Canadian Rockies Art by Nathalie

Follow me to my NEW BLOG...

2009-06-06T13:45:00.002-06:00

If you would be so kind to update your bookmarks and follow my new blog instead, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks and see you on my NGOriginals Blog!

Cheers!
Nathalie

Thursday - My Etsy Finds – 5 Hot Picks!

2009-05-21T22:06:00.001-06:00

Happy Thursday everyone!

From now on, every Thursday, I will share 5 hot picks from my favorite shops on Etsy… and without further delay, here’s tonight’s “hot 5” – posted on my new blog!

Enjoy :)

Wordless Wednesday – My Etsy Art Treasury

2009-05-20T10:26:00.001-06:00

Every Wednesday from now on, I will be featuring Etsy Photographers and Artists on my new blog in my own little private treasury (sorry, but I’m transitioning over from Blogspot to Typepad – I have too many problems with formatting posts here and comments notifications, etc).

I’m a visual person, and I love photography and fine arts. There are so many super talented artists on Etsy, we have to give them as much exposure as possible... A picture is truly worth at least a thousand words. Visit today’s private treasury on my new blog, and start following me over there… thanks!!!

Tuesday Video Break – Empire of the Sun “Walking on a Dream”

2009-05-19T22:00:00.001-06:00

Hi everybody!

I’ve decided to do a weekly video/song/music feature to share either some old favourites of mine or new songs that I come across and really enjoy.

So, every Tuesday, make sure to stop by and take a little “video break” with me – Music is a big part of what inspires me when working on my jewellery creations and heck, it just feels great to relax and listen to a good tune, don’t you think?

Without further delay, I’m sharing today a video that my wonderful friend Cindy (she makes awesome jewellery – check out her shop!) shared with me tonight and it’s a really nice song. It’s from an Australian Duo called “Empire of the Sun” and I had never heard of them before today. I’m really glad you told me about it Cindy! Thanks my dear :)

You can view the video on my new Canadian Rockies Art Typepad Blog (blogger just gives me too many problems, so I will be mainly posting on Typepad from now on, you can follow me there!)

Cheers!

Happy Mother's Day Eseta!

2009-05-10T12:32:00.004-06:00

First I want to wish all the Moms that I know a very happy fun-filled Mother's Day!

We've started a new tradition this year at our house since I discovered Kiva and today is part of this new tradition.

Instead of my husband buying me a bunch of flowers that will fade away within a week, and with my many food allergies, I stay away from restaurants as much as possible now, we donate $25 to help someone on Kiva.

Flowers (& restaurant dinners) are great, don't get me wrong - but I prefer perennials that I can plant outside in my garden and enjoy all summer long, year after year - and so I get a nice plant (much cheaper than a bouquet of cut flowers)... and we invest the rest of the money to help someone else instead.

So, today, I would like to wish Eseta in the South Pacific a very happy Mother's day... with love, from our family to hers, with the help of a $25 donation towards her agriculture business fund.

Eseta is 28, married and a mother of 2 children. At this point, she still needs some money to fully fund her loan - She grows produce that she sells a few days a week to locals and visitors, so feel free to pitch in too if you can!

You can also purchase Kiva Gift Certificates so that the person you give the certificates to can choose which person they want to help. It's a wonderful gift idea!

Happy Mother's Day everybody!

May's Animal Rescue Donations will be going to...

2009-05-06T19:51:00.003-06:00

Time just flies, flies, flies...

I can't believe we're already into May with Mother's Day coming up this weekend... my gosh!

I apologize for being late again to post the May Animal Rescue Group that I have selected for my monthly animal rescue support/donations. This month, 5% of May's sales (plus the 5% match by my family) will be donated to Paws and Claws Animal Rescue Foundation in Red Deer, Alberta.

During the past six years, Paws and Claws Animal Rescue Foundation has made a considerable difference in the quality of life for many animals on the reserve. They have placed over 800 unwanted puppies and dogs in loving homes. These are canines that would have been done away with, not always humanely, or died from disease, hunger or exposure. They have provided tons of food and some vaccination clinics to help stop the spread of distemper and parvovirus, provided medical care, etc.

My family matches "dollar-for-dollar" all the money raised from my jewelry sales, so that we can give 10% each month to my rescue group of choice.

Thank YOU for helping me help others!

I made myself something... for once :)

2009-04-23T17:41:00.004-06:00

I don't know about you, but I always make jewelry to put it up for sale, and I rarely make something for myself.

I buy jewelry made by other artists to wear (I love doing that!), but then I go around and I tell people I make jewelry and I have nothing of mine to show - I just say "This ring is by Tamara", "This necklace is by Eni", "This bracelet is by Cindy ", "Those earrings are made by Donna, or Sus", etc....

And then they go "but where can we see your stuff?" LOL....

I always have plans to make myself something, but I always push it further down the "to do" list, and this time I decided that I was going to take the time to make something for moi :)

So I made myself this bracelet (I made the rustic fused fine silver oval links on it from scratch), as well as a pair of earrings, all made from scratch.

The reflections of light in these cool lampwork beads remind me of when we walk on the beach, and the water rolls up on the sand, tickling our toes, the sunlight makes the water sparkle in shades of turquoise, green and the white sand mirrors through.

I lost another 2lbs this past week on WW, so this could serve as my 'non-food' treat, right? :)

Kiva for Easter - Instead of Chocolates and Turkey

2009-04-12T10:41:00.003-06:00

I recently discovered the Kiva website, and I really think it's a fabulous idea!

This is one of the best ways to help so many people around the world, in just a few clicks. They get 100% of the money and it can change their lives.

So this year, instead of spending money on Easter Chocolates (I'm still doing WW, so I don't need chocolate sitting on my hips!), or on buying a Turkey (we no longer eat Turkey), I have invested US$25 to fund a loan to help a woman further grow her bread making business in Peru.

That's my Easter Gift to my family and to this woman in Peru - the gift of lending a bit of money to help another person become more independant and help them grow their own business and support their family.

You can check out my Kiva lender's page, and learn more about Kiva and the people I'm helping out.

I will be helping out other people for each holiday celebration like Mother's Day, Father's Day, my birthday, etc.

The more we share, the more we have! Happy Easter everyone! :)

Music that touches the soul... Zachary Richard

2009-04-11T19:59:00.008-06:00

I have been a fan of Zachary Richard for as long as I can remember. I grew up listening to some of this songs, and his incredible voice and warm cajun - French Louisiana accent just reaches you deep in your soul.

I somehow lost touch with him over the years and in my quest to take better care of my body and of my soul, I rediscovered him again recently.

I have many favorites of his, but this song here "Pleine Lune en décembre" - Full Moon in December, set on a wonderful photo-montage) is so beautiful, I wanted to share it with you.

If you do not know Zachary Richard (he has albums in French as well as in English), give him a chance to haunt your soul... you won't regret it...

(I'm editing this post to add a copy of the lyrics - in English - from Zachary's website:)

Pleine lune en décembre
Full moon in December

You say that you need space
In your cabin all alone.
You say that your heart is too full.
Like the full moon in December.

The owls and the foxes
Have turned white for the winter.
White like the light of my pain,
White like the light of death.

The moon shines on the snow.
And the night is so long.
The eagle flies toward the sun,
Abandonning his shadow.

In the streets of Montreal,
A thief runs beneath the street lamps.
A phantom that I follow
In a dream that I have lost.

In New Orleans,
A bird sings after midnight,
The song of my soul
In the garden of my heart.

Zachary Richard, Les Editions du Marais Bouleur

My creations for the Corsage Project 2009!

2009-04-10T15:52:00.002-06:00

I recently found out about the Corsage Project while reading one of the newsletters that Beadfx sends out periodically. BeadFX is one of the sponsors, and so with their generous help, I was able to participate in this great cause.

The Corsage Project is a charitable organization linked to The Canadian Children's Aid Foundation, and they coordinate donors to ensure that Toronto teenage girls who are due to graduate every Spring (but cannot afford to attend their prom) can have the lovely dresses, shoes, and beautiful jewelry that will highlight an evening that they will remember for the rest of their lives.

I had never heard of this project until now, but I thought that the idea behind it was wonderful, and even more important with the current economic downturn (so many parents are losing their jobs, which would make it even more difficult for their teenage daughters to attend their prom). So, I decided that I would pitch in and help the cause to the best of my ability.

You can see all 3 sets of Swarovski Crystals & Swarovski Pearls jewelry that I have donated this year to this project on my website's gallery page.

I just love the sparkle of BIG Swarovski Crystals, and so this is what I used in the sets I've made (various Swarovski Crystals from 18mm down to 6mm, and Swarovski Pearls 6mm & 4mm).

The more we share... the more we have :)

April's Animal Rescue Donations will be going to...

2009-04-04T21:44:00.001-06:00

Is it me or is time flying faster and faster every day? I can't believe we're already into April, let alone April 4th with Easter coming up next weekend... my gosh!

I apologise for being a few days late to post the April Animal Rescue Group that I have selected for my monthly animal rescue support/donations. This month, 5 % of my sales (+ 5% matched by my family to make a total of 10%) will go to the Pound Rescue in Okotoks (just outside of Calgary) in Alberta.

You can visit their website here to see all their great work. And, as always, I do thank you (along with the animals) for your support and for helping me help others :)

Times are tight for a lot of rescue groups. Just remember that every single penny counts and can help. Every donation, no matter how small DOES help.

Don't buy a puppy before reading this.

This is my week! I'm featured on another blog!

2009-04-03T20:45:00.003-06:00

My goodness! This is my week to be featured it seems!

I recently found this really awesome new blog, which features Canadian Artisans, and wow, do we ever have a LOT of talented artisans in Canada!

Well, (blushing) tonight, I received a heads-up that one of my jewelry pieces had been selected and made the Friday's Five on Brandi's CanArtisan site... check it out and you'll see some really cool pieces by other Calgarian (today is a special about artisans located in Calgary).

Cool hey? :)

I'm featured on a blog!

2009-04-01T21:07:00.000-06:00

Recently, a friend of mine from Etsy asked me if she could feature me on her blog... How could I refuse? :-)

Maureen of Jeweledrabbit was kind enough to post this feature of my work on her blog.

Check it out if you have a minute.

She features a lot of great artists and you might discover some new favorites!

Maureen also sells her own creations on Winkelf - have a look while you're at it!

Working on my own website - take a peek!

2009-03-28T09:34:00.004-06:00

It's a fun and tedious task at the same time - building your own website.

As you know, I am on a few different online selling venues, but the itch to get my own website up and running is always ever so present and I can't shake it off. I've made a few different attempts in the past, but the backbones of the sites I had tried just didn't work well for me, so like so many others, I went to Pappashop, and I like it a lot since a lot of the backbones are quite suitable for a jewelry seller and their customer service is absolutely top-notch.

I've been slowly (man, ever so slowly) working on getting my site up, and although the home page offers to redirect clients to my Etsy shop for now, there are some other pages on the site that I've been working on filling out, so you can browse around.

I'm far from finished, but I figured I should show my work in progress. That might actually give me the umph to get it finished sooner rather than later!

So have a peek, if you are so inclined :-)

Handmade Metal Jewerly Art Website...

Enjoy!

Twilight Movie Inspiration - Moonstone Jewelry

2009-03-18T20:25:00.000-06:00

I had this design for a pair of earrings in mind ever since the Twilight Movie came out... the moonstone ring that Bella wears is pretty and I love the mood of the movie.

I finally had some time to get to the bench and make my design idea/Twilight Movie inspired idea come to reality:

I've always been attracted to the fabulous blue flash of Rainbow Moonstone, and I had those pretty briolettes just waiting to become part of one of my creations :)

To get more information and see these and some of my latest creations, stop by my Etsy shop :-)

Exercising and Workout Intensity - Sweat level or Heart rate?

2009-03-18T08:58:00.001-06:00

I'm sorry I have been MIA lately, but I was slowly slipping on my Weight Watchers plan and I know I was not exercising enough, etc, and I just find that sitting at the computer just doesn't help me with my workouts. Time slips by quickly and I wonder "Where has all the time gone?"

It is helpful to find support online when we are working at losing weight, but obviously, there has to be some balance and getting our tushy off the chair and moving that body is the best thing to do of course.

I do WW online on the Canadian site and I don't spend any time on the boards there, except to report my daily exercises in the Fitness challenge area, and the odd time, like this morning, I catch a post that makes me want to remind everyone who is working at losing weight (note that I'm not saying "trying to" but "working at" losing weight), that working out at the proper exercise intensity is KEY.

Someone this morning mentionned 'sweat' as being a way to measure her workout intensity. I figured I should repost my reply here, in hopes that it will help spread out the RIGHT information in measuring workout intensity.

Here's what I wrote:

Everybody has different body 'settings' when it comes to sweating and some people sweat very easily with very little effort, while others must go all out for a long period of time before they actually start sweating.

Sweat is really not an indicator of how hard you are working during exercise.

The best way to measure your workout intensity is by using a heart rate monitor, and knowing 'your' zones based on your age and resting heart rate.

There is a great free online heart rate calculator here that gives you all the heart rate zones based on your info (Make sure to click the button for "female" because the results are different for men and women):

http://www.fitzones.com/members/Fitness/heartrate_zones.asp

Check your 'resting heart rate' by taking your pulse on your neck or on your wrist (do not use your thumb, use the index and middle finger only) relax and count your pulse for a period of 15 seconds, then multiply the result x 4.

The best way to measure your resting heart rate (RHR) is when you first wake up in the morning and before you get out of bed. Simply count your pulse for 15 seconds beginning on the zero count and multiply by 4. You can do this for 5 days and then average the results. This is your resting heart rate.

Keep in mind that lack of proper rest, stress and lack of proper nutrition, and medication can influence your RHR. One sign of over-training is an elevated RHR. By becoming aware of your RHR you can more closely become in-tuned with with how your body is reacting to different stimulus.

So plug your RHR in this calculator, along with your age, click on 'female' and then click on 'calculate' and that gives you your own target zones.

So when you workout, use your heart rate monitor and write down your results from the calculator, and that way you will know which intensity zone you are working in.

That's the best way to see what level you are working at.

I'm hoping that the above information can help some of my readers too. Good luck everybody!

The MEOW Foundation

2009-03-01T10:43:00.001-07:00

I haven't had time to give my blog the love it deserves lately (sorry!), but I wanted to announce that my March sales will support The MEOW Foundation in Calgary :)

5% of March sales ( + 5% matched donation by the members of my family) will be donated to the MEOW Foundation. They are a humane society for cats with a no-kill mandate. They faciliatate the adoption of stray and abandonned cats that they rescue into new loving permanent homes.

