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Saturday, March 31, 2018

March(ing) on.... Green Stuff (ie: food & crafts)

Well here we are last day of March 2018. Our prompt for MiniMoFo this month was basically sharing the green, after all it WAS St. Patrick's Day what seems like ages ago (although in reality merely about 10+ days ago).

It's been another busy month around here, if you follow along on Facebook you know I post more there than here, it's just easier for me. I had lots of ideas for green, but basically when it came down to the wire, I made a sandwich and I did my first post-Irma crafting. The sandwich was inspired by a gorgeous photo I saw on someones Pinterest page, all green things and of course vegan. My version was DeLand brand vegan gluten free bread stuffed with avocado (can you believe it?!! Me and avocado!), overloaded with organic greens, a super fast pesto I made using a purchased basil paste (hey don't hate.... it's March, where I am you try and find organic fresh basil that's not outrageously priced this time of year), a sprinkle of pico de gallo I made inspired by the cafe I'm working at part time, and a slice of Follow Your Heart vegan cheese. I made a toastee, or as we call it on this side of the pond, a grilled sandwich. If I had a panini press, it would've landed in there, probably would've looked better. I contemplated shoving this in the waffle iron, but was too lazy to rummage around... the kitchen is still mostly non-functional and the waffle iron is tucked away in a large tote somewhere. Here's my sandwich:

Mostly green!
So, perhaps it's not as pretty as the sandwich that inspired me, but dang this was super tasty. Here's what I used for the pesto:

1 cup vegan parm cheese
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
3T basil paste
pepper to taste
(yes you read this right.... no added garlic, amazing how tasty this is even without the garlic. I don't have garlic in the house anymore since basically I'm still not cooking)

I put a dash of vegan butter on the bread, heated a small skillet, built the sandwich, and heated it in the pan. Then I ate it. With avocado. Yes, I ate avocado. A miracle. Not a miracle are my photography skills. I should take a class to improve on that. Then again, I'm still using that antique phone so I'm grateful there's any photos at all, yay!

The next thing I did was my first post hurricane crafting effort. I saw a "thing" on line about cold porcelain. I was interested enough to give it a try. I used vegan white glue, cornstarch, mineral oil and lemon juice. Honestly, not worth my effort. I'm making a set of wind chimes. In the last few weeks, we've had a lot of new landscaping going in on our property, the 2 empty lots which used to be thick with hardwood trees that were completely destroyed, and the neighbor's house on the opposite of the lot. The lot is being reforested through the efforts of the neighbors. They, at their own cost and expense, are going through the effort, and major expense, to get the approvals and trees (have to have every tree approved by gov't officials) planted on these 2 County conservation lots. Because they want to see our area re beautified. The big diggers came and worked all day for a few days. It looks so much nicer, so great to see GREEN! So, there's more birds now. And bees. And, Key deer seem to be wandering through more often. Which made me want to hang chimes on my  property. So, I made cold porcelain hearts, stamped them, painted them, and will be stringing these on some driftwood (pick of the litter around these parts) and then hanging this eventually. They won't chime, and were a half hearted effort since I was very unhappy with the cold porcelain. But, tomorrow is the day I string them and hang them. The letters are here. I'm going to cover them with iridescent paint and seal them with vegan friendly outdoor sealer before they go out there. More green. Here's the lettering:

vegan is love
vegan cold porcelain getting ready to be turned into outdoor chimes
I'm pretty sure I'm hanging up my crafting apron for a long time. Most of my art and crafting stash was also destroyed and won't be replaced. I was lucky enough to find and save most of my brushes, and a very small amount of paints. I also found and kept my stencils which I plan on using for a larger scale pallet project to brighten up the grounds. That I will absolutely share with you, once that day comes.  The cold porcelain was no better or worse than cornstarch or clay, but I found it more difficult to stamp, which is why I painted on the letters. Nothing special here, just something I've been wanting to try. Since the MiniMoFo prompt said our green efforts could be pretty much about anything, why not crafting too.

March flew by. I always hope to have more interesting posts, and more frequent posts, but it's a challenge. Let's see what April brings (well, April showers bring May flowers.... this I know) and look for a post here over the next month. Maybe more if things swing my way.

Vegan for the win, green style. I miss you guys! Thanks for your support. xo