Olympics, Shrimp and Jewelry Making

I can't wait for the Olympics to begin.


I got my mittens in yesterday's mail. Bring on the snow and the Winter Olympics. I can't wait to see Jaromir Jagr skate! He is coming back from Russia to skate with the Czech team.


Mexican Garlic Shrimp. I marinated a bunch of semi peeled shrimp in salted water with chopped jalapenos, lots and lots of chopped garlic and lemon grass.




Quick cook the shrimp over high heat just until they turn pink.


In restaurants they hire people called line cooks. This is a person that is in charge of one station in the kitchen. This is my line cook but I prefer to call her a 'mine cook'. When something falls to the floor, Teddy screams MINE. Sometimes the mine cook can be caught napping on the job. But don't let her fool you. Her face might be sleeping but her ears are wide awake.


I have cilantro chopped and ready for the finish.


I slice up a bunch of limes.


And I have a can of coconut milk ready.


I also have some peppers in adobo sauce out and ready to use. In this recipe, I just use some of the sauce from the jar.


As soon as the shrimp turn pink, I stir in the coconut milk, the adobo sauce and some cilantro. Then I squeeze in the juice from two limes.


I boil some thin spaghetti.


Just ladle the shrimp and sauce over the pasta and sprinkle with extra cilantro. Serve with extra lime wedges.

Very simple. Super yum!


When I was thrifting the other day I found this necklace for 99 cents. I really liked the beads. They are glass and and are pale green and white. I thought they would make a nice bracelet. Click to see the colors better.


Usually my jewelry making is much more complicated but I wanted to wear these right away so I made a very simple bracelet. I got out my jewelry board. This is calibrated so you can measure your lengths, etc..


I looked at a box of my stones and findings to get some inspiration.


I thought these turquoise beads would look nice with the big glass beads.


I keep all of my beads and findings in boxes like these.


I laid the necklace out and put other beads by it to see what would complement it.


Then I took my snippers and took the necklace apart.


I laid out all the stones saving as much as I could from the necklace.


I was able to save the clasp and the tiny stones. I will use these in another piece.


I lined up beads until I found a combination I was happy with. I used some 14 k etched beads I had.


When I make a quick piece of jewelry I always use this stretch magic cord. It's not a bad idea to do this with all your pieces and wear them a couple of times to make sure you like the way you've put them together. You can always string them permanently later.




I start threading the cord through the stones and keep them from slipping off the end by attaching a paperclip to the cord.


There you go....instant bracelet.


After you tie the cord off, you just snip the ends.


Here it is with two others I made this morning. Click for a closer look.