My Friend Makes Pretty Jewelry

When I got home yesterday, I had a package in the mail. A package! I mean, to come home and have anything in the mail that is NOT a bill or junk is really something. But, a package, well, that's even more special.


It was from my friend Jessica, of JSOriginals. She makes jewelry! I have LOTS of jewelry she's made. In fact, as I took an inventory, I would say I had virtually no costume jewelry or "chunky" necklaces before Jessica's jewelry came into my life. She's made me a more stylish person, for certain!

Please forgive the dining room table backdrop.

She and I used to work together, but she left to take a new, exciting high powered job in Pittsburgh, where she's loved and respected. We actually also went through the same graduate school program, but we were not in the same class. And, I miss having her around. Her ebullient personality and unique perspective was a wonderful addition to the workday. She's a wonderful human. And, a great jewelry artist!

I contacted her a couple of months ago - I had a few necklaces - a couple of hers and a couple not hers - that needed repair, and I wondered, if I sent them to her, could she take a gander at repairing them. She said she would. So, after a lot of procrastination and "getting around to it" I finally sent them off to her a while back.

I got this great series of emails from her when they arrived on her doorstep:

Subject: Report From the Bead Hospital

Necklaces made it to my house.

Triage began last night.

All are doing well...except for the 4-strand necklace, which is in the ER. Currently on a respirator.

More reports to follow.

-Dr. Schmidt

So, I replied, "Thank you for taking a look...that one lost some beads before it made it there, so it might needs a transfusion."

To which she replied:

"I hope to have its pearl type. Not all pearls are universal donors."

She's a hoot. Then, time passes and the package comes in the mail - all fixed. Even the one on life support - the multi-strand pearl necklace I bought from someone else. There's where I went wrong - purchasing from someone else. She fixed it!

She also fixed the clasp on two of her very early necklaces and a connector on one I purchased elsewhere.

I just love this little aqua and black square bead necklace. It's perfect to wear with a black top and jeans on a casual day. It's not fussy but pretty. I've received several compliments on it. Jessica doesn't like it. She poo-poos it anytime I bring it up. As a matter of fact, I think she "threw it in" on a package deal when I bought it. And, when I opened it up after repair, she noted how shoddy she felt her early work must have been to make that necklace. Pshaw, Jessica! It's great, and one of my favorites.



Also in the package - a NEW necklace...look at that! She has got to be one of the kindest, most sweetest, nicest, most generous people on the planet. I mean, I mailed my stuff to HER to FIX, and she sends ME a gift? Who is this person???



By the way, I love it. And, it even matches what I had on when I opened the package. So, I tried to take a photo of me with it on, with the outfit in question. In the bathroom mirror.

It took a few tries. Ahem.

I happened to be around when she started this bead fiasco that has turned into such a business for her. Jessica, our friend Maria and I decided to take a bead class at a local store on a Saturday, you know, for something to do - on a whim, if you like. That's all it took - Jessica went off on her own and started making necklaces and earrings with abandon. She said it was cathartic for her. It helped her relax. I'm glad it did, because I've got a whole new necklace wardrobe!



Jessica's shop is on Etsy. Do you Etsy? If not, let me tell you to click on that link at your own risk. There are so many wonderful things on that site that I have to resist the urge to buy all of them. Jessica's is one of my favorites. I'm drooling over a couple of necklaces on her site right now...I better get to them before you do, now that I've let the secret out of the bag, so to speak. I also adore this woman's shop, you know, because of my weakness for W's. I bought this exquisitely beautiful dark brown throw pillow with a big script W on it made of pearl buttons. It's great.

Look at that beautiful stone!

One thing I really like about Jessica's pieces (and the way she makes her jewelry) is that she's really interested in what the stone is that makes up the necklace. It's like a little geology lesson around your neck. Really, it's very cool. Check out some of her descriptions. They're fabulous.



So, check out JSOrignals. You'll be glad you did. And, thanks Jessica, for doing such a fine job repairing my jewelry and for the beautiful new necklace. You are the absolute best!

Two Fat Cyclists Take Mesquite

Now, let me say that I would not call S a fat cyclist. Or fat at all. But he calls himself fat, and it made for a better title than, "One Fat Cycling Novice and Her Hot Husband Take Mesquite." So, I went with it.

S and I did our first bike race together this past weekend. Race is really not the right term - a ride where you pay an entrance fee, get a t-shirt and sweat your butt off is more like it. What is it with Monday mornings and me using the word butt?

