A New Family Favorite -- Enchilada Casserole!

Enchilada Casserole

1 lb ground turkey

5 flour tortillas

2 -3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 package Spanish rice (prepared according to pkg. directions)

1 (14 ounce) can refried beans

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 (14 ounce) can of your favorite canned chili sauce 

1. Spray an oven save dish with cooking spray, choose a dish just slightly larger than your tortilla.
2. Place one tortilla in the bottom, top with beans, meat rice onion and cheese, repeat layers until about 1/2 to 3/4 inch from top and pour sauce over, top with a tad bit more cheese and a few onions.
3. Bake for 30-45 minutes in a 350 oven.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/enchilada-casserole-52605#ixzz1CU6nrSsK

 

Have you stumbled across any quick and easy recipes lately???  Do you get tired of eating the same thing over and over, or do you stick to what you already know you like?

Thumpity Thump Thump

Yes, yes, I know Christmas is over.  Thank goodness for that!  But, I'm still trying to clean out my stash.  And since the last featured listing covered Santa and Christmas tree lampwork beads, it only made sense to do the easy thing and follow up with Frosty the Snowman beads:

In retrospect, perhaps I should've tried to destash these suckers back in September and October, when all the crafters are stocking up for Christmas inventory. 

But, anyway, I work two jobs and like to craft.  Cleaning?  Not so much.  I do a major sweep for New Year's because that's what my dad taught me to do.  (I guess it's an Asian thing.)  And so, here we are.  Christmas in January!

Challenger

Twenty five years ago today, I was at a student council leadership camp for my elementary school.  We were at Keakealani Outdoor Education Center,  near Volcanoes National Park.  There is no cable TV there, and catchment water.   It got cold at night.  The director was this tall white haired man named Mr. Mortemore who knew just about everything there was to know about Hawaiian plants and animals.  (He later became the director of our zoo, which is also a botanical garden.)

I was mad because I didn't want to go on this trip.  Leadership camp was full of silly ice breakers and team building games like trust falls and themed skits.  Then they had workshops on topics ranging from Robert's Rules of Order to social skills.  Earlier in the year, my school was visited by Ellison Onizuka, a real live astronaut from Kona.  We were excited because nobody of any sort of significance ever visited my school (it's not like you can drive to Hawaii), but he was from the Big Island and so he came home.  Between this and Top Gun, all the boys wanted to be pilots in the Air Force or the Navy.  (We didn't have a lot of exposure to the military either, except for the occasional convoy on its way to Pohakuloa Training Area.)  Anyway, the rest of the kids were going to get to watch the Challenger launch on TV at school (during recess) and I had to miss out on it because I was stuck at this camp.

