Sneak Peak on Some Boxes

It has gone from Spring is almost here.. to hard freeze winter, this was taken last night... since then not much more snow.. but everything is frozen solid



Been working on getting some pictures taken of the boxes we are making, still need some work on getting good pictures of these.. but they are getting a lot better :) A few hundred more and I should have it!
This is a pine box stained a walnut and then some coats of tung oil. This is not finished yet, will take some more photos when it is all finished.


This is a maple frame with purple splines ( not sure how to get the purple to show up in a picture as purple.. that is one thing I need more work on for sure)
Black Shadow box, this one will be getting listed in the shop hopefully this weekend. It is ready to go!

This is a pine box with oak splines.. it is ready to go and should be listed soon also.

Maple shadow box.. tall one.. with purple splines. Matches the frame above.


Hickory Shadow box

Close up of the purple splines.. still not looking purple though :(

Boxes have keyholes in the back so that they are easy to hang right up tight to the wall.

That is a sneak peak into some of the boxes we have been working on. We still have a list of orders we are working on.. which is wonderful! Makes it hard to get some into the shop.. but.. it will happen. With each box we make it seems to open the door to many more ideas.

~Michelle

Pacific Northwest Green from Local Artists

Greens of the Pac...

  Curated By: MichelleBallard

ArtFire.com

Fine Art Photography

New Items in the Shop

I got some new drill bits the other day and it took a bit of practice to get them to work for me but once I did just about drilled holes in everything I could find. Now I have a lot of drilled sea glass waiting to be made into fun things so there should be a bunch of new listings happening in the next couple of weeks :)

I wanted to start with a couple of things for St Patrick's day

Green and White Earrings

Green Earrings

Green Necklace that can go with either pair of earrings

Also listed this white and blue necklace, not so great for St Patricks but I love it!



More to come any day :)

~Michelle

Brrrrr on the Beach

Yesterday it was sunny and warm... well if you did not count the wind chill... but I over did it in the morning when I opened the doors and windows and did a bunch of spring cleaning.. by noon my shoulder was hurting so bad I ended up spending the next four hours sleeping.

This morning my house is already all clean so I took off for the beach, it was only 35 degrees but there was no wind.. just a light drizzle :) I could see the sunshine across the water.. kept hoping it would sneak over and warm me up... but it did not. After a couple of hours I headed home to some hot cocoa and to sit in front of the fireplace with my book :)

I did find a bunch of wonderful treasures... lots of Bigger pieces and lots of really frosted fun pieces. One cool red spotted heart rock and one star agate too :)

Now that I have warmed up a bit it was a great day at the beach... I do love it when it is cold and wet... the glass seems to glistens and you get the whole beach to yourself :)

~Michelle

Smile of the Day ~ Life before Cell Phones

My sister sent me this in an email this morning.. and it did make me smile.. I thought instead of sending it around in an email I would go ahead and post it here.. I am pretty sure a lot of my readers can relate.

If you are 36, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning....Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways...yadda, yadda, yadda
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of forty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

1) I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

2) There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

3) Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

4) There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

6) We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

7) There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

8) And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

9) We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! Wehad the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen.. Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

10) You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

11) There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

12) And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

13) And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1970 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 40 Crowd

Happy Valentines Day

I wanted to make something fun for Valentines day... when the kids were little I would make a few (like 6 to 10) dozen cupcakes and invite all their friends over. Sit them all around the table where there are bowls of different frostings and sprinkles and let them all have at it. I remember kids stacking cupcakes with layers of frosting.. and kids just eating their cupcakes.. and sometimes just eating the sprinkles or the frosting. Lots of good fun memories. I always had so many kids running around that it was about how many I could make. When it came to cookies they could eat them as fast as I pulled them out of the oven. That and sneaking bites of cookie dough. I would have to triple or quadruple the recipes.

I made a cake this weekend... had not been thinking about Valentines day, I had just wanted cake... so I wanted to do something different today. I made big soft old fashioned sour cream sugar cookies and had printed out a friends recipe for butter cream to frost them with. Was just getting ready to mix up the frosting when my friend posted on facebook that she had just made the best butter cream frosting ever... she was sweet enough to email me a copy of it real quick and I gave it a try.

