Just in Time for the Holidays

Every one knows that with all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, you have to take a few minutes for yourself. What do you need after a frantic trip to the toy store, just to find out the item that your kid "MUST HAVE" is out of stock until next year! You need a spa treatment of course! Right now over at Misosouper you will find a great giveaway that will pamper you. You have to enter to win, go check the full details at Misosouper, and maybe you will be the lucky winner, of the spa in a box! VivaBox that is!
Good Luck to all!

Baking Apprentice

I have gotten another great item in the mail. This one will bring joy all winter long. With the onset of the winter chill, I am in the mood for bread and soup. I purchased The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. When I got the book, I opened to the first page, and was captivated. I could not put it down. The story telling with the instruction was mesmerizing. I learned so much and now I have my first loaves of Pain 'a l'Ancienne. This bread doesn't look like previous loaves I have made, this looks, dare I say, similar to the ones in the book?!! I am so excited about this new book, I will have bread all season. I am learning the art of bread baking, not just a recipe, but the art. Bread is one of my weaknesses, so now I can make my own, whenever the mood strikes. I must wait until the bread cools now before indulging in the fruits of my labor!

Best Pizza In Chicago

We were up by O'hare airport when we decided to grab some pizza. Thanks to my ipod touch we were able to find a place near by. We choose Caponies Trattoria on North Harlem. They had been reviewed by the TV show Check Please. Two of the three on the show agreed that they had good pizza. Ever since we left the small town of Mt. Dora, Florida, we have been looking for a small pizza joint to replace our favorite pizza. Mt. Dora Pizza, in Florida is still our top choice, but Caponies in Chicago is a close second, or maybe a tie.

Caponiesmenu is great. The wood burning oven is what makes their pizza superior, and the fresh ingredients. We got there early around 4:30 on Saturday, and ordered the calamari. It was great, big pieces, with a great breading that was light and crisp. We looked over all the pizzas on the menu and found the Suprema loaded with Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, and green peppers. I was having trouble deciding on which one I wanted, I asked the attentive waiter which he would recommend, and he said the White Pizza. The White pizza had mozzarella, fontina, ricotta, parmesan and percorino romano cheeses with fresh sauteed spinach and garlic.

As we waited we took it the small local flair, decorated with The Sopranos memorabilia it was the perfect setting. I love the small town feel when you walk in. It was a cold day, and with the wood-burning oven reaching degrees near 1000, it warmed the entire space. When the pizza got to the table we were so hungry, without a moments hesitation we dug in. The crust was crisp on the outside and perfect in the middle, the ingredients were piled on, but not overwhelming, and the flavor was out of this world. My favorite of the two was the white pizza I really enjoyed it, and would go back just to have it! So if you are ever near O'Hare airport in Chicago, take the 15 minute trip to 3350 N. Harlem and get some great pizza at a great price at Caponies Trattoria!

Sale of the Season

Tonight is going to be the best sale of the season at Threadbeaur. I will be offering 20% off your purchase for Saturday Night November 15. Think of your friends, yourself, and the earth... tonight you will get 20% OFF. Get your hands on the greenest gift of this year. The reusable cloth grocery bag.
Do you have a friend, or co-worker that has everything? Shop at Threadbeaur tonight and get them a gift that they can really use, and get it at the biggest sale of the season.
Tonight only 20% off your purchase. I accept RME and PAYPAL for purchases at Threadbeaur's Etsy Shop.

Good Mail Day

Today I got out of work early and came home to play with the dog, and when we were out front I checked the mail. The mailbox was filled with great things. Mostly they were addressed to other parties in the house, but there was one small package for me.

