Happy Birthday Luke!

Luke is 21 today!! Happy Birthday Son1 :)))


Here are some posts that I've done in the past about Luke:

Bragging

Luke's new tent

New Jacket

Luke's Truck after the Accident

New Car

Now it's time to make Luke's favorite lunch :)

Brownies

I really have been slack in the baking department lately. But it's a bit of a problem too. My "men" complain if I bake because they will have to eat it and don't want to eat to many sweets. But if I don't bake - they want to know what's for dessert and disappointed if there isn't any! If only they would just Make Up Their Minds!!


I think I'll bake these today, haven't made them in a while:

BROWNIES

Ingredients:

1 cup margarine, melted

1 cup water

3 rounded tbsp. cocoa

Boil above ingredients and let cool.

Add to cocoa mixture:

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 cups white sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup sour cream

Bake in large cookie sheet at 350F for 20 minutes.

Icing:

1/4 cup cream

1/3 cup margarine/butter, melted and cooled

3 tbsp. cocoa

Add 2 cups icing sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla and mix well. Pour over cake while still warm. Enjoy!

Well - I placed the 1 cup of margarine in a 2 cup glass measuring cup and melted it in the microwave, then added really hot water from the tap and mixed in the cocoa till it was smooth. (why heat up an element?) Also - I baked the brownies in a 9 X 13 pan, but then had to bake it almost 10 minutes longer. They are really quite good!!

Feature - Kottage Kreations

Do you love jewelry? Then this is the shop for you! Kottage Kreations has so many beautiful earrings and necklaces it was actually quite hard to pick my favorite in her shop. But I finally decided that the A Mother Awaits Handcrafted Birds Nest Pendant is my favorite! How does she wrap all that wire? Really amazing! Please read the feature and check out the lovely pieces in her shop!

*Where are you from? Tell us a bit about yourself.

I was born and raised in San Jose, California. I moved to Turlock in 1999, purchasing my first home. After my son finished school, I opened up my first online shop to sell my jewelry. I wanted to share with other women alike my creations, thus, Kottage Kreations was born.

*How did you decide on your shop name? Why did you start your business?

I live in a cottage and that is my inspiration behind the name of my business. I enjoy creating jewelry, wood crafts, and crochet. My passion is jewelry though. Nature inspires me, whether it be gemstones from our precious earth, birds in the air and trees, or anything else you can imagine nature brings us.

*What are 5 things you want people to think when they see your product?

Nature,
Earth, 
Beauty,
Love,
Womanhood

*What’s your supply addiction; is there a specific color or type of supply you just can’t pass up?

Beads of course! I only use semi-precious gemstones, and gemstones. I also use sterling silver, and swaravski crystal beads. I only use the best, and sales from Etsy are my passion when it comes to shopping for goodies and gemmies. I use all colors of the rainbow, and every color and combination are my favorites. I have no particular style. It is what ever comes to my mind. I often wake up in the middle of the night with my inspirations exploding in my head. I always keep a notebook within reach to jot down my newest idea for my creations.

*What do you do when you’re not being an artist? What activities do you enjoy?

When I'm away from my workshop, I enjoy online communication with my friends and family, my artisan community; sharing ideas and networking, as well as sharing posts with my twitter followers, and facebook followers. I give myself some bragging rights as well. This is how I generate new customers as well as return customers.

When I'm not networking, I enjoy gardening, shopping; what woman doesn't love to shop, and I listen to music while cleaning beautiful messes. I also travel a bit locally in California. There is so much to do here.

*Which item in your shop did you enjoy making the most and why?

My favorite creation has to be what I call "A Gardens Paradise": www.etsy.com/listing/63562301/ This amazingly beautiful necklace has a new twist for me, which is wire-wrapping. I am a self taught artist, so this was quite the challenge. Now that this is perfected, I am hooked on this technique. It is time consuming, but I enjoy the challenge!

*What keeps you motivated?

My motivation comes from my customers, my online social networks, and the compliments I get with every heart I get for each piece I share in my shop. Nature motivates me as well. There is so much beauty mother nature shares with us, I can't help but be inspired by Her!

*Are there other places on the net we can find you?

You can find me on Etsy at kottagekreations.etsy.com
Blog: kottagecreations.blogspot.com
Twitter: twitter.com/kottagekreation
Facebook: facebook.com/kottagekreations
Flickr: flickr.com/kottagekreations
and... kottagekreations.jimdo.com

Etsy Teams - some shameless Promotion :)

When we found out the forums on Etsy were closing, some of us were feeling pretty lost. Some friends and I had just started something new in the forums after Christmas and we were wondering what we were going to do now! Where do we advertise? How do we get our shops out there? I still really feel for the shops that are just starting out on Etsy - they have to be wondering how they can get noticed.

At first I thought the best idea would be to join lots of teams to get noticed. It didn't take long to figure out that many of them where going no where, plus there was no way I could get to them all in the time I had to spend on the computer each day. So - I ended up dropping most of them. There are really only 2 that I go to on a sorta regular basis, and one that I am captain of - so obviously I'm there a lot :)

Fun and Friends Promotion Team is a great team that is trying to run the same as the forums used too. It's a great place to advertise. Many different "discussions" to check out and post on.

Promotional Frenzy Team does something different every day. I'm slowly getting the hang of this team. They have many active members, and fun things to do.

Monday - PROMO Frenzy
Tuesday - BNR Treasury
Wednesday - Blogging
Thursday - List an Item
Friday - Workshops
Saturday - OFF to relax and recoup
Sunday - OFF to relax and recoup LOL

I have a friend on this team who will remind me once in a while that I need to go and post something :) (thank you Crystal!) It's a great bunch of shops. If you are looking for a place to advertise and get to know other Etsians and make new friendships - this is a really good place to start. If I ever get around to making a list of teams for newbies to join for exposure - this team will be at the top of my list.

BNE - Buy N Enter Team. This is the one that I'm Captain of. Sure didn't realize when I started it how much work it was going to be!! :) It is a lot of fun though.

What we do:
Every two weeks we start a new round for the BNE.
There are 16 new prize shops each round that donate on prize that they mail to a winner.
Each round there are 4 winners, who receive prizes from 4 different shops.

What do the prize shops get in return:
As much exposure as I can give them :) We have 4 BNR treasuries during the 2 week BNE round, and each prize shop is featured in two of them. The last 8 buyers after each BNR get carried over to the next BNR treasury. This has really helped us get buyers to join the treasuries and make purchases.

Every Tues & Thurs we have "Promotion Commotion" on the team. Who ever wants to join just has to list 2 items from their shop and promote the shop above them on the list. We just started this last week.

We just had the Secret Easter Bunny Swap. Now we are all waiting for our gifts and on the 22nd we can open them and post about what we got & who it's from on the team thread. This has been quite a bit of fun so far. Can't wait to hear about everyone's gifts!

It's Free and Easy to join the team - you don't have to make a purchase. If you want to meet a great bunch of shops, get a little help promoting, and get your shop out there - PLEASE come and join us :) If you would like to be a prize shop some time - just leave a comment here:
http://www.etsy.com/teams/7498/bne-buy-n-enter/discuss/6841881/.

Do you have a favorite team on Etsy? Or maybe some pointers for new shops on how to get out there and noticed.