GLAZE - Black vs. White

Been doing experiments in simplifying a tad bit lately.... just in shape and color. Made pieces with a simple 1 colored glass with black or white glaze. Its fun to check out how different a color can look against black or white. See for yourself the differences.

Large green round pendant with black glaze or white glaze. 2" in diameter.
Same goes for the following beauties.... everything is still one of a kind! I've just simplified a glazing strategy - making it black or white or I even offer brown glaze (not shown).

Red/orange glass with black or white glaze. This is a small round pendant - 1 1/2" in diameter. Notice the amount of colored glass varies. That's just how they turn out, you never know. Still one of a kind! Always will be.

Aqua with white or black in oval shape. 2" x 1 1/8".

Yellow with white or black glaze. Oval. 2" x 1 1/8".

Cobalt with white or black glaze. Oval. 2" x 1 1/8".

Many of these have been listed in my Etsy Shop. They come with a 16" chocolate brown cotton cord. I can also sub a chain if you'd like or even lengthen the cord. If you see one that's not listed and you want it, contact me at Kelly (at) leandogpottery.com and I'll set up a special listing for you.

yum

I've been making some real good food lately - not just ordinary food, vegan food. Most people I know misinterpret the word "vegan" as something that has weird or strange ingredients, when in fact its the exact opposite! Look at your box of mac-n-cheese or any other processed food for those kind of ingredients. Something being vegan just means its made without any milk, eggs, meat products - or basically anything that comes from an animal. Substitutions are made in place of those ingredients. For subbing cows milk I use other kinds of milk - soy milk, rice milk, hemp milk, oat milk and almond milk - which is my personal favorite - and I am sure there are others I am forgetting. For butter I use a brand called Earth Balance which is made with vegetable based oils. For eggs you can use many different things - mashed up bananas, applesauce, tofu or there are special egg replacer products available in markets - there are a few other things to sub for eggs too, that I am sure I forgot. For cheese there are many, many different commercial brands that work - my favorite being Daiya! It melts wonderfully and is the tastiest stuff I have ever had in my life - better than real cheese - in my opinion. Below I made a vegan lasagna - I used trader joes soy mozzerella which is very much like mozzerella made with cows milk. I have made meals with this stuff and not told my guests it was soy until afterwards and they said they would have never known. Here is the recipe for the lasagna thats called "Love Potion Lasagna". I got it from vegweb.com which is full of any kind of recipe you could be looking for. I'm always on there looking for what to make next!

Hope this helped clear up any misconceptions you might have had about vegan food (if you had any at all). I leave you with a challenge - go find a recipe on vegweb and give it a try and come back and tell me about it.

Give Back

One thing that makes me feel good, and I think it makes anyone who does it feel good, is giving back - whether its your time or money - its all good! For about a year now I have had a charity of the month (almost every month), where I would give a percentage of my Etsy Shop sales to that charity. No matter how much it is, I know its appreciated, and that feels good.

Giving your time feels even better (in my opinion). It's story time:

I have been a volunteer for Cal Fire (formerly California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection) for 17 years - not fighting fires, but teaching fire prevention to children and adults at schools, fairs, campsites, and many other places. Not only do we quiz kiddo's on not playing with matches and who to call if there is an emergency, but we dress also up as Smokey Bear and do Stop Drop and Roll demonstrations. Fun stuff!

This is me and my best friend Jessica with Smokey at a rodeo! Anyway, all this has been a great experience for me. But the best experience was back in the early 2000's (I am not sure the exact year) on Christmas Eve. I get a call from the volunteer coordinator telling me about a house that caught on fire and it happened to belong to a family with young children. We went to the house as they were putting out the fire and met the family, luckily everyone got out safely. We felt so horrible for them knowing it was Christmas eve and they were homeless. We knew we had to do something - so we immediately decided to organize a food/gift/clothing drive for them at a local fire station and we got more donations than we could handle! It was so amazing how everyone came together for this family. It was Christmas Eve! Last minute, literally! Yet, it was amazing to see how many kind hearts were out there. Seeing the families faces when we showed them what we had for them was the best part. They felt blessed, as they should have.

I still do my Smokey Bear routines and a little bit of Stop, Drop and Roll to help teach children the importance of fire safety. I also am a huge animal activist and that is usually where I donate percentages of my sales to. This month I am donating to the Fresno Bully Rescue. I am originally from Fresno and happened to stumble upon their facebook page when a couple of my friends "liked" it. I immediately knew they were going to be my March charity. I love what they are doing for this breed with a bad rap. As you may know, many people label them as vicious or scary. But I happen to know two who are the sweetest doggies ever. Pit bulls are just like any other dog breed, they are born with love and want to be your best friend, too. Here is a link about the myths of the bully breed.

Thanks to everyone who helps support this charity with me while shopping at Lean Dog. Or you can just donate money directly to the cause on your own here. If you live in Fresno, or nearby, you can also donate your time volunteering by walking the dogs, training, cleaning kennels, cleaning up around the grounds or helping promote an event.