2011 has passed too fast...

2011 has come and gone for me, and it all seems to have gone so fast. My business has progressed so much that I ran out of time to make posts on my blog... I'd have pictures taken and stories in my head, but never get the chance to get them out there.

What I'm most proud of from last year was perfecting my handmade clasps. I think it adds so much to a handmade jewelry design by having my own clasps. Here's a picture of one of my 3-strand clasps (a technique I'll be teaching in the upcoming months at BD Unique): This coming year, I have so many goals I need to pare down my list to a manageable list, but that will be something I'll have figured out before the end of the week!

I'm not ready for Christmas!

Of course I wasn't ready for Thanksgiving either. This year is ending way too fast for me... I feel like I've barely begun to create my Christmas jewelry. I've incorporated some red and green glass pearls this year,
ordered new preciosa glass beads,

and played with some cute Christmas-themed buttons.

Once I get my camera downloaded again, I'll share the aluminum wire ornaments I've also been creating.

Halloween Jewelry

This year, I decided to have some fun with some jewelry. I tried a few spiders, but even silver foil glass can't make a spider look attractive. When I tried to make a pair of earrings,
I decided those would be the last spiders I ever make :) I even found some cute skull beads

to make a few pais of earrings, but my absolute favorite

had to be my button rings :)

Fall Cameron Antiques Fair 2011

Earlier this month, I made sure my Saturday was free for touring around Cameron, North Carolina for its semi-annual street craft fair. I was so disappointed when my normal button guy wasn't to be found :( Good thing I bought way too many buttons in the last two years anyway! I did find tons of shutter doors... bought way more than I really needed, but that's something my husband would say is normal. I have this neat spinning thing (a friend and I rescued it from a trash heap) that I thought if I could find a way to attach these doors, I'd have a wonderful new spinning earring display for craft shows.

And no trip to Cameron would ever be complete without adding to my extensive collection of vintage bottles :)

Perfect Set-ups

This past weekend was the International Folk Festival in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Not only were all of my joints creaking, but my tent and display items were covered in a layer of dust. (It's been a while since my last show). At some fairs, your booth arrangement is better than others... I don't mean my items in my booth; I mean the vendors around me.

Once the rain finally stopped on Saturday, it was so neat to see that my booth stood in the perfect spot. The vendor to my left had PVC sculptures. (Yes, those birds and frogs are made out of PVC pipes). What screams beach more than tropical birds, especially those pink flamingoes? This couple will be at the same show I'm doing in Concord, NC next month and I can't wait to show my mom the birds. I think she needs one on her lanai ;)

To the right side of me was the Island Breeze Soap company. They had a plumeria bar I just had to buy. I thought the grass skirts were a wonderful idea for the booth - made it looked like we were purposely put right near each other. And then there was my booth. I got a new banner that is the beach scene that I feel is more fitting to my style. (And I still steal the DVD shelf out of my living room before every show... one of these days, I'll have to get something new.)

I was so tired after this weekend that I am glad I have 3 1/2 weeks until the next one!

Organization...

Trying to get my jewelry and craft supplies under control has been an ongoing process in my life. Last week, I tore apart one of my supply drawers looking for one silver plated finding...By the end of the day, I had the entire silver plated findings drawer emptied on the floor. In a flurry, I ran out to Walmart and bought a few more organizing cases that fit in the drawers and have it so organized. It is exciting to me to open the drawer and be able to see what I'm looking for... and also have all of my headpins in one place, all earwires in one area, etc, etc.

I think I'm on a roll, so I'll keep organizing and see where that leads me!

Playing with paper

I have been a scrapbooker most of my life. My entire high school life is documented with faded photos and bad handwriting in journaling spots. Later, during my husband's and my years of dating and engagement, I created a scrapbook just for our special moments. But over the last year, I have been way too busy to do any sort of scrapbooking or card making.

