Blog Posts | Stephanie's Slice Of Life

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- Boston’s Swan Boats
  
  Posted at 8:45 am by StephMo
  
  Jun 16th
  
  If you have never been to the Swan Boats in Boston you must add it to you bucket list. The Swan Boats are in the Boston Public Gardens which is a tranquil little oasis nestled in the middle of the city. I have been taking rides on these old wooden boats since I was a child, as my mother had since she was a child. I don’t believe there are any other swan boats other than those located in Boston, but I could be wrong.
  
  The Public Gardens were built next to Boston Common in 1837. While Boston Common is a lovely park, in my opinion it is nothing compared to the Public Gardens. While the two parks are next to each other, I never walk through the Common unless cutting through, however I do walk around the Public Garden multiple times a year. In 1877 a catamaran type boat with a foot paddle was created and a swan was built to hide the operator and the Swan Boats were born. They have been run by the same family since the creation and were designated a Boston landmark in 2011.
  
  Recently I was having lunch with a friend from out of town that mentioned she hoped to some day really see Boston. I asked if she had an hour or two for me to kidnap her and bring her to one of my favorite spots in the city. We zipped into Beacon Hill and with a couple of circles around the Public Gardens, found a parking spot. As if Beacon Hill isn’t beautiful enough as is, when you step through the old black wrought iron gates into the Public Garden you are taken to a different world. While you can still hear the hustle and bustle of the city, you forget it’s there.
  
  You walk along the paved paths lined by many different varieties of trees, which I have always taken for granted not realizing what a treat this is for someone that doesn’t live in the area. Depending on the time of year you are treated by amazing beds of tulips, roses, and many other beautiful flowers.
  
  I would say the flowers have gotten a little better over the years. Well, at least cameras have as well as my outfits!
  
  Then in the middle of this wonderful park is the little man made pond graced with the old wooden boats peddled by a swan. Well, a person sitting in a swan.
  
  After you pay the whopping $4.50 for a ticket, you will embark on your tranquil ride around the pond. At one end of the pond you will be paddled around a little island and if you have ever read Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey, you will know that this is the island Mr. and Mrs. Mallard decided to make their nest.
  
  No matter which part of the pond you are on there is never a shortage of ducks ready to greet you.
  
  You are no longer permitted to feed the ducks, but when I was a child there were vendors selling little brown bags of peanuts for feeding the ducks. You can see a little bag in my hand in the next photo. You can also see the boats appear to be the same boats used today except they were covered with canopies.
  
  The next time you are in Boston, make a point to take a stroll through this beautiful spot and take a ride on the swans 🦢
  
  Posted in Blog Posts, Boston's Swan Boats | Tagged boston, boston sight seeing, boston swan boats, boston tourism, lifestyle blogger, stephanies slice of life, things to do in boston, things to see in boston
- Blueberry Scones With Lemon Icing
  
  Posted at 3:59 pm by StephMo
  
  Jun 7th
  
  Of course if I was going to make scones while I am in Maine they were going to be blueberry scones. And what better flavor to combine with blueberry than lemon. Yum. You may have already tried using my scones recipe, and this recipe is the same except for the addition of blueberries and the icing. Easy and delicious!
  
  As I mentioned in my other scone Blog, this is a great base recipe to add other ingredients to. In the past I have added chocolate chips, yesterday I added blueberries and who knows what I might add next!
  
  ** Please note some of the photos are from my original scone Blog.
  
  Scone Ingredients:
  
  3 cups flour
  
  1/2 cup sugar
  
  5 tsp. baking powder
  
  1/2 tsp. salt
  
  3/4 cup cold butter
  
  1 egg, beaten
  
  1 cup milk or half and half
  
  1 cup blueberries
  
  Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
  
  Using a cheese grater, grate the butter and cut it into the dry mixture with a pasty cutter or a fork and knife. Make sure the butter is cold.
  