Visit their website and thank you for helping in any way that you can.

And thank you for helping me help others!

My new Metal Stamp Set :)

2009-02-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

A few Pendants / Charms made with my Kismet set :)

I was lucky enough to fall upon a girl on Etsy who unfortunately had to part with her Kismet lower case metal stamp set. I had been thinking of putting my name on that loooooooooong waiting list at Beaducation, but I figured it would take ages before my name would get to the top of the list, so I started looking around and found someone who was selling her new set on Etsy.

I think it's a very fun and whimsical font... I like it very much :)

You can find these two 18 gauge thick pendants / charms for sale in my 2nd Etsy shop (along with some really pretty gemstones I'm destashing, and some of my handmade ear wires) right here.

Thank you for buying handmade!

My new Rustic Angels :-)

2009-02-08T09:58:00.003-07:00

These pretties are my latest design... I call them my Sweet Little Rustic Angels (the ones with the turquoise beads), and I also made a slightly bigger (longer) version with some lovely high quality Swarovski Pearls.

Both sizes are available in my shop with a selection of various colors of stones and Swarovski pearls. Just contact me if you want a certain color or stone and you don't see it listed.

I also offer Gift Certificates in my shop, for those who are not sure what to get their loved one for Valentine's Day, or if you're shopping at the very last minute - I email you the certificate so that you can print it out and put it in a card - it doesn't get any faster or easier than that!

Lost over half a pound & Vegan 'meatballs'

2009-01-31T11:30:00.021-07:00

Nathalie's Vegan 'meatballs'

Don't these look yummy? :-)

I made those last week, as a trial run of a recipe I made from scratch.

I really had a good laugh at my husband. These vegan 'meatballs' looked so real and so good, he waltz into the kitchen, saw the bowl on the kitchen counter and said "Yum! Meatballs!" ... then he grabbed one quickly and popped it into his mouth................

And then reality hit him like a ton of bricks!

These were not what he would call 'real' meatballs, they were a first draft of my home made Vegan 'meatbals'! Oh dear!!!!

You should have seen his face LOL

I'm still laughing a week later. It was priceless.

He will eat anything, he's really easy to please (love you honey!) but when he sees what looks like real meatballs, they have to be 'real' LOL so he had quite the shock there for a second.

I need to work out my ratio of ingredients a bit, but they were pretty good for a first attempt at home made 'soy-free' vegan 'meatballs' :)

Once I have perfected the recipe to where I like it, I'll let you know...

And, I've lost another 0.6 lbs this past week, so that makes a total loss so far of 6.2 lbs, and I ate as much as I wanted, did not feel deprived at all... I'll take it!

Enjoy the Super Bowl everybody!

I made it to the FRONT PAGE of Etsy!!!

2009-01-25T21:49:00.006-07:00

*** I'm doing a "Happy Dance"!!! ***

I was hoping that one day.... one day....... I would see one of my items make the Etsy.com front page...

And today is the day! :-)

Sorry for being so excited, but it's my first time.... Happy Dance!

Here's a picture of the Front Page. Admin did a search for the keyword 'Fire' and they certainly had a lot of patience to check through over 500 pages of results, because my listing for the Fire Pure Textured Copper Bangles (trio of bangles) was sure burried deep!

Thanks Etsy Admin! Much appreciated :-)

I feel so very good... Thank you Sis!

2009-01-24T11:22:00.005-07:00

Islamorada, Florida Keys - Photo taken by my late sister. It was her favorite place to go on mini-vacations in Florida.

Before my very best friend of 15 years (aka my 'sister') tragically passed away in a car accident last October in Miami, I had promissed her that I would take good care of my health. That this was the most important thing of all.

We had made plans, and I am acting on them, both for her and for me.

I am working every single day to honor that promise I had made to her, and to honor my body and myself.

I have been following a mix of vegetarian and vegan diet for 24 days now, and I feel so good.

I have been exercising more regularly every week, and I feel so good.

I meditate every single night before bed-time to re-focus myself and take the time to reconnect with every part of my body, and speak to my Sister, and I feel so good.

No, I don't get everything done on my list of other chores, but you know what, I do get everything done to take BETTER care of me - something I had not been doing for the past few years.

Thank you Sis for holding me to my promise, for being my angel and watching over me.

You've been gone almost 3 months now, and I wish you were here, but I know that by taking good care of me, your memory will live on even longer.

This message is for everybody who so kindly follows my blog:

Take the time to take care of you.

Take the time to stop and smell the roses.

Take the time to enjoy life.

Take the time to just 'be' in the moment.

Peace,

Nathalie

FABULOUS Soy Free RECIPES!!!!!

2009-01-23T14:00:00.006-07:00

Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!!!!!

Yeah, so you've all been wondering where I've been for the past few days?

I've been in a blisseful 'foodie' zone in my kitchen, going through recipes after recipes and (Oh my God! Did I say this already?.....) - these cookbooks are "FANTABULOUS" and TOTALLY SOY FREE!!!!!!! :-)))))

Ok, so I received my Amazon order ultra quick (as usual - I really love how fast they ship, it's impeccable service, especially with their Free Shipping when you buy for a certain $ amount) and I've been devouring with my eyes and my stomach all sorts of goodies from this first book here:

For my US friends - You can read about it here & purchase it on Amazon.com
(also read the many reviewer comments - it's a top notch recipe book):

The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen

And for my Canadian friends , you can purchase it here on Amazon.ca:

Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen

Truly, you do not have to be Vegan or Vegetarian to use the recipes in this book.

These are 300 (yup!!! 300!!!) 'authentic' Mediterranean recipes (which, by nature, often do not include meats to begin with).

They can make wonderful side dishes or main dishes, or both (I'm the only vegetarian/vegan in the family, the rest can have my main course as their side dish) - it's up to you, and if like me you are craving 'authentic' Mediterranean cuisine, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU!

I can't share the recipes I've tried on my blog for obvious copyright reasons, but the ones I've tried so far have been a huge hit with my family (and me!)...

I cook a lot, and I've read every single recipe in the book (that's where I've been...) and these recipes are easy to make, really well explained, with ingredients that are sold at any supermarket (there's no weird or hard to find ingredients in there - I hate nothing more than buying a cookbook and find out that you need to get this and that 'weird' ingredient, etc.... this is not the case here - it's all basic common fresh ingredients), and a good number of the recipes can be whipped up quickly - In fact, there is a chapter at the end that lists various recipes from the book to pull together some quick menus for each season (some recipes can be made for less money if the veggies are in season, etc).

This is TRULY the best 'authentic' cookbook I've seen on the market. And I've seen many in my life. I currently own well over 50 cookbooks in English, as well as some in French and German.

I love how everything is laid out and explained in this book. There's LOADS OF COOKING TIPS & TRICKS and I've learned a few new tricks just by reading this book, while I was browsing through each recipe.

I am so happy I bought it - grab it while you can - it's on sale!!!

You can't go wrong with the current sale price of US$11.99 (CAD $14.60) for 300 fantastic tasty recipes!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next book that I ordered and received is this mouth-watering "Vice Cream" book. It's totally SOY-FREE and SINFUL (what a combo, huh?) :-)

There are 70 recipes in this book. I'm sure you'll find a few to your liking:

For my US friends - You can read about it here & purchase it on Amazon.com:

Vice Cream: Over 70 Sinfully Delicious Dairy-Free Delights

And for my Canadian friends, you can purchase it here on Amazon.ca:

Vice Cream

As the author Jeff Rogers says, so many people are Lactose intolerant, and so many people choose not to eat milk products for various reasons, and well, soy and rice 'ice creams' often leave you with a yearning for something better and sometimes with a bad after-taste.

I'm allergic to soy, and lactose intolerant, so the recipes in this book are definitely something I am looking forward to try!

The author wanted to develop some scrumptious rich Vegan Friendly Soy Free deserts (and really, again, anyone can eat these - as long as you do not have any NUTS allergies), and although I haven't tried the recipes yet (I have to buy an ice cream maker attachement for our kitchenaid robot to make these recipes), the very basic ingredients, very minimalist approach (3 to 4 natural ingredients per 'vice cream' recipe) is worth buying an ice cream maker if you do not have one yet - do your research to buy a machine that will work for you.

It's not difficult with a little preparation, and to me, it's worth it to end up with rich tasteful deserts that are totally VEGAN and totally SOY-FREE, a nice little special treat to share with your family and friends.

Enjoy!

Book: The Whole Soy Story - Something to consider

2009-01-18T11:46:00.005-07:00

Yesterday I briefly touched on Soy Sludge (Soy Lecithin), and I wanted to talk about Soy, in general a bit more today.

Over the years, I've become terribly allergic to soy, we're talking full-blown allergic reaction here...and if you are not currently allergic to soy, it doesn't mean that you will never be.

Soy is one of the TOP 8 Food Allergens in the entire world. This is not something to be brushed aside.

And because it is used in so many commercial products (even products where you think you'd never dream of finding soy), it doesn't help matters either, because as a population, we end up consumming WAY TOO MUCH of it.

Remember: Eat everything in moderation. As Tamara and my other Vegan and Vegetarian friends have commented, there's lots of ways to get your protein without having to rely (so heavily) on soy.

Over-consumption of soy can be extremely detrimental to your health.

Even if you are not vegetarian or vegan, do you know how much soy there are in commercial products and how much you're consumming on a daily basis?

All of those "Weight Loss". "Diet", "Lean" and "Weight Control" products (everything from Instant Oatmeal to chocolate drizzled 100 calories snacks, to all the Diet Frozen Entrées, etc) are loaded with soy!

Why? It's simple:

1) It helps these companies drastically REDUCE the number of calories in their products, so more people who 'watch their weight' or 'watch what they eat' will buy them.

2) It helps these companies reduce the fat content/calories from fat in their products, thus again, resulting in an overall lower caloric content, and so people buy them to 'stay on plan'.

3) It makes people who are dieting think that they can have their cake and eat it too.

4) It reduces production costs, and it helps to keep the overall protein content of the product at a high enough level.

Like I said, everything in MODERATION is key... but when it's in almost every single product, then that can become a serious problem, since so many people end-up developping soy-related health problems over time:

"...Epidemiological, clinical and laboratory studies link soy to malnutrition, digestive problems, thyroid dysfunction, cognitive decline, reproductive disorders, even heart disease and cancer."

If you haven't read this book yet, I highly recommend it, and it's on sale at a really great price at the moment:

For my US friends - You can read about it here & purchase it on Amazon.com

(also read the many reviewer comments - it's quite informative):

The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food

And for my Canadian friends , you can purchase it here on Amazon.ca,

and it's cheaper than the US Sale price - not a bad deal!!!:

The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food

I'm not saying to stop eating it altogether, but you should be made aware that over time, you can develop some allergies and other serious health complications if you eat too much of it.

The more information we share, the more we have....

Peace :)

President's Choice Couscous - So easy and delish!

2009-01-18T09:44:00.005-07:00

President's Choice Memories of Marrakech Couscous...

I don't know if you've ever tried it, but I've been using it for years and I love it. It's so easy and quick (5 min. and it's ready to serve). I find that it's a really nice change from the same old, same old, and it's so versatile.

That's what I ate last night, covered with a load of stir-fried veggies (chunks of onions, mushrooms, yellow peppers, steamed pieces of broccoli leftovers, and some sliced leftover steamed baby carrots).... Delish!

You can add a stir-fry sauce of your choice while cooking your veggies. I just eat my veggies stir-fried with a dash of salt & pepper. Simple and yum!

They say that you can either use vegetable broth or water to cook it. I always use either the Knorr Simply Natural Vegetable broth, or the President's Choice Organic Vegetable Broth in the large 900ml cartons, not the tin can as pictured here for the PC product.

It's certainly always handy to have some on hand :)

Soy SLUDGE - Soy Lecithin... do you know what it is?

2009-01-17T18:38:00.005-07:00

Before dinner this evening, I was looking online to see if we actually had commercial "Almond Milk" for sale somewhere in Canada.

I found some.... I've never seen it here in Alberta in the various stores I shop at, but there is a brand, you can buy it online from an Ontario online food store.

The product is called Almond Breeze...

It almost sounds tropical, don't you think :)

But, wait!!!

Once again, when I read the ingredients list, guess what I found:

Soy Lecithin! (see me banging my head against the computer screen).

And that's why, for the past several years now, I have resorted to home cooking from scratch as much as possible, and when I buy a few commercial food products in stores, you bet your life that I'm reading labels from top to bottom.

Do you know exactly what Soy Lecithin is?

I can tell you that it's in the vast majority of commercial food products and that it's real "narsty" stuff :(

The very informative "Soy Lecithin: From Sludge to Profit" article by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN should be a real eye opener... whether you can tolerate soy or not - read it.

Between that SOY SLUDGE filled with pesticides and beetles as a colorant in our food, what's next?

Oh, and I don't wear/don't use makeup either btw... I haven't for several years. (if you don't understand what I mean by this, read the From Sludge to Profit article..... you'll get it).

Just to clarify - Vegan and Vegetarian

2009-01-17T15:41:00.006-07:00

I just thought I should clarify a couple of things, since a fair number of new people are starting to read and follow my blog:

If it was up to me, I would definitely be VEGAN. There is absolutely no question about it.

As I just wrote to my friend Roni, I would be vegan to be honest, but I don't see at the moment how I could accomplish this with my silly allergies :(

I wanted to clarify that the reason why I decided to do my "GoVeg" (Go Vegetarian) pledge for January as a Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian is simply because I do not know enough yet how to get certain nutrients that my body needs (considering my allergies) using a Vegan diet.

For the "Lacto" part, I take the skim milk at the moment for the protein and calcium.

I do not eat yogourt.
I do not eat ice cream.

I'm lactose intolerant actually (have been for a few decades, and I still don't do well with Lactaid either).

It's especially bad with yogurt and ice cream made with milk, and I really have to watch how much cheese I eat and I've been eating much more lately and I don't like this either. I know that it's starting to upset my stomach.

I cannot take calcium or vitamins or iron (pills) either, they cause me a lot of stomach upsets.

I've tried many times in the past to help supplement my food intake and it's always the same nasty problems :(

I cannot handle most chemical ingredients in packaged food either, so mom and I do all "home cooked meals" using fresh ingredients, all from scratch. But a lot of our meals have lean meats in them.

I do not eat in restaurants, other than the very odd take out or order in (= a few times a year only) - which we do very seldom, because my stomach can't handle it either, and you never know what ingredients are used. I have too many sensitivities and allergies to risk it. It's a waste of money and I get ill, so it's not worth it.

