Favorite Things - January 25

I have to admit, when I first came across this item, I thought it a little odd. But once it became available in glossy red, I was swayed by its prettiness and decided to give it a try.

And, then, it was love!

Today's favorite thing is my "I'm Not a Paper Cup" cup.

The original white ones look identical to a logo-less, big coffee chain, throw away mug. These cups, however are re-usable. They are a double walled porcelain cups with a silicone lid. The double wall has a hollow space between which provides insulation. The silicone top keeps the heat from escaping out the top. This means that your hot drink stays hotter for much longer. Ingenious! And pretty.

LolliShops

String Me Along Jewelry Design can now be found on Lollishops.

What is Lollishops? Well, its a self-described "frou-frou friendly marketplace". With a claim like that, what's not to love right? Here, you will find all things whimsical, fanciful and romantic. *sigh* Its like a dream come true.

I'm slowly building my little corner, and you can watch it grow right here by clicking on the flower below:


By the way, like the ring? Thanks. I finally ordered some more of the vintage enamelled metal flowers that I used last year and have been slowly rebuilding the metal flower garden. There are some new lapel pins and bobby pins already listed on etsy, with more to come.

And if you are heading over to my etsy shop, be sure to check out my new shop banner and avatar. I thought it was time for a little make-over. It is a new decade after all. I am really pleased with the result, and I think it just works beautifully with the new styles of jewelry that I have been creating lately. A shout-out to miamardesigns for creating the banner.

Hearts for Haiti

I applaud, truly applaud, those few individuals who are able to spring into action at the drop of a hat. Spurred on by a disaster in a far-away place, horrifed by the images that they see unfold on their TV's, they quickly formulate an idea to offer help and relief. More than that, they take that idea, they put it into action, and they make it work.

Below is an example of such a thing.

Artists are known for having small bank accounts these days yet their hearts are anything but. After the disaster in Haiti, one artist, Victoria van der Laan of Albany, NY, the artist behind Ex Libris Handmade (www.exlibrishandmade.etsy.com) posted a simple request on the forums at Etsy,

“I would love to see and potentially help to organize an Etsy shop established to fundraise for relief efforts in Haiti. Though I wasn't involved with this I understand a similar shop was started to help during the Australian bushfires last year. Does anyone know how this was done or have any suggestions on how it may work?”

Within minutes, dozens of fellow artists replied, offering their time, knowledge, and wares. This was January 13th. Heartsforhaiti.etsy.com was open for business by midnight on January 15th . With more than 200 artists contributing, they have raised over $1000 in less than 24 hours and contributors from all over the world are working around the clock to create items and get them listed in the online store.

Most of us do not even know each others names; we simply refer to each other by our shop names. To follow this story from its inception read the forum posts at http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6404152&page=1. The forum thread is a true illustration of the hearts and minds of the artists who have come together to aid the recovery effort in Haiti.

"The hearts of many in the Etsy community go out to the victims of the earthquake. Hopefully each of us, in our small and humble way, can help to alleviate some suffering." -Jesse (Etsy Admin. Announcement)

100% of the proceeds from items sold (excluding PayPal and Esty fees) will be donated to Doctors without Borders. Artists are paying the shipping costs themselves so buyers will not have to pay shipping. Plans are to keep the shop open for at least one month or until donations and volunteers are no longer available.

Favorite Things - January 22

Today's favorite thing is something that up until a month ago, I wouldn't have given a passing glance to, let alone believe that I could fall in love with.

It all started innocently enough, when the week before Christmas I was in a pub in Charlottetown with my sister. It was one of those December nights.... briskly cold and snowy. The weather of the day had taken its toll on my hands. Skin that tends to be dry at the best of times does not take kindly to endless days of briskly cold and snow. Thus, my skin had become so dry it was painful. My sister saw me wincing and out of her purse she whipped a sample tube of GoldBond Ultimate Moisturizing lotion.


I thought she was kidding and was not at all tempted by the idea of dry-hand relief. For years, I have believed that GoldBond had striven to make itself the most undesirable product on the market. When I thought "Gold Bond" I immediately thought of grimacing, dry, itchy elderly people. Not an image that I like to dwell on, let alone imagine for myself.

As I winced again and my knuckle ripped, I was persuaded to give it a try.

What a miracle. Within seconds my hands felt relief. The skin was considerably softer after just one application, and after I nicked it from her purse, they were 100% better by the end of the weekend.

Since that weekend I have stocked up on the lotion and have it readily available beside my bathroom and kitchen sinks, and in my own purse. My hands have never made it through a January day with such suppleness.

Golden Globes

Tonight is Golden Globe night. I'll be sleeping as the awards get handed out, but will remain awake to watch the parade down the red carpet.

In honour of tonight's fashion event, I have created this treasury on etsy.