  Put the beaten egg in a measuring cup and then fill to the 1 cup mark with the milk or half and half. I used a combination of half and half and milk. Mix the two together and add a little at a time to the dry mixture. You shouldn’t have to use all of it.
  
  The dough shouldn’t be too moist, just add enough so that the dough will stick together once kneaded. It won’t look like it will in the bowl, but you can tell by using your hands and squeezing some together.
  
  Now add the blueberries.
  
  When I got to this step I thought, how the heck do I get the blueberries in the dough without making an absolute mess? I went and changed my shirt, make sure you either do that or are wearing an apron, and carefully started to stir them in as best I could.
  
  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead until it comes together. It is not easy to do without the blueberries exploding, but just take your time and it will work.
  
  Roll the dough into a circle about a 1/2″ thick.
  
  Use a pizza cutter or a knife to cut the dough into 8 pieces, this will make very large scones. If you would like them smaller divide the dough in half, then roll it out and cut into 8 pieces which is what I did.
  
  Place the scones on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until brown. The smaller scones only took about 13 minutes.
  
  Let the scones cool completely and then drizzle the lemon icing on them. For the icing, I used the icing I use on my Italian Lemon Cookies except I cut the recipe in half.
  
  Ingredients:
  
  1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
  
  1/8 cup water
  
  1/2 tsp. lemon extract
  
  Combine all of the ingredients until smooth. If the icing is too thin you can add more sugar until you get it to the right consistency.
  
  You are going to love these scones!
  
  Posted in Blog Posts, Breads, Recipes | Tagged blueberry lemon scones, blueberry scones, food blog, food blogger, scones, scones recipe, stephanie's slice of life
- Tulip Picking
  
  Posted at 12:07 pm by StephMo
  
  Apr 27th
  
  My grandfather had the most amazing flower garden, and every week when I would visit as a child he would take me out to the garden and pick me a bouquet of flowers to take home. Those weekly hand picked bouquets sparked an immeasurable love of flowers for me that sticks with me to this day. You can imagine the excitement I felt a number of years ago upon seeing an Ad for a pick your own tulip farm in Rhode Island. I instantly went on-line to find out more information and to my disappointment they were sold out for the year. For the next few years I kept remembering about this farm too late and ran into the same problem. Well, not this year!
  
  Last week as I was slowly driving through a beautiful neighborhood admiring all of the tulips that had bloomed, it occurred to me that the tulip farm in Rhode Island must be open. When I got home and checked their website I had hit it perfectly this year and there were still tickets available. I couldn’t text my daughter quickly enough to see what her schedule was like for this week so I could purchase us tickets.
  
  Yesterday morning I grabbed some baskets for picking, a bucket and water for transporting, my camera, and off I went to pick up my daughter at school for the day I have been waiting for for years. We drove about an hour and forty five minutes from Boston to Exeter, RI and it was well worth the drive. You are instantly greeted with friendly employees in the parking area, followed by just as friendly employees at the check in tent. A ticket gets you 10 tulips and if that is all you will be picking, you are allowed an additional tulip. You can also purchase extra tulips if you choose. Believe me, it was a struggle to only taken home 11 tulips each.
  
  Once entering the farm you are just in awe of the absolute beauty of the neat little rows, upon rows of tulips and all of the people carrying their baskets and buckets brimming with flowers. For a flower lover like myself it was as if I had entered a form of Heaven on Earth. And to share it with my flower loving daughter made for a perfect morning.
  
  Many of the tulips are organized by color, while some are an assorted mix.
  
  While all of the tulips were beautiful, we didn’t realize at first that tucked in amongst the classic tulips there are varieties that I have never seen. There is such a wonderful assortment of different shapes and color combinations.
  
  My daughter noticed these unique beauties right away, and the bouquet she picked for herself were just breath taking.
  
  We strolled through the rows of tulips for about an hour taking it all in and finding our favorites to bring home. This farm is also the perfect backdrop for photos and just about everyone there was not missing this opportunity, including ourselves.
  
