Happy Happy Birthday

To Java Cupcakes Blog!! It is an awesome blog ran by a wonderful friend. She has the best recipes ( not just for cupcakes ) and is a wonderful fun person to get to know and visit with. I first ran across her on twitter.. someone did a rt of something of hers.. and I was off to check it out.. and right away I was in love. My parents were coming over for a visit and I wanted to make something fun for dessert.. I always am making new things when they come over.. they have the best attitude and are willing to try just about anything and give me an honest review. I went flipping through the recipes on java cupcakes blog.. I was so impressed that there were so many to pick from.. turns out I was not able to pick one.. I found two I just had to make.. and they were super easy and fun and so flavorful. Since then I have been back several times.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes and Rhubarb Cupcakes

Those I made when my parents came over.. and a few more times. That is now my favorite thing to do with rhubarb! I have also made the Peanut Butter Fudge and this one is super easy and to die for... seriously the best in the world. The Peanut Butter Brownies are the same thing... way out of the world good!

This is my version of her Peanut Butter Brownie..one thing I love about her recipes is that they are real and user friendly.

Please take a minute to go wish her blog happy birthday... she is having a giveaway too.. you can win a limited edition print from CakeSpy

~Michelle

Item of the Week ~ Recipe ~ New Stuff

Item this week is the Heart Locket Necklace. Free shipping world wide ( even though it says US)

New recipe was added this morning to Coffee Tea and Recipes ~ Apple Streusel Muffins. Made these last night and they were wonderful for breakfast with a cup of coffee :) It is a great basic recipe for muffins that you can add just about anything to, super quick and easy. Please remember that I would LOVE to have everyone post a recipe on this blog.. well I would love to have you post a LOT of recipes on here. Coffee Tea and Recipes

Spent some time this weekend working on some new shadow boxes... I am so very excited.. I love every single one. We have four new boxes. A couple of different sizes and styles. I have spent the weekend trying to pick one as my favorite and I just have not been able to. Tonight we will be finishing the boxes up. One is getting painted.. I can't decide if it will be black or white.. and the other ones will be finished in clear so that the details of the boxes themselves can be shown off. Hoping to be showing off pictures of them all soon.

~Michelle

Beach in a Bottle or in a Heart

Well this has been one of those weeks when blogging was not happening for me. I am not sure why besides the fact that not a whole lot happened. I spent some time at the beach and worked on some new necklaces and hmm well that is about it. I did go out to dinner with Dave and we had a wonderful time. Spent some time in the shop working on the new boxes Dave has been working on getting some new joints perfected and I just enjoy being out there with him. I can sit and visit with him while he is working on them, as long as it is not while he is doing the math figuring. To be honest there is not a lot of physical help I can be in the shop due to my shoulder but I do enjoy spending the time with him and I love the way the shop smells when he is cutting up the wood. I also always have an idea or an opinion on just about everything and am more than willing to share :)

I do want to share my two new items this week in the shop. One is a heart locket filled with sea glass

and the other is a little glass bottle filled with some of the beach so you can do your own treasure hunting ~ Beach in a Bottle

I have also decided that every week ( or so ) I will be picking an item and putting it on sale. Could be free shipping or a gift with purchase or maybe a percent off. I am going to try some different things and see what people like. Would love your input on what you like to see in a sale that makes you want to buy something. ( just leave me a note in the comments ) This week the special is the Beach Themed Shadow Box ~ marked down to $40 and will send along a free gift.

Just look for the item with the yellow banner when you are browsing through my shop.

~Michelle

Detours

If you read my blog you know we do a lot of road trips around here... jeep, motorcycle or motor home... for the day, the weekend or 3 weeks.. we love just heading out. A lot of times we will have a destination decided.. but not how we are going to get there... or we will have one point of the trip decided but then end up somewhere else all together. It is a lot different than planning every stop along the way.. which used to be how I would have done it. I like to have lists... and go down my lists checking things off as I go. Which in some things works great. I finally made a list of all the phone calls I needed to make.. what I had been putting off for two weeks ( hate phone calls ) I was able to get it done in ten minutes once I had a list and could check things off. For road trips.. it is an ok way to do it.. and when we were on vacation last summer we did have some things on a list, things we did not want to miss. For the most part though.. we went with the flow..a lot of times that means finding a Walmart to park/sleep in for the night.. at 3 am in the morning. More often than not it means driving around and around in a town you do not know.. into places that maybe a motor home should not go or does not fit and getting lost more than once. Well as lost as one can get with 6 gps units in the car. What it also means... is finding the most awesome adventures... the best small town restaurants and camp grounds and people and sights. Sometimes the best place to eat or the prettiest Mountain or park are not the ones that everyone is going to but the ones that are kept a secret on the road less traveled. I know our best adventures have been off the beaten path :) Might be why we love Geocaching so much.. it takes you to the places no one else seems to go.. or shows you new things about where everyone goes.

Was talking to a friend about this sort of stuff the other day... and then today I logged into another friends blog and saw a quote that touched on the same subject...

