So it's been about 2 weeks since my last post. And APPARENTLY, I'm supposed to post more than that. So as opposed to leaving a long comment about why I haven't posted... I'll post about how I haven't posted... and then the clock can start over again :-P
Reasons I haven't posted:
1) Virginia is trying to kill me. Slowly. North Carolina had RIDICULOUS pollen issues - everything turned green, and yea, the throat would be a little scratchy, and you felt a little crummy... but I have since learned that the green dust from heck was far from an attempt at my life. Virginia... has no visible signs of allergens, however, it has caused an incredibly sore throat, unimaginable sinus congestion and sleepless nights due to me waking myself up coughing. I have drank approximately a gallon of fluids every day for the past week, and still... not much improvement. THIS... has lead to reason #2
2) Nothing creative has happened. No paintings have been done (I was supposed to re-start that today... oops), no photos have been taken or uploaded (or sold for that matter), dinner's have been lame and boring (last night was grilled bratwurst and mac and cheese... 1/2 grownup), and there has been much couch-sitting.
3) My current projects are all future gifts. Any creativity I've BEEN working on... is to be gifted. So I can't post about it. One gift is for next week... so you might get a picture then... if #4 resolves itself. The other is for a baby who's going to make his debut in January... so don't count on that one any time soon!
4) Miscellaneous excuses that Fidelio won't accept anyway: I lost my camera charger, so I can't take pictures even if I wanted to until I find it - both of them. No one has bought anything from my shop since I put up the new fall series... or since I put up the coupon - figured I'd let my "ad" run at top-space for a while yet, since this IS supposed to be support for the ETSY shop ;). AND no one ever comments (boo, hiss, poor me - pity party complete).
So there it is. Don't expect another post for a while ;)
-Betsy
oh, and the "coupon for you" deal is still good for a while, lol.
September 27, 2010
September 14, 2010
Coupon for me? Coupon for YOU!**
So I stopped in Michael's today to exchange a broken paint pen... Hopefully the new one works, cause it was definitely an "off the books" exchange. Nice lady though :).
In any event, I had a coupon, so I went to do my normal supply shopping that I do whenever I get a good coupon from Michaels. WELL, their note-cards? WERE ON SALE! So I didn't feel bad AT ALL getting another size in stock :-P. All photos on SomethingBetsy.etsy.com... are now ALSO available as NOTE cards - 4x5.5 (quarter fold size).
**And as a special "thank you" to those who read the blog (and to pass along my savings)... message me on Etsy with the photo you'd like, and the size card, and you'll get $2.00 off on a set of 10! All cards are signed and the title of the piece is written on the front.
Happy shopping!
-Betsy
P.S. If you don't want to join Etsy... but you want some cards... e-mail me ;)
In any event, I had a coupon, so I went to do my normal supply shopping that I do whenever I get a good coupon from Michaels. WELL, their note-cards? WERE ON SALE! So I didn't feel bad AT ALL getting another size in stock :-P. All photos on SomethingBetsy.etsy.com... are now ALSO available as NOTE cards - 4x5.5 (quarter fold size).
**And as a special "thank you" to those who read the blog (and to pass along my savings)... message me on Etsy with the photo you'd like, and the size card, and you'll get $2.00 off on a set of 10! All cards are signed and the title of the piece is written on the front.
Happy shopping!
-Betsy
P.S. If you don't want to join Etsy... but you want some cards... e-mail me ;)
September 13, 2010
For Hadley.
Who's Hadley? The cutest little girl of the Anderson Crew!
Why Hadley? Because the poor girl has exema and is allergic to EVERYTHING.
Her mom is super cool, and takes FAB pictures. And while I don't KNOW Hadley, I figured that if I enjoyed reading her mom's blog every day... I could post a few recipes from my box that she might be able to eat, without getting the itchies (and hopefully easy for mom)
SO: Massive Recipe Overload commencing.....
NOW!
Italian Chicken Parsels
Chicken, Mozzarella Slices, Zucchini, Onions , basil or oregano, pepper, rice
- Cut squares of foil and brush with oil.
- Slash chicken 3-4 times and tuck mozzarella in the slashes.
- Place zucchini and onions maybe on foil and season with pepper and herbs
- Place chicken on veggies and close the packets (fold up the foil)
- Place on cookie sheet and cook in a 400* oven for 30 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked. The veggies will steam while the chicken cooks. (or you can do it on the grill - slightly lower temps though - due to direct heat)
- Serve with white rice
Chicken Nuggets!
Super simple. Chunk up chicken breast. Coat with (gluten free) flour, optionally seasoned with salt and pepper (nothing else needed) and pan fry in butter. It's a light coating, but delicious. I use this method in my Popcorn Chicken Salad.
Honey-Mustard Dipping Sauce
1.5 cups mayo
1/4 cup Dijon-style mustard
1/2 cup honey. Mix well, chill for 2 hours and serve.
*side note: Lumpia Sauce is very similar to sweet and sour sauce - which generally uses corn starch and/or ketchup. Lumpia sauce uses BANANA Ketchup... which might be a good alternative to some other dipping sauces that use tomato.