  As you can see they look even more amazing the next day!
  
  If you are near Rhode Island I encourage you to take a trip to this farm, I am already looking forward to visiting again in the years to come!
  
  Posted in Blog Posts, Tulip Picking | Tagged blogger, lifestyle blogger, picking tulips, stephanie's slice of life, tulip picking, tulips, wicked tulip farm
- DIY Crayon Candle Making Craft
  
  Posted at 9:27 am by StephMo
  
  Jan 28th
  
  These adorable candles are an easy fun craft perfect to do with children. If you are looking to make a properly colored candle, crayons are not the way to color them and you will need to use candle wax dye. However, as far as a craft goes, this is a perfect way to do it. You can be as creative as you want and depending on how much time you want to spend, you can make multiple layers.
  
  For these candles you will need:
  
  Candle wax
  
  Crayons
  
  Mason jars
  
  Candle wicks
  
  Find some crayons that you don’t mind parting with and think of the colors you would like to put together. This is a perfect use for all of those broken crayons you have laying around that the children no longer color with.
  
  For the wax, I use soy wax but you can use whatever candle wax you choose. You can either melt the wax and crayons on the stove as I have, or melt them in the microwave if that is easier. For the stove method, add a small amount of wax to a saucepan along with an unwrapped crayon broken into pieces.
  
  I made two identical small mason jar candles and used about 4 oz. of wax per layer with one crayon for each layer.
  
  The wax and crayon melt very quickly. The color will be streaky as crayons don’t mix perfectly with candle wax.
  
  Take the pan off of the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.
  
  While your wax is cooling anchor the wick to the bottom of the jar. To do this dip the bottom of the wick into the melted wax before placing in the jar. Keep in mind once you pour the hot wax into the jar the wick may move. Be sure to either hold it in place while pouring or use a wick holder which sits on the jar.
  
  Once the wax has cooled for a few minutes you can pour it into the jars. The easiest way to do this is to use a funnel. It not only helps you by not spilling the wax all over your counter, but also helps to keep the wick in place. I’ve tried a few different ways and the funnel was definitely the best option.
  
  Let each layer set for about 30 minutes before repeating the melting process and adding another color.
  
  Once the candles are set trim the wicks with scissors and they are ready to light.
  
  Aren’t they cute!
  
  Posted in Blog Posts, DIY Crayon Candle Making Craft | Tagged blog, blogger, candle making, candle making craft, crafts for children, crafts for kids, crayon candle craft, crayon candles, diy candle craft, diy candles, homemade candles, lifestyle blogger, stephanie's slice of life, using crayons for candles
- DIY Homemade Candles
  
  Posted at 4:06 pm by StephMo
  
  Jan 27th
  
  I am constantly purchasing antique mason jars whenever I see them at estate sales and use them for so many different things. I absolutely love old jars, all kinds of jars actually. I have made snow globes out of antique mason jars, have many decorating my sunporch filled with shells and seaglass that I’ve found, and some on my kitchen window sill helping me root plantings I have cut. As an antique dealer I often use them to sell fun decorative collections of vintage marbles and thread spools. The repurposing possibilities are endless, and I wanted to share another fun use for those fantastic old jars.
  
  Of course you don’t have to use antique jars to make candles, new mason jars will work just as well.
  
  Making your own candles is quite easy, the only somewhat difficult part is calculating the wax to container ratio, and the fragrance to wax ratio. You have to remember that wax is measured by weight and not by volume. What this means is if you have a 3 oz. jar that does not mean you use 3 oz. of wax, you use 2.4 oz . I have included a chart below to help you calculate the measurements.
  
  The first number represents the size of the container by volume, and the second number next to it represents the amount of wax needed by weight.
  
  3 oz. – 2.4 oz.
  
  4 oz. – 3.2 oz.
  
  6 oz. – 4.8 oz.
  
