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Thursday, July 18, 2013

Where Bloggers Create 2013

Hey all!
I'm attempting to join the link party at My Desert Cottage, but who knows if I will figure it out in time... But either way, I've made some nice changes to my craft room lately and thought I'd share!

Here is my craft room door from the living room. This is my first try at making my own chalkboard paint and I was really happy with it!
Here is a before and after from inside the room.



Here is my desk that I do most crafting on. I love using vintage books as decor, they make any area look nice! My mom sent me the little crab picture holder in the top right. I decided to start putting my fortunes from fortune cookies in it instead! I have started collecting small pots and cups to make more little planters to put in my window. On the bottom right you will see my rolling craft cabinet and the drawers I keep my items for sale in. On the desk you can sneak a peek at what I'm working on for the "Christmas in July" link party! Then I have my rock tumbler/shipping station. I keep my scale on top of my printer, and it sits on a small dresser that I keep shipping supplies in. My kitty, Link, got all jealous that I was taking so many pictures of things that aren't him!

This is the cabinet I keep most of my sewing supplies in. I have a chalkboard calendar on the front of one door, then storage containers filled with fabric, scraps, and yarn. I also keep some of my vintage buttons there, next to a jar of tiny scrap fabrics. There are 3 large drawers on this cabinet that are filled with old blankets I plan to upcycle into batting and all of my sheets that I am going to crochet into rugs. All my supplies totally stuffed the drawers, so I didn't want to attempt opening them to take a picture. I'm planning on going through all my sheets and quilting batting, then filling the space with T-shirts I have collected to make rugs and bags out of! I currently have several huge plastic bins stacked in the bedroom with my T-shirts and jeans to upcycle!



I use this cube shelf to store photo props in a decorative way! I like having items grouped together that go well so I can grab everything in the cube to photograph an item quickly. I have some vintage stuff in the bottom right, and some ready to use colored sea glass on the bottom left. The middle left has a cute tea cup with an elephant bamboo dish and some lavender. On the middle right I have a wedding vase given to us as a wedding gift, a nice agate bead strand, and some vintage rune tiles. On the top right, I have a mini teapot with some coasters I made from old tiles. Next to that in the top left, I have a retro lunchbox and some decorate pipes.


Here is just a bit of my walls and ceiling. I used 4 lines of white icicle lights and made my room a magical place! My husband thinks it looks like a spider web in space, or something like that... I loosely framed several art pieces with lights. The ceiling is awesome, it really makes the lighting nice and looks really pretty!

This is just a kids book I found in my craft paper stash while cleaning. It made me LOL pretty hard... Yeah, I'm a dork.
 Well, that is my craft room for the time being! I am still working on a lot of projects, but it is pretty awesome for now. I will be posting more as I update the room over time. Thank you for reading my post, be sure to check out the other fun craft rooms  hosted by My Desert Cottage!


Saturday, June 29, 2013

Beach Glass Pendants!

Happy Saturday! My hubby is working late again, so of course I'm making my eyes fall out on the interwebs... But, today is actually my birthday, as of an hour and 6 minutes ago. :) The big 26... My mom said she wanted to get me some spices for my birthday this year since Justin and I love to cook together so much, but I have a super spice hook up (My Spice Sage, they have the best deals and great freebies! Plus, free shipping!, I'm sooo addicted!), so I instead told her I wanted a shiny new 6lb Rotary Tumbler! She had no clue what I was talking about, of course, but I had big plans for that baby! And there she is, tumbling away in my craft room with some raw Amethyst and Jasper that my momma threw in!

 So anyways, I have this thing where I'm always saving jars, and other glass stuff! I use them for crafts, cooking spices, leftovers, ect. But I always end up with a bunch without lids or that really don't work well for much of anything, so they have been getting stored under my sink and in my craft room, driving me nuts. Then I saw something on pintrest about making your own sea glass, and that really got my mind turning, or tumbling, if you like corny play-on-words! So I gathered up all the extra glass that I had around and took a hammer to it! With a towel over the glass, of course!

After a few days I had some pretty nice looking glass to work with! I have been meaning to learn wire wrapping, so I started with my new beach glass, and I really was happy with the results!
I mailed my mom the first one I made since she got me the tumbler!

I am really getting into the wire wrapping thing though, it's so fun!

These are currently available on Tophatter, but I will be putting them in my etsy shop soon too! They range from about $6-$18.

Thanks for reading my rambles on my birthday! Now lets hope my hubby closes the bar soon so I can have some birthday fun! See you next time!


Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Homemade Tortilla Chips

Well, hello again! The hubby will be at work super late tonight (past 3 AM), so I figured it would be a good time to spend some time on here. It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks between my 2 year anniversary, Mother's Day, chicken fiascoes, and other random craziness, so I haven't spent a lot of time preparing anything for the ol' blog, but I've got an old favorite of mine to share with you!

I'm a big fan of figuring out a healthier and cheaper alternative for cooking, and I've been finding more and more lately that there is an easier and healthier alternative for almost anything. This one I just sorta stumbled upon when I forgot to get some chips for a salsa I was making and tried making my own, in about 10 minutes. And they were seriously good!!!


So, ready for a really fast recipe?

