Super Bowl Sunday Sale

*****Super Bowl Sale! 1/31- 2/1*****

In honor of Super Bowl Sunday, I'm having a 15% off sale in my jewelry shop, beginning on Saturday the 31st of January and ending on Sunday the 1st of February, at midnight, EST.

Either wait for a revised invoice or pay immediately and I will refund the 15% through your Paypal account.

Go _________!

Until next time.....

My Kind of Hearts

I love anything vintage and I especially love rusty vintage.
Show me vintage items and my heart melts. Show me rusty vintage and my heart skips a beat. With V'day a little over two weeks away, I went searching for these hearts on Etsy. Here's a few that I found.

How cool is this photograph? Be still heart. From EDENPHOTOVISUALIST. I love it!

I love old ceiling tins. Needless to say, this heart caught my eye immediately. CottageInTheSun has several of these beauties in their shop.

Monocle lenses with hearts. Oh my! From vaartsuppliescom. And while you're there, check out the Vintage Heart Key Ring that they just listed.

So, if you're like me and prefer your hearts to be other than the usual red or pink ones (not that there's anything wrong with that) then check out Etsy. But do it quick because it seems that I'm not the only one who loves vintage and rusty hearts. Several items that I put in my favs list for this blog post were sold already this morning.
Until next time.....

Chocolate Pie

A couple of years ago, I baked a chocolate pie for John for Valentine's Day. The recipe came from his dad's family and is Southern vintage cooking, at it's best. I wanted to dress the pie up a bit, so I took a heart shaped cookie cutter and pressed it into the meringue before I popped it back in the oven. I love the results!

Here's the recipe, minus the crust. Use your favorite crust recipe or buy a ready made one~

1 cup sugar

2 heaping tablespoons cocoa

2 egg yolks

2/3 stick butter - melted

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

pinch of salt

Sift dry ingredients together

Add milk and egg yolks

Add melted butter

Pour into a 9" unbaked pie crust

Bake at 375 degrees about 30 minutes or until set

Cool

After the pie is cool, make the meringue:

2 egg whites - beat until soft peaks form

Add 1/4 cup white sugar and beat until glossy

Spread over cooled pie
Decorate with cookie cutter, if desired

Bake at 375 degrees for 6-7 minutes or until lightly browned

Until next time.....

Periwinkle Horizon

Ever notice how many shades of blue the sky has when you're at the beach? Well I have. I was sitting in my chair one day and looked out at the horizon and the sky was the prettiest shade of periwinkle blue.

I tend to equate those times to pieces of jewelry. This being one of them.

Until next time.....

We Are Family

America, Obama and me~
I heard that people were going through the streets singing this.
I've been glued to the TV all day and felt that I needed to post here today. I just felt like I needed to mark this day on my blog. I was a child in the 60's and lived through a lot of shit that human beings shouldn't have to witness.
Today was a good day. A very good day. We've come a long way. We still have a long way to go, but we're on the right road.
Until next time.....

Where There's Smoke.....

There's fire.
And the smell of wood smoke~

I love the smell of woodsmoke. This time of year, it's a scent that is around every corner out here. People are firing up the wood stoves and fireplaces, trying to keep warm. It's been unseasonably cold. And no, I'm not complaining. I do like cold weather. But, I like it better when it's accompanied by snow. We did have a morning full of flurries, which looked beautiful. But I still long for a real snow and so I sit here patiently; waiting to go out into the clear, crisp air to enjoy the snow. The cold weather has given me a good excuse to stay put and work on some new pieces for my shop. This one is getting listed this evening. It is appropriately called 'Where There's Smoke'.

It's been a while since we went up to Crystal Lake. I miss my fire pit, rolling with smoke. I have a feeling that I'll be pulling out quite a few gray beads.

Until next time.....

Just Another Perfect Saturday

Woke up and snagged a treasury full of Black Hearts.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=33849

Until next time.....

