Baking Success!

I am not the best cook (or baker) and this recipe was so easy and delicious!  My future husband was impressed...

Blueberry Crisp  (A Martha Stewart recipe)

Ingredients

• For the filling
• 6 cups (3 pints) blueberries
  1/2 cup sugar
  1 tablespoon cornstarch
  1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
•  
• For the topping
3/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup rolled oats (or chopped nuts, such as almonds) 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt 3 ounces (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened 1/3 cup sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°. Make the filling: Mix blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and salt in a bowl. Transfer to an 8-inch square baking dish.

Make the topping: Stir together flour, oats, baking powder, and salt. Cream butter and sugar in a mixer until pale and fluffy. Stir dry ingredients into butter. Using your hands, squeeze topping pieces together into clumps.

Sprinkle topping evenly over filling. Bake until bubbling in center and brown on top, about 1 hour. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Tiny Envelopes!

Why yes, I did spend part of my weekend making tiny envelopes...

Gardening and such...

I'm not going to lie, I do NOT have a green thumb.  Most seeds that I plant do not grow, or die shortly after sprouting.  Most already grown plants end up dying after I buy them.  Nevertheless, my fiance and I decided to spend our Saturday making a vegetable garden in the backyard and planting flowering bulbs in the front.    I have to say, I don't miss living in the city.  Having a real yard and a back porch to sit on is pretty awesome.

Peppers and tomatoes...

Poppy Anemone.. one of my favorites!

The packages of bulbs we planted in the front yard...

A cute little bunch of flowers that already exist in our front yard, although I have no idea what they are!

A little flower arrangement I put together using the flowers we already have growing in the yard (thanks to my fiance who planted them a long time ago)

First Etsy sale! (and second)

Last week I made my first Etsy sale!  One medium elephant and one small elephant (seen below) sent off to Arizona to live in a baby girl's nursery.

On Sunday I received another order for two small elephants (one pink and one purple) from a woman here in NYC.  They will be a gift for her landlord's newborn baby girl and 1 year old daughter.

I love that I get to hear people's gifting stories.  It's fun to know where these little elephants will end up and imagine who will be enjoying them.

I hope I continue having Etsy success and continue hearing people's stories!

Little Baby Tutu!

This weekend was filled with Fall activities and foliage (which will be in a later post).  I also had a chance to see Emma (the little model in the Etsy shop) and gave her and her mom a tutu I made last week!  The tutu is light pink and twice Emma's size.  She looked like a cute little princess!


Emma's parents are both photographers and plan to use the tutu in photos.  The tutu itself is also a teensy bit big for Emma, so she will have room to grow and use it for quite a while.  I can't wait to see her parent's future tutu propped photos!

Mobile Reworked...

So, I decided to rework the elephant mobile idea.  The previous mobile idea turned out to be waaaay too much work for something that I'd have to keep making over and over.  I could probably still sell the original mobile as a "one of a kind" piece, or keep it for myself!  I have to think about it.

Anyway,  the new mobile will be available as a DIY printable file and/or a DIY kit (with everything included).  Less work for me, and better price for everyone else!

The pictures I've taken so far are a bit dark and dramatic, not light and airy like I'd prefer.  I'm still having trouble with taking etsy quality pictures on my own.  Lighting kits and all that can get a bit expensive, so it's going to be a while before I can afford to spring for REAL photography lights of some kind.  Right now I do have a daylight bulb and a little spotlight, but those still do not create enough light for quality photos.  I have to do something soon!  I can make all the products I want, but if I can't photograph them correctly then it won't matter how cute the stuff is.

I also have some recipe cards ready and photographed and I would like to post them on etsy asap!  Those will also be available as printable  files so that customers can print off as many as they need.

Crafty Sunday

A few days ago I started making an elephant themed mobile (to accompany all of the stuffed elephants) and was able to work on it a little more today.  The pictures are of one of the little blue elephants with fluffy clouds.

I'd really like to find some textured card stock that isn't ridiculously expensive and matches the fleece elephants perfectly.  It would be great for customers to be able to get matchy-matchy with colors and then give an elephant and mobile as a baby shower gift.  I think they'd all work really well together in a nursery, or in some crazy person's (mine) apartment.

I don't think I'll recommend that babies actually play with the mobile, since it is delicate and the pieces are made from card stock.  It will probably be better hanging in a window (cute cute cute!) or in the corner of a room somewhere.  Once it is finished I'll play around with some placement ideas and photograph them before posting in the shop.  Exciting!