Tuna Noodle
1 Can Tuna
1 Cup Gluten-Free Pasta
1 cubed apple
Mayonaise
Easiest summer food EVER. Cook Pasta, rinse with cold water (or you can make it hot and let it cool in the fridge... or eat it warm, but I don't like it warm). Drain tuna, cut apple, mix with as much mayo as you like. DONE.
Poppy Seed Chicken - This one's been blogged... so I won't repeat it
Mustard Baked Chicken
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp mild mustard
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp poppy seeds
salt and pepper to taste
Arrange chicken in an oven-proof dish. Combine butter, mustard, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper.
Brush mixture on chicken (I generally use a small dish and practically sink the chicken in the sauce)
Cook in oven on 400* for 15 minutes, then turn chicken over.
Serve with gluten free pasta, egg-noodles are good (although may cause itchies... I dunno), and rice is yummy too!
Scalloped Potatoes
4 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
Salt and pepper
about 3 tbsp gluten free flour
about 4 tbsp butter
about 1.5 cups milk
Butter a 1.5 qt casserole dish. Cover bottom with a single layer of potatoes. Sprinkle generously with salt pepper and flour and add dots of butter. Repeat until all the potatoes are used. Pour milk over potatoes until almost covered. Dot top with additional butter. Bake 1 hr at 350* until potatoes are soft.
Hopefully, gluten free flour and the other alternate flours around can replace your regular flour for the wheat! I have a lot of friends with allergies - one has celiac's, and does all her own bread making with the gluten free flour and rice flours. Another is allergic to celery (talk about not eating out - EVERYTHING is cooked with celery salt!) and has started her own garden so that she can avoid all the STUFF she's allergic to. Sunflower seeds are a hit with her. And my cousin is allergic to fruit... and that's near impossible to avoid, so he takes a Zyrtec every day... and wishes he'd known years ago that would fix it. It's always best to avoid as many foods that cause you allergies as you can... but sometimes ya gotta go the medicinal route. Like me - I'm allergic to Virginia... but I'm stuck here for now... so Clariton and Nasonex are now part of my everyday routine :-P. Good luck! And enjoy the potatoes and water Hadley ;)
-Betsy
Why Hadley? Because the poor girl has exema and is allergic to EVERYTHING.
Her mom is super cool, and takes FAB pictures. And while I don't KNOW Hadley, I figured that if I enjoyed reading her mom's blog every day... I could post a few recipes from my box that she might be able to eat, without getting the itchies (and hopefully easy for mom)
SO: Massive Recipe Overload commencing.....
NOW!
Italian Chicken Parsels
Chicken, Mozzarella Slices, Zucchini, Onions , basil or oregano, pepper, rice
- Cut squares of foil and brush with oil.
- Slash chicken 3-4 times and tuck mozzarella in the slashes.
- Place zucchini and onions maybe on foil and season with pepper and herbs
- Place chicken on veggies and close the packets (fold up the foil)
- Place on cookie sheet and cook in a 400* oven for 30 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked. The veggies will steam while the chicken cooks. (or you can do it on the grill - slightly lower temps though - due to direct heat)
- Serve with white rice
Chicken Nuggets!
Super simple. Chunk up chicken breast. Coat with (gluten free) flour, optionally seasoned with salt and pepper (nothing else needed) and pan fry in butter. It's a light coating, but delicious. I use this method in my Popcorn Chicken Salad.
Honey-Mustard Dipping Sauce
1.5 cups mayo
1/4 cup Dijon-style mustard
1/2 cup honey. Mix well, chill for 2 hours and serve.
*side note: Lumpia Sauce is very similar to sweet and sour sauce - which generally uses corn starch and/or ketchup. Lumpia sauce uses BANANA Ketchup... which might be a good alternative to some other dipping sauces that use tomato.
Tuna Noodle
1 Can Tuna
1 Cup Gluten-Free Pasta
1 cubed apple
Mayonaise
Easiest summer food EVER. Cook Pasta, rinse with cold water (or you can make it hot and let it cool in the fridge... or eat it warm, but I don't like it warm). Drain tuna, cut apple, mix with as much mayo as you like. DONE.
Poppy Seed Chicken - This one's been blogged... so I won't repeat it
Mustard Baked Chicken
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp mild mustard
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp poppy seeds
salt and pepper to taste
Arrange chicken in an oven-proof dish. Combine butter, mustard, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper.
Brush mixture on chicken (I generally use a small dish and practically sink the chicken in the sauce)
Cook in oven on 400* for 15 minutes, then turn chicken over.
Serve with gluten free pasta, egg-noodles are good (although may cause itchies... I dunno), and rice is yummy too!
Scalloped Potatoes
4 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick
Salt and pepper
about 3 tbsp gluten free flour
about 4 tbsp butter
about 1.5 cups milk
Butter a 1.5 qt casserole dish. Cover bottom with a single layer of potatoes. Sprinkle generously with salt pepper and flour and add dots of butter. Repeat until all the potatoes are used. Pour milk over potatoes until almost covered. Dot top with additional butter. Bake 1 hr at 350* until potatoes are soft.
