Skull and Crossbones spike ear cuff

This is my new ear cuff. It is made out of silver plated aluminum wire, a 3/4" wide and 11/16" tall (not counting top loop) skull cross bones charm, and two gun metal colored spikes. The entire piece is 2 1/16" long from top loop to the bottom of the longest spike. Since ear cuffs are made by me hand bending largish (3-1/2") pieces of wire there will be slight differences in each one.

 

The idea for this came from the fact that a.) I wanted to make more ear cuffs, so far this is my third one, b.) I wanted to make something using a skull and crossbones charm, and c.) everybody and their brother-in-law has already done plain skull and crossbones earrings and has also paired skulls and crossbones with pretty much every color bead you can think of.  
Buy your own at https://www.etsy.com/listing/125533489/skull-and-crossbones-spike-ear-cuff for $12 plus $2.15 shipping.

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Silver and green four leaf clover earrings

 These are my four leaf clover earrings. They are made from one silver four-leaf clover charm with a green bead on a separate purple colored copper wire. The ear wire is silver plated copper and the entire piece is 1 7/16" from the top loop of the ear wire to the bottom of the clover stem.

The inspiration for these came from the fact that I liked the way the charms looked,but I really love green (plus, it is the color for St. Patrick's Day) and I thought it would look cool if the beads dangled in front of the charms.

That's Wolfram there. He refused to leave until I took his picture.

These are the first pair of earrings I made for Bats Bizarre. Like my starfish earrings (the second pair), they were originally going to feature Swarovski crystals until I read the warning about lead on the back of the package. Back to the store they went. And switched to using glass beads. They cost $12 plus $2.50 for shipping. As I've mentioned before Bats Bizarre doesn't ship jewelry internationally. Buy your own pair at https://www.etsy.com/listing/114116129/silver-and-green-four-leaf-clover
I think they'll be great for St. Patrick's Day, especially paired with my four leaf clover choker; viewable at https://www.etsy.com/listing/118288635/four-leaf-clover-choker-necklace

Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Sword and spikes necklace

My Sword and spikes necklace is made of one sliver plated 1 1/2" sword pendant and four 3/4'' silver spikes on a 17 1/4" long silver plated chain with a lobster clasp. Originally, I wanted to use a circle and hook clasp in the front, so the length could be adjusted on the fly and for easy on and off. But after a couple of wearings were the hook some how managed to slip to a different loop and mess up the whole look I realized that just wouldn't work and went with a lobster clasp in the back. (I didn't like the way it looked in the front.) It costs $14.00 plus 2.50 for shipping and can be viewed at: https://www.etsy.com/listing/114231379/silver-sword-and-spikes-necklace
I'm sorry, but Bats Bizarre does not ship jewelry outside of the USA.




Troubles with the clasp aside, this is really one of my favorite necklaces. I like to wear it with the sword and spikes earrings https://www.etsy.com/listing/114805186/silver-sword-and-spikes-earrings, which ship for free with this item, or sometimes I soften the look with my four leaf  clover https://www.etsy.com/listing/114116129/silver-and-green-four-leaf-clover or starfish earrings https://www.etsy.com/listing/114110452/starfish-earrings, it really goes with everything.

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Lemon Cake

We had a great lemon crop this year, which probably means next year will be a flop, but I digress. Anyway, my mother and I have been looking for recipes using lemons. After failing to find a lemon cake recipe I really liked I made one up.

First make a yellow cake. For a very lemon-y cake: I added about a teaspoon of lemon zest to the batter, which worked out great, but next time I think I'll try a tablespoon of juice, just because.

Second, make pudding. Add lemon juice to a vanilla pudding recipe. I recommend using a half recipe and cooking it a little longer. Or the recipe that follows.

3/4 cup sugar                         2 egg yolks
1/3 cup flour                         1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2cup milk                      -Optional- yellow food dye
Juice from 5 to 6 lemons, about 1/2 a cup,

Mix the dry ingredients in a sauce pan until there are no lumps. Add milk, lemon juice, and yolks and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick. Add vanilla and a few drops of food dye, if used. Remove from heat.

Place pudding between two of the cake layers and frost with cream cheese frosting. I put a little lemon juice in my frosting, but that might be why it didn't fluff up. More experiments needed. As you can see I decorated it with toasted coconut and a couple cut up strawberries on top, but you don't have to. 
 To toast coconut place evenly on a pan and put in oven on broil (you can probably use a toaster oven) for about 5 minutes, watch it carefully because it burns easily.

 Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's official blog. Have a bat-tastic day!