Ear cuffs and long necklaces

So..I am really excited about some new things i will be selling in my bead shop www.starbazaar.etsy.com which are finally out of production and on the way here. Ear cuffs. I used to love ear cuffs when they were popular in the 90's, and then again when i was in my 20's... then i forgot about them until i was watching Star Trek the next generation one day and was reminded by Something the bajorans wear (see this board on pinterest for examples). I have a plan for some finished jewelry, and also to sell the others.. as i ordered 2000 cuffs in two colors...

Further, I have been struggling with my loss of a workspace when i decided to close my market stall at the public market. My apartment is not exactly the right size to set up... and i discovered that the things i didnt like when i was able to spread out are actually better for an apartment lifestyle.. I have been doing more time consuming and materials consuming projects. Long necklaces with no clasps, strung on hemp, made with ancient style beads, but with a more contemporary layout... less hippy and more universal.. but still with my cultural touches... This one is made with cast brass African discs, unfinished wood, African pipestone, old rusted prayer malas from Ethiopia, and brass cubes. the color scheme is neutral and soft. And in making that one, i was inspired to make this one. made with brass spacers from Ghana, and Sono wood saucers (my best sellers in my bead shop), as well as brass discs from india. I will be making more of these, and listing them... in my jewelry shop www.nedjmabazaar.etsy.com see ya!

The life of a bead seller can be insane

Selling beads involves a lot of tedious work... counting out little tiny beads, preparing packets of several styles for people (also the fun part, seeing peoples combinations) preparing a TON of photos and listings... searching and searching.. managing inventory of often thousands of beads... if not 10's of thousands is not easy work. Occasionally i get to a point where i have put off a little bit of organization here and there for so long that it is a disaster... It happened while my husband was away at truck driving school in Iowa... and my son was at grandmas in seattle... i had two months of not being accountable to anyone else.. so my beads took over the living room... and never recovered. So this week when it came time to do my annual inventory... well... it was quite a chore. I browsed pinterest for ideas for organizing this madhouse... and after i saw a million ways to organize if i have a million dollars... i settled on mason jars. (a few good runners up can be found on this pin board .)Pint sized mason jars made sense for my budget and size needs. Plus I think pint jars are the cutest. The jars will be somehow stored out of sight but easily accessible... hopefully in some cute way.. .but i havent decided yet. Anyway... my progress was cataloged on facebook with quite a bit of interest so i though i would share the photos here of my progress. my iphone makes every photo taken in my house turn yellow... maybe because of the yellow walls... so forgive me. also what looks like dirt all over the carpet is beads and bits of cording and labels... it was, as i said, quite a chore... but it feels great!

Slow Cooker Beans, Algerian style (Mimi's recipe)

So... I have never much cared for beans... outside of green beans. To me the beans have been too chalky, or too sweet, or too something. so I shy away. But my husband likes them. And he likes them like his mom makes them. So i learned. and for the longest time I made them for him, or let him make them for himself since it is one of the three things he knows how to cook, and i would have a few bites and then something else. But then I got a slow cooker. And since I realized that some of the things I normally don't like are transformed into magnifique when cooked low and slow. So I gave his beans a whirl today in the good ol' crock pot. I know, beans are beans... this is nothing new... but i want to eat ten bowls of these... it is like food heaven. Another thing about this dish... if i add up the cost... since i buy my lamb in roasts, cut it in portions, freeze, and keep the end pieces for soups... it ends up being pretty reasonably priced for feeding 4 people or so. i would say this dish cost me less than $5.00 total, and who doesn't need a recipe to feed the family for less than 5 bucks... ? Here it is

1 package beans of choice, soaked overnight (i used great northern because i like them) 1 piece lamb or beef 3-4 oz (optional) 2 soup spoons tomato paste 1/2 onion 1 parsnip, quartered and peeled 2 carrots , quartered 3 cloves garlic 1 soup spoon of cumin 1/2 tsp coriander 2 beef boullion cubes pepper to taste italian seasoning, a couple tsps i suppose. (i just throw some in) salt if needed throw everything but the beans in the bottom of the slow cooker. cover with beans. cover with water. if you ever over salt your soup. chop up a potato and throw it in. cook on high for 6 hours or low for 8-9 hours (I did high so not sure about low)

Hello again. I have decided to give this blogging thing another try. Recently I had to let the booth at the Spokane public market go. I had been attempting to make money there for a year, but after that year was up, my assessment was that the traffic was just not sufficient to make it worth the money i put into it. I was ok with the time. 3 days a week, 8 hours a day. I liked it because it got me out of the house, talking to people, having fun goofing around the market during slow times... but out of all my venues it took the most money to run, but with no payoff at all. so buh bye wonderful fun place to work... hellllllooooo being home all day and cabin fever... on top of that it is cold and snowy so it is time for me to talk to someone. even if nobody reads. keep the ideas flowing, stop posting incessently on facebook... stop pinning to nobody on pinterest all day (i like pinterest but it does lack the ability to ramble on about things) all those things that writing helps with... I think what i intend to do this time is write as if nobody is listening, and write about everything, as if i dont have the ulterior motive of promoting my business. I do have such a motive, I will not lie. I do not want to ever have to get another job working for someone else. so i must promote... but... really, I just want to have a chat with nobody or everybody. So i will use my blog to do so... or i wont, because if i am truthful, i tend to start these things and then stop them on a whim... so i am not making promises this time.