So, I know that I do and feel better on a meatless and lacto-less diet.

As for the eggs, I really don't usually eat much eggs or egg whites (maybe once a week or once every other week max), but I've had to increase that now to several times a week, because I can only eat so much beans, etc, as I have explained in my previous post - I have a hard time stomaching eating so many eggs, it's a real turn off :(

I definitely feel better in many ways, but I do not like having all this cheese and eggs. I didn't realise until this past week how much I don't really care for those - I just never ate them often enough in the past to realise this.

But in the end, I need to make sure to get enough protein, calcium, iron, etc, in, but it has to come from foods, not 'supplements'...

So, I am looking to eliminate milk, cheese and eggs from my diet entirely, but not being able to take soy or tofu products and no 'supplements', and not having so many beans (all sorts) either.

I am not sure on how to accomplish this and getting my proteins in/make sure to have a balanced nutrition at this point.

It's a work in progress, what can I say!

Over 5 lbs gone forever! Happy Dance!

2009-01-17T12:31:00.005-07:00

This morning was my 3rd weigh-in on the Weight Watchers Momentum online program, and I am very pleased to report that this past week, I've lost 1.6 lbs!

So, this takes me to a total lost so far of 5.4 lbs.... gone forever :-)

By the way, I say "gone forever" because I sincerely do not intend for any of these pounds to come back. I want to shed this excess weight once and for all. I'm not dieting, it's a lifestyle improvement and I want to keep a lot of those improvements at the forefront from now on. This is the pledge I made to myself for this year: Taking better care of my health.

Speaking of pledges, my "GoVeg" pledge is still going strong - I'm still eating 100% Lacto-Ovo Vegeterian since January 1st and I know that I will make it to the end of the month.

So far, my main issue is that I am allergic to Soy and Tofu (amongst other foods), and that it's becoming a bit redundant already (after 17 days) to be eating beans, lentils, eggs/egg whites, skim milk, low-fat cheese, whole grains, and some nuts as my main sources of protein and Iron.

I find that in terms of recipes, it seems to always come back to the same few things.

Where in the past I would eat some kind of stew, or roast, or some cut of meat, that most Vegans and Vegetarians can replace with Soy and Tofu products (soy grounds, tofu dogs, etc) to, for example, shape soy meatballs for a spaghetti or a soy meatball sandwich, I have no way of making meatballs other than using squished beans and rice or adding in bread crumbs and making some kind of paste... not bad tasting, but the beans and rice is also what I eat in casseroles, in burger patties, etc... so it seems to always come back to the same 'mixture' all the time.

That's where I'm struggling at the moment, and with the huge increase in eating beans and lentils, etc.... you know that my body is playing a lot of 'music' ... to say it politely LOL.... and I'm not supposed to use products like Beano (and I've tried it a few times in the past without much success, but I'm not supposed to use it anyway because I'm asthmatic and this product should not be used by asthmatics).

So, these are some of the issues I'm dealing with at the moment.

I have a couple of vegetarians and vegan cook books, and I am still finding myself quite limited because I cannot use anything with soy or tofu. Now that I've been looking at this closer for the past few weeks, it's amazing the number of recipes that use soy and tofu... I didn't realise how much until now.

I know that I can replace some of this with seitan, but most commercial stuff has soy sauce etc in it, and at this point, I haven't had time to look for what I need to make my own, etc, and I'm not 'there' yet.

Anyway, that's my little rant for today.

I believe that at the end of this 30 day pledge, I will need to re-introduce a bit of meats into my diet, just for the sake of having a wider variety of things to eat because at this point, it feels way too restrictive for me.

I know I would not feel this way if I could eat soy and tofu products, so instead I've dramatically increased my consumption of cheeses (I try to stick to low-fat, I do not like fat-free and we only have fat-free cream cheese in Canada anyway and that is disgusting), and I have also dramatically increased my consumption of free-range eggs/egg whites, and I'm really getting sick of eating eggs too.

Whereas in the past, I was eating about around 80% of my meals with meat, and 20% vegan or vegetarian meals, I could certainly at least turn this around and do something like 30 to 50% meals with meat, and 50 to 70% vegan or vegetarian meals... that would still be a good improvment on what I was doing in the past.

I definitely recommend eating more vegan and vegetarian meals. I do feel better in many ways because of it. But with my various food allergies, I definitely feel way more restricted, so I believe, for now, that I'm going to have to ease back a bit after the pledge month is over.

My other issue is with the Weight Watchers' plan - nuts and cheeses (unless the cheese is fat free, which I don't have access too, nor have a real desire to eat) count as points, and the same goes for any commercial product (on the 'Core' WW program, most of the things that you do not make yourself from scratch end up counting as points).

So far, I have gone over my 35 flex points every week because of my heavier than normal nuts and cheese consumption, and I'm still losing, but I know that at some point, I won't anymore, and that if I want to follow the plan, I will have to cut back on nuts and cheese, hence losing two of my 'protein' and Iron (nuts) sources :(

But WW Core allows for lean meats (you do not count those points) and soy/tofu products, so if you can eat soy and tofu, it's much easier to stay on plan and not go over the points every single week... darn allergies :(

Thanks for listening to my rant.

It's time to go make a nice Bruschetta & cheese (points) grilled sandwich (using sprouted wheat bread) and a garden salad for my lunch :)

My very first Blog Award!

2009-01-16T16:08:00.004-07:00

I am very honoured to have been chosen by Gillian of BrilliantBeads for this award :-)

Thank you very much Gillian!

Here's the story behind this award:

The authors say that blogs who receive this award are exceedingly charming. This blog invests in the PROXIMITY in space, time and relationships. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that even more friendships are propagated.

So, now it's time for me to pass on this award and 'propagate' some friendships!

I'd like to pass this award on to...

Tamara at McFarland Designs

Susmitha at CuteLittlePackage/ArtBySusmitha

and.... last but not least:

Roni at DaisyWares

Keep up the great work ladies... I am so grateful to have you, and all my great blogger friends in my life :-)

It's official, I'm allergic to strawberries :(

2009-01-10T14:53:00.002-07:00

Oh how much I loved you... all plump and juicy and sweet... I suspected it, but now it's been confirmed - Fairwell sweet tasty fruit that you are!

Sigh.

I'm really bummed.

I've been suspecting this for a long time, but you see, I have a truckload of allergies (grass, trees including birch trees that grow all over the country, other various pollens, ragweed, various fruits... etc).

I had mainly been eating strawberries in the Spring to early Fall every year, and of course, since I take allergy meds because I have so many allergies that flare up in that same time-frame, I hadn't suspected that the strawberries were making me worst since the meds were toning down the reactions.

But this Fall, I decided to run a test. I totally removed strawberries from my diet up until this week (so a good 3 months), and since it's winter and we've had some deep deep frosty cold weather, I haven't needed to take any allergy meds in a while now (good thing), so this week, I decided to re-introduce strawberries to see what my reaction would be.

Sigh.

I ate some a few nights ago on top of my cereals and milk, and it didn't take too long for my ear canal to start itching (that's because your throat and inner ears start to swell in response to an allergen)... and then my nose started to run, sneezing, allergic rhinitis set in, the whole nine yards.

I gave it a couple of days without touching it again, and last night, I loaded a lot of strawberries on my evening bowl of cereal.

Sure enough, I had another reaction, quite bad actually. I didn't go into anaphalactic shock, this allergy isn't as bad as the one I have to bananas (got my epi pen), but I really had a nasty allergic episode and I took some Benadryl liquid and things calmed down after awhile.

I suspected I was allergic to strawberries for a long time, and I am very much allergic to birch trees, and I have hay fever (both the Spring and Fall kind) and countless other allergies. I get the same reaction that I did to the strawberries from cantaloups, honeydew melons, pears, citrus fruits. It's not a bad to bananas, but bad enough that I really need to stay away from it.

Today I've got a really nasty sinus headache (thanks to the allergic reaction that upsets my head/sinuses to no end). But at least, now I know, and I will keep away from it as of now. It makes me very sad, but I have no choice.

Here's some info about allergies to strawberries.

On another note - I weighed-in this morning for WW and I went up by 0.2 lbs (basically a stand-still). I was expecting a gain because I did eat pizza and chocolate cake on a few occasions this past week (very small portions of cake) for my husband's birthday. I also did not drink all my water every day, and so I'm happy I didn't come out of this with more of a gain.

So, although I feel absolutely miserable and my head wants to explode. I've cooked myself a casserole (kind of a vegan chili, really delicious) and I've been sticking to drinking my water today.

I'm still eating vegetarian, I'm holding strong on my GoVeg pledge that I made on January 1st for the entire month :)

At least I'm not allergic to apples and blueberries (yet!).

Mmmm... Chana Masala :-)

2009-01-06T08:56:00.004-07:00

When I used to live in the Caribbean, there was a wonderful small authentic Indian restaurant and we went there on occasion, and they served some really lovely Chana Masala.

I make a bit of a similar 'looking' dish myself from scratch (see my Indian Style Stew), but my own version is more North Americanised in terms of flavors and ingredients.

Anyway, thankfully, President's Choice (Loblaws/Superstore) has a nice line of pretty authentic Indian entrées and other food products, and so last week I grabbed a couple of boxes (frozen entrée) of the President's Choice Chana Masala and, like some of the comments, the flavor is really spot on for authentic Indian Chana Masala flavor. There is too much sauce and not enough chickpeas (the portion showing on the box cover looks more authentic in terms of how it should look, but when you open the box, it's more like chickpeas swiming in a ton of sauce).

None the less, the box contains '2 portions' in the one single bowl, so I heated it up and split the portions and kept some leftover for my lunch today. It's quite delicious and I put it over top of some brown rice to soak up all the lovely sauce (as delicious as naan bread is, I'd have to count my points for that whereas the brown rice is considered Core and I don't have to count it).

For those in Canada or abroad that have access to this PC product, it's really nice to have on standby in the freezer and after a few minutes in the microwave, you find yourself traveling in your mind to exotic India (*wave to my girlfriend Susmitha!*)

I might as well write down what I ate yesterday - Still going Vegeterian and keeping to my pledge!

Breakfast:
Sprouted Bread toasted sandwich (1 Egg and a wee bit of Part-Skim cheese, a bit of ketchup), glass of skim milk.

On a side note: I don't always write down on here what I drink every day, but I basically only drink water, plus a glass or two of skim milk per day, a decaf tea every other night, and the odd diet coke - like when I eat pop corn or pizza.

Lunch:
Leftovers from the night before - Mushroom Onions Whole Wheat Spaghetti.

Dinner:
Brown rice, PC Chana Masala, steamed baby carrots, broccoli and baby corn (the veggies were leftover from another meal)... and I had a very tiny portion of birthday cake (home made on the weekend by mom for my husband's birthday which is today).

Evening snack:
Smart Orville Microwave Pop Corn, a small glass of Diet Coke.

That's it for yesterday!

Tonight we're ordering in pizza for my husband's birthday (his favorite) and I'll get myself a small vegetarian pizza and share it with mom if she wants it, or keep the leftovers for lunch over a few days.

I'm not concerning myself too much with points (although I do enter them all in my WW tracker but I will surely go over) but we basically only order in pizza when it's someone's birthday in the house, and that happens 4 times a year, so I will enjoy it and move on. It's not like we order it every week or something. We don't. I do make some home made ones, which are healthier, but we do like to treat ourselves to 'delivery' for a special occasion here and there, and this is a special occasion :)

Happy Birthday my love!

Day 5 of my 30 GoVeg Pledge

2009-01-05T07:52:00.002-07:00

Today I'm starting day No. 5 of my Go Vegetarian for a minimum of 30 days pledge and I gotta say, it's not even a struggle.

Granted, I've been incorporating meals like this in my diet for several years and I enjoy them, so it's not a challenge for me to stick to this so far and it's really helping me stick to my WW Momentum Simply Filling Plan much better :)

Speaking of WW, this is what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast:
A bowl of PC Ancient Grains Cereals topped with wild blueberries, milk and a hint of brown sugar.

Lunch:
A lovely organic corn on the cob (unlike a lot of people, it seems, I prefer to eat my corn on the cob with absolutely nothing on it - i.e. it's not swimming in butter or anything like that. Then you can really taste corn, delicious!).
One of my home made 'Bean Burgers', and a small garden salad with my home made Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar vinaigrette.

Dinner:
A bowl of home made vegetable soup, and for my entrée, Whole Wheat Spaghetti pasta (I love Catelli's Multi-Grain and Whole Wheat Pasta in the brown boxes), topped with fresh mushrooms and onions (that I sautéed in a bit of Olive Oil in a non-stick pan) and to which I added some home made simple tomato sauce. Topped with some fresh grated Parmesan cheese (much tastier than the processed stuff, a little goes a long way).... yummilicious!

Evening snack:
Fresh baby carrots, English cucumber slices, Roasted Garlic Hummus, and a few potato chips.

This is my way to still include (in moderation) a bit of potato chips but without filling up on them like crazy like I used to every night. Filling up on the crunchy baby carrots and cucumber slices dipped in some really flavorful hummus is really satisfying, but I still need that 'potato chip' crunch and flavor from time to time, so having a few as part of my snack is ok. It's a much more healthy way to have them than what I was doing this past year.

Weight Watchers is not a diet, it's focusing on eating healthier, and learning to incorporate the higher calories foods in a much more moderated/natural way.

There's absolutely nothing moderated or natural about eating half a large bag of potato chips every single night... and there's no nutrition in that either. But doing a pretty plate like I did last night, it not only looked and tasted really good, but having it this way, I didn't feel deprived or like I was on a diet, and then I would want to binge on a whole bag of chips at the next turn.

Non-Food Weight Loss Incentive - it works :)

2009-01-04T08:36:00.003-07:00

Look at my pretty gel nails --------->

Either I'm fortunate or I'm not, depending on how you look at it, but I have 'experience' at weight loss, from multiple past attempts throughout my life, and if I've learned anything, it's that having some non-food incentives/rewards along the way helps to keep you going.

My mom had some gel nails done earlier in December (both her and I are unfortunately blessed with nails that split and tear very easily), and she loved them so much that when it came time to get hers filled in again, she graciously offered to pay for me to get mine done because she is happy that I decided to put my health first this year.

Anyway, we had them done a couple of days ago and I just snapped this picture quickly in my jewelry lightbox (it's too early and too dark to get any decent light in the house) to show you how they look.

