200th Post Contest Winner

I dipped my hand into the hat and pulled out a name for my 200th post giveaway contest. *drumroll please...* The winner is:

Lori Vliegen of Elvie Studio

Thank you to everyone who participated and left comments. Here's to another 200.

copyright 2010 Shibori Girl

200th Blog Post Coming Up!

Marble Man might argue but... I can't believe I had enough to say to fill nearly 200 posts. Today's post is number 199. So, to celebrate, I'm starting a giveaway contest. To participate, just leave a comment on this post (be SURE to leave contact info if you aren't a blogger!) and on March 15th, I'll draw a name out of a hat. The lucky winner will receive this necklace:

The pendant is a slice of one of my polymer clay kaleidoscope canes. The slice was baked, then sanded, buffed, and polished with an acrylic coating to protect it from skin contact. The finished size of the pendant is 1.125 inches wide and 1.25 inches long.

I've taken many small slices of a bullseye cane and marched them around the edge for interest.

The necklace is made from antiqued brass chain and Czech fire-polished crystals with sweet little brass bead caps. The finishing touch is a brass-toned "S" clasp.

The necklace is 18" long, but if the winner wants it longer, I can do that. We'll tawk.

Be sure to spread the word - the winner need not be a regular reader. I'm so happy to have kept this blog going for so long, I want to share my joy.



copyright 2010 Shibori Girl

Chrstimas Wish

I wish Peace and Joy to all this Christmas, and prosperity in the New Year.

"Adoration of the Magi" by Gentile da Fabriano

Once in royal David's city,
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her Baby,
In a manger for His bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ, her little Child.

He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable,
And His cradle was a stall:
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Saviour holy.

For He is our childhood's pattern;
Day by day, like us, He grew;
He was little, weak, and helpless,
Tears and smiles, like us He knew;
And He cares when we are sad,
And he shares when we are glad.

And our eyes at last shall see Him,
Through His own redeeming love;
For that Child so dear and gentle,
Is our Lord in heaven above:
And He leads His children on,
To the place where He is gone.

copyright 2009 Shibori Girl

Bangles And Jangles

Going on now:

Store-wide sale at Etsy.com! Everything is 20% off from now until May 31st. My birthday is this next week and I want to celebrate with everyone.

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Somehow, between bloggy visits, Facebook, and twitter, I managed to eek out some beading time this week. After realizing I only had 4 bracelets in stock, I went a little nuts and now have many more available. I tried to have a nice price range, but found myself caught up in wire-wrapping. The resulting pieces are gorgeous, but labor-intesive. (I just love the sound they make as the beads jangle against each other.) These charm bracelets are a fabulous way to use up odd lots of beads left over from previous projects:

Forest Light Charm Bracelet

Le Jardin Bracelet (Blue)

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Le Jardin Bracelet (Multi-colored)

Once I realized I went overboard on the previous three pieces, I concentrated on simplicity and these two are the result of that effort:

Flower jade and rose quartz

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Carved red stone beads and mother-of-pearl

I plan to have these listed sometime this weekend.

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In other news: I just had one of my shibori scarves with a functional pocket listed in an Etsy treasury. Whoot! It feels great to be recognized by peers.

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As well as all the other stuff I was caught up in this week, I opened another online store at Zibbet.com. It's a new site, still in it's Beta stage, and it's just different enough from Etsy to be a challenge. I'll be stocking it slowly, as time management is turning out to be my nemesis!

Now that all the week's wire-wrapping has angered my ever-present tennis elbow, I'll have more time to spend in Blogland... so put on a pot of coffee, 'cuz here I come! It's been too long between visits and I have a lot of catching up to do...

Let's Get This Party Started!

To celebrate May Day, my best friends, my Ya-Ya's, met to make faerie gardens. It turned into a birthday celebration for Debbie and me (our Special Day's are one day apart in the middle of May). We had a three-flavored birthday cake with cream cheese frosting

and gin-and-tonic lollipops!

To drink we all had a ruby red grapefruit/apple juice/vanilla concoction.

