More Fun with Plastic and Cyber Monday

I've been having so much fun playing with this new plastic idea! Look at the plastic beaver I made from a Cub Foods bag!

I made this squirrel eating an ice cream bucket "peanut".

These are available in my Etsy shop. By the way, I now have over 100 items for sale on Etsy! I took photos and loaded new jewelry and purses (and these pouches) to get ready for cyber Monday. In honor of cyber Monday, I'm offering blog followers and Facebook friends a coupon code for 10% off in my shop. Use code "cyber2011" from right now through the day Monday for your 10% off! That includes sale items! I'm also offering free shipping through the end of the year, too. Enter code "cyber2011" and I'll know you found it here, so I'll back out your shipping charges, too (you can only use one coupon code at checkout).

I saw Santa yesterday at the art and craft show.

That's a friend, Jackie, standing next to him. Notice the boots and winter jacket? We had a snow storm all that day. Roads were slippery, but the show was right in Ely so no traveling for me. Look at how festive it was!

Here is my friend, Velvet, setting up her mushrooms for sale. She has an Etsy shop, too!

And finally, my new, revamped display. I painted all of my props a deep burgundy, added a yellow/gold tablecloth, and Steve built me the steps for my jewelry display.

Fun with Plastic

I had a request to make a "Kindle pouch" but the person who asked me to make it actually liked the plastic bicycle bags I make better. So I decided to incorporate some plastic into the kindle pouch.

I took a Folger's coffee can lid and turned it into a raven. And then I cut out a "please recycle" statement from an ice cream bucket. I sewed the images to a green fabric. Look how cool!

Click the image for a larger view.

If she doesn't like it, it will be for sale on Saturday at the Miner's Dry. Others like it will be coming this winter and will be available on my Etsy shop.

Meanwhile, I've been busy making new shoulder bags for the Saturday show. I'll take some photos on Saturday to show you what was happening!

Snow Sparkling like Diamonds

It has gotten cold and the lake has begun to freeze. This morning it was 7 degrees when I took Tansy out for her Frisbee and saw my neighbor checking the ice depth. He said it's about 2 1/2 inches right now, but for sure it's not uniformly that thick, so we'll wait a while longer before venturing out. I usually wait until I see a big guy out there.

I went back out this afternoon and it was like living in magic land. The sky was a robin's egg blue with the snow sparkling like diamonds. It inspired me to create a treasury on Etsy. Treasuries are collections of things you find and like. Here's my treasury:



I've been working at revamping my art show display. I had time to contemplate my display on Saturday and I decided it was too drab. I got some deep burgundy semi-gloss paint and painted all of my props. I worked at making a stepped jewelry display and I got a nice solid gold/yellow backdrop. So far it's looking much better! I'll take a camera with me on Saturday to get a photo of the revamped look.

Swarovski and Spiced Butter

I got some gorgeous Swarovski crystals in the mail and decided to set them in silver plate. This photo is okay, but if you saw it in person, wow!

If we don't get a big snow storm, I'll be heading to an art and craft sale on Saturday in Virginia, MN. I have gift certificates now available to sell at the market and for sale in my Etsy shop.

I'm having a little dinner party tonight and the base of the dish uses spiced butter. So good! Here's how you make it.

Spiced Butter (from Marcus Samuelsson's The Soul of a New Cuisine)

1 pound unsalted butter
1/2 medium red onion, coarsely chopped
1 garlic clove,minced
One 3-inch piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cardamom seeds
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
8 basil leaves

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently. As foam rises to the top, skim and discard it. Continue cooking, without letting the butter brown, until no more foam appears. Add the onion, garlic ginger, fenugreek, cumin, cardamom, oregano, turmeric, and basil and continue cooking for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from the heat and let stand until the spices settle. Strain through a fine mesh sieve before using.

Store in the refrigerator in a tightly covered container for up to 3 weeks.

