It's All the Same to the Clam Shell Dish

The day after Christmas my family and I went to visit a Great Grandmother who lives about an hour and half away. On the return ride we stopped at a popular beach, now deserted because of the snow and cold. We played in the the sand, the snow, and we carefully avoided the water. :-) The Maine ocean is chilly enough in the summer time!! While we were goofing upon the beach, I happened upon some lovely whole quahog shells with hinges attached. 

I thought to myself, that little hinge attachment they have is so awesome....but, what if it were a real hinge?? Then I could put decorative soap in the shell and that would be that. There. A quahogs life ambition fulfilled. :-)

Would you like to bring some happiness to a clam? Of *course* you would. To do this you need:

Whole clam shell

Hot glue

Hinge

Rock

Burlap

Mod Podge (Glossy)

~First, clean that clam shell. You won't want it in the house if you haven't. Those suckers can really hold their stink. :-) Put it through a hot wash in the dishwasher and give it a little extra scrub afterwards to get any extra stickiness out. Remove the real hinge attachment. 

~With hot glue, set your metal hinge in place one part at a time. I filled up the space below the hinge with the hot glue until it was about to over flow, and then I set the hinge on top. Try to make it so that a little glue seeps up through the screw holes in the hinge. This will help to hold it in place. 

This is not a very pretty picture, but it gives you the idea. I cleaned up the whole thing afterward. 

~Mod podge the heck out of that quahog. Inside and outside. I used several applications. Make 'er shine. 

~ I opted to paint my hinge an off white.... the brass just didn't work for me. 

~Find a nice smooth rock and put a big glob of hot glue on the top where the shell will sit (test out how it will all balance first and mark where the shell will sit). Set a small circle (about the same size as the glue dollop) of burlap on top of that to give it some extra grip and put another blob of hot glue on top of that. Set the shell on top and push it firmly down. Let it cool.

~Fill it with whatever you'd like to fill it with. Ornate soaps, earrings, fancy dog treats, q-tips?? I could go on. 

I thought about adding some ornamentation to the shells to make them *pop* just a bit. But, I have decided plain is perfect for me. The colors of the quahog are quite beautiful just as they are. 

Here's a favorite poem of mine about our hero, the clam: 

It's All The Same To The Clam

You may leave the Clam on the ocean floor
It's all the same to the Clam.
For a hundred thousand years or more,
It's all the same to the Clam.
You may bury him deep in mud or muck,
Or carry him round to bring you luck.
Or use him for a hockey puck.
It's all the same to the Clam.

You may call him Frank or Jim or Nell
It's all the same to the Clam.
Or make an ashtray from his shell.
It's all the same to the clam.
You may take him riding on a train
or leave him sitting in the rain.
You'll never hear the Clam complain.
It's all the same to the Clam.

Yes the world may stop or the world may spin
It's all the same to the Clam.
And the sky may come a fallin' in
It's all the same to the Clam.
And man may sing his endless songs,
of wronging rights and righting wrongs.
The Clam just sets - and gets along.
It's all the same to the Clam.

By Shel Silverstein

I shared this post at some very funky parties:
Frugalicious Friday
Three Or More Tuesdays 

Works For me Wednesdays

Nordic Naturals Gummy Worms Review

Omega 3 Fatty acids are essential nutrients (meaning our bodies cannot make them and must obtain them from food). There are two ways to get your Omega 3's: 

~In the form of EPA and DHA from fatty fish.

 

~In the form of ALA from some vegetable oils, flaxseed, walnuts, and some green vegetables (broccoli, kale, brussel sprouts, salad greens). ALA is partially converted to EPA and DHA in the body. 

Recent studies have shown the Omega 3's to be very important nutrients in our diet. It is recommended that we eat at least one form of Omega 3 each day. Why do we need these fatty acids?? To answer that I am going to quote Dr. Frank Sachs, Professor of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Harvard School of Public Health:

"We need omega-3 fatty acids for numerous normal body functions, such as controlling blood clotting and building cell membranes in the brain, and since our bodies cannot make omega-3 fats, we must get them through food. Omega-3 fatty acids are also associated with many health benefits, including protection against heart disease and possibly stroke. New studies are identifying potential benefits for a wide range of conditions including cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, and other autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis."