I have to admit that I had given up a long time ago on taking care of my nails and hands with manicures, because working with metal isn't kind on the hands and unless you redo your nailpolish like every other day (which I have no natural inclination to do), your color will chip, look faded, etc.

And you will notice that I did not get my nails 'extended' because I want them to grow naturally in length, and I want to get used to them getting a bit longer as time goes by, otherwise I won't know how to handle some of my files and tools or even keyboard! LOL... I'm so used to my nails being trimmed very short because otherwise they tear and split that I'm going to need a bit of time to get used to this, but so far, so good :)

Now, the incentive part: Since these need to be filled-in/reworked approx. every 3 weeks, mom offered to pay for each subsequent maintenance appointment if I show a weight-loss averaging 1 lb per week in between appointments (so, a minimum of 3lbs lost per 3 week period for example), and if I don't meet that goal, then I gotta pay for the $35 (US$29) appointment myself for that period.

Not a bad little 'wager' of sorts if you ask me ;-)

I'm happy about it - I've never had my nails look this good (and I know that a lot of women's nails look much better than this, but for me, this is honestly a huge improvement).

Hey! If I keep this up, losing the weight and keeping lovely nails, I might actually be able to 'model' the rings I make for sale in my shops' pictures!

I should also write what I ate yesterday, while I'm at it:

Breakfast (more like Brunch - I slept in):

Pan fried (in a wee bit of olive oil, non-stick pan) cooked potatoes (thinly sliced up cooked round potatoes leftoever from another meal), an egg, a piece of sprouted grain toast and a bit of olive oil margarine on it.

Lunch:

Home made refried lentils burrito with all the fixin's (leftover mix I wanted to finish up - love leftovers!)

Dinner:

Sweet potatoes, lots of steamed vegetables (baby carrots, broccoli, mini corn cobs), and one of my 'Bean burger' patties topped with a bit of ketchup, and a few large olives on the side.

I also had a very small (we're talking 3-4 bites with a desert spoon here) piece of home made cake that mom made. DH has to have desert every night with his dinner (talk about a sweet tooth!) and his birthday is Tuesday, so mom made his cake early since she was out of desert for him. So I had a wee piece while it's ultra fresh... and yes, I counted my flex points for it :)

Evening snack:

I had some 'Smart' Orville Pop Corn with some Diet Coke.

And now it's time for this morning's breakfast... have a super day!

4 lbs gone forever :-) My first WW Weigh-in...

2009-01-03T11:44:00.005-07:00

Good morning!

It's indeed a very good morning here....

The sun is shining brightly, the sky is blue, the white snow is sparkling like diamonds, and it's Saturday. How I love Saturdays LOL

And, of course, today was actually the day for me to weigh-in and confirm how much weight I lost on my first week back on WW, using the new Momentum 'Simply Filling' (old WW Core revamped a bit) plan.

Drum roll.....

I lost 4 pounds. Right on the dot! How's that for a great start :)

I know that some of it is water weight, but even at that, I've never lost 4 lbs on the first week of ANY plan, AND, most importantly, I made some very healthy food choices and I wasn't hungry at all because I ate as much as I wanted, as long as I kept listening to my body and not overstuff myself... i.e. eating only until I was 'satisfied' and I feel really great.

Yesterday was Day 2 of my Vegetarian pledge and it went really well.

Here's what I had yesterday for food:

Breakfast:
Mushroom omelette (onions, mushrooms, 1 egg + 2 egg whites, 1 Tbsp of salsa, a sprinkle of part-skim shredded cheddar cheese), and a small (end piece) sprouted grains bread topped with a wee bit of Becel Olive Oil Spread.

Lunch:
A large refried Lentils Burrito (home made from scratch), filled with the lentil mix, fresh lettuce, fresh tomatoes, a bit of low fat sour cream and a sprinkle of part-skim shredded cheddar cheese and salsa.

Dinner:
Kidney Beans 'Burger' with bun (the kidney beans patty is home made from scratch, topped with fresh sliced tomatoes and a bit of ketchup and mustard), with a nice garden salad and my home made olive oil & Balsamic vinegar vinaigrette, and a piece of my home made fruit crisp (the President's Choice recipe that I mentionned the other night using Maple Syrup, fresh apples, PC's Ancien Grains cereals -mashed up into medium crumbs- and some quick cooking oatmeal and a bit of veg oil).

I had a tea with mom in the evening using our fabulous little tea pot (perfect for 2 large cups of tea, or 3 small ones) that I bought on Etsy from a VEGAN (bonus!) potter just before the holidays as a little gift for mom and I, because we do love our Earl Grey Decaf Tea so much. You can see our realy cute teapot right here. I fell in love with it when I saw it...

I wasn't hungry in the evening, so I didn't grab an evening snack... we ate our dinner a bit later than usual.

So, onward we move for another week!

It is important to remind ourselves that we are what we eat, and that it benefits our body temendously when we make healthier food choices. It doesn't have to be perfect, but the more we choose better food items for ourselves, the better we will feel.

Have a super day!

First Official Vegetarian Day!

2009-01-01T20:07:00.007-07:00

I hope you're all having a terrific first day of this brand spankin' New Year!

Today was my first official day as a Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarian, and I am very excited and happy about the 30-day Pledge to go Veg that I signed up for.
If you've been reading my blog for the past few weeks, you know that I've decided to take much better care of my health and my body this year, and that I also started my Pet Project last month, so I have a few things to update everybody on, and let's start with the pledge first and foremost:

* * * * * * * * * *

Full Petition Text (from the PETA website):

I want to eat better, feel better, and stop supporting cruelty to animals raised for food. In addition to helping animals, I also want to help feed the hungry and fight climate change by choosing vegetarian meals. By signing my name, I pledge to go vegetarian for at least 30 days.

Signed by:

Nathalie Girard

* * * * * * * * * *

So it's official - I had signed the petition a few days ago when I first posted about it, so today I'm posting it here to make it official :)

I think I was unsubconciously ready for this for awhile, but I hadn't taken the time to actually stop and question myself.

I don't know if I should post everything that I eat on here - whether you'd find it interesting or not, but I'd certainly like to share some more recipes and snack ideas. I think that trying out new things is always fun and there's also some interesting products on the market and unless we talk about them, then we might not get to find out about them.
So, today (so far), I've had:

Breakfast:
A bowl of President's Choice Ancient Grains Organic Cereals with frozen wild blueberries (just flash frozen blueberries, no other ingredients), skim milk, and a touch of dark brown sugar.

I HIGHLY recommend the PC Ancient Grains cereals. I've been eating them for several years on and off, and they are delicious and have absolutely no sugars, no chemicals, no soy (!). My mom tried them for the first time today and she really enjoyed them too. She still mixed in a bit of her 'high sugar' Raisin Bran cereals, but she replaced the majority of it with the PC Ancient Grains cereals in her bowl, and I know that this is definitely an improvement for her too. (I'm proud of you mom!)

Lunch:
I made a Whole Wheat Spaghetti 'Fritatta' type of casserole dish. I took the recipe from a new recipe book that mom and I bought yesterday, and the recipe needs a bit of tweaking for me to like it 'better' but it was good and I've made notes and will transform it into my own much tastier recipe. Mom and I still enjoyed it and it was filling too.

I'll post my own improved version of this dish when I make it again. It's definitely quick and easy!

Dinner:
I had home made vegetable soup, a garden salad topped with a bit of my home made Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar vinaigrette (yum!), and since time totally got away on me this afternoon, I had Amy's Kitchen Vegetable Lasagna. It was absolutely DELICIOUS! I had never tried this one before, but it tasted just like if I had made it myself from scratch at home. It is made of all natural organic ingredients, no chemicals of any kind, no MSG (I get migraines from MSG). I heated it up in the oven, and it was absolutely perfect, tasty and filling. Gotta love Amy's kitchen!

And this evening I'll either make myself one of my Mexican Tortilla/Burrito wrap for a snack, or pop some pop-corn, or have some of the Maple Berry Crisp (A PC Ancient Grains, Oats, Maple syrup - organic syrup - and berries or apple) I'm about to start baking now in a few minutes :-)

And of course, I drink my water and enter my food choices on my WW Momentum tracker!

Oh, and this morning I weighed myself because for some reason, I thought it was Saturday already (duh!!!) and I'm down 3 lbs since I started WW up again last Saturday (I know it's mainly water-retention weight, but I do feel better and I'm not kidding you when I say that I ate a TRUCKLOAD of healthy foods. I feel good!)

Happy New Year & January's Pet Project Donation

2009-01-01T00:54:00.003-07:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I want to wish you all a fantastic 2009, filled with health, love, happiness, wealth, and for all your dreams to come true.

I also wanted to announce the rescue group that I have selected for the month of January, as part of my on-going Pet Project where we are donating 5% of all my monthly sales to a selected local Animal Rescue Group, but as a family/household, we are also personally 'matching' that 5% as well, so that makes 10% in total.

So, this is to officially announce that 5% of January's sales (plus my family's matching amount) will be donated to the Misty Creek Dog Rescue in the province of Alberta - Misty Creek Dog Rescue is a no kill Animal Rescue Organisation - Because of their strict no-kill mandate, dogs may stay at the shelter for years until they are successfully placed with a suitable family. Working closely with foster home volunteers, they have saved over 1300 dogs since 1998.

There are several various animal rescue (including wildlife rescue) organisations in my City and Province and so I select one of these organisations every month to make our donations to.

Working for a more peaceful and loving world, one day at a time.

Amy's Kitchen California Veggie Burger

2008-12-29T12:14:00.003-07:00

Amy's California Veggie Burger... it rocks :)

I've been eating Amy's California Veggie Burger for a few years years now, and I figured that I should mention them on my blog because I just think that these totally ROCK :)

I'm allergic to soy and tofu and most of the commercial 'veggie' products on the market contain both or at least one of these two ingredients, so I have to be very careful with the choices I make when it comes to commercial food items.

I stumbled upon Amy's California Veggie Burgers (which contains a savory blend of grains, organic vegetables, mushrooms, and walnuts) at some point while purchasing organic foods at a local grocery store, and they are so tasty, and the texture is really great - they make for a wonderful and filling meal.

I could make something similar from scratch, but I don't usually have the time, so these are great to keep in the freezer, and like today when I'm in a bit of a rush, to quick heat up and eat in a homemade bun with a bit of ketchup, mustard, onions, lettuce and sliced tomatoes for a healthy light lunch :-)

Amy's products are sold in Canada, in the US, and other countries. Check out the Amy's Kitchen website to see all their great Vegetarian & Vegan food products, and find out which ones are available where you live.

I've always eaten them simply because they really taste great (especially pan-fryed in a bit of canola oil), and now they're going to be a part of my action plan - my New Year's Pledge to go Veg for 30 days :-)

Super easy vegan & vegetarian recipe - Cooking as natural as possible

2008-12-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

One of my problems is that my body is extremely sensitive. I have various environmental allergies (very allergic to the pollens of various plants, grasses and trees), I have food allergies (soy, tofu, bananas, mint, etc), and the list goes on.

Over the years, I have eliminated a lot of things that cause me allergic reactions (it ain't pretty, so I'll spare you the details) and I've found that the more often I cook meals from scratch using natural ingredients, the better I feel.

So in our home, we cook a lot of things from scratch, but since I'm not allergic to chips, it seems that in the past year, I've had them for a snack nearly every single night (ahem.... and I wonder why I gained so much weight in this past year.............).

So, last night, instead of inhaling countless chips for my evening snack, I took the time to make myself one of the most delicious snacks/meal in my cooking arsenal. It's so quick, easy and delicious, I can't figure out why I haven't made this for myself for a snack every night. MUCH healthier, less or the same amount of calories, but more importantly, the QUALITY of those calories is what makes a huge difference. It's actual nutrition for the body instead of empty calories coming from deep fried chips.

My Ultra Quick Ultra Tasty Homemade Refried Beans!!! YUMMO!

Here's what you do:

A dash of olive oil (or canola or other)
1/4 cup of finely chopped onion
Leftover cooked beans of your choice (I used leftover lentils)
Half to a whole fresh tomato, remove the seeds and juice as much as you can, diced - if you don't have lots of beans leftover, just use half a tomato, and reserve the rest for decoration.
6 or more large black olives, no pitts, sliced

In a small pot, put in a dash of oil on medium-high heat, and cook up the onions until they become translucent. Toss in the rest of the ingredients, and turn the heat to medium. Stir everything so that it all warms up evenly, then add Salt & Pepper to taste, and remove from the heat. Mash it all up in the small pot with a potato masher to turn everything into a paste.

Then, you can put that vegan fresh homemade refried beans mixture into what ever you like! You can do a lettuce wrap, tortilla wrap, spread it on some cooked leftover heated rice, etc...I find that the olives give it a lovely taste.

Last night, I heated a large whole wheat flour tortilla (basic ingredients, no preservatives or additives, and uses veg oil, no animal products), and added in some lettuce, the rest of my diced tomato, and I added in some light sour cream* and a sprinkle of light shredded cheddar cheese*.

(* those aren't vegan, I know, I'm aiming for Lacto-ovo-vegetarian at this point, and I'm highly allergic to soy and tofu, but you can replace those products for things that you can eat, since there's so many alternatives out there, or remove them of course).

I wrapped up everything in a nice little bundle, and really enjoyed my much healthier snack (compared to the chips I would have otherwise eaten). I didn't have time to take a picture. The camera was upstairs and I was hungry... there was not a crumb left after a minute...LOL, sorry!

You'll have to make your own if you want to see it :)

Natural ingredients, made from scratch at home, no preservatives, no chemicals, high fiber, high nutrition, good oils (olive oil)... and so quick, it took less than 5 minutes to do this from start to finish.

That's MUCH better than grabbing a bag of chips, don't you think? :-)

I'm taking the New Year's Pledge! Want to join me?

2008-12-27T17:38:00.004-07:00

As I posted earlier today, since I've decided that 2009 was the year to put my health as The No. 1 Priority, and I want to hold myself accountable to it, what better place to put it out there than on my blog. Eek!!!

I know you can all help me keep my goals in check (and I do thank you in advance for your support.....), and I hope that by the same token, you will all make your health a priority this coming year. We can do this together!

I was browsing around on the web this afternoon, and I went to the VegCooking website, and saw this little green button that called my name. It said: "Take the Veg Pledge!" - and I know I can't change everything over night, but for the past few weeks, a lot has changed in my level of awareness in matters of the treatments of animals raised for consumption, even the 'free-range' ones, and my heart just aches and I cannot turn a blind eye.

So, as part of eating healthier and working on losing a lot of the excess weight that currently adorns my body, I've rejoined Weight Watchers online, and I will be using their brand new "Momentum - Simply Filling" program (a better version of the old CORE - no point counting plan).