Sitting in the Woods

I haven't written a post for a whole week because I've been in the woods all week trying to catch a deer. If you've read these posts for a while, you'll see that I mostly cook with venison, fish, or vegetarian. I really have a very hard time buying meat in the store. Oddly enough, I'd rather hunt a deer than buy a package of meat.

Look at how beautiful the frost is in the woods.

Spending hours and hours and days and days sitting in the woods is like taking a week off to meditate. I don't bring along "things to keep me busy". I just sit.

All of that sitting in cold temperatures is good practice for ice fishing. You know I've had trouble with my foot and it now has nerve damage. I never used to get cold at all, but now that foot has trouble. I discovered foot warmers! They work great. I ordered a package of 40 to get me into the winter season. My good foot still doesn't get cold so I just used the warmers on my bad foot.

I packed a backpack of things I would need for the day and then hiked into the woods. Once at my spot, I hauled out all of my warm gear from the backpack. I switched from my hiking boots to my mukluks with the toe warmer in one boot. Here are the mukluks I wear - they make them right here in Ely, MN at Steger Mukluks:

I used to hike in with these, but since my foot trouble, I wear my hiking boots to hike in and then switch to mukluks to keep warm.

Steve got a deer last week Sunday. I spent Thursday processing it into steaks, ground, and stew chunks. Here is my processing station ready to go. I listened to David Sedaris's book on tape, When You are Engulfed in Flames.

After all of those days sitting, watching, and waiting, Steve was able to fill my tag yesterday morning with a big buck. Later this week I'll process that and our freezer will be set for the winter.

I'm looking forward to getting back to my normal routine.

Silversmithing and Cranberries

I've been working away in my studio and have made FANTASTIC new pendants using reclaimed silver. I didn't think I was going to set stones on silver plate anymore, but I guess I got a wild hair. Good thing because I love the direction this is going. What do you think?

I was going to post these yesterday, but it was so dark all day I barely had any light to photograph under. There are more on my Etsy shop and I have a few more to photograph.

While I was working on these, I smashed my finger with my hammer. This is unusual because I'm normally not accident prone. It's much better now and it looks as if my nail might actually be okay. I was dreading the months and month of ugly finger if I lost my nail.

It's cranberry season! I was watching Iron Chef last year and was inspired to make this cranberry sauce.

Sharee's Excellent Cranberry Sauce

1 bag of fresh cranberries

1/3 cup good maple syrup

2 T fresh lemon juice

1 tsp fresh crushed ginger

1 T dark rum (or bourbon)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 finely chopped jalapeno pepper, seeds and ribs removed (optional)

Dump everything into a sauce pan and simmer on the stove until the cranberries pop open and it begins to get a thickish consistency.

Put this on ice cream! Or lately I've been putting it with peeled, chopped apples for apple/cranberry crumble. I don't even add anything else to the apple and cranberry part! See this blog post for how to make the crumble topping.

Final Fishing and Homemade Fresh Cheese

We were able to sneak out one more time for a little fishing. I caught one fish, but it was able to finagle itself back into the lake. That's okay. Here's Tansy - her favorite thing about fishing is the lures. We have to be very careful that she doesn't get to bite one. Her other favorite thing is chasing a squirrel up a tree.

I decided to make some homemade fresh cheese to put in an Indian dish. In India this is called "paneer". It's super, super easy! You take a gallon of whole milk and pour it into a pot. Get it to just about boiling and then pour in about 1/3 cup of white vinegar or lemon juice. Here are the curds separating after I poured the vinegar:

Strain this through a cheesecloth lined colander. You can keep the liquid part (whey) and use it in baking if you like. Tie up the ends of the cheesecloth and suspend the bundle over a bowl or the sink to let it drain for an hour or so. If it looks too wet after that, you can place it between two plates and weigh down the top plate to further squish out the liquid.

Here is the finished cheese cut into cubes for the Indian dish I was making.

If you try this, let me know how it goes!