I'm done, hallelujah and huzzah

Y'all, I am sick to death of this jewelry. The past six weeks, I've just been drowning in it. I've spent the past four days making 56 new listings (there are 20+ steps to each etsy listing, so that calculates to over 1,120 steps to get there) and now have 170 items listed in my shop! PHEW!!!

 

 

 

 I really want to keep this bracelet for myself...

 There's a ton of fabulous stuff, check it out at Brighton Jewelry Co.!

Summer Spinach Salad

I feel weird posting a salad recipe. Like, this is just stuff I always like in a salad and I assume other people make theirs the same way. But I guess they don't.

Last week, I brought this to a church activity and it seemed to be a hit. I guess a better indication of that is that the following day, Madelyn pulled out all the ingredients again, chopped her own tomato and made everyone this for lunch. She loves it! Thumbs up for kids eating healthy! It has a nice combination of fresh, salty, sweet/tart and nutty.

 

This salad turned out to be enormous, and I put too many toppings on (which sank to the bottom of the bowl), so this recipe isn't going to have specific amounts. Just use the amount you'll need for your family.

 Summer Spinach Salad

by Melissa Yoder

baby spinach

crumbled feta cheese

toasted, chopped pecans or walnuts

cherry tomatoes, halved

dried cranberries (Craisins)

chopped green onions

To toast the nuts, heat on medium in a dry skillet until fragrant and golden brown. Set aside to cool. Toss the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl until well mixed. Serve with your favorite dressing. My suggestions:

Delish!

Other yummy things to toss in:

diced avocado

chopped cucumber

slices of this chicken
 

Old friends

Oy, what a weekend. All my crazy running around finally caught up to me and I crashed for a few days! But I'm feeling better now. I still haven't listed all that jewelry yet, but I finally did take the pictures (382 of them) so it will get done eventually.

Last week, our good friends the Wimmers came to visit. They moved to Iowa a year and a half ago and it was so good to see them. Their son Aidan used to be Madelyn's best friend--here they are at her 7th birthday party right before they moved:

Aidan came over to play for about four hours last Wednesday and it was so sweet to see that they're still good friends.

  

 (animated Mr. Bean show...)

They are all so big now! Kaitlyn, Aidan's sister, was tiny the last time I saw her.

 

 When they left, Madelyn realized she wouldn't be seeing them later that night like I would, and burst into tears and threw herself dramatically on the couch (she's good at that) and wailed, "I'm never going to see him agaaaaiiinnnnn..." 

So I asked her if she'd like to make Aidan something to remember her by, and we came up with this shark shirt. She picked out the design and helped trace it and paint it.

Then while I was at it, I made Erin (Aidan's mom) this "Allons-y!" tote bag. I'd been meaning to make her one for a long time--she speaks French and allons-y means "let's go" in French. AND it's a Doctor Who reference, so there's that. She doesn't watch the show, but nevertheless it's a catchy phrase. I have a key chain that has it engraved on it. (This one, if you're wondering.)

That night, I got to go hang out with Erin and some other friends at Pastry Pub.

 Noelle Christensen, Mindee Knight, Erin Wimmer, Christine Anderson, Jodi Simmons and me. :)

It was fun to see everyone! Yay for friends!  

I think I finally made a dent in my bead stash.

I was not planning on this. I was supposed to be sewing this summer, not making jewelry. But about a month ago, I got a custom request to make six bracelets for a wedding.

 Three amazonite coil bracelets and three little girl turquoise bracelets. I had to special order the amazonite and lucked out having the turquoise on hand, because I bought it in New Mexico and it's not sold anywhere around here. It was a huge rush trying to get it all done in time for this lady's wedding (and then her daughters broke their bracelets right before the wedding...stress!).

Then a couple of weeks later, I got a request to make 6 sets of this necklace (the original is on the top) with earrings for another wedding. I was trying to get them done and shipped out in plenty of time for her wedding next weekend, but could NOT find the matching silver pearls for the life of me. I went to 5 different stores and ended up having to use a darker shade of gray, which almost made the bride cancel the whole order on me. 

Working with brides: turns out it's not as dreamy as you would think. Ha!

Looking back, I should have just special ordered the silver pearls online--I still could have finished them on time. Live and learn!

