The Past Week

I recently made a plain strand of crystal quartz for a customer so I decided to make one for my shop too!

Crystal quartz is a powerful stone associated with spiritual development, healing and raising consciousness. It resonates with the third eye and crown chakras.

I made another custom Live Your Dream necklace featuring snowflake obsidian!

More skull lanyards were shipped out for an upcoming Monsters of Rock cruise. 

Jim made some delicious vegetarian Shepherd's pie. The "meat" is a combo of lentils and mushrooms in a delicious homemade tomato sauce. We put cheese on everything that it goes with.

I received this card for grandpa's upcoming 100th birthday this month!

The fun milestone card is from Daizy Blue Designs on Etsy.

Thank you for stopping by! It still doesn't feel like Spring yet but this weekend is supposed to warm up. Fingers crossed! ~Val

This Past Week Update

Custom Lanyard
This request was for a lanyard using the 7 chakra colors. My customer loves the fancy jasper here and wanted the chakra colors to be muted to compliment this particular stone.

The charka colors are stacked near the bottom of the lanyard.

I used for the following stones to represent the colors:
violet - fancy jasper
indigo - lapis lazuli
blue - blue lace agate
green - fancy jasper
yellow - calcite
orange - fancy jasper
red - red jasper

This was a fun project to take on and I'm thankful to my customer for asking me to do so!

Progress
This was the backyard on February 15.

The deck furniture was completely buried! Luckily the deck didn't collapse.

This is the yard on April 1. We have had more melting over the past few days too!

I don't think we will be seeing much of the early spring flowers this year. The bulbs will likely be confused!

It would be nice to put the shovels away but being a New Englander I'm well aware of the possibility of an April snowstorm. Of course I'm hoping for none!

Almonds and Chocolate
I had a bag of these roasted salted almonds.

My taste buds felt they were way too salty, hence inedible! The solution?

I coarsely chopped them and mixed them with melted chocolate. The result? Very edible salty almonds!

Jewelry Making Journal
Here is my latest post seen in the most recent issue of the Jewelry Making Journal!

Thank you for stopping by. Happy Easter and Happy Passover if you are celebrating! ~Val

Ecig Lanyards and Rhubarb Lemonade

Ecig Lanyards
I mentioned a little while back that I wanted to add some lanyards for electronic cigarettes after doing a custom order. So here they are!

I have no idea if they will take off or not so I started with 5 in my better selling beads. Only time will tell! They have a ring on the end that fits most vaporizers. 

I hope to make more ladies feel stylish while they are kicking that unhealthy habit! These are available at Miss Val's Creations.

Rhubarb Lemonade
Ok. This should really be called rhubarbade! This is something Jim saw on a cooking show and wanted to try it since there is rhubarb growing in his yard. If you have rhubarb growing in your yard, this is a fun thing to try!

Here is what it looks like growing.

Its leaves at the top can get crazy huge as portrayed here with my ghostly white size 7 foot.

Jim's dad told me that the leaves are poisonous so they are not to be eaten! Just the stalks.

So Jim cut them into a size that fits comfortably in a large pot. They were cut close to the ground with a knife. Pulling out the roots will destroy the crop.

This gets washed and then boiled to taste. This is where we don't have numbers. It has been made twice so far by basically winging it! Then strain out the rhubarb. Brown sugar was used to sweeten it and cut the tartness of the rhubarb. So the only ingredients are rhubarb, water and sugar.

The color is beautiful and it tastes quite a bit like lemonade! Jim waters his glass down to this beautiful champagne color.

I hope you are all having a beautiful summer season. It finally feels like summer with somewhat normal weather in Massachusetts!

Thank you for stopping by! ~Val

Moving and Ecig Lanyards

Ecig Lanyards

These were a custom order for a customer who recently quit smoking after 50 years. Kudos to her! She transitioned to the currently popular e-cigarettes. I had no clue people used lanyards for ecigs!

She request a swivel clasp on the end which attaches to the ecig ring. The rings are a piece that is available so I'm now considering adding these lanyards to my inventory. I love the idea of making a woman feel stylish while she is working on becoming a healthier person!

My House
Everything happened so fast! I just moved to Jim's house over the weekend. I didn't realize how much stuff was coming with me! So it will take some time to get organized. My new office is slowly coming together.

I will miss this cute little place where I lived here for about 5.5 years and loved it! 

It looks so tiny but it actually has generous rooms inside. I took photos back in September because I had a feeling I would be putting it on the market when everything was dead outside. Luckily my realtor was able to use them!

The kitchen has these great slate blue tiles that I love!

One of the 1962 house's best  features is this opening between the kitchen and living room. The rooms are separate, yet together!

Lot's of light and gleaming wood floors!!!

My orange bathroom got many compliments. It's so happy!

My sanctuary!

A sweet spare bedroom. 

My favorite room was my office where most waking moments were spent. 

I wanted to post this memory so it can be viewed many years from now. :) I'm done proving strength and independence to myself.

Oh, how I will miss this house! 

As always, thank you so stopping by. Have a fantastic week! ~Val

A Revival and Zucchini Nachos

New Life
Occasionally a customer will contact me about repairing an old beloved piece of jewelry that has been sadly broken. This time I received this.

It was a lanyard. I asked if it was ok to use larger 6/0 seed beads. That is the size I prefer to work with since I use the thickest steel wire in my pieces for strength. A couple of the focal beads were missing to I went asymmetrical on part of it and love the result! Here is her revived lanyard.

It is fun to do these, not just because I'm working with a style that is not mine but also because I remember years ago what it used to be like having broken jewelry and not being able to fix it! It feels good to be able to help someone in this way.

