Winter Blues Blog Hop

Liz of Bead Contagion decided that one way to fight the winter blues was to throw a blog party. She decided that her extra stash of navy blue goldstone beads would be the perfect thing to chase those blues away.

The deep color of these stones with their bit of sparkle does remind me a lot of van Gogh's Starry Night series. While I of course love the one that is so popular with the swirls in the sky, this quieter one of the bridge over the Rhone is my favorite. It has the balance of deep blue night and a touch of gold. I can almost feel the warm summer air. Almost. Boy am I done with this winter.

I am with Liz on this, this winter has had a continued oppression this year. I saw a great meme a few weeks back that went something like this ... "Is it just me, or does anyone else think we're stuck in a snow globe & some jerk keeps giving it a shake?!"

Yep. That pretty much sums it up for me. It just kept snowing, and snowing and snowing this year. In fact I woke up to snow yet again this morning. 

Liz sent quite a large stash of these deep blue beads. Not only did she send a large doughnut, and several small ones, she also sent some beautiful small rounds. So after finishing the necklace I decided to also make a bracelet, but this time with a touch of silver. Blue goes so well with either metal!

Liz certainly did chase the blues away, and now I can't wait to see what everyone else created. Check out all the other bloggers: Liz (our host), Therese, Bobbie, Christine, Amy, Jasvanti, JoJo

CC7A: Circle of Love

Last year a group of us were brought together by Alicia Marinache of All The Pretty Things. We named our group CC7A (Creative Continuum of 7 Artists). 

Once the year ended, we started to talk about a year two to the group, and this year Alicia is changing it up a bit. We are kicking off with these lovely stone doughnuts she shared with us all, and then for the rest of the year we are using color pallets as inspiration for our creations. Our kick off post to get us all back together Alicia called 'The Circle of Love' represented with this collection of doughnuts.

There is, of course, yet one more story of that wacky Canadian Post. Alicia sent out Christmas cards and within them she included one of the doughnuts pictured. However, the Canadian Post seemed to have removed doughnuts for any of the cards heading over the boarder. I have to say that I was curious why Alicia had sent me a Christmas card with a bit of wrapping paper included? Nothing else, just wrapping. But when she followed up in email we quickly discovered that all of us South of the boarder had our stones confiscated. 

I'm actually not sure which one of the doughnuts was sent to me, but I picked up this lovely cherry quartz one to create my piece. While this looks like a simple pattern, I actually broke (ok snapped in half) the bail and had to start again. The wire loop just did not want to cooperate. But once I got it to behave I added just a bit of leather for the necklace as I did not want to overwhelm the 'rustic gate' feel to that bail.

I'm looking forward to another year with my CC7A group, and can't wait to see what everyone else created. Please stop by the rest of the team's blogs: Alicia (our host), Christine, Emma, Monique, Sally and Therese.

Make Your Own Sushi

I know, this isn't my typical blog topic, but the sun came out on Sunday this weekend and made me hopeful that Spring is nearly here. 

When the weather warms up, I love to have more fresh veggies in the diet. And one thing that my family loves is some simple sushi.

In fact, The Bead Girl is kind of obsessed with sushi. If it is her turn to pick where we go for dinner, she picks sushi. If it is her birthday and she chooses the destination, she will pick sushi. If she is at the grocery store with me she beelines over to the sushi counter and raises a hopeful eyebrow. So last Fall for her birthday one of the things we gave her was a sushi maker thingy called Sushezi. I know it is a strange thing to give a 12 year old, but considering her love of this stuff ... it just seemed right. She was pretty excited when she saw it. So when the sun popped out yesterday we pulled out a few key ingredients and got cooking. It is actually really easy:

SUSHI RICE

Pot of rice (2 cups rice, 4 cups water, 1 pat butter) bring to a boil, then simmer until done

Rice vinegar solution (1/3 cup vinegar, 2 teaspoons sugar, dash salt) boil until sugar is dissolved

Mix the vinegar solution into the rice until it holds together

MIX AND MATCH FILLINGS

Steam any root vegetable until just tender (boil for 3-4 minutes) slice in matchsticks