1. Preheat your oven to 325.
2. Cut about 6 corn tortillas into 6 pieces each.
3. Spray your baking pan with olive oil. If you can't get it in a spray at the store, put some in a spray bottle with a little distilled water and make your own!
4. Arrange your chips on the baking sheet so the are not overlapping.
5. Spray with a little olive oil.
6. Sprinkle with sea salt. I like to make a mix of sea salt, cayanne pepper, and cumin to sprinkle on my chips. I've also tried it with cinnimon and sugar, which is pretty good!
7. Then bake for about 10 minutes, or until a light brown.
 8. Enjoy with your favorite salsa or dip!



I hope you guys have as much fun with this as I do! I love making my own chips for everything now, they are so much better than store bought!

Take care!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Meet Terra and Family!

Hello all and welcome to my new blog! I have had a few blogs here and there, but I felt it was time to start from scratch and make a brand new one! So, here we are! I figured it would be best to kick things off with a little introduction on who I am, and what this blog is going to be used for!


This is me. Terra Silvasy. I love animals and nature. I consider myself to be pretty liberal and feel very strongly about legalizing gay marriage, marijuana, preserving nature, and reforming gun laws(that is a really big one to me). I am from San Diego, California but moved a little over a year ago to the teenie tiny town of Cle Elum, Washington. Population of about 1,800. Though the journey started out with our home in National City, CA being foreclosed on, it has been the best move of our life! I had wanted to move out of California since I was a little girl, and I was right thinking I would be happier elsewhere! Though there are some drawbacks to living in a little town (Like the DRAMA! Holy cow, people get up in your business here!), overall we love where we landed and Cle Elum will always hold a warm spot in my heart! I love seeing sometimes more than a dozen deer right outside my yard, bald eagles flying overhead, a huge assortment of lovely birds, and the short walk/bike ride to the river! After living here, I can't imagine ever living somewhere without so much nature!


Here is the love of my life, Justin Silvasy.  Being with Justin is like living in a fairy tale world, he is certainly my kind of prince charming! I never thought I could find someone who is so like me where it counts, but different in ways that compliment me amazingly! We both knew almost instantly that we never wanted to be apart, and it wasn't long before we owned a home together and starting working on building my beautiful ring! This particular photo is actually not from our actual wedding, it is from a photo shoot I did when I was modeling more often. Farther down you can see a couple photos from the actual big day! Speaking of the big day, we actually had two! Although the first wedding was kinda a big secret, it is slowing being discovered now!




During the wedding planning, things got nuts with all the crazy wedding drama and we were feeling a little like it wasn't really about us anymore, especially as the wedding drew closer. So when it came time to get our marriage license, we decided to just get married! The day we chose, of course, was 420! It was just us and our dear friend, Todd, as the witness! That was just the thing we both needed to feel like we could take on the big day and anything it may bring!


The big wedding was 3 weeks later, on Friday the 13th, May 2011. It was a pretty casual wedding on a beautiful lake in Lakeside, CA. The photobooth was certainly the biggest hit! It was a splurge for us at $1000 for 6 hours, but well worth it in the end! We bought lots of fun props and that booth was full ALL NIGHT! I think only 1 or 2 people didn't end up getting in on the action! To anyone planning a wedding, seriously, go for the photobooth, even if something else has to be cut back a little. Seeing all your friends and family of all ages and backgrounds having fun together in silly costumes is just a memory you want to look back on again and again! Plus, it's a really fun way to do your guest book! Everyone signs their message next to their photos!

Well, I think I've rambled on for long enough about the wedding, dontcha think?

Moving on! So, here we are in Washington with our 16 cats and 2 dogs, plus about 30 guinea pigs, 2 rabbits, 6 ducks, and 4 chickens. I work from home doing craft projects and selling items online. I also do craft fairs when they are available, and the best one yet is coming up next month! In Roslyn, which is the town 3 miles over, they have the Roslyn Sunday Market every year from June to September. It is super popular and really a rad place to check out! Last year we went almost every Sunday to get local produce and unique handmade goods! Well, this year, we are going to be vendors! What fun! I am really excited as this will be the biggest and most long running fair I've done! I am getting ready making jewelry and upcycled goods!
Besides that, I spend my time at home trying to conquer the never ending mess that comes with being a crazy cat lady. I have been trying to redo one area at a time in ways that should make life easier, which is alot of what I want to share with YOU! I make my own cleaning supplies, and also my own skin care products. We have been working on making our lives as green and free from chemicals and other unnatural junk for some time now, and we are pretty much all green and homemade now! And you know what? All the homemade stuff has worked better than the old store bought crap! I'm sold!

The next step in our lives is to move to Canada! As much as I enjoy living in Cle Elum, it was never intended to be permanent. I've got a gypsy soul and feel the need to move around and experience life in as many ways as I can. As someone who studies psychology, (or maybe this is why I'm so interested in psychology) I have a strong desire to experience and gain understanding of many different ways of life. Plus, I get ants in my pants if I stay in one place too long; I gotta roam!!! So, the plan it to move not only to Canada, but to the east coast of Canada! We have our sights currently set on Nova Scotia, but we always keep our options and our minds open until we actually find the exact place we plan to live. From there, we hope to move to Iceland for a while, then maybe get a houseboat and check out Europe and other coastal areas on the continent that we could explore! But for now, all we are working on is getting to Canada, and we will see where life takes us from there!

Well, I think I've gone on about all of this long enough. This ended up being a tad longer than I had planned, but hey, it's me. I get carried away! Stay tuned for actual blog tutorials and the like!

Oh, and I thought I might leave you with something to make you smile! I know this one always works for me!!!