I'm Seeing Red - a treasury by UnicornsANDincense

Candy Canes - An Etsy Treasury

Click on Image to go to Interactive Treasury

Featured Member - beachcomberscove

Click on photo to see other great bracelets in her shop.

Featured Member - TrueNatureYoga

Click here to see other Malas in her shop.

Tuesday Tinker - beachcomberscove

Beachcomberscove lives on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico from which she draws her inspiration. Besides prints of her art work, she also makes cards and jewelry.

Visit her shop and see her many creations.

The Sunday Supplement - On Location with Our Next Tuesday Tinker -Beachcombers Cove

Many of our team members take their Etsy shop on the road to local Arts and Crafts shows.  Many times they report back to the team that they had a great show, sold a good number of items, and made some new friends.  Other times they brings reports of slow sales, sunburns, weird neighboring vendors and exhaustion.  With it's 50/50 chance of being great or really stinking, what keeps them going back for more?  For some it seeing customers eyes light up when they really like their work, having a face to face conversation with their buyer, and building relationships within their community.  For others it's a way to support a favorite cause, reach a greater audience of buyers than selling on Etsy might allow, make a larger chunk of change, and to just experience something new and different. Whatever the case may be, as a team, we all enjoy hearing about each others latest show excursions.

Beachcomberscove just completed a mini set up at the Treehouse Art Collective, in Galveston, Texas, where she is a member.

Should you not be able to get to a beach anything this summer, stop by BeachcombersCove's Etsy shop.  Her marine inspired jewelry and tropical art pieces will soon have you feeling like you are walking down the beach, collecting shells, hearing the breeze, and smelling the fresh salty air!

Thursdays Recipe Corner

Beachcomber Pasta Salad
Brought to you by Beachcobersgrove
Paintings and jewelry with a sandy point of view. Its only appropriate that the first ingredient in this recipe is shells.

1 lb pasta (sm shell)
1 handful black olives, pitted
  1 c. sun-dried tomatoes in oil
1 c. broccoli crowns (firm cooked)
1 bunch fresh basil
1 c. corn/peas
1/2 red onion chopped(or green onions)
1 bottle italian dressing
Optional: parmesean cheese & bacon bits
Salt, pepper, thyme to taste

Beachcombers Cove, Your Oasis of Fun , Tropical Art

The peaceful spirit of the seahorse is represented here for your wearing pleasure. Handmade in 16g. sterling silver wire and combined with natural, bone beads, it is approximately 8" long and fastens with a handmade clasp. 

Tuesday Tinker - Suwanee

Suwanee has a whole shop full of vintage jewelry.

Click here to check out the treasures in her her shop.
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The Recipe Corner - Tasty Chicken and Super Sweet Tamales

I used to live in Mexico, and was a home health nurse in L.A. for Cubans. Both have their own way of making tamales.  I sort of combined them and added my own takes. We made both the sweet and the chicken tamales the other day and they were fantastic. Also, now that there is the maseca, which is tamale corn flour, you don't have to spend four hours just boiling the corn meal, then another 4 hours boiling the tamales.

For the Chicken Tamales, follow the Maseca package recipe, but add a can of creamed corn to the tamale mix; the final mix should be thick enough that you can form it.  All the maseca recipes say steam the tamales, but we just boiled them covered with water for 1/2 hour and they came out great!
You do have to add more spices because both the boiling and steaming will somewhat diminish their strength.

Chicken filling for tamales:
Slow cook chicken (thighs are best)  in a crock pot set on low with chicken broth, fresh bay leaf, garlic, fresh rosemary, fresh or dried thyme, splash of white wine and an herb mix such as Cavender's Greek Seasoning. I slow cook the chicken over night.

After boning chicken fry in pan with olive oil, white wine, onion, red bell pepper, garlic, fresh bay leaf, fresh or dried thyme, Cavender's Seasoning and a bit of fresh ground nutmeg. Salt to taste. If you would like your tamales hot add a chopped hot chili of your choice. 


SWEET TAMALE RECIPE
2- cups tamale flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter (margarine), whipped
1-1/2 cups liquid
1/2 can pineapple, crushed
cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, grated nutmeg
nuts
Mix dry ingredients, add in butter  then liquids. Let sit for a few minutes; should be consistency
of thick peanut butter; need to form and put channel in for the filling.

Filling:  1/2 can pineapple (crushed)
             1 tsp of each allspice or pumpkin pie spice; cinnamon; 
             1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
              a dash of rum
              1/2 cup of pecans (small pieces)
              2 tbsp brown sugar
              1/3 cup of raisins (preferably soaked first in pineapple juice and rum!!!)

