Back in the Etsy Shop

I feel like I've talked about the new house and the move and the other stuff plenty enough for now. Though, I do plan on sharing some of the property/pool with y'all eventually. For now, I'm still trying to get back on track and get unpacked!

Since the CraftyHope Etsy shop was looking a quite forlorn, I relisted quite a few items that just feel like Fall to me.

Winged Heart Necklace

Hardware Garden Necklace

Bingo Chip Earrings

Altered Scrapbook Flower Earrings

Stamped Flower Garden Earrings

Triple Button Earrings

Graceful Autumn Bracelet

Chunky Junky Bracelet

Tribalette Earrings

Faux Watch Bracelet

The shop looks much less empty now. I hope to add some more expired items back to the shop before the weekend's up. If there's something you'd like to see listed/relisted in the etsy shop, please let me know and I'll see what I can do!

So, that's it for now. . .back to the never-ending to do list!

Have a fantastic last weekend of summer!

Menu and Recipe Review (Jan 20)

A weekend with the nieces means a weekend of junk food, eating out, and avoiding my carefully planned menu. This weekend was one of THOSE. As such, there's some repeats on this week's menu and I didn't  even bother to change our breakfast and lunch options from last week (so they're not included on this week's post.)

Dinners

Bowtie pasta with creamy wild mushroom sauce w/roasted squash & zucchini

Crispy honey lime tilapia w/sweet potatoes & oven baked corn fritters

Pad Thai soup (from freezer)

Baked ravioli w/salad

Spicy peanut butter tofu w/green beans and boiled potatoes

I'm linking up my Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

_____________________________

Recipe Review

Delicious ham and potato soup: As always, a winner in our house!

Lemon garlic spaghetti: So simple, so tasty! I will make this again.

I apologize for being so short today but I'll leave you with the newest (re)listed item in my shop

Marooned Necklace

Happy Monday y'all!

We Made a Birdhouse

I've been meaning to show off mine and Pat's collaboration here for a few days now. See. . .he built me a birdhouse.

I suggested he use one of my wooden spools for the perch. I think it worked out perfectly. And then, it was all in my hands.

I started by priming the house with some Killz to protect it and give me a nice white surface to play with.

See how pretty!

I used some Patio Paint stuff I found at the craft store. I got my three favorite colors as well as some white and black. As well, I used a variety of paintbrushes (from foam ones to fine brushes.)

I also used some painter's tape as needed.

In some cases, a lot was needed.

I really went to town with the paint and even pulled out some round dot dobbers I had forgotten I had stashed away.

Now we just have to figure out where we want to display our work of art!

I'm sorry if this was boring for you. I've just been so excited to show off the darn thing.

Here's another colorful pretty piece, this one just got renewed in the Etsy shop.

Pulling Petals Necklace

It's a dreary day here and I think showing off these bits has definitely made it a bit brighter. I hope it's brightened your day also.

Menu, Giveaway, and Shop News

For some reason, I had a really tough time making out the menu today. It's finally done. . .whew. I'm still trying to get the hang of this low-meat diet while also not planning on just eating pasta and cheese day after day (even if that is all I really want to eat.) I think I did okay for this week. I guess I'll see when the hubby tries out the new dishes.

Breakfasts: Juice, Oatmeal/grits, Waffles or pancakes (from freezer), Yogurt w/fruit & granola, Hashbrown baskets (no meat)

Lunches: Bean burritos, Leftovers, Juice, Soup w/grilled cheese, PB&J sandwiches

Dinners:

Broccoli & Parmesan Casserole (page 186, Cooking Light Way to Eat Vegetarian) w/salad

Chinese braised mushrooms with tofu over brown rice w/ sesame snap peas with carrots and peppers

White cheddar corn chowder

Cheese pizza w/salad

Rosemary balsamic chicken w/roasted cauliflower & green beans

It all sounds pretty good to me. . .
There's more Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.


GIVEAWAY ALERT!
Susie at Gathering up Bits of the World is giving away "Journal It" (a book on creating visual journals), some journal goodies, and one of her own hand bound journals. Awesome right!? Just pop over to her blog and leave a comment to be entered.

Also, there's a coupla items on sale in my shop, a new item or two, as well as a few renewed pieces you might want to check out including this one.

Calm Storm Necklace

Lastly, lets not forget the men and women who have served our country on this Veteran's Day Holiday. Their sacrifices have given us so very much. Thank you Veterans!!

