big happenings

Many of you already know that for the past few months Jake has been in the process of interviewing for his first post-medical residency job. We are extremely (there really isn't an appropriate word here) excited to announce that this month he signed a contract for a hospital in the area. This means that we can finally start planning for, you know, the rest of our lives. It will probably take a couple more years for that to sink in fully haha.

Past, present, and future: med school, residency, and job (although they're arranged in the opposite order here because I was trying to get the pens to balance in such a way that you could see the writing).

 He'll start this new position in July 2015. It means the world to me that so many people have already been so supportive of this upcoming transition.

Have there been any big happenings your way lately?

some usual happenings

Here are just a few of the things that have been going on with me the past couple weeks.

food

One of my personal goals when we moved to Milwaukee was to continue to try new recipes on a regular basis.  I've been doing pretty well with that.  Does anyone else sometimes find a recipe that you feel a need make right away?  That happened to me last week when I came across the recipe for baked avocado fries.

I baked some mushrooms, too, because I figured it couldn't go too wrong.  It didn't.  I paired them with a simple lettuce salad with honey mustard dressing and sliced ham and chicken.  I know that it doesn't look like a huge plate of food, but it was very filling.  If I make this again, I'll spice up the breading mix a bit.  Some garlic powder, salt, and pepper would go a long way.  Otherwise I was happy with it.

I printed out Natalie's Sesame Soy Tahini Sauce recipe a couple weeks ago with no specific plan for what I was going to make with it.  Jake got tired of what I normally put in stir fry so I've been switching it up lately and decided to give this a try.

I substituted a couple ingredients for what we had on hand.  I marinated shrimp in this sauce and then paired it with sugar snap peas, water chestnuts, sweet orange pepper, onions, mushrooms, and egg noodles.  So good!  Jake liked it, too.  If you like any kind of sesame and/or nut marinade/dressing, you will really enjoy this.

Angel

Those of you who have cats know that what did not cross their minds one day suddenly becomes an obsession the next day.  That's how going outside has been with Angel.  She never expressed an interest until last month and now she asks to go out in the back yard at least a few times a week.  She only likes to step out a couple feet so we normally let her (unless it's really early or late).

buttons

Also as I mentioned on Monday, I've been working on a new button tree, this time with a fall theme.  I have all of the buttons on now.  I'm going to add some felt leaves and then attach a felt base.  I have a spiky gold ornament as the topper for my Christmas tree.  Any good ideas on a topper for a fall tree?  It's not essential that it has one, but it would be a neat touch.

cards

I have been going crazy with the mini cards lately (they're about an A2 size).  There are over 20 birthday cards here as well as a handful of spring and Mother's Day cards.  I have a bunch more of both, as well as some graduation cards, in the works, too.

More on that soon.

I also made a new birthday card design for one of Jake's fellow interns/will be fellow PM&R residents.  He and his wife got Jake a birthday present last summer when we'd only known them for a month so we really wanted to do something for his birthday.  When his wife sent out the invite e-mail, she said something about how he had just celebrated his ?? birthday and that they were having a party that weekend in honor of it.  I may flesh this design out to an A7 size card and include an inside message about how birthdays are always worth celebrating, regardless of age.

coasters

I had a lot of fun making my coasters last month that I was fired up to make another set already.  I decided to make some for the previously mentioned birthday.  It was kind of a random present choice for a guy, but I figured it would be something practical that he and his wife could use, which it definitely was.  We put them to good use before the party was over.  I am really happy with this geometric design and will be making more similar to this in the future.

Stay tuned next week for an update on some unusual happenings, including getting new living room furniture and doing some major organization overhaul.

What have you been up to lately?  Any interesting cooking or crafting endeavors?

June happenings

I took pictures of a few non-craft related things have been going on this month to share with everyone.

Right before we left Iowa, my master's degree diploma arrived in the mail.  That was a really nice surprise.  I figured it would take at least a couple more months.

When my mom and grandma were in town last week, my grandma bought me and Jake a year membership to the Milwaukee Art Museum as a graduation present.  While we were there, we also had to check out the restaurant and the gift shop.  Jake and I have already been back once so no worries that this membership will actually be used for viewing the art there haha.

