A Busy Weekend With Lots of Sales!!!

Wheeeee, finally a great Saturday at the market for everyone, which is so gratifying. I sold several brand new items including a couple that I didn't get a chance to photograph. The blue picasso bracelet with the pewter bird, turtle, horse and feather (I call it the "Four Corners") sold right away, right out of the gate. Lady came by, picked it up, examined it... "Uh, where's the clasp?" "It rolls on." Sold.

Definitely must make more of these.

I also sold the aqua terra and crab agate necklace on the right (the necklace on the left sold quite a while ago) yesterday, matched perfectly with sterling, turquoise and sponge coral earrings. They accompanied my customer and her brand new dress to a girls' night out Beatles tribute show last night.

I went to an estate sale this morning and here are a few of my treasures. We're doing a Nostalgia show at the fairgrounds on September 13th, I think it is, so I'm buying with that in mind. Some pieces will go to our booth at the Antique Mall (Booth 800/847 if you're planning a trip our way).

Aaaaand it's jam-making season. The first strawberries are starting to come in from the fields. There were mountains of them at the market yesterday. For some reason the local grocery store has decided not to carry my favourite low-sugar no-cook gelling powder this year, so my pal George brought me 20 packages from the big city on Tuesday, which I swap for jam. 

What's the name of that Pinterest site? Pinterest Fails -- or similar, anyway. Here's my latest entry in the Pinterest Fail... well, it was a success but SO SLOW! Give me my paring knife any day.

My handy-dandy strawberry hulling setup. The mosquitoes arrived shortly after and settled in to feast on me. 

Putting the straw in strawberries...

Poke the straw through from the bottom...

Pull the core out of the straw...

And you have a neat little hole to fill with chocolate...

This doesn't show how full the bowl was, but it was ten 250ml jars' worth of strawberries mounded up.

Unfortunately, the monsoon rains we had early in the week made this batch of strawberries awfully watery, but a titch extra sugar and lots and lots of lemon juice brings out the flavour nicely. Peaches will be coming along soon. I can hardly wait. There's a type of early peach that is soooooo good as jam. Summer in a jar, especially in the dead of winter.

Thanks for looking!

Sea & Beach Glass... & Roman Glass...

While sea and beach glass beads are items I don't carry or use, mainly because I don't have a good source for them -- 20+ years of diligent and dedicated recycling took care of Free Store stock -- I'm still fascinated by it. One of my clearest memories from childhood is sitting in the sun on a pebbly Lake Ontario beach collecting buckets of precious gems, aka sea -- or, more correctly, beach -- glass back in the era when cities dumped their garbage in the Great Lakes. I can still hear the distinct sound made by our feet sinking deep into the fine pebbles as we walked along. And I remember how heartbroken we always were to get home and find our once glittering treasures when dried had become pale frosted shadows.

Just as an FYI, here is a great description of sea and beach glass, lore, legends and links to other sites:

http://thebead.net/index.php/the-bead-blog/294-beautiful-sea-glass?utm_source=The+Bead&utm_campaign=9215936894-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cc93f0bcb5-9215936894-35877305

On the other hand, if it's Roman glass you're looking for...

...come and see me and some really luscious beads at The Gem Expo in Toronto at the Hyatt Regency on March 13th, 14th and 15th. I'll have lots and lots with me in full strings, as well as available by the each. Meanwhile, I'll have Roman glass and other collectible beads with me at the Nostalgia Show and Sale Sunday, March 8th in Woodstock at the Fairgrounds on Nellis Street. Seven days a week there is a good selection of strings on display in Showcase 800 at the One of a Kind Antique Mall in Woodstock, Ontario -- with 10% off during the Cabin Fever Sale all through February.

Thanks for looking!