Brownies, Cookies and Cakes, Oh My!

I won a contest the other day from Steel City Bakery blog. She has a great etsy shop, and the prize that I won was out of this world. I had two kinds of cookies, delicious brownies, mini bundt cakes, and two kinds of cupcakes! My favorite was the cookies named Down on the Bog. They were so great, with plump cranberries and white chocolate chips the combo was sinful! I ate most of those myself. I did share the cupcakes with my coworkers who had never tried red velvet cake before, and she wanted to have more!

I took pictures of the cookies before I ate them. I would recommend them to cookie lovers everywhere! Try these fantastic handmade cookies from Steel City Bakery!

Buy them for yourself or a friend that loves cookies. It will be their new favorite! They would make great holiday gifts for the office, too!

Thank you to Steel City Bakery for the great giveaway and fantastic treats!

Mid Week Sale

It is Wednesday and it still feels like Monday! How about a mid week sale to get things going!

For Wednesday October 28, 2008 any shoppers at my shop can take 10% off their order.
Not only that if you buy 4 bags you will get a FREE coffee sleeve!

You can do some holiday shopping and get a little something for yourself, can't beat that!
Browse around and enjoy Threadbeaur's Mid Week Sale

Free Wi-fi

We went to McDonalds last night we were rushed, and had to have a quick bite to eat. We were on our way to our neighbor's house to decorate halloween cupcakes. The cupcakes were so fun, and turned out amazing. We had witches, jack'o laterns, and even a RIP tombstone! When we got to her house she had all the decorating items out and ready to use. There were all shades of traditional frosting, and even piping bags with icing to make fine lines, like for my spider web. I have two codes for free wi-fi at Mcdonalds that I won from the online game. Since I can't use them I would like to give them away.

So first two people that are interested please comment on this post and let me know. Leave your email and I will send you the code!

Enjoy!

Potato Soup

Last nights dinner experiment was a great success. I could not keep this recipe a secret... Not after the rave review. My DH said it was the best soup he had ever eaten!!!
The roasted garlic and potato soup is going to be one of our staples this winter.

Here is the recipe if you want to try it out:

Threadbeaur's Potato Soup

6 regular potatoes roughly peeled (not peeled all the way) and chopped
half an onion
6 large cloves of garlic

4 cups veggie broth (homemade)
1 tablespoon celery salt
coarse ground black pepper to taste (i used about 7 cranks on the grinder)
kosher salt to taste (I used about a tablespoon or so)
1.5 cup milk

sour cream and cheddar cheese for garnish

Wash peel and chop potato and onion. Place on baking sheet with cloves of garlic (still in skin). Drizzle with olive oil. Bake at 425 for about 20-30 minutes. You want the potatoes to be brown on the edges. You have wiggle room at this point, if you don't have too much time you can take them out of the oven early at the 20 minute mark or leave them in for a bit longer. While the veggies are roasting get a large pot ready with the broth and spices in it. When the potatoes are done put them in the pot with the broth and the spices. Take the garlic out of the skins and put in the pot. Simmer for about 20 minutes. At this point you need to get the blender out to puree the mix. Make sure you get some broth with the potatoes in the blender, or it will be too sticky. Work in batches until all potatoes are smooth.
When your mixture is smooth add milk. Start with 1 cup. Stir to incorporate then if the soup is too thick add the other half cup of milk. Stir over heat until soup is hot. Serve in bowls with a dollop of sour cream and cheddar cheese sprinkled on top.
ENJOY!


We had this with some great polish sausage. I think that the soup would be great with bacon crumbled on top. That is what we will do next time!

Saturday Night Sale

Check out Threadbeaurs Etsy Shop tonight for a great sale!
10% off your order. Saturday October 18, 2008.
Look for holiday gifts, a gift for yourself, or eco friendly gift wrap!


Thanks for looking!

Featured!

Check out this blog Handmade by Angie. They have great features on etsy artists! They choose me, Threadbeaur, to be among them. Thank you to Handmade by Angie for featuring my Etsy shop on her blog! You are sure to find some great features there. Click on her blog, you might just find a great gift for this holiday season, or something special for yourself!

Happy Birthday to ME!

We woke early this fine Monday morning. It was still dark out and the clouds were heavy. MisterMan had planned a day for us. What a wonderful day. I love surprises, but I don't. I love them because they are fun, but I had a bad case of what we call nervous tummy! I could not even eat breakfast! So we got ready, and I with my 20 questions drilled MisterMan to see if I could get any clue to what they day was going to hold. Question one. How long are we going to be in the car? Answer. More than 5 minutes.
Question two. What should I wear? Jeans, flipflops, hiking shoes? All needs clarification of course, so that I can get the most clues. Answer. You can wear what ever you like. He was not about to spill the beans. The questions continued until he called for the cease fire, I had reached the limit of answerable questions, yet I had no better idea of what we were going to do. After driving for a bit we got to Fitzjoy's Riding Stables! Yeah for horseback riding in the forest preserve! It is so fun, and I was so happy to be back there for a wonderful fall ride! We checked in and got our crazy riding helmets on, and the horses came out. They were the same two from last year. Star and Misty. We went for a quiet ride through the woods, the trees were changing colors, it was so peaceful and fun. Star, my horse, was being a rascal. He was eating everything in sight. He was not shy about showing his annoyance with me since I was instructed to pull up and not let him eat the grass. We had a blast. What a great birthday surprise.

Bags of Beauty

What a feeling....I finished all 20 bags for the order. I took a few pictures because they looked so nice stacked up in a row.
I have been posting almost daily on Etsy, but the views are slow to come. I feel like the buyers are not out there shopping on the internet, or maybe not shopping at all. I wonder what the financial crisis will bring for holiday shopping. Will it be slow on etsy, or will more people turn to handmade goods? Will shoppers want to shop with the environment in mind, handmade goods in most cases have less impact on the environment when they are produced. See why handmade is better at this website!

Tell me what you think will happen this years holiday shopping season.

In the Groove

When I sit down at the sewing machine, I sometimes need a little music to keep me going. So when I need to get in the groove like I did this week, I had a 20 bag custom order to finish, I turned the computer on to Pandora. It is a great site to listen to music. You can create stations that will play music that sounds like a specific artist.
The way it works...you type in a name of an artist you like, then it runs through the database of thousands of songs, and pulls up not only that artist you typed in but others you might like. Then if a song comes through that does not fit the bill, you can say you don't like it and they won't play it again. It is a great way to explore music, find some new favorite artists, and new songs. My sister told me about Pandora a few months ago, but I just created an account, and I can't get enough now. The music got me in the groove, and I finished that custom bag order for Threadbeaur just last night. I was very happy to get them all put together. If you need some new music, I suggest you click over to Pandora, and check them out.

Spooky Wall Art Giveaway

A fond memory for me is spooky trip to the Haunted Mansion at Disney World when I was little. The pictures on the walls with the eyes that follow you. It was scary, but for some reason I loved it (or that is the way I remember it). I was looking around today and found this great giveaway that reminded me of my favorite ride. Over at Little Ant Design, they are hosting a giveaway for some spooky art. You will have to check it out. I think these pictures would look great on my entry wall where I have a ton of antique "fake family" pictures hanging around. One of these ghoulish portraits would fit nicely among them. Check out Little Ant Design for a fun way to get into the haunting holiday spirit!