San Diego Here I Come!

The rumor is San Diego has a LOT of cupcake bakeries.  It sounds like the perfect place to do a cupcake tour.  What is a cupcake tour you ask?  Well it is when you go and visit several cupcake bakeries in the same general area and review and rate them.  That is my version of a cupcake tour.  My best friend, her daughter and the daughters friend and I went on a cupcake tour in Austin, TX back in May.  It was a blast!  Don't be fooled, not all cupcake bakeries are good, believe me.  We found out the hard way.  One of the places left me with a bad taste in my mouth, literally.  I could not get that greasy weird taste out of my mouth even after rinsing it out with water and chewing gum.  Some cupcakes are dry.  I am not a fan of dry.  I just won't eat a dry cupcake.  So I am headed out to San Diego and I have picked several cupcake bakeries to review.  I will be posting my results when I get home.  It is a hard job but someone has to do it. 

Oh and if you find yourself in Austin the two cupcake places I can highly recommend are Polkadots Cupcake Factory and Sugar Mama's Bakeshop.

Birthday Party Dessert Table

My best friend's daughter turned 17 in June.  We were going to do just a small dessert table for her.  I think we got carried away.  We just kept adding stuff.  It was pretty cute though.

Candy / Dessert Table

In May of this year my best friend and I did a candy table for a Couples Wedding Shower.  The couples last names were Redden & Green.  Naturally we wanted to do a Red & Green theme.  The trick was we didn't want it to look like a Christmas party.  We went with lighter shades of green and darker shades of red. 

Good Bloggers Must Blog

I think I tried to get too many things started all at one time.  I want to have a blog but here it is August 13th and this is my first post in August.  That is pretty sad.  I spend so much of my time following other blogs that I don't do anything with mine.  I am intimidated.  Most of the blogs I read are well established and have great things going on.  I know they didn't start that way.  I know if I am dedicated, and stick to my plan, my blog can be just as successful. Today I was looking at a blog that just posted a really cute party.  As I was looking at it I thought, oh I have that.  Oh she got those at Target, I have those too.  The truth is sometimes the simplest things make the biggest impact.  I never have been one to want fancy things.  I don't need crystal goblets and sterling silver candlesticks.  That isn't me.  I am more of a "wildflowers in a mason jar" type girl.  What is more beautiful than the simple things?  I have had some really cute parties.  My parties have always been on a budget and have turned out wonderful.  Why am I trying to compare myself to others?  I don't want to be anybody else.  I want to be me.  I noticed another thing about the bloggers I follow.  Most of them are pretty crafty ladies that make beautiful things out of simple inexpensive items.  They give you tips on how to make it yourself and how to save money.  Some of these blogs sell party items but they still give you advice on how to make the same items yourself.  They offer "freebies" on their sites.  These are my kind of ladies.  Good moms that have good ideas and want to share their good ideas with others.  Another thing I noticed,  a lot of these ladies say how they really love Martha Stewart.  She is their inspiration.  Well I don't have anything against Martha.  I love looking at her stuff.  I just don't have any desire to be like Martha or make most of her things.  Sure her things are beautiful and in many cases magical.  I just can't be like Martha because I don't have the time and patience to make most of her crafts or recipes.  It is all too perfect.  I am not perfect and I am not a big fan of perfect.  I am just too happy with the things I can make with a tin can and twine.

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.