coastal egg decorating

April 11, 2014

Today for Friday field trip, I’m kicking it back to kindergarten. I’m adapting some old school techniques to egg decorating to create some Easter eggs to use in my coastal décor.

I am using two easy techniques that you – like me – probably used in grade school, but may not have thought about using in creating your Easter egg designs!

It was probably earlier than kindergarten when my siblings and I discovered this first technique. ..purely by accident. During our egg dyeing sessions, inevitably, the hard boiled eggs we were preparing to dye were constantly being dropped by our young, clumsy hands during our egg dyeing frenzy.

We would soon learn that the many cracks these drops created in the shells would cause the eggs inside to take on the dye. When it came time to eat the eggs, no one wanted to eat the ones that had been cracked and dyed with the spider web-like effect. Of course, as we got older, this became a cool effect that we would purposely emulate and enhance – learning by experience (the obvious) that the longer the egg remained in the dye, the more pronounced the design would appear.

It made me smile this month when I saw a full page in the current Real Simple magazine giving instructions to create this very same effect on an Easter egg. The instructions said to crack the egg with a spoon…or, (not mentioned in the magazine) drop egg continually on a table while excitedly anticipating the Easter bunny’s arrival!

The second old school technique I use on eggs wasn’t used on eggs at all back in kindergarten. We used it to create a leaf painting. Various shaped leaves were placed on a paper and paint, in fall colors, was splattered over the leaves. When the leaves were removed, their shapes would appear, like magic, against the splattered background.

The splattering was done with an old toothbrush and a Popsicle stick. Rubbing the Popsicle stick across a paint filled toothbrush created a beautiful splattered effect. I used this very same technique to create the eggs shown here – using brown paint on eggs dyed in sea glass colors.

What was it that Robert Fulghum said? “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten?”

Have a great weekend and remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing with Common Ground, Shabby Nest, Fridays Unfolded, Craftberry Bush, and Crafts a la Mode.

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10 cool things about chewing gum

March 28, 2014

Elvis chewing gum. Source

Do you remember the first time you chewed a stick of gum? I can’t. Although, I can remember the first time I got in trouble for chewing gum! That was definitely on my Sunday walk to church with my grandmother – where gum chewing was strictly forbidden! I can’t even imagine what would have happened to me if I got caught with it in the church based on her reaction when it was discovered I was chewing it on the way to church!

After I posted the tutorial on making a fake gum magnet this week, I really got to thinking about gum in general. It is amazing how many different types and brands of gum are available today in comparison to years ago.

When I was a kid, I remember Wrigley’s spearmint, Juicy Fruit, Chiclets, Razzles…around Halloween time; I remember searching for Black Jack gum to use to simulate a lost tooth. I also remember a more exotic gum no one would try called Teaberry. For bubblegum…it was all about Bazooka. I certainly don’t remember anywhere near the selection of chewing gum we have in the stores today!

Ben Affleck chewing gum. Source

Not only are there many more varieties of gum today, but there also seems to be many more cultural references! Did you know it is illegal to chew gum in Singapore? Or that the Navy Seals include chewing gum in their survival kits! For today’s Friday field trip, some fun links showing ten other cool ways chewing gum has become part of our culture:

Nostalgic old television commercials…Remember the Doublemint twins? The Fruit Stripe zebra?

A legendary gum wall in Seattle

“Don’t tell me you know how to make a bomb out of a stick of gum?” -McGyver

Squidward vs. gum

Is gum loosing its pop?

I loved making these gum wrapper paper chains when I was a kid

On Seinfeld… Elaine? or Jerry?

A great children’s book on the history of gum

How to remove gum from your hair or couch

A cool gum wrapper sculpture

Hope you enjoyed exploring a little about chewing gum in our culture for today’s Friday field trip.

Have an amazing weekend, Jackie

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diy button anchor wall hanging

February 21, 2014

For today’s Friday field trip, I am turning an item from the past into something unexpected that can be permanently displayed and fondly admired.

While my children were growing up, our family vacations always involved water – even when we were away from our own beach, we were tent camping on a lake or visiting the ocean at a state park.

