Thursday Team Teaser :)

I am the leader for Team ESST - Etsy Supply Street Team. On Thursdays I will feature team shops. So, a type of tease, for the awesome shops that are teammates and members of Team ESST.

The first shop I would like to feature is Livin On The Fringe. This shop has the most beautiful, oh yeah, FRINGE. The photos of the great supplies in this shop will knock you out! This is one of my favorites!

The second tease is a fabulous shop and terrific teammate :) 32NorthSupplies has lovely mixed media items for all kinds of crating. I really love her Dresden and foil items. I drool over this one!

For the third tease this week I would love for you to see this Unique shop! Yarn to Spin not only sells awesome natrual and dyed roving but, they raise some of the fiber:) What you say? yes, they raise Angora bunnies. Cool check out Sugar!

Check back next week for a new Team Tease, now go an see what these great shops have to offer!

Snows a Blowing

Mom and Dad have been here for almost a year now. They retired to Central New York from Virginia. Yes, they have been asked "Why?" by just about everyone they meet. The answer is different depending on who you ask. Dad will tell you it's because they are nuts:) But, Mom will tell you it's because they have 5 out of their 6 children living here and best of all, 14 of their 18 - yup 18 grandchildren living here in Central New York.

We did learn that Dad "loves" to use the snow blower.

Dad waves from his house :)

He even has a special hat to wear when he snow blows our shared driveway.

I think he may miss the sunny south just a little bit ;)

The path to our house.

Monday Menu Magic

OK, this week as promised I will feature Corinne's favorite meal at our house. Corinne is my son's beautiful girlfriend. She comes to our house a couple times a week and has come to love my Chicken Pesto.

First, you will need these ingredients:
Chicken - sliced in bite sized pieces (about 1 to 1 1/2 lbs.)
Onion - sliced (1 medium to large)
Peppers - green, red, yellow (mixed or if you prefer, use just one kind) - sliced - (Use 2 peppers)
Linguine - 1 lb. box
I used a jar of pre-made pesto - works great and saves time :)

Optional - pine nuts - toasted lightly

While your preparing the pasta.

In a large fry pan toast the pine nuts if you choose to use them. Quickly stir the nuts around a dry medium-hot pan until they start to change to a light brown color. Remove and place in small dish until needed.

Next, cook the chicken in a small amount of oil (olive oil is great if you have it, otherwise use what you have). Move the cooked chicken to a large serving dish and cover with foil and set aside.

Now, you need to saute the onions and peppers. We like them tender crisp but, cook them to your families taste. I use olive oil again to saute the veggies.

By now your linguine should be al dente, drain and set aside for a moment.

Add the cooked chicken to the onions and peppers, add the drained linguine and pour the pre-made pesto over all of it and gently toss or stir to mix pesto evenly. Pour back into the serving bowl and top with the pine nuts.

Serve hot with a tossed salad and bread. This serves about 5 adults.

The best part is, Justin and Corinne clean up ;)

My Bionic Mom

Well, she really is a diabetic Mom. But , she is wired up :)

Mom has been a diabetic for over 26 years now, and insulin dependant for 25 of those years. When my Dad retired last year and they moved next door to me and my family. Her new doctor told her she was a candidate for an insulin pump. Great, this is a mini computer that delivers insulin right into her body. I went with Mom for a 3 hour training course on how to run this little gem of technology.

Oh my!! Mom's neat little pump requires her to have a needle to insert the cannula (a tube that stays inside to deliver the insulin). Then a little tube sends insulin on a regular basis called a basal, which is a small amount to keep her sugar regular. Then if she eats Mom has to calculate the carbs, program the pump and do a bolus. A bolus cover the carb intake.

After she had the pump for a few months, the doctor wanted her to use a sensor with the pump. Now she has another device she must insert into her tummy with a needle and leaves a sensor to measure her blood glucose at all times. The benefit of this is to keep her sugar from going high or low between her regular testing, which is usually at meal times.

Now, on top of this Mom has a heart condition and the cardiology doctor wanted her to wear a heart monitor!

So, my Mom is the Bionic Woman. She is wired for all kinds of "fun" stuff. But, as my business partner she can still keep up with me (that doesn't mean much ;). Just this week she learned to edit photos. My Mom is not only Mom, she is my best friend, my advisor, and she cooks too!

Monday Menu Helper

I love to cook but, hate to clean up! So, on Mondays I will post easy quick meals you can make or bake to please you and your family.

I love Emeril Lagasse's motto, "This ain't rocket science"! I generally don't measure or use exact recipes. I keep a basic list of ingredients in my pantry, canned cream of soup (what ever you like - chicken, mushroom, celery, cheesy broccoli, etc.), for something special I have a jar of pre-made pesto. I also have a variety of pasta too. In my freezer I keep bags of frozen veggies - my kids love peas and broccoli. You will need your favorite meats on hand.

