WooHoo

I WAS IN A TREASURY ON ETSY!

No new sales yet, but still!!!!!
Click here to leave a comment, what am I saying, you people don't leave comments! :-D

Foodie Friday!!!

I'm baking up a few snacks to send to my nephew in the army. I already made my all time favorite banana bread for him. I usually tweak it by using white chocolate chips and pistachios (even better!) Though this time it was pecans. Won't use them again though, you could barely taste them.
So before I mail them out on Monday I plan on making 1 more thing. He loves Chai tea so I thought I would whip up a batch of these Chai spiced sugar cookies.

Of course I'll need to taste test them before I mail them :-D

And the award goes to...

My sweet niece entered the Iron Cupcake Competition this past weekend. She won partner's pick! Which means out of the 19 other contestants, she had the favorite cupcake! How cool is that! The theme for the cupcake was cheese. She chose a honey clover gouda. She made wild honey (thanks to uncle Joe) cupcakes and frosted them with a butter cream with the cheese incorporated into it. It was mighty tasty, and look at how wonderful they turned out!

And look how cute she was at her booth! Click here to see more pictures on flicker.

Next months theme is candy, I wonder what she'll come up with? Bet it will have chocolate in it!!

Circus Trees

Aren't these trees amazing! They were created by a guy named Axel Erlandson. Click on an image to read more about him.





Or click here to see alot more of them.
Wooden it be great to have one as a tree house!!! Ha, I slay myself!

To die for or to kill for?

Love, love, love these tights, but, I would kill for those shoes!

And I'd have the gun to do it!
And these crack me up! Especially because when I first saw it I thought it was someone's tattoo. Not that there's anything wrong with that!


Unfortunately, you can't buy them at their website, and there's only 1 shop in the U.S. of A.
but click on the image, there are more to look at.

Peeps!

OMG! The cutest little baby hawks! They just hatched out yesterday and they can barely keep their heads up to eat. Their the size of a peanut!
Go...Look...Right now!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-franklin-institute-haw-cam#utm_campaigne=synclickback&source=http://www2.fi.edu/hawks/&medium=2934623

Live Video streaming by Ustream

House and Garden!

Saturday I worked in the yard, I planned to work in the front yard, but it was so windy I moved to the back, which needed it more anyway. That garden needs some serious help! Plants that I bought in the past are starting to take over, and basically there is no rhyme or reason to it (except that I liked that flower when  bought it) And there won't be much time this summer to re-do it even if I did have a plan, which I don't.
So I'll lay a truck load of mulch, and see what I come up with next year.
Sunday I got to bead all day, yeah, and I finished a pretty pastel flower necklace. I'll take pictures eventually, (along with the other new, finished jewelry) once I can get at the camera display. It just happens to have a mound of clothes to go over before I can get to it ;-(
Speaking of which the DH did a fantastic job in the closet! He just has one little section to finish, but I'll start putting clothes back in tonight after the gym. I'm so excited, and yes I will post pictures of that too!

Have your cake and...not so fast

Seriously, could you really bring your self to actually eat this cake?????



Does New York have everything that is just the most amazing??? This is from The Cupcake Cafe in (of course) NY city.

There is no way you could eat this. Right?

Mom?!

Ok, WOW, just went to their site and a 6" cake is $45! Oh but wait, for $20 they have a 4" single layer "baby cake" that can serve up to 8 people, yeah right, you haven't met my MOM!

On second thought, yes I would buy a beautiful $45 cake. I would look at it all day, and then eat the whole thing for supper!!!!!!!!!

House is where the heart is, tree house that is!!!!

I need to get crackn' out in the garden this weekend. I found a blog called Studio G it's mostly of landscape designs that just knocks it out of the park (sorry but it IS baseball season!) I came upon this blog when I first saw the picture of this tree house, you know how I love tree houses!



Though this one looks like it's on a stump of a tree, hey that works for me too! Click the image to see more!
Oh, and she has a wonderful before and after section that was really great to look at! I mean happily ever after!!!! My favorite kind!
Now I'm itchn' to get out in the garden!!!!!!!!!!

Why must you torture me so???

D.I.Y!

Well this weekend was spent emptying out the closet and painting it. I got rid of things I didn't want/wear but, by the height of the pile of clothes on the spare bedrooms bed, I will need to do that again! Today after work/gym I'll go buy the actual paint color (though it was tempting to leave the matte white primer on the walls) I'm thinking a very pale linen color. One coat tonight, and Wednesday the DH will start putting up the shelves. We went with Home Depots closet set-up in a nickel color and 2 wood shelfs from floor to ceiling. I'm thinking with the wood and the color it won't look too cheap. I want nice but refuse to pay $2,000 for a closet! I'm sure it will look great and be nice and organized, can't wait till it's finished!
With summer just around the corner I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. Because summer means yard work! So yard work + house work + art fairs = stress. To hopefully manage my time and relieve some stress I plan on dividing my time up to beading/art fair on Tuesdays after work and Sunday after gym. The other days will be for house or yard work, which ever is in more need. We'll see how that works out!
Blah, blah, blah enough about me go to this blog and check out her pictures of Italy. One of the place's I must see before I die!
I mean the art alone is a lifetime of vacations!

Thank you Pepe!

I know, it's foodie friday, but I have some excitement to talk about.

Someone featured one of my bracelet's in this blog post!
I know, me too, so thrilled!

Her name is Pepe and she lives in AUSTRALIA!!! Wow!
Click on this image to go to her etsy shop. Great beadwork, and I love how she photographs her pieces.



That alone proves advertising at handmade spark is paiding off! Hopefully this will help me get some sales! I've been struggling a bit at etsy. Thank you so much Pepe!!!

Yeah, Woah, Yikes's

It's official, I will be in 2 art fairs this year. Yeah!
The first will be here in the area, it's a garden walk/fair. A percentage of the proceeds go to Hands of Hope. This will be the first time I've done this fair. It's about 20 artist/retailers under a big top tent. Hence my nervousness, I have 2 hours to set up a 10 x 12 space, I have never seen before! The fair is Friday and Saturday, which is nice, leaving Sunday for me to recuperate :-)


The second one is in my beloved Milwaukee at the Historic Kneeland - Walker House. It's on 1.5 acres of gardens and it's beautiful. I've done this fair a few times. It's in August my favorite month, so I'm hoping for sunny skies and cool breezes!

So I need to really get crackn', only 2 months before the first one!!!

Heaven!!

I died,






and this is the one time I'll see it.... Well I'm just saying, I'm not exactly a good girl!

I get lost...

A week ago I blogged about Ullabenulla's tumbler site, that has wonderful photos that if you click on will take you to the site were it is posted (remember the picture of the bees?). It changes daily, and I must admit I have spent more than a few hours there. What amazing artists/people are out there. I would never have seen this work if not for the www.

It makes me realize how full of good the world really is. The DH and I have had this discussion in the past, if you could balance the earth with good people on one side and bad people on the other which way will it tilt? If I've had a bad day at work I think it, every so slightly, leans to the good. Most the time I think it's more that slight, it's just that evil is more vociferous.

This is not to say that all artist are good people, but most of them if not good, with their art at least, give a feeling of goodness and happiness. Which hopefully helps the world become more so. I know it helps me feel it in this place filled with hatred and bitterness. Well that and my ipod :-D

Both images by artist Georges Clairin, grabbed from World Market Portaits blog