We would like to show you how to clean your Margaret Furlong Jewelry.

[sugar_slider id=”44″]

Just in time for Easter I wanted to share my delicious egg recipe. This is a favorite for our Easter dinner! I also like to serve this all year round – it’s great for a cold summer lunches, with dinner, and for brunch.

Ingredients

6 Large Organic Free Range Eggs
Gray Celtic Sea Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper
Crème Fraiche
3 Spring Onions, sliced very thin
¼ cup chopped Fresh Dill
Grated fresh Horseradish Root – fresh is milder than prepared

Directions

This is such a simple recipe so it is important to have the best ingredients and not over cook the boiled eggs.

1. Bring refrigerator-cold eggs to a boil, immediately turn off the heat and let them cook for 8 minutes in the hot water. The yolks will be cooked but still very moist. After the eggs are cool cut in half and arrange on a serving plate.
2. Salt and pepper the eggs.
3. Add a small dollop of Crème Fraiche to each egg half.
4. Sprinkle the sliced Spring Onions on top.
5. Sprinkle the Fresh Dill.
6. Grate the fresh Horseradish to taste directly on the eggs as the final layer – I use a micro plane.

Enjoy!
Margaret

[sugar_slider id=”39″]

Miniature boxwood wreaths dress up an old, iron candelabra for festive Christmas entertaining. For small wreaths and garlands, boxwood is the ideal broadleaf evergreen to use. Its tiny dark green leaves are adorable, shiny and stay green for a long time inside.

I love using greens from my own garden to decorate my home for the holidays. It is so satisfying to grow your own, to use live decorations and to “shop” in your back yard.

To make each wreath I used single branches about 3” long. I wired each one to the previous one until I had a garland about 7” long. I then overlapped the ends and wired them together to form the wreath.

It is important to use soft clippings – no woody stems – so the garland is flexible enough to form a small circle.

Boxwood loves to be pruned any time of year to let the light in, so don’t be shy about gathering lots of boxwood clippings for wreaths of any size, garlands and green arrangements.

[sugar_slider id=”30″]

I had these contemporary shadow boxes made so I could arrange 3-dimensional sea collages on the wall at the beach house.

The beauty of these stacks of shells, found objects, and vintage pieces is that two or more of them simply stacked together in a shadow box make unique and delightful wall art!

These are the objects I used in my four collages:

1. A vintage wooden egg crowns a sea urchin.
2. A baby nautilus shell balances on a sea star with another tiny sea star on the back surface.
3. Another sea star base, this time with a sea urchin, then a shell and finally a green vintage marble to top it all off.
4. On an antique wooden stand, a polished stone from the beach is nestled into a shell.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN 3-D COLLAGE FOR THE WALL

1. Use a purchased shadow box, a custom-made shadow box or simply a small wooden box (new or vintage) and just start playing around with some beautiful natural forms and perhaps add a fun vintage item.
2. Use museum wax, candle wax or some other type of soft wax made for temporary attachments to hold the stacks together. I also used wax to attach the little sea star on the back wall of one of the arrangements.
3. Hang your wall art on the wall in just the right place and enjoy it!

[sugar_slider id=”29″]

I have had this Turkish urn for over 10 years and wanted to find a good place for it in my garden. In early June of this year I built a miniature circular garden as the centerpiece in the backyard. I laid half bricks as edging and placed the urn in the center raised on an old metal stand to a dramatic height. .

I planted a trimmed boxwood globe in the urn. In the circular garden below I put in starts from my lambs ear on the outside and a circle of garlic chives on the inside. The garlic chives are a narrow flat blade, about a 1/4″ across, and the blooms are airy and white. I used plant material I already had in the garden so this new little garden design would match the whole big garden.

I finished June 7 and today the plant starts are already filled in enough to be attractive.

HERE’S HOW I MADE MY CENTERPIECE IN THE BACKYARD:

1. The first step was to find the center of the space in my backyard where I wanted to create the circular garden. Using a stick tied onto a two-foot length of string, I secured it in the center of my space and drew a circle in the ground for the outside marking of the bricks. I carefully dug out the length of the brick about 2″ deep inside my circle. See the last photos for the project beginning.
2. I then set the bricks around the edge adjusting the depths and using a level to keep them even. I did have to extend the circle out a little to get the last full brick in. I also used four more bricks in the center of the circle to create a base for the metal stand.
3. After the bricks were set, I set up the stand and urn and planted the boxwood, lamb’s ear and chives.

A Note About Garlic Chives:

Garlic chives are a lovely addition to any garden and they are also a culinary delight. I love them in salads and also in many hot dishes. I like to add them to hot dishes just before I take them off the heat so that they just wilt and stay brilliant green and pungent with flavor.