Remove the outside of cucumber, slice in quarters, carve out seeds, slice in matchsticks

Half an avocado and slice 

Add any seafood (lump crab, grilled shrimp, grilled or steamed salmon)

PUTTING IT TOGETHER:
We used the sushi maker and packed in some rice on either side, then add the slices of veggies, or pieces of seafood. Mix and match and add whatever sounds good to you. Fold the top over (the side with just rice), latch then push down using the inside press. This last step compresses all the ingredients, and presto ... a perfect sushi log every time! Just place the sushi log on some nori (the seaweed typically around the outside of sushi). I use a bamboo mat that helps to roll and lock the seaweed in place, and then just slice it into pieces about an inch thick. 

Our sushi might not be exactly perfectly round by the time we plate it up, but it is fun to make and tastes amazing. Since everything was just cooked and sliced, the sushi was still slightly warm. It doesn't have that refrigerated, dense rice ball flavor or feel you get from sushi bought in the store or at a deli. The rice is soft and the flavors are fresh, and makes me feel like spring is just around the corner. 

I Have to Ask One More Time, Will It Ever Stop Snowing?

If you are anywhere in the US Northeast then you are in my snow-globe world. Someone keeps picking it up and shaking it. What's a girl to do on yet one more snowy day? Pull out my beads and wait for the snow to stop long enough for me to break out the shovel at get to it (again). 

You see we will need to shovel today because it will turn to rain at some point later in the day. And since there is roughly a new 12 inches of snow (yes there really is since it has been snowing for 24 hours) all the rain will do it turn it to slush. 

And here is the fun part. By Sunday the temperature will drop below freezing until Weds which means a whole new layer of ice out there to slip on as I navigate the front walk and driveway each day to get on my way to work. 

And so I ask one more time, will it ever stop snowing? Because from where I stand in the snow globe it does not appear to be anytime soon. I might sound just a tad crabby about all this because I am. If any of you see the guy that is shaking my snow globe can you ask him to put it the _!#@%__ down already.

A Desk With a View

Seems several of you guys were curious about my office space, so I'll show you a bit more. There are lots of interesting corners in my office, so it might take several blog posts to get through this. But let's start with the actually desks themselves. 

We have enough desks for roughly 80-85% of the people in the office because on any given day there tends to be about 15-20% of the people out whether that is traveling, at meetings cross town or home sick. There are plenty of places to 'plug in' even if for some reason you can't find a desk. After 6 months in this office, I haven't heard one person complain that they could not find a place to sit and work. I usually do sit at a desk with a monitor (you can see my set up here in the pic). I am always the first one in to the office as I get in at 7am each morning. 

When you get in, you decide where you want to sit. It is a first come, first served situation. Which means you likely won't get the same seat day after day. Although several people try. You could if you get in as early as I do, but what fun would that be to always sit in the exact same place when you don't have to?

I do, however, like to sit up front by the big windows where there is a ton of sunlight. After nearly 30 years in an office (oh god did I just admit that?) I have a vitamin D deficiency. My doc told me I will have to take 1000mg a day for the rest of my life. So I try to find ways to get a bit of sun into my day when I can.

I love these windows. They are floor to ceiling and overlook Herald Square. Across the street are wonderful old prewar buildings, one of which is a mini flat iron shape. I love the architecture in NYC; it is one of the things I enjoy most about this city. I could spend weeks wondering around with my camera just taking pictures of buildings and looking up their history.

The 'corner office' is actually a lounge area (on both sides of the the office). So that anyone can enjoy the view during a meeting. I do love the democracy of that. You can see a few of the lockers I mentioned yesterday behind the lounge. Those are double stacked, so you need to be selective with what you absolutely need to keep in the office. Also notice that the desk is clean as you are expected to pick up everything each night. Well everything, except the monitor and the cords. 

The open campus, as they call it here, is an interesting concept and has taken a bit of time to get used to. But I actually do enjoy it most days. 