Not too long ago I found a great blog that is always packed full of great ideas on promoting your business, and the blog has some great eye candy pictures from his shop, too! Timothy Adam Designs is a great etsy shop...his medium is metal. He is a fantastic metal artist, and that distinction is well deserved. He was one of the my first discoveries on Etsy, and his shop is among my "heart" shops in my Etsy account. So you can imagine my delight when I saw his monthly giveaway on Timothy Adam Desgin's blog. Since I frequent the blog, I decided to enter and see what happened. As chance would have it I WON!!! I was so excited to win such a fantastic prize, I wanted everyone to know. I told all my friends about this amazing metal creator. His ideas are fresh and the product stunning. So in the mail today I got this necklace. Orange is one of my favorite colors, so this necklace is perfect for me. The square orange pendant has great weight and fantastic color saturation. The necklace itself is amazing with the magnetic clasp, it is so easy to take on and off. This is going to be my all purpose necklace. If you live in the Chicagoland area you will be able to identify me by the orange square that will adorn my neck. I can't say enough about this jewelry, but don't just take my word for it, check out Timothy's Etsy shop to get one for yourself.

Grab the Tongs--Giveaway

There is a great giveaway over at Katydid and Kid blog. You have the chance to win a fantastic set of folding tongs from Jonathans Wild Cherry Spoons.
The hoops that you have to jump through are minimal for such a a great giveaway. Check it out soon. The contest ends November 22nd.
So hurry over to Katydid and Kid to grab your chance to win the great tongs.

Twitter Equals Views

I have been working to increase the traffic in my ETSY shop. Threadbeaur has been down in the dumps as far as views go, and it is time to do something about it. With the holidays coming I feel that is important for all etsy shops to promote and don't let the few views get you down. I turned to Twitter. The sign up was easy and now I have several people following me. It seems as though I have gotten a few extra views from it too. One of the ways to ensure that you get more followers and more traffic to your shop is to post often, and respond to those comments that interest you.

I have found some great info by using the twitter search site. It is a great tool. Check it out and you can search and narrow down who you would like to be following.

I was over in the etsy forums when I found this great instruction typed up by dottyral(click here for the etsy forum). She explains in detail how to get your items on the sidebar of your twitter page. I was able to do it in no time flat, thanks to her instructions.

So get out there and Twitter, and hopefully you too will benefit from followers, and experince increased traffic to your etsy site!
Check out Threadbeaur's twitter site.

Crafty Recycling

In the afternoons, I come up with crafts for the children in the extended day montessori program at my school. I try to incorporate the eco friendly ideas that I hold so dear. My latest project that was greeted with smiles and excitement was a journal for each child. I collected the empty snack boxes from our snack, in this case it was Nilla wafers. I cut them to size of a half sheet of our "oops" copy paper. Then proceeded to punch two holes in each piece of paper and the cardboard. The kids decorated the cardboard which became the front and back cover for their journals. After the covers were just right they threaded the paper on to 2 pipe cleaners. The kids were having so much fun, and were saying things like "wow, I have never done this before". That is very fun for me to hear. It is nice when I can tell they are really enjoying the afternoon craft. Then at the end of the day they got to take their journals home, and keep them as a notepad, or drawing pad. It is a great way to recycle the snack boxes, and copy paper.
Now I have to come up with some more eco friendly toddler crafts.

Who likes games

Tagged by: Linda Loves Beading

Here are the rules of tagging

1. Link to tagger and display these rules on your blog. (check)
2. Share 7 facts about yourself - some random, some WEIRD (see below)
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blog. (see below)
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

7 Random and Somewhat Weird Facts About Threadbeaur:

1. I have a strange attraction to squirrels
2. I love pasta. My favorite right now is pasta with brown butter cinnamon, garlic, and goat cheese. I could eat pasta everyday.

3. I love to take photographs. I have over 40,000 pictures stored on my computer.
4. I hate strong wind, unless I am on the sailboat.
5. I can't stand the cold, yet I live in Chicago.
6. Road trips are my favorite vacations.
7. I love to plant seeds from food I buy at the store. I have four avocado seeds in pots right now (saplings). I hope they make it through the winter.


Who should I tag? Here it goes.
Misosouper
Grapeinabottle
My Road To Riches
Steel City Bakery
Bottle Leopard
Green Circle Studio
The Spotted Sparrow

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!