  8 oz. – 6.4 oz.
  
  10 oz. – 8 oz.
  
  And so on.
  
  If you decide to add a scent to the candles, use fragrance oil specifically for candles. As far as the measurements go, I used .5 oz of fragrance oil for 1 lb. of wax, and .75 oz of fragrance oil for 20 oz. of wax and they smelled nice and not too overpowering.
  
  You can also color the candles but you need to use dye specifically for candles. Food coloring or crayons will not work perfectly. I did make some candles with crayons for a fun craft idea, but the crayons don’t blend well with the wax and the colors aren’t as nice they would be with candle dye.
  
  To start you need some candle wax, I purchased 10 lbs. of soy wax.
  
  You will need a scale to measure out the wax. I used a kitchen scale that I had and just scooped the wax onto the scale.
  
  Once the wax is measured, transfer it to a saucepan and melt it on medium heat on your stove. It melts very quickly and easily.
  
  Once the wax is melted stir in the fragrance if you are using one, and remove it from the heat to cool.
  
  While your wax is cooling anchor the wick to the bottom of the jar. To do this you can dip it in the melted wax and stick it to the bottom of the jar. Keep in mind once you pour the hot wax into the jar the wick may move. Be sure to either hold it in place while pouring or use a wick holder which sits on the jar as I have.
  
  Once the wax has cooled for a few minutes you can pour it into the jars. The easiest way to do this is to use a funnel. It not only helps you by not spilling the wax all over your counter, but also helps to keep the wick in place. I tried a few different ways and the funnel was definitely the best option.
  
  Once the candles have set, trim the wicks with scissors.
  
  Now they are ready to burn. I am loving not only the coffee scent, but how it looks in this aqua colored antique jar!
  
  Posted in Blog Posts, Candle Making | Tagged antique mason jar ideas, blog, blogger, candle making, candles, candles in mason jars, diy candles, diy ideas, homemade candles, homemade soy candles, lifestyle blogger, repurposing mason jars, soy candles, stephanie's slice of life
- Alpaca Trekking in Maine
  
  Posted at 11:27 am by StephMo
  
  Jan 3rd
  
  On a bend in the road at the tip of Southport Island in Maine is the most adorable alpaca farm. I can remember years ago being in our favorite little library, which happens to be next door, and one of the librarians asking if we had seen the new neighbors that had recently moved in. After peaking through the library window trying to catch a glimpse, my children and I walked a little further into the library parking lot to see these cute furry creatures never imagining that someday we would be walking them on leashes. Right? Who walks alpacas on leashes?
  
  Soon enough, this small farm opened it’s “doors” to the public and we met some of these fascinating animals as well as their people, Anne and Mike. And what wonderful people they are. Of course I assumed they must have been alpaca farmers for years but come to find out this was fairly new to them. I let out a little sigh every time I leave their farm and think of how nice it would be to pack up and leave things behind to have a change of life as they have. I’m sure being an alpaca farmer is much more difficult than they make it look, however, and I doubt I would last a week.
  
  This year we spent the Christmas holiday in Maine for the first time and were able to reserve a spot to take an alpaca for a walk. How cool is that? I caught myself smiling under my mask every time a car went by wondering what the people must think as they drive past. I’m sure in the summer months especially there must be quite a few heads that turn as people utter “were they just walking alpacas?”
  
  So the other day my daughter and I headed over to the farm on a 28 degree winter day ready for our trek. Anne explained how to walk an alpaca, filled our jacket pockets with feed, and off we went through the neighborhood while our alpacas took turns trying to lead the pack. Zara was on my leash and Gracie on my daughter’s making their cute little moans as we walked along. Gracie moaned quite a bit, I don’t think she was as excited as we were about this excursion.
  
  It also didn’t take Gracie very long to figure out my daughter’s pocket was filled with treats.
  