Put about 2 tbsp maza in the lower third of shuck, towards skinny end.
Put in about a tsp or 2 of filling; add another tsp or so of maza to cover; fold  and tie with
string.
Boil for 1/2 hour. (better than steaming!)
We ate some of each then froze the rest with our old vacuum sealer. They last for 6 months easily.

Recipes compliments of FlowersForRealJewelr.

Tuesday Tinker - fatdogbeads

fatdogbeads creates wonderful jewelry with sterling silver and lampwork beads.

Click here to go to her shop for more information about this bracelet and her other creations.
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Tuesday Tinker - ImagesbyJer

ImagesbyJer makes wire-wrap jewelry and lamp work beads and pendents. She lives in King of Prussia, PA.

Check out the other wonderful things she has in her shop.

The Recipe Corner - Salmon Salade Composee

This is my mash up of Salade Niciose and Salade Composee (Composed salad).  Composee salads are beautiful, and great for big groups when everyone is on a different diet!  Finally the Paleos and the Vegans can agree!

8 to 16 oz.  cooked salmon, or tuna (canned is OK)
3 hard boiled eggs peeled and either sliced or quartered
8 oz  (a big handful)green beans stem ends trimmed
8 small red potatoes (each about 2 inches in diameter, about 1 1/4 pounds total), each potato  scrubbed   and quartered
1 small red onion sliced thin
3 small ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into eighths
2 medium heads butter lettuce, or mixed salad greens, leaves washed, dried, and torn into bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup niçoise olives 
2 Tbsp capers, rinsed
4 oz. blue cheese and/or feta
1 small lemon cut into eighths

Vinaigrette

1/2 cup lemon juice 
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium shallot, minced 
1 Tbsp  thyme 
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Whisk lemon juice, oil, shallot, thyme and mustard; season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.
Bring potatoes and 4 quarts cold water to boil in a large pot. Add 1 tablespoon salt and cook until potatoes are tender, 5 to 8 minutes. 
Bring green beans and enough water to cover them to a boil. Cook until bright green.  They should be tender but crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain beans, transfer to cold water, and let stand until just cool, about 30 seconds; dry beans well. 
This is the fun part: Place the salmon in the middle of a large platter. Gently break it into bite sized pieces and top with capers.  Arrange the other components around the fish in an attractive way.  I like to serve the lettuce in a separate bowl.  Pass the vinaigrette, and a nice, dry white wine!

Recipe compliments of ClockworkCrow.

Tuesday Tinker - Bebopgirl1969Jewelry

Bebopgirl1969jewelry picks a great assortment of beads and puts together wonderful necklaces. Plus right now, $6 from *every* necklace purchased in the Buddha For Japan section of my ArtFire shop will go to help Japan via the Red Cross Tsunami Appeal.

Stop by her shop and see all the luscious colors that she uses in her creations.

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT - On location with our next Tuesday Tinker

Bebopgirl1969Jewelry originally came from Wisconsin. She shares some flowers from Scotland where she now lives and creates her wonderful necklaces.

Tuesday Tinker - realisationcreations

realisatincreations has been making jewelry for over ten years. She loves to play with beads.

Browse her shop and find a pretty for yourself.

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT - On location with our next Tuesday Tinker

realisationcreations lives 'down under' in Australia. She shares these pictures of the Barossa Valley, a major wine producing area northeast of Adelaide. She says "We are very lucky to live in a gorgeous part of the world. I love it here." 

Mengler Hill Lookout with its sculpture garden and a view of the valley below. 

A shearing shed at Pindarie Wines.

William, her youngest son, feeding kangaroos at Whistlers Wines.

Tuesday Tinker - ClockworkCrow

ClockworkCrow takes many different metals and odds and ends and creates all manner of fascinating jewelry. And if you are looking for Steam-punk, you have come to the right place.

Browse her shop and discover something for yourself.

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT - On location with our next Tuesday Tinker

ClockworkCrow lives in the Duluth, Minnesota area where there's plenty of snow. Her creativity has many outlets: sewing, painting, dancing and her great Steam-Punk jewelry.

Tuesday Tinker - whimsyfish

A direct quote from whimsyfish, "I have been making things since I was a little girl. After a long career in the corporate world, I have decided to find my bliss again. I hope you like my creations as much as I enjoyed making them". 

Browse her shop.

Tuesday Tinker - CabArray

CabArray works with wire, seed and lamp-work beads and also fabricates pieces from a variety of metals. She likes to combine different techniques to create her jewelry.

Browse her shop.