Gypsy

Well, I got carried away with color.  I had this clay cab I made ages ago that I really liked so I decided, as the world is a dark and dreary place lately, that we need joy and color and FUN!  So, this is what I made.  Check out the back, is that cool, or what?  Talk about necessity being the mother of invention.  Yikes.

Pink

Not being a girly girl, I normally don't make pink things.  Lately, my pink side is emerging.  :)  Yikes!  Here's a bead I made that is so pretty I just have to show it off.  :)

The Beading Bug Got Me

All of a sudden I can't stop making things.  Here's my latest from Jackie's cool Kaleidoscope cane.

More Goodies!

So, I have been claying and beading and having FAAAARRRR too much fun.  :)  The necklace is made with canes from our clay friend Sandi who passed away a few weeks ago.  The cube bracelet is just because I think cube beads are really cool.  ;)

My Friend Angie

You guys all know Angie...the one who made me that really cool crocheted purse?  The one I put Tonja's heart on.  Yikes.  That didn't come out so good, did it?  Poor T!  :) Anyway, I made her this bracelet set.  Sorry, Ang!  No surprise now.  :(  I love purple so I'm happy how this came out.  :D

A new Bracelet

Oh boy, I am on a roll!  Here is another bracelet.  I'm making Spring stuff by the truckload and the universe is pouring on the snow to you mainlanders.  Hmmm, what's wrong with this picture?  ;)  The universe is supposed to be on my side!  :(

Our Friend Sandi, RIP

I found out that our clay friend Sandi Sandilla passed away a couple weeks ago.  Sandi, RIP and you'll be missed!

The Bubbling Brownie Incident

Ok, so there's a reason I don't cook much.  This may be the reason.  Here's the sad story.  *sigh...*

In 2007 I got this recipe from someone.  I forget who, ok?  So, I ask my Hunnibunni to print it from his office for me.  Being the good dear sweet Hunnibunn that he is, he does so.  Then puts it in his car to bring home to me.  And forgets about it.  Because I don't hardly cook stuff like that, I forgot, too.

Fast forward to circa 2011.  B is getting a new car so he is cleaning out the stuff from the old one.  He finds the now 4 year old recipe and brings it to me.  Ok, it still looks good.  Chocolate, dried cherries, pecans and more chocolate.  Butter...yuck...but I'll suffer through that.  It's only once every 4 years after all.  If I didn't like butter before... I hate it now.  :(

So, I decide I'll make it today.  I follow the directions and think, jeez, that's an awful lot of butter.  But, for me, 1/2 teaspoon is too much butter.  So, I make the recipe.  A little tip:  ALWAYS listen to your instincts!  :(

A small aside here.  Do you guys know that it is physically impossible to chop dried cherries with a knife? So, I spend 20 minutes cutting them up with a scissors.  Then I make the mistake of IM-ing my Mensa sister who tells me, that's what food choppers are for.  She says...just lightly coat the cherries with the flour to be used in the recipe and put them in the food chopper.  WHO thinks of these things?  *sigh....*  I won't even BEGIN to tell you about the mess my scissors was in.

Ok, back to the recipe.  They thing says to MELT the butter with the squares of chocolate.  Ok, I know what MELT means.  It doesn't mean SOFTEN, it means turn into liquid, right?  So, I melt the sucker.  In a pan.  With the chocolate squares.  Now I have a butter and melted chocolate mess. Well, what do I know?  Usually recipes just have you cream butter and sugar, right?  I follow the directions.  Silly me.

Then I mix in all the goodies and have this really stiff batter.  I think, hmmm, I wonder if this is going to be really dry?  Silly me.

I set it into my oven and toddle off to clean up.  Yum, good smells.  I decide I will chat with my sister whom I haven't talked with much lately but first, I will look at my brownies.

Holy shit.  They are BUBBLING!  They look like something out of Harry Potter's Dark Side classes.  Yikes.  WHY are they bubbling?  Mensa sis doesn't know.

So, after the 35 minutes, I go to take them out of the oven.  The recipe says, "Do not overcook".  I open the oven door and the nasty mess is burbling away.  This can't be right.  So, I leave them in another 10 minutes then decide, I will just have to eat them with a straw or use them for pasta sauce or some grim thing. We're talking Belgian chocolate here!  And pecans!  I can't just throw them away.  So, I take them out and put them on top of the stove.  Later on I go to look and they actually look somewhat solid.  So I tear off a couple miles of paper towels and blot off about 2/3 cup of slimy butter.  Hmmm, they re actually solid under the butter mess.  So, I blot some more then decide I can turn the pan upside down and pull the solidified mass out.  I lay down another mile of paper towels and do so.  PLOP!  The entire mess flops onto my towels.  I break off a corner.  Crap.  It is...OVERCOOKED!