We rode the 33K - the short, beginning, novice, just starting out, no big deal length - of the Mesquite Rodeo Bike Ride. There were folks there who are serious cyclist and athletes that rode much further. (75K or 100K) There were also families there doing the fun ride that was only 5K. And, there were lots of people there just like us. People looking to get in some exercise in a fun way and sort of new to cycling. People of all ages and sizes and kinds.

First, I feel I must explain a little bit about our bikes and the conditions we ride under.



While our bikes are nice and in good condition, they are not road bikes or racing bikes. Road bikes are lightweight, have skinny, non-nubby tires, an aerodynamic frame, and allow the rider to maximize their effort to move fast. They are very expensive, and there is no way we'd purchase a bike like this on a whim. It's a serious investment.




Our bikes - well, I have a hybrid bike. This is somewhere between a road bike and a mountain bike. It is not lightweight - the tires are smooth in the middle, but nubby on the edges. This is supposed to allow you to ride the bike almost anywhere. But, it isn't built for speed - it's heavy, for one. And, my bike is on par price and style/features-wise with any department store brand bike. It's run of the mill, but it's in good shape and works fine for me.




S - he has a mountain bike. This means his tires are completely nubby, meant for off-road courses, and definitely not for speed. His is a little fancier - pretty nice for a mountain bike - a Gary Fisher.

[Lance's photo via.]

Then, there's the issue of the person sitting on the bike. On the left you have a serious biker body - thin, in shape and ready to go. On the right, well, you get the point. All of this is to say, even if we were in excellent shape, we would not have the capacity to go as fast as an average person on a road bike. So, really these rides are all about getting out and having some fun together exercising.

We got up early and S loaded up the bikes. I gathered the other supplies.

One of the supplies - the frozen water bottles.

This was my idea. I decided to freeze the water bottles - with water in them - so they would stay cold longer during the ride. It was a good idea - it was. But, next time, I should only fill them half full or something. Because, well, even when I left what I thought was enough room at the top - they had expanded so much some of the lids wouldn't go on.

Then, there's the issue of the bottle with the straw...ahem. That's the straw in the middle of all that ice. They are out on the porch in these photos because that's where I took them to "warm up" once I realized the lid issue that morning. They did warm up and it was all fine by the time we raced. And, they did stay colder longer. But, next time, I'll be a little more lenient with the water before I freeze.

While I was shooting the water bottle photos I got mesmerized by my lantana.
It's so pretty this time of year, no? But, back to today's topic.

Then we were off!

The ride began at 7:45, so we wanted to arrive around 7:20 so we could be in place for the start of the race. Not at the front, you understand, but in the general vicinity.

Start/Finish was at the Mesquite Rodeo.
We got a free ticket to attend, so we'll be back.

There were several vendors on hand, as well as cycling teams.

The National Guard was there directing traffic.

We were ready!

We waited back here for the start.

The real riders were cycling up to the start line - look at all those bike helmets in the distance - there were over 1500 riders taking part. So, we let them get on their merry way. Then we pedaled on up and started out.

There are several cool things about doing a ride like this:

- it gets you up and out and accomplished early on a Saturday

- everyone - and I mean everyone - is so friendly at these things - we're all in it together

- you get to ride a different course than your regular old route and see something new

- the courses are closed off to vehicle traffic so for the most part the crazy drivers looking to run you over can't during one of these rides

- you get to test your "abilities" on a different course

- you get to see that there are people of all ages and sizes out there doing it, so you can too

We had a good pace throughout the ride, averaging our regular 10 miles an hour. Because of the aforementioned situational setbacks, this is a good speed for us, even though it's slower than dirt for a real cyclist. That said, there were plenty of people going our pace or slower - on road bikes. So, we felt OK about our speed.

I am better at the hills than S is. Maybe it's the tires on the bike - that's S's theory. Maybe it's that women are built with most of their muscles on the lower half - if we were doing push-ups, he'd win hands down. Maybe it's that I did that blasted triathlon relay and have a few weeks on him - it's not like I'm going 100K (or even 10K) further than him or anything. I don't know, but when it got to the "hilly" portion of the ride - nothing like the hills of Austin, but some hills, nonetheless - I had to leave S behind to go at my pace up those hills. He'd catch up from time to time on the straightaway or downhill.




But, when we reached approximately half way, and the rest stop area, I was ahead. So, I took photos of him pulling into the rest area. Lucky for you, huh?