  By the end of the trek my daughter Sara and Gracie seemed to have a little more of an understanding of each other 😅
  
  When we returned to the farm it didn’t take long for the other alpacas to also realize what Sara had in her pocket. What an amazing experience to be surrounded by these beautiful gentle creatures. I am pretty sure my daughter would say the same even though she may have gotten “sneezed” on by one of them, twice. Better her than me 😛
  
  This little farm is truly such a special place and I could not be more thankful to have it as a neighbor in Maine.
  
  The next time you are visiting the coast of Maine, make sure to take a detour down Rt. 27 towards the Boothbay peninsula and head over to Southport to pay a visit to Anne and Mike and all of their wonderful alpacas at Cape Newagen Alpaca Farm.
  
  https://www.capenewagenfarm.com/
  
  Posted in Alpaca Trek, Blog Posts | Tagged alpaca farm, alpaca farm maine, alpaca trek, alpacas, blogger, cape newagen alpaca farm, lifestyle blogger, maine things to do, southport maine, stephanie's slice of life
- My Mom’s Recipes
  
  Posted at 11:19 am by StephMo
  
  Nov 11th
  
  I lost my mother recently and you really don’t know what that feels like until it happens to you. I always felt so badly for those that had lost their mothers, but you don’t realize the chunk of your heart that is taken away until your mother is taken away. There is such a hole in my heart that I doubt will ever truly mend.
  
  My mother was a stay at home mom that cooked and baked constantly. Our cookie jar was always filled with homemade cookies, and my friends would go straight to the jar when they would come to my house. My mother always cooked from her Betty Crocker cookbook that she received as a wedding gift and giving me one for my wedding was her most important task. She cherished that book so much and felt it was so important for me to have one as well. As I have said in previous blogs, my Betty Crocker cookbook is like gold to me. Mine is missing the cover and the pages are stained and sticky from my years of use, as is my mother’s.
  
  As a child I was always looking through her cookbook as it was pretty much always out. I could never get enough of the pictures and would often help my mother bake from that beloved cookbook. She is the reason for my love of baking. I always knew that book was special, but never knew exactly how special until she passed away and my father gave it to me. I haven’t looked through that book since I was living at home with my parents. Sometimes I would ask her to give me certain recipes since they were no longer included in my updated version of the cookbook, but I had not physically seen it in years.
  
  With its ripped spine and how my mother had covered it with a green and white 70’s shelf paper. That book is my mother. That book is the mother I remember so fondly, the mother that was home every day with me as a child and putting a smile on my face with those foods. While it is devastatingly hard to look through right now, I hope that my children remember these wonderful things about me. The foods I made to make them smile. I never realized how powerful food can be until now.
  
  The goal of starting my blog and sharing my favorite recipes was in hopes of making other people’s families as happy as my family has been. Despite the fact that I cry every time I even glance at my mother’s cookbook, I am going to start making her favorite recipes and share them with all of you as a tribute to her. Many of these recipes aren’t even available on-line. While she hadn’t even made most of these recipes in years, I remember them so well. The Chicken Croquettes, Turkey a la King, the birthday cakes with marshmallow animals sitting on top of the green food color dyed coconut, the Boston Creme Pie….
  
  I hope my mother knew how important all her cooking and baking was to me. I hope she is proud of me for not only continuing that cooking and baking for my family, but for making her recipes to constantly remember her. I love you Mom.
  
  Posted in Blog Posts, My Mom's Recipes❤️
- Halloween Treats
  
  Posted at 11:20 am by StephMo
  
  Oct 31st
  
  Happy Halloween!! When my children were younger I used to love decorating for Halloween and making spooky fun treats. I haven’t had the opportunity in a few years but I loved looking back at these photos and remembering how much fun my children had.
  
  One of my favorite creations was this meat foot, in fact I think I will make this tonight for dinner. Why not, right? My husband might think I’ve lost it, but I am pretty sure he already does.
  