We were working on small group projects when Mr. Mortemore walked in to tell us that the Challenger exploded.

~~~~

We were talking about this at work this morning.  One of my co-workers was in high school, one was already in the Air Force, but the other two guys in the conversation were 3 and 6, respectively.  Nothing like these "where were you" discussions to make you feel old...  :)

Something Else Different...

Part of the fun of designing with natural components is that no two items are ever exactly the same. However, sometimes that also makes it challenging when you want a more formal look. When I first started designing jewelry, I opted for Swarovski crystals specifically due to their uniformity. Then, I got a little bored with the structured patterns I was making, and went entirely the other direction- using oddly shaped, mismatched natural components. But that can also be challenging in that sometimes the variation in each element of a piece competes for attention.

This concept mixes a little of each.   I really like how this turned out.  This concept would also make a great choker length necklace.  (But alas, nap time is only so long...)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66682322/hawaiian-cuff-shell-bracelet-tahitian

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66682161/hawaiian-cuff-shell-bracelet-white

So here's a question for my crafty friends- what kinds of media do you like to work with?  Where do you find the time and inspiration to create?

Japanese Washi Glass Tile Magnets

Here are some magnets that I made using Japanese washi paper and glass tiles.  They're super easy to make.  You can use any paper or print- including hand drawn originals, photos, wrapping paper scraps, cloth, or newsprint!  Just google "Glass Tile Tutorial" and you'll see all the different ways to skin a cat on this one.

However, there are some common threads:  The paper can be cut either before or after gluing to the tile, but you should use either Judykins Diamond Glaze or Mod Podge to adhere paper to glass.  The magnet should be secured using E6000.  If using strong magnets, you will most likely need to seal the backside of the paper, either with a coat of Diamond Glaze or Mod Podge, or with another piece of sturdier paper.  (I used cardstock.)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66593509/japanese-washi-glass-tile-magnets-red

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66594022/japanese-washi-glass-tile-magnets-maple

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66592835/japanese-washi-glass-tile-magnets-plum

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66592352/japanese-washi-glass-tile-magnets-pink

If you look closely at these photos, it looks like there are some pieces of paper just peeking out, under the edge of the glass tiles.  You can get rid of those by using an emery board.   A couple flicks of the wrist, and Voila!

Since I don't normally work with paper, this was a fun change of pace!  

You can order the tiles and adhesives, plus all sorts of other supplies (bails, chains, bezels, etc) from Candytiles on Etsy!  She even makes kits for small quantities, which is great if you're just testing the waters.  :)

Homefront Artistry Team Monday Meetup #1!

Oh, I totally don't feel like going to work early today, so... 

 

The 2nd and 4th (sometimes 5th) Monday of every month, we post a few questions on the Homefront Team Blog that you can take, post and answer on your blogs and THEN LINK BACK to the original post so that we all can come around and visit.

 

This adventure is OPEN TO EVERYONE!  You DO NOT have to be a part of the Homefront Team to participate.  So please visit the Homefront Team Blog!

 

Here are my answers to the Monday Meetup questions!

1 -     Are you a night owl or early bird?

I've always loved the quiet hours in the early morning, when everyone else is asleep... that's when I'm most productive and can tackle the hardest problems.  (Once I get my coffee, anyway!)

 

2 -  Share one thing on your bucket list.

One thing I would really REALLY like to do is take a Mediterranean cruise and visit Italy, Greece, and Egypt.  If nothing else, I'd like to see the Pyramids and maybe the Suez Canal.

3 -  What’s your favorite thing about yourself?

I thought of this question because I recently imploded during a job interview.  I am terrible at saying nice things about myself.  However, I am really good at rounding up whatever team I'm on.  Haha, probably because I don't like being out front by myself... if I have a team with me, it's easier!   

 

There you have it!  Now you can go to the Homefront Team blog and post your own response!

Laser Lace Hand of Fatima... and a new Feature on the Etsy Homefront Team Blog

Before I get to today's listing, I want to shamelessly plug the newest feature on the Homefront Artistry Team Blog:  Monday Meetups.  This is one of those question and answer features where folks can post the answers to their blogs and link back to the original post on the Homefront Team blog.  Perhaps I should back up a second.  The Homefront Artistry team is a group of over 100 entrepreneurs who are spouses, children, and significant others of... or are members of the uniformed services.  (For my "iV boardie friends,"  this is where I've been hanging out lately.)  So if you're looking for handmade goodies from around the world and would like to support a military family, you can search for "homefront team" on Etsy and find some really cool things made by some really cool folks. 

Ok, so... on to the story behind how I ended up with these silver drops.

While shopping online (one of my favorite pastimes), I came across these silver "laser lace" drops.  There are a couple of different styles, basically they're all cut out of thin sheets of silver plated base metal using a laser.  (You can see some of the etch marks in the back which I presume are part of the laser's cutting process.)  They're super light weight, and therefore terrific for earrings and also relatively inexpensive.  I had to buy a package of 20 in order to purchase them.  I didn't need ten pairs of these earrings, I really only wanted a couple.  And here we are again, your featured listing for today, Sterling Silver Hand of Fatima drops (4 pairs or 8 total pieces):

