Treasures by Louise

Thunbergia Alata Yesterday we enjoyed grilling chicken and veggies outdoors, and then brought our food indoors to enjoy. Earlier I stopped at the garden center for one of my favorite flowering vines. The common name is Black-eyed Susan vine. Beautiful Summer colors!

I have discovered a wonderful new blog - Full of fun and creative crafting ideas. Claire writes the blog 'blah to TADA!' and I'm having so much fun exploring all her projects. Cruise on over and check it out! I especially like her take on a simple leather and beaded bracelet that is very trendy. blah to TADA! - Leather and Studs Bracelet.  I am going to try one of these myself,  so check back after a while and I'll post some photos. Have a Happy Mother's Day!

Cute little canape trays These country style canape trays remind me of blue and white pin-dot fabric! I love the country farm look of these four little trays that may be from the 1970's. They are in great condition.

I had a strand of 'ugly' beads, think they are plastic, and a wild combination of colors. My mother found them at a rummage sale. I set them aside, not knowing what I would do with such beads. I recently pulled them out and sorted them by color. I found the green and orange colored ones went nicely with some assorted beige glass beads, they made up into a very nice necklace. I'm showing it today in honor of earth day. It has inspired me to create more upcycled jewelry coming soon!

Here is such a pretty nut dish I found last week amongst some other treasures. It is in excellent condition, and would be perfect for serving snacks at your next tea party or holiday event.  I am currently using it to keep track of my beads while I'm creating! I hope to soon post pics of my necklaces! Meanwhile, visit my Etsy store LilyandJasmine for this and other delicious finds.

We are reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for our church book group, and I am getting hungry reading it. Chapter two speaks of early spring vegetables, including asparagus. So we had asparagus for dinner on Saturday. (From the grocery store.) Now to track down my other favorite spring food - rhubarb! Barnes and Noble Books . I also have lots of reading to do by Wednesday!

  Beautiful graphics and colors on this tin. This one sold from my Etsy shop, but it was hard to part with it!

Wow! What could you create with this clever little fellow?

I love to find inspiration in seasonal colors. I have created two (!) new spring treasuries of beautiful greens. If you are new to Etsy, treasuries is a way of liking a group of items that all belong to a theme. I don't include my own items in a Treasury, just beautiful things from other sellers. Check out all my favorites. Etsy.com/treasury Beautiful-inspiration   Etsy Treasury: More Spring Inspiration

Here are some recently listed tins available in my Etsy shop Lily and Jasmine's Treasures They are some selected from my Dad's collection of old tins. Here's an old tiny moth ball tin . Update: Sold A colorful white tin with floral and butterflies, once contained Ginseng Tea. This one has such fantastic bright colors!

  I am finally posting this bracelet that I made in October - inspired by the fall colors. Made with memory wire, eye pins and four colors of Bead Gallery glass polygon beads. Here is my inspiration: http://www.michaels.com/Seaglass-Cuff-Bracelet.   I used just four beads per pin and arranged the black beads to form the chevron pattern. The colors used were black, amber, gold and lavender. I have had many compliments on this bracelet!

I have loved  Zentangle (ultra-fantastic doodling) since I first saw a book about it. When my daughter wanted to decorate her shoes, I knew just what pen (The Pigma Pen) to recommend. I showed her the Zentangle website, too. Zentangle Website . She went in her own direction, and I think the results are fantastic! After decorating them, we sealed the shoes with Krylon Matte Acrylic Spray on to keep them from getting damaged, even though Pigma pens are permanent and water proof.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Thankful for: Family and friends, beautiful fall colors, fluffy white snow, beads and more! Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Stop over to my Etsy Store: Lily and Jasmine's Treasures , to see hand crochet items and some vintage collectibles for sale. Here is Peaches - a one of a kind crochet doll. Click on the blog banner above to go to the store, or click on this link to see: Peaches

Another Friday, a rainy one in the Midwest. So two weeks later, I have survived the commencement, the all -night party, the Graduation Party and Grandma's 80th Birthday! I am really enjoying our summer garden, thanks to our tropical rainforest type weather, everything is growing and green.

 Being a Green Consumer is not difficult  and can be cost effective and low-tech, too: Natural, Nontoxic Cleaning Here's an article from the AARP Newsletter about Non-toxic cleaners. I try to use unscented, natural cleaners since many of the highly scented cleaners affect my allergies. As described in the article, vinegar and baking soda are nice and mild. They shouldn't produce sensitivity in most folks. Vinegar even kills germs if used as described.

Watching for the Daffs to return.

Yesterday I found a 'new' vegetable at Meijer, next to the zucchini and yellow squash. Price-wise, it was ten cents less per pound than the summer squash, so I picked up two. Back at home I researched it on Wikipedia, my first source for almost any new topic. I prepared it stir-fried following a recipe on All-recipes, and added carrot, mushrooms, sliced onion and powdered ginger. It was a yummy hit. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chayote-Squash-Side-Dish/Detail.aspx . There's more recipes out there that sound great: Roasted Corn, Chayote and Black Bean Salad, on a web site called Choosy Beggars.

I am working my way through Carl Sagan's book The Dragons of Eden, about the evolution of the human brain. This is my choice for "light reading" after finishing my Biochemistry class. (I have my next textbook for Advanced Analytical Chemistry, but haven't done more than page through the table of contents.) Dragons of Eden  is great for keeping my brain alert during my time off from school. Biochemistry was quite a challenge but will surely help my understanding of things such as environmental toxicology, in the future. I also  learned a lot about food additives while researching the ingredients in bread for extra credit.