So, with this in mind here is my first quick meal.

Chicken Divan - most Campbell's cream of chicken soup labels have this recipe. This is my version.

You will need -
Chicken - I like to cut is into chunks, it makes it go further than whole breast. Trust me :)
Cream of chicken soup - any brand works
milk
frozen broccoli - we prefer floret's but chopped works too.

optional -
shredded cheddar cheese - for an extra touch
bread crumbs and melted butter - for a crunchy topping - about 3/4 cup crumbs and enough melted butter to keep it together.

First - brown the chicken chunks - make sure chicken is cook though.

Assemble the casserole in a 9x13 baking dish.

Put the broccoli on the bottom of baking dish, then layer the browned, cooked chicken chunks on top of frozen broccoli. Mix soup with a full can of milk if you like a soupier casserole or 2/3 can of milk if you like a less soupy casserole. Pour the soup and milk mixture over top of the chicken and broccoli. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes. Check the broccoli at the 30 minute time to see if done. For last 10 minutes if you would like add the shredded cheese and bread crumb and butter topping. Finish the last 10 minutes without foil to melt cheese and brown the bread crumb topping.

Serve while hot. Serving size depends on the amount of chicken and broccoli you use. I use a pound bag of broccoli and about 1 1/2 pounds of chicken to feed my family of 2 growing boys and my husband and me :) With some leftovers for a midnight snack.

Easy add-ons to any meal - bag salad and cherry tomatoes and dinner rolls.

Next week - Turkey pesto Corinne's favorite :)

First Weekend - Team ESST Sponsored Event!

The Etsy Supply Street Team is sponsoring a "First Weekend Shopping Extravaganza" for the month of February. We invite all Etsians of every category to participate by placing an announcement in your shop and join us with promoting your shops on the Promo thread in the Etsy Forums.

This is not a Sale, it is a Shopping Event sponsored by the Etsy Supply Street Team. On the first weekend of each month, Team ESST will sponsor the event from Thursday - Sunday by promoting it both on and off of Etsy.

This month's event will occur from February 5th -8th. Please look for the post "February Shopping Extravaganza sponsored by Team ESST" in the Promos section of the Etsy Forums beginning on Thursday, February 5th around 12:00 AM EDT.

Because Etsy is a Global Marketplace and the seasons, cultures and holidays can vary quite a bit, there is no overall theme. However, we do strongly encourage shops to have a feature, theme or sale as this can pique interest and help draw people to your shop.

You do not have to participate for the whole weekend as we will be posting a fresh new thread each day of the event. You can easily find the new link by checking the last post of the old thread each day.

To join our Shopping Extravaganza, the only requirement is to help promote the event by joining in and bumping the Promotion Thread throughout the weekend. In the thread, please let us know about your shop and what you have to offer our shoppers.

If you blog or twitter, please promote this event to those outside of the Etsy community. It will provide the Etsy community with publicity and add visibility to our shops. As this will become a monthly event, it will be something for shoppers to look forward to.

The First Weekend Shopping Event is sponsored by Team ESST, not by Etsy. More information about our team can be found right here on our blog. If you have any questions about this event please convo one of our members at TheArtistsCloset.etsy.com

A Few of My Favorite Pearls

If you haven't seen our shop banner or avatar for our CarDon Creative Design shop, it's Pearls! Pearls used to be just white and worn on special occasions. Now, they are a designing must. There are several kinds, the most popular to use in jewelry designing is the freshwater cultured pearl. We just love them! They have the classic round shapes in different sizes, then we get the fun and lovely shapes like rice, button, potato, coin, sticks, flat sided, baroque, and maybe more I haven't used yet. They can be half drilled for earrings or dangle designs, top drilled or the most common, side drilled.

Of course, we then get to the fabulous colors!! A rainbow full of colors in about every shade you can think of. The pearls are dyed bright vibrant colors and soft pale colors. Freshwater cultured pearls come in different grades of quality. Surprisingly C and some D grades can make very nice designs.

Designing with pearls can range from the most elegant to simple fun. Wear them with ball gowns or tee-shirt and jeans and everything in-between. We have many different varieties in our shop. Have fun looking them over and planing your next freshwater cultured pearl design.

We Love Black Glass Buttons

We have a huge collection of black glass buttons. Some are rather plain but, most are just lovely. When we were lucky enough to win a bid lot last year at an auction we found a can and a couple of bags with black glass buttons.

Black glass buttons became popular during the reign of Queen Victoria. After the death of her husband Albert, jet buttons were apart of the black mourning wear. Jet was replaced by glass and thus more available.

We have our buttons listed in our Etsy shop GramsVintageButtons. We carry other vintage buttons celluloid, colored glass, some still carded, some just for crafting. Take a look and enjoy!