Pasta e Fagioli

If you're like me, you always thought the name of this Italian dish was spelled the way it was pronounced: pasta fazool.  My friend Betty Coviello (she would know) set me straight many years ago and shared this wonderful and very flexible recipe with me.  It remains a favorite of mine.

Betty's Pasta e Fagioli
1 medium onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup sliced celery
4 pork chops or ribs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
6 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cup macaroni
1 can canneloni beans (white kidney beans)

Saute the onion and garlic in the oil until golden.  Add the celery and pork chops.  Saute about 10 minutes.  Add the broth, salt & pepper (I never actually measure these).  Simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the macaroni and cook until barely tender.  Add the beans and heat through.

I serve this with a salad and garlic bread.  It never disappoints us.

Thank you Betty!

A BOGO Sale at The Jewelry Box!

My friend Brenda at The Jewelry Box is having a wonderful sale in honor of Mother's Day.  The sale is a BOGO Plus sale.  The BOGO part is Buy One and Get One at 50% off!  How awesome is that?  The Plus part is Free Shipping.  You can't afford to NOT shop with Brenda this Mother's Day.  Her sale will continue through May 9.  Don't forget about the graduates on your shopping list too.

Brenda's designs are sweet, feminine and very romantic.  Here is one of my favorites from her shop -- a beautiful bracelet for yourself, your mom, your best friend .... anyone would love to receive this as a gift.

Brand New Whiskey Quartz Earrings

If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know that I love marquis shaped gemstone briolettes.  There's just something about the way they taper to a point at the bottom.  It is so very graceful and appealing to my eye.

These earrings feature whiskey quartz briolettes in that shape.  The color is like warm honey.  Working with that warm theme, I added a small briolette of orange-y mandarin garnet alongside each one.

These earrings are for sale in my etsy shop.  Click on the photo to go directly to the listing.

Techniques & Tips :: Customized Pliers

Let's start with what this is NOT. This is not a tutorial about how to make a wrapped loop. This is a tip about how to make your wrapped loops just a little bit better.

Creating a wrapped loop (aka secure eye-wrap) is a basic skill that bead artists and jewelry artisans perform quite often. You probably have your favorite means of getting one of these things done – and you’ve done plenty, I’m sure.

At the very least, a wrapped loop requires 3 pairs of pliers: a chain nose for bending and straightening, a round nose for making the perfect loop, cutters for trimming. Here I will introduce you to the 4^th pair that I consider indispensable.

This is one of my original pair of chain nose pliers whose springs have long since broken off. I took the tip to the grinder (alright, Rick did it for me, but it was my idea) to make a super sharp point. You will see how handy this modification can be. Here's a close-up of the tips:

After making a wrapped loop and trimming the excess wire, even my best flush cutters often leave an itty bitty end of wire sticking out. When I say itty bitty, I mean really small. Many people will not even notice, but this kind of attention to detail can separate your work from that of others. These super pointy pliers are the perfect tool for pressing that little bit of wire inwards, in line with the main part of your wraps. There is an exaggerated amount of wire in this photo for demonstration purposes. (look just on top of the uppermost bead)

Even when doing a “messier” type of wire wrap, these pliers are the only ones that will successfully “tuck in” the ends of your wire, without disturbing your artful wrap. This is especially useful when working with smaller gauges of wire, such as 24 ga or 26 ga.

I Made Some Books

A few weeks ago, during one of my jewelry-making breaks, I gathered a bunch of my books on how to make books.  I spent 2 days making the 5 books you see in this photo.

Clockwise from upper left:  spiral bound book with clear acrylic covers and random papers, variation on stab binding, spiral bound book with gorgeous green paper on the covers, large black stab bound album type book, small lime green book.

The small lime green book is what most people would picture when the word "book" is mentioned.  As you can see from this photo, I need to work on aligning my signatures (book sections) when making this sort of book. 

For the stab binding variation book, I selected some of my own marbled paper for edging the covers.

One of the most fun things for me about making books is selecting the papers for the covers and inside plates.  I love working with all the colors and patterns available.

Busy as a Bee Necklace

While shopping at Artbeads, I found this really cute brass bee charm.  Charms are not usually my favorite thing, but I was taken by this little guy and added a few to my order. The flower shaped filigree is a new piece for me too.  I like the way they work together.

Of course, all of the glass beads I selected had to be yellow and black.  What else could I possibly use to accompany a bee?

I recently listed this cute necklace in my etsy shop.  Click on the photo to go directly to the listing.