Siochain

(Gaelic for 'peace')

Dun Dealgan, Ireland

Saint Patrick's Day is coming!

When?

Soon!

How Soon?

Very soon!!!

(slight paraphrase from an hilarious scene in 'Romancing the Stone')

vintage graphics

c.1869

(c. means 'circa', or in this case I use it for 'copyright')

For today, we will celebrate a wee bit of blarney to start off our countdown to

St. Patrick's Day!!

 

vintage clip

Now, is that a leprechaun,

or just a little boy?

vintage clip

I'm sorry, I don't have any 'where I found this' addresses for most of my vintage Irish clip. If it is 'yours', let me know and I will give credit where it is due.

I was playing around on www.Barbie.com the other day.

They have added some really fun features,

and it is an extensive interactive web site now!

I downloaded some Barbie Around the World Adobe Reader docs.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to pass these on to you.

So,

I recommend you go to the site, sign in, and just play!

The one I suggest for today is

"Printable_Ireland Barbie around the world.pdf"

Next up I have two beaded safety pin patterns for you:

 

If you can't remember how to do safety pin beaded pins, just do a search of my blog for 'safety pin tutorial'.

You also can do a search for other fun safety pin beaded pins patterns on previous blogs,

by typing in 'safety pin pattern'.

Here's another one, with not so much blarney!

The flag of Ireland:

It is a tradition here in the United States that everyone has to wear a

bit 'o green on St. Patrick's Day. If you are caught with NO green,

then you get pinched!

After a couple of pinches, you are ready to pin on ANYTHING  green!!

These adorable little safety pin pins bead up very quickly.

Why not make several to share with your office mates?

Or your friends at school?

Or the neighborhood kids?

:0)

Here are two recipes I found at Better Homes & Gardens:

http://www.bhg.com/recipes/

Corned beef and cabbage crock pot

Better homes & gardens recipes

Ingredients

·         1  3- to 4-pound  corned beef brisket with spice packet

·         1/2  small head  cabbage, cut into 3 wedges

·         4  medium  carrots, peeled, and cut into 2-inch pieces

·         1  medium  onion, quartered

·         2  medium  yellow potatoes, cut into 2-inch pieces

·         1/2  cup  water

Directions

1. Trim fat from meat. If necessary, cut brisket to fit into a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker. Sprinkle spices from packet evenly over meat; rub in with your fingers.

Place cabbage, carrots, onion, and potatoes in the slow cooker. Pour water over vegetables. Top with brisket.

2. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 10 to 12 hours or on high-heat setting for 5 to 6 hours. Transfer meat to a cutting board. Thinly slice against the grain. Serve vegetables with a slotted spoon. Makes 6 servings.

Irish Coffee:

ingredients

·         1-1/2  ounce  Irish whiskey (3 tablespoons)

·         1  tablespoon  brown sugar

·         1  cup  brewed coffee

·         1  tablespoon  whipping cream, slightly whipped

Directions

1. Pour whiskey into a 10-ounce mug. Stir in brown sugar. Add coffee; stir until sugar is dissolved. With a spoon, carefully dollop whipped cream so it will float on the surface of the coffee. Makes 1 - 10-ounce serving.

Sorry about the kinda' weird fonts and all,

that's how it translated when I copied/pasted!

Oh, the mysteries of fonts and spellings and text sizes and colors....

sigh.

One of my favorite vintage magazine covers:

Actress Colleen Moore has a fascinating life story....for another time.

Print these out on sticker paper to give out to any child that passes your way!

Or to give out to any adult that passes your way...

You could also print them out and make cute little cards.

Frame the printed graphic with borders of cardstock:

Green

Yellow Green

Orange

Gold

It's easy to do! Your first color is cut 1/8" larger than your clip art. Glue to back.

Your second color of cardstock is cut 1/8" larger than the 1st color layer.

Glue to back.

You can repeat as many times as you wish, but 1 - 3 layers is typical.

Place onto a solid color cardstock - any of the above colors that you didn't use would work great.

You could also easily use a white cardstock as your base.

Hand print a little

"Happy Saint Patrick's Day"

on the inside, or purchase/print out phrases to your liking.

Glue inside.

Voila!

You have cute cards to pass out on a fun Irish Day!

Bonus extras: On the front -

Add a 1/8" or 1/16" ribbon bow to a corner.

Glue on a green, white or gold button to a corner to accent.

Dab little sparkle glue dots to accent. (Stickles are fun to use!)

Another idea:

Why not print out and glue one of the above cute leprechauns to the front of cardstock, as suggested above.

Then, on the inside of the little card,

punch 2 small holes horizontal to each other.

Next pin on one of your themed safety pin beaded pins through the tiny holes.

You now have a really darling little card-with-gift to give.

(And no one needs to know it didn't take any time at all to make!)