Remember this super hot pair of earrings I whipped up for my SIL?  This is how you can get those earrings!

Lazy Saturday

It's a nice day, everyone is home, and there are no soccer games, activities, parties, or anything else scheduled. The yardwork is done, the house got a good deep clean last weekend, the dishes are done, and I've got a creative road block going so I don't feel like making jewelry right now.

I'm pretty sure it's been months since we've had a weekend like this.

We're bored.

What do you do when there's nothing else to do?

Ribbons for sale!

They say that variety is the spice of life.  And so, I had another great idea to make those braided ribbon barrettes that were popular back in the 80's, and bead them with the plastic tri-beads that everyone always wanted... or at least they did at my school!

My mom is not crafty at all, so I had to rely my friends' moms to make them for me.  Deprived much?  Over-compensating?  Perhaps.  But here's a listing to prove it... 25 yds of 1/8 inch, double sided satin ribbon, your choice of colors, in 1 yd increments. 

If I did my math right, that should come out to 9 cents a foot... which is better than wholesale and in manageable quantities.  This ribbon is really versatile- use it to wrap your goodies, thread beads, accent other pieces, or even as a draw string... trust me, I can think of at least a hundred different ways to use this ribbon.  I just don't have the time to do it all!!

Please, take my ribbon!!!

I heart VD again

Yes, yes, I embarrass my son and hubby by telling the same cheesy jokes over and over.  Hey, what do you want me to say?  I'm an analyst by day, not a stand up comedian!  So here's another featured listing for a set of 4 filigree hearts:

To be honest, I decided to destash these because they're pewter (I'm trying to keep to sterling silver my online store), but if these haven't sold by the end of the month, I'm keeping them for myself!

Pineapple Treasury

I love pineapples. Not the cooked ones on pizza (by the way, I don't know of anyone from Hawaii who actually likes "Hawaiian" pizza), but fresh, sun ripened, chilled pineapple... slurp!

Guess I'm not the only one- someone made a lovely Etsy Treasury of pineapples:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d339f4f54326d91cdb43e8b/when-i-was-little-i-called-them

Coincidentally, I just lowered the price on my pineapple stitch markers, as part of my New Year's resolution to clean out the things which have been sitting in my stash.  I actually made up a set of these as a request for a friend, and this is a duplicate set.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/63206534/pineapple-stitch-markers

My mom taught me to salt my pineapple to make it taste sweeter. She also likes to eat dehydrated pineapple with her coffee. I really like pineapple Dole Whip. How do you like to eat pineapple?

Etsy Coupon Code!

Etsy recently created a coupon code feature for sellers... so, I decided to try it out and see how it works.

The code is posted to my FB page.  "Like" Simply Leilani on FB to get the code before it expires!

Even if you don't see something to buy now, you should "like" my page anyway.  I am working on a special listing as part of a fundraiser for the USO and am also working on a giveaway!

I heart VD

Say, what???  Haha, does that joke about Valentines' Day never get old???  Today's featured listing is a Valentines' Day mix of glass beads:

 If it looks familiar, that's because I used the same beads to make this memory wire coil bracelet:

They were so easy to make that I went back and overbought.  Does this sound like a theme yet?  Well, whatever.  I'm just trying to get rid of this so I can buy more different stuff.

As Seen on the Homefront Artistry Team Blog

Hey folks, some exciting news from the team blog that I participate in...

Proudly announcing the Homefront Artistry Team: HF Community: Monday Meet ups:

Questions are a fun way to connect

I LOVE questions

I hope you do too!

The 2nd and 4th (sometimes 5th) Monday of every month, watch this space for a few questions that you can take, post and answer on your blogs and THEN LINK BACK HERE so that we all can come around and visit.

This adventure is OPEN TO EVERYONE! You DO NOT have to be a part of the Homefront Team. We just ask that when you leave your link here, you TRULY have a post that pertains to the set of questions.

OK so....

You will meet the BRAINCHILD behind this series who will kick this off with her list of questions

on

January 24, 2011

Santa and Christmas Tree beads

Chalk up another one to, "It seemed like a good idea at the time..."  I bought WAY too many of these adorable Santa and Christmas tree beads.   (I actually have about a dozen of each, but figured that rather than group these as 4 Santas and 4 trees, I'd combine them...)  And so here's today's featured destash listing, Santas and Trees:

Each of these guys is about an inch or so high.  Don't they look cute together?  I thought I was going to make earrings, but they're a little heavier than anything I would wear, so I made some ID badge lanyards instead.  The Snowman got listed separately since he cost about twice as much as Santa and the Christmas trees.  In case you were wondering, the way I determined my cost for these listings was to take the retail price I paid and divided in half.  I then tried to group items into $1-2 listings, and added 25 cents for the Etsy and Paypal fees.

See?  I really do have a ton of these things waiting for new homes!

Twelve Day Work Weeks

(or what it's like to be a reservist.)

Don't get me wrong, I like what I do. I even like my co-workers. It's just that between working full time, grad school one night a week, being a mom/wife/sister/daughter, and part-time single parent, it's exhausting.

But two weeks out of the year, it gets me out of the office.

And once in a while, there's an opportunity for additional job training to enhance my civilian career.

