Hip Hip Hooray!

I have a follower!  One I got on my very own.  Ok, I am sure saying this doesn't make me cool in the blogging world but I don't care.  I didn't want my family and friends to follow me until I got a follower on my own.  It took awhile but it was worth the wait.  So to my follower I say this.... Thank you for making my day!!  You will always be my first - and I don't mean that in a creepy way, I promise.  Things are looking up for me this week.  I finally opened my Etsy store, although I still have a lot more to do there.  I am not rushing things because I am learning as I go.  I can walk without crutches, my boot or any of the other thousands of aides I have around here and I am driving.  It has been so long since I could just get in my car and take off.  I am one happy girl right now.  I think I deserve it.  Life has been pretty crappy since that stupid wreck and I so want to get past all of that and move on.  Now I just have to get brave enough to take my transfer bench out of my shower.  I know I  can now.  I just have to get over my fear of slipping.  Lord knows I don't want to do anything to hurt my foot again.  That will be my goal for next week.  Goodbye to the shower bench.  I can do this.  It feels so good to have hope again.  I thought I had lost it forever. 

Open for business!

I finally got a few of my items on Etsy.  I still have several more things to post.  I was just determined to have my first official day of business to be July 27th.  I picked that day because it was my dad's birthday and I wanted to do it in memory of him.  Now I will never forget the day I opened my little Etsy shop.  If you are looking for cupcake toppers or party ideas let me know.  I would love to help you out.  If you have party pictures you would like to share with me I would love to see them.  My etsy shop is called Little Green Umbrella if you would like to take a look of what I have for sale so far. http://www.etsy.com/search_results_seller.php?search_query=little+green+umbrella&search_type=seller_usernames  Hopefully by this weekend I will have all my merchandise posted. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Snaps

These little treats are great and super easy to make.  You only need three ingredients.
Pretzels - I used Snyder's Pretzel Snaps
Peanut Butter M&M's
Chocolate Hershey Kisses.

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees.

Unwrap the Hershey Kisses - this is the hardest part of the recipe.  So many little Kisses to unwrap.

Place the pretzels, single layer, on a cookie sheet.  Make as many or as few as you want.

Place a Hershey Kiss in the middle of  each pretzel.

Put the pretzel and Kisses in the oven and let them heat for about 6 minutes.

Take the pan out of the oven and place an M&M on top of each Kiss and gently push down until the M&M  sinks to the center of the Kiss.

Let them sit on the counter for about 30 minutes to cool then place them on a plate and put them in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes or until the Kisses firm up.  You don't want to leave them in too long because the M&M's may become discolored.

The end product.  Ready to eat.  Store in an airtight container.

Loving my new cake stand!

I am so excited!  I found a new cake stand and I love it.  I like things that are unique and I think this cake stand is unique.  It is made of wire.  You don't see very many cake stands made of wire.   I got it at Crate and Barrel and it was on sale.  What could be better?  The best thing about my cake stand is it matches the Wilton Cupcake Holder perfectly.  I put the Wilton Cupcake Holder on top of my cake plate and secured it with a couple of twist ties.  I just threaded the ties over the bottom of the cupcake holder, through the wires on top of the cake stand, then twisted it tight..  Now I have a tall cupcake holder and I am able to add cupcakes around the edge of the cake stand.  It doesn't take much to make me happy.

Learning as I go

Well I got my blog book for idiots and now I am looking for a book to help me understand my blog book for idiots.  Do they have those?  I clearly need one.  Maybe I am making this harder than it really is.  I am sure I will figure it out here and there as I go along.  I follow so many wonderful blogs with beautiful layouts and they have a lot of fun stuff and I hope that one day my little blog will have a little bit of that bling.  I think it will come to me with time.  I am keeping the faith.  In the mean time I have decided I will concentrate more on the topics and less on the layouts.  I am sure it will all work out sooner or later. 

Blogging Awards, Heartache and Forever Remembered

My how my views have changed since I decided to "try" to blog. I am still waiting on my blog book for idiots so I can learn exactly how this business works. In the meantime I have been checking out other blogs. I mainly follow party and entertaining type blogs. Oh yeah, and cupcake blogs too of course. How great is life when there is such a thing as a cupcake blog. Even better than cupcake blogs, cupcake bakeries. I love that. A whole shop devoted only to cupcakes. Greatness! Back to the subject. I was reading one of the blogs I follow and they posted that they were nominated for a blog award. Blog awards? Who knew? Anyway, back to the point. They asked that their followers go to this particular website to vote for their blog. In the process of doing that, I ran across a list of the previous years winners. I was just reading them over and noticed one called The Spohrs Are Multiplying. I am not sure why that one stood out. I clicked on it and read a couple of things on the site. I then discovered that this family had a baby girl that was born prematurely. Her name was Maddie and she ended up passing away a little before she was 18 months old. Her lungs were not fully developed when she was born. Maddie over came a lot of things but in the end her little lungs just gave out. Maddie's mom, Heather, was put on bed rest when she was pregnant with Maddie so she started a blog to keep her family and friends updated on what was going on. After Maddie was born she kept the blog going to keep them updated on her progress. Heather is a great writer. I love her humor. She has gone through some pretty tough times but she always manages to make me smile. She is very witty. After reading a couple of her posts I decided that I would start at the beginning of her blog and read every word of it. It may take me a while but I have decided to do it as a tribute to Maddie. What a little angel she was. I really enjoy reading about Maddie. It just breaks my heart knowing that soon I will get to the part where Maddie passes away. I am not ready for that. It is like when you are watching a movie and you know the hero dies in the end but you still watch and hope that something will change this time and the hero will live. Unfortunately that is not the case. Maddie is no longer here but her memory will live on forever. Heather has shared so many stories, pictures and videos of Maddie on her blog. She shared Maddie's struggle to survive, her triumphs, her smiles, giggles, first tooth, first words, crawling, etc... I know Heather will never forget Maddie and all the joy Maddie brought her but now she also has a record of Maddie's life. Years from now she can go back and see all the little and big things Maddie did, day to day, in her short life. Things she might not have remembered after a few years. Now she will always have these memories. I know Heather would much rather have Maddie and I wished she did too. I just hope one day her blog can bring her some joy when she looks back on Maddie's life. She was a glorious bright eyed little girl. She was loved. She will always be remembered.  I have always been "suspicious" of blogs and why people want to put all their business "out there".  Well, I think I was came across Heather's blog for a reason.  I learned that sometimes blogs can turn into something important.  I think it is wonderful that so many people got to learn about Maddie through Heather's blog.  Heather has been able to raise a lot of money for March of Dimes.  I am glad I have seen the positive side of blogging.  I am not from the computer generation.  It is going to take me a while to figure this business out but I feel better about it now.  Thank you Heather.