I have internet again. . .oh and a meal plan

I should probably already be starting dinner, but I've spent the whole day running about and haven't had much time to relish in the fact that our internet is up and running again. (ooohhh, blogs to read, ooooohhhh apple TV working, ooooohhhhh reading e-mail) Apparently our modem died early Saturday morning and we couldn't get a new one from our provider until this morning. It's amazing that I made it though the weekend. Thank goodness for smart phones. I was fortunate that I had already written and scheduled my sequin post! Speaking of that, thank you all for your super sweet comments on my all-over-the-place sequin designs. You really flattered me.

Since I do have dinner to cook, let me go ahead an get to the meat (or mostly lack thereof in my case) of this post, my Meal Plan for the week.

Breakfasts: Oatmeal/cereal/grits w/fruit, Juice, Cheese omelets w/toast & fruit, Yogurt w/granola & fruit, PB&J turnovers (recipe below)

Lunches: Leftovers, Juice, Peanut (or Almond) butter & jelly w/fruit, Tuna noodles, Cheese Quesidillas

Dinners: 

Crispy lemon tilapia w/ roasted green beans and red potatoes

Tempeh fajitas w/Mexican rice

Spaghetti squash w/ spaghetti sauce & salad

Veggie stir fry w/rice

Mexican Casserole

Grilled turkey tenderloins w/ cauliflower gratin & salad

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

Here's the turnover recipe
Peanut Butter and Jelly Turnovers
- Makes 8 turnovers -
Ingredients:
One 16-ounce box frozen all-butter puff pastry, thawed overnight in the refrigerator
All-purpose flour, for rolling
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup jelly or jam of your choice
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Lay the puff pastry sheets out on a work surface and roll them out into 10-inch squares, using flour if the pastry sticks. Cut each sheet into four 5-inch squares. Use a pastry brush to brush beaten egg along all four edges of each square. Place 1 heaping tablespoon peanut butter and 1 heaping tablespoon jam in the center of each puff pastry and fold it in half diagonally, pressing the edges together to enclose the filling and working out any air. Use a fork to seal the edges completely by pressing the tines down to make a crimped pattern.
3. Arrange the pastry triangles on a baking sheet. Brush the surface of the turnovers with beaten egg. Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes.
4. Remove the turnovers from the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool slightly before consuming.


It's the first of October and I'm again participating in Fat Mum Slim's Photo-a-Day Challenge. Below is the list of prompts for the month. Please check out Fat Mum Slim's blog post that has more information about participating in the challenge.

Since it's the first of the month, I should also be reviewing my goals for the year. I'm going to delay that post just until tomorrow since I'm so pressed for time today. Check back in if you're interested in my progress.

It's About Time for a Link Dump

When I first started my blog I shared ALL KINDS of links. Now, I just save them for a rainy day or something. I don't know. . . I mean, I link up pretty stuff to Pintrest and save the links to some reference information in personal files, but there are still other sites/posts whose importance I want to note. And, you should see the ways in which I hoard links.

As such, I want to get back into the habit of sharing my saved links a little. Mind you, I don't plan on sharing as many as I used to, but I want to do a sort of LINK DUMP about once a week. However, I don't really like the term "link DUMP". . .it sounds so crass. So I'd love to come up with something else. Let me know if you have any suggestions for it.

Here we go!
Over at B'Sue Boutiques there's a Messy Workshop Blog Hop going on. Somehow I missed getting in on this one even though my craft desk looked like this when I walked into the craft room yesterday. GAH!!

Via Instagram

Moving on. . .
Since May is fast approaching, I should let you know that Fat Mum Slim has posted her May Photo A Day Challenge list. I'm a big fan of her creative photo prompts and her blog's not to shabby either.

Information about how to participate can be found on Fat Mum Slim's blog!

Have you had a chance to stumble upon The Bloggess yet? I understand she might not be for everyone; she's a little dark, twisted, and outspoken about everything (I mean EVERYTHING). But, if you like that kind of thing you should seriously check her out. One of her most recent posts was a re-post while she's traveling on her book tour, but it's a great example of her sick and hilarious mind.