And a lot of my friends are doing it. :)

Maybe I am a lifer, after all.

New listing: Quartz, Freshwater Pearl & Garnet Crystal Necklace

Another goody that's been stashed away, waiting for picture day, is this lovely necklace of quartz, garnet, and pearls.

 I love the luster on this strand of keishi pearls!!!  Very nice quality.

According to folklore, quartz is a power stone, a master healer stone, and also used for protection because it counters black magic and protects from negative energy. Garnet is believed to fight depression, promote circulatory health, and aid business and personal success. Pearls represent purity and innocence, and are believed to give peace of mind and strength of body and soul. No matter what you believe, this beautiful piece is guaranteed by Mother Nature to be one of a kind.

Seven Sisters Pearl and Shell Choker

Here's an adorable little piece I whipped up a couple of months ago, and am only now getting around to photographing. (Etsy listing for pearl & shell choker here.)

It's a pretty and simple design... dressy enough for everyday wear.

Seven pearls are framed by red lip heishi shells, then securely wire wrapped to a sterling silver chain. The clasp is magnetic for easy wear.

Hopefully this weekend, I'll catch up with the photos... and show you what else I've been working on!

Asian Ceramic Beads for destash

Do you know the Good Idea Fairy?  Haha, well, he must've visited my house more than once because I had this terrific idea for leather and ceramic bead bracelets... and made all of NONE of them.  Not a single one.  And so today, you get TWO featured destash listings for Asian ceramic beads.

The first set is cylindrical.  If I recall correctly, there are 15 of these.  (Yep, there they are!)

The second listing is for eight lantern/oval shaped beads.  The colors are complimentary, and you could easily incorporate both sets into the same piece if you wanted to.  

More Beach Glass

Once I figured out how to get through the larger pieces and didn't take any chunks out of my fingers, I moved to some smaller pieces of glass... each piece of glass here is less than 1 square inch!  (The total length of these charms is roughly 1.5 inches.)

Please visit our Etsy store for all kinds of upcycled accessories and jewelry, created in Hawaii!

Hawaii Team Treasury

Check out this lovely treasury of items from Hawaii! Made local!

And yes, that's my ring in there!

Even more pressed glass flowers...

Do you see why I needed to destash my glass flowers now?!?!?!

Here's today's featured destash listing... it's for... you guessed it- 8 pressed glass flowers in blue and gray tones. The flowers are drilled through the center from top to bottom (so you could see the entire flower laying flat when you string it).

Really, there are two sets of four flowers in this listing... you'll see four of them have more of a blue color with gold accents.  The other four are darker blue with lilac mixed in.  The pressed pattern is reminiscent of Asian flower motifs, but these are Czech glass beads.

New Supplies Arrived!

After a one year (more or less) absence from Etsy, I decided to start creating new things to put in the store again. Taking a queue from my repeat sales, I decided to stick with the Hawaii theme and branch into more whole shells and "natural" components. Most shells are actually imported from the Philippines or SE Asian countries. Here's an example:

Another unique item I've taken a shine to are Indonesian recycled glass beads. They closely resemble sea glass, thanks to the hand cut roughness and matte, tumbled surfaces. However, it's a lot easier to come by and since the shapes are a little more regular than sea glass, I can use these to make repeating patterns.

I also stocked up on silver wire, upgraded the beading wire I've been using, and got a number of odds and ends types of findings to finish pieces that have been living in my head for these past months.  All of these things are good for my sanity and could be good for you too.  :)

Search Words and Your Etsy Store

It's no secret that Etsy is absolutely swamped with jewelry.  Within Etsy, it's important to have your item tagged correctly so folks can find it.  Personally, I don't know how much of a help that is, because most of the folks who are already on Etsy as customers seem to frequent shops they've heard about from other places.  So how do you get strangers to find your shop?  Search words.

This is no great secret.  It's all over Etsy.  But how do you figure out which search words to use?  I did a quick Google search and found this gem:

When employing search engine optimization techniques to the web pages, you must identify the main concept a page talk about and base the main keywords and phrases from that. For handmade jewelry websites most have pages for handmade earrings, handmade bracelets and handcrafted necklaces so focus on those keywords and related keywords. It is best to have only two or three phrases per page.

The title tag, meta description and meta keywords tags of each page should also be optimized with the chosen keywords and phrases. It is crucial to make the title tag and meta description attractive to your customers as well as the search engines. Most major search engines will use the title tag and description on the search engine results pages which means that this is what people will be reading once they search for a query relevant to your content. The meta keywords tag is not used by most search engines anymore but it is worth including just in case.

WTH does THAT mean?  Well basically, you want to keep your message short and sweet because the more times you can work it into the content of your page, the higher the keyword density and therefore the better your Etsy shop will perform in google searches.  Once upon a time, people used to get around this by more or less spamming a key word on a page repeatedly (the easiest way to do it was by typing the text in tiny letters in the same color as the background).  Search engines have long since been able to identify and discard such pages and you can't do it on Etsy anyway.  So you just have to find a key phrase and work it into your content as naturally as possible.


