Gem Show, Part 1

First up - beads that will go up for sale in my bead shop over the next few days, fresh from the gem show...

Vessonite briolettes

Moss aquamarine briolettes

Pink tourmaline briolettes

Prasiolite (green amethyst) briolettes

Golden rutilated quartz briolettes

Smooth kyanite rondelles

Flashy labradorite heishi beads

Kyanite briolettes

Super flashy, large labradorite briolettes

Apatite briolettes

Multicolored aquamarine/beryl briolettes

Grossular garnet briolettes

Hessonite garnet oval beads

Iolite briolettes

And I bought these for my own use...

Faceted watermelon tourmaline slices

Smooth round tourmaline beads

I'm Home

I'm back from my weekend jaunt to the bay area - I had a fun and productive time at the gem show. Up next - tons and tons of photos of new beads, but for now, chicken drama.

This morning, when I let the chickens out of their pen, poor little Cally* had a horrible wound on her neck. I have no idea what happened to her - I couldn't find any blood anywhere in the pen or the chicken house. Looks like she needs to go to the vet tomorrow; for today I'm just trying to keep it clean and iodined... I hope it doesn't get infected. Poor baby.


* I finally took the easy way out and named the three new chickens after Cally, Abby, and Marji, the women at Animal Place who facilitated their adoption. :-)

I spent a looooooooong time outside photographing my new beads this afternoon. Imagine my surprise when Cally hopped up on my shoulder and stayed there for probably ten minutes during my photo shoot. I was afraid I would get pooped on, but she controlled herself.

{ best chicken snuggle ever }

Finally some new work

Finished today...

Ring trio - blue-green tourmaline, rainbow moonstone, faceted Swiss blue topaz, and recycled sterling silver

{ custom order; sold }

Faceted garnet and recycled sterling silver
{ custom order; sold }

Labradorite and recycled sterling silver
{ custom order; sold }

Ring trio - dark and light pink tourmaline, green tourmaline, and recycled sterling silver

{ custom order; sold }

Labradorite and recycled sterling silver
{ to be listed soon in my shop }

Sweet Chili Lime Tofu Salad

I have been promising to post this for ages, and I finally got my act together today. Yay me. So, here's the story - I am madly in love with VeganYumYum's Sweet Chili Lime Tofu - I eat it in its original form (with greens and grains), I serve it over soba noodles, and most recently, as part of a yummy salad. For the salad, I doubled the sauce recipe so that it would do double duty as dressing, but it was a bit much, so I'm going to multiply it by 1.5 for future attempts, and that's what I'm posting here. The sauce is straight from VeganYumYum, just increased by 50%.

Sweet Chili Lime Tofu Salad

1 block extra-firm tofu (14 ounces)
1 small red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
1 small green bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 small head of iceburg lettuce
cilantro

Sauce:
4.5 Tbs Sugar
4.5 Tbs Reduced Sodium Tamari (or soy sauce)
2.5-3 Tbs Fresh Lime Juice
1/2 zest of the Lime
3/4 tsp Red Chili Flakes (or 1-2 fresh hot chilies, minced)
1-2 cloves Garlic, pressed, optional
1/4 tsp Salt
6 Mint Leaves, chiffonaded

Chop/slice the vegetables -


Slice the tofu into thin rectangles or triangles and cook in a skillet sprayed with cooking spray until lightly browned.


While tofu is cooking, whisk together sauce ingredients until sugar is dissolved. When the tofu is done browning, pour the sauce into the hot pan and cook for another minute or two, until the sauce thickens up a bit. Set aside and allow to cool slightly (for just a few minutes).

To assemble salad, toss together lettuce, bell peppers, onions, and tofu, drizzling a bit of extra sauce on top. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy!

August Jewelry For Charity Recap & September Kick-Off

Thank you so much to everyone who patronized both my bead shop and my jewelry shop during the month of August - thanks to you, I raised $429.00 for Save A Child's Heart, bringing my to-date charitable donations to $6,170.00!

September's featured charity is Farm Sanctuary, so any purchase you make during this month will benefit the wonderful animals being cared for at Farm Sanctuary (including my future turkeys!) :-)

Like Father, Like Son

It seems that Matt and Carlos share a common love for blackberry cobbler. :-) I'm used to Matt asking me to make it all the time during the summer when the berries on our property ripen, but now even when Matt is away at work, I have Carlos begging for blackberry cobbler! Well, I couldn't turn down my little angel (ha ha), and I figured we might as well take advantage while there were still some berries left, so today I made a small cobbler. Here's my recipe, if you're interested. I guess I should have mentioned it earlier in the year; the berries are just about done now. Oh well...

Artsy Fartsy

Carlos has reached the age where he can actually focus his attention long enough to do some fun little art projects. A recent favorite has been rock painting (he paints them with poster paints, I coat them with clear spray paint and glue some felt to the bottom so they can be used as paperweights). Today I showed him this fun little project that I remember from my childhood.



I guess everybody probably made these as kids, yes? Well, in case not, it's two sheets of waxed paper with leaves and crayon shavings in between them - you go over it with a warm iron to melt the crayon wax and seal the sheets together. I thought they turned out pretty cute, and Carlos had fun.