Someone tell me just HOW you overcook something that is bubbling? I have NO idea.  But, sure enough, the edges are not burned but crunchy.  And coated with slime.

Ok, I get even more paper towels.  And decide to try it.  Hmm, other than the buttery mess it tastes pretty good!  I think I'll put them into my freezer where they will turn into concrete.  Then maybe I can scrape the rest of the butter off.  Bleeech.  Or maybe I can run them through the dishwasher?  :D

There has just GOT to be a way to make brownies without butter!  Enough to put a girl off her feed for years.  :D

Too Early For Spring?

What do you all think?  Is it too early to list Spring stuff in our shops?  I finished this last night and thought...perfect for snow weary women!  Then I didn't know if anyone looks at springy stuff in February.  What say you, those of you who sell online??

More Presents

And so it came to pass that I had more friends than I deserve.  ;)  So, here is my newest creation for the ever so wonderful PJ who is the creator of Best Flexible Molds.  Her molds are super!  Her site is over there>>>>>>>>.  :D

This is the most girly girl thing I ever made.  PJ wanted pale turquoise and rosy peach with ivory (that's pretty girly, don'tcha think?).  So, naturally, being congenitally unable to follow directions, I did exactly what it said NOT to do.  Made double spirals.  Now, this mostly covered the turquoise core beads but you can see it in real life.  But, aren't the pearls and crystals gorgeous?  I love how this came out.  And I test-wore it yesterday.  I hope PJ likes it!  :D

A Present For Pammie

And so, my long distance friend Pammie taught me how to bead.  All the way from San Jose.  (sounds like a song)  :D  She said she wanted tropical colors so I made her Hawaiian colors.  Red for Pele's volcanoes, orange for Ilima flowers and a zillion other tropical flowers, green for our rain forests, leaves and trees and yellow for our hibiscus and a zillion other tropical flowers.  I fell in love with this bracelet and will have a miserable time parting with it.  However, I did make me a focal too, so I can make my own.  Pammie Girl, we'll have matching jewelry! xoxoxoxoxo

A Better Photo

There, that's better.  :D

Bracelet Crazy

And so, I had these odd colored beads and even odder Swarovski crystals.  I was using these crystals a few posts back on the too small bracelet that went to my friend Pat.  Fits her perfectly.  :D

So, I got out these weird colored beads and LO! they matched the left over crystals perfectly.  I was such a happy girl!  They are silvery, opal-y, alabaster-y with golden reflections.  Naturally, the gold gleam doesn't show up as it should in this picture.  The beaded edges are gold, too.

Anyway, I wound up with this set that I think is very elegant and haute and "City".  What do YOU think?  :D

Blue

Now, most of you know I don't like blue.  But, I wanted to make a bracelet as a surprise present for Val in Scotland because she is taking good care of my friend Chris who just had surgery.  So, having never seen Val, I didn't know what to make.  Or what color.  I chose blue as most people seem to like it.  Actually, *I* even like this bracelet.  It's doubtful that Val will see this as I don't think she reads my blog so I feel safe posting it.  The bracelet is winging its way to Glasgow as we speak.  What do you think?  I hope she likes it and it fits!

Sunshine Kitties

Here are the brats being good and soaking up the rays out on their lanai.  :D

Clay Inlay

Look, I made a rhyme.  :)

Ok, I was messing around with clay inlay.  See, I bought these gouges a year ago and never used them.  So I decided to get them out and do fun things.  I had this sage colored clay with gold and copper mica powders in it so this is what I came up with.  What do you think?  I foresee more inlay in my future.  :D  I used PennyJo's flexible mold for the shapes.

And all that wire wrapping!  Yikes!  Playing with my Wigjig was fun and even the jump rings were fun to make.  Except I had to make them twice.  The first set were too thin.  Do you guys know that if you make jumps that you have to cut each and every one twice as one side doesn't flush cut?  One edge is pointy and one end is flush so after they are all cut, you have to flush cut the pointy edge so the jump ring closes neatly.  Man, that took forever!.  But it's worth it.  :D  I even made the wire hook so the entire necklace is completely hand crafted.

You hear that sound?  That's me patting myself on the back.  :D