Friday, August 28, 2009

New Sea Glass Jewelry for The Shops at Fabian House

Shipping these out to Maggie, they'll be up for sale at the The Shops at Fabian House in Bowie, MD this week! :)

Monday, August 24, 2009

More new pendants made this week


More New Pendants
Originally uploaded by mornindew2822
I've been busy with the torch- I made a bunch of beach pottery and sea glass pendants and have started on the first of two pairs of bezel set sea glass earrings, which is tough because the glass is so tiny!

I'll be working on some more seashell pendants later in the week, finishing up the earrings and also getting back to some wire wrapping, haven't done any of that in a good long while! Stay tuned for more pictures soon! :)

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Come Hell or High Water, I'm Makin' Zucchini Bread!

... is the declaration I made to my husband last night. Seems everyone and their brother has been growing zucchini this summer and deciding that my family is a suitable recipient for it en masse. Now don't get me wrong, I will never look a gift zucchini in the mouth, I just run out of things to do with it! I've been throwing it in salad, pasta sauce, grilling it and plain old steaming it non stop for weeks!

This latest batch is from my mom- 6 giant pieces! It was showing signs of needing to be used up quick and for the past 3 nights I'd tried to bake but been intercepted by children, work and lack of flour so after I'd greased my pans and taken out the mixing bowl last night only to discover the flour issue, I declared that today would be zucchini bread day come hell or high water! So bright and early this morning I ran to the store, remedied the ingredients situation and zipped back home to make two delicious loaves of bread.



Here's the recipe- taken from the good ol' Betty Crocker cookbook with a couple of very minor alterations:

3 cups shredded zucchini (I shred onto a plate so the water will run out and seperate, this bread is plenty moist without all the additional liquid)
1 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup liquid egg product (this is my sub. for 4 large eggs)
3 cups whole wheat flour (a sub. for all-purpose flour)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (my sub. for ground cloves)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (any nut will do, or omit if desired)
1/2 cup golden raisins (optional but they add great moisture and flavor!)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans (9x5x3). Mix zucchini, sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into pans. Bake 50-60 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves; remove from pans. Cool completely before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature for up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.*

*ha, one loaf barely makes it through the night at my house, my family are fiends for fresh baked bread of any kind, lol! I do slice up the second loaf though and put it into a zip top freezer bag and freeze it- this way you can pull out just a slice or two and warm it in the toaster or microwave in a couple of seconds. Perfect for when unexpected guests arrive!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Some more finished jewelry pieces

Things are going well on the jewelry front, I've secured a second shop to carry my jewelry, Stardust, on Thames St. in Newport, RI. They will carry my sea glass and my seashell pendants and earrings. Very excited about this! Photos above are of my most recent delivery to the shop.

PS if you're in the area, the shop owner also owns The Newport Fudgery which is right next door, OMG YUM! So many flavors of handmade fudge- they make it right in front of you in large copper kettles and the smell is heavenly!

Monday, August 17, 2009

New Shell Pendants

Well, it's not the best picture, but at least I have my camera and computer back up and running, maybe another week and I'll have my photo tent set up again! Clockwise in the photo are:

1.mohagany clam shell 2.ark shell 3.bay oyster 4.purple mussel and 5.jingle shell

Had to take a quick photo as they're off to Most Naturally this afternoon!



ps- I came across some photos of our new house when we were first moving in/before painting, etc. I'm going to organize them and take some photos of how the house is looking today and post soon!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Enough Shopping Already, Get to Work!


Summer Shopping
Originally uploaded by magscrafts
Here you can see a little photo mosaic of supplies I have gotten in the last month or so. Not pictured is a large order of assorted silver chains that I bought online and a big bag of vintage jewelry given me by a dear friend to see what I can create.

We just got back from vacation, and I did get a little work done there, but now it is time to really get serious and get a bunch of stuff done! I need to restock my stores online and off as well as make some items to be donated to an auction for my son's school.

I spent yesterday catching up on emails, buying groceries and reopening all of my online stores. Today was dedicated to dental appointments, and back to school preparations. I think tonight I need to have a fabulous sew-orama with some of these new lovelies.