The most exciting thing about the rest area was we weren't the only ones there! That meant we weren't the last people on the course! This was lovely and amazing. They had water, sport drink, bananas, oranges, cookies and snack crackers. They also had portolets, bike repair and a masseuse! They thought of everything. Lower right photo, I left the camera to go get a banana. S helpfully took a shot of me eating said banana on the way back to the bike. He's so sweet.




Again, at the end, I was a little bit ahead. So, I pulled over into some shade and waited for S to come by. You'll remember the serious cyclists are on a 100K course. So, they, going twice our speed, which they probably were, they would not arrive for another hour after us. So, people were trickling into the finish, but it wasn't a busy place. At the moment S came through he was the only one there. So, I was able to capture his glory moment. Way to go, S, way to go!




We went into the post-ride area and had a little snack. I tried Coca-Cola Zero for the first time, and I have to say, I'm a fan! I'm not a huge soft drink person - I mostly drink water, actually, but I did like that Coca-Cola Zero. (there's a Wikipedia page for everything, isn't there?)

A nice ride volunteer took this shot - right after I had finished a bite. I didn't smile because I was afraid there would be stuff in my teeth. Just in case you were wondering about the strange grin. Not that strange things don't happen all the time to me or in my photos with no reasonable explanation whatsoever.

We do look like the exercise endorphins are in full force, though, don't we? I mean, we just rode a long way for us, and we look happy! S looks good, doesn't he? We look like we had a nice time. Because we did. We really did. We liked it so much that we're signing up for another one next Saturday. No joke. Really, we are - the Collin Classic. We can't wait!

After our little snack we started packing up.

S does the heavy lifting in the packing up department.

He put the bikes in this orange tie-down Vulcan mind meld.

And then we headed for home.

I tell you what, I might get hooked on this bike riding thing after all. I mean, don't count your chickens or anything. I am a fat girl at heart. And I have a short attention span. I bet you could never guess that after reading this blog. Ha! But, right now, we're having fun. And, for me, when it comes to exercise, having fun at it is more than half the battle.

Happy Monday! See you tomorrow.

A Friday Recipe

Today, Friday, we have another "cooking" post, I guess, but this one is a little different. It's not really a "cooking basic". Instead, it can be used to make today, or any Friday, into the appropriate celebration.

But, before we go any further people, we have another milestone here at the blog. We now have 15 - FIFTEEN - 15 followers. Yes, that's right, folks, your little follower icons now fill up three whole lines. Way to go. WAY TO GO. And, thanks, for stopping by. I appreciate it. I'm pretty sure I have the fifteen most beautiful, talented, wonderfully smart and savvy blog readers on the planet. What more could a girl ask for?

OK, on to today's post - today's post is - wait...for...it - a recipe...for...

WHITE SANGRIA!

A perfect summertime drink. It's cool, light and wonderful. It's called white sangria because typically this drink originating from Spain or Portugal is made with red wine. But this one - it's made with white wine. Either is a tasty fruity summer alternative. I have come to really like this recipe, though, so I thought it would be a good thing to share with you.

Your Friday is looking better already, isn't it? I thought so. Here we go.

I originally received this recipe from a weekly recipe email I receive from Cuisine at Home Magazine, to which I subscribe. But, anyone can get the free weekly recipes here. And, a link to this recipe is here.

Here's what you'll need to stop by the store on your way home and make some when you get there - just copy paste the ingredients list into an email to yourself. Or a text. Or print it off. Take it with you so you'll be ever-so prepared to try some tonight.

The Ingredients.
Mostly. I forgot some of them for this photo.
It also looks like a really bad still life, no?

- water
- sugar
- 1 bottle of decent white table wine - doesn't have to be expensive
(actually, it would be a waste to use expensive white wine for this...save it for another day)
- brandy
- 1 vanilla bean - this one might be tricky - substitute some vanilla extract in a pinch
- 1 lime
- 1 orange
- 1/2 a fresh pineapple, cored and cut into rings (you can buy it in a can if you wish)
- club soda
- ice
- fresh mint sprigs
- raspberries or blueberries or strawberries or some sort of berry to use as a garnish

First up - dissolve 1/2 cup of sugar into 1/2 cup hot water to make a simple syrup.


Then pour it into a pitcher.

Uncork the wine and add it in too.

Then, add this ingredient.

The brandy - I listed it above, but forgot about it when I took the "ingredients" still life. It can be any kind of brandy. That brandy up there - it was most certainly the cheapest brandy they sold at whatever liquor store I stopped at to purchase. That's what I'm sure of. And it works just fine for this recipe.