Angel has to come up to the main floor of the house at least a couple times a day for her food and water.  She was reluctant at first, but she's coming up more often now.

Angel hasn't discovered the sun coming in on the porch and living room floors in the morning yet.  I'm hoping that she does at some point.

Finally, here's a shot at part of our walk in pantry that is now somewhat organized.

I'm working on an in progress crafty post for later this week.  Stay tuned.

DIY, recent random happenings, need an opinion on a new picture idea

I decided to break things up tonight and post a few pictures of recent happenings (particularly of non-jewelry DIY projects) before I post about one jewelry picture idea that I would like some feedback on.

I've been perfecting the art of the self French manicure for the last few months.  Yes, those are my real nails.

As I've mentioned before, I started making my own thank you cards this summer for my Etsy package.  I put a few of them in my light box today while I taking some other pictures.  Pink is not my favorite color, but I made a pink/green baby card for someone (who loves both of those colors) and decided to make this set with the scraps from that little project.

Jake and I started watching Man v. Food this summer.  We saw a few episodes on cable while we were in the Dells and now watch it on Netflix.  For those who have seen the show, we got inspired by the Minneapolis episode and decided to make our own Juicy Lucy burgers.  They turned out pretty well.  Yes, each burger does consist of two 1/3 pound burger patties, and no, I did not eat the entire thing in one sitting.

Also on the subject of food, I'm sure that many of you already know this, but I like to bake even more than I like to cook.  I made pumpkin muffins last week.  I got the recipe from this cookbook which is written by Billy Joel's wife.  That cookbook is still one of the most random things I've found in the new nonfiction section of the library since I started browsing there regularly last year so I wanted to share that.

A picture of Angel that I took while Jake was setting up some of his Warhammer models in the light box.

I took a few dozen pictures of some of Jake's newest models yesterday.  I won't post all of them here, but I'm pretty happy with the way that they turned out.

And finally, while I was taking jewelry pictures today, I experimented with a new idea.  Jake doesn't like the way that it looks because he thinks that my hand ends up looking distorted. I think that a lot of people have trouble determining how a piece of jewelry is proportioned without a human model or a mannequin.  I don't provide any sort of model in my pictures currently so I thought a shot like this might help my shop viewers.  I have pretty small hands, but they will still provide a clear visual for how wide the bracelet is, how large the embellishment is, is it a long or short bracelet, etc.  I like the first shot better than the second.  I did not shoot any with a white background, but I could experiment with that if you think it would work better.  Let me know what you think.  Please be honest.  I am open to the possibility of using a plastic hand mannequin, too.  I just don't own one currently.  Thanks in advance!

weekend progress/happenings

I didn't list anything this weekend after the Valentine's Day bracelet, but here are some pictures of a few other things that have been going on.

Posting the sneak peak pictures of my champagne/blue fringe cuff back at the beginning of October definitely inspired me to work on it more. Here is how much I have left. I just might finish it before Christmas!

Here is a picture of how the base of my "Peace Piece" for the next EBW Challenge is coming along. I restarted it twice which is why I'm not further along than I am. Thankfully the challenge piece isn't due until Dec. 5 so I still have plenty of time.

I finished my newest batch of magnets. All except the top one (which I'm keeping) are going to be part of my Christmas present for my two aides at school. Our district's colors are purple, teal, white, and gray. You all know how much I love teal/turquoise and how much I've been into purple this past year so I figured it would be a good choice on a couple levels. One of my aides also loves the purple/orange color combination so I made a few of those for her set.

I would like to do a pink/green/white set and a black/white set next, both for Christmas presents. :)

I got my most recent Art Bead's package on Saturday, thanks to my $20 gift card. I know that the cube beads on the top left look weird. They're both gold-lined beads.

Finally, my husband took some pictures of me with our cat Angel today. I don't post a lot of pictures of myself because I'm the one who's usually taking the pictures. Thus, I don't have a lot of myself. Here are a couple for you, though. I'm sure that most of you won't even notice this, but I feel like I should point out that my wedding ring is being repaired right now which is why I'm not wearing it.


Enjoy the last part of your weekend! :)