Meet Copernicus

Michelle Mach over at Beads & Books did a post a few weeks ago on How to Find Craft Shows. This is definitely a link I would usually have saved as "for reference" but I thought y'all might need it too. I've been thinking more and more about jumping on the craft show bandwagon. I even created a Craft Fair Inspiration Pintrest Board and joined the Arts & crafts fairs & shows Flickr Group for additional inspiration. Do you have Craft Fair tips for me as well? I'd love to hear them!


Claudine Hellmuth has started a serious called Finding you Artistic Style. At the beginning of the year, one of the goals I had set for myself was to "find my passion" and this series of Claudine's falls right in line with that. She has two posts up on it right now. Find the first one here and the second one here.

I've got a few new items in the shop

Calm Storm Necklace

Steampunk Circus Earrings - re-listed

I think that's plenty of links for today. Remember that I'm looking for a better name that link dump for this type of post! Thanks for checking it out!

BTW and a Button Swap

I've been uber reliant on my to do list the last few days/weeks. If I didn't have it in front of me, I could easily spin out of control. This is especially true on Wednesdays. You see, hump day is a shortened work day for me. I spend the afternoon/evening with my family in Mobile to help out with the nieces. As such, there are all kinds of tasks to get done in the mornings.

You didn't come here to here me whine. You came to see what's on my craft desk. After all, it is Bead Table Wednesday. Yesterday I posted about my Suor Angelic Fundraising effort. Well, I'm actually working on more jewelry for that collection.

I decided to make a JUNK necklace that fits into the theme.

Actually, that not the ONLY project on my desk, but everything else is gifts and they're on the DL. At least I have a clean desk to work on! Yesterday's photo prompt was before/ after. I decided that was a great motivator to clean off the chaos that was piling up on my work surface.

Ahhhh. . ..much better!

Check out more Bead Table Wednesday in the Flickr Group.

I want to give all you other beaders and button fiends the heads up that Cindy Wimmer of Sweet Bead Studio will be hosting this year's Button Swap. I had a lot of fun with the button swap last year and have already jumped on the bandwagon for this one. In fact, I think I was the first one to sign up. Wow. . .I have a problem. Anyway, the sign-ups are going on the rest of this week, so head over to Cindy's blog to throw your name into the pot!

Now, this one's not part of the fundraising efforts, but here's a new necklace in the shop.

Bright Blossom Necklace

It's back to the list for me. What's in your plans for today?

February Goal Review

February has come to a close. Though it's the shortest month of the year, it really seemed much longer. I think taking a photo each day really does help preserve the month in a sense. Fat Mum Slim announced the March Photo-a-day lineup a little while back.

Now to figure out how to shoot 'up' for today. Hmmmm.

Anyway, since it is the start to a new month, I'd like to review my 2012 goals again. FIRST, I know I upset some people with my use of the word FAIL to review these goals in January. When I said that, I just meant that I did not accomplish the goal and needed to do some work on it. Instead of fail, I'll simply say 'needs work'. . .okay?

Let's get to it! OH. . .and as before, I'm tossing in some of my Instagram pictures from over the month to break up the monotony.

PERSONAL

Disc Golf Basket

1. Exercise  Ehhhh. . .I haven't been keeping up with this as regularly as I'd hoped. Pat and I really make an effort to do something active every weekend: hike, bike, disc golf. We've taken a few walks in the evening and I got up and exercised a very few mornings, but that's about it. Definitely got to find my groove for this one.
2. Eat right/better YES! We've been doing much better here. I've noticed our intake of butter and cheese is drastically reduced. We still snack, but have been purchasing those from the health food store. Granted, we have had some slip-ups since we were out of town a few days this month and had to eat out, but we took healthy snacks with us and tried to make healthy choices ast the restaurants. It's pretty impressive actually.
3. Read more books/watch less TV  I FINALLY finished the last Game of Thrones book, A Dance with Dragons and have started on Inheritance (of course, another LONG book) as well as the Walking Dead series of graphic novels. I'm doing okay on my goal of less TV, but sometimes it's just ON. sigh.



Under the sink looks real nice right now!