  I just made a regular meatloaf, you can use any recipe you like. Shaped it into a foot, used onion slices as toenails and more slices and a chunk of onion for the bone stump (gross to even say that), and ketchup as blood. Then just bake it as you normally would and voila! Spooky meatloaf!
  
  This Guacamole Frankenstein is perfect for younger kids, or older. Spread guacamole onto a platter, use blue corn tortilla chips as the “hair”, sour cream as the eyes, and then use black olives as the facial features. So cute!
  
  Every Halloween gathering needs a spooky Witch’s Brew! This Eyeball Punch was just plain fruit punch with some floating plastic eyeballs. Of course if it is for an adult party you can add some alcohol if you choose.
  
  Who doesn’t love Deviled Eggs? Halloween is a perfect time to turn those deviled eggs into bloodshot eyes. Make them as you normally would, add a black olive slice and a little red gel frosting, and there you go!
  
  And of course the classic Pillsbury Crescent Rolls Mummy hot dogs. So easy and fun, and yummy!
  
  Ok, now this final Halloween treat is gross. Really, really gross so be prepared.
  
  This was one of the funniest, and grossest, things I have ever made and tricked someone with. Years ago, hence the poor quality photo, when my husband and I were first married we had a Halloween party and put out this cake to fool people. At the time we did have a cat which made this cake more believable. I think the worst part was that until everyone found out it was a cake, people thought we were the type of people that left a dirty litter box in the middle of our kitchen.
  
  At one point during the party my husband picked up the “litter box” and said he was sorry it was there and excused himself to go empty it. As he was walking through our guests he picked up the scoop and took a bite. The look of pure horror on everyone’s face was priceless!
  
  Warning, this cake looks real and absolutely disgusting in person. Even though you know it is a new clean litter box and scoop, it still grosses you out to eat from it.
  
  Kitty Litter Cake
  
  Ingredients:
  
  2 boxes yellow cake mix
  
  1 package of vanilla sandwich cookies like Oreos
  
  1 package vanilla pudding mix
  
  Green food coloring
  
  Tootsie Rolls
  
  Cook the cake as directed, cool and crumble. Crush the sandwich cookies into crumbs. Prepare the pudding as directed.
  
  Mix the crumbled cake with the pudding and half of the crushed cookies. Spread the cake mixture into the kitty litter pan. **New and clean kitty litter pan.
  
  Mix the remaining half of the crushed cookies with a few drops of green food coloring, this makes it look like the chlorophyll in actual kitty litter. You don’t want the mixture green, but for there to be little bits of it green here and there.
  
  Sprinkle the green tinted crushed cookies over the top of the cake.
  
  Microwave the Tootsie Rolls for a few seconds until they are soft enough that you can shape them to look like poop. So gross, I know!
  
  Then place them on the cake as a cat would, and kind of bury them a little.
  
  Serve with a new, clean kitty litter scoop.
  
  Posted in Blog Posts, Halloween Treats, Holiday Treats, Recipes | Tagged food blog, food blogger, halloween food ideas, halloween food recipes, halloween recipes, halloween treats, lifestyle blogger, mom blogger, mom life, spooky food ideas, spooky treats, stephanie's slice of life
- Just Maybe
  
  Posted at 10:47 am by StephMo
  
  Apr 7th
  
  We are living in a time that many of us never thought we would ever see. Schools are closed, businesses are closed, beaches and parks are closed, there are lines outside of grocery stores with people standing 6 feet apart while wearing masks. A time where we are all asked to stay home and social distance not only to save ourselves, but to save others and stop spreading a virus. All of this seems so unreal, like I am having a bad dream or that I am a character in a movie that I would never agree to watch despite my husband’s pleading.
  
  As I sit this morning drinking my coffee in my sunroom and listening to quiet that I would not normally hear on a Tuesday morning unless there was a snow storm, I started thinking about how much of what seemed so awful yesterday will be missed tomorrow. Will any of these “new” behaviors and thoughts stay with us when our lives are back to “normal”? Will we still see ourselves and others out walking at a slower pace and really seeing everything around us instead of hurriedly walking and talking about the stresses of the day? Will we still take notice of the daily changes in the trees and flowers outside? Will we miss this time together as a family? I know I will.
  
