Cabin Craft Circle: Resin Jewelry

A highlight from this past weekend was sitting around this table making resin jewelry.  My cousin Stephanie brought the supplies and taught us how to make these.  You can see more of resin jewelry that she made here.  Her tutorial is great!  Check it out.  It is more detailed than what I have in this post.
Below are some of the fun bits of things to add to the jewelry:  

This is Stephanie mixing up the resin.  It's toxic stuff so don't forget to wear gloves! 

Here is a piece of cotton fabric that I cut to fit the inside of my metal pendant.  The mod podge is painted onto both sides and allowed to dry completely.  

I poured a small amount of resin in the bottom of the pendant and used a popsicle stick to make the layer smooth and bring it to the inside edges.  

Next, I placed the fabric in the pendant and added the flower bead on top.  Then I poured in more resin and used a pin to position the fabric and flower, and pop the tiny bubbles in the resin.  

The pendant held more resin that I thought possible.  I like the way it looks when you add just the right amount of resin to create this bubbled up look without adding so much that it spills over the sides.  

The Cabin

I just got back last night from a lovely weekend at our family cabin in the woods of Leavenworth.  There were plenty of hikes, campfires, good meals, and mosquitos.  

 S'mores made with saltines were so good!  I liked the salty-sweet taste even better than the s'mores made with graham crackers.  

 More photos to come later!  

Spinach Sandwich

The idea for this spinach sandwich was inspired by Kaylah at her blog, The Dainty Squid.  

Ingredients:

spinach

delicious bread

humus

tzatziki sauce

pepper jack cheese

olive oil

salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a pan.  Add spinach.  I used chopped frozen spinach.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

 Cover and cook until softened.  

 This is delicious whole wheat bread I bought at the grocery store.  It's chewy and perfect.  

Spread humus onto both slices of bread.

 Spread tzatziki sauce onto both slices of bread, and place cheese on one slice.  

 Pile on a generous amount of cooked spinach.

 Done!  It's a bit messy to eat, but it's full of flavor.  

Pinecone Flower

This is a craft I made a couple of years ago, and I'm pretty sure it was something I learned from a Martha Stewart magazine.  That Martha associates with some pretty crafty peeps.    

 All you do is rip apart a pinecone and glue it back together piece by piece into the shape of a flower.  Start in the center and work your way out.  I used a hot glue gun, which worked great.  I have yet to find a perfect place for this flower.  It just sits around looking pretty.  

DIY: Magazine Bowl

I made this bowl a couple of years ago while Daniel and I were visiting his parents in Michigan.  It is made from magazine pages that I picked specifically for their bright colors.  I've seen this project on various blogs here and there, but I think Cindy brought it to my attention way back when.  We had quite a few lovely crafting days at her house.

1. Cut magazine pages into strips.  I think mine were about 2.5 inches thick.

2. Fold each strip in half the long way to crease a line in the center, then unfold.

3.  Fold up each edge to meet the center crease.

 4.  Now refold down the center crease. 

 5.  To make the bowl you will start in the center of the base by coiling the paper as tightly as possible.  Add dabs of glue along the way to secure.  Add the next strip by butting it up right where you left off with the previous strip.  When your base is as big as you want it to be, start spiraling up with your strips gradually.  

When my bowl was finished and the glue was dry, I sprayed it with shellac to make it shiny.  

 Great for storing hair thingies in the bathroom.

Pineapple Wedding Cake

This is a recipe from Julia.  Her grandmother made this cake for her the day after her wedding, so it is sentimental to some, and delicious to all!

 It is so very moist, and the edges crisp up the perfect amount.  Top it with your favorite cream cheese frosting and you will wow the masses!  

Cake Ingredients:

20 oz. can crushed pineapple (undrained)

2 cups sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups flour (I used whole wheat)

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

Frosting Ingredients:

8 oz. packages of cream cheese (2 of them)

1/4 cup butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Cake: 

Mix together ingredients and pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-40 minutes.  Mine ended up taking 35 minutes.  

Frosting:

Soften cream cheese and butter.  Stir ingredients together until smooth.  

Featuring: Hawaii Bag

Yesterday, I made one of those DIY light boxes that are all over the blogs these days.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  It was sort of one of those projects that was meant to be.  I had the perfect box on hand, and just enough tape to finish the project.  Like, exactly the right amount of tape.  It was weird.  I ended up taking a lot of pictures of items around the house.  

Here is a bag that I've had for as long as I can remember.  I don't know if it was a gift, or if I got it when I was in Hawaii as a child.  

 I love this bag and use it to store my best colored pencils.  It has traveled with me to Chicago, Michigan, Hawaii, Yakima, Mexico, anywhere I may have sat down to do a little coloring.  

Weekend Bits

Someone got a new toy:

 Grilled vegetables for our Mother's Day feast at my brother and sister-in-law's house.  He made coconut salmon curry over linguine.  Wow!

 Dean and Marie's cat, Shirls:

 Vans love:

Veggie Udon Soup

Super easy.  Super delicious.

Cook some vegetables to your desired doneness:

 Add 1-2 cups of water and bring to boil:

Add udon noods and flavor packet that comes with it.  Simmer for 3 minutes:

Done and done!  Dinner for two!