simpletruths

One Year

Remember when I decided to cut my hair:

Well, it's been a year....

 

Yea, that's pretty fun.  I need to post a picture of the big blown out fro

New rings and a clean table

Two of my favorite rings sold a little bit ago and that left my ring selection lacking so I put together 6 more.  Here a some picures of a few.

 

This is one of my new petite blooms

 

 

 

In completely unrelated news, this is my last week of maternity leave.

I know right? Adorable.

 

AND

I am not even responsible for this awesomeness. Mr Man lets me sleep in with Little Ms while he hangs out with our early riser (I used to be a morning person, honest!).  Well, one morning I finally make my way out of the room and I'm greeted with this  beautiful table.  I immediately picture baked goods that can be prepared, pizza dough that can be topped....but the real wonderfulness is just being able to sit down with a plate of food without having to excavate a space.

Cookies!!

I mentioned these delicious oatmeal raisin cookies an earlier post, and I thought I'd share the recipe.  There's a story that goes with this recipe but I'll save that for another post.

 

 Yup, that's Little Mr. - his stirring and pouring techniques are steadily improving. By the time he's 5 he's going to need his own show.

 

Oatmeal Raisin cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter (the recipe says margarine...but it was written when margarine was 'all the rage')

 1 1/2 cups sugar (or 1 1/3 cup honey per the recipe)

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

salt*

1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3 cups oats

raisins (the recipe says a handful but I'm pretty generous. I probably added close to 2 cups)***

combine butter and sugar; then add eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and salt (*(the recipe omits the salt but I've made it with and without - <strong>with</strong> is definitely better).Stir in flour. Add oatmeal and raisins.

spoon onto prepared cookie sheet**

Bake @ 350 for 12-15min

**the recipe says spoon onto "a greased cookie sheet," but I'd suggest you buy some parchment paper or silicone sheet.  Also, I like to flatten them with my fingers one I put the scoop on the sheet - I like my oatmeal raisin cookies on the thin side. Plus, since it's all whole wheat flour, making them thin helps to keep them from becoming too...hefty.

***If you don't have raisins but you do have chocolate chips (which I suggest that EVERYONE have around for emergencies) Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are equally delightful.

A few extra raisins to snack on while we patiently wait for our cookies to bake.

 

mmmmmmmmm

 

Etsy renewing observations

For those of you not familiar with the inner workings of Etsy, when vendors (like myself) post our items to our shop there is a listing fee of .20 cents.  When customers are searching through the various categories the default way the items are listed are in  order of posting.  (i.e. the earrings I listed last month are probably way down ob page 22 by now).  One way to keep you items near the top - and have a better chance of your merchandise being spotted, is to relist (for another $.20 for each item).

 

Lots of etsy sellers have said that relisting has really helped to improve their visibility and therefore their sales - makes sense to me.

 

For the past couple of weeks I've been renewing certain products on etsy with more regularity - every day or every other day depending on how far down the list they've fallen when I do certain searches.

I do believe that staying at the top of the heap so to speak is very helpful, and I HAVE gotten a couple of sales BUT the question becomes how cost effective is it to relist a $5 item at $.20 for each relisting? hmmmm. Good payoff if it sells after one or two relisting cycles - but if it doesn't then I'm not sure. 

One thing that I can't put a price on are the treasuries.  In the past 2 weeks I've been featured in 9 different treasuries.  I've also gotten more than twice that number in favorites either for my shop or specific items.  So then how do I translate all that love into sales?

I'm still trying to figure that out.

 

Oh - and what do you think of this necklace?  Something I've been playing around with.

Post-Partum expectations

*sigh*

I just watched a video on Youtube of a woman discussing how she got into such great shape within 3 months atfer her baby was born - even after she awaited the alloted 4 -6 weeks. First, I just want to say that she's in amazing shape but she was willing to do something that I'm just not willing to do in the slightest.

She worked out for 3 hours,

in a row,

every day,

for a month

from 3:30 to 6:30am.

Not gonna happen. Plus, I just made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies :D

Homemade Chai Perfection

"Tall Soy Chai please"

 

That was my morning mantra at one of the three Starbucks within a 2 block radius of my office. I've  been on the search for the perfect chai recipe for a while but since Little Miss arrived I've seriously increased my kitchen experimentation. 

There are many reasons for wanting to make my own chai at home; The Starbucks version is a little too sweet (especially since they use vanilla soy milk), Peet's just doesn't do it for me... but mostly little people are expensive and coffee house chai means $3.50 * 3 days a week *52 weeks in a year = CRAP-on-a CRACKER-jack!

so ummm yea - I'll make my own thank you :)

 

Here's what I think is the perfect Chai recipe.  There's sugar in the ingredients list but don't add it anymore I find soy milk to be sweet enough on it's own.  If you use cow's milk then you might want to add it. Also, this makes just less than 4 cups so I keep it in a large canning jar in the fridge and warm up a cup at a time throughout the week.

 

Chai Perfection :)

6 black cardamom pods, split open
~14 whole cloves
~8 black peppercorns
small hand full of cinnamon bark (I like the bark more than the sticks)*
A 1" chunk of ginger cut into a few pieces
small spoon full of brown sugar
4 cups of soy milk (or cows milk)*
2/3 cups of water
6-8 black tea bags

Combine everything, except the tea, in a medium pot over low heat. Let simmer for 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat, add tea bags and cover pot. Let steep for 10 minutes. Strain and enjoy.
Makes 4 cups.

Alternatively, or the way it's most often made in this house - put the pot on, change a diaper, tend to a crying munchkin, remember you have a pot on the stove and turn off the heat seconds before it boils over. Toss in teabags and cover until nap time.

Enjoy with a homemade lemon cranberry scone (hmmm, I should post the recipe for that too)

*I've tried it with unsweetened soy milk and with rice milk and it was no-go.  Plus it separated, and the texture was all weird.

** I used cinnamon bark instead of cinnamon sticks. I'm guessing it's around 1/2 cup worth of bark or ~5 cinnamon sticks

 

Enjoy!