Monday Mood Board

Orange is the color of the day! It's warm and comforting like a cup of pumpkin spice latte and it's bright and cheerful like the tangerines that are ripening at this time of year.

Happy Monday!

1.https://squareup.com/store/beadcharmerdesigns/item/faceted-orange-chalcedony-and-crystal-earrings
2. https://squareup.com/store/beadcharmerdesigns/item/autumn-topaz-crystal-necklace-1
3. Orange chandelier seen in a restaurant window.
4. https://squareup.com/store/beadcharmerdesigns/item/orange-iridescent-crystal-drop-earrings

Break Over!!

Yes, our show break is over! It's that time again. It's time to start doing shows again! Our first one is booked and we are dusting off the displays, washing the table covers and I'm making some new pieces. We've got the gun show bug again and our first one is here in San Antonio, October 15th and 16th. 

We'll have some new designs and some customer favorites too. So y'all make plans with your shopping buddies to come on down to the Freeman Expo Hall and make a dent in the holiday gift list.

Admission to the show is $5 and the Bexar county collects $7 for parking. We hope to see you all there!

It's a sickness!!!

Yes, it's true. I have it and it's a HUGE problem. I can't help it. My problem is a big ol' stash of JUNK!! It's dusty, chippy, rusty, and always ends up going home with me. My dad would say... "It's a sickness".. and he would be right. My husband, thankfully, shares my affinity for the cast offs that sit sadly on the sidewalk during bulk pick up season, or on a shelf at a thrift store or in a junk shop. He loves going junkin', but he can walk away from it much more easily than I will. My weakness is not furniture, thank goodness. It's small stuff, like beaded clutches, china bowls and cups, vintage jewelry.. and not so small things, like depression glass and lamps. The larger pieces of my glass collection was sold a few years ago, so no, you will not see me on an episode of Hoarders, at least not anytime soon.

Those of you that have seen my jewelry booth at shows around the Great State of Texas (yes that is our state's official name) have probably noticed the lack of commercially produced jewelry displays. Yes, I have the trays and a handful of neck-forms. I also have an "eclectic mix" (that is code for random goodness) of display items, ranging from coffee cup trees turned t-stands for bracelets, a room divider turned necklace display, cigar box risers, and even a re-purposed $2 table lamp.

Yes. That my friends, was a white $2 table lamp from a thrift store, once upon a time. It actually looked like this... (the white one in the background) when I found it.

The coffee cup tree is being used for bracelets, the frame will be a sign holder. The other lamps will get stripped, hand painted, and rewired for home use. Not to worry, though. It won't be the only lamp turned jewelry stand. I've got more lamp bases and a couple more lamps that I plan on re-purposing. It really is a sickness and I hope there is no cure. 

Brunswick Bride

Having gotten the reputation of being the "gun show girl", I don't get requests to make wedding jewelry as often as I used to. Unless those request come from Ohio, which is where they have been coming from. Brides are some of my favorite people to work with. I've only had one bridezilla, and even that worked out well. This bride, like most of the others, is someone I have known for a while. She has the sweetest disposition, and I couldn't be happier for her. I love that she asked me to create her bridesmaid's jewelry. I really hope they love the jewelry they receive, as much as I loved making it.

The bridesmaids will be wearing this design.

Her maid of honor will wear this one.

Congratulations Sheila and Rob. May your marriage be filled with much love, laughter, and happiness. 

Monkey Business

Slowly but surely, I'm getting back to being more creative. We took a hiatus while we cared for a senior relative and her husband, and it's nice to get back to artsy stuff. I haven't done any shows or made more than a piece of jewelry here and there. I had forgotten how good it feels to create. All because my younger sister, a high school Spanish teacher, asked if my husband could help her out by modifying a book case before school started. Easy enough for me. All I would have to do is hold boards and harass him while he works. That was my plan until she mentioned she had one bulletin board left to finish decorating. How could I stay away from THAT project??

These are the supplies you will need.

craft paper
assorted green scrap booking paper
scissors
clean plastic bags
staples and a stapler

She already had the background and border up, and the monkeys were previously laminated for a board she decorated last year.

Here's the step by step.

We started by cutting a 5ft length of paper off the roll and crinkling it, first lengthwise then down the length of the paper.

Once the paper is completely textured, it should look like this.

Once the paper is suitably textured, it's time to move over to the bulletin board. Start by stapling the paper on the interior part of the tree to hide the staples. We chose to start the tree on the edge of the bulletin board to maximize the space needed for the information she'd be posting on this board.

Once you have that side secured, it's time to begin building the tree structure by tearing branches into the excess paper that is at the top of the tree. The branch size and numbers is up to you. If you need more branches, cut and crinkle more paper and insert it into the tree structure as needed.

