I Want To Be Shirley Bassey

I've been rediscovering the music of Dame Shirley Bassey. Her powerful and sassy voice lends itself well to jazz and pop, and it's a great sound to work to as I bead in the studio. At the age of 72, she's still belting out beautiful noise, AND she looks both sexy and badass while she does it! I want to be her...

Everybody knows her version of the James Bond Goldfinger lead-in song, but there are so many others too. Like "History Repeating" which she recorded with The Propellerheads back in 1997. This video has an old-timey British feel to it...



Then there's her version of "Let's Get The Party Started"...



The hauntingly beautiful "Without A Word"...



Her wonderful sense of humor comes through in her live performance of "Something" by George Harrison...



She can serenade me anytime.

What's Cooking Sunday / Spicy Gingerbread

"If loving you is wrong, I don't want to be right..."

My long-running love affair with dessert continues, and brings to mind that song by Luther Ingram from 1972. While Marble Man and I have been back on our diets, we've tried to keep sweets out of the house, and I just couldn't do it. The past two days I've been Jonesing for a little Somethin'-Somethin' to feed my craving. A fresh batch of gingerbread yesterday did the trick: moist, spicy, and slightly sweet. The recipe I use is from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest cookbook, by Molly Katzen. It calls for lots of freshly grated ginger, and this is key - don't substitute ground ginger as it won't have the same kick.

Spicy Gingerbread
Serves 12
preheat oven 350 degrees

5 T unsalted butter
3 T freshly grated ginger
1/2 C light honey
1/2 C light molasses
1/2 C plain yogurt
1 large egg
1 C whole wheat flour
1 C unbleached white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp ground cloves or allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Saute the butter and ginger together light, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat.

Beat the honey and molasses together vigorously for 5 minutes. Then beat in the ginger plus all of its butter.

Beat the yogurt and the egg together well. Combine with the above mixture and set aside.

Sift together the remaining ingredients thoroughly into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry mixture. Add the wet mixture. Combine thoroughly, but minimally. Spread the batter into an 8" square pan sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake 30-35 minutes. It's done when the top is springy to the touch, or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

"MMMmmmm... yummy!"

"And the Award Goes To..."

Thanks to Brenda from Fallen Angel Designs for bestowing upon me this award

I really can't think of just 15 people to pass this onto, so I'm awarding it to everyone in my blogroll lists. I mean, y'all wouldn't be in those lists if I didn't think your blogs are lovely! If you want to pass it on to others, here are

THE RULES:

1. Accept the award.
2. Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, along with his or her blog link.
3. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you have newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Be sure to visit Fallen Angel Designs to see her beautiful, romantic jewelry.

Focusing on Finishing

I'm in a beadweaving frame of mind. Now that I've finished Mikkey's amulet bag, I feel quite free to work on some inspirational pieces. My time is spent in the studio, wearing my work station close-up glasses and under the magnifier as I peer at tiny seed beads. The first piece finished last week was this necklace based on the one featured on the cover of the February 2009 issue of Bead & Button Magazine:

This was a great instructional project for me. I learned a new way to do decreasing flat peyote stitch, as well as Ndebele (en-DEB-el-AH), or tubular herringbone, stitch. I've also been itching to practice encasing focal beads with peyote stitch bezels. This one turned out to be a beauty.

The central stone is agatized fossil coral, which I surrounded with cafe au lait-colored faux pearls and keishi pearls. The drop is peach-colored cubic zirconium. I'm very pleased with the final result. The beads were stitched down to a peyote stitch base, which made for a nice, elegant finish.

The necklace rope called for twisted Ndebele.

The final product looks like individual strands of seed beads that were twisted before wearing, but the pattern is woven into a permanently twisted design. The wearer never has to think about pre-twisting before donning the necklace. Sweet! The connecting loops were made with straight Ndebele. The finishing touch is a sterling silver box clasp with a purple glass cabachon.

There was a lot to learn, and a lot of practice with each component of the piece. There was also a lot of undoing mistakes!