I was inspired when I found PaperQuick on etsy. Her various die cuts got paper back in the front of my mind - especially after my envelope of pretty paper things arrived :)

In the last two weeks, I've made a few cards and many sets of gift tagss. I'd forgotten how much fun this is!

My New Favorite Pancakes

I've had a recipe from Fitness Magazine since May that I've been dying to try. Now the name was not so good - they were called "Banana-Nut Protein Pancakes." That doesn't exactly sound delicious, and it totally turned my husband off from even trying them.

Thanks to his job, he's out of town, and I decided to try them on my own!

Recipe:

In blender, combine 1 banana, 1/4 cup rolled oats, 2 tablespoons low-fat cottage cheese, 2 egg whites and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract; Blend until smooth. Stir in 2 teaspoons chopped walnuts. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and coat with non-stick cooking spray. Pour batter into skillet to make two 4-inch pancakes; cook 3 minutes on each side. Drizzle with 2 teaspoons maple syrup.

It was like eating banana nut bread for breakfast! That's exactly what they tasted like. I actually doubled the recipe so that I could have leftovers for the following morning (cooked them all up at once), but I ended up with five 5-inch pancakes total.

I almost balked when I saw the recipe calling for only 2 teaspoons of Maple Syrup. Surprisingly, the pancakes are so dense, they do not soak up the syrup at all, and 2 teaspoons is really enough.

Back in the garden

I've had some great harvests recently. Not near enough to feed the neighbors or give away food, but making me think of interesting things for dinner. I think I just got my last 1/2 cup of blueberries but this looks to be my first of many zucchinis! The entire garden is going pretty well - I've got corn, green beans, butternut squash, cantaloupe, bell peppers, watermelon, okra, tomatoes... I think that's all. This picture doesn't do it justice, but it looks good in person.

What I am most impressed with though is the corn! I've been trying to grow corn for the last three years and have never gotten a plant taller than 10 inches before it keels over on me. This year, I can even see my very first ear of corn starting.

Can't wait till he's ready to pick!

Slow Going...

I love wire wrapping... I live for wire wrapping... my old part-time job involved intensive computer sessions for 4-5 hours a day... suddenly my body said, "No" to all of the repetitive motion and I developed a very large and very painful ganglion cyst. Even 3 weeks off with no jewelry making and no typing did not calm it... nor did it go away when my chiropractor hit it (literally attempting the whacking with a bible theory).

So this week a surgeon removed it. I can hold pliers in my left hand still but have no leverage when playing with wire. I guess my end of the summer will be a full out sprint in jewelry making as I try to make up for so much time off :)

Vacations...

I have been on vacation for the first half of this month... I've been lucky that my job ended at the same time the rest of my extended family was also taking time off so I could visit with them.

I had no idea how much I needed a vacation until I returned. I have read a total of 4 books in the last 2.5 weeks and in turn realized it has been more than a year since I read my last book.

Now I wasn't reading anything remotely intellectual, but I do love a complete fictional retreat. This summer I'm going to make sure I get back into my reading habit again.

Handmade Toggle Clasp

I've been making my own sterling silver hook and eye clasps for a couple of years, but until last month, I'd still been buying all of my toggle clasps.

Last week I'd finished this sea glass pendant and decided on agate beads for the necklace. The only clasps I had in gold fill were those super tiny lobster clasps that I didn't think were large enough to go with this piece. I've never bought any other sort of clasps in the 14kt gold fill simply because of price... and I couldn't do my normal hook and eye clasp because I'd never bought wire larger than 21 gauge in the gold fill.

That's when I decided to try the beaded toggle... I'm so happy with the result, I've made earrings that look just like the circle part of the toggle clasp :)

My poor little apple tree

My little apple tree got its first blossoms this year and has tried to produce a total of 39 apples. I got up and saw the little branches almost touching the ground. I've taken off approximatley 1/2 of those apples, but it is still pretty droopy.
I hope some of the branches are large enough to hold an apple or two!

The best carrot cake in the world...