4. Make a real effort to keep the house clean Well, like the exercise goal, this one is on again off again. I do most of the basic cleaning throughout the week. Toilets, laundry, dishes, litterbox. . .none of that piles up on me, but the clutter. Oh-emm-gee the CLUTTER. It's like it comes in the night and sneaks onto surfaces. I'm working on it though.  
5. Discover new music  Toward the end of the month I remembered this goal and tried to listen to something new but just ended up with more Mumford and Sons and some OkGo. Definitely needs work.
6. Grow some plants inside and out Needs work. We've done nothing on this one. Pat and I started talking about some veggie gardening the other day and I totally want some herbs, so I believe that will be a step we make maybe, hopefully this weekend.
7. Make my visions of my dream house and this house co-exist  Only a few steps were taken on this front. First the aquarium is now running again and there are fish in it (hurray!). I've done some shopping for some ideas I have, and we've talked about a few of the things we want to get done around the house. I know this isn't a total success, but it's something.
8. Declutter/organize at least one drawer/cabinet/area a week.  Needs work. I did get an area or two tackled, but nothing like I was hoping for.
9. Have a yard sale (possibly organize a neighborhood one) Needs LOTS OF WORK! Nothing done at all.
10. Take better care of my face and skin. oh boy! Does shopping for facial cleansers count? Because, really it's been a bad month for my skin. I'll try more this month, promise.
11. Go to the doctor/dentist  Needs work, that's all I'll say.

Raspberry Parfait for breakfast (pureed raspberries, yougurt, and granola. . .layered)

BUSINESS/CRAFT

1. Make a real effort with my blog This month has definitely been more successful on the blogging front than last month. I just want to maintain that forward momentum.
2. Include more tutorials on the blog. If 'more' is one tutorial, than YAY!! Success!! However, that's not exactly what I was aiming for. Will continue to strive on this.



Just SOME of my button collection

3. Keep the craft room more organized.  Bahahahahahahaaa!! I'll leave it at that. 
4. Discover my passion I've done more playing with the tools I received for Christmas and loads more thinking, but I'm just not there yet.



My 'travel floss'  box. I love me some ROY G BIV

5. Get published (if not published then at least submit to a few publications) Still have not submitted. This definitely needs work. I actually got a piece made yesterday that I think I want to submit. Of course, now I need to decide on WHICH magazine and look over their submission guidelines. This is probably not the best way to go about this. 
6. Create something everyday EVERYday has been tough. I've been trying to catch up on picture-taking, photo editing, and description writing so the creation parts have fallen to the wayside.
7. Explore other venue options for selling my jewelry (in the community) Needs work. I'm just a chicken. It's time to get my feelers out there. It really is.
8. Find a way to use what I have instead of buying more. I need less more in my life! Again, I've done okay on this. I did do some shopping at bead stores while we traveled, but overall I've been pretty good about keeping the shopping to a minimum. Using what I have. . .I guess I have.

GENERAL

1. Figure out where my time is wasted and put an end to it.  I feel like I have been using my time better, but I still feel like so much has gone unaccomplished. This has mostly been toward the end of this month though.



Our view from the condo this month.

2. Find some confidence and exert it. This is still not going well. Like I said above about finding new venues, I'm a chicken. Needs work!! 
3. Think outside of the box. Since I've been using my sketchbook more to just jot down ideas as they come to me, I've been thinking outside the box a little more since I have had to figure out how to make those ideas WORK. It's not a success complete, but it's been better.  
4. Be Grateful. I was hoping to make regular posts about what I'm gratful for each week, but that's just not happened. Needs Work. 

While there's still plenty of work that needs to be done, I think I've done better this month than last (there's less red on this month's list!) Sooooo GO ME!!

Lastly, here's a new item and a re-listed item from the shop today.

Lacy Chic Bangle

Bumble Queen Earrings

Now I'm going to give those goals the 'ol college try' for March! Wish me luck!! :)

Macro Sunday: Inside Your Closet

Another Macro Sunday is upon us.

Since I was out of town the past two days, I really hadn't thought much about my macro shot(s) for today. Oops!!  Since the February Photo-a-day prompt for today is "Inside Your Closet", I went with that.

These are all sections of a pretty little purse I have hanging in my closet.

There's more I Heart Macro Sunday over at Studio Waterstone!

Sketch or Forget

If you stopped by here yesterday, you saw my photo for the prompt "Words." I spent a portion of the previous day considering what my subject would be before settling on the canvas I made Pat.

Before making my decision, one of the main subjects that kept coming back to me was my sketchbook.