I titled it "gwyneth at the globes" not because I am a big Gwyneth fan, but it was serendipitous that there was a dress called Gwyneth. Don't you love all those little golden and globe-shaped jewelry pieces? And what girl doesn't love a gorgeous black dress?

50 Books - 2009

I fell short again this year of my goal to read 50 books in the year. I came closer than the previous year. My guess too is that if I added in the cook books, craft books, other instruction books, plus books that I referenced a chapter here, a chapter there, in actualilty I far surpassed that goal. Add in the back of cereal boxes, magazines, newspapers, web-articles, etc, etc, and I have inundated myself with information which is of course a good thing.

My final counted tally of full books though stands at 43, and here is the list:

1) The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
2) Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult
3) The Hour I First Believed - Wally Lamb
4) Look Me in the Eye - John Elder Robison
5) The Gathering - Anne Enright
6) Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson
7) On Chesil Beach -Ian McEwan
8) The End of the Alphabet - CS Richardson
9) Tales of Beedle the Bard - JK Rowling
10) Daniel Isn't Talking - Marti Leinmbach
11) The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway
12) Tomorrow - Graham Swift
13) Born on a Blue Day - Daniel Tammet
14) Skeletons at the Feast - Chris Bohjalian
15) Mr Pip - Lloyd Jones
16) The Shack - Wm P Young
17) Remembrance of Things Paris - Ruth Reichl
18) World Made by Hand - James Howard Kunstler
19) Through Black Spruce - Joseph Boyden
20) Death by Rubber Duck - Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie
21) Girls in Trucks - Katie Crouch
22) A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
23) The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
24) Inside the Whale - Jennie Rooney
25) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows
26) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
27) Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
28) Watership Down - Richard Adams
29) A Member of the Wedding - Carson McCullers
30) The Witch of Portobello - Paulo Coelho
31) The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery
32) Coventry - Helen Humphreys
33) Still Alice - Lisa Genova
34) The Painted Veil - M. Somerset Maugham
35) All Our Worldly Goods - Irene Nemirovsky
36) Where We Have to Go - Lauren Kirshner
37) Fruit: The Story of a A Boy and His Nipples - Brian Francis
38) Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay
39) Gourmet Rhapsody - Muriel Barbery
40) The Wife's Tale - Lori Lansens
41) The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Barry
42) Night - Elie Wiesel
43) The Glass Castle - Jeanette Walls

I'm going to aim for the same goal this year and see if I make it.

Another Year, Another Decade

Honestly, how did that happen? I was prepared for the end of the year, but I was shocked to realise that a full decade had slid by so quickly. So much has happened in my life in the past ten years.

I began the last decade in Northern Ireland where I was at the tail end of a student-work visa. Once I came back to Canada, I completed the final year of my university degree, met and married my husband, went through 3 career changes (maybe one will someday stick), started a home-based business, and packed up again and moved to Atlantic Canada. And, really, there was so, so much more.

Of course, I have no way to predict what the coming decade will hold, but there are things that I would like to strive toward.

• I would like to see another change in location as I do tend to get restless.
  
• I would like to see my business grow.
  
• I would like to explore other creative ventures, perhaps returning to my love of writing in some larger aspect.
  
• I would like to be healthier. I am on the cusp of my 40's and I can no longer pretend that I am not getting older.
  
• I would like to continue to travel. Its a big world out there and I have only seen fractions of it.
  
• I would like to be more open to new adventures. I'm pretty adaptable to change, but sometimes have trouble getting my butt into gear unless I do something on a whim.

So, no real resolutions... more just a road upon which I will put myself and hope that I can follow. I expect that there will be detours, on- and off- ramps, and possibly some idiot will cut me off. But life is about the journey as much as it is the destination.

Christmas Memories

Christmas is such a magical time, and I love to take a few moments every year to recall Christmases past. There is no one specific moment that makes me think of that Christmas magic. Rather it is a collection of small moments that we enjoyed as a family.

As a child the excitement of Christmas is of course palpable, and it would build throughout the month of December. Every year we would weave some cedar boughs together to form an advent wreath. The first Sunday that a candle was lit would mark an escalation in excitement.

The following month would be a frenzy of activity as we would "help" Mom in the kitchen as all the holiday treats would be baked: fruit cake, mincemeat tarts, gingerbread, shortbread, sugar cookies, and the top-secret "nana-cookies". Oh, how hard it was to know that all these treats were hidden away in cupboards not to be eaten until the big day.

On one appointed night, each of us would take a turn hiding away with Mom to help her wrap gifts. It gave such a feeling of importance as we were called one by one into our parents' bedroom to help with this very important task. Adding the pointy edged bow was a hallowed task. After the tree was carefully chosen, set up, decorated these packages would be carefully stacked and then countlessly re-arranged under the tree. A little shake and shimmy to try to guess the contents, and scanning for a loose seam in the paper.

