New Light Box

I made a new light-box today. I mostly use it for taking photos for my Etsy shop It was ridiculously easy to make, though I made it a little too big, I think it will last longer than my one. All it took was some white foam board and white duct tape. i simply taped the boards together, as tight as possible and cut the two sides. That was it. Now I am working on getting the light right.

Most beautiful Hematite Necklace

I am so excited to see Liz's reaction to her birthday present. Joe requested a necklace and earrings for her. I love how the necklace came out! I wish I had more pictures of it. I will have to take some of her wearing it. I used hematite, rose quartz, silver spacers, onyx, and white & gray cat eye. The hematite has been in my collection forever. This is the first time I have thought to use the stone in a piece. I usually see it all strung together, just hematite, with no other stones. This sort of bores me, maybe that is why I have never used it?
The stone has wonderful meaning to me. “It helps to balance out the emotions and energies between the body, mind and spirit.” I immediately think of Liz's calming aura, gentle nature and Yoga background . So I felt it was a good thing to incorporate into her necklace. You can read more about it here:
http://www.sobrietystones.com/resources/GemBook/Stones/meanings_gemstones_hematite.htm
It was fun piece to put together. It was late on Friday night., Noah and I had come back from mountain biking with Bob, Tammy and Dave. The Greek food we took to Dave's house was yummy and sitting around chatting was lovely too. When I got home I was very inspired, so I sat down and started putting some stones on a string and playing around with their order. I envisioned something dark, yet sexy and sweet at the same time, just like Liz ;). The grays, black and hematite mixed with the rose quartz, white cat eye and silver turned out to be the perfect combination. After a few hours of shuffling stone around, it was bed time.
Over some coffee in the morning, the necklace was finished, beautiful and I managed to snap a few photos before it was packed away, ready to be gifted. It was sneakily passed along to Joe when they visited later in the day. And hopefully, she will enjoy wearing it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Waste-0-Time-Interview

I had one of those interviews today, where you walk in and you immediately know the place is really not for you. But you are already there, so you may as well go through with it. You go into the office, "Hi, I am here for the interview" but can't help thinking, "nope, not the place for me."

"Hi." "Here is a paper for you to fill out," even though I printed your resume which has all the same information, we will waste a few more trees anyway. Oh and Let me show you to this tiny little room, with terrible florescent lighting, an uncomfortable chair and absolutely nothing interesting to look at. Relax and get comfy, yeah right!

Upon handing back the paper, "ok, I will be right in to talk with you." But first, your resume reminded me to tell the secretary, loudly so you can hear, that the ad should say "must be multi-lingual."

"Hi." This is when I should have said, "you know, I am just going to go, I do not like you, you do not like me, let's never work together, shall we." :) But no, blah, blah, blah, yes please call in a week so we can tell you we hired someone else. Um, no thanks.

Thankfully, this was all after a fabulous interview, where I was told "let's go sit on the couch where it is more comfy." Thank you wonderful play-based child care center. Thank you.

Awesome Bike Event In Cailifornia

This will be a fun event, with great people and fabulous rides. Be sure to come in a costume, there will be prizes if your is the best!

Here is the link for the event

Mountain Biking and Moroccan Beef

What a fabulous day. Noah and I meet with the South Bay mountain bike meet-up group as well as the mountain bikers of Santa Cruz at Wilder Ranch. It was a fabulous ride and we meet some really nice people. I will definitely be keeping in touch with some of them.

We forgot to go the store on the way home so chicken and beef fajitas were out. Somehow I decided that Moroccan Beef sounded good and thought, hmmm...can we make that? I of course want the flavor of the one from the Blue Shirt Cafe in Davis Square in Somerville, MA, but I will make due. I was inspired by this recipe:

http://mikes-table.themulligans.org/2008/03/09/moroccan-beef-stew/

and here is what I came up with.

Variation of Moroccan Beef


1/4 white onion, thinly sliced
Beef (desired amount)
1 can garbonzo beans, drained, not rinsed
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
1 lemon
1/4 raisins

Mix together desired amount of spices. I sprinkle a little of each in a little bowl, smell and add more. Of course I have a big Italian nose that is very sensitive to smell, so this works for me! :)

paprika
coriander
cayenne pepper
cloves
cinnamon
Jamaican all-spice
nutmeg
black pepper


Sauté onion, preferably in a cast iron pan. Sprinkle spices on beef.

Add beef to pan, stir around, let sauté about 3 minutes.

Add sliced zucchini and squash, stir, let cook 2 minutes or as long as it takes to open the can of tomato and beans. :) Add raisins, tomato and beans, stir, cook medium for a few minutes .

I cooked it covered for a few minutes and then uncovered for about 30 minutes, just to reduce some of the liquid. (We did have to add some cornstarch, some maybe uncovered will be just fine.) Serve with Rice. I am not siure what veggie would go well on the side? I will have to look into that.

It smells fantastic! I have not yet tried it, but I cannot imagine it will be bad. I have never made anything with these spices, should be interesting. I made brown rice with low sodium bullion cube to go with it, it also smells good. I guess I am getting the hang of the electric stove I was so dead set against when we moved to California. And it works just fine with the cast iron pan, which is what I was so nervous about.

Pictures to come. I have to use my other computer because digiKam always crashes on this one!

Origami Box

Since I am selling my Jewelry on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/scaltro), I now have to figure out how I am going to package the items I sell. I am working with a very limited budget and need to figure out how to get it done and cheap!

I looked at buying small boxes but they are really pricey. I found some small bags I had and tried stamping them and tying bows on the but they just look funny. I thought if I can make boxes, that could work, maybe it will not cost to much.

So after searching for how to make an origami box I am so psyched to have my new packaging all figured out. I got some scrapbook card stock, a paper cutter( really love it), and went to work. Folded it up origami style and now have my packaging problem solved. I can't wait to experiment with different sizes. Origami is fun!

First Sale :)

I am very excited to have my first sale on Etsy. Kate's lovely sister Amanda bought a pair of Custom Light Blue Cat Eye earrings. :) Sweet, thanks Mandy!

I made a light box today. I'll add a picture later. It is not quite right yet, but it is better then nothing. I think I just do not have the right light, the one I have is hard to clamp on things. It is also too yellow and I swear I could smell burning, but I do have a crazy nose! According to Noah (my love), I either "hate it" or it "smells bad." He is so right! Those truly are my catch phrases.