I used to be on the Weight Watchers Flex Points before and I couldn't stand counting points and I got really obsessed by it (I'm sure that I'm obsessive-compulsive to a large degree), and it was taking over my life and it wasn't working. I was miserable. But, at the time, I didn't feel like I could handle the 'Core' way of doing WW, so I just gave up.

But I got an email this morning (Thanks Weight Watchers!) with this new Momentum plan and I could re-enroll and they would waive the sign-up fee. So I checked it out, and my gosh, it looks like something I can actually do and succeed at :-)

And, as a matter of fact, the Simply Filling way of doing the Momentum plan certainly favors a vegetarian and vegan lifestyle, eating filling (high fiber, highly nutritional food items, mainly vegetable, grains, legumes), and so I figured, why not combine the two and take the New Year's 30 day pledge to go veg , and really focus on eating healthy while also putting my mind at ease, because let me tell you, it hasn't been easy for me to eat much meat this month. It upsets me a lot, and in order to feel good with myself, I have to eat more vegetarian and vegan meals, so this pledge will certainly help me in many ways.

It's part of what I had been thinking of doing as I had mentionned to my girlfriend Susmitha a few weeks back... I just said that I had an idea for a plan and that I was going to do it on my blog (I was planning on doing a weekly blog feature about my journey to becoming veg). So, this pledge is the start of a very enlightning journey.

I'm sure there will be plenty of challenges along the way (including my allergies to soy, tofu, etc), but there's lots of things to eat and one can modify recipes too.

I hope you will join me. I know that it's not for everybody, but most people think that they need to lose a bit of weight, so paying attention to what we eat for 30 days, and also incorporating more legumes, vegetables and whole grains in our diets can only benefit all of us in the end.

If you're reading this and you decide to take the pledge starting as of January 1st (we still have time to grab some healthy foods/groceries to get started on the right foot!) - Leave me a comment on this post, and come back to let me know how you're doing.

I'd sure love to hear from you, and know that we're doing this together and that we can support eachother and exchange some cool recipes :)

For those that are wondering, there's some great info here in the VegCooking website about transitioning.

Here's to better health and less cruelty to animals...

My Vegan Lentil Stew Recipe

2008-12-27T13:14:00.000-07:00

After answering my "Year End" questions yesterday (see my previous blog post below), there is one thing that stood out loud and clear. I did a lot of things, learned a lot of things, and I was happy, etc, but when it came to 'What could I have done differently' - the same problem seem to creep up all the time:

I do not take the time to take care of my health.
I have a few bad eating habits, as healthy as I like to cook, chips are my downfall and well, I eat some every night - which is not good.
I put everything else and every body else first most of the time and I don't put my foot down about what I want and need to do to improve my health.

The result, on top of being peri-menopausal, is weight gain and other associated health issues that arise. So, deep breath, this is going to be my priority for the coming year, and since there is no better time than the present to get started, I'm sharing with you what I made myself for lunch today. It's healthy, balanced nutrition, filling and good for you.

Nathalie's Vegan Lentil Stew

Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

2 Teaspoons of vegetable oil

1/2 cup of onions, chopped in chunks

1 cup of mushrooms, sliced

2 1/2 cups of vegetable broth (I like the all-natural Knorr veg broth)

1/4 cup of dried lentils (or about 1 1/2 cups of canned lentils)

2 large potatoes, cubed

1 cup of carrots, finely chopped/sliced

2 stalks of celery, chopped

1 Bay leaf

1 fresh garlic clove, or about 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder

1/2 Tablespoon of dried parsley

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

In a medium pot, add in the oil, and heat it up. Toss in the onions and mushrooms and let cook until the onions and mushrooms start to brown a bit.

Add in (gently) the 2 1/2 cups of vegetable broth, the lentils, the potatoes, the carrots, the celery, the bay leaf, the garlic, the parsley and a some salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil on high heat, then cover and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for about 25-30 min. Until the lentils, potatoes and carrots are cooked.

Taste the stew and adjust the salt & pepper to your liking.

* * * * * *

I didn't have any mushrooms in the house today, so I couldn't put any in, so I didn't stir-fry the onions first, I just dumped everything in the pot with the broth and skipped the oil. I prefer to sautee the onions and mushrooms first in a bit of oil as it adds a lot more flavor in my opinion. I'm a big fan of mushrooms and onions, so together they really add a lot of flavor and texture to the stew.

Try it and let me know what you think :)

How was your 2008?

2008-12-26T12:30:00.001-07:00

Here we stand, Boxing Day.... and in a few days, 2008 will be over with.

At the end of every year, I like to ask myself a few questions:

How was my year?
Did I learn something new?
What could I have done differently?
Did I realise some of my dreams?
Have I been happy?

As I answer these questions, it helps me set the path for the New Year and see the steps that I will take to move forward.

It's good to stop for a few minutes and think about those things, then we can move forward in the right direction.

Ever day that we have on this planet is a blessing. Let's use every minute wisely :-)

I wish you all a very happy holiday season and all the best for 2009!

Recipe: Indian Style Vegan Stew

2008-12-11T10:24:00.006-07:00

I was feeling quite a bit under the weather after the Christmas show (I caught some sort of bug), so I haven't been cooking much since a fever and feeling ultra lousy just aren't conducive to wanting to cook, at least in my books.

So I've been eating what my mom has been cooking - which is always nice, she's an excellent cook, but with the new information I recently learned from Tamara about the treatment of so called "free-range" animals, I really don't feel great about eating meats and my mom's cooking is, well, the old traditional way of cooking in North America.

But bless her heart, she is open to trying new things, and with my 5 year stint living in the Caribbean, I have learned to appreciate legumes a lot, as meats are quite expensive over there since most of it (except for chicken and black belly lamb) is imported in. So over the years I've spent in the Islands, I've learned and enjoyed various recipes and some have become my favorites.

I'm not claiming to become Vegetarian or even Vegan over night or anything like that, but I definitely want to incorporate more Vegetarian and Vegan meals into my diet. I'll talk more about this in a separate post.

I'm a big fan of black eyed peas, lentils and chickpeas, so today I'm sharing what I made last night for dinner. Mom ate it and enjoyed it, but the guys (my husband and my dad) had something else that my mom had made instead. Vegan and Vegetarian cooking is not their thing (well, not yet anyway... )

This recipe is so quick and so easy to make. It's delicious and very filling... and dang, I think it looks super awesome on my plate, don't you?

Feel free to try it and let me know what you think!

Indian Style Vegan Stew

serves 3-4

2 tbsp of vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tbsp curry powder (I use 'medium')
1/3 tsp ground ginger (or more if you like, I'm not a huge fan of ginger)
1 1/2 cups of tomato sauce*
1 can (15-19 oz) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 tbsp lime juice (optional)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Serve on a bed of rice (in this picture, I served it on some leftover vegetable rice that we had in the fridge from the night before).

Directions:

Take a large non-stick frying pan and heat up the vegetable oil on medium heat. Add in the chopped onions and a bit of salt & pepper, and cook them, stirring frequently. Once the onion starts to become a bit translucent (3-4 minutes), add in the chopped garlic cloves, and cook 1-2 minutes longer.

Add in the curry powder and ginger, mix well in the onions and garlic, and cook until the flavors come alive, about 1 minute.

Add in the pan the tomato sauce* (I make my own tomato sauce and I always have some on hand, but you can use a 15-19 fl.oz can of puréed tomatoes and just pour it in, or purée a can of diced or whole tomatoes using a hand blender), the chickpeas, and the water. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat to 'low' to let the stew simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally, until it has thickened up to your liking, about 15-20 minutes.

I don't use lime juice in mine, but if you want it, you can add it in at the end, then season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve on top of a bed of warm rice.

Enjoy!

New pre-holiday goodies!

2008-12-03T20:09:00.002-07:00

Well, the Christmas Show I attended last weekend was pretty much a bust in terms of attendance, and the only vendors that did better than the rest were food vendors (and yes, I bought a couple of sweet treats to bring home to my hubby of course) :-)

Since I had made a good number of pieces especially for the show, I have a fair number of new items to list, so I'll be listing a few each day over the next couple of weeks. I'm feeling a bit under the weather at the moment, so I'm trying not to over do anything.

The above pendant is one of the items I made, and believe you me when I say that this amazing borosilicate lampwork focal bead is just drop-dead gorgeous.

It's up for sale here in my Etsy Shop, and I will add it to my Ruby Lane and my own website too shortly.

Remember, on my own website, I offer a very low FLAT RATE shipping to USA and Canada per order. No matter how many items you add to your shopping cart, you will not pay more than $1.95 in total for shipping. That's cheaper than paying for the gas to get to your nearest mall!

Finally, a heartfelt purpose for my blog!

2008-11-28T11:06:00.005-07:00

I'm in a bit of a rush today as I am getting ready for a Christmas show that will take place tomorrow, where I hope to sell a good amount of my jewelry and a few other gift items that my mom and I made especially for the show (beaded bookmarks, beaded keychains and cell-phone charms as well as some of my handmade 3D Christmas cards).

If you've read my last post (just below) and the comments posted, you will see that I made quite a discovery/learned something new and now that I know this information, I cannot turn a blind eye. I cannot "not care" because I really do love and care for animals, all of them, with all my heart.

My husband and I are very privileged in 'being owned' by two wonderful, ever so loving Yorkies that bring us an endless amount of joy and so much genuine love. We always say that there's nothing better in life than having "Yorkie Love" in our house :)

And not that I'm a huge jewelry seller (not yet but I aim to be!) or anything like that, and it's not like we're rich either (not money wise, but we are certainly rich with all the love our angels bring us - we call our Yorkies our 'angels' because they are)... but I know that every penny makes a real difference, and although I have donated money and change to various animal rescue/help fund raisers, etc, in the past, tomorrow I have the opportunity to launch my new 'pet' project:

As of tomorrow's show and this will be on-going on a permanent basis, I will not only be donating 5% of all my monthly sales to a selected local Animal Rescue Group, but as a family/household, we will also personally 'match' that 5% as well.

Since it's the end of the month already, tomorrow's fund-raising will be included with the month of December 2008.

So, this is to officially announce that 5% of December's sales (plus my family's matching amount) will be donated to AARCS which stands for "Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society" - AARCS is a Non-Profit, NO KILL, Animal Rescue Organisation which does not receive any governement help and which is entirely run by volunteers in the province of Alberta.

There are several various animal rescue (including wildlife rescue) organisations in my City and Province and so effective immediately, I will select one of these organisations every month to make our donations to.

It's a first step in 'officially' showing where my heart is... I am a strong believer in animal therapy, I benefit from it myself every single day (animals are great to help battle depression, amongst other things) and so I am stepping forward and I am so happy with this.

So stay tuned, there will be much more to come on my blog!

I am very excited about all this!

Enlightenment - "Why Free-Range is not the answer"

2008-11-26T21:25:00.010-07:00

I'm not *currently* vegan and I will not pretend to be. I'm too honest for that. However, this may change at some point, and the more I am learning, the more am I open to learning alternative ways of getting my protein.

I'm extremely allergic to soy and tofu (amongst other things...), so I guess that would leave me with various beans and lentils, which I do love and I enjoy eating them and having vegan meals, but in the end, I admit that I am still consuming some meat. But it doesn't mean that I do not care what happens to the animals, quite the contrary.

Well, I guess for the longest time I was feeling like I was doing a better choice when I was selecting 'free-range' meats and eggs, but reading one of my favorite blogs this evening, I just learned that I really 'assumed' a lot of things (and we all know what 'ass-u-me' means) whenever I read the words "Free-Range" on labels at the supermarket.

Tonight I got my eyes opened quite wide, so much so that I wanted to share Tamara's post here (and if you click on the link to get to her blog, you will learn much more, I guarantee it).

This is what I read on her blog - I am quoting it here in full because I feel that this information is EXTREMELY important :

"...Today I'd like to elaborate a bit on my earlier remark about poultry (and other meats) bearing labels such as 'free-range,' 'organic,' and 'natural'. Once again, most of this info comes from the good folks at Farm Sanctuary.
Most people don't envision physical mutilations as part of their 'natural,' 'free-range,' or 'organic' turkey. But mutilations, from de-beaking to toe removal, are still performed at 'free-range' farms. These mutilations are a source of continual pain for the birds and can make eating and walking difficult.
As on factory farms, birds on 'free-range' and 'organic' turkey farms are genetically manipulated to grow at an unnaturally fast rate. The strain of growing so quickly causes many health problems for the turkeys, from crippling joint disorders to heart failure. Premature death on the 'free-range' farm is still common.
The USDA does not limit 'free-range' animal density or flock size and these turkeys are often packed crowded tightly together on 'free-range' farms.
Even though 'free-range' operations are supposed to grant turkeys outdoor access after about a month of life depending upon the weather, there are no specific requirements for this access. The provision for 'access', therefore, is practically meaningless.
In the winter, 'free-range' birds are not required by federal regulations to have access to the outdoors. Due to the fact that poultry is slaughtered at an extremely young age (about 14-16 weeks for turkeys) birds raised during the winter months do not have to go outside at all.
The size of the outdoor 'free-range' turkeys have access to is also unregulated by the USDA, so it can be surprisingly small and is often nothing more than a tiny, barren dirt lot.
Since the 'free-range' label has no clear definition it is nearly impossible to regulate the methods by which these animals are raised. In order to obtain approval for labels bearing the claim 'free-range,' poultry producers must only provide the USDA with a brief description of the birds' housing conditions. These claims are almost never verified by on-site inspections.
I know this is pretty depressing information, but I heard a quote today that
really resonated - We must not refuse to see with our eyes what they must endure with their bodies.
I promise - tomorrow I'll focus on something more upbeat, and for today I do
actually feel surprisingly grateful to possess this knowledge and to be able to
share it in hopes that it might change someone else's perspective..."

Now, after reading this, I am glad I was sitting on my chair because I would have fallen flat on my rear-end.

I am truly sick and tired of Governments taking us all for idiots. Making half-a** regulations that clearly give an exit door to all those producers.

We, as consumers, vote for better treatments of animals and we also vote when we voluntarily choose to pay more money to purchase so called "free-range" products in hopes of supporting more human ways to raise the animals that feed the world, and in the end, these animals are still not treated with any more dignity or respect than the ones being raised by 'regular' producers. What's the point in all this?

Tamara, you have certainly given me a lot of food for thoughts here tonight. I will pass on this information to everyone I know, starting with this post on my blog.

