National Cupcake Day!

It's National Cupcake Day today, Dec. 15. And to celebrate, because being of the cupcake lover and friend of cupcake makers that I am, I must celebrate, I am having a SPECIAL.


ALL cupcake necklaces and rings in my shop today and today only are 20% off. And you know I offer FREE shipping. You WILL get it by Christmas. No code needed.

What I've Been Up To This Weekend -The Dooce Gift Guide Results!

Imagine my surprise on Friday when all of a sudden all of these orders for Flower Ring Sets start coming in. On the third one, I contact the customer and ask her how she found me. She responds simply "dooce.com :D " and I knew right away it was a good thing my weekend wasn't jam packed because I would be needing to be available to manage my Etsy orders. And good thing I have been. It's been amazing. You see, I am on the Dooce.com Gift Guide for her in the Accessories. See my Yellow Ring? Yeah, lots of those are now on their way to many homes across America.

Do you know about Dooce? Heather Armstrong? She's the first blogger that got fired from her job for blogging and now blogs full time. Read her story. It's beyond words. She has a bazillion followers and she's fascinating.

It's all about social networking people! My husband nags me about being on Twitter all of the time and I tell him I'm working...well I am...well some of the time. But this time it was about my friend Kristin, who owns Meringue Bake Shop and makes the yummiest cupcakes and surprises me frequently with them(oh, don't even get me started, just check out her blog and website) and our little twitter to each other. She says "hey did you see that @dooce is looking for products for her gift guide? You should email her." (in 140 characters or less) So I did. I emailed Heather some of my products that I thought might fit her aesthetic and she liked the images I emailed her and now I am just running back and forth to the store for more and more padded envelopes and to the post office to drop of shipments. I could certainly get used to success and my husband will never diss Twitter again.
Thanks again Dooce. You Rock!

My Unique LA Experience

This was my first big show. I never had a booth. Typically only a table to contend with so walls were a whole new ball game. Jenn of justJenn Designs and I shared the booth and she made the poster in the back with my cupcake ring. I love it! Thanks again Jenn. So I took one side of the booth.
And Jenn took the other side of the booth. Her stationary items were a hit! Snarky is the way to go. They look so pink and demure from a distance, but up close, watch out.
This is how I displayed my mixed media jewelry photo art and feather-flower hair barrettes. Very colorful!
My couple earrings were a big hit. They got lots of laughs. See the pair on the top left, the wedding couple, this guy bought his fiance that was there with him these. It was so sweet. I melted. That's how it was supposed to be. Whatever's left will be listed in my etsy shop this week.
Here's my cupcake necklace and ring display. They got lots of giggles and oohs and aahs.
My flower rings are always popular. I added lots of new colors that also will be added to my shop this week.
The fun thing about shows is that I beg my friends to come and visit me and they do. Lisa came all the way from Santa Barbara with her husband, Rudy. Love them. She's wearing my red flower ring set. I unfortunately got overwhelmed and forgot to take pictures with all of my friends. Duh!
This is Ren. I finally got to meet her. She's a writer also for Rare Bird Finds. She finds "Cool Guy Things". The funny thing about Ren is that she's a good friend of Jenn and came to our booth to see Jenn and realized I was here too. Small world or what! I hope to see lots more of Ren, and Jenn. I think I need to change my name.
This is a sampling of the crowds at the show. Lots of people. Some overwhelmed. They seemed to forget how to walk or open their wallets.
I loved this lady's look. No offense but she had to be over 50 and she was rockin' this look. She was more indie than most other people there!

All in all I would have to say it was a fun weekend. Somehow food and baked goods kept popping out of nowhere to Jenn's side of the booth and so I never had to starve. Thanks again for that too Jenn! Normally I starve myself into a migraine. Also, I realized that the type of product that I have was at the right type of show because of the feedback that I got from customers. I will continue to do more shows. I would like to do more local shows however because I really want to establish a local following in Orange County as well. So that's a goal for 2010!

Cupcake Gift Sets- This Weekend Only!

What could be a cuter gift than a pack of Cupcake Crumbs cards with envelopes by justJenn Designs with a handmade cupcake ring by Bonnin Designs all together in a bakery box. These are going to be available this weekend only in our booth (719) at the Unique LA Holiday Show so we hope you'll stop by and pick up a couple for gifts. The website has directions and all you need to know.

I'd Love To See You This Weekend at Unique LA

It's finally here; my first big independent artist show. This weekend, Dec. 5-6 from 11-6 at the California Market Center Penthouse, is the Unique Los Angeles Holiday Show and I'm a vendor. I'll be sharing a booth (719) with justJenn Designs who has the coolest stationary and paper products and we can't wait! If you click on the poster above it will bring you to the Unique site with more details like directions.

I've been preparing since September actually.

