Dessert Time! Chocolate Brownies!

I've had an obsession with brownies lately, I hadn't had them in a long time so now I've already made 2 batches lol. I barely got any out of the first one!
This is a super simple recipe, makes the brownies moist, not dry or chewy like some are.

You need...
1/2 cup butter or margarine -- softened
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups chocolate syrup
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

And the steps:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
2. In large bowl, beat butter and sugar.
3. Add syrup, eggs and flour. Beat well.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan.
6. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of
7. pan.
8. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.


Enjoy!!

(Picture from apartmenttherapy.com)

New Treasury!//Tsunami Warning?

Today's post will be short since my thoughts are a bit scattered. I was just notified that I was featured in a treasury, here's the link if you have a second to click and comment: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=116377

And here's the picture for when the link expires.





Lastly, I was shocked to hear about the earthquake in Chile, now I hear there's a tsunami warning in Hawaii and here in California. My thoughts are with those who were affected by the earthquake and I hope that all the Hawaiians and Californians stay safe.

To Make More iPhone/iPod Cases...Or Not?

I'm in a bit of a conundrum as to whether I should make these a part of my shop. I made one case as an experiment last night and just finished it a little while ago. I wanted it to fit around the clear plastic iPhone cases as well since I want to keep my phone covered but still keep the protective case on it too. Anyway, here are the pictures...any opinions would be great!

5 Treasuries Today/// Feature: teeheeproductions

Imagine my surprise when I woke up after a rather bad morning, to find that I had been featured in 3 treasuries on Etsy!

teeheeproductions's Hearts and Hands United Green Treasury




LafesHiddenTreasures' Emerald Treasury




ConfectionsinGlass' "Simply" Treasury












And I also wanted to take this time to feature one of the lovely Etsians who included me in their treasury, teeheeproductions! She's a very gifted artist and has gorgeous items in her shop ranging from prints to notecards and will also do other custom items such as pet portraits or even paintings of your home. She's a sweetie and does amazing work. Here is an example of one of her lovely creations, just click on it and you'll be taken to her shop!






Update: I'm in 2 more treasuries tonight!

ShoshiPo's Hearts and Hands United treasury:



And HeatherSweet's Alice treasury!:

5 Minute Necklace Project

I love browsing Michael's and other craft stores, getting ideas for things I'd like to do. I saw a lot of the beads and findings were on sale so I went through them, just KNOWING I'd find something. I dug out these cute sparrow spacers that I suppose are meant for using as dangles or in between beads. Looking at it further, I realized if I left them just as they were and added a clasp, I'd have a necklace!

Here were the materials I used:
Sparrow spacers
Spring Rings and Jump rings (came together in the blue package)
Pliers





I attached the clasp and tightened all the other rings on the sparrows...




and voila!




The necklace is about 20" so you can add rings to make it longer if you wish. They have quite a few other fun designs too, teapots and frames, though they're larger. There's a myriad of great necklaces to be made using the findings!

Monday Recipe- Strawberry Banana Bread

We made this bread over the weekend and it was delicious. There are also some variations of the recipe where you can take a shortcut and buy pre-made strawberry muffin mix, but to me, it tastes better to use real strawberries, if possible. It's really easy and SO yummy, either for breakfast, a treat at night, or just anytime you want a snack!

1 c. fresh strawberries
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 c. sweet butter
1/4 c. plus 2 tbsp. sugar
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas, mashed

Toss strawberries with 2 tablespoons flour and set aside. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in small bowl. Cream butter slowly adding sugar, beating at medium speed; add eggs, beating well. Add flour mixture and bananas. Mix until dry ingredients are moist. Gently fold in strawberries. Spoon batter into loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.


{{Picture from the Culinary Infatuation blog}}

Latest, "Happy Weather" Pins//2 More Treasuries!

I've really been feeling the creativity bug this weekend and have been coming up with lots of ideas for new things! It mostly happens in my twilight stage of sleep lol, so I have to remember the ideas in the morning.
I made these up last night and then had to get pictures taken quickly today since it has been raining on and off!

My "Happy Weather" pins, as always, click the picture to be taken to my Etsy listing!




And I'm featured in 2 more treasuries, TheEverydayDiva_Co's "Spring" treasury:




And WomanwithTools' "Sunset" treasury:

Catching Up On Suggestions...Squirrel and Leaf Pins

I've been trying to catch up on the suggestions previously given to me here on my blog. I had a bit of extra time yesterday so I made 2 pins, a squirrel and a leaf. These are super cute and great for anyone who loves nature. Click the picture to be taken to the link!

Friend's Blog Giveaway & New Items

First off, I want to promote a friend's giveaway for some of her adorable pinwheel business cards! She is giving away 10 of these, can't you just imagine setting up a table at a craft show and having these cute cards spinning in the breeze?