Pretty amazing stuff right?? We should all be watching how much Omegas we get into our diet. But, what about our children?!? How easy it is for you to get your child to eat FISH or BRUSSEL SPROUTS daily???? Lucky for us, Nordic Naturals has made Omega 3 Gummy Worms in a strawberry flavor. :-) My munchkin eats them and loves them!! 

I am a big fan of Nordic Naturals. I love that they are a environmentally responsible company (they developed an entire website dedicated to outlining their enviromental practices HERE) and that when it comes to testing their products they give 110%. According to their website, there are currently no standards for testing Fish oil products in the United States (and considering the MERCURY levels that come from certain fish there really should be) so Nordic Naturals adheres to and surpasses the International Pharmaceutical Standards for fish oil quality. They show no dectectable heavy metals when tested down to 0.01 PPM (which is ten times below that of the Norwegian Medical Standard). 

Can't you see that I LOVE Nordic Naturals?? Try them, I know you will too.

I received product for the purpose of a review. All opinions in this article or entirely my own and I stand behind them!!

Marbleized Paper

I posted this for the 1st time almost a year ago....right when I was beginning to blog and hadn't much a clue how to do it. But, in the busyness of the holiday season this year I have not had much time to make a new post so I thought I would feature an oldie of mine.

I first saw some marbelized paper craft on one of my favorite blogs Skip To My Lou and I was immediately intent on doing it. So, I did.

The Basic Recipe:

1. Alum
2. Liquid starch
3. Paper
   
4. Casserole sized pan
5. Acrylic paint
   

Turns out, Alum isn't the greatest thing in the world for you, so bear that in mind if you've got some little ones running around the house. You won't want them sniffing/playing with it....it is something that is used in making pickles and Big Macs, but the jury is still out on whether is is okay for regular consumption (because pickles and big macs are irregular consumption....right?? **fingers crossed**). You can find it in your local Hannaford's spice aisle. The liquid starch (also NOT FOR KIDDO'S) was by far the hardest thing to locate on the list. I spent a lot of time zipping up and down the detergent section with no luck. I ended up making some of my own from cornstarch and hot water and it did some FUNKY stuff to the results. A few days after I tried the homemade starch, I found the liquid starch at our Renys store in town. The paper I got at A.C. Moore (it was a set of 50 ivory colored blank cards and envelopes). I buy those sets religiously every Christmas to make my cards. I found a cheap aluminum casserole pan at the grocery store at well. The acrylic paint was already at the house in great quantity.

The FUNKY Starch Recipe:

  

1. 1/2 cup Cornstarch
2. 1/2 cup cold water
3. 2 cups boiling water

I mixed it all really well and added 2 tsps of alum, mixing it again. This was then poured into the disposable casserole dish.  The acrylic paint, I had read in many places, should be watered down or it will sink to the bottom of the starch mixture.  So I watered it down and put several different colors each into their own small bowl. To get the paint onto the surface of the starch I just used a large paintbrush and tapped it high over the mixture to get some little droplets to fall down. Once I had all the colors I needed, I used some toothpicks to swirl the paint on the surface and make the marbelized design. But, I hit a snag. Somehow my homemade mixture didn't want to work the way that I had intended it to. The paint wouldn't swirl....it just stayed chunky and congealed on the surface. I decided to try putting the paper on it anyway and I actually really liked how it turned out!!

 

Here is an image of one of the cards from the basic recipe made with liquid starch:

When placing the paper on mix, you put the side you want marbelized down and let it float on top for a minute or so. Then you rinse off the excess paint quickly (and easily) under the faucet. Lay it on some newspaper to dry and when it is completely dry you can flatten each folded card and pile them together and lay something heavy over them to "iron" it out. Or, you could do the real thing and actually iron. (I know....people DO THAT?!?!?)

I used these for some very funky holiday cards this season....and I was thrilled with the results. It's a fun, messy, marvelous project for those of you who like to get your hands a little dirty.

I shared this link at these fantastic parties!!

Three or More Tuesday
Frugalicious Friday