Introducing my New Website-

Thank you to my wonderful husband!

www.coreyackelmire.com

It may not be spring outside...

But I have tiny green things growing inside!

Meet my micro greens, growing happily in our basement thanks to the florescent light hung by my loving husband.

Special Order

Mailed out this necklace, designed to match these earrings, to a woman in California this week.

Coveting

I looove these baby animal pictures from Sharon Montrose's Etsy shop.

New addition

The Orchid Show is going at MoBot, so of course, I had to buy an orchid.
I chose this little one, about 4" across the leaves and about 1" diameter flowers; it's a neostylis Lou Sneary, whatever that means. Hopefully I won't kill it.

I do like the name Lou Sneary.

Delicious Dill Pickle Soup

If you like pickles, and potato soup, you may love this polish dill pickle soup as much as we did.

Makes 6 servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, halved and sliced
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 4 large garlic dill pickles, about 3 cups chopped
• 2/3 cup liquid from pickle jar or water
• 4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sour cream
• Salt and black pepper
• Sugar to taste, if desired
• Chopped fresh dill for garnish, if desired

Preparation:

1. Melt butter in a large pot. Saute onion until translucent, about 3 minutes.
   
   
2. Add broth, pickles, pickle liquid and potatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.
   
   
3. Blend flour with sour cream. Temper sour cream mixture with a little hot soup. Pour tempered sour cream into hot soup, whisking constantly until it comes to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Adjust seasoning, adding sugar if desired. Note:At this point, the soup can be left chunky or pureed to the velvety consistency of vichyssoise.
   
   
4. Serve in heated bowls garnished with chopped fresh dill, if desired.

*We blended it and served it with a little diced pickle and some cream. Yum!

My new terrarium

with an air plant. I enjoy it.

Diamond Solitaire Ring

Sterling silver with a 4 mm diamond. In the shop.

"Working View" posts

are up on Arthur Hash's blog. The space I am most envious of is this one, belonging to Amy Tavern. *sigh*

Now that the cat's out of the bag

I can share with you the images of the bowl I made for N's dad and step-mother for Christmas. They live in Texas, so I based the pattern on a star.
I dare you to find the Texas home that does not feature a star! (OK, I don't really dare you...I'm sure it exists, somewhere.....But I've never seen it.)

N's bench

I guess mine looks about the same right now.

My bench

Arthur Hash asked some folks to take photos of their "working view", which he plans to post on his blog in the near future.
This is my view--pretty messy, I think, but wait until you see my husband's bench...

The Holiday (aka: Baking) Spirit

Just made these yummy shortbread/cornmeal cookies from a recipe posted on poppytalk a while back.

Been Crafty

Wednesday was my first day off is about 2 weeks, so I took the time to complete some crafty projects around the house.
I finished up this pom-pom Christmas garland and made a sand-bag draft stopper out of an old pair of N's jeans for the back door.

Tidbits

Just ate some cheese and a pickle on my new little plate from Yasha Butler. And yes, both those food items tasted better because I ate them off of something pretty!

Diamonds and Gold

After the a fore mentioned stone-setting workshop I took, I have made my first jewelry with diamonds and gold. As with the silver ring in my previous post, these diamonds all came out of diamond jewelry I inherited from my grandmother, as did the gold.
I melted the gold down, hammered it into thick sheets and got to settin'! So I guess they're pretty eco-friendly too. It's funny how being too poor to buy materials often dovetails so nicely with being environmentally sound.

This is it!

The LAST day to get 25% off all ornaments in my Etsy shop-- like this blue enameled ornament: was $40, now $30 for today only!

HOLIDAY SALE!!

The ornaments in my Etsy shop are 25% off this week only! Stock-up for the holidays--they make perfect gifts!

Ornaments that were $40 are now $30;
$27, now $20.25;
$25, now $18.75;
$22, now $16.50;
$15, now $11.25

Limited Time Only!

New little diamond ring!

I just finished making this sterling silver ring with my new found stone-setting expertise and the diamonds mentioned in the previous post.
It is very delicate as the stone is only about 2 mm in diameter. There are two tiny silver balls on either side of the stone. I'm pretty happy with it. Look for it soon in my shop!

Them're diamonds!

This past weekend I took a workshop through the Society for Midwest Metalsmiths on stone setting. I finally learned how to gypsy set (or flush set, or burnish set--whatever you call it) faceted stones; something I've wanted to learn for a while.
Since diamonds are a durable stone and relatively easy to set, and since I had a tacky diamond ring from my grandma to dismantle, I think I'll be trying my hand at setting some diamonds soon!

This is an example of the kind of setting I'm talking about from Jetflair's Etsy shop.