Hopefully, gluten free flour and the other alternate flours around can replace your regular flour for the wheat! I have a lot of friends with allergies - one has celiac's, and does all her own bread making with the gluten free flour and rice flours. Another is allergic to celery (talk about not eating out - EVERYTHING is cooked with celery salt!) and has started her own garden so that she can avoid all the STUFF she's allergic to. Sunflower seeds are a hit with her. And my cousin is allergic to fruit... and that's near impossible to avoid, so he takes a Zyrtec every day... and wishes he'd known years ago that would fix it. It's always best to avoid as many foods that cause you allergies as you can... but sometimes ya gotta go the medicinal route. Like me - I'm allergic to Virginia... but I'm stuck here for now... so Clariton and Nasonex are now part of my everyday routine :-P. Good luck! And enjoy the potatoes and water Hadley ;)
-Betsy
September 10, 2010
A Preview!
I got my Fall Series collection together!
Here's a sampling of them... well, all of them, but some got cropped in making the collage...
Soon to be seen for sale on Etsy!
...when I get around to posting them. :-P
(first, I need to title them... and it might just end up being Fall 1-20, lol)
Feel free to share your ideas
Here's a sampling of them... well, all of them, but some got cropped in making the collage...
Soon to be seen for sale on Etsy!
...when I get around to posting them. :-P
(first, I need to title them... and it might just end up being Fall 1-20, lol)
Feel free to share your ideas
-Betsy
September 9, 2010
MOVING!! (kinda...)
So we moved at the beginning of June to Virginia (this you know) and when the movers set everything up... I had them put the loft (and therefore my desk and studio) in the basement. The AC didn't work when we got here, and the room was pretty large, so I figured it would be a good spot to set up the craft-room (aka, studio). Well... 3 months later, I haven't painted ANYTHING (except for finishing that wine rack... in the garage), I've FORCED myself to ALMOST finish a few curtains, have knitted 1 thing (because the baby was coming whether or not I made those booties, and Casey needed them prior to the baby being born) and have been "using the stair master" for all the Etsy stuff I've shipped (three trips up and down two flights of stairs AT LEAST for each order).
Needless to say - the basement was not the prime location for a studio. There were no windows, and yes... it was cool, but I felt so... separated from everything. And not like a solitude, peace, and comfort kind of separated; but disconnected, imprisoned, and hermit kind of separated. SO... I've talked it over with Hubby, and as usual, he saw it coming before we moved in (why didn't he make a bigger deal of it then? Because I wouldn't have listened, that's why) and his "man cave" which we've called the office (because what kind of cave gets nice soft light as early as 7am and has fabulous evening light as the sun sets?), is officially moving to the basement.
Where real man-caves belong.
Plus, the "man cave" is a place for him to have his gear STREWN around the room without getting me mad :-P. And now he'll have more room to do it in. The only sad part, is I promised I wouldn't make him help me move the loft- which means the loft, and therefore my fabulous desk is now gear storage. Which will work well for him, and in exchange I get a closet. I'm not sure it's a truly fair exchange, especially since I've been banned from buying any more desks. I do still GET a desk - the one that's already in the office (leftovers I tried to get rid of, had no good takers, and so came with us and got re-purposed). But I have an idea to use IT (and a trip to Lowes) to get me a HUGE desk and TONS of storage again in my soon-to-be-super new craft room. *evil laugh* He's gone all day tomorrow... as long as I get it done while he's gone, it'll all just flow into "craft room move" and he won't even notice that I have a new "desk" :-P.... right?
-Betsy
Needless to say - the basement was not the prime location for a studio. There were no windows, and yes... it was cool, but I felt so... separated from everything. And not like a solitude, peace, and comfort kind of separated; but disconnected, imprisoned, and hermit kind of separated. SO... I've talked it over with Hubby, and as usual, he saw it coming before we moved in (why didn't he make a bigger deal of it then? Because I wouldn't have listened, that's why) and his "man cave" which we've called the office (because what kind of cave gets nice soft light as early as 7am and has fabulous evening light as the sun sets?), is officially moving to the basement.
Where real man-caves belong.
Plus, the "man cave" is a place for him to have his gear STREWN around the room without getting me mad :-P. And now he'll have more room to do it in. The only sad part, is I promised I wouldn't make him help me move the loft- which means the loft, and therefore my fabulous desk is now gear storage. Which will work well for him, and in exchange I get a closet. I'm not sure it's a truly fair exchange, especially since I've been banned from buying any more desks. I do still GET a desk - the one that's already in the office (leftovers I tried to get rid of, had no good takers, and so came with us and got re-purposed). But I have an idea to use IT (and a trip to Lowes) to get me a HUGE desk and TONS of storage again in my soon-to-be-super new craft room. *evil laugh* He's gone all day tomorrow... as long as I get it done while he's gone, it'll all just flow into "craft room move" and he won't even notice that I have a new "desk" :-P.... right?
-Betsy
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