The frosting was so easy to make... I had to make a few changes as I only made half a batch and did not have the cream so just used milk. I added a bit of food coloring to it because I wanted pink and then I did a tiny bit of almond flavoring with the vanilla. This recipe will be used many more times.... even though I only made half a recipe I had a bunch left over.. I put it in a zip lock bag and put it in the fridge.. not sure how it will hold up but I only made 2 dozen cookies. I will update on that in a day or two when I make some cupcakes to put it on :)

*update on the frosting keeping* it keeps like a charm.. I scooped all that was left into a ziplock bag and stuck it in the fridge... pulled it out a couple of days later... sat it on the counter for a short bit... massaged the bag a bit and nipped off the corner and put it on some cupcakes.. looked great and tasted wonderful! Sorry no pictures... everyone was eating them as fast as I could frost them.

Here is the link to the frosting recipe, along with some beautiful cupcakes, recipe is at the bottom of this post ~ Butter Cream Frosting at Java Cup Cakes

Here is the cookie recipe

Old fashioned sour cream cookies

This is my favorite sugar cookie recipe... well one of them! This one is really easy and always taste great.

Mix together

1/2 cup ( one cube ) softened butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla *you could add a little dash of peppermint too if you wanted*
1 egg

add in

1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Today I wanted to make heart cookies so I scooped out some dough and using floured hand I patted it flat on a floured sheet until I had them as thick as I wanted them and then used the heart cookie cutter. You can also just roll into a ball and then roll in sprinkles and press flat onto the cookie sheet. The cookies do not get any bigger when they bake.. so don't make them too flat. I like them pretty thick and soft. I bake them in the oven at 350 for about 7 minutes.. I watch them pretty close.. I do not want the edges to start turning brown.. then they can get a bit crunchy.. still good.. but I like mine softer.

~Michelle

My Beach ~ Aerial Photos

This is not an open invite *smile* to take over my beach, but I wanted to share with you something cool I found today... I found a site that shows Aerial Photos of the shoreline in Washington State. You just click the shoreline you want to peek at and there you go. I thought it would be nice to share where it is that I spend so much time. These pictures are not of current day... because in this first one.. my house is in it.. but none of my neighbors are here yet.. I plan on spending some time reading through the site and seeing what is what but wanted to share these with you now. I am guessing they are from the late 80's ( clicking on the photos will take you to full size one on the site.. they don't fit so well on here )

I start most days about the middle of that photo... and when looking at it.. I head to the right. This is my favorite part of the beach... my secret island part... where I have to either climb over trees or wait for a really low tide to get to but it feels like no one ever comes here... can't see a house to either side.. it is all high bank.. not where I want to be if a tsunami came ashore.

When you are on their website you can click either way to take the whole tour.. sometimes I go to the left... if you go down for awhile there is some more high bank and I like it down there too. Who am I kidding ( I am sure none of you ) I love any where on the beach :)

RV Show ~ Friends ~ GeoCaching

Today was an awesome day. Friends came over this morning and we headed off to Seattle to the RV show. Our plan is to someday build a motor home using a Peterbilt truck so even though we would not be buying an RV from the shop it is nice to check out the new ideas and see what we might want to work into ours when we build it and what we do not want in ours. The one below is something like what we want.. I would like a few more windows is all :) In your review mirror it is going to be big and truck like... moose pusher and big loud horn. From the side it will be abit more Motor home like, not too much though.

This year we did not see much that was new. I did notice a different lay out for the beds in the trailers... a door on each side of the bed with a flip around tv from the living room to the bedroom... also noticed a bunch with doors right from the outside into the bathroom.. a second door besides the main one.. which would be great for when we are dirt biking or geocaching ... can come in dirty and get all washed up before going into the main part of the RV. Wont work in the one we are planning.. but it is a nice idea. Did see a fifth wheel that was pretty nice... had the living room up stairs where the bedroom is in most of them. With all the slides out it was huge. It was the KeyStone Montana and had everything.. if i was looking for a fifth wheel and was looking for something to park in and not to road trip in.. this might be what I would want.

That pretty much covered it for what we saw... there was not much there this year and only a small handful of motor homes.. most of them used.