I've made new products, made new displays, got a new banner, and have lots of fun promotional deals just for the show, so you must come. I really need your support. I'm super nervous too, but don't tell anyone. I'm sure once I get set up and going I'll be ok. I just really want to do well. I think I have some cool stuff, I just hope other people think the same thing. Please stop by and at least say hi.

I would love to see you and know you're supporting independent artists. We really appreciate that!

Plus, if you stop by my booth and say you read this blog post, I'll give you a FREE gift. (small bribe) It's worth it. Don't feel shame.

I Cooked Our Own Thanksgiving This Year

This year Thanksgiving was at my house with my own little family of 4. I had my daughter make the cranberry sauce and I made everything else; a first. I want to share what I made so I can make it again next year for maybe more people because it was delicious and it wasn’t all done out of recipes and if it was, many were modified. Typically, my mother and I have a tradition where we make Thanksgiving using recipes from the newest Bon Appetit magazine. This year, I went through all of my old issues, which I save (and are now online as well on epicurious.com ) as well as other resources that popped up.

The Turkey

As my mother does it on the barbeque, I do as well because it delivers a moist and flavorful turkey. (I always make sure I have a gas grill big enough for a turkey when covered.) I prepared the turkey by putting it in an aluminum roaster on a roasting rack. I squeezed navel oranges on it and brushed it with melted butter. I sprinkled salt, marjoram, and tarragon on it. And then I poured about a cup of chicken broth in the bottom of the roaster and covered it tightly with aluminum foil. I grilled it on low under the turkey and med-low on the side burners for 2 hours, uncovered it, brushed it with more butter and grilled it for almost 2 more hours. This was a 14 lb. bird. It was fall of the bone tender and juicy. (I modified a recipe from Sarah Moulton)

The Necessary Kitchen Tool (used for carving the turkey)

Turkey Broth

I followed a recipe from Sarah Moulton Then I was able to cut the giblets, heart and neck meat for the gravy and save the broth for cooking another meal.

Gravy

A wing and a prayer basic gravy with pan drippings, flour and wisking wildly and then I added a little sage and vermouth. And reduced it.

The Cranberry Sauce

The kids LOVE cranberry sauce. They eat it for 3 meals a day after Thanksgiving so we made plenty this year. My daughter made it according to the recipe on the bag x 3 because we got 3 bags but added chopped up orange pieces and “lots of cinnamon”. She cooked the cranberries just long enough so many were still whole. Perfect!

Mashed Potatoes with Celery Root

Nothing is exact in my world. So I can’t tell you exactly how many potatoes but I used about 9 medium size Yukon Gold potatoes that I half peeled and cut up in half, celery root, cleaned and cut up in pieces. Boil in salted water until tender. Drain water. Mash and add ½ stick butter, 1 Tbs minced garlic, about a cup of Half-Half and pepper and salt to taste. If you want it softer, add regular milk to your liking as you mash more. (my recipe)

Artichoke, Bacon, Chestnut, and Parmesan Stuffing (modified from http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Artichoke-Sausage-and-Parmesan-Cheese-Stuffing-107289)

I’m not a sausage lover and I don’t know why all stuffing either has sausage in it or is made of cornbread. So I made this stuffing to my liking. And my liking includes bacon!

Considering the fact that I had to do all of my shopping like a week in advance for the most part and I was doing the cooking myself, I did have to take shortcuts. This stuffing had one of the shortcuts. Next year, it may not. I used boxed bread cubes.

The modifications. I used a package of bacon and cooked it crispy and broke it in pieces and added it to the recipe when sautéing the vegetables. I also used some of the bacon grease as a substitute for some of the olive oil for sautéing for flavor. I added a package or 5 oz of steamed chestnuts that I got at Trader Joes. I cut them up in pieces. And one box of bread cubes. Otherwise I followed the recipe as it states.

Green Beans with Pepitas (pumpkin seeds).

I can’t remember where I saw something similar, maybe it was on a Thanksgiving Challenge tv show or something but I thought this idea was a good one. I sautéed in olive oil, the green beans and pepitas on med-high and covered them on low for a couple of min. until the green beans softened a bit. I like when I get a little burned-ness on the green beans. I seasoned them with salt and onion powder. Easy.

Dessert

We ended up going to the neighbors to share desserts. I brought a Pumpkin Tiramisu and Rocky Road Fudge. Here are the recipes.

Rocky Road Fudge (no picture, sorry. It got eaten way too fast)
I made this fudge with 1 ¾ packages of semi-sweet chocolate morsels and 1 tsp cinnamon, ¾ c chopped pecans, 1 c mini marshmallows, 1 can condensed milk. Since it’s not Christmas, I put it in a square baking pan and cut it into small cubes.

I follow this recipe always and modify the ingredients to my liking.

Pumpkin Tiramisu

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Super-Simple-Pumpkin-Tiramisu-236541

I followed this recipe to the letter. I will definitely make this every year or even everytime I want to make a tiramisu. I think the hardest part about this recipe is trying to find Amaretti cookies. World Market is your best bet besides an Italian market. Loved this.