new

Here is the sneak peak of my new item that I promised. I have made retro fabric patch note cards. I am planning to sell them in sets of 4. Each card will have a different patch. Starting tomorrow they will be available in my etsy shop.

baked pancakes

Every summer we spend some time in South Carolina. While there I always look through the cookbooks that are in the houses that we rent. A few years ago I found a recipe for baked pancakes in an old southern cookbook. I modified the recipe a little from the original, and it is now one of the kids favorites. It is a cross between an egg dish and pancakes. I serve it with jam spread on top.

Baked Pancakes
3 tablespoons butter
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
pinch nutmeg

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut butter into several piece and place into a 9 x 13 glass baking dish and place in the oven while it is preheating to melt butter. Make sure to keep an eye on it so the butter does not burn.

In a bowl lightly beat eggs. Add milk, flour and nutmeg. Mix lightly, batter will be a bit lumpy.

Once butter is melted, swirl the baking dish to coat bottom and sides with melted butter. Pour in batter.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

happy birthday

It is hard to believe that Celia is five. The time is going by so fast. Spent the early morning making cupcake for her to bring into class. She pick vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting and sprinkles, every five year olds dream.

new

I have an idea for a new product. I am working on the samples and I hope to list them in my etsy shop next week. Check back to get a sneak peek before I list them.

heart handmade

I was just featured on a great new blog, heart handmade. Marichelle started heart handmade to pay homage to the craftsmanship and love that go into handmade. Take a look, you will learn a little bit about me.

easter

It was a busy weekend.

bangs

My oldest daughter is in the process of growing out her bangs. I found these cute hair clips from My Zoe Bug on etsy. I think these will make the process more attractive.

pizza

About twice a month I make homemade pizza. After trying several recipes for dough, I have finally come up with one that I like. It has great flavor and can be rolled really thin, which we like.

I usually make about three pizzas with this recipe and have a different topping on each one. I always have sauce in the freezer and tons of cheese in the fridge, which makes this an easy meal to put together.

Tonight we had one with spinach and ricotta, a plain that was just sauce and mozzarella, and the third had meatballs, sauce, mozzarella and ricotta.

Pizza Dough
3/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 envelope active dry yeast

2 cups (or more) all purpose flour
1-1/4 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil

Cornmeal

Pour the warm water into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Stir in yeast. Let stand until yeast begins to foam, about 5 minutes.

Add sugar, salt, and olive oil into the yeast mixture and mix. Add 2 cups of flour and mix until dough forms a ball. Test dough to make sure it is not to sticky. If it is, add more flour by tablespoons until dough is no longer sticky. Mix for a few more minutes until dough is smooth.

Lightly oil a bowl with olive oil. Transfer the dough to the bowl and turn dough in bowl to lightly coat the dough with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then cover with a dish towel. Let the dough rise in a warn draft-free area until doubled in size.

After the dough has risen punch the dough down. Split the dough into 2 or 3 balls. Cover the balls that you are not using. Dust working surface with flour and roll out the dough. Start in the center and work your way out. Make the dough a little smaller then your baking sheet.

Preheat over to 550 degrees.

Sprinkle baking sheet lightly with cornmeal, this will prevent the dough from sticking to the pan. Transfer rolled out dough to pan.

Top with whatever you desire.

Bake pizza until it is browned on the bottom and cheese is melted, about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

five a day

I know that we go through a lot of produce every week. But until yesterday I never realized just how much fruit the kids eat each day. For some reason I took note of what I gave out. From breakfast until about 3:00 pm I handed out 1 pound of strawberries, 4 bananas, 4 apples, 3 yellow plums (have your tried these? they are really good.), and 1 whole melon. I think I can assume that the kids are getting their five a day.

paper, paper, and more paper

I have a paper habit. I love paper. When I was little I had a huge stationery collection. I also had a sticker collection, which believe it or not I still have. I could never use the darn things (more about the stickers later).

Back to paper. When ever I see paper I really like, I buy it. I know that I will use it someday (at least that is what I tell myself). The other day I found One Good Bumble Bee's pile of paper. It is to good to be true, it was meant just for me...

and the winner is...

The winner for the first give away is little bugs. Congrats.

Thanks to everyone else who left comments. I will be having another give away soon, so check back often.

to good to pass up

I just bought this great little bowl from handgrown pottery. It was to good to pass up, I love poppies. The bowl reminds me of my hand printed note card set on etsy.

give away

Today seems like a good day for a give away. Leave a comment in this section before Monday, March 17 at 12:00 pm and I will pick one person to receive the orange print everyday button & string note card set.

in the studio

I am currently working on an custom invitation for a bridal shower. I love this print.

new item listed

I just added a new set of cards to my etsy shop. They are a button & string set of 8. I love this new italian paper that I got a few days ago it might be a new favorite.

next on the list...