There are A LOT of words in there. I've found that it's imperative that I have some writing materials near me at all times because ideas will just pop into my brain no matter where I am. And if don't get these ideas written down (play epic disaster music with lots of drums now,) they just FALL OUT OF MY HEAD! It doesn't matter how enthusiastic I am about these ideas/designs or how much I swear I won't forget them, if I don't write it down it's gone. Sigh.

Now don't get me wrong, my book is not just full of jewelry ideas, but marketing ideas, blog topic suggestions (this was one of them), color combinations, craft experiments, poetry, doodles, straight-up journaling, links or websites to remember, lists of supplies, and so much more.

If I don't have my exact sketchbook with me, I'll just draw something out on anything. The other day I was in my car in the bank drive through when an idea came to me. Fortunately, there was a slip of notebook paper in the seat next to me to get the stroke of inspiration written down.

Since I know that I have a horrible memory, I write down just about everything I can. However, sometimes the ideas and memory-jogs that go into the book don't translate as well later. I've got quite a few design ideas that I just can't seem to decipher. It's a shame really because I'm sure I was really excited about those ideas when they came to me.

Right now I'm trying to keep up the momentum of getting all my ideas in the book, no matter how tiny they are or how out of this world. So it's filling up faster than usual. I like that. As well, I'm in the process of going through my sketchbook and attempting to actually make the ideas and designs come to life. I've had some successes as well as some failures.

Many of the successes (or what I consider a success) end up in the shop.

Bubbles Ascending Necklace

Many of the bad ideas never get made, but some have to be tried in order for me to discover what a bad idea it was, like this necklace.

I was going for a waterfall effect, but it just keeps tangling.

As I work through my sketchbook and ideas, I may be sharing some of them with you here. For now, though I'm just going to keep plodding through it.


Today I'm working on one of those inspirations that just HIT. You've probably seen them before, my Shabby Beads. My painted fingers were the perfect subject for today's February Photo A Day Challenge prompt.

Day 3: Hands

Also, there's a few GIVEAWAYS going on that I thought I'd share:

• Pips is offering up some of her Petal and Flower Capped Beads for just leaving a comment. So easy!!
• Over at Second Surf, there's a massive leather giveaway going on with several ways to enter. Get to it! 

What do you do when inspiration strikes? Do you have a sketch/idea book too or do you have other methods? I'd love to know.

Words For Valentine's Day

I've found that ever since we got this desktop set up in the living room. I haven't ventured very far from it. This means I've only gone into the craft room to gather my photography supplies. I think I need to remedy that issue this afternoon. Of course, I still have LOADS of photos to take and edit. . . .Oh well, I need a crafty break!

Today is Day 2 of the February Photo a Day Challenge and the topic is Words.

Here's the picture I captured.

Day 2: Words

I made this canvas for the hubs back in October for our anniversary. I thought it would be perfect to share today as Valentine's Day begins to creep up on us. Here's a link to my Sign of Love tutorial and a better shot of the finished piece.

I've got a notebook full of crafty jewelry ideas but am at a loss for what to make HIM for Valentine's Day this year. I was going to share some of the neat items I've made for Pat int he past for Valentine's, but all I can find documented is this Valentine's one from 2010. I wonder what's up with that. . .
Anyway, have you found or made any cool V-day projects? I'd so welcome the suggestions!

Picture This: BTW and Photo-a-Day (Day 1)

I should have probably explained yesterday that I had no problem at all with the multitude of FAILs written all over the blog. I knew I wouldn't get to all the goals in the first month and am really proud of what I have been able to accomplish so far. I've got no worries about it, and y'all shouldn't either!

I do have a long list though, so let's make this as short as possible.

It's Bead Table Wednesday!!

There probably won't be any beads on my table today as I'm still trying to play catch up. 

Yesterday was full of photographing completed jewelry.

Using my new photo tent, cooking dinner (crockpot), and washing dishes (dishwasher); I'm a multi-tasking fool!!

Today's plans are to edit those images. JOY!

Bead Table Wednesday

Join in the BTW fun in the Flickr Group.

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm participating in Fat Mum Slim's February Photo-a-Day challenge.

Day 1: Your View Today

The view from the desktop where I'll be editing those pictures.

It's time to get to it. What's your day look like?