On the way home we stopped at Five Guys burgers , Friends had not eaten there yet and we love it... now they do too :) I love being able to pick each thing I want and the fries are so good and you get way too many of them. Not a healthy place to eat but then that is why it is so good! I wish they did milk shakes there.. that would be the cherry on top.

We had been telling them about geocaching so decided to stop at a few on the way home... we are working on getting them hooked on it too... then we drag them around with us. They helped us look for one that we have been trying to get for almost a year now... have made 5 or 6 visits and still have not found it... wait until I tell them we now have a hint from the cache owner for it! After we got home tonight I happened to notice the time for the Cache Event tonight was 6 to 8 and since it was only 6 and we live 10 minutes from it.. we logged in and let them know we were on our way... off to The Station in Stanwood we went.. wow.. it was super packed full of cachers! We for there just in time to get our name into the bucket for the drawing.. and then we won.. we got a small cache box full of goodies and ready to be placed. We have not placed a cache yet but are hoping to get a travel bug and use this as a bribe with our friends to get them to help us find a place to hide it :) This event was great and we were able to put a lot faces with the names we keep seeing in the logs. Also got the hint for the cache we have not been able to find since it was the owner of it that was holding the event. I am hoping to be able to plan some day hikes soon for some caches we have yet to find.

GeoCaching ~ We Are Back!

Had a very lazy morning... got up late... made some waffles and was having a cup of coffee and Dave noticed that 17 caches just published... and the furthest from home was 8 miles.. the closest was just right up the road.. That was all it took.. we were back..grabbed up some loot and a couple of pens.. pulled on our hiking boots. Load up the Gps's and we were out the door on a mission.

First one we went after was the corner store we love to visit... a total easy find... grabbed the cache checked the log and no names were on it... well now ours is... First to Find.. Heck of a way to get back into caching.. and the caches are all done by RDR one of the best around. We love finding his caches...a lot of them we end up having to visit more than once before we find them.. there is one we have visited at least a half a dozen times and still have no clue. We are pretty sure we Know every place it is not hidden.. even though we know when we find it that chances will be high we have seen it and touched it many times and just did not "find" it.

Off to the second cache.. I am pretty sure I know where this one is before we get out of the car... yes that is a big mistake... when I assume where it is then I close my mind to all the other places it might be. Which is what happened... we are looking.. and looking and it is not where I think it should be so I am looking even harder.. and then a car pulls up.. and it is RDR... totally awesome to get to meet him... he asks if we have found it yet.. We say no.. he ask what the name of the cache is... we tell him.. and he gives us this look... Dave gets it.. turns around and he sees it right away.. I am still stubborn and thinking I know where it is so am still looking there.... then I see it.. not where I thought it would be.. and can not believe I did not see it earlier.. I had totally touched it and looked right at it. Second to find on this one.

Tried a couple more but had no luck on those.. did not really give them too much serious time.. they had already been logged so we just did a quick peek... on our way for more first to find... down to one of our favorite parks.. there are a couple of new ones here... a truck is pulling in so we are walking fast.... find it but it has sort of fallen apart.. the cache itself has fallen out of the camo... so we get it out and are looking at the log... cache was just published this morning.. but the log has been signed a few times.. over the last year.. nothing today.. so we are taking a first to find.. and another cacher shows up.. and he agrees... first to find for him too.. sharing this one :) We put it all back together how it should be and head off for the other first to find... it is in the park more.. means some hiking and with the winds blowing like they are.. we hiked fast... found the cache and signed the log and started back out... I stopped to take a couple of pictures and a video because the wind was so cool.. then the branches started falling down around us and we decided it was time to just get out of the trees.

Found four caches today.. ftf on three of them :) We did not go after all of them since we want to start going out on a regular basis again... this leaves some more to go after in the next few weeks :) Being out in the woods and hiking on the trails felt so good.. I have missed being out there a lot and it is time we are out there again! This island has so many awesome trails.. and within 50 miles of here there are millions of trails ( most of them with lots of caches ) that we need to explore!