So which key words DO you want to include on your Etsy listing?  Well, it depends.  I used to use the Google Trends tool but that really didn't help me much other than to tell me folks will spend an average of less than a minute on your shop before clicking through to something else.  In my case, since I'm a very small shop and really have only one "best seller," (a silver ring with pearls and shells)  which as far as I can tell, is a fairly unique item, I decided to focus on trying to get that one item to place high in Google searches, and hope that maybe customers would also click through the rest of the store.  Where I normally sell 4 of my pearly shell rings per year, I managed to sell 4 in December alone.  So while that's not enough to quit my day job, it did multiply my business by a factor of twelve.


Granted, I did luck out and got a repeat customer.  Which brings me to my next point.  If you don't have a unique item, you could try focusing on your location instead of the item description.   Almost all of my items are tagged with Hawaii, since that's where I am.  You can add your location to the footer of every page on your website/blog, facebook fan page, and in your product descriptions.  (It's quite easy to do- at the end of the listing, just say, "If you're local in Hawaii, please contact me for alternate shipping options." And there you go.)  


Another way to get more business to your Etsy store is to trade links.  I joined a three teams- the "local" Hawaii team, and two large teams- Homefront (for folks affiliated with the military) and Etsy Mom.  People are always willing to trade links.  When you have the same URL associated with the same hyperlinked phrase a bunch of times, it pops up higher in search engines.  The Blog List widget on Blogger will even set up your blog roll to display the 5 or 10 most recently updated websites so you don't have an overwhelming list in your margin.

Finally, you could try giveaways.  An online jewelry supplier had a killer program in which they allow beading bloggers to select a few items to receive and review in exchange for hyperlinks back to their store.  For example, one of the most popular jewelry supply searches is "Swarovski crystals," so say that you could pick out $20 worth of Swarovski jewelry, make something pretty, then blog about it... and every time you said "Swarovski" or "bicone" or whatever, then you create a hyperlink going back to their storefront.  While most of us probably don't have the inventory to do something quite on that scale, you could offer a giveaway in exchange for a product review on a popular blog.  Or you could offer a freebie for your 100th Facebook Fan or for readers of your blog who comment on a certain post.  But, tying back to the original topic, "free" is one of the top search words.  That, and people who have popular blogs are generally willing to promote something that's free for their readers, as opposed to someone trying to sell something.

Yes, yes, it takes time.  Internet content writers get paid obscene money for their ability to do this and generate business.  I know- we're already expected to create our products, learn bookkeeping, be spectacular photographers, and have colorful item descriptions... and now we have to be content writers too?  Nobody ever said it would be easy.  But I hope this makes things a little less confusing.


And if you happen to like what you read, please let me know by leaving a comment.  With no comments on this blog, I'm sort of drifting here.  :)  P.S.  You can also like Simply Leilani on Facebook.  It's free.

Charmed, I'm Sure!

I recently decided to sit down and figure out how to drill some of the beach glass on my own.  There are classes to teach you how to do it, but there are also tons of free videos and resources online and I already had everything I needed on hand, so I decided to take my chances.  As you can see, it didn't take rocket science and once I got started, I got a little carried away...

 This little piece was my favorite of the bunch.  I gave it to a friend/co-worker who moved back to Australia.  The rest are, of course, listed on Etsy.

Of course, you can't have Hawaiian jewelry without having a honu in the bunch!  I love this little charm.  Picked it up at a local bead store and hadn't quite decided on what to do with him.

This piece of glass is really wavy so I had to put some thought into where to drill and what to do with it, but the result is a really nice, unique and organic looking piece.   You can see the deep curvy etches in the surface, which you can't replicate in a tumbler.

This piece of glass is super thick.  It looks to me like it's actually the bottom of a very large jug or jar.  (See the raised curved line?  There is also a very faint pattern in an arc, parallel to that raised curve.)   The swallow charm was chosen for its nautical ties- sailors believe that swallow tattoos bring protection on long sea voyages.

This piece of glass has a really nice color to it.  Most green glass on the beaches around here belong to Heineken bottles or old shoyu (soy sauce) jugs.  This one has a lighter, brighter color.   :)  I really love the color and would've saved it to bezel set but it doesn't have a flat side so it would be nearly impossible to do...  speaking of which, I have also been working on bezel settings like the one I made in that silversmithing class.  It's much more difficult to do with the irregular shapes and sharper corners found on beach glass!

Please visit our Etsy store for all kinds of upcycled accessories and jewelry, created in Hawaii!

More flowers for destash!

Today's featured destash listing is for 20 crystal AB pressed glass bellflowers! 

The flowers are drilled through the middle and are entirely AB coated.  (That's the iridescent coating you see on many popular beads.)  I used these to make some cute little birthstone angels for each of the grandkids as a gift to my mom.

These would also make some really cute earrings.  They sort of remind me of snowflakes, but what do I know about snow- I live in HAWAII!!!