Custom Lanyards and Handmade Cards

Custom Lanyards
I had the honor of creating 2 lanyards for a woman who lost her husband. He was a pilot for an airline whose color was blue. This lanyard features the cutest airplane bead!

I will be adding an airplane lanyard to my line as well since it is perfect for an airline employee as well as someone who loves to travel.

He also lived by the sentiment "because nice matters". How great are those words? So this is the other one I made.

It feels wonderful to create items that will be cherished and have such meaning.

JSS Shepherd
My niece and nephew celebrate summer birthdays and I came across the sweetest sheep cards for them from JSS Shepherd on Etsy.

For her:

For him:

JSS Shepherd is full of cute cards like this one for Christmas:

This one for someone special:

This Halloween one:

This get well card:

A card for someone who inspires you:

I could go on and on! Stop by JSS Shepherd the next time you need an adorable greeting card for any occasion! If you sew, this shop also has a  selection of patterns and other goodies!
Alice
My little girl. She is so pretty.

Yes I still have my big pupil!!! After talking with a few people who have dealt with stuck pupils in the past and learning that they all went back to normal gives me some reassurance that I may look normal again in the future.


I am loving the new shape of my eyeballs! Yes, they are a new shape. It never occurred to me that they would be different. Having an astigmatism before meant that my eyeballs were football shaped, now they are baseball shaped! My eyelids sit better now. I thought they sagged before due to being almost 40. While this is one of those things that no one will notice but me, I feel great because it looks like I had an eye lift! Hehe!


Thank you for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your week. ~Val

This Week's Blog Post

Turquoise Necklace

I love this fun necklace! For the pendant I used a unique sterling silver bail that was crafted in Bali. It has 2 loops to suspend whatever from. So I freeformed wire and hammered it for texture also adding 2 dyed crazy agate chips. The strand has natural green turquoise and crazy agate that go beautifully together. This is available at Miss Val’s Creations.

Gluten Free Eggplant Parmesan

It has been a while since I have talked about one of our favorite dishes, eggplant parmesan! Jim and I now make this gluten free so I figured it would be a good idea to mention so others struggling with gluten can see that eggplant parmesan can still be part of their diet!

I make a batch of gluten free bread with this recipe found here from the Gluten Free Goddess. After slicing the bread and drying it out at a low temperature in the oven we then make breadcrumbs with the food processor. At the same time we are adding dried spices to taste until we have it the way we want it.

Now Jim pretty much does all the work from here since he enjoys it (how lucky am I?). I just fetch stuff, wash dishes and drink wine during the assembling of the masterpiece. 

Jim removes the skin. I think the skin is the reason many people do not care for eggplant. Many restaurants seem to keep it on! Yuck. 

Then they get dipped in eggs and the breadcrumbs. Then fried until golden brown in vegetable oil.

Then it is time to layer. I had the brilliant idea of adding ricotta cheese this time! I learned after we made this that we are not the first to do so. Oh well.  We felt innovative. It is layered with red sauce, shredded mozzarella and ricotta. Yes we go light on the sauce. Heart burn is one of the many things my body deals with so light on the sauce helps. 

I was invited to pin on a Pinterest board with vegetarian and vegan dishes. Of course I immediately accepted this invite. Now I am overwhelmed with ideas from this board. People are so creative in the kitchen!!! I have shared of couple of my dishes on this board and many people have repinned them. I wonder if anyone will actually try those dishes?!?! I will have to pin this one for other gluten free vegetarians.

Alice

Leaving you with a photo of my pretty girl Alice! I have the worst time trying to take a picture of her since she is very nervous kitty! I tried to catch her when she was tired.

 Have a wonderful, creative week. Thank you so much for stopping by! ~Val

This Week's Blog Post!

New Necklace!

This big heart is red jasper. The accenting beads include red jasper, brecciated jasper and black onyx. This one is available on Etsy.

Treasuries!

My jasper necklace was featured on my first ever Treasury titled Garnet Valentine by One Perfect Day.

'Garnet Valentine' by oneperfectday

burgundy garnet red

Paris photography, Lanscape ... PhotographyDre... $13.00	Custom Text Olive Wood Stam... ahueofduckeggb... $17.50	Red Jasper Heart and Black O... missvalscreati... $24.99	Garnet Red Satin Flower Hair... FairytaleFlowe... $21.00
Six minimalist wheel thrown ... blueroompotter... $270.00	Fire King Large Ivory Casser... Modred12 $25.00	SALE 30% Purple dragonfly br... ThePurpleBallo... $21.00	Wine Red Garnet Multistrand ... SunSanJewelry $175.00
ON SALE Wide Band Ruby Ring ... SilverLinesJew... $55.00	Beaded Heart Drop Earrings B... stellacreation... $26.00	romantic pastel rose headban... kisforkani $35.00	Red Crochet Butterfly Cotton... twoknit $18.00
handmade sterling silver hea... katerinaki1977 $37.00	Burgundy violet crushed velv... DGstyle $35.00	Burgundy vintage decorative ... TheVintageDeco... $40.00	Red Tube ceramic beads 30 pc... WISHsupplies $2.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

 

This inspired me to me make first Treasury!

'Fabulous Findings for Fabulous Jewelry!' by missvalscreations

These talented Etsians create gorgeous findings for one of a kind jewelry designs. Enjoy!

Artisan Crafted Sterling MOO... Sharonunlimite... $21.00	Lampwork Glass Sterling Silv... labelleperle $14.00	Pure Copper Headpins red cop... CinnamonJewell... $3.15	Glass Ball Headpins 22 ga 10... LyamayevaCraft $14.00
15 Handmade Rustic Copper Tw... NadinArtGlass $7.85	TWO Artisan Handcrafted Cros... cathydailey $7.19	Celtic- Handmade Copper Head... Midgetgembeads $2.00	Espresso Pottery Pendant Fin... CapturedMoment... $3.25
Unique sterling silver artis... AtlantisGlassA... $29.99	Pottery Bracelet Bead or Fin... CapturedMoment... $3.75	Silver Filled Earwires Kite ... RockisMetalwor... $7.50	Genuine beach stone beads fo... BeachStoneSoup $34.00
Healing Hand Raku Fired Clay... starspiritstud... $10.00	Eight pair antiqued copper r... dmsupply $14.00	Handmade Copper Toggle Clasp SunStones $8.50

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

I am having fun using Etsy and trying to find my groove. There is so much going on there and it feels like you can spend the whole day hanging on Etsy. But that would not be productive, would it?

I think I interrupted an intimate conversation here. Emmett and Alice spend the day on my bed. So cute.  

It is pretty obvious which is the girl and which is the boy. ;) The fuzzy brown blanket is laid out each morning to protect my bedding from getting nasty!!!

I wish everyone a wonderful week and will leave you with this photo of Simon Beck’s artwork. This is certainly something I have never seen before! 

He creates art in the snow using his skills from being a mapmaker. So amazing since the images are huge! Can you see the little people in the foreground? He is also the art’s photographer. See more here.

~Val