Zucchini Nachos
Here is a healthier version of nachos using zucchini instead of chips.

The original recipe can be found here at Two Peas and Their Pod. The photo of their finished dish looks much more delicious! Their version is grilled but since I don't grill here is my take on the recipe.

I sliced 3 small zucchini in 1/4 inch slices. I tossed them with some olive oil, salt and black pepper. 

They baked on the pizza stone at 425 until they were at the desired texture.

I put together a salsa of:
3 chopped tomatoes
1 can of black beans
some chopped jalapeno peppers
frozen corn
dried cilantro
dried green onions

Since I was just making this for myself I made it easy by plating the cooked zucchini, covering it with the salsa and shredded cheddar jack cheese. Then I put the plate in the microwave until the the cheese was melted!

I put the remaining zucchini separate in the fridge for when it came time to make another huge plate of nachos! 

It is really delicious if you love nachos and zucchini. The bonus is that this is much more filling than chip nachos. Of course it can't be eaten like regular nachos since it requires a fork at minimum. I'm glad I came across this one on Pinterest and will definitely make it again! 

Thank you for stopping by. Have a creative week ahead! ~Val

Asian Style Spaghetti Squash and a Panda

Panda Lanyard
Here's my newest handcrafted Peruvian bead!

This cutie has been added to a lanyard available in my Etsy shop!

Asian Style Spaghetti Squash
This is something I'd been wanting to try for a while! 

Using dehydrated peppers was also new to me! These are pasilla chilis which are medium on the hotness scale. These were finely chopped and hydrated in hot water which actually created nice broth.

Another first was cooking the squash whole and then slicing it. I personally can't cut a raw squash!!! Jim normally cuts them in half before baking.

I started with sauteeing half a head of cabbage chopped up, 1 diced bell pepper, mushrooms and sliced baby carrots in some veggie oil. Then I added the chopped dried peppers with its broth. 

No additional hot spices were needed. I just used some soy sauce and some dried green onions to taste. The flavor came out delicious. I was so proud since this was completely concocted in my head!

Everything was cooked to desired texture. Then I carved out the spaghetti squash (discarded the seeds) and mixed it all up. So healthy and really satisfies a craving for Asian food. Also less carbs without the noodles!

Jim wasn't with me when I made this but I mentioned it was missing something and I could not figure out what! He suggest nuts. That is exactly what it could use. Maybe chopped peanuts, cashews or almonds. Next time!!!

Business News
It was time! Time to open a second Etsy shop! 

This may actually take a month to complete. You will now see 2 Etsy Minis on the side bar. Eventually there will be 1 shop with my finished creations and 1 shop with findings and supplies. 

Since it is unacceptable to have the same listing in more than 1 shop I am slowly creating listings in the new shop while deleting them from the original shop. It is quite time consuming but well worth it for my future plans! 

Thank you for stopping by! I hope I've inspired you to cook something delicious! ~Val

This Week's Blog Post

Black Wood Lanyard

It has been a while since I made a black wood lanyard. I love the chunkiness of these beads. Being wood, they are super lightweight so the lanyard is comfortable for the wearer! This one is available at Miss Val's Creations. 

Use for your ID badge, transportation pass, keys and more. I would normally add cruise card to that list but with so many cruise disasters in the past year I am guessing very few people are booking them these days!

Flowers

My garden areas are looking pretty! Here is the side of my driveway with irises and wegelia in bloom.

I love how irises stand tall and proud…

then blossom into something so fabulous!

It was breezy when I took this photo. I was amazed by how these buds glistened like silk.

These are the purple and yellow beauties.

I have this variety too which makes me think zebra. They are a little sad looking this year.

My yellow ones look a little sloppy but that is ok because the color makes me happy.

I took a picture of my favorite yellow weed before mowing the lawn. The buttercup!

Here are the wegelia buds.

They open into a pale pink flower covering the branches. So beautiful!

Surgery Week

My Lasik surgery is Thursday! This past Tuesday I had to go to my regular eye doctor for a super dilation. I knew it was supposed to be much more intense than a regular one. What I was not told was that my pupils would be cartoon large for 24 hours! So when my doctor told me this I freaked out because I had things to do that night and needed to go to work that next day. This freak out included nauseous! So she had to give me a few moments before continuing the exam. I felt silly having to wear my prescription sunglasses in the office for part of the day following!

I am so sorry for the nasty close up but I have a need to document the process. This was taken 12 hours AFTER the dilation drops! I did not think to take a photo when it kicked in. I was a bit blind the night before and in bed by 8pm since I could not do anything!

Nauseous is a big concern of mine for surgery day. Now I know I am prone to it and my doctor is sending this warning to the Lasik people. I need to work on deep breathing and happy thoughts so I can get through that appointment with no freak outs!

I used to be one of those people who got nauseous whenever blood needed to be drawn or I needed a shot. For the past 15 years or so I have gone through those things easily by looking away and giving the nurse a head's up that I do not want to see any needles. Eye exams have never been a problem but when I was 15 years old and got my first pair of contacts I did become very nauseous at the doctor's office as soon as they were put in. Apparently I still have issues with things happening to my eyes.

My biggest concern is keeping my eyes safe after the surgery. Poor Emmett and Alice will be locked in the basement for more than 24 hours. My doctor did tell me that 9 times out of 10 if there is an accident, it can be easily fixed (I am not sure what happens with that other 10%)!

Next week will be a scheduled post since I have no idea how my eyes are going to react looking at a computer screen. My shops will be closed from Wednesday afternoon and hopefully reopening on Friday. Although it will not be dangerous for me to look at the screen, it may be very uncomfortable so my time will be limited.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you all have marvelous flowers to admire nearby. Have a great week! ~Val