Measure out 3/4 cups and pour it on in.

Then comes the vanilla bean. Put it in the pitcher.

Now, a vanilla bean was not available at my local grocer. So, I purchased some at Penzey's spices. Penzey's is great - I highly recommend all of their products. If you don't have a vanilla bean, try a teaspoon of extract or something. It'll be OK.

Then get the largest knife in your house and slice up the lime.

I got these cool "film noir" shots of the lime slices.
Very Casablanca, no?

Go on and put those lime slices in the brew.

Then slice up the orange.

I want to point out that in the two top photos of the orange collage I am demonstrating how to hold an orange while slicing and certainly take part of a finger off with it. Don't hold the orange that way. Instead, hold it the way I'm properly demonstrating how to slice without getting your fingers on the lower left. Human flesh is not part of this recipe, unless your last name is maybe Lector. Mwah ha ha. So, leave your fingers on your body, please. Thank you.

Add those bad boy orange slices to the pitcher.
That Canada Dry is a camera hog - tried to get in every photo. Geez.

Then cut up and core your pineapple and slice about 1/2 of it into rings.

You could used canned pineapple rings for this. Or, you could, should you be so inclined, cut up and core a whole pineapple and use half of it. Or, the middle of the road answer - my choice on this given day - was to get the already cut and cored pineapple from the deli area. Fresher but less work.

Put those pineapple rings on into the sauce.

Then stir it up, baby.

Then, chill for two hours. Or as long as you can stand it. Or overnight. Or whatever.

When you take it out, add the ice and the club soda.

Just a little tip - if you're not serving this whole pitcher, just add the ice and club soda to your glass at about 3 parts sauce to 1 part soda. This way, it won't go flat on you before you have another glass. If you're serving to your neighborhood, pour the ice and club soda into that pretty pitcher.

I use a double old fashioned for this drink.
You can use whatever glass you like.

The recipe calls for "cubed ice". I'm pretty sure my drink would have tasted better with cubed ice, but darn it all, my refrigerator turns out those Brazil nut looking pieces of ice, so I had to suffer on with Brazil nut ice. A slight deviation from the recipe, for certain.

The recipe says, "garnish with mint sprig and raspberries."

There were no raspberries at the grocery when I went to purchase my supplies. So, I used blueberries this time. Once I used strawberries and hung them on the side of the glass. The first time I made it I actually used raspberries. I took a photo of that one with my camera phone. That example is below this paragraph. I think any garnish you'd like will do. Even more lime, perhaps. Be creative. Live it up. Garnish with wild abandon to your heart's content.

The first time, with the raspberries.

Whatever you decide, it'll be great.

Now you people who don't drink alcohol, I have no alternatives for you to make this recipe. It's an alcoholic drink. So, maybe you will have liked the photos. Or the link to Penzey's. Or something, I hope. But, if not, come back Monday and I'll have moved on to something new.

For the rest of you, MAKE IT THIS WEEKEND. You'll be so glad you did. It's a keeper.

Cuisine at Home White Sangria
Makes: 6-8 servings
Total time: 2 hours more or less

Dissolve in a Pitcher:
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 cup sugar

Add; Chill Two Hours:
1 bottle (750ml) white table wine
3/4 cup brandy
1 vanilla bean
1 lime, sliced into rounds
1 orange, sliced into rounds
1/2 fresh pineapple, cored and sliced into rings

Stir in:
2 cups club soda
Cubed ice

Pour into glasses; garnish with:
Fresh mint sprigs
Fresh raspberries

Dissolve sugar in hot water inside a pitcher.

Add white wine, brandy, vanilla bean, lime, orange, and pineapple. Chill in refrigerator for two hours.

Stir in club soda and cubed ice.

Pour into glasses and garnish with mint springs and fresh raspberries.


S and I will ride the short version (33K) of the Mesquite Rodeo Bike Ride tomorrow morning. And I'll tell you about it next week. If we're still alive. It's supposed to be near 100 tomorrow. Of course, not at 7:45am when we start the ride, so this might work out OK.

Saturday night, we're slated to take in an Indy Car race at the Texas Motor Speedway. I'll tell you about that next week too. Sunday, we'll be sleeping, so don't call or write. Just kidding. Sort of.

Best wishes for your own wonderful weekend. I'll see you here again next week, my fifteen beautiful blog readers. Cheers!