Learn about Geocaching here I can not say enough good about it. You can do it pretty much for free... you just need a gps. It is great for kids and grandparents and everyone in between or all together. It gets you outside, doing stuff. I can not believe how much I have learned about where I live and the places I have visited because of caching. Any questions feel free to ask me :)

All pictures today were taken on Four Springs 50-acre nature preserve on Camano Island. Even though I had driven past the signs to this for many years.. it was because of caching that we headed back into this and found a beautiful park with lots of trails to explore. I was so excited to be out caching again I did not take many photos as I left the camera at home and I only grabbed the cell for the ones in the park :(

~Michelle

Spring in the Air

Yesterday was just an awesome day at the beach... when I woke up it was 25 degrees and I was not sure I was up to freezing my backside off... then it started to warm up... and the sun was shinning and the sky was blue.. the water was so calm... threw on a sweatshirt and some boots and headed out the door. The tide was way out so I headed down to my favorite spot... you either have to wait until the tide is out or climb over a bunch of trees that slide down the bank last year. I love this part of the beach because no one ever goes down there... it is right in the middle of the high bank with houses on each end. I always find good things here and often find agates in this area.

Bottle Tops

Greens

I was walking around at high tide line and then on the way back decide to hit low tide and see what was there.. on my way down to the water I almost tripped when I saw a red. They are rare and the pieces I have found have always been so very tiny.. like 5 of them on a dime.. but the one I saw today was about the size of a dime :) here it is with all the other awesome stuff.. some heart rocks and pottery and agates :) The big bright red and the yellow are the pottery pieces.

Walking back along the waters edge was a lot of fun... saw this thing hopping all over and I am not sure what he is but I did try getting him back into the water.. but every time I reached for him he would flip flop and creep me out :(

Then I saw some sea anemones and I just had to take some pictures and yes I played with them... they are just so cool.. I was very gentle though.

I could have spent ALL day playing on the beach today... it was warm and fun and the birds were chirping and splashing in the water. Today is sunny and warm too.. but I am going to spend it cleaning out the jeeps.... heard to expect rain starting tomorrow... I do love the rain... it is why everything here is so green and so beautiful.. and I am thankful we are not in freezing temps and buried in feet of snow.. but I am ready for spring. Starting to see flowers budding and I want to be outside working in the yard and having a bonfire and roasting some hot dogs :)

New Blog

It is not really a new blog... but I feel as if I have rewritten a whole new blog. I added pages to the top of the blog.. so that people who are interested in my beach adventures can view those and people who want to know what is going on in my shop can check that out.. without having to weed through stuff you might not care about. This is the plan at least! I have been noticing other blogs with pages like this and I have found that I like being able to look through their blogs in this way so I am adding it to my blog and will looking forward to feedback Please please leave me a comment let me know what you think, do you love it.. hate it.. don't care.. think it would work better if...? Any and all comments are welcomed.

One thing I still need to do is to add labels to more posts from the past. People always told me I should be using tags/labels. Not only on the blog but in my shop. The more I do the more I am understanding a couple of things. One would be why and what they are and how it makes it so much easier to search and find what one needs or wants. The second thing I am picking up on is how stubborn I am and how in the long run it does not make it easier for me. I am pretty good at making whatever I have work for me. Example would be... when asked if I like the keyboard to sit on the desk top or on a slide underneath, I answered... I can make what ever work. Which is true... I can work with it either way... never really thought about how it would work best for me and much more productive that would be in the long run. Now as I am going back and adding labels to every post the hard way.. I am coming to understand that having things work the right way, the best way from the get go makes more sense and less work in the long run. *yes I see some of you, who know me well, rolling your eyes* In fact.. I am looking at a lot of things that have happened in the last few years... and thinking to myself... no more settling... no more monkey *bleep* to get things to work for me.

Now it is noon.. and I am not sure what to do.. I want to go to the beach.. but yesterday I over did it and spent too much time there and am a bit sore today... it is like doing 3 hours of deep knee bends or squats ... people may think I do not get any excise at the beach.. but let them spend three hours with me and then tell me that the next day :) I do not get any cardio though... that I do agree on. I look outside and it is so beautiful and sunny ( not warm though ) that it is hard to spend it inside.. I can hear and see the beach screaming for me to come play... yet.. I do need to get a couple more things done around the house.. some more laundry and make a grocery list... some of my projects needs to be cleaned off the kitchen table and I think today I will stay in and recover a bit and work on indoor things.. tomorrow I will head out again.

