Extra, Extra! My Weekend DEAL Fabulousness!

Well I have good news cherubs, this weekend, from Friday 8/21 thru Sun 8/23 I am running my very first "Weekend Deal" on Etsy! Why? Well because I love you guys, silly's! 

What is it you ask? An Early Bird Special on my incredibly popular Halloween Collection! I am offering 10% OFF all items in my "HAPPY HALLOWEEN" section, with the discount refunded via Paypal after purchase :) Don't miss out because this line WILL NOT be discounted again.

  As luck would have it, I was chosen to have my Weekend Deal featured in The Storque, Etsy Finds Email and they even used a photo of my Oxidized Bat In The Belfry Necklace as the banner image for the Weekend Deals on the Front Page of Etsy. I couldn't be more excited! Hope your excited too :)

Happy Shopping!

Recipe Vault: Mmmm Broccoli Salad

Broccoli Salad is one of my favorite side dishes to make in the summer! It's bright, crunchy, cool and refreshing. Umm, not to mention, YUMMY! I've even managed to trim down the recipe to something that is healthy and almost guilt-free and in my opinion, it is actually even more scrumptious than before! This recipe is my go-to for BBQ's and Summer Parties, everyone is always raving about it, and for good reason! You can vary this recipe also by making a Broccoli & Cauliflower Salad which is equally as delish! I hope you love this recipe as much as I do :)

Broccoli Salad

2 Large heads of raw Broccoli ( or 1 large head of Broccoli & 1 Large Head of Cauliflower)

1/2 C. Shredded Carrots ( I like to shred my own with a peeler for thinner ribbons)

1/2 C. Red Onion Finely Chopped

1/2-3/4 C. Craisins (I go heavy on the Craisins because I love the flavor they add!)

8 pieces of Crisply Cooked Turkey Bacon Chopped

Dressing:

1 C. Light Mayo (I prefer Hellmans)

1 1/2 TBSP White Sugar

2 TBSP White Vinegar

Cut up Broccoli (and Cauliflower), leaving only a small stem on the florets. I then break apart the florets by hand, making small bite sized pieces (smaller is better in my opinion) and place in large bowl. Add Carrots, Red Onion and Craisins to the Broccoli bowl and give a quick toss. In a separate bowl whisk together the mayo, sugar and Vinegar. Once the dressing is mixed, add to the Broccoli mixture and stir well (this might take a bit of stirring to get a  nice even coating on everything). Once the dressing is nicely incorporated you can add the Turkey Bacon. Make sure to cook the Bacon before chopping it, it makes for a much better consistency. Fold in the Turkey Bacon until it is evenly distributed, cover with tin foil and stick it in the fridge for a few hours. This salad gets better the longer it sits in the fridge! Make sure to give the salad a toss or two right before serving it. You can easily half this recipe, or double it etc! Make enough for left overs, you'll be wishing you did the following day :)

Enjoy!

ATTENTION: GIVEAWAY ALERT!!!

Yikes! I almost forgot to tell all my friends out there in the blog-i-verse that I'm running a fun little giveaway with my friend Adele over at Modern Emotive! You could win a pair of one of my top sellers, my Little Pebble Stud Earrings in Sterling Silver! The contest ends on Sunday, August 16th, at midnight :)

Hop on over to the Modern Emotive blog for details on how to win! Don't wait! Enter to win!

Summer Snapshots of the Day: Sunset Series Over Lake George

"Lights will guide you home. And ignite your bones." - Coldplay

I know I havent been great about updating my "Summer Snapshot" series, so I'm going to try my best to stay on top of it for the remainder of the summer. Promise :)

Anyway, these shots are from an evening I spent patiently waiting on the docks for the sun to go down, and once it did, I was treated to a spectacular show of color! It really is incredible to watch a good sunset from start to finish, because it changes shape and color so rapidly if you blink you might miss it! I chose 4 shots from the 4 main color stages the sunset went through. I literally took about 700 pictures this one night, all of the sunset! These are my favorite shots, and the ones that I though really captured the brilliant colors of this particular sunset! Unfortunately, not EVERY sunset here is quite this intense, although it seemed that the stars aligned for me this particular night, they must have know I was waiting around with camera in tow.

A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss...

I'm back! Did you miss me? I know I've been a very bad blogger, but I promise I've been absent from blogland for good reason :) I might as well give you a quick rundown of what I've been up to for the past couple weeks...

Well, a couple weeks ago I started feverishly working on new seasonal items, Halloween items specifically. And, at the urging of my buddy over at Ponder & Stitch, I've decided to bring in oxidized sterling silver pieces as well, offering the bright silver and oxidized silver in my shop I think will be great for business and give my customers even more choices. I took a brief break from my jewelry making marathon to attend a Coldplay concert, which was incredibly fun and inspiring! I used to have a line of music inspired jewelry but got rid of it after a while. After going to such an incredible show, my urge to create some jewelry from some of the music and lyrics that inspire me is bubbling over! Right now I'm just trying to decide the best approach...

After my play date with Coldplay, it was right back to work. I'm proud to say I have somewhere about 40 new pieces! Not ALL of them are completed but it's getting close! I have some things I've sent off to the caster and am patiently awaiting their return to me :) All of my new Halloween items are finished though! Woohoo! I've become quite well know around Etsy for my Halloween pieces, so I certainly felt the pressure to deliver some great new stuff for this year! I'm spending the next couple days listing everything I can.

Aside from making jewelry, I've also been making and consuming lots of Broccoli Salad! No worries, photos and recipe for that coming very soon :) I'm not sure what it is but I've been really into cooking and baking lately. Right now I have a hankering to make some Pumpkin Bread and Pumpkin Cookies, both of which will have to wait for now, but I've been obsessing about them for some time! Anyone know of a great fat substitute/alternative for butter/oil for baking? I'm a novice baker, so any tips are welcomed!

Anyway, here's a sneak peak of the new seasonal and oxidized stuff, it's not up on Etsy yet so you are the first to see it! Hope you love it, I'll be working hard to list everything asap :)

It's good to be back, so sorry for my very long hiatus! 

Delicious Website Re-vamp! I love you Nest In Bloom!!!

Big news kiddies! My website has gotten a full overhaul, thanks to my good buddy Samantha aka Nest In Bloom! Words cannot even express how excited I really am about this! I've had my own dot.com site for about 3 years now and it's taken me 3 years and a few designers to get here. I can honestly say, Samantha is THE best graphic designer/artist extraodinaire I have ever had the pleasure of working with! Not only did she actually listen to what I wanted, but brought her own ideas to the table and provided the darling little accents and details to the site that really brought it to a new level! My website went from being Bette Davis to being Marilyn Monroe in a matter of days! Yay! It never hurts to be easy on the eyes :)

If you've been following my website for a while you might notice a couple big changes! The most noticeable is probably the addition of a new beautiful face to the site! I'd like to introduce you to the gorgeously exotic natural beauty that is Ms. McKenzie Burke. She's been a friend of mine for years and does a fabulous job showing off that Turquoise and Gold Akoya Pearl Necklace! Oh yes, and my Sterling Silver Glimmer Hoops as well! Hope ya like the look of her mug (I know I do!) because you might be seeing a lot of it in the future :)

The second of the big changes is that I've decided to fully redirect my Shop on my website to my Etsy shop. I spent ages agonizing over the decision to do this and in the end, Etsy won. Etsy has been very good to me, and I love the shop setup over there so, it is now serving not only my Etsy customers but my dot.com site customers too. Etsy, you can thank me later for this with a Front Page or two :)

Make sure to look through all the pages of the site so you don't miss all the fun new details Sam has added! Love, love, love, love, love it!