www.thinkyourride.com to help re train these thoroughbreds and also train the youngsters on the way to the track. This training while they are young makes the transition to and from the track a lot easier. My daughter and her OTTB , "Hoy", went through this course under Cherie's guidance and the growth in both has been astonishing. Another boarder, Debra Smith, is a thoroughbred breeder, who has put her weanlings and yearlings through the program and has a filly in training at the track. The trainer always comments on how curious she is and how ready she is to learn.

I searched high and low for equine items to be auctioned off in a silent auction. I have received some lovely items and am excited to see what they bring in for Akindale. We are also having a book signing, a BBQ, and a used tack tent sale and much more.

My hope is that this can be made an annual event and that we earn lots of money for the horses and save as many as we horses as we can.

Believe in me and stress free!

It's June and here on planet Westerlo, it has been quite chilly for the past few days. Did some flea marketing and found a couple of treasures. I am now the proud owner of a vintage dress form!!!!!! Yeah!!!!! I am going to use it to display my jewelry. With all the time on my hands, my little country garden is coming along. I still want a vintage bike to hang a basket of flowers on. Through a facebook page, Flea Market Gardening, I was inspired to make some recycled glass garden totems. The picture here is the first one I completed. I gathered a few more dishes in my travels and will make a few more as gifts.

Our horse, "Hoy" injured his leg a week ago. It has been a daily ritual to go hose his leg, ice it, poultice it and wrap it. The attention has paid off as it seems to have solved the issue. It always amazes me how delicate those creatures are, for as big as they are. My old guy "Jerry" has been loosing weight and that concerns me. We are changing his diet because giving him more wasn't doing it. I have complete faith in the barn owner and will do what she suggests. I still worry about him. I have only had him since last August and I am hoping there is not an underlying issue.

So with the gardening, horsey stuff, painting and making  jewelry, I am keeping myself pretty busy. I need to have surgery on my knee soon. They tell me it won't be a long recovery. That makes me happy!!!! But in spite of my injuries, I am doing well and enjoy the lack of stress in my life. I can breathe now!!!! I'll be back soon, but check out the picture of my little recycled glass planter.  Cheers!

Creating.....................

I have been very busy the past few months, painting, beading, sculpting pieces from metal clay and being inspired  on how to combine them all into unique, original, jewelry pieces. With  horses being a passion for me, in particular, retired thoroughbreds, I have made some equine jewelry to sell in my Etsy shop. I have committed  to donating 10% of all my sales to thoroughbred / horse rescue. It may not be much, but every little bit will count.

Pictured is my latest PMC, fine silver pendent, featuring a jumper. I made a photo polymer plate of a sketch I did awhile ago. It is strung with a combination of ceramic and glass beads.

Eye Candy

What's for Dinner?

In the quest to become a healthier me, and continue to pursue my love of cooking, I have come upon a couple of sites that offer delicious healthy recipes. Last night I made a remake of the Cheesecake Factory's Garlic Chicken Noodle Dish, from the Hungry Girl website.http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/show/1905. It was so yummy and I could have a healthy portion and yet limit the amount of calories. Tonight, I am doing a chicken parm from the website http://www.hungry-girl.com/newsletters/raw/758 ,adding spaghetti squash to my cup of pasta so I am not starving after dinner.The test will be how well the kids like it. They have a show on the Cooking Channel where I saw that hint, along with a bunch of others. .

The other site I visit a almost daily is. My niece, Liesel, turned me on to this site. She cooks from this site every day and has lost quiet a bit of weight. I have tasted many of these recipes and so far I have loved every one of them. The whole Superbowl party was from recipes from Gina's site. I especially liked the http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/01/skinny-baked-jalapeno-poppers.html jalapeno poppers...yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So cooking is something I can do while recovering and I am enjoying it a lot. Check out these sites and let me know what you think.

Change

Sometimes we all become very complacent in the comfort and routine of our every day lives, whether it is good for us or not. I had feared change because of all of the uncertainty about it but knew deep down inside it was desperately needed. I had made some changes and considered others but still struggle with why I am here and what I am to do with the rest of my life.

Life interests me. I am curious about so many things. I want to experience as much as I can. A terrible accident that injured me badly has given me time to reflect on what and who is important. My heart has opened and my mind spins with the possibilities of the future. I have written about this so many times change, future, etc. but have never been brave enough to take the next step. I had gotten to the point I did not trust my own judgment so I did nothing, or as little as I could. I feel as though I have been given a second chance at life. My recovery has been long but my belief in family and friends has been reinforced. I will be ever so grateful to those who unconditionally stepped in to take care of me , the kids, horses, dogs, house, bills. I want to pay it forward whenever I am given the chance. The last few years have been consumed with trying to survive that I could not think of anyone or anything else. That is one thing that has changed. I still do not have everything figured out but am more optimistic that life will fall into place now that I am out of the rut I was in. I wish it did not take me getting hurt to make the changes but it is what it is.