Here is a behind the scenes look at product development at Chillymink!
As I continue to wait for my avocado trees to bear fruit, I decided to make something with the image of one. Now I just had to figure out what…
I found my answer after finding a cool book about making cocktails from the library.
Coasters.
Now it is time to see how well they work!
Let the Beta-Testing Begin!
To see how and where they go check out my Instagram or Facebook!
A couple of years ago there was a Facebook challenge to post your favorite masterpiece- or maybe we were given a name of an artist and had to choose a painting of theirs for everyone to enjoy. Whatever it was, I liked the idea. I liked seeing artists and their famous works that I never knew of. I also liked seeing what my friends chose.
That was when I decided that one of my favorite paintings was the portrait of Juan de Pareja by Velazquez. The more I looked at it, the more I liked it. He looks proud and beautiful (and I also really like his collar.)
So I posted it!
Recently, I found a blank canvas that I had bought to do something with and decided to use it to make a mini masterpiece for my desk. This is how I did it:
The canvas was 4X4 so I had to crop the image as a square.
Then I printed it out with borders on 4×6 photo paper.
I cut the extra white space using my rotary trimmer so that the edges were crisp.
I used dots to adhere it. (I have used Mod Podge in the past, but I am thinking I may be able to use the canvas for another picture since the dots are removable.)
I bought a small easel from Michaels and there it is!
I feel happy when I send a picture postcard to someone I love. Now I know why because Bill Phillips, Editor-in-Chief of Men’s Health just told me.
Sending postcards is among the 21 scientifically proven ways to instantly improve your life. After publishing this fact in the January issue, people responded to this by… sending a postcard to Men’s Health! Full circle.
Who doesn’t want to instantly improve one’s life?
After reading this I made this postcard from a picture taken at a recent family reunion.
Where did I put those postcard stamps?
Can you get too much of a good thing?
Maybe.
I was thinking it may be time to give the mailbox hunt a rest.
That is, until I went to Florida and walked around a neighborhood in Key Largo.
A little back story: we were waiting for The African Queen tour boat to return to the dock when we decided to go for a short walk.
The boat used in the movie The African Queen.
Here are the mailboxes we saw all in one neighborhood!
If they throw a block party I want to be invited!
As I wait for my avocados to “get to know one another” and “bear fruit,” I found an avocado recipe in an unexpected magazine– Esquire. It looked delicious so I tried it.
It was delicious!
One Sunday I enlisted my family to “assist me” in finding mailboxes I remembered passing and were unable to photograph, ones that I thought were worth going back for. Turns out “remembered” doesn’t actually work that well (especially on back roads.)
As we drove through the beautiful countryside, my daughter casually mentioned that she saw an orangutan holding up a roof. I thought she was joking, but it seemed unlikely she could make it up. We turned around, and yes, she wasn’t joking– an orangutan was holding up the roof!
Talk about “playful meets practical!”
You just never know what you will see while out on a Sunday drive!
Now that Chillymink is on Instagram, please share your #doubletake with us.
I always wanted to grow an avocado from the pit.
I remember my sister starting one when we were kids and thought it would be fun to start one myself someday.
I never thought of what I would do with it if, in fact, it actually grew. I never really thought about what an avocado actually grew on– a bush, a tree, a vine like a pumpkin? I didn’t grow up around them.
I guess I never thought I would actually successfully start an avocado and would figure it out once it happened.
So one day after eating a delicious avocado I thought- why not give it a go?
I remember my sister suspended the pit over some water with toothpicks so that it was partially submerged in water. I found some toothpicks and checked online which end should be submerged.
The water became cloudy, so I replenished it.
I waited. No roots or leaves after several weeks. (It may have been months since I stopped looking.)
I noticed it doing nothing one day and wondered if I should just give up. I was planting some herbs so thought I might as well just stick the pit in some dirt and see what happened.
It grew.
I put it outside its first summer, and that almost did it in until I read that it should be shaded. I put it under a tree.
It grew some more.
I brought it in for the winter and soon I needed to provide it some support with something long and steady. I used my large umbrella. It stood a little straighter. I never thought it would grow so large.
I am running out of room for it. But I love it.
I’ve read that it won’t bear fruit unless I have another one.
And that’s how my house became overrun with avocado bushes. I may need to build a shed!
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