By the time that Christmas Eve rolled around their would be a fever pitch of giddiness. As we packed back into the car following Christmas Eve mass, we would be thankful that the torment was near its end. We knew that there would be only a few more hours of patient waiting. To
assure us that Santa was on his way, the car radio would be tuned to CFRB radio, where regular NORAD updates would help us track Santa's progress as he neared our home.

As my uncle would have arrived earlier that day to spend the holidays with us, my sister would have to share my room. We would cuddle together in my bed and laugh and whisper into the night, until the stern "If you don't go to sleep, Santa won't come" threat echoed up the stairs.

As the dawn broke we would wake, slowly realising that the big day was finally upon us. We would leap from bed and race around the house to be sure that everyone was awake. We would all meet in the living room where around the tree presents had magically appeared; stockings brimming with nuts and fruit and tiny gifts. We opened these first, and then after a hearty breakfast, we would open out gifts to squeals and shouts of joy.

I would have to say that of course the "Look like you love it" award has to go to Mom. Bless my father, I am not sure that he really understood how to help us choose gifts for my Mom. The frozen meat saw that he helped me choose for her one year, never made it out of the box it was packed in. But, of course, I got the biggest hug, kiss and thanks for that gift.

The day would be sent playing with our new toys, trying on Christmas sweaters and snacking on the cookies and treats that finally graced the table. It would end with a giant turkey feast and a feeling of complete satiation and weary joy.

As adults my family has tried to recreate as many of these moments as possible, and it is even more joyous as spouses, nieces and nephews are brought into the fold.

Please feel free to share your Christmas memories here, too.

Cookie Time

Yesterday, I realised with a shock that this is my last free weekend before Christmas. On Tuesday my sister will be arriving in Charlottetown via Toronto. So, my husband and I will be heading to the Island next weekend for the first of our family dinners. The following weekend, Christmas weekend, we head off to Cape Breton to my in-laws. That meant that anything that required intense labour needed to be done immediately. And naturally that meant cookies!!

I have been appointed the chief gingerbread baker for both families. I don't want to brag, but I may have developed a bit of a knack for it over the years. I use a Martha Stewart recipe that was in her annual Holiday cookie magazine about 5 years ago. The first time I made them, I realised too late that I did not have the called for amount of cinnamon so I had to improvise. The result was amazing, good and spicy the way I like it. Sadly, I didn't write down the changes that I made. This year, I nailed it again, and have pencilled the substitutions onto the page for future use.

After all the gingerbread dough was rolled, cut and baked, I ended up with an army of 77 gingerbread men of varying sizes. A veritable army... we will be invading a small sugar cookie country at dawn! I have yet to decorate the troops though, that will wait until tomorrow.

I also tried a new recipe this year, one that conveniently arrived in my email inbox. It is for perfect little candy cane meringues. (click for the recipe!) I made them smaller than the recipe suggests and ended up with approximately 60 mini meringues - a superb pop-in-your-mouth size. I added a drop of peppermint extract to the recipe too, and the result is a pleasing minty tingle on the tongue.

Tomorrow is sugar cookie day. The dough is made and chilling in the fridge. I must resist nibbling away at it!

I'll share all the final results later in the week.

Spice Market - Earrings - Redux

A huge shout of THANKS to one of my favorite etsy sellers, fiveforty. Five used her fabulous treasury curation talents and once again one of her collections made it to the etsy front page. This time, I was fortunate enough to be included in her collection with these Spice Market earrings.

If you wish to see the other items in the treasury, look at the right hand bar of my blog for a slideshow of all the items.

Secondly, a giant SHOUT of thanks for those who voted for these same earrings in the TransCanada Etsy Team's November Challenge. Thanks to you my earrings were the winner of this challenge.

Its been an exciting couple of weeks for those earrings. Yesterday, they sold and today they jet off as a surprise gift for some lucky recipient.

If you are interested in a similar pair of earrings, please feel free to contact me via my etsy shop, stringmealong.

Happy Hanukkah

Chanukah, the Jewish festival of rededication, also known as the festival of lights, is an eight day festival beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev. This year, that day is December 12th.

Hanukkah marks the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem after its desecration by the forces of Antiochus II and commemorates the "miracle of the container of oil". According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire , there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate fresh olive oil.

One of the main rituals of Hanukkah is the lighting of the Menorah. The menorah is a candlabra that holds eight candles. One candle is lit each night, and some light also those lit the previous night. One additional candle sits distinctly in the centre. This candle is called a samash, or guard. Often it is lit first, and then used to light the other candles. The candles will burn after dark, and should burn for at least one hour. At the time of candle-lighting blessings are recited.

Other traditions for this festival period including the cooking and consupmtion of fried foods. This is again related to the miracle of the oil. Most common are potato latkes, otherwise known as potato pancakes. These may be followed up with jam-filled doughnuts.

