Megan's Jewelry

The tiara was fun, actually. It took me a little while to formulate a plan of how to construct it as I wasn't too keen on most "handmade" tiaras I'd seen--they're fine in their own right but it wasn't the look I wanted to create. I used 14ga aluminum wire, shaped and hammered, and wire wrapped on the rhinestone chain and added a few pearl and crystal embellishments. After using only sterling silver for over a year, aluminum feels like putty in my hands, even at 14ga. Thank goodness it does work harden or I'd have been in trouble. Anyway, I don't think I'd make these on a regular basis only because it's so easy to just buy a cheap one for the same amount of money it took to buy all of the supplies (for just one, buying in bulk would reduce the costs of course) but I think I'd do them on a commission basis. I hope Megan likes the set! I love making bridal jewelry, it's my favorite. :)

HELLO again!

Guys. It's been a crazy year.

I was pregnant when I lasted blogged on here and, I hope you will forgive me, decided I just needed to step away from the computer more often. Now I have two beautiful boys and less time :D but I wanted to come back and try and revive this thing. If nothing else, I have a lot of recipes to share (hey, I got really hungry a lot during my last trimester, if ya know what I mean).

These are REALLY tasty and I'm excited when I find a meatless recipe--not that I don't like meat, I do--because it seems like it's easy to find recipes with meat as the main player in a recipe and sometimes I just want something lighter, more healthy but still filling. This is one of those recipes!

http://www.artistscookbook.com/recipes/?i=212

Differences: I added about 1/2 cup chopped yellow onions. I used frozen spinach (fresh is probably way better) and I added some red kidney beans, about half a can left over from another recipe. I added like a third package of taco seasoning to make them more taco-y. I didn't use vegetable stock--instead I added some of the marinade that the artichokes came in. I then used taco shells and I baked them with the filling for about 5 minutes.