Shortly after my children were born… I don’t think my oldest was even a year old… I splurged and bought a couple of good quality staple items to be used for our family’s water time…a mesh bag to tote toys (there were always plenty) and a large cotton beach blanket – both purchased from L.L.Bean. Every family trip to an ocean, lake, or pool was accompanied by the large mesh bag filled with water toys and the brightly colored cotton beach blanket.

Over the years, the mesh bag disappeared as the mountain of plastic toys was replaced with sand chairs and Baggo. But, the blanket always remained…that is, until this past summer…when I noticed (to my horror), that someone had decided this old beach blanket, now a shredded mess, should be put out of its misery. I found it tossed in an outdoor garbage can!

What did I do? I immediately took it OUT of the trash, of course – determined to save it and preserve all the memories associated with this sacred beach blanket. I gave it a good washing and decided I would come up with some way to use some part of it to keep forever. After all, this blanket was like part of the family! I can’t even begin to explain all the wonderful moments that happened on and around this blanket!

So, I came up with a wall hanging that serves the battered old blanket perfectly and evokes memories of happy times with my children every time I see it!

If you want to create something similar, here are the steps I used:

Stretch fabric (blanket) onto an embroidery hoop sized appropriately for the design you have chosen.
Sew buttons onto the fabric in a desired pattern. (First, work up your design on a flat surface to determine the buttons you want to use and the size of the design. I was inspired to use the anchor by a photo of a tote bag I saw in Marie Claire.)
Trim the fabric edges and glue them to the back of the hoop edges.
For a decorative edge, attach a thin piece of twine around the edge of the hoop using a glue gun.
Tie on a piece of twine for hanging. (This is a decorative option since the hoop can be hung without it.)
Use a glue gun to add on a ribbon accent.

Have you found unexpected ways to display items with special meanings? I would love to hear about them…I still have blanket left. ;)

Thank you for stopping by.

Have a wonderful weekend, Jackie

Sharing at Craftberry Bush and Common Ground.

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displaying a special treasure

May 14, 2013

The most valuable piece of jewelry I own is probably made out of stainless steel. It is my grandmother’s wedding ring.

Most valuable because it is a symbol of the generations…because of my grandmother’s wedding came my mom, because of my mom came me, because of me came my children….how can you measure the value of a symbol like that?

This symbol was the one piece of jewelry I never took off…until recently…when I was getting a medical exam and I was asked to remove it. Well, you know what? I could not get it back on! It seems my finger had miraculously grown in an extremely short period of time! I certainly was not cutting the ring. So, with Mother’s Day still fresh on my mind, and memories of generations of moms filling my thoughts, I decided to create a way to display my prized possession.

I had a beautiful Pottery Barn frame in my closet for a long (too long) time, waiting to be used. I had ordered a bunch of frames for a series of photographs and one had arrived to me broken. The nice people at Pottery Barn quickly replaced it and told me not to go to the trouble of returning the broken one…So I was saving it for a future project. Displaying my grandmother’s ring was the perfect use for it!

To make it look a little more modern, I decided to cover the mat and headed out to the Paper Source that just opened in our area to select a suitable paper. They have such a large selection of archival quality papers in an amazing array of patterns and colors. Rather than choosing something nostalgic looking, I decided to go with something more modern and chose a paper that had a brown matte background with a silver metallic nature design.

It was an easy project. I just glued the paper onto the mat board and sewed the ring onto a piece of linen after adding a piece of ribbon. I love this project…so fitting for a nostalgic Mother’s Day activity.

I hope my next nostalgic project will be one of wedding songs…The songs from my mom’s and my grandmother’s wedding….I asked my grandmother when she was still alive and 92 years old, the title of her wedding song…I wrote it on a piece of paper. I asked my mom the same and added it to the list. My intention was to create something special using the two song titles and the title of my own wedding song.

When I recently went to look for the song titles in the ‘safe place’ I had left them, I discovered I couldn’t remember where that ‘safe place’ actually was! I hope to run across that slip of paper one of these days…I can no longer replicate it since my mom no longer remembers what her song was and my grandmother is no longer with us…maybe I will find that slip of paper before next Mother’s Day. Hope so :)

Thanks for stopping by and sharing some memories with me.

Remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

Sharing with Coastal Charm, Craftberry Bush, and Shabby Nest.

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easter nostalgia

March 1, 2013

Can you believe Easter is in March and it is already March? This week, Friday field trip is a little trip back in memory to Easter’s past. I will also be sharing some Easter basket ‘goody’ ideas for Easter bunnies ;)

Easter was so fun when the children were young… leaving the carrot with the front teeth marks on the kitchen table so the kids could find it in awe; sure that the Easter bunny had visited and quickly thinking about the treats in store as they scrambled to rifle through their baskets!

My kids are college students now and Easter is celebrated a little differently. It still retains its awe, but in a much different way. It is the one holiday in our family where everyone is together, so it makes for a very special day.

In the morning, my kids still discover filled Easter baskets on Easter morning. They are the Easter baskets I made for them…yes, wove them….when they were babies. My daughter had a thing for yellow when she was small so hers was accented in yellow and filled with yellow ‘grass’. For my son, I made an apple basket and dyed it blue.

The basket contents these days are little different than when they were small, but I think the baskets are just as well received. Not as much candy in recent years, although their favorite candies are still included. My son loves Lindt truffles (red) and my daughter loves pear jelly beans. Jelly Belly brand jelly beans have always been a tradition in the Easter baskets. Each basket receives an assortment box, but my daughter always gets an additional extra bag filled exclusively with the pear flavored variety…that Easter bunny is just so darn thoughtful!

In recent years, egg hunts in the living room are replaced with a GPS egg hunt throughout the town and beyond with teams of twenty-somethings scrambling to locate the hidden eggs and be the first back to grandma’s house.

My young niece and nephews still search the yard for filled plastic eggs that my sister has strategically placed around my mother’s yard. When that is completed and trading of the contents ensues, everyone makes a guess as to how many jelly beans are in the huge glass jar my mom has filled and whose contents were accurately counted the day before. The person with the closest guess wins the entire jar (…and, may or may not share with the group lol). We always think my sister, the math teacher, is sure to win; but that is never the case.

An “oldie but goodie.” I started making these as a Kindergarten room mother…cellophane is shaped into a cone and is filled with anything orange…candy, goldfish, etc…fun!

My favorite part of Easter? Taking the annual ‘goofy cousins’ photo at some point during the day. And, I still love coloring eggs with my daughter which we schedule best we can sometime before Easter. What makes your Easter special?

Do you have trouble thinking of items to include in your child’s Easter baskets as they become college age? Necessities are always appreciated…you can’t miss with socks and underwear! Commercial washers and dryers are brutal on these items! Here is a list of possible goodies to choose from in a variety of price ranges. Remember to consider the recipient’s special interest or college major to make the items more personal. Have fun with it! Send me an email if you need some suggestions.

Easter Basket Gift Ideas

I found these for my nursing student’s Easter basket :)

Candy – favorites or novelty
Band-Aids
Alix & Ani bracelet
James Patrick Keil bracelet
Vitamins, aspirins, etc.
Any toiletry item
Toothbrush economy pack
Lottery tickets
ITunes certificate
Train/bus ticket to come home for a family function
Laundry card, token, or coins
Dunkin Donut or Starbucks certificates
Printer cartridge
Drug store, gas station or Amazon certificate
Chegg money for renting textbooks
Paper cups/plates/utensils
A gift certificate to something local to their school
Key covers – they have fun ones in Home Depot
Cell phone covers – can be personalized/decorated
Family photo – a recent one or one from childhood
Concert or sporting event tickets local to their school
Easter motif socks or boxers
I found these hair brushes in a pattern my daughter is sure to love!
Laundry bag or laundry bag for delicates
Hair elastics
Nail polish pen
Emery boards in funky pattern
Flash drives (these come in silly patterns – surfboards, Legos, sushi, etc.)

I hope you enjoyed today’s Easter nostalgia and some tips for Easter basket gifts. I hope my Easter nostalgia caused you to reminisce about some special moments of your own Easter’s past.