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; But often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us." ~ Helen Keller

Took that as a sign to write about it. Right now I have been trying to find as many roads/doors as I can to get my shop out there. We are adding new ideas to the shop and trying lots of new things... and a lot of them seem to be working.. I am getting about 100x more views... and the sales are picking up. They do not seem to be buying out of the shop too much... but they are window shopping in there and then coming to me with things they would like made custom.. which I am more than happy to do.. I love that artfire lets us work with our customers in so many ways. Right now I am feeling really good about what is happening... trying out lots of different roads and opening a lot of different doors... some of them I head down a bit and look around and see nothing is happening... no views.. just a big open space feeling... I want to feel like it is a waste of time... sort of reminds me of driving through Wyoming this summer... parts of it were rather boring.. nothing to see as fas you can see... then... it seemed like all of a sudden.. one of my favorite parts of the trip happened... we stopped for an easy grab and go cache.. and ended up spending an hour or so exploring some awesome HUGE rocks... and then headed on to the best camp ground of the whole vacation. ( here is the blog post for that part of the trip )

My point in all of this is remind myself to stay focused and balanced.. life hands us detours.. or shuts doors... but it is true that it opens other ones... we just need to look for the adventures and be open to finding new ways and seeing new things. Be willing to accept that sometimes what we want is not what we need. Life is a road trip for me.. as long as I am moving forward ( or sometimes a little sideways ) it is good.. it is when I try putting it in reverse or try driving through a "road end" ( just because the map shows it going through does not mean it does ) that I start having problems. If something is not working then turn... go around a block... pick a new direction... remember though that sometimes we have to drive through some boring to get some awesome!

~Michelle

Smile of the Day

Yesterday a friend blogged about The Power of Bright Spot Thinking and I think it is so important to be reminded of this once in awhile and to do our best to stay focused on the positive in our life. Sharing our "bright spots" of the day and our smiles of the day, the things that make us smile and help us to be focused and keep us on track... are just some of the things I want to share on my blog. I feel they are like love.. you can never love enough... it is something that the more you give the more you have.

My first Bright Spot and someone that always makes me smile is the above mentioned friend. I am not sure how we started sharing our blog posts, I know that in the several years of being a crafter and having an online store I have seen her here and there and always thought her stuff was so much fun. Her name is Jenny and her blog is Knees and Paws her shop is KneesandPaws on etsy and it is full of fun things to allow and encourage children ( and adults ) to use and enjoy their imagination which I believe helps us to grow.

I love reading her blog, she has an interesting life, she blogs about a lot of different things, homeschooling, her business, her community, her family and so much more. One of the best things about being friends with her is the support she gives. She takes the time to read my blog and leave comments, which I know is time consuming. I am thankful for every person who takes the time to read my blog.. I know a few people who do read it and don't leave comments here very often but take the time to comment to me elsewhere.. that is wonderful to. Even if you are not leaving comments anywhere or if all you do is scan through the post.. I am still thankful that you clicked on this page :) Leaving the comments/feedback on the post itself is nice as it keeps it all in one place and I can get an idea of what people enjoy reading about by the comments they leave or do not leave. Thank you Jenny for the feedback on my blog and for sharing your life with us on your blog.

My second bright spot that has had me smiling since it happened last night is from the artfire.com forums. Dave was working and I was online a bit later than most nights... and I was posting in a forum thread that was just for fun.. nothing serious.. but it wasn't working right for me... things that should have shown up on the right were showing up on the bottom.. not really a huge deal... but... annoying. I gave up and went elsewhere... then I saw an email in my artfire box. It was someone I had seen before in the forums and I had explored her shop but had never talked with her. She wrote me a very friendly note letting me know what my problem was and how I could fix it. One thing I was able to understand and fix right away but the other thing was causing me problems and when I tried to follow the directions I ended up making it worse. I knew I was tired and my eyes were not working right (dang getting older) so after a few emails back and forth she could tell I was getting frustrated and she was so patient and supportive that I took a deep breath and went back and tried it one more time... it worked! :) That in itself made me smile.. that someone who does not know me at all would take the time to not only offer help but to keep gently pushing me and believing in my ability to do it. She stayed with me until I got it. Then this morning I log in and go to the forums.. I see she has a thread about what she had been helping me with. I clicked on it and a few posts in I see my name... they are talking about me... a few of them... at first the panic button goes off.. I have seen other forums on other sites.. where people who are learning are cut to pieces... I took a deep breath and I kept reading... and my heart melted a little a bit.. no one was mean or hurtful or snide or anything but friendly and helpful and fun and it was one of those moments where you KNOW you are where you should be. Here is the thread it is these people that make artfire.com what it is.. a wonderful place to sell and a wonderful place to buy! You can check out their shop by clicking on their names.. or clicking on the items on the right hand side... they are all pretty wonderful... I would love to have you take a minute to explore AnitasPottery as she is the one who was so helpful to me and well.. her shop is awesome.. she makes very tiny little "Wheelthrown Pottery MINIATURES Ceramic Clay BUTTONS Tiny Clay TILES Unique Quirky ONE of a KIND" I love the tiny little teacup earrings I am amazed when people can do this type of work in regular sized items.. and these are so little.

Please take a minute to share my bright spots and smiles and give these people a moment of your time. You never know when it might be you or something you do that is someones bright spot or maybe their reason for smiling that day.

~Michelle