etsy contest Spring '09

Contest has ended, congratulations to my winners!
A CUSTOM DESIGNED SPRING OUTFIT


PURCHASE ANYTHING ON MY SITE AND YOU WILL BE ENTERD TO WIN!
THERE WILL BE 2 WINNERS. CONTEST ENDS WHEN MY SALES REACH 250!


New in my shop here!

New in My Shop

It has been a while, I am so obsessed with ETSY and trying to make a go of my business. These are some new things listed. Use this code for 10% off Blog101!

Be My Valentine

New in my Shop...Valentine Collection for the American girl doll...see it here!

Recipe Monday

This is the finished Gingerbread House I promised to post along with the recipe, I've tried a bunch of recipes and this one was the best, good for building and it tasted good. It was so much easier then you would think. I will never buy a kit again!

How to Make a Gingerbread House

Ingredients
6 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 Tbsp) butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup dark molasses
1 Tbsp water

Make the Gingerbread Dough

1 Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl, set aside.

2 Using an electric mixer, beat on medium speed the butter and brown sugar until fluffy and well blended. Beat in the eggs, molasses and water until well combined.

3 Beat half of the flour mixture into the molasses mixture until well blended and smooth. Stir in the remaining flour. Knead (or use your mixer's dough hook) until well blended. If dough is too soft, add a little more flour.

4 Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least two hours, preferably overnight. You can make it up to 3 days ahead of time. Let sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes before rolling out. We waited 3 days, I don't know if thats why it worked so well.
Roof 2 pcs 6 1/2 x 7
Side 2 pcs 3 x 5
Fr & BK 5 1/2 across side 3" high then to the 7" pt at center
full square should be 5 1/2 x 7
otherwise, here is the link GingerBread House

Make the Gingerbread House Pieces

1 Preheat oven to 350°F, with the oven rack in the middle. Have several flat cookie sheets ready, preferably ones that you know will not warp in the oven heat.

2 Divide the dough in two. Spread parchment paper or wax paper on a large flat surface for rolling. Dust the paper lightly with flour. Working with one portion of the dough at a time, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to an even thickness of 1/4-inch. Add a little flour to the surface of the dough, and check for sticking as you roll it out. If it sticks to either your rolling pin or the rolling surface, dust with more flour. If the rolled out dough is very soft, you may want to freeze it for an hour before cutting out the patterns.

3 Rub a little flour over the surface of the dough. Place the pattern pieces on the dough, as many pattern pieces as will fit on the dough. Use a small sharp knife to cut out the pattern pieces from the dough, wiping the knife surface clean frequently. Depending on how soft the dough is, you may need to use scissors to cut the wax paper or parchment paper. You can cut out the patterns through the dough and parchment paper, placing the dough pieces with the paper directly on the cookie sheets. If you are not using parchment paper or wax paper, you may need to use a large metal spatula to transfer the dough pieces to a greased cookie sheet. Space the pieces on the cookie sheet an inch apart from each other. If dough pieces stretch during the transfer process, push them back into shape.

You can cut out a door and window(s) at this point, or you can wait until after baking, soon after the pieces have come out of the oven while the cookies are still warm.

4 Bake in a 350°F oven until the edges are just beginning to darken, 11-15 minutes for the large pieces, 6-8 minutes for the small pieces. Rotate the cookie sheets half way through the baking for more even browning. Remove the sheets to racks to cool, about 15 minutes.

While the pieces are still slightly warm, lay the pattern pieces over them and use a large straight chef's knife to trim off any parts of the pieces that have through cooking spread beyond the pattern.

Remove pieces to cool directly on racks to cool completely

You can use any royal icing recipe to "glue" the house together, one trick is put icing on one part to be glued let it sit a few minutes then put the other piece on.
The icing should be thick not runny. My basic recipe is 1 box conf. sugar, 1/8 cup water 2 tablespoons meringue pwder. Beat at low speed 30 sec, then at very high speed about 8-10 minutes. Its ready when peaks form. You can play with the water msmt depending on the consistancy you want.
This gingerbread recipe was enough for 1 house and about 15 men!