  I am embarrassed to say that I have found myself stressed over some of the wrong things during this time. Stressed because we can no longer have everything we want when we want it. I found myself in tears after numerous nights trying at midnight to order groceries with no success because somehow other people’s computers must be faster than mine. Groceries that I want, but not desperately need. Feeling so much pressure that my family might not be able to have their favorite baked french toast on Easter this year unless I can find a way to get French bread while not potentially exposing my asthmatic lungs to this deadly disease. Trying unsuccessfully to order items to put together Easter baskets. All of these things that felt so important at the time, really aren’t that important are they? While it is disappointing to not celebrate Easter with family like we always do, isn’t it more important that we are safe, have a home to be together in, and food to eat regardless of what it is?
  
  Maybe all of this will help us appreciate what we have more and not take everything for granted. Maybe next year if things are back to “normal” that Easter brunch will be cherished and appreciated more. Maybe we’ll all find we aren’t throwing away as much food. Maybe even when l can go back to running to the store for every little thing, I will decide to continue making my own tortillas, pasta, and pizza dough. Maybe I will still hear my children’s laughter alongside the bouncing sound of a basketball more often.
  
  Just maybe.
  
  Posted in Blog Posts | Tagged appreciate life, lifestyle blogger, thankful
- DIY Sea Shell Shadow Boxes
  
  Posted at 12:27 pm by StephMo
  
  Apr 1st
  
  Searching for shells and sea glass is one of my absolute favorite things to do, and I could not be more thankful that my daughter feels the same way. We are often bundled up in the winter combing our favorite spots for treasures from the sea. Any time we are at the beach you will always see the two of us walking slowly and looking down, and I often have to remind myself to look up and enjoy the ocean.
  
  We recently visited a beach down the Cape and found so many scallop shells and while I normally fill antique mason jars with my favorite finds, scallop shells are hard to really appreciate in a jar. While I’m sure this idea isn’t new by any means, the thought came to me while rinsing the shells and thinking that I wished they could stay the color they are when they are wet. There may be a product specifically for shells, but without doing any research the first product that came to mind was polyurethane.
  
  Since I am not typically a crafty person per se and we are on a stay home order because of the virus, I just ordered what I assumed would work from Amazon. I ordered the gloss finish because I wanted the shells to look as glossy as they did when they were fresh out of the ocean.
  
  I just used a small paintbrush and brushed a thin coat on to the shells and let them dry for a few hours.
  
  You can see what a huge difference it made. Whether or not this was the correct product for this craft, I am thrilled with the outcome.
  
  These are what the shells looked like before,
  
  and these are what they looked like after. The colors are just so beautiful!
  
  All I needed now was to order a few shadow box frames with linen backs and a bottle of Gorilla Glue.
  
  Then it was time to create some wall art!
  
  Once I had the shells lined up I used a little bit of Gorilla Glue on the back edges of the shells and held them in place for a few seconds. That glue is very strong so make sure you place it where you want it because it is not going to move. You should also wear some sort of gloves when using this glue which we learned the hard way. I’m pretty sure my daughter no longer has fingerprints on a few of her fingers lol.
  
  Just a quick side note, yes that is my childhood ruler 🥰
  
  This was one of the pieces I created, and the one shown in the blog header is one my daughter created.
  
  Now we have these beautiful frames filled with our favorite shells to forever make us happy! Our next project is going to be with sand dollars!
  
  Posted in Blog Posts, DIY Sea Shell Shadow Boxes | Tagged craft, diy craft, diy wall art, lifestyle blogger, scallop shells, sea shell crafts, sea shell shadow box, sea shells, shadow boxes, shells, stephanies slice of life, wall art
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