Menu Plan Monday

I've totally got food on the brain right now as I just got back from lunching it up with a friend, shopping at the grocery store, and shopping at the farmer's market. Today's been a definite food-centered day and I feel totally bloated over it.

Anyway, I did get my menu made for the week before I got to all that though. It seems my breakfast and lunch options are pretty boring and repetitive lately, so I won't share them today. You can look at the past two weeks' menus if you're interested in those at all. Y'all. . .I seriously need some new low-meat ideas for those meals. Suggestions are TOTALLY welcome! In the meantime, here's our dinners.

Grilled turkey tenderloins w/cauliflower gratin & salad

Tempeh ratatouille

Black bean soup w/salad

Veggie burgers w/sweet potato fries

Meatless lasagna roll-ups w/salad

There's more Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

And, I re-listed this junk necklace today.

Suor Angelica JUNK Necklace

Now I'm serious about those breakfast and lunch suggestions!!

Here's hoping you're having a great Monday.

Gratitude

Per one of my goals for the year, I want to be more grateful for what I DO have in my life. I'm just starting on this trend really (I know, it's a bit late in the year. oops) so I haven't yet gotten in the habit of recording the many, many blessings I have in my life, but here's a start for this week.

Natural Neutral Bracelet - NEW

I'm Grateful For:
~ The patience of my husband when I'm more than a little grumpy.

~ My mini-break from my own beading/jewelry making endeavors that has given me some time to feel inspired again.

~ That darn Redbox app on my phone and iPad that tells me where I can go to get the movie I want and even lets me reserve it until I get there (so I don't have to go running all over town or hold up the line at the box.)

~ The fact that the biggest worries we've had this week have been splotchy internet, a frozen air conditioner, and a few other expenses that we handled. While those have been stressful and bothersome, it could be so much worse.

Fancy Free Necklace - re-listed

What are YOU grateful for this week?

Link-a-palooza

So, so true!

I've got a long list of chores and an even longer list of creative/business tasks. But, here I am. Don't worry, my timer's going. 

I feel like I should talk about how I am/have been feeling the last few days. But talking about the weepies and my desire to just watch episode after episode of Buffy is pretty boring. Seeeeeeeee.
Instead, let me share some fun, informative, etc. links with you in a full-on

• Jessica at How About Orange has once again discovered a cool website. This one is called PaperMatrix. I'm directing you to both sites because Jessica's has some really beautiful pictures of the array of things you can make from PaperMatrix's tutorials. Just go see!
• Speaking of cool tutorials, Shel over at MiShel designs has a wonderful tutorial on how to make hoop earrings. Her pictures and directions are clear and easy-to-follow. Included in her post, are some different options for embellishing the hoops.
• I keep saying that I'm going to include international shipping in my Etsy shop as soon as I get it figured out. Well, Tealwater Designs may have just made that easier with this post on 7 Simple Steps to Cheap and Easy International Shipping. Now to study up and actually take that plunge!
• Problogger has another post on how to use your social media effectively. Actually. . .this one is more on how to manage it if you DON'T want followers. It's called How to Lose Followers and Alienate People. 

It's a shame really.

I've added a couple new items in the shop this week if you're interested.

Hoot Owl Bracelet

Falling Leaves Necklace

And re-listed a necklace

Bright Daisy Necklace

Now it's back to that darn to-do list before the weekend starts. The Crafter's Devotional Group will be having the first blog hop (again, kinda) tomorrow. So make sure to check back in for that! Have a great weekend.

Hurricane Party Anyone?

Here's my Bead Soup Blog Party Post if that's what you are looking for!

Tropical Storm/ Hurricane Issac

Many of you may know in what area I live, but if you don't. . . I'm in South Alabama. I've been watching the Weather Channel for DAYS now. The "cone of uncertainty"  has shifted slightly away from our area, but I am still under a Hurricane warning and just up the street (about a mile and a half) from where a mandatory evacuation has been ordered. It's a bit of organized chaos in my area right now. There is NO GAS in some of the gas stations and the bread shelves are empty. We're fairly prepared. I've got canned goods and water. Pat says we have flashlights and batteries. I'm considering taking some video of the house and gathering important papers. We might even get some of the items in the yard/porch up depending on which way Issac heads. Of course, right now he's still a tropical storm and that just means a little extra rainfall.

Normally I would post my menu for today, but since we don't know if we'll have electricity all week, I can't really plan our meals. As well, I don't want to buy a bunch of food that might just go bad. sigh. . .

