Odd Etsy Items of the Week

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! I definitely did. I'm back to work today, but most of the free world decided to take the day off, so needless to say it has been pretty slow. I've been doing some surfin' to kill the time, and I noticed Etsy has a new feature. Shop Local. It's pretty fun to see all the talent coming out of just your state or city. Be sure to try it out. Who knows, you may even find a local Odd Etsy Item of the Week, like me! Please, allow me to introduce Tara Robertson Pottery. She's got some really great pieces, including these little pigs.


Intriguing, no? Is it just me, or do these guys have an expression on their face that says something like "Ah Munna Eat Choo!"

Handmade with Love

Since I work at BYU, I receive a copy of "YNews" regularly to my inbox. Most days I skim over the articles and throw it away. But the last issue I got had something that stood out to me. This article talks about how the Harold B. Lee Library had scanned 575 diaries from their special collections and have posted them to the Internet. The part that stood out to me was this picture of Hyrum Smith's diary.

The caption under this picture read, "Lucy Mack Smith hand-decorated this diary for her missionary son, Hyrum." I actually got a little emotional when I read that (which, for any of you who do not know me, is not normal). I felt a connection to this woman. This diary said so much to me about the kind of mother and woman she was. She took something mundane and made it beautiful. She added this beauty to remind her son of her love and support. She was just like missionary moms today, who make things like scrapbooks and packages for their sons and daughters. I tend to think of handmade items from long-ago as being made out of necessity, and though that was part of it, there was more to it. They were made out of love, just as all handmade gifts are. I finished my handmade Christmas cards* today. Sorry they will be a little late, but remember, they were made with love, just for you, from me. Merry Christmas!

* For any of you who's address I may not have (this means you, MarySue!) please send me an email with your address, so you can get a little handmade love! angelajewell (at) gmail (dot) com

Up and Down

I watched "North and South" last night. It's a BBC miniseries, and I had seen the first episode with my mom and sister about six months ago, but had to leave while they watched the other three episodes. I borrowed it from my friend a few days ago, and finally had some time to sit down and watch it. All four hours of it. No wonder I don't have my cards sent out or my neighbor gifts made! It was so good! I highly recommend it. While I was watching it the girl I borrowed it from stopped by with her husband to drop off their neighbor gift (everyone else is on the ball but me!). When I told her what I was watching she said her husband refers to it as "Up and Down". Silly boys. Brian actually watched quite a bit of it with me, and I'm pretty sure he liked it.

C is for Cookie

I really like this recipe/idea from Elise. These might make good neighbor gifts. Yes, it's true. I haven't made neighbor gifts yet. I'm seriously behind this year. I haven't even sent out my Christmas cards yet! It'll happen, you just might get it a little after Christmas. I thought I'd help extend the celebration and festivities for you this year.

Merry Christmas to You!

Don't worry, I set up my decorations and took these pictures over a week ago (probably more like two weeks ago). I'm just now getting around to posting about it. The tree is real, I made the banner last year, and thank you, mom, for the cute little village.

An Experiment Gone Terribly Right

In my "About Me" at the bottom of the page, I mention that I like to make food, but I don't think I've ever posted about food yet! Silly me. Fortunately, I have a patient husband who lets me experiment and orders pizza when an experiment turns out not-so-good. On Saturday I had an experiment that turned out oh-so-right, so I thought I'd share. For some reason, I had never tried cooking pork before. All the other delicious parts of the pig, (ham, bacon, sausage) yes, but not pork, so I decided to give it a try. I bought a couple pieces of pork tenderloin (which always makes me think of this commercial, "You can't tell us what to do, Lord Chicken Breast!") and had a go. It turned out so tasty that it was all eaten before I could take any pictures. You'll just have to make it yourself to see what it looks like.



Apple Glazed Pork Loin



Ingredients:

2 Tbsp oil

1 apple, peeled and cut into bite-sized dice (I used a Macintosh)

1 sweet onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 pieces pork loin

salt and pepper to taste



Combine oil, apple, onion, garlic, and nutmeg in frying pan over medium heat. Saute until apple pieces are soft enough to mash with spoon. Salt and pepper both sides of of the meat and move the saute to the sides of the pan. Place pork in pan so meat has direct contact with the pan, covering top side of meat with the saute. Cook about 10 minutes on that side, then move the saute to the side of the pan again, and turn the meat over, putting the saute back on top. Cook another 10 minutes, or until meat is cooked all the way through. Both sides should have nice carmelization. I suppose you could, but we didn't eat the saute, it was just to flavor the meat, and boy did it! Very tasty and a nice change from the usual. Let me know if you try it!

Odd Etsy Item of the Week

Can't quite figure out what to get that person who has everything? Well, I'm willing to wager that person doesn't have a set of plushie Golden Girls Dolls

Or maybe your special someone is more of a reality show fan? Then there is always a plushie Dog the Bounty Hunter

Not into reality shows either, huh? More of an action fan? Well nothing says action like Mr. T!

Not into the Mr. T bling? You can't go wrong with a little Walker Texas Ranger! And as an added bonus, a little Chuck Norris Plushie is the perfect gift for any Huckabee fan.

This weeks Etsy oddities brought to you by Kezzaroo.

TasteSpotting

So, maybe this site isn't new to any of you, but Joy posted about TasteSpotting on her site, and I'm surfing away! Mouthwatering pictures of delicious sounding food from all over the globe. If you know me, you know why this particular one jumped out to me.

I've never made a souffle, but I might be tempted to try it when it's made in a grapefruit rind! Who knew such things could be accomplished? And this pumpkin gnocchi sounds fun too!

I've made gnocchi several times (it's not as hard as you might think!), but I've never thought to add to the dough like that. Oh, the possibilities! And since it's right about brunch time, this Quiche is sounding particularly tasty.

Welcome to December

Well, it finally happened. We got our first real snow storm Friday night and all day Saturday. I don't deny that the snow is pretty, but only through the window from inside my heated home. However, I might be persuaded to venture out into the wet stuff if I had a pair of these


Pretty cute, huh? I saw them while looking through the Sunday ad's. They're a screaming deal for only $18 big ones. Do you think I could get away with wearing them to work?