Stuff your Stocking!

I've been working like a little elf all weekend (well Saturday anyway;) at my bench on some new pieces that would make great little stocking stuffers with prices coming in under $23. I'll be listing a few of these today with more to come this week!

I'm also working on a new little collection I've entitled "Silent Night" which features a soothing, softly romantic combination of silvery white keishi pearls, seed pearls, Moonstone and oxidized sterling silver. The photo above is the bracelet in the collection which is still a work in progress... he still needs oxidizing, polishing and a few other finishing touches but look for this collection to debut this week!

Newest new member..

Hanna. This little wild ball of grey was found meowing like there was no tomorrow under my deck one stormy Saturday afternoon in late August. We decided to name her after one of the two tropical storms/hurricanes that had been brewing in the Gulf of Mexico that weekend. If she was a girl obviously she would be Hanna and if a boy we were going to name him Gus after Hurricane Gustav. A trip to the vet that Monday confirmed my suspicions that we had a little girl on our hands - I don't try to guess any more because the last few times I did that I ended up with a girl kitty named Howard, a male duck named Lilly and a female goat named Norman ;).

But I'm guessing someone decided I needed another kitty (I already had 2 - Jackson and Alley) and dumped her out here. I haven't seen an adult cat outside around here in months - probably a year - because they seem to be a favorite meal of the coyotes that live on the 500 acres across the road. Needless to say my kitties spend all their time indoors although I could desperately employ a barn cat!

Almost time..

For PECAN PIE! Yum! Yum! Yum! We have 10 pecan trees here on the little farm with 8 of them producing nuts this year (sometimes they decide to take a year off for vacation I think ;). So plenty to share!














It has become a tradition that I bring pecan pies made with our home grown pecans and fresh eggs from my little chickies to Thanksgiving dinner.. my whole family looks forward to them!
Here's the recipe if you'd like it try it - I typically double it for 2 pies:
PECAN PIE
3 eggs
1 cup corn syrup
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup of butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups of pecan halves
Beat eggs lightly w/ a fork. Stir in corn syrup, sugar, butter and vanilla. Stir well. Stir in pecan halves.
Place a pastry lined 9 inch pie plate on the oven rack (you can make your own pie crust which I do sometimes or if I'm feeling lazy the frozen ones at your local grocery work well too - just be sure to get the deep dish variety!). Pour filling into pie plate. Cover edges of the pie crust with foil and bake in oven at 350 for 25 minutes.
Remove foil and bake for another 25 minutes or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool and then enjoy!

* As a little side note if you mention "pecan" in the notes to seller in either of my shops I'll refund the shipping to you now through Thanksgiving (Nov. 27)! =)

Back in the Saddle

Or so they say ;) ... Stay tuned for updates about both my Etsy shops and a little bit about me thrown in here and there =).
The first little piece 'o news is I will start offering commercial sterling silver findings and chains in my little Loft. I have got a couple of pieces listed already with more to come in the upcoming weeks. I'm also thinking of adding a small collection of some of my hand crafted findings starting with the earwires you see in the pair above. So stay tuned!

Hooky!

So this is where I spent the day yesterday - on top of Blood Mountain in the North East Georgia mountains =). The weather here has been so nice and spring like the last few days that I just had a mad case of spring fever and couldn't take it anymore! Especially since the forecast is for rain this weekend. So me, Dan and Debbie (our pooch) loaded up in the truck and headed for the hills for a little day hike and now I'm paying it for this morning! But it's back to "work" for me today! Hope spring time finds you soon if it hasn't already! =)

Newest Addition

So this is Jackson the newest member of our little homestead =). He just appeared one day on the carport of my friend Michelle's house. Apparently word must have gotten out that she's good at finding kitties new homes because they keep finding their way to her doorstep!
He's made himself right at home here the last two weeks and his favorite past time is trying to catch my fish through the glass. The fish have figured out he can't get to them so now they swim by and taunt him - it's too bad I don't have a video camera because it's quite funny!

And obviously I have been slacking on updating my blog so I'm trying to get back at it! I've had quite a bit going on over the last few months!
My parents moved over the holidays. They finally sold their old home to the GA DOT =( - see my previous post about eminent domain, found a new home and moved in over Thanksgiving weekend. So we were back and forth between here and Rome (a 2 hour drive) ALOT over the holidays! Dan had a bout with the flu followed by Bronchitis so I had to baby him for a bit ;), we took a little weekend get-away trip to the Smoky Mountains in Jan and we've been actively searching for a bigger piece of land to possibly build a new home on one day. Add all that to the normal routine of taking care of our little farm and all the critters and it turns into quite a busy few months! And now I'm excited to announce I will be opening a second shop on Etsy in the next couple of weeks to share some of my gemstone goodies with everyone! So be on the lookout for updates and when to come visit me at jNicLoft to take a peek at some of the goodies I've been stashing away!

Thanks!

To Cuteable for featuring me on their Myspace Blog page!
myspace.com
And to wickedlychic.com for featuring my Blip earrings shown above in their daily ditties section!
I'm completely humbled and I thank you much! =)