Sea Urchins in Blue

Every once in a while I find a bead that I fall head over heals in love with. Recently, I found two. The first one is a pale, icy blue vintage Lucite bead that reminds me of sea urchins. I purchased some when I found them, but this is the type of bead that I need more of. For my private stash. You know, that secret stash of beads that only you get to play with. I did manage to part with some to make earrings with for my shop. I'll be listing them between now and next week. But the rest are mine. To add to my stash. I love my stash!

As far as the second bead that I'm totally smitten with, you'll have to wait and see.

Until next time.....

Black Roses

I love black flowers and plants. And I especially love black roses, or at least the idea of black roses. I've purchased several 'black' rose bushes throughout the years, but they're not really black. Dark burgundy yes, but not true black.

Once upon a time, I had a boyfriend bring me a bouquet of black roses, that he had the florist spray paint black. They were beautiful. They were black roses. And until a true black rose is developed, that's the closest thing to a black rose that I'll see.

Except for black rose beads. I collect rose beads and when I find black ones, I scoop them up. Last year I found these vintage beads and bought two strands. One for me and one to use in my shop. They are vintage glass beads with a vitrial finish on half of the bead; leaving it with a mixture of gold, turquoise and pink hues. I pulled them out the other day and designed a necklace with some of them. It's listed in my shop, in the Heirloom Flowers section.

The gardening catalogs are arriving in the mail. I thumb through each one, looking for the elusive, black rose. One day, I may find it.

Until next time.....

Just Another Perfect Saturday

Until next time.....

Love Is In The Air

It's January. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years are behind us and thoughts turn to the season of Love. And I'm once again pulling out the heart beads and designing a few pieces for my HeartLine. When you're selling online, you've got to start thinking about these things sooner than you'd like.

So, in between packing away the last of the holiday decorations and weeding through the new gardening catalogs that just arrived, I'm listing hearts in my jewelry shop. I also have flowers and white chocolate and other treats. There's even some in my deStash shop. They are all OOAK (one of a kind), so if you see something that catches your eye, you should grab it now. I'm in the Valentine's Day Gift Guide, I purchased a Holiday Showcase for January 10 and I'm going to try to get a Valentine Showcase when they're announced. Time to spread the love. After all, love is in the air~

Until next time.....

Lookin' Out My Back Door

Turkeys in the rain.
Actually, it's out my front door, but I saw them and had to grab the camera. You wouldn't believe how many are out there!

What's out your back door? Or front?

Until next time.....

It's Sunday. What's Cooking?

~Chocolate Microwave Cake in a Mug~

Yep, I did it. I tried the recipe that was floating around on Etsy. How could I not? I love chocolate cake, but it's not one of those things that I can bake on the spur of the moment. Even a cake snob like me found it to be surprisingly good. Not the kind of thing that I'd eat regularly; just look at the ingredients to see why, but for those late night, gotta have something sweet, it's a keeper.

Give it a try:

4 tablespoons all purpose flour

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

You can add ingredients, or so I've read. Next time, I may throw in some nut. Or chocolate chips. Or both.

Mix it all up in the mug. Pop in the microwave for 3 minutes. At this point, I let it sit in the microwave for 2 minutes while it settled back down. It rises real high; about 1 inch above the rim of the mug. It's now ready to eat ~ straight from the mug or slid out onto a plate.

Until next time.....

Just Another Perfect Saturday

Until next time.....

Etsy Old Timers

This week's 'Spreading the Etsy Love' is dedicated to some of Etsy's old timers. A thread was started on Etsy by Scarfguy that drew as many of us in that stumbled upon his thread. (or posted when they were summoned via convo). You can see it here:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5926522
It is so nice to see so many familiar faces. When I first joined Etsy, I didn't post on the forums. I just sat there and read them. But during the almost three years that I've been on Etsy, you can say that I got my sea legs; or is that sailors mouth?

The Etsy mini to your right highlights some of those old timers. The mini will change to my next theme when the mood strikes, but this week it will remain all Etsy old timers from that thread. It's a warm, inviting forum thread. Kinda makes me feel like I'm coming in from the cold every time I go there. Check them out. They were the sellers that paved the way once upon a time.
Until next time.....

Happy New Year

Here's to a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous 2009!
Until next time.....