At this point the branches and only one side of the tree should be stapled to the board. Now is when you will begin stuffing the tree. We used the plastic packing material from her mini fridge. Tuck and staple as you go along. The excess plastic we trimmed off went into the recycle bin.

The bottom of the tree got flared and stapled and we added a few more branches. And, since the theme of the board is "Welcome to the Jungle", the tree needed leaves. 

So far, so good. Right? But then, I noticed she had all of these extra monkeys left over. 

The nice thing about this tree is, she can swap out the leaves for dried oak leaves as fall kicks in, and remove the leaves for Halloween. 

It took us a couple of hours longer than it should have.. probably because we spent some time harassing my husband and watching silly videos on Youtube too. Oh yeah! About that bookcase.... I think he did a nice job on it! 

Cents and Sensible Eats

Eating sensibly while travelling and doing so on a tight budget isn't always easy... but it can be quite delicious. Every road trip we take I really try to plan what we are going to eat for the 3 to 5 days that we are travelling well in advance. Travel days are the worst when it comes to meals, mostly because I always seem to make us late for our departure time. So breakfast tacos and salty snacks and fruit seem to be our meal plan during the actual drive.

By the time we get to the hotel, it's usually dinner time. Rather than take the easy way out and pick up a greasy bag of fast food, I prefer to cook if I have any strength left in me. This is why I LOVE my
rice cooker. In all honesty, I wasn't crazy about it when my husband got it. I thought to my self, "great, an appliance that makes one thing and one thing only." But, the more we travel the more things we learn to cook in it.

This trip's recipe is one pot pasta dinner that can be enjoyed cold with a fresh salad the next day. The ingredients can be purchased at most grocery stores pretty readily. Since we were headed to Sulphur Springs this trip and I wanted to make sure I had the supplies I needed as soon as we got to the hotel, I packed the dry ingredients I'd be needing in the "kitchen box". The kitchen box is a Rubbermaid tote that is filled with the basics for cooking on the road. The veggies and the proteins traveled frozen, in a small cooler. We packed the bag of organic greens on top so it stayed cool enough to keep them from wilting.

For this dish you will need the following...

1cup  whole wheat rotini pasta (gf or regular is fine too)
1 9oz container of crushed tomatoes (don't forget a can opener if you buy canned)
8oz water
1/2 tsp dehydrated/freeze dried minced onions
1tsp paprika
1/2tsp Kosher salt
1/8tsp garlic powder  
1tsp olive oil
3/4 c vegetarian chick'n (Quorn is my protein of choice) or diced cooked chicken
8 oz of frozen vegetables Mediterranean Blend

Garnish
10 Cherry Tomatoes, halved
1Tbsp Parmesan Italian spice blend

Into the rice cooker pot, add the pasta, crushed tomatoes, olive oil, water, freeze dried onions and spices. Flip the switch to "Cook" and stir the ingredients before covering. About 10minutes into your cooking time, check the pasta and stir in the frozen precooked protein of your choice and the frozen vegetables. Cover the pot and let it cook until the switch flips back to "Warm". Let it sit for another 5min in the cooker on "Warm". Any residual moisture should be absorbed into the pasta without it overcooking.

We got 2 servings from this as our hot meal on Thursday. I really wish we hadn't been so hungry after that 7hr drive... 'cause I forgot to take a picture for you. We did get two additional servings with a salad and fresh made pita chips the next day.. which are the pictures you see in this post. The crushed tomato will make for a lighter sauce, which means it's perfect as a cold pasta salad too. The cost of 4 servings came to under $12 total. Not too bad, considering that we would have spent at least $7 each for fast food meals. We also had enough frozen veggies, Quorn, pitas, tomatoes and fresh veggies for the next day's dinner.

When you try this, don't forget to share your spin on this recipe. We'd all like to know how it turns out for you.

 I'll post the "home made pita chips" in a few days.

Tickets to the Gun Show!

Okay... maybe we don't really need tickets. But since we were already near Dallas for my husband's final exam at "fire school", we decided to take full advantage of the opportunity.  It's not like it isn't one of our favorite things to do on a weekend. If you didn't already know, I sell stuff at gun shows every now and then. No, not guns.... "bullets" and other shiny objects.

There are a couple of things that I love about gun show weekends. One is the morning drive. While y'all are still snuggling or waiting for that pot of coffee to be ready, we're on the road, enjoying the sunrise and the scent of the morning dew on the blades of grass and the dawning of a new day as we drive down the highway. Those moments feel like G-d is letting us know that He's got our back, and it's all gonna be alright.

The other two are music blasting on the stereo (with the obligatory loud off key singing)... and of course spending time with my husband. 

... yeah, I know... our "selfie game" needs work. 

If you happen to see us at a gun show, don't be shy, stop by the booth and say hello. We'd love to meet you.