And rest assured that we are not having turkey this weekend. It's not Thanksgiving up here anyway (and we didn't have Turkey for our own Thanksgiving back in October either btw).

I've learned something new today and I will not let this new knowledge go to waste. I'm grateful to you T.

Remember the old way of shopping?

2008-11-23T14:01:00.005-07:00

So, we're in a recession, yup, even in Canada now... (they just officially announced it on the news today).

We all saw it coming. Nobody wanted to say the dreaded "R" word, but heck, you can call what ever you want, in the end, we're here and I can't help but to think back in history and see that this is a natural cycle.

Those cycles are needed, as it weeds out the wheat from the shaft, and without it, we just get more and more crowded. If we keep having these big huge bubbles squeezing in all the time, eventually, they can only do one thing: Pop! So the more bubbles blowing at the same time, the more crowded we get - which is not healthy either. We need to clean up and start fresh once in awhile.

I see what is happening as a way to do that. A way to stop and look at how we're doing things. Streamline, be more creative with our resources, be less wasteful of our time and supplies, etc.
I don't know if any of you are old enough, but think back when you were younger (I'm 43) and I remember when I was a very young girl, we didn't own a car and the few stores we had were far away from where we lived.

So, my mom used to do a lot of her shopping by catalogue because we didn't have any big stores nearby, since not every company had stores in every city back then (it was just too expensive to have stores everywhere - maybe the big retail business of today needs to learn from this)...
Well, I see online shopping as the New Age of catalogue shopping of the old days!

People didn't have easy access to stores 40-50 years ago, so they shopped by catalogue and their purchases were delivered to them by mail or they picked it up at a local counter.
I think that the current economic crisis is going to make us sort of go back to this and those were great times! I don't know about you, but I much prefer to shop from the comfort of my home, in my jammies and slippers, drinking a nice cup of tea, than having to drive out and waste a bunch of time on crowded roads, crowded parking lots and crowded malls!

With the Internet, we have our 'catalogues' online (unlike the old days, there is no printing costs, no catalogue mailing/distribution costs) and people worldwide can purchase our creations and get their purchase delivered straight to their homes no matter where they live.

And you don't have to have the Internet at home. There's libraries and Internet Cafés where you can pop in, pick up a few books to read for the week, get online and do your shopping then go back at home.

As online sellers, I think this will actually play in our favor down the line, *if* we pay attention to what consumers are looking for, and if we offer top-notch friendly customer service. It also helps to have good clear attractive pictures to present our products in the best light possible... remember, first impressions count!

I think that what is going on at the moment is going to help push even more customers to turn to online shopping. Big companies will not be able to keep on paying for high rents in commercial shopping centers (hugely expensive) and they are going to scale down their operations and most likely shut down some of their retail branches.

Online sellers have a big advantage over Brick & Mortar stores as we don't have their huge overheads, and over the next couple of years, this will be extremely important. I won't be surprised to see more of those big companies develop their online shopping experience even more in order to direct their clientele to shop online instead of in their B&M stores.

So, what are you going to do about it? :-)

It's been awhile...

2008-11-20T08:57:00.004-07:00

Well, it's been awhile since I last posted...

The loss of my best friend Callie has really affected me (of course) and I didn't feel like writing much of anything after what happened.

I'm keeping quite busy right now preparing for a Christmas show that will take place on November 29th, and things are coming along well.

I'm also working on revamping the look of my websites and blog, and I've started taking new pictures (like these copper bangles) using the new purple background with some pretty rocks. I like the new look, and I hope that you will all enjoy it too.

I've always loved Purple, and so did my 'Sistah' Callie. It's a lovely rich color. So I decided to start using it :)

Time sure flies - make sure to take the time to be with your loved ones every day. You just never know what might happen.

In memory of my sister Callie

2008-10-30T17:08:00.011-06:00

Callie Pascal, 4th of July 2008

This afternoon a big piece of my heart was ripped out straight from my chest, when I received a phone call from a dear friend that informed me of my best friend Callie's tragic passing on Tuesday morning.

Callie and I have been "Sisters" for a good 15+ years, and we were in almost daily contact by email or by phone for all these years. I looked up to her, I cherished her, I genuinely loved her with all my heart. We were there for each other, thru thick and thin. Words cannot begin to describe what Callie meant to me, and every email and every phone call always ended with a heartfelt "I love you Sis".

She emailed me on Monday morning, less than 24 hours before her tragic accident, and this would be the very last email I would ever receive from her.

Her last words to me, in it, were:

"...Hugs and kisses with much love,
Cal"

I would like to dedicate this poem from one of my favorite authors to my Sister Callie:

Farewell (Adieu)

Farewell to thee! but not farewell

To all my fondest thoughts of thee:

Within my heart they still shall dwell;

And they shall cheer and comfort me.

O, beautiful, and full of grace!

If thou hadst never met mine eye,

I had not dreamed a living face

Could fancied charms so far outvie.

If I may ne'er behold again

That form and face so dear to me,

Nor hear thy voice, still would I fain

Preserve, for aye, their memory.

That voice, the magic of whose tone

Can wake an echo in my breast,

Creating feelings that, alone,

Can make my tranced spirit blest.

That laughing eye, whose sunny beam

My memory would not cherish less;

-And oh, that smile! whose joyous gleam

Nor mortal language can express.

Adieu, but let me cherish, still,

The hope with which I cannot part.

Contempt may wound, and coldness chill,

But still it lingers in my heart.

And who can tell but Heaven, at last,

May answer all my thousand prayers,

And bid the future pay the past

With joy for anguish, smiles for tears?

- Anne Bronte

Adieu, "Sis"... je ne t'oublierai jamais...

Farewell, "Sis"... I will never forget you.

May you delight in your journey with the Angels...

"I love you Sis!"

Rest In Peace

Nath xoxo

Do you get recurring headaches?

2008-10-28T07:47:00.004-06:00

We're getting into the 'busy' time of the year when most of us are going nuts preparing for the Holiday Season.

A few of my friends were complaining about having recurring headaches, and I've suffered as well for years and years, so I know the pain. But in the hussle and bussle of life these days, we tend to forget some basic things, and although the following isn't the answer for everybody, I know that these things helped me get rid of severe recurring headaches over the years, and as I passed on the information to my friends, I figured I should also post about it here on my blog, and hopefully this can help others on the web too:

1) For those that suffer from recurring headaches, I just want to remind everybody that certain foods will trigger/retrigger headaches and migraines.Things like Cheese, coffee, chocolate...Here's a pretty comprenhensive list from WebMD

If you have a tendency to get headaches and migraines, make sure to read that list and print it to help you find the culprit(s) in your diet.

2) Also, stress headaches, we're all overworked, and we tighten up our neck and shoulders and that shoots up and will also cause tension headaches.

One great way to help get rid of this is to stand in the shower and put the shower on nice and hot and target the neck, then slowly start doing a few exercises:

Head side to side (ear to shoulders) slowly and stretch out gently.
Put your chin down towards your chest, then slowly turn your ear to your shoulder (alternating shoulders and keeping the chin down towards the chest)
Keep your head up high, looking straight ahead, and then turn your head to look over your shoulder as far as possible (be gentle).

Do this for about 10 repetitions per 'side' for each exercise under nice hot water, and that will help also.

3) Another thing is your jaw. When we are stressed, we tend to clench our jaw during our sleep especially, and also during the day. We don't notice it, but we do this and the jaw has the most powerful muscles in the body. It is hard to relax the jaw muscles, and they can cause some nasty headaches.

One easy way to relax the mucles of the jaw is to take your thumb, put it inside your cheek in your mouth, and take your index finger and put it on the outside of your cheek and gently massage with your two fingers against eachother with your cheek in between. Go slowly, it will be soar at first. Massage all the areas that are soar gently to get them to relax.

I hope the above information will help everyone relax a little and enjoy headache-free holidays this season!

I'm proud of myself :-)

2008-10-27T15:15:00.004-06:00

I did it! I'm so proud of myself - I figured I should share my accomplishment here with you.

Now, this might not look like much, but this gorgeous 'Extreme' blue flash Labradorite ring is the very first time that I attempt doing a 'tear drop' bezel setting ever, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out - It's trickier than setting a round or oval stone because of the pointy part at the top.

I'm self-taught, and I have a lot of books on silversmithing, but oddly enough, nobody really teaches you how to do one of these settings (gee, I wonder why! LOL) . Anyway, I attempted it on my own - I took my time.. and it came out PERFECT. I'm happy :-)

This ring has already sold :)

Canadian Rockies Giveaway!

2008-10-26T11:39:00.004-06:00

My Sterling Silver "Little Rocks"

Good Sunday everybody!

This past week I received a really sweet Email from a woman named Tara. She was the lucky winner of a Little Black Box, and in it, she found a pair of my Little Rocks Sterling Silver Earrings and she was kind enough to send me a note to let me know how much she enjoyed wearing them.

We exchanged a few emails and, you know, you gotta love the magic of the Internet - I would have most likely never met Tara if it wasn't from this connection that we made via The LBB, and she is such a wonderful warm sweet person, I decided to offer a FREE pair of my Little Rocks earrings (pictured above) to her blog readers.

It's easy, you can participate and read the details by clicking here

I hope you will all enjoy the contest!

The draw for the lucky winner will take place on Saturday, November 1st, so make sure to visit her blog before then - Good luck!!!

Ground beef with a bit of a kick!

2008-10-21T10:08:00.009-06:00

My dad is a very picky eater and basically, if the meat in the dish isn't ground beef or pork saussages, bacon or hot-dogs, he won't touch his dinner plate. That's pretty narrow in terms of protein selection and not the best choices either (for some of those items).

My husband, my mom and I pretty much eat anything (except fish... eeeek) but other than that, we're always happy to try on new recipes. But with dad being such a picky eater, it's a challenge to find recipes that he will actually try instead of eating one bite, grimacing, and then turning to stuffing himself with white bread & crackers with margarine (he's diabetic, not good at all! And yes, we have excellent whole grain bread at home, but this is for another story).

Anyway, last night I made a new recipe inspired by one of my cookbooks but I modified it a fair bit to suit our taste and what we already had in the fridge in terms of ingredients.

Everybody enjoyed it, including my dad! So I figured I would share what I made.

The pictures show one portion of the kicked-up stuffed lean ground beef patty (2nd picture shows the inside), along with vegetables (onions, green peppers, mushrooms) and 1/2 cup of rice. That's my plate :)

Nathalie's Kicked-Up A Notch Ground Beef Patties - Serves 4

1 1/2 lb of Lean Ground Beef (or other ground meats, your choice)
3/4 cup of Hot Jalapeno Cheese, cut in very small cubes (or use your favorite strong tasting cheese like sharp Cheddar, crumbled Blue Cheese, etc)
1 tbsp of dry Parsley (or use 1/4 cup of finely chopped fresh parsley)
2 tsp of Dijon Mustard
1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce
3-4 Garlic cloves, minced (we love garlic, put in less or omit if you're not a fan)
1/4 tsp Salt
2 tsp Olive Oil
1 large onion, cut in large chunks
1 bell pepper, cut in large chunks
8 large mushrooms, quartered

Optional: A brown gravy, or sauce of your choice to top off the meat and vegetables. (that's the option for my dad and husband, they're 'gravy' kinda guys)

*****************************

First, shape the beef (or other ground meat) into 4 patties. You can either make them flat and thin, or do what I do, I make kind of a 'cup' shape with them, so that I can stuff them and fold over the sides to lock in the stuffing.

Combine the cheese, the garlic, the mustard, the Worcestershire sauce, the parsley and the salt together in a small bowl. This mixture gives a lot of nice 'kick' to the patties.

Divide the cheese mixture between the four meat patties and seal the meat so that the cheese stuffing doesn't leak out.

Heat half of the oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add in the onions, peppers, mushrooms (and other vegetables of your choice to stir-fry). Cook and stir until the veggies are cooked to your taste, sprinkle a bit of salt or Mrs. Dash seasonings, and set the veggies aside, keep warm.

Add in the rest of the oil in the same skillet, heat it up and then cook the stuffed patties on medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Add a touch of salt & pepper (to taste). Flip the patties over, top with the already cooked vegetables, and finish cooking the patties for 4 minutes, or until the patties are no longer pink in the center (160 degrees F).

Serve with a garden salad, or with half a cup of cooked rice or other side dish of your choice.

Enjoy!

Something different!

2008-10-17T16:03:00.004-06:00

I've got one super nasty head cold right now, so I'm sort of laying low, but I wanted to share a new pair of earrings I recently did (I just managed to take pictures of them yesterday). Meet "Urban Life" 100% handcrafted by myself from scratch using solid copper and sterling silver. I have oxidized them to give them a rustic look.

Available for purchase on my website.

A new sweater for my furbaby

2008-10-12T20:41:00.008-06:00

Diesel proudly showing off his new handmade sweater - made by his momma :)

Happy smilling puppy face - He kept coming over to check the progress on his sweater while I was making it. He couldn't wait to slip it on, even if the weather was too hot for him to wear it.

Diesel (3 yrs old, blue and blonde Yorkie)

and his half sister Trixie (4 yrs old, black and tan Yorkie)

Diesel in his beloved grass :)

Diesel and Trixie, always looking for something. They don't stand in place for pictures much.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends and customers :)

This Thanksgiving weekend, I've been busy knitting a new very thick sweater for my furbaby-boy Diesel. He had outgrown his sweaters and snow parka I had bought for him last year... while Trixie remains at the same weight, he sort of developped some more this past year. He's not fat but he's definitely a big framed Yorkie boy.

I gave them a baby Yorkie cut this weekend. They were long due for a very short cut, and so I went all the way and they were quite happy and sat very still (to my surprise). Their hair grows back quickly and Diesel's is so thick he gets too hot and loves the short 'sporty' look.

While Trixie has a truckload of sweaters and coats that fit her at the moment, he was in need of a thick warm sweater before the cold started up for good here, so I made it for him this weekend. Trixie will be getting a similar one but in shades of tropical hot pink, mangoe and yellow :)

I'm on StyleList!

2008-10-04T12:04:00.011-06:00

This morning, Kim from TheLittleBlackBoxes.com contacted me to let me know that her Little Black Box (media box) had made it to the StyleList, and that my Little Rocks Sterling Silver Studs had received a great review by them!

Here's what they had to say about my Little Rocks Sterling Silver earrings:

We were stunned by the sheer amount of cool jewelry found in The Little Black Box. The first thing we found was the perfect pair of simple sterling silver stud earrings, handmade by Canadian Rockies Art (they were kind enough to include a 25% off coupon for a future purchase - actually, a majority of the products also came with coupons good for future purchases from the participating designers).