Stop back tomorrow when I will announce February’s book giveaway winner and the giveaway selection for March.

Have a wonderful weekend. Thank you so much for visiting, Jackie

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a valentine’s day playlist

February 12, 2013

No one can deny that many great events in life are marked by music. Whether it be a song that marks a wedding, a sporting event, or a formal dance. Songs can transport us back to our first school dance or remind us of a favorite movie.

There is definitely a special bond between music and romance, so in honor of Valentine’s Day, I compiled a list of 20 (in no particular order) of the most memorable of all-time (in my estimation anyway).

You should be able to find one or two to set the mood for the day ;) Just click on the song title to bring you to the YouTube link. Turn your volume down first…I don’t want to cause a commotion in your office! To start you off, the first is sung by my favorite musical artist… It Had to be You ~ Harry Connick, Jr….enjoy!

20 Best ‘Set the Mood” Songs of All Time

What a Wonderful World ~ Louis Armstrong

I Will Always Love You ~ Whitney Houston

At Last ~ Etta James

Unforgettable ~ Nat King Cole & Natalie Cole

I’ve Got You Under My Skin ~ Frank Sinatra

Sway ~ Dean Martin

Reasons ~ Earth, Wind & Fire

Over the Rainbow ~ Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’ole

Lover Man ~ Billie Holiday

Chances Are ~ Johnny Mathis

Moonlight Serenade ~ Glenn Miller & His Orchestra

Can’t Help Falling In Love ~ Elvis Presley

Always and Forever ~ Heatwave

Got to Give it Up ~ Marvin Gaye

Your Song ~ Elton John

Crazy for You ~ Madonna

My Everything ~ Barry White

Just in Time ~ Tony Bennett & Michael Buble

Fever ~ Peggy Lee

I hope you enjoyed my list of the 20 best ‘set the mood’ songs of all time – compiled for you in honor of Valentine’s Day.

Enjoy your Valentine’s Day…I hope you find some music to bring back some great memories and also to create some new ones!

Thanks for visiting, Jackie xoxo

P.S. I made the felt fortune cookie to slip into my daughter’s Valentine’s Day care package :)

4 comments

shopping christmas past

January 4, 2013

friday field trip

In the ‘old days’ I would shop the big department stores the morning after Christmas, excited about getting a good deal – sometimes standing in line for hours to get a few rolls of the perfect wrapping paper or some gift tags at half price.

The excitement for this activity has worn off over the years…mostly because stores never close! Today, there is no big deal about waiting for the store to open on the morning of the 26th! And, the sales start way before the holiday even begins! Today, if you do want to shop the after-holiday sales, it is much more efficient to shop on-line…finding the best availability and shopping the lowest prices for holiday wares.

Still, old habits die hard and I couldn’t resist stopping in a store the week after Christmas. I happen to be driving past an Anthropologie and decided to make a stop. Although there was not very much holiday merchandise left, and certainly no long lines to get inside, I felt compelled to walk around the store. This year’s holiday ‘paper cut’ theme was still displayed and I enjoyed greeting the salespeople with ‘Happy New Year’ and walking around to get some final glimpses of the season past.

So, even though I didn’t stand in a line in front of a department store for hours waiting for it to open, or come home with my arms full of wrapping paper rolls, I realized that I did get exactly what I wanted.

My visit to Anthropologie made me realize that I really don’t want the shopping experience reduced to another computer function…particularly at holiday time when senses are in overdrive.

The experience of visiting a store – greeting people, touching fabrics, comparing the smells of candles, feeling the heft of a pitcher…these are all the things I wanted. I hope these are the things you want too.

A photo of a papercut hanging on a light fixture created by the display staff at Anthropologie…a work of art!

Happy shopping :)

Take pleasure in simple things, Jackie

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favorite childhood book

July 13, 2012

friday field trip

What is the first book you remember from your childhood? When I posed this question to people I know, some common responses were Pat the Bunny and Good Night Moon…I remember reading these titles to my children, but have no recollection of them from my own childhood. The first, and only picture book I remember was Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton…What does that say about me, I wonder? It is a great book, mind you, but not exactly the kind of ‘warm and fuzzy’ titles mentioned by my friends.