So here I am waiting to see what happens. To keep busy, I'm working my way through the Bead Soup Blog Hop. There's not much else I can do but stay alert and pray that where-ever the storm hits, the damage is minimal and the residents are safe.

I spent the weekend occupied with some obligations and then with preparing for the storm so I'm sorry if I haven't made it to your Soup post yet. Keep your panties on, I promise I'm working on it! ;)

Here's what's going on in the shop today

Locked Necklace

Warm Comfort Earrings - relisted

Now back to the Weather Channel. Here's hoping your Monday is a bit more. . .predictable!

Bead Table Wednesday: Indecision

Our juice semi-fast is finished and with the having one 'real' meal a day, it really wasn't too bad. Pat reported that he definitely felt better, more energized after drinking the juice; but I wasn't feeling those effects. I just didn't seem to be getting ANYTHING done. That may have been a side effect of me not having to worry with meals as much to keep my schedule in line. Whatever it was, by yesterday afternoon I was anxious to get something, anything made.

After running a few errands, I made a point to flip through my idea/sketchbook and work on something from it. One entry simply read, make more shabby pendants. So, I did. Well. . .I started on them.

This is their current state. I still need to seal them, but I'm not completely SOLD on how they look right now.

See. . .yesterday, I posted this photo of them.

And I can't decide if they were better this way. They look so. . .plain like this, but I just can't seem to settle on what kind of image to put on them: rub-ons, stamps, stickers, stencils, doodles, text, paper, etc. I did attempt to stamp the backs of these with some Distress Ink, but that just seemed to fade into the other colors.

What do y'all think? Plain? Decorated? Other ideas?
I'm not usually so indecisive, so this is killing me.

Check out more Bead Table Wednesday in the Flickr Group.

In the meantime, I re-listed this necklace.

Southern Subtle Fall Necklace

And added these new earrings.

Purple Earrings

I suppose I'll probably just go seal these pendants and make some others later with additional experimental attempts at decorating them. However, I would REALLY like your input: decorated or not?

Bead Table Wednesday: Collection

So far this week, all my posts have been fairly short. I think I'll somewhat stick to that vein today since I want more time at the craft desk and not the computer desk. This works out as it it Bead Table Wednesday.

Pat and I went to the beach on Sunday and I collected a bunch of shells. I've learned to look for ones that already have holes in them so I don't have to fool with trying to drill them. Fortunately for me, most people don't pick up the ones with holes. (You know, because they're flawed. Personally, I think we all have our flaws and that's what makes each of us unique and beautiful. . .shells too.) 

I'm a collector of found objects and my eyes are constantly scanning the ground for treasures. I'm also a beach-loving, sand-in-my-toes, salt-in-my-veins, sun-on-my-skin kind of girl. As such, I've got bags and bags and bags of shells stashed away in the craft room. While I could have pulled out any of those, I decided to work exclusively with the baggie of shells I found over the weekend.

As a collector, I've got piles of all kinds of objects. Above is a small bowl of jump rings in mixed metals. When I find that I've got an extra one or two still out from a project, I tend to just throw them in this bowl that's close at hand. It works out well when I just need one jump ring for something or when I'm trying to clean my desk and find stray jump rings under all the mess.

All these above items are piled on my craft desk at the moment. I think they're working well together, playing nicely if you will. I guess I'll see in the end!

There's more Bead Table Wednesday in the Flickr Group.

Fly High Necklace - relisted

Now, back to those collected piles to see what emerges! What's on your craft desk today?

Happy Mail

I was so excited about getting some happy mail yesterday, I just need to share it with you.

Sweden and Canada?? International for the win.

First, I opened the package from Sweden. It was from Birgitta Lejonklou. During the Button Swap Blog Hop, she held a button givaway of her own. I happened to be the lucky winner. Just look what she sent!!

So much loveliness!

The other package was from Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp of SkyeJewels. She's up in Canada. I've been wanting to order some of her lovely pendants for quite a while and finally broke down. She'll put hole(s) in the pendants anywhere you want if you just let her know.

Aren't these DARLING!?

Those holes are EXACTLY how I wanted them. Of course, if you'd rather leave the pendants unmarred, she'll let them be too.

Since I brought up the subject of giveaways, don't forget that Friday's post was full of them!!
As well, Raida of Havana Beads is giving away this adorable ceramic birdie set.

You just need to leave her comment to be entered!

Speaking of adorable, I re-listed this sweet necklace today.

Jewelry Box Necklace

And I'm hoping to get some photography done this afternoon. I've got a pile of newly crafted pieces that are screaming for their close-ups. What have you got planned today?