koko's corner

and my house really shows how busy I've been. I've been too busy to do much vacuuming and mopping.

< in my best Scarlett O' Hara voice> Oh fiddle dee dee, I'll worry about that tomorrow.  

One project I've been working on is designing and making a piece of jewelry. I wanted to contribute to the items being offered at a silent auction next week to benefit the Juvenile Court & Community Schools (JCCS) Scholarship Foundation, known as Dollars for Scholars. 

So, I got out my jewelry making equipment, beads, findings, a hot cup of tea and got busy making a necklace and earrings. I love working with beads, I love the feel, colors and textures of the beads; to me they are very calming and soothing. 

After playing around with beads and colors for a while, I chose these handmade wooden beads, vintage glass beads and copper spacers and clasp. 

Then I got busy stringing them...

I started participating in Project 52. MCP Actions started it to give the hobby and/or professional photographer a little nudge, a challenge, and some inspiration should we be in a little rut.

Quoted from her site: "MCP Project 52 – It’s a way to encourage creativity, make photography fun, and provide a challenge without actual pressure. Participants will sharing their art work and images weekly while inspiring each other."

Feel free to jump into and join the fun anytime you like, I started  this week. There is a suggested theme if you want to shoot with that in mind, but not necessary, shoot and share what ever you want. 

Last week's theme was to be something around the house. This week's theme is "Illustrate a song"

I was really fortunate that the morning mist rolled in for a short time and I got some great photos. 

Remember the song Misty? and that creepy movie "Play Misty for Me'

I submitted this one and 

This morning I made some chocolate candy filled with a cardamom-orange ganache. 

So I submitted this for the song Candy Man. 

The photos submitted must be taken each week, no older photos. I'm looking forward to seeing how creative I can be/or not. 

And that's that

Pea cakes are not only pretty darned tasty, they are a great way to use up some leftover black eyed peas. 

Let's get busy sweet pea...

The first day of the new year typically calls for some black eyed peas and greens. 

Today I tried a quick and easy way of cooking the greens.