Well, that is my opinion anyway... I love my family's old recipe for carrot cake and have yet to find one in a restaurant that is even half as good. It takes a very, very, very long time to make, so I don't make it very often... like for my husband's 26th and 30th birthdays (Yes, those candles are supposed to look like a 3-0, so it will be another 4 years before I taste this creation again...)

But on to the main attraction:

Ingredients:

2 c. flour

1 tsp. soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. sald

2 c. sugar

1 1/2 c. oil

3 eggs

2 c. finely grated carrots (freshly grated)

1 c. well drained crushed pineapple (15 1/4 oz. can)

1 c. coconut

1 c. chopped walnuts

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. raisins

Sift flour, soda, cinnamon, and salt together. Set aside. Beat sugar, oil, and eggs with electric mixer until very well mixed. Gradually add flour mixture; fold in carrots, pineapple, coconut, walnuts, vanilla, and raisins. Bake in greased and floured two 8 inch pans or one 12x9 inch pan at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Cream Cheese Frosting: Mix 4 oz softened cream cheese, 1/2 box powdered sugar, 1/2 stick margarine or butter and 1 tsp. vanilla until smooth.

Hide cake from the rest of the family so that you have plenty to enjoy :)

Sea glass flowers - on glasses

My family loves to make flowers out of shells and sea glass... it's definitely in my genetic make-up and not something I can control :P

Here's one of my mom's latest creations: Sea glass picked up off the beaches of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and made into flowers. The stamens are her prized pieces of cobalt blue glass (very rare) and perfect on these cobal blue martini glass stems.

And what's even better is that I have a husband who cooks and has filled these glasses with mousse. Somedays I think life cannot get better!

Changes to etsy!

I was so excited with I logged into my etsy accounts this week! The features I have been longing for are finally there....

My first desire with this site were that the item listing page was only one page... I can't tell you how many times I'd made it through the item description, item tags, and pricing pages to have my internet reset, my computer reset, my dog interupt me, etc, etc... and *poof* nothing is left. My second desire was to have a "save as draft" function. I'd thought this function would remain a pipe dream for as long as I was on etsy :)

In an ugly box...

can come such great stuff! This box recently appeared on my doorstep (one of those - oops, honey, I forgot to tell you "Mary Ann" stopped by - events).
I opened it up and took a gasp. You would not believe the number of beautiful vintage buttons that are in there!
From World War I and II military buttons
to ones that are purely decorative,
my button collection has gone from large to huge :) All thanks to a neighbor's mother downsizing her home. Sometimes I think I am way too lucky to have the great friends I do!

Cameron Antiques Fair

This past weekend was the semi-annual antiques street fair in Cameron, NC. I love going to this event and was disappointed I forgot my camera (although, here's a blog post with beautiful pictures). I love how you can find everything there... the antique/vintage, crafts, food, plants, etc, etc and came home with a good little stack for myself :) The first thing I bought was this cute necklace. I don't have anything like it and just had to have it.

And my prizes of the day were these glass bottles. In addition to my family's obession with shells... we have a thing about old bottles, too. We're apt to partake in occassional "bottle-hunting" expeditions (in between the beach-combing) but I've never found purple ones on my own.

I was even looking at items with a crafty eye and can't wait until I solder these miner's tags.

Somedays my husband is just wonderful :)

I just look at him and lament that my veggie garden is too small and he spends the whole weekend digging up grass (well, more like weeds) and almost doubling the size of the veggie plot! I can't wait to get all of the plants in there!

Recently, I was cleaning out some bead drawers and always get surprised by what I find (like beads I bought in 2nd grade, yet still have yet to use them or get rid of them?). I found some cute little sping time charms that made me wonder exactly what I would do with them since they don't even come close to looking like my "shore debris" theme.As I was laying them down together in a pile for destash, I thought, these look kind of cute... and don't leaves look like these moss agate beads hanging on the wall over here... Oh, and maybe I should pair them up with some pale pink...

Lo and behold, I got a cute little spring set.

It's fun breaking out and doing something besides the norm :)