With that in mind, I fast forward to a day recently when a friend gave me some of those trendy topic cards…you know the ones…they suggest topics to start dinner conversation? Well, the ones I received suggest activities, and this was the first card I pulled out of the pack:

So, I guess I could have chosen to read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. I didn’t. I decided to go with the first book I remember really enjoying reading by myself…the flashlight under the covers, I will risk getting in trouble, it’s so good, I like this whole reading thing book. For me, that book was, without question The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary.

Interesting revelation that the two ‘milestone books’ from my childhood were both considered ‘boy books’…particularly back at the time I was enjoying reading them. Interesting. My Friday field trip was to the local Barnes and Noble rather than the library. I thought I might want to buy a copy of the book to keep for my bookshelf. But, when I saw the cover illustration had been changed – modernized and looking very different from the original book – I decided against it…it just didn’t look like the same book.

I planted myself in one of the comfy chairs in the corner of the bookstore and went about reading my book…to the left of me a girl was reading Psychology Today and to the right, a young man was reading Help Cure Cancer Through Nutrition. There I sit, in the little reading circle, with a book from the children’s section written for an eight-year-old reading level…I wonder what the two neighboring readers thought about my selection?

I’m surprised how much of the story I did not remember, considering the book had such a profound effect on me. Mrs. Cleary, now over 90 years old, was considered a trendsetter back in the 1960’s. She was a librarian that decided to write books for children when she discovered that school age children, particularly boys, couldn’t find books that were written for people ‘like them.’

So, I wonder how I ended up with The Mouse and the Motorcycle…it was definitely taken out of my grade-school library, but I wonder how I chose it…Did the title or cover appeal to me? Did the librarian recommend it to me? I will never know. I just know that last year, when I was asked to name the top six books – of all the books read in my lifetime – that have had the biggest impact on me, The Mouse and the Motorcycle made the list.

Thanks Ms. Cleary, for instilling a life-long love for reading into my life.

To read more about Beverly Cleary, visit her website: www.beverlycleary.com

11 comments

pez…no question about it

May 11, 2012

field trip friday

PEZ…an iconic candy from my childhood, I haven’t thought about it in years. I don’t really notice it in stores anymore…maybe that’s just because I’m not looking for it. The PEZ factory has been located in Connecticut since the 1970’s, but only recently has it been open to the public. I had to check it out. PEZ was a staple in my candy repertoire back in the day… right up there with turkish taffy, button candy, and the huge round individually wrapped sweet tart. PEZ was always more about the dispenser than the actual candy…for me, anyway. I checked out the website recently to look up the visitor center hours and discovered that the dispensers are listed by the year introduced…so, if you remember your favorite, you can look up the year it was introduced …great way to feel your age!

The visitors center houses more PEZ dispensers than you can possibly imagine. Yes, they still produce PEZ and in many more flavors than years ago. The visitors’ center is not very big, but worth the trip down memory lane. I was happy to find out that the tour included a PEZ tasting, but somehow the candy just didn’t taste the way I remembered it.

I was very disappointed that I was not able to see the PEZ themed chopper built by Orange County Choppers on my visit. The chopper is a regular exhibit at the center, but it was on loan to a candy convention the day I was visiting. It was built in 2006 when PEZ introduced the first living people on a PEZ dispenser – the Teutel Family…Paul Sr., Paul Jr. & Mikey!

I guess another generation of PEZ lovers is being created, but their first dispenser will most likely be one of the super heroes from The Avengers, and not Popeye or Tweety Bird.

“If I could only have one food for the rest of my life? That’s easy-Pez. Cherry-flavored Pez. No question about it.”

-Vern in the movie Stand by Me. Dir. Rob Reiner. Columbia Pictures, 1986.

To find PEZ dispensers listed by year released: go to www.pez.com Click on ‘collector’s corner’, then ‘dispenser archive by year.’ P.S. Happy Nurses Week

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