Next on the wish list are these sweet earings from Little Something's shop. At only $10 they are a steal.

I thought that it might be fun to have a give away. I will pick one of the items from my etsy shop to send out to someone. Keep checking back, in the next week I will post the item on this blog. It could be any day at any time in the next week.

spring

I spotted the first sign of spring in my yard today. Mixed in with all of the brown was this vibrant purple crocus.

at long last

This past winter I became tired of my fireplace mantel. I had pictures covering the whole thing. It looked nice, but after almost 8 years it was time for a change. After I cleaned up the holiday display, I left it empty, I was on a quest for something new. After many, many trips to Smith & Hawken, Target and Pottery Barn, I finally found something this past weekend.

This weekend I ran into Smith & Hawken for another look around. They have a ton of new items, they are ready for the gardening season to begin. There, among all of the plants I spotted the selaginella moss. Selaginella is a type of creeping moss. It is an indoor plant and prefers cooler rooms and partial shade, perfect for my living room. They had three plants left, just the amount I wanted. After finding the plant I needed to find a container for them. After testing several, I settled on the small cast iron cachepot. They had three left, it was meant to be.

I lined the three up on the mantel. Now I think I just need to find some small white candles and I will be good to go.

wish list

I have a wish list a mile long of things that I would love to buy for myself from etsy.

First on my list are these sweet little dishes from Handgrown Pottery by Leesa Brinkley. They range in size but most are 4 x 2.5 inches. They would be perfect on my bedside table to put little things in. They are not expensive at all, they range from $12 to $16. Now I just need to sell a few packs of cards...

playdate dinner

Every once in awhile I will have one of the kids friends over for dinner. It is alway a challenge figuring out what to make for dinner. For the most part, and compared to other children, my kids eat well. I never know what other children will or will not eat. Tonight for the play date dinner I made Tyler Florence's Ultimate Mac and Cheese. It is awsome. I make it every once and awhile for dinner here. Serve it with some spinach (have to get the greens in) and you are good to go. It is perfect on a cold and wet night like tonight. Comfort at its best.

Ultimate Mac and Cheese
Tyler's Ultimate

1 lb. elbow macaroni
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
3 Tbsp. flour
4 cups warm
5 1/2 cups shredded sharp white Cheddar cheese
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste


Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the macaroni and cook for 8 to 9 minutes, until al dente. Drain.

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Melt the butter in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for about 1 minute, stirring constantly to keep lumps from forming. Gradually whisk in the milk and, whisking vigorously, cook until mixture is thick and smooth.

Stir in 4 cups of the cheese and continue to cook and stir to melt the cheese. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add the cooked macaroni and the parsley to the skillet, and stir to coat. Scrape into a 3-quart baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining 11/2 cups cheese. Bake for 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

Serves 8

so cute, i wish i could wear them

Last week my first etsy purchased arrived in the mail. I bought hair pulls for the girls. They are from Jack and Jane, www.jackandjane.etsy.com and are the cutest things. The girls love them. They have worn them every day this past week. Every morning they pick out the ones that they want to wear.

Jack and Jane also has some great clips and headbands, but the girls have a bad habit of misplacing them, so i hate buying really nice ones just to have them get lost.

Last night I was up very late packing the shipment for The Cat's Meow in Granite City, IL. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they sell well in the stores. It is so hard to figure out what people like. I am trying to get into a few other stores. We will see what happens.

Etsy has been slow for me the past week, but it is still hard for me to gauge since I am still new at all of this. With that being said, it is still hard not to feel defeated.

I am trying to figure out ways to promote. I have had my stuff shown on a few blogs, but not much came from that. In an effort to support others I think I will start to show some of the items that I really like from etsy. Stay tuned...

getting into stores

Yesterday my cards became available in a brick and mortar store. I dropped off a dozen sets to The Unique Boutique in Yardley. It is a cute shop in the borough. They carry a lot of handmade items and showcase several local artisits.

I am in the process of putting together a box of about two dozen sets that are for a store in Illinois. I am planning to mail them out tomorrow. I have a lot more sets to make to fill the order, it will be another late night.

Welcome to the blog

Welcome to the world of blogging. I am jumping in with both feet. Still a ton to do, but that never seems to change. Within the next few days, I plan to get this blog to look and function the way that I want it to. I am also working on my site and tons of new cards.