Fingerprint Friday

Happy New Year 2009!! I am just getting back into the swing of things. My first post for 2009 will be for Pampering Beckie's Fingerprint Friday. Although this photo isn't so good, the memories that will go with it are. Being its just my daughter and me, I try extra hard to create memories for her. Every year at Christmas time, Bryant Park turns itself into a winter wonderland, there are Christmas shops and cider and an iceskating rink with Christmas music. I usually take her and her friends. Its one of our favorite things to do during the holiday season. So Christmas isn't in the things it's in the doing and sharing and being. If anyone out there ever plans a trip to NYC, contact me! There are so many things people don't know about like this. Everyone rushes to Rockerfeller Center when these little secrets are so much nicer. This is becoming a tradition for us and this season I find God in the memories I have made! Skating in NY under a beautiful sky, listing to Bing and surrounded by the city.

There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says:
I can see the fingerprints of god
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of god
And I know its true
Youre a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of god
To join in go to Pampering Beckie

Christmas Fun!

Our tree...
The jolliest Santa ever, I really felt like I could tell him my holiday wishes and he could make them come true.
These actually tasted so good, it must have been all those kiddie germs!House still under construction, my daughter did the beautiful ones, I did the crazy one that will be the back door!

A new friend is introduced to baking.


Baking Gingerbread, an artist at work!!

SECRET GARDEN PHOTOGRAPHY

THE LAST FEW WEEKS, MY BUSINESS HAS PICKED UP ON ETSY, THANK GOODNESS. I GET LOTS OF REQUESTS FROM PHOTOGRAPHERS TO PHOTOGRAPH MY CLOTHING. THESE WERE TAKEN BY BECKY AT SECRET GARDEN PHOTOGRAPY. A
LOVELY GIRL TO WORK WITH AND A VERY GOOD PHOTOGRAPHER! SO GO CHECK HER OUT!!
AND CHECK OUT THIS LITTLE TOMBOY TURNED PRETTY TWEEN IN HER OWN DESIGN!!

SHIPPED!

HI THERE TO EVERYONE IN CYBERSPACE!

IF YOU ONE ANY OF MY GIVE AWAYS, YOUR THINGS HAVE ALL BEEN SHIPPED, FINALLY! AND THE WINNER OF THE HAIR CLIPS IS BECCA.

Recipe Monday

Well we didn't get to the cookies tonight, I was too crabby from sitting in a court room all day and I didn't want to spoil holiday cookie night. So instead we made fresh whipped cream which I have never done before. I let my daughter do it and she got rather creative. We used our Christmas cups and she ladled in the whipped cream, topped it with cinnamon and then added a straw which was a cinnamon stick. It looked so pretty and tasted so good. Unfortunately my camera died. So if you've never tried this, although it probably adds 10,000 calories to the hot chocolate, here's the simple recipe.

Fresh whipped cream
1 cup cold heavy cream
2 tablespoons overflowing powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
Pour heavy cream in kitchen aid (or hand mix)
Beat about 20 seconds on low, add sugar and vanilla, keep mixing on HIGH until peaks form. (about 3 minutes) Do not overbeat.
For hot chocolate, top with cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice.
Thank goodness for spell check, I have no idea how to spell cinamin!

Fingerprint Friday

FingerPrint Friday, How do you see God's fingerprint in your life. Maybe God is showing me his fingerprint this week by the problem I just posted about below. Maybe I really do need to pray for my lawyer and R and the judge and the police. Maybe I should try that. And now I'm listening to a Christmas song from Pampering Beckie. What is Christmas all about. This is the season of joy and peace, what's wrong with me. How can I take this situation and make it joyful. A funky version of Amazing Grace just came on. Thanks God, for being there once again.
For my picture, my cousin Donna adopted a bay girl from Russia, tonight was her Christening. What a different life my cousin will have and her new daughter.

I look at my cousin's face and she is so in love.
To see more or join in, go to Pampering Beckie and scroll down to sign up for my give away!