Click here to go to Jessica's blog and follow the super simple instructions to enter: http://craftyblabberings.blogspot.com/2010/02/pinwheel-business-cards-giveaway.html



Secondly, here are 2 new items of mine, I made a custom order for a friend yesterday, a pink elephant coin purse. Contact me if you'd like your own!:




And a dice pin, which is now available in my shop! Click the picture to be taken to the listing. ^ . ^

Rainbow & Clouds Card Holder// New Treasury!

I've been wanting to make this one for awhile now, but I knew it was going to take some time (2.5 hours to be exact lol). So while watching American Idol last night, then The Good Wife, I worked on my rainbow and clouds coin purse/card holder! I LOVE how it turned out, it's probably my favorite one so far. Of course, it's the one that takes the most work haha. Anyway, I've listed it on Etsy already, click the picture to be taken to the listing.




And I woke up this morning to a convo on Etsy from a sweet friend who included me in their treasury!



Also just an update, I FINALLY got another "accepted" notification from Craftgawker, this time for my mini ice cream cones. Yay!
http://craftgawker.com/post/archive/ritzee-rebel/

New listing- Alice in Wonderland Hair Clips!// New Packaging!

I've been working furiously on these hair clips all weekend, it took me long enough to even find the clips in the first place! I tried 3 different salons and they had NO idea what I was talking about, they guided me to the ones that were already bejeweled and fancy, not ones I could craft with. I finally found them at one salon and then eventually in Michael's with the quilting stuff. They call them "quilt clips." Um ok. That's a new one to me.

Anyway, without further ado, here's my newest listing for Alice's dress, the Mad Hatter's hat and a black bow hair clip. I modeled the bow in the listing so you can get an idea of the size. I'm so happy with how they turned out!



http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=40839771



Not only that, but rounding out my extremely productive weekend, I made a flamingo pin since I sold one on Etsy, then decided to create some fun new packaging for my items. I previously just attached a little tag on the back of the item that had my site address on it, but now I came up with a card to attach the item to. Love!




Adding to this, my fishbowl pin was featured in a treasury!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=87564

Great Giveaway from shijewels' Blog!

I was made aware of a great giveaway for a beautiful labradorite necklace from ShiJewels! It's her first blog giveaway so check it out and enter to win her gorgeous necklace, good luck!!

http://shijewels.blogspot.com/2010/02/giveaway.html

{{Picture is courtesy of shijewels}}

Happy Valentine's Day!

No long entry, just wanted to say...

Business cards from Moo.com!

I've been mulling over getting business cards for a LONG time, since last year, sad to say. I had signed up for a bunch of sites and went as far as creating them, but never took the plunge and ordered them. I don't really know when I never ordered any but the other day I decided to MAKE myself order some. I used to just include a little tag on the back of my pins with my Etsy site name but this makes things look more "official." From reading the Etsy boards, it seemed that Moo.com's 50 free plus shipping promotion was a pretty good one, I can say I'm really happy with how they turned out!

Treasury Time/// New Listing on Etsy!

I snagged a treasury last night and featured some of my friends from the Hearts and Hands United group. I named the treasury "Animal Instincts" because I found lots of nice animal-related items to include. Just click the picture to the left to enlarge it and take a gander at all the great items!




Secondly, I've been inspired by the upcoming Alice in Wonderland movie as many of us have! I decided to use a well known icon from the movie rather than using a picture or direct graphic in my work; that icon I used is the Mad Hatter's hat!





See the listing here for more info: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=40536876

Alexander McQueen, RIP

Today's entry is short, I was shocked today to learn of the death of Alexander McQueen. His eclectic designs were amazing, even if many of them weren't something I personally would wear. You have to admire a person for having such artistic visions. So with a heavy heart I have to say, Rest in Peace, Alexander. The fashion world will never be the same without you.

I'm in 2 Treasuries!// KellySchwarkDesigns Feature

I found out yesterday that I was in one treasury from a group I'm in on Etsy called "Will Craft for Food." Ksilo featured my pink frosted heart cookie pin and the whole thing looks great.



I also found out this morning that NancysBagsEtc included my tropical bird pins in her treasury called "Bright and Shiny." I was so excited when I found out, this is the first time I've been featured in 2 treasuries at once!



Second order of business, a very kind Etsian is donating all the proceeds from her shop to sponsor her cousin in the Go Distance walk. This info comes directly from her shop: "Funds raised by 2010 Go the Distance Participants will help fund the development of a new, free-standing Ronald McDonald House as well as a new in-patient unit or 'neighborhood' at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital of Westchester Medical Center. Alone, the new neighborhood will enable the hospital to care for more than 400 additional children each year!"

If you need some beautiful invitations or announcements, please check out her shop and make a purchase from her!: http://www.etsy.com/shop/kellyschwarkdesigns

Valentine's Cupcakes from Sprinkles

The marketing emails from Sprinkles just make me wish we had a Sprinkles here. My closest one is in Newport Beach, still pretty far to drive for a box of cupcakes! I just got an email that they have a Valentine's themed box of cupcakes. The flavors are red velvet, chocolate marshmallow (which I LOVE), dark chocolate and vanilla.
The last time I had Sprinkles was nearly 2 years ago when I was in LA, so sad lol.
If you love cupcakes like I do, this picture will tempt you like it did to me!