You can read the entire article here.

I don't know if you are familiar with the StyleList website, but they really have their finger on the pulse of fashion, so reading this great review about my Little Rocks Sterling Silver Studs was really exciting for me this morning!

If you would like your own pair of Little Rocks, visit the Earrings section on my website and don't forget that on my website I offer a special FLAT shipping rate of US$2.95 per order to the US and Canada (no matter how many items you order, you will never pay more than US$2.95 for shipping in total). I also ship Internationally at slightly higher flat rates.

I add several new items every week in various categories, so check out my site often!

My Little Black Boxes Promo!

2008-09-25T14:47:00.002-06:00

Well, it's official! My famous Bright Sterling Silver "Little Rocks" stud earrings will be included in The Little Black Box promo for September (the boxes go on sale on Sept. 26th - if you want one, you really have to act quickly, and trust me, they are worth it!)

I am very excited to be a part of these famous Little Black Boxes - I was able to make and send 50 pairs to Kim, and if all the recipients are as happy with these as my customers have been so far, then this will definitely be a hit!

Many of my wonderful Etsy customers come back to buy more pairs for themselves (if they have a various number of piercings in their ears), or to give as gifts to family and friends. I get a lot of great feedback as well from women who have sensitive ears that normally have problems wearing earrings, and they can wear my Bright Little Rocks studs with ease.

It makes me really happy to hear this, as every woman should be able to wear pretty shiny things, but I know that, unfortunately, metal allergies are a problem for many.

Check out Kim's review of the samples she received from me on the Little Black Box blog in by clicking here. Thank you Kim!

Italian anyone?

2008-09-17T23:02:00.004-06:00

OMG... I'm laughing so hard I have tears coming down my face...

I was just catching up on a few things and stopped by to read one of my friend's blog. She posted a link to something that made her laugh this morning, so of course, I had to check it out.

Boy, is it ever funny!... so naturally, I figured I should share it here as well.

If you enjoy Italian food or cooking in general, and you'd like a good chuckle, read this.

I'm still wiping tears from my face!

My, how time flies...

2008-09-05T19:26:00.010-06:00

I can't believe it - it's been 3 months already since my last blog post.

I have to say that most of the time, I really don't know what to write, so I just don't bother blogging. But I guess I could update ya'll that are reading a bit about what I've been busy doing the past few months.

As you all know, I've started Silversmithing at the end of May and I've been busy learning and experimenting (most times succesfully) and I've done and sold quite a few pieces. I don't always have time to do more elaborate (= time consumming) pieces, but here's a few large bold rings I made last month (both were spoken for and have sold).

This first one here is a genuine Natural Blue Nephrite (real jade) sterling silver ring:

And this one here features a lovely Natural Persian Turquoise gemstone:

I'm also working on various stacking rings and bands,

playing with texture to reflect light and add interest:

I've also started back making greeting cards and colorful little gift tags - I love to play with paper and colors:

And I have opened my 2nd Etsy shop to let my 'art' needs loose...

My Canadian Rockies' Art Studio:

http://canadianrockiesart.etsy.com/

I have already sold quite a few items since I opened it up a bit over a week ago, so I need to make more items to list in there. I used to paint (oil painting mainly, some acrylics too) many years ago and I want to make small paintings and sell them in there as well, and other things too. I love to switch from one kind of art to the next. I tend to get bored easily doing only one thing over and over, so I am thankful to have the chance to be able to explore and further develop my other artful ways to express myself :)

So come on over, you might find something that will catch your eye! Every item is one of a kind in my Art Studio.

And don't forget my main Etsy shop "Canadian Rockies" located here:

http://canadianrockies.etsy.com

Cheers!

About me...

2008-06-30T21:05:00.001-06:00

So you want to know a little more about me? Great! :-)

To make a long story short - I'm French Canadian and originally from Quebec City, the beautiful capital of the province of Québec. I now live with my family in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and we're really enjoying ourselves here.

I've been blessed with the chance to travel extensively throughout my life. I have very fond memories of our bi-annual vacations to Miami, FL when I was a little girl (that's how I learned to speak English at a very young age), and of spending time in so many pretty little towns all the way down the Eastern Coast of the US. I've also had the chance to spend several years in the beautiful Caribbean, and I've also enjoyed some great vacation time in LA, Las Vegas, London UK and Vienna as well... every place I have visited is so lovely, unique and so inspiring!

You see, from the beautiful Canadian Rocky Mountains nearby to the fabulous Caribbean, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, from tranquil secluded streams to lively oceans, from warm sunrays to glistening white snow, and all the wonderful animals that surround us here... from majestic soaring Eagles, gigantic owls, ducks, jackrabbits, coyotes, to playful little Prairie Dogs that drop by to say hello - nature inspires me so much!

All the beautiful gemstones from Mother Nature, sparkling Swarovski crystals and a rainbow of colors just open up a floodgate of ideas in my mind. I can't sit still - I'm so inspired... I have to create something! Whether it be a piece of jewelry, a greeting card, an oil painting or knitting a cozy sweater, I just have to do something to express myself.

I have been designing jewelry for a couple of years now (it will be two years in the late Fall of 2008). I'm a born perfectionnist, which I think is a good quality to have as a Metalsmith. I really enjoy working in my studio, and the thought of making someone feel special and happy when they receive and wear one of my jewelry creations is just ice cream on the cake :-)

I sincerely thank you for visiting my blog and website. I hope that you are enjoying yourself and that you will come back often to view and purchase my latest creations!

Namaste...

´¨¨)) -:¦:-

¸.·´ ·´¨¨))

((¸¸.·´ ♥ Nathalie ♥

-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´-:¦:-

I'm in the News!

2008-06-03T13:18:00.003-06:00

Well, it's official: Canadian Rockies Art by Nathalie Girard is in the news!

I recently gave an interview to iCraft.ca and if you want to see pictures of me and learn more about Canadian Rockies Art, you can read the full interview right here:

http://www.icraft.ca/article_detail.php?fmRecKey=56

I hope that you will all enjoy it!

Having a bit of fun :)

2008-04-13T10:04:00.005-06:00

Yesterday I had a bit of time to browse the Etsy forums, and found an unusual request:

"Your Etsy Mini on my blog fro FREE... There are 3 positions available and they will be given to the first person who can make me laugh."

I thought it was just brilliant and different. Why not? We can all stand to have a laugh, it's the best medicine in the world. Plus, I absolutely LOVE Chris' jewelry and I want to treat myself to one of his gorgeous creations for my birthday (later on this summer).

And I was lucky enough to be awarded one of these highly coveted free spots on Chris's blog right here (check on the right hand side - Chris picked my Lady in Red Copper Bangle):

http://chris-parry.blogspot.com/

Thank you Chris for the laughs and for picking me out of the bunch! That was good clean fun!

I have added a link to his Etsy shop in the top right hand side corner of my blog here - Check out his shop, he's truly gifted (and such a perfectionnist! - Gotta love it!)

Cheers!

Winner of the Metalchasers.com Valentine's Day Contest

2008-02-26T01:24:00.002-07:00

It's now official! Today, I have been awarded the First Prize in the Metalchasers.com Valentine's Day jewelry design contest. My very first win!

I entered my Mexican Rainbow Obsidian Heart Pendant (sold) for the contest, wire wrapped in Sterling Silver and I tried to figure out a way to wire wrap it and be able to show both sides equally, since it's very pretty and different on each side.

When I actually started the wrapping process with the Sterling Silver wire, this gemstone kept dancing all over the place, and I kept saying "Be still, be still, my pretty heart..." - hence the name for this piece :)

It was a labor of love to wrap this little treasure, and a fun challenge too :)

My new line of Soft Leather Jewelry

2008-02-09T01:03:00.003-07:00

I absolutely, absolutely LOVE the look, feel and smell of buttery soft leather. Now, don't get me wrong. I do not like the killing of animals for the use their skin or fur or anything like that.

However, since animals are raised for meat, the leather is a by-product that is leftover and why let it go to waste?

In my case, I use new leftover leather that a friend of mine can't use (small pieces and cut outs that she cannot use) as she makes absolutely fabulous handbound leather journals. Her name is Rhonda, and she's Canadian and super talented. I love and cherish the beautiful leather journal I bought from her, and I am forever thankful that she allowed me to get some of her leftover leather pieces for me to use them as the base of my brand new unique line of jewelry.

You can find Rhonda's lovely super high quality books right here on Etsy, in her shop MyHandboundBooks. Her craftsmanship is absolutely Top Notch, nothing less, and let me tell you that there's nothing more wonderful than to write in one of her leather journals. It makes me feel like I am writing very precious things (they are) and every time I touch it and open it (daily!), it brings me back to the medieval times when books were made by hand and her attention to details and the lovely stitching really makes for a wonderful precious treasure that I love and will keep forever.

Now, back to my new line of jewelry... The above pictures are a couple of samples of my latest creations - all part of my new One Of A Kind jewelry line (you haven't seen ANYTHING like this anywhere else, I am sure of it!), and I really truly enjoy the process of making these unique pieces of wearable art.

The top one, Spirit Dance, is made with gorgeous Paua Shells, directly from New Zealand, butter soft leather courtesy of my very talented friend Rhonda, pure copper wire, Hill Tribe Pure Silver nuggets, directly from Thailand, and three luscious rare natural Green Kyanite long gemstone drops... all set on a soft Greek olive green leather cord.

The 2nd picture is "Tranquility" and it has the same base material (Leather, Paua Shells, Copper) but the Paua shell's top section shimmers of pink-coppery sparkling hues and my camera cannot capture this, it's truly gorgeous and unique to see... and it features a couple of very intense blue, very high quality, blue Kyanite drops and is set on a dark blue Greek leather cord.

This is just the begining, there will be much more to come... Both are already sold. I hope that you will enjoy these unique, totally One Of A Kind (OOAK) pieces of art. I cannot duplicate any of these, it's the nature of the materials used, and my own desire not to replicate any of my pieces, so that when you purchase something from me, you can be sure that no other piece will ever be quite like it in the world.

Blushing...

2008-02-05T18:30:00.001-07:00

I'm blushing a bit, because I've been featured on Pearl's blog (great articles on her blog and great tips on photography, etc).

Take a look at what she wrote about my artisan jewelry creations:

http://www.beadinggem.com/2008/02/wire-and-beads-creations.html

Many thanks Pearl! Much appreciated...

Sunburst - Private Collection

2008-01-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

I know I need to post here more regularly, so here's a treat for anyone out there who was waiting to see what I would post next (is there anyone out there?)

There are times when you find a gorgeous focal bead and when you purchase it, you say to yourself "This one is for keeps, I'm going to do something special for me with it"...

At the time, I didn't know what it would be, but last night, I saw it in my stash and I knew I had to do something with it now :-)

So, this is the result: I made a pure copper bangle style bracelet for myself with it. This artisan borosilicate lampwork focal is truly a piece of art, and I will treasure it forever... This bracelet is a part of my Private Collection and is not for sale (well, maybe for a million five... we could talk... LOL)

If anyone would like a bangle, feel free to visit my Etsy shop and my Ruby Lane store for more of these and other high quality creations!

YOJ Week 47: Illusions (Earthy Contemporary)

2007-12-23T19:47:00.001-07:00

I'm really (I mean "reaaaalllyyyyy") behind in posting every week, but I just made this one yesterday and I think it's very fitting for the theme for week 47 (Earthy Contemporary).

Delicate ribbons of sparkling copper glass gently swirling like the illusion of a water current flowing through inspired me the minute I saw this artisan lampwork bead made by a friend of mine.I used several feet of hair-thin pure copper wire to coil all around it and I added in some rustic natural Picture Jasper beads and tiny copper beads. Pure copper chains, intricate pure copper beads and clasp, along with graduated shades - from deep caramel to pale amber - of natural Hessonite Garnet stones and more Picture Jasper stones make for a truly OOAK necklace.

I love the look of natural copper, so I'm letting this one 'age' naturally. I enjoy the beauty of artisan lampwork beads and I had to use this one as a focal in my piece.

Length of necklace: 19 inches long, including toggle clasp.

You can purchase it and look at more pictures by clicking here.

Happy Holidays to all!

YOJ Week 44: Midnight Stars by the Sea

2007-11-05T01:48:00.000-07:00

Eeek! Time flies and I totally missed last week. Not that I didn't do any jewelry pieces, but nothing fitted with the themes, so I had to skip it but will post week 43 when I have time to catch up.

This week, I again made various things, and I'm too busy to make anything complex, so I'm submitting this simple pair of earrings, for lack of having time to do anything else to submit... Midnight Stars By The Sea...

Picture yourself on holiday, having a midnight stroll with a loved one along the beach. The moon shining bright, illuminating the stars in the sky... a gorgeous starfish comes along to play with you, and listen to the breeze blowing gently in the quiet night...

Polymer clay free form starry night sky/ocean dangles handmade by me, sterling silver starfish and findings, with sparkling Swarovski Crystals :)

You can purchase these in my Ruby Lane or Etsy shop!

YOJ Week 42 - Think Pink! - Pink Seduction

2007-10-20T13:37:00.000-06:00

I was in a happy mood last night, listening to Elvis singing Christmas songs (yup!!!) and I saw those deep fuchsia chunky faceted Chalcedony gemstone beads while going through my boxes and I decided to let them play around in rustic swirls of 14kt Gold Filled wires :)

I added, along for the ride, a couple of deep raspberry pink sparkly Swarovski Crystals... just to make them more Holiday-ish.

I put them on some modern 14kt Gold Filled Hoops, for a very cool and whimsical fashion look!

They are simple, but they're playful and ready for the holidays! :)

YOJ - Week 41 - Fleurs De Lys

2007-10-18T14:29:00.000-06:00

I decided to go for the "Ancestral Worship" theme option for week 41 :)

I had these really nice heavy hand-cast sterling silver Fleur De Lys goodies (pendant, links, toggle clasp) and some pretty regal looking deep raspberry red Rhodolite Garnets that I felt would go very well with the medieval feel of the sterling silver pieces.

Since I'm from Quebec City, and the Fleur De Lys is the symbol of the province of Quebec, with my ancestors originating from Europe, I thought it would be nice to recognize my ancestral roots by making this necklace this week.

The rich deep color of the garnet gemstones reminds me of a nice full-bodied red wine, with the hand cast silver reminding me of those big huge ornate cups they used to drink the wine out of in the Middle Ages, you know?