Please remember to check out the pages and let me know what you think of them :)

Thank you,

~Michelle

Stormy and Beautiful

Loved it!! I dressed up really warm... looked like it was going to be raining. I had on my socks.. then some wool socks.. then some long johns.. then my jeans.. a tank top.. a long sleeve t-shirt a sweatshirt a big insulated flannel... wrap the scarf around throw the mittens in the pocket.. put on the boots.. and threw on some rain gear....and I can hardly move. I was plenty warm though. Off I go to the beach.. meet up with a friend and we start out on the adventure. I walk pretty slow on the beach.. ok... R E A L L Y Slow. I tend to go from the waters edge to high tide and back and forth.. stopping to take pictures, look at rocks and collect my treasures. I was also having a bit of a problem... as I was plenty warm enough.. but bending over to pick anything up was proving to be a bit difficult.. and then.. the long johns kept wanting to slide down to my knees.. and take the jeans with them.. I seriously felt like one of the teenagers I am always yelling at.... yet I was hiking up my britches with every step. I thought about running home and taking off the long johns but I just kept giving some tugs after every bend over.

The beach was so loud and and so many treasures.. the waves were crashing and the water was churned up.. it was beautiful. I had thought I might get rained on but.. no rain.. in fact the sun came out and by the time I was done I was plenty warm enough. Only found one agate.. but I found some pastels which I LOVE!

and lots of browns with cool patterns on them.

I did also get some some whites and some greens and a heart rock and a couple pieces of pottery. Lots of treasures still to be sorted.

~Michelle

Storm is a Blowing

Muddy Waves
Originally uploaded by Chelle_Ballard

Last week the weather was so nice, about 50 and sunny and the beach was calm... I guess it was a nice week.. but tonight the wind is picking up and I am getting excited... as the house moans and creaks I am even more excited as the wind blows up from the water onto the front of the house.. this means... tomorrow the shore will be all messed up and more treasures to find! It was nice last week to stroll along the beach and find a few treasures and to just enjoy the beach, the sunshine and the neighbors.. but tonight I am excited for tomorrows adventures and treasures and time alone on the beach :)

The video is from a couple of weeks ago when it was stormy... I uploaded it to flickr and then blogged from there.. seeing how it works :)

~Michelle

ArtFire Front Page

Today I got an email that one of my items had been picked for a collection of pacific northwest items called "Cloudy Day Collection" on artfire by another member there ( Matheson Gem Works )

Right after that I saw an email pop up about it again and I almost ignored it.. but I clicked on it and it was to let me know that the collection my item was in was now on the front page of the main site :) I grabbed a picture of it since to be honest I have not paid much attention to how to get a collection on the front page or how long they stay. I know I am making a huge deal out of this... it is not as if my shop sold out or anything.. but after years of being on another site and seeing the same things over and over again on the main page.. I had not given any thought to it.. this today is just another reminder that Artfire is NOT anything like any other site... everyone counts here and gets a chance to be showcased a bit :)

Thank you Matheson Gem Work and thank you Artfire!

Please take a minute to click on the collection and have a look around.. clicking on each item will take you to the shop it comes from and you can see more of that artists wonderful work!

~Michelle

Happy Happy Birthday

To Java Cupcakes Blog!! It is an awesome blog ran by a wonderful friend. She has the best recipes ( not just for cupcakes ) and is a wonderful fun person to get to know and visit with. I first ran across her on twitter.. someone did a rt of something of hers.. and I was off to check it out.. and right away I was in love. My parents were coming over for a visit and I wanted to make something fun for dessert.. I always am making new things when they come over.. they have the best attitude and are willing to try just about anything and give me an honest review. I went flipping through the recipes on java cupcakes blog.. I was so impressed that there were so many to pick from.. turns out I was not able to pick one.. I found two I just had to make.. and they were super easy and fun and so flavorful. Since then I have been back several times.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes and Rhubarb Cupcakes

Those I made when my parents came over.. and a few more times. That is now my favorite thing to do with rhubarb! I have also made the Peanut Butter Fudge and this one is super easy and to die for... seriously the best in the world. The Peanut Butter Brownies are the same thing... way out of the world good!

This is my version of her Peanut Butter Brownie..one thing I love about her recipes is that they are real and user friendly.

Please take a minute to go wish her blog happy birthday... she is having a giveaway too.. you can win a limited edition print from CakeSpy

~Michelle