Yowzah! It was all so good - I took a tiny detour off my diet for this celebration, and I'm so glad I did.

~

For the gardens, we all brought low planters and our hostess provided some plants to share. Others brought things to decorate: sea shells, crafty items, broken pottery shards, etc. Then we got down to it and had a blast.

Some were simple and spare. Faeries can frolic in a field of moss in this little garden...

Toadstools and picket fences make good garden features...

A rockery with a dainty pool... See the little tart form with blue beads glued around the edge?

A birdbath is transformed into a lovely park with a faerie swing...

A faerie can always use a welcome sign and some bling! See the little rhinestone hair clips in the soil?

My faerie garden has a birdbath made from a scallop shell glued to a wooden spool, and a tiny silver faerie sunning herself while perched on a moon shell. a little trail of river rocks and shells meanders throughout the garden. A tiny potted plant is off to the side:

Thanks to all my favorite ladies for a lovely birthday party and May Day celebration! You're the best.

HOW Many Years Has It Been?!?

Yesterday was a big celebration for Marble Man and me. We unplugged for the entire day... that's right, we turned off the tv AND the computer (Whaaaat?). We spent the day being together, and being quiet. It was lovely. Oh.... right, and it was our wedding anniversary: twenty-two years ago we made it official.

"How did you celebrate", you ask? With food of course! We're serious foodies - what better way to say "I love you" than with fabulous flavors?

Marble Man did the shopping this week, so he picked up his version of surf 'n' turf: baby lamb chops and humongous sea scallops served over sauteed pea shoots.

~

"Hurry up and take the picture already!"

For dessert: Crepes Suzette (Sorry no pictures, we snarfed 'em up too fast for the shutter to click!)

And for Afters: Rum Runners. If you've never been to Florida, you probably haven't heard of these frozen concoctions. They're lethal! We were in The Sunshine State for our honeymoon and after tasting one of these drinks, we rapidly realized we had to limit ourselves to ONE per night. We were totally blotto. We had so much fun that we made them at home:

Florida rum Runner
Makes one drink

1.5 oz rum
1 oz blackberry brandy
1 oz banana liqueur
1.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz grenadine syrup
crushed ice

Mix in blender until ice is slushy.

Serve while frozen in a collins glass. Insert straw and pour 151 rum down the straw. That first hit's a doozy!

Here's to another 20 years with you, Marble Man... my best friend, and the love of my life.

Birthday Wishes for Marble Man

Today is Marble Man's birthday. We generally don't do birthday gifts, just make a spectacular meal that will render us comatose by the end of the evening. 26 years-worth of tradition here - we're not letting a little thing like a diet get in the way!

Tonight's menu:

Fillet Mignon
roasted sweet potatoes
celery root and apple puree
velvet cupcakes

The cupcake recipe is actually for RED velvet cupcakes, which I've made in the past. Marble Man would snarf them up as fast as I could frost them. Then he saw the recipe and goggled. He got a bit freaked out by the tablespoon-and-a-half of red food coloring. In his mind, we're only supposed to use a few drops at a time, so this recipe is gonna kill us.

To appease him, I'm leaving out the food coloring. Since the recipe calls for cocoa powder, I thought I'd replace the food coloring with espresso, and make them mocha velvet cupcakes. They should come out ok, since I'm keeping the liquid proportions the same as the original recipe.

The celery root puree recipe is one I tried at Thanksgiving, but I cut waaaaay back on the butter and cream. I think there's a direct correlation between the size of Ina Garten (of the Food Network's Barefoot Contessa) and the amount of these two ingredients found throughout her recipes! So, I used just enough to create moisture, and some flavor. The results were phenomenal. Who could imagine a vegetable this ugly could make something that delicious?

These days, it seems like the only real creative time I've gotten has been in the kitchen. I don't mind. I love to cook, and I am paying closer attention to portions and substituting healthier ingredients for the old favorites of butter, cream, and sugar. Today is no different - I'll be spending the better part of the afternoon mixing up this feast for my guy.

Make a wish and take a deep breath, Sweetheart. Time to blow out all those candles.