If mailing, I would use a padded envelope so the safety pins don't

'sproing' in the mail.

"Better fifty enemies outside the house

than one within."



- an Irish blessing

Dun Dealgan, a castle relic from ancient Ireland



Now, go buy some green socks....

inkspired

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

http://www.inkspiredmusings.blogspot.com/

Ramblings of Creativity

dia duit

pronounced gee-ah ditch

Gaelic, literally 'God be with you'

I have browsed a few of my older posts.

My goodness I am a 'Chatty Cathy' !!!!!

Some of them look like mini-books!

So, perhaps I need to post a note above the computer saying:

Michael says:

You don't need to write a book every blog.

:0)

Today I am in a

wandering through my creative processes kind of day.

Caution:

this could be scary to some...

Yippee - Laundry Day

I just posted 5 new Collage Art Dolls on my etsy shop.

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

I also added a set of Happy Hollister Books

(3 with 1 free bonus book)

and a couple of bottlecap magnets

When I work on my bottlecaps, my table looks like this:

actually, that's kind of clean for my usual mess...

I cut all my graphics and words from junk mail,

catalogs, recycled magazines, brochures,

those annoying ads people stick in between your door,

or on the outside of your mailbox...

pretty much if it's paper, I have fun with it.

That's where the quirky humor comes in.

you know, a dog has questions....

and we ALL know cats get messages from the cat planet...

It is way too frightening to take a picture of me going through the magazines, et al. I have stacks in various stages of being cut apart.  My living room chair is surrounded by little bits of cut paper.

Cinderella's Stepsister Steppin' Out

Collage Art Doll, one-of-a-kind (ooak)

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

Currently I have been doing some cut art work.

The little scraps of black paper look like spiders.

eek!

a black widow spider beaded necklace I have for sale

I can't show you my finished pieces,

as The Printer is being returned as I type....

A new one, from Costco (great prices)

only the window with lights that lets you copy from the machine (not using your computer) is blank.

No lights.

Can't use that function.

So I can't scan right now.

Here are some of my older cut-work

also called scherensnitte

(sheer-en-snit-uh)

This one I actually did do a couple of weeks ago.

I haven't attached it yet,

but I do have a frame ready to go!

This is the pattern I used. If I am careful in how I cut,

and of course the right kind of pattern,

I can use the pattern paper as framed art also!

another example

I don't know, maybe I really should finish this net-beaded bracelet

 I have in-the-works next to my living room chair.

It's a pattern that I am trying to remember from two I did before,

but have lost the directions to.

There is this new pattern in a Bead&Button magazine that looked interesting, but I just couldn't figure out their directions.

It looked similar to my previous bracelets, in the starting bit,

so, I am practicing.

I can't stand to just do something for the sake of doing it

(like practicing!)

so I thought I would just make it into a bracelet.

Four tries later, I've got it down,

but now I'm so bored with it, it is hard to finish!

Sound complicated?

I did warn you that my brain paths may be scary....

This is a truly stunning netted necklace I beaded.

My photos don't show up the pearlescent beads, silver accents and the pearls I used in it. Alas, after I photographed it I accidentally dropped it, and my Great Dane Koda stepped on it.

Broken thread, little tiny seed beads on my front porch..

not a pretty sight.

Sigh. I'm going to have to do major re-work to fix it now.

So, it sits in my 'Jewelry That Needs Help' box.

This is a very simple netted pattern that I made when I was first learning the netting stitch, using tiny seed beads.

my daisy chains -

Whenever I get 'stuck' trying to sort out a difficult pattern,

or I want to do beads, but just am not in the mood for following a pattern, I make a daisy chain!

I call them my happy beads!

I learned the pattern in junior high school, I think.

Here is another pattern I do when I want to bead,

but again I am watching tv or something,

and don't want to concentrate on a difficult pattern.

all the same basic pattern, which I have modified from the original

Hmmmm....

I am starting a new Michael Jecks medieval mystery,

and sure would like to spend some time reading....

this is one of the ones I have recently finished:

I really like these cover graphics. The 'new' ones have more of a realistic close-up of a warrior in armor.

My sister-in-law via my mom-in-law just loaned me a copy

of Carol Burnett's memoirs.

Love that lady!

Great actress!

Uh-oh.

I'm writing a blogbook again.

And I'm getting side-tracked.

Think I will go watch my 'new' John Wayne movie

'Alleghany Uprising'

and do some more scherensnitte,

although there's that bracelet,

and I just received some 'new' magazines to cut apart,

and I need to match up some words with some bottlecap graphics,

and, oh yes! I haven't eaten lunch yet,

and it's 4:30pm!

recycled bottlecap magnet,

www.inkspired.etsy.com

Think I better quit while I'm....

ahead?

inkspired

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

http://www.inkspiredmusings.blogspot.com/

dominoes@myinkspired.com

with recycled junk mail graphics and words.