So much time went into this piece, that I won't be selling it.

~~~

The other piece I finished was my own design.

A spectacular moukite oval bead is the focal point, with a deep, rusty red background and ribbons of yellow, cream, gray, and lavender running through it. The stone is surrounded by a seed bead bezel embellished with micro-faceted sunstone rondelles and keishi pearls. The beads are stitched to a soft, eggplant purple Ultrasuede background fabric - something else I've been wanting to learn for a very long time.

The rope from which the pendant hangs was woven with the twisted Ndebele stitch. The rope colors are a deep cherry red accented with a line of metallic beads ranging from deep gold to purple. The ends of the necklace are embellished with hand stitched beaded bead caps, moukite round beads, and Czech fire-polished crystal beads.

Those beaded bead caps were F - U - N, fun!

Purchasing information for this piece can be found here.

What's Cooking Sunday / Barley Salad Vinaigrette

This being July 4th weekend, there are a lot of pot luck parties going on. I've found it very difficult to eat a balanced meal at this kind of party, with available dishes loaded with heavy fats and proteins, or an abundance of desserts. This barley salad tastes great and is loaded with fiber.

Barley Salad Vinaigrette
Serves 4

2 C cooked pearled barley, cooled
1/2 C seeded and diced cucumber
1/4 C each diced red pepper and scallion
2 T chopped radish
1 T each chopped parsley and dill
2 T red vinegar
4 tsp olive oil
1 T water
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
4 C shredded lettuce

In medium bowl, combine barley, cucumber, bell pepper, scallion, radish, parsley and dill. Set aside.

In small bowl, combine remaining ingredients except the lettuce. Stir well. Pour over barley mixture. Toss to coat. Serve over lettuce.

This is sure to be a big hit at your next potluck: not only tasty, but good for you and pretty to look at on the plate. Enjoy!

Perserverance Pays Off

The Tea Party is over: the cups are washed and put away, glitter and crumbs swept up, and life goes back to normal. I picked up where I left off with Mikkey's beaded amulet bag and finished it yesterday.

This was the mother-of-all-beaded-projects for me so far and here's how it progressed since my last update:

I finished the cylinder section of the bag and then went to the directions to find the next step. This wasn't hard, since the instructions were fairly terse:

"2. Work bottom and close." Well - not too helpful! HOW do I work the bottom? What is it supposed to look like? Is that little strip of blue at the bottom of the color map supposed to be the bottom? Or are they supposed to be flaps that hang down behind the bag with fringe attached to them, like the front flap diagrammed between them? Where is it written down?

I finally shouted "S**T" to the skies and headed to the bead shop for some help. I've heard rumors of a peyote stitch expert who works there, and maybe SHE could give me some direction... I showed her the pattern, the bag itself, and the kit directions. She stared at it for a good long while and said, "Huh!" She'd never seen such poorly written instructions before. After banging our heads together for several minutes, she pretty much said that however I decided to finish off the bottom was going to be right. OK.

So, I went home and figured out how many stitches and rows were in those two little patches of blue at the bottom of the color map. Maybe, they weren't supposed to be TWO flaps, but one joined in the middle behind the front flap? Sure enough, after making it up, this flap was JUST big enough to fill the bottom area. I stitched it closed with a huge sigh of relief.

The next step, the triangular flap at the bottom front, required some research - I hadn't learned to do decreases at the edge of peyote stitch yet. Easy peasy! I worked the flap and added it to the center front of the bag.

The fringe was also easy, just time consuming. Three down...

forty-seven to go!!

The strap was the final step, and required some patience. The words on it read:

"... and from the sea rose Venus, Goddess of Love, the brightest star in the infinite sky." ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

I did take some liberties with the strap. By the time I got close to the end of the alphabet, the strap was REALLY long. Then I saw there were TWO "X's" as well as several punctuation marks after the letters in the diagram. I'm not a fan of redundancy, especially when my eyes are at stake. So, I left out the second X and those punctuations.

I tried on the bag, and the top hung even with my navel! With the added characters in the strap, it would have hung like a sporran in front of a kilt.

At any rate, it's done, and I'm happy with the result:

With all the fringe, it's fairly heavy, a little over four ounces. I think having the fringe run all around the front flap and the back at the bottom was unnecessary. But, it is very lush to look at.

~~~

What I learned from this project:

I know I can do something really difficult if I'm patient and ask for help.

I know I could write better directions! One simple line drawing diagram of how the bottom should look would have been a huge help. Even an additional photo of the back would be been a good idea.

After peering at the complicated pattern diagram, then switching to peering at tiny Delica seed beads, I fear I need a pair of these.

I prefer to see Botticelli's on the wall here.

Time to let out a deep breathe, pack the bag up and mail it out, then go onto something new...

What's Cooking Sunday / Fra Diavolo Sauce and Pasta

Oh my, that was quite a party yesterday here in Bloglandia. Thank you, Vanessa, for being such a charming hostess and introducing us all to each other. It's going to take some time to make my way around the room, so please be patient with me.

~

While getting ready for yesterday's party post, last week I worked most of each day right up until dinner time. I was so tired on Wednesday, especially, that all I could think of making was this simple and delicious pasta dish.

Fra Diavolo Sauce and Pasta
serves 4

4 T olive oil, divided
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes with liquid
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 - 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
6 oz linguine pasta
8 oz small shrimp, peeled and deveined
8 oz bay scallops
1 oz chopped fresh parsley
1 T chopped fresh basil
Parmesan cheese (optional)

In large saucepan, heat 2 T olive oil with the garlic over medium heat. When the garlic starts to sizzle, pour in the tomatoes. Season with salt and red pepper. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to directions and drain.

In large skillet, heat the remaining 2 T olive oil over high heat. Add the seafood. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently, or until the shrimp turn pink. Add to the tomato mixture, and add the fresh herbs. Cook until the sauce just begins to bubble, about 2 minutes. Serve sauce over pasta and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

**Note: I used a 12 oz bag frozen uncooked shrimp and half a bag of frozen seafood mix from Trader Joe's which had calamari, shrimp, and bay scallops. I thawed the seafood and drained it well before sauteing. The squid was a particularly nice addition.

I started with 1/2 tsp pepper flakes - I just had this feeling that 1 whole tsp would wind up being atomic. But, if you are a strong soul, go for it!

I also didn't have any linguine on hand, so used rotelli, and it was just great.