Then, in the meantime, I decided to make some more jewelry, and it turned into this enormous pile of stuff. 

I thought I was finally done, but then this past week I made all this besides! Because I am insane. My eyes are seriously strained. I don't ever want to see pearls again in my life.

Altogether with the wedding jewelry, that's 26 baby bracelets, 8 coil bracelets, 9 multi-strand bracelets, 4 regular bracelets, 17 necklaces, 8 pendants and 30 pairs of earrings.

So......102 pieces of jewelry. Almost all of which I have to photograph and list on my etsy shop now (5 photographs each listing...you do the math.). If I don't resurface for a while, that's why. Send me some vibes for good luck and plenty of customers!

Renaissance Faire

Every July, Cedar City hosts the Utah Midsummer Renaissance Faire, and it is our favorite event of the year. Most people who live here are....very....vanilla. But the "freaks and geeks" turn out for this and we LOVE it!

There's still plenty of normal people, too... but the best is when people dress up and really get into it. Belly dancers, pirates, medieval folk, Renaissance folk, and if you have a random corset or raccoon tail (really), throw it on. If Mark ever finishes making his chain mail shirt, he'll totally wear it to this.

 I should mention that there is a group that regularly melees (play fights) at the park like this, and yes, sometimes they are kitted out in costume, or kilts...

We went with Mark on Wednesday night. I knew there was no way he was walking away without that sword.

 

Mark bought Strider's (Aragorn's) Ranger sword back in 2005 at the Washington Co. Fair. It is currently mounted on his office wall.

You might also remember our set of LOTR letter opener swords? Uh huh. Well, Hadhafang (Arwen's sword) has been lost, but we still have the others.

 Now we have Aragorn's King sword, a.k.a. The Sword of Elendil, a.k.a. "Anduril! Flame of the West! Reforged from the shards of Narsil" as Elrond says to Aragorn in The Return of the King, and then the camera pans up, up, up, up, holy freak that is a huge sword, and I just remember all my hair standing on end when I saw it for the first time. In fact, it still gives me the chills.
(See clip here.)

*pause for breath*

 That beautiful, manly man. Luke is going to be Aragorn for Halloween, if I can get him to wear the costume.

Convenient sword/stroller conveyance

 

 This sword is about 42 inches long and the one from the movie is 52 7/8 inches. And it doesn't have the engravings on the blade, but whatever, it's awesome.

 This is a game where you try to throw beanbags to "behead" the wives of Henry the 8th. LOL!! (Too soon?....)

 The kids played some games and got some prizes

 Madelyn bought a belly dancing hip scarf

And then we came back on Friday with my sister Meg!

 I ♥ Indian jewelry! Makes me miss New Mexico.

A real belly dancer

Poor Luke had a rough afternoon--we had gone to the credit union right before this, and had walked two steps into the lobby before he PUKED all over the floor! (and my foot) And then we had to rush him to the bathroom because diarrhea hit big time. It was not fun. I imagine the whole thing was caught on their security footage. The employees were helpful and understanding, but I was totally embarrassed!

He didn't throw up again, but struggled with the runs the next day and still has a rash all over his torso. Mark said it's been going around, ugh.

 

 

 Megan and I stumbled upon this booth (Baron's Beauties Pirate Toys and Accessories) that had Geek Pride embroidered patches!!! Oh my. Doctor Who, Sherlock, Harry Potter, our three favorite things!!! It was hard to decide what to buy.

In the end, Meg finally decided on a Weeping Angel patch and a Sherlock one that has one of his quotes, "I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath", and I got one that says "Geronimo!" (11th Doctor catchphrase). :D

We also bought belly dancing hip scarves. It was seriously hard choosing a color. It took about 15 minutes. We might just have to buy new ones every year so as to have several colors.

 In the meantime, it started pouring rain.

Madelyn still insisted on going on the zip line, and paid her own $5 to do it. It lasted about 5 seconds.

Then there was a gypsy parade! In the rain! I'm telling you, it was the best day ever. 

Well, except for the vomit.

Time to go home.

We had a Nerdy Tote Bag day planned, which we just managed to squeeze in between making some tacos for a late dinner.

 

 YES!

Meg is moving away to college in a few weeks, so I'm determined to cram in as much togetherness as we can till she leaves. She's already penciled in the Renaissance Faire for next summer.