A new print for my home

I get the greatest gifts. My sister/brother-in-law bought me this print from Green Girl Canvas on etsy. I love the print and it has been lanquishing in my favorites for while I tried to figure out if I had room for even more artwork in my house... I'm glad that decision was taken away from me or else I might have wavered until it was no longer available. Now I just need to figure out how I want it framed and put it up on my wall!

Thrift Store Finds

Are you someone who likes to rumage around in thrift stores and come out with amazing items? I definitely am. And my favorite stores are those in Naples, Florida. My grandmother and I spent the day hitting all of our favorites, including St. Vincents De Paul Thrift Store where I found this wonderful soup bowl:This fits in my house perfectly! The bottom is a basketweave design and shells/sea life decorate the sides.When I turned it over, I even found it has the artist's name: Karin Villaroman. Now, hopefully the artist isn't too offended that I paid only $1 for this bowl, but it is definitely going to the home of someone who will love it, cherish it, and use it regularly for the beautiful piece that it is.

First Craft Show of 2012

I had a booth at the Placida Art Market this past Saturday. For those of you who don't know, Placida is in South West Florida (near Port Charlotte), and yes, that is me standing there wrapped up in a blanket with a large scarf and fleece jacket. I belive it was 10 degrees colder there at the time this picture was taken than it is right now at my house in North Carolina.I had lots of fun and met tons of great people. This art market occurs every other week during season, so if you're in that area, I recommend stopping by. I went shopping on the New Year's Eve market and picked up some great pottery and notecards for myself. You won't know what treasures you will find! If you can't make it for a Saturday Art Market, there are a couple of stores (art gallery, gifts, and orchids) with a Key West vibe and the Fishery Restaurant that are worth visiting.

If you're an artist in this area - try on this market for size. It has friendly artists and is an artist-promoted event. The entire atmosphere is fun, and who could complain with a waterfront view all day?

My First Treasury for 2012!

Bangle Giveaway at Scarborough Seashells

I ordered shells from Scarborough Seashells years ago (on eBay, even, I think) and have just recently come back across her store.

Lucky me, she's giving away this beautiful sterling bangle on her blog:

You have until Friday the 13th to enter by visiting and commenting on her blog post !

Shelling at Boca Grande

Visiting my parents in South West, Florida has been quite fruitful. My mother and I drove out to Gasparilla Island and found piles of shells in only an hour on the beach at Boca Grande. There were you're ever present cockles, coquinas, and scallops, but I also picked up some good ones including the apple murex, fig, immature fighting conch, and olive. And someone knew I'd be making some Valentine's Day themed items, so made sure I found a heart shaped beach stone and heart shapped coral.

Can't wait to get my wire on these babies!

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 :)