I just could not help but put the two together :)

You can purchase it on my website (free shipping USA & Canada!):

Wire & Beads Creations

Comments are always welcome!

South Pacific Body - DA BOM-BAY OF THE MONTH!!!

2007-10-09T17:10:00.000-06:00

Ok... you know, I've always wanted to have a blog, but I'm not that talkative... really!

I think a lot (gosh, sometimes I wish I could turn off my mind once in awhile to get a rest!), but I don't like to talk out loud so much... I prefer to listen.

And, I kept wondering "What I am going to write about on a blog that will be interesting for other people to read".

So I figured I should have a blog to showcase a few of my favorite jewelry creations, and talk about what has inspired me to make some of my pieces. And now that I have started participating in the Year of the Jewelry project (YOJ), I can post my weekly creations on here too... that's all fine and dandy.

But, today, I finally had something I wanted to shout out loud for the world to hear:

I just tried, for the first time today, THE MOST AWESOME FANTABULOUS ARTISAN (HANDMADE) SOAP!

"Ok, she's gone mad!" you say...

Yes, I'm MADLY IN LOVE WITH THIS AMAZING SOAP!!!!!!!

So badly, in fact, that I have to write about it here because using it, the "out of this world smell and texture" and "oh my God this is just so awesome" feeling had to be shared with everyone I knew (hey, don't laugh, I even called my mother across the country to tell her how marvelous this soap is!!!)

And to borrow my favorite expression from my Turbo Jammin' Girlfriend Chalene Johnson, THIS "GIGANTIC Coconut Lime Shea Butter and Glycerin Soap" (pictured above) IS DA BOM-BAY!!!!!

I bought it from "Soap Girl" on Etsy. She is so nice, and her customer service is TOP NOTCH BABY!

You can find the details of this soap by clicking here.

And you HAVE TO visit her Etsy shop... I have a few other soap bars that I have just purchased from her and I haven't used them just yet (I can't wait, they all smell SO DIVINE, and they look awesome!).

The famous Etsy "Soap Girl" has single-handedly converted me, with her Coconut Lime Shea Butter & Glycerin soap, from buying regular bars of soaps in at the grocery store to using ONLY her handmade soaps. Yes, you heard me, "only hers". Nothing else will do!

I had tried various other handmade soaps before, on and off, and as much as I liked them, NOTHING compares to the handmade soap bars I have just purchased and started using from South Pacific Body.

So spread the word folks! DO visit her Etsy shop, and try these out (I mean, look at that picture - I could just eat that soap right up!) - you will not regret it. I promise!

South Pacific Body's handmade Soaps are DA BOM-BAY of the month (heck, it's Da Bom-Bay of the YEAR!!!!!)

YOJ week 40: Falling Leaves

2007-10-08T18:52:00.000-06:00

I've long awaited the chance to be able to sign up for the Year Of Jewelry (YOJ) project, where you make 1 piece of jewelry for every week of the year, based on a different weekly theme. It's sort of a personal challenge, and helps with creativity and techniques.

So these earrings are my first submission of the 4th Quarter (Week 40):

"Fall in the Mountains"

I love Fall, so this past week's theme of Falling Leaves was quite appropriate to my taste!

I also love the mountains, when we see all those beautiful trees turning colors, it's simply gorgeous!

The crisp fresh air, the warm golden colors, it's so relaxing to take a walk bundled in a warm knitted sweater and a pair of jeans, and enjoy this magical time of year.

I have created these earrings by using some real oak leaves triple plated in 22kt rose gold then treated for a burnished effect. These are very lightweight, and the real gold plating will not rub off or flake... they are fabulous and have such rich colors to them.

I have done a rustic copper wire wrap around some super sparkly top quality gorgeous faceted Garnets to pull the burgundy reds from the burnished effect on the oak leaves, and added in some Hessonite Garnet and Agate in rich tones along with some copper accents.

The copper wires and accents will naturally age over time - as I prefer to let copper age naturally.

The ear wires are antiqued Niobium, which is hypoallergenic and the color matches the antiqued copper rings quite well.

These very unique earrings have something to show you all around - a 3D kind of style. Very light, very sparkly and with such rich Fall colors!

Length of earrings: 1 1/8" from the bottom of the Niobium ear wires.
Size of Oak leaves: 17mm x 26mm

You can purchase these truly One Of A Kind (OOAK) earrings on my Wire & Beads Creations Website!

Cheers!

Finally! Website is up!

2007-09-27T12:22:00.000-06:00

Finally!!!!

My own website featuring my handmade jewelry & lampwork beads is up and running!

It's been a few weeks in the making, but I am very happy with the result and new look :)

I have adapted the colors of this blog to match my website.

I offer FREE SHIPPING on all items on my website, as well as Paypal Gift Certificates.

Check it out here:

http://www.wireandbeadscreations.com

Cheers!

Ethnic Style Ring

2007-08-15T09:08:00.001-06:00

This is one of my latest creations - Burma Treasure... I really enjoyed making this ring (thanks to a wonderful tutorial created by Eni Oken) - I modified the design to use gemstones in it (her ring tutorial called for all silver, including the focal bead). I really enjoy Eni's tutorials and the results are FANTABULOUS!

If you want to read more about this ring or purchase it from my Ruby Lane store, just go right here: Burma Treasure Ring

Enjoy life!

Royalty...

2007-08-11T17:36:00.000-06:00

Now that summer is coming to an end (already!), I'm looking forward to Fall and the launch of one of my Fall Collections - "Royalty".

This collection will include rich ornate hand casted Sterling Silver accents, beautiful rich gemstones and an overall Regal-Feel to the pieces.

These earrings, Queen's Jewels (US$107), are just a tiny taste of what's to come in my store. So keep an eye on my upcoming additions!

Sorry, this item is no longer available - it has been SOLD!

Enjoy life!

Wire... loooooove wire!

2007-08-05T22:00:00.001-06:00

I really enjoy playing with wire, and I was trying my hand at doing the herringbone weave, and this bracelet just took a life of its own!

This bracelet is sooooo fluid and sleek, it feels like water is running through my fingers when I hold it in my hands. It's really a neat feeling! I have to work hard not to play with it constently.

Marvelous deep milky blue (dyed) Chalcedony beads are the stars of this Moon bracelet. All Sterling Silver, yards and yards of hair fine sterling silver wire and an incredibly soft and fluid bracelet to wear...

You can purchase it by clicking here: Blue Moon On Monday Bracelet

Enjoy life!

Loooove Dichro!

2007-07-31T18:52:00.000-06:00

I just love dichroic glass because it really sparkles day and night, in what ever light you look at it, and I find that I don't work as much with it as I'd like. It's a beautiful medium for jewelry, each piece being truly unique and different each time you look at it at different angles.

The colors in this particular cabochon are really stunning and I wanted to display this lovely gem without hiding the fabulous colors, so I used a wire wrapping technique, using 20g Sterling Silver HH twisted wire, which is very sturdy, yet embraces the edges of the cab without too much interference from the wires.

I really enjoyed making it, and I'll be showcasing more wire work creations, so stay tuned!

You can purchase Night Fire right here: Night Fire Necklace

Have fun!

Having fun with wire...

2007-07-16T20:13:00.000-06:00

I have these really perky, fun and fabulous tangerine (deep orangey-pinky-red) freshwater pearls that just wanted to come out and play with gold filled wire and beads - so I had to enlighten them, and myself too while I was at it :) I love to play with wire and see what I can come up with.

These are post earrings and they're especially great to hide earlobes that have been stretched (we all age and well, gravity takes its toll on us eventually) and they're also great to cover up a partially torn out ear hole... a very funky & very modern twist to wearing pearls!

I use 'comfort' ear nuts at the back, these have a clear (see-thru) wide round disc, so that the earrings do not droop down at the front, when someone has a torn out ear hole (these earrings are extremely light so they would not droop down anyway, but the comfort ear nuts really sandwich the lobe of the ear nicely and thus the earrings hold up straight and are very comfortable to wear)

You can purchase these right here: Tangerine Spice Post Earrings

Enjoy life and have fun!

Ocean, sweet ocean...

2007-07-08T18:37:00.000-06:00

From the time I was a little girl, my parents took me to visit family that lived by the beach in Miami. Everytime we came back up North (home), I'd cry, because I just loved the beach so much, I just never wanted to leave it.

Move forward several decades later, and many more trips to various beaches, I still carry the beach inside my heart, no matter where I live...

So when I stumbled upon these pretty (genuine) Sea Beach Glass nuggets (aka Mermaids' tears) which were created by the Pacific Ocean, I wanted to do something special with them.

I had the design in my mind, I just needed to find the right sterling silver chain to work with and here's the result - "Ocean Serene" :-)

It's airy and softly breezy... and I also made a simple and elegant pair of earrings to go with it.

THESE TWO ITEMS HAVE SOLD!

Enjoy life!

How I got started - June 2007 Artisan Spotlight on Ruby Lane

2007-07-08T08:29:00.000-06:00

I was recently featured as the "Artisan Spotlight" on Ruby Lane (where I sell all my jewelry) in June 2007.

Some people ask me how I got started and what inspires me, so I figured I should share what I wrote for my Artisan Spotlight:

I have always enjoyed anything related to the arts. I'm an only child and when I was young my mom was always encouraging me to do arts and crafts projects. Now I realize she must have done this just so I wouldn't ever say, "Mommy, I'm bored!" But this isn't what got me started in jewelry making.

I had a great childhood but I didn't realize quite how great it was until I met my husband, or I should say until I met my mother-in-law, and I learned how different one's childhood could be. My mother-in-law grew up in Austria. She speaks a little bit of English (and I speak very little German), so with the help of my husband and my father-in-law I learned how horrible it was for her and her husband during the dark times when Vienna was invaded by Germany. My mother-in-law is a sweetheart, and I love her and my father-in-law with all my heart.

Last fall, my in-laws came to visit us for a few weeks, and ‘this' topic came up again. I could see the pain in her eyes, the tears she was trying to hold back as she spoke of surviving the horrors of the war. She said that because they were constantly hiding and on the move, they carried very little with them and she had no toys whatsoever. As she told her story, and in even greater detail than she had in the past, my heart screamed, "But it's never too late to play!"

After dinner that night, I excused myself, discreetly took the car and drove to the large craft store nearby. As I was going through the aisles, I was looking for a project we could do together, like two little girls playing together. I would be her playmate for the night. The language barrier meant that it had to be something easy and visual.

My eyes fell upon what I thought was the most wonderful project we could do together - jewelry kits! I had never made jewelry before, so I bought a couple of "how to" books with design ideas, I bought some kits and some loose beads and Swarovski crystals (a must in an Austrian household!) and the basic tools we needed according to the books I was clutching in my hands.

I came home with a large bag of goodies and put it on the table. As I started pulling things out of the bag, I explained my idea to my father-in-law; he smiled, and then left the room. We were going to have a play date, just as if we were two little girls having fun without a care in the world, making jewelry, and those pieces of jewelry would be a constant reminder to her that it's never too late to play.

Thankfully, I'm a very quick learner, and I have a diverse arts and crafts background so we were able to complete a project that very night. I had her stringing pearls and crystals. We took our time, we laughed a lot, and we made mistakes and started over. We played and I know that for the first time in over sixty-five years, the playful little girl inside of her finally came back to life. We had such a good time.

I then secretly made her a necklace and a matching bracelet with beautiful Swarovski crystals. I worked on it very late at night after they had gone to bed. Then, a few nights later, I set the table for breakfast the next day, and placed her secret gifts on her breakfast plate for her to discover the following morning. I will never forget the look on her face as she realized that I had made her some jewelry, just for her. It made me feel really good that something I had created with my hands and my imagination could bring a person so much joy. I was hooked!

After they left, I started searching and learning everything I could about proper jewelry-making techniques online and from books I purchased. I learned about the various material options, and gemstones and pearls. This special little Austrian girl had touched my life in a very powerful way. She opened up a whole new world of creativity and discovery for me.

The ocean and nature inspire me, gemstones, crystals and vibrant colors open up a floodgate of ideas in my mind; and the thought of making someone feel special and happy when they receive one of my creations, gives rise to a feeling that is second to none.

I hope that you will come visit my shop Wire Beads Creations on Ruby Lane. Each piece I make is a carefully crafted, unique creation. Custom orders are welcome, and I offer a lay-away plan for your convenience.

Juicy Watermelon on a hot summer day...

2007-07-02T08:56:00.000-06:00

I found these 4mm faceted agate beads recently and I just fell in love with the rich watermelon color. Think ripe, juicy, sweet watermelon and you've just decribed exactly the color of these beads!

I hammered the frame and used several yards of hair-thin sterling silver wire... lots of fun, and certainly a unique design.

You can purchase these earrings fit for a "Top Model" right here: Top Model Earrings

Enjoy life!

Unconventional and fun!

2007-06-24T09:59:00.000-06:00

Machupijchu - The lost city of Peru. Unconventional, mysterious, spiritual, magical.

The walls of the habitats in the lost city of Peru and the incredible peaks and forest surrounding it inspired me to create these earrings.

The pure silver Hill Tribe hand made nuggets that surround the central Blue Peruvian Opal faceted bead at the top of the earrings represent the stone walls of the lost city. The mixture of 2mm & 3mm round Agate beads that top these earrings off represent the foggy mountain peaks and trees that surround Machupijchu.

The dangles, all made again with beautiful natural high grade faceted 6mm Blue Peruvian Opals, coupled with antiqued Bali Silver accents and sterling silver beads playfully come alive as if the spirits of Machupijchu were happily reuniting with us on a magical evening, telling us their stories of the past.

I had so much fun making these earrings! They have a good weight to them, and the dangles float around like crazy. The colors sparkle in the sun... very pretty and unique earrings. Each one is carefully & securely hand wrapped so that they will never fall off.

To see more pictures or purchase them, click right here: Machupijchu Nights

Enjoy life!

Welcome to my blog!

2007-06-16T12:14:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my blog!

All kinds of things inpire me to create jewelry, but mainly nature, the elements of color, shapes, and the richness of textures trigger all kinds of ideas in my mind.

I decided to start a blog to have a place where I can showcase some of my favorite pieces :)

This is one of them (pictured above) - Into The Wild - the round shell discs dyed of a rich lime green just triggered this design in my mind. I added in some juicy watermelon tourmaline beads, lots of delicate sterling silver chain and pretty Hill Tribe pure silver beads and these earrings were born!

They're truly unique, a little on the wild side and loads of fun!

All my creations are for sale in my Ruby Lane store (the link is on the right side under Favorite Links.

You can purchase these sunny and upbeat earrings right here!

Enjoy life!