The dreidl is a fun Hanukkah past-time. It is a gambling game, where every player starts with a certain number of coins or markers. Players throw one into the pot, and the dreidl is then spun by the first player. Depending on the symbol which shows on the driedl once it has come to a rest, the player will win the whole pot, half the pot, none of the pot, or contributes another marker to the pot. The game continues until one player as all the markers.

Beautiful examples of dreidles can be found on etsy in the shop of LevSneiderman.

The giving of gelt is intended to make the holiday more enjoyable for children. The children are given coins by their relatives. In modern times, gelt have become available in a chocolate varient.

The giving of Hanukkah gifts is not traditional, but has become more commonplace. Gifts are typically small, although some families will give one large gift on the first or second night of Hanukkah, with smaller gifts for the remaining days.

Happy Holidays.

A Shop You Need to Know....

I have a fetish for journals. I have a ridiculously large, and expanding collection, of them. I take immense joy in handling a new journal, lingering over the texture of the cover, its heft, the thickness of the paper, the pleasant crisp snap of the first page as it is turned. I marvel over the promise that each fresh journal brings... the pages blank and clean and waiting to willingly accept my words or doodles. Nothing is more gratifying than that first whoosh of ink on that blank slate.

No journals though have brought me more joy than those made by etsy seller myhandboundbooks. I eagerly await their arrival in my mailbox. I take care though to slowly open the box , pulling the flaps gently so that the pleasing waft of leather scent slowly drifts upward, tickling my olfactory senses. A few moments spent deeply inhaling, are then followed by the gentle removal of the journal from the box. Clean hands only! No smudges, or fingerprints must be left on so soft and tactile a leather as these. Once in my clean hands, I run one finger gently over the cover, then tease the thin leather strap that holds it closed. Finally, a full open handed caress across the front cover and then turning it, repeating the gesture on the reverse. Once the initial fondling is complete, it is time to slowly, temptingly unwind the strap and carefully peel back the front cover. There it is ... the promise. Those crisp sheets herald the need to once again inhale the scent of the leather and paper.

My senses aroused, I need to set the book aside, but often catch myself stealing caresses, and sniffing gently along its spine. I require a few days before I can bring myself to marr those tempting pages with ink. I want to be sure that the first dab of ink results in something in profound.

The bookbinder behind my fetish is Rhonda. She has spent several years learning her craft, and creates beautiful journals and books structured mainly in the Medieval and Renaissance style. Clearly my favorites are her leather journals, but she also uses repurposed papers/cardboard, fabrics and most recently wood. She has also expanded her talents to include hand-dyed marbled papers, some of which are used in her journals.

If you wish to see an example of books that Rhonda created using repurposed cereal boxes, check out the book Re-Bound. She also contributed some information on instructional components to EcoBooks.

Rhonda's shop on Etsy is MyHandboundBooks. The shop where she sells her papers is, mymarbledpapers.


Learn more about Rhonda and myhandboundbooks on her blog.

First Snow of the Year

It arrived stealthily in the night. It came disguised as cold rain, gradually changing to "thick" rain, and when I woke this morning there was a thick and fluffy cushion of white. The skies continue to shed, and I am sitting curled up on my couch watching the soft tumble of flakes.

Days like this are perfect. I have no need to be anywhere. I have plenty of non-pressing matters to attend to, such as a stack of books that wish to be read; some cooking magazines that need to be drooled over; a pot of chicken soup that is waiting to relieve any chill that caresses me, and; lurking somewhere in the cupboard a can of cocoa waiting to be frothed together with milk for a perfect December afternoon treat.

These, my friends, are the days. A snowy December Sunday when one can allow themselves the luxury of kicking back, stretching out and putting everything off until tomorrow. Days like these are few. Enjoy it, knowing that all the planning and hard work that you have put in for the other 345 days of the year are paying off here, on this day.

You can see that someone on my street wasted no time taking advantage of the fresh snowfall.

Long, Cold Nights

It is December. The nights have grown exceedingly long, and the frosty chill in the air makes any outdoor exploit necessarily brief. With hours of darkness to pass, we need to look at interesting ways to fill them. Naturally, snuggling seems like the most fun way to pass the time, but sometimes you need alternate plans.

There are plenty of ways to fill all those hours though, and one of the most fun options is to have a family or friends game night. Dust off all those exciting old board games and indulge in a little friendly competition.

Everyone is familiar with the old classics like Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble and my personal favorite, Boggle.
There are so many more games available these days, though. Maybe try this fun decision making game, "Would You Rather...?". Discuss and debate a series of interesting dilemmas and predicaments.
Trivial Pursuit made trivia games popular over 25 years ago, and it has some great new company on the trivia scene. A more high-tech version can be found with the DVD-based games by Scene-It.

Now, toss some cushions on the floor. Make some snacks, pour some drinks and have fun!