Here's the Sprinkles site so you can peruse the offerings. :-D
www.sprinkles.com

Bunny and Heart Felt Coin Purses & Link to Kim Smith Bracelet Giveaway

Here are my newest listings, bunny and heart felt coin purses! You can use them as mini wallets or card holders as well so they're multi-use. I'm just getting started with these, I think I may end up doing more of these than pins, since pins haven't been selling that well.
I suppose I'm getting a late start for Valentine's Day and a REALLY early start for Easter lol but I like how they turned out anyway.









See the listings here:
Bunnies- http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=40309548

Heart- http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=40310179




Additionally, I found a giveaway on a blog I follow, she's giving away a beautiful Kim Smith bracelet of your choice:


http://melaniescrafts.blogspot.com/2010/02/kim-smith-charm-bracelet-giveaway.html

Visit and enter, good luck!!

Oh.My.Gosh. Chili's White Chocolate Molten Cake!

We had some errands to run today and ended up at Chili's for lunch/dinner. After trying the new-ish mini chicken tacos which were great, we all split a White Chocolate Molten Cake. I wanted chocolate originally, but me being the only real chocolate lover, I lost lol. So we got the white chocolate but it was SO delicious! It's something like a butter bundt cake filled with white chocolate, topped with vanilla ice cream and a bit of white chocolate shell topping. And for decoration, there was a little strawberry sauce on the plate. I can't say enough about it other than that it was SO good and now I want to go back and try the chocolate lol. But beware, it's LARGE, so you'll need to share it with someone. We split ours between 3 people.

If you want to learn how to make something similar, there is a very close, pretty simple one here: http://www.recipelink.com/mf/14/33376

And to tempt you further, here's a pic of it that I found from restaurants.uptake.com!

Friday Listing- Tropical Birds!

I just listed these bird pins on my Etsy site, there's a parrot, toucan and flamingo. I can make the parrot in other colors as well because I know there are other colors of parrots out there. I'm quite happy with how they turned out since I'm more used to making food pins!

See the listing here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=40105601

Adorable Video- Orangutan and the Dog!

One of my mom's friends emailed the link to this adorable video a few weeks ago and I swear, it is THE cutest thing. It's about an orangutan who "adopts" a stray dog. They're friends now and the orangutan even walks the dog on a leash and feeds him. If you need a smile today, watch this video!

Sunshine Award!

Thanks to Nancy over at Lafe's Hidden Treasures and Julie at Sesenarts, I've been given the Sunshine Award!





The award tradition has the following for sharing it with others:

- Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
- Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
- Link the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award



I've given the award to:

BB*Jayde/EveryDayDivaCo.- http://bbjayde.blogspot.com/

The Clack House- http://theclackhouse.blogspot.com/

CokiePoPaper- http://cokiepopaper.blogspot.com/

Country Windows- http://countrywindows.blogspot.com/

Go2Girl- http://go2girldesignsbykilarohner.blogspot.com/

MooreMagnets- http://mooremagnets.blogspot.com/

Ocean Kisses- http://oceankisses-gratitude.blogspot.com/

Petitfoureyes- http://petitfoureyes.blogspot.com/

Pretty Little World Fashion- http://prettylittleworldfashion.blogspot.com/

She's Batty Designs- http://shesbattydesigns.blogspot.com/

Sweets and Hearts- http://sweetsandhearts.blogspot.com/

TresBelleKnits- http://tresbelleknits.blogspot.com/

For the Ice Cream Lovers...Mini Ice Cream Cone Pins

I've been dying to post these because I'm so happy with how they turned out. I actually wore them on my jacket today when I went out and got lots of compliments on them! They're 2 little ice cream cone pins and I can make them in lots of "flavors" if you have another you prefer. A "mint chip cone" (minty green with brown beads for chocolate chips) would be so cute too! If you love ice cream or just want to be reminded that you already HAVE ice cream so don't need to eat it, these are perfect for you! Just click the picture to be taken to their link on Etsy.

Monday, Monday: Feature- Lafe's Hidden Treasures!

I hope everyone is having a good Monday so far!

I wanted to feature a blog today from a sweet friend, Nancy, over at Lafe's Hidden Treasures!



Today she posted a delicious recipe for Chicken Pot Pie which my family has tried and loves as well. It's super simple and you can really load it up with the good stuff, unlike those frozen pot pie dinners.
http://lafeshiddentreasures.blogspot.com/2010/02/easy-and-yummy-fried-chicken-pot-pie.html

While you're there, peruse her other posts, there's lots to see and read!

Additionally, she has a fun Etsy shop with lots of good stuff, I featured her "Butterflies in Flight" block in one of my treasuries (see previous post about the treasuries I made).
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lafeshiddentreasures