St. Patrick

Much of my day is spent in Manhattan at the office. But I rarely show you what goes on there. And while I won't bore you with the 'work' part of that ... I can show you some of our new digs. 

About 6 months ago we changed our building location and moved into a a new style of floor plan. It's what's called an 'open floor plan.' Sounds nice, right? Plenty of space, big windows, lots of lounge-like areas. So what's the catch? The catch is that in order to get lots of cool fun common area, you have to give up offices. Wholesale. There are no doors in this place expect those on the bathroom stalls, a handful of conference rooms and the front door to the office. We sit in rows of desks. In fact, we don't have assigned seating. Instead we all were issued a locker (the size of which you'd get at the bowling alley to keep your shoes and jacket in). Seriously, no kidding.

But there are fun things about this open floor plan. Lots of collaboration (aka noise) and people leaning in to impromptu meetings. The entire floor is the length of a New York City block, which makes for a lot of walking in a day. It is really common for people to wear the biometric bracelets to keep track of steps, heartrate, etc. I've heard from several people that they'd made their 'step goal' by noon. 

With this week being St. Patrick's the office threw a little party in our beer garden. Yes, we have a beer garden. It is fully stocked with one of our client's products --- beer (from Miller Coors). It is always stocked with beer, so if you feel like grabbing one after work with a co-worker then it is only a few steps away. I especially love the gnome side tables. They make me giggle every time I see them, and they make me think of Christine and Bobbie who seem to have an affinity for them. 

To date my blog has been mostly about beads, various travel and history. But I've been doing so much lately at the office, including business travel, that I thought I'd share some of these stories. This part of my life seems to be eating into my beady life, so I might as well show you what is consuming my time lately. Hope you all have a happy (and safe!) St. Patrick's celebration!

Old Turquoise and Gifting

I posted earlier in the week some beautiful old carnelian from my mother-in-law, and I promised to show you the old Indian turquoise as well. These are simple. Just baubles really, but they were designed for the wearer. 

My sister-in-law is notorious in the family. She is the one that when you've gifted her something that she knows instantly she isn't fond of, you will know it shortly there after. I've learned over the years that she really just wants a little something simple, that dangles from her ear. She isn't big on bracelets, although she has a few. She doesn't prefer necklaces as she only wears a handful if she wears one at all. It is earrings that she enjoys.

But here is the thing. She has MS, and earrings are not easy for her. She doesn't want anything fussy. She just wants a natural stone. So when my mother-in-law handed me the strand of old Indian stones at Thanksgiving, I instinctively handed it to my sister-in-law to ask which stones she liked. She said turquoise. But I knew she'd say that. 

She then reached into her purse and said, "oh I've been meaning to ask you," which usually means a jewelry project is imminent in my future. I had made a pair of simple sodalite earrings for her years ago. Apparently she had worn them so much that they were both missing earring backs, and one the jump rings to the earring post had long since broken lose. To know my sister-in-law is to know that this is a sign of love. She had worn these to death. I smiled, and said I'd fix them and send them back. I only kept the stones, and gave the rest of the setting a face lift with new silver findings. These two pair went out to her for Christmas. And I got a very sweet card back. It's funny, I've never encountered that look from her. The one when you know she doesn't like the gift.

Old Carnelian

I've talked about my Mother-in-Law before and the fact that she grew up in India. Through the years, she collected many pieces of jewelry. Mostly from local vendors selling bits and pieces, polished stones or hand knotted jewelry. Some are simply strands of beautiful stones. This past Thanksgiving she pulled out another strand from the jewelry box to give me, and simply said "I figured you could pull this apart and create something new and pretty." She knows me well. That is for sure.

There were several types of stones in this recent strand including carnelian and a green turquoise. Typically people do not associate turquoise with India, but actually it has been mined there for centuries and there are some beautiful colors of this stone across the foothills of the Himalayas from Northern India, into Pakistan and beyond.  

As for carnelian, I have such a weakness for the rich, honey color of these stones. Especially some that have been weathered from the years like these. This pair has already become some of my favorite new earrings that I'll be wearing for years to come.