Updating the etsy shop

Woohoo!

I  love the feeling of accomplishment when you finally do something. Especially something productive.  I'm not knocking those little victories like finishing a load of laundry, doing the dishes, taking the dog for a walk, cleaning out junk email. In fact, I think those can be some of the most cathartic events.

I'm having a mini victory in terms of my etsy shop! It has been a slow, procrastinated process mainly due to my lack of a nice camera for pictures, working during all the good daylight hours and the excuses that I make, like the first 2 ones I just made.  But since Kim and I are interested in doing this as a joint venture, we collaborated for one of our typical cook and be crafty nights. Where Kim spends the night or I go to her house and spend the night, we collaborate on creativity and brainstorm brilliant, crafty ideas for the shop.  This usually involves me cooking or baking a lot as well. So there's a lot of laughing, epiphanies, planning and eating involved.

We ended up only taking pictures of eachother and a few of the milk glass vases I have for sale, which you can see here. But I'm still trying to decide if I want to paint/glaze them a pretty teal color as an alternative to the standard milk glass you see everywhere. Either option is  gorgeous as a standalone decoration or for a pretty dinner event.  With all the house-shopping we've been doing lately I am SUPER excited to finally have a place to put all of my thrifted treasures! Anyway, here are some photos from our day.

Kim flipping through a fashion magazine to gather some inspiration on a cluttered counter while cupcakes are being baked



making some lemon-mint ice cubes and for some reason a picture of my butt. I like those pants, so who cares.

frosting the strawberry cream cheese cupcakes. Looks like we have a cupcake bandit in our midst!

setting up a backdrop for the milk glasses that we ended up not using.

my treasured box of milk glass and new plates ready for their big moment. Not selling those plates, too in love.

I was also considering selling these beautiful juice glasses but could not bring myself to do it. I need to use them a few times for a brunch before I can part with them.

Finally snapped some pictures before the clouds rolled in and storms began. 

 It was also getting late in the day and Kim and I agreed that next time we would try to get out early and take some good fashion photos for the clothes and accesories I'll be adding to etsy and blogging about soon. Can't wait for more productive days like this! Hopefully next time I'll be able to get even more done!

Cupcakes

I've been baking since I don't know when.  Typically I bake for family and friends during birthdays or other special occasions. It wasn't until the past year that people started asking me to make them for them and telling me that they would pay me to bake them.

What?

You mean you will give me money, to do something I love and share with the world? Amazing!

Well I was thrilled with the idea of this and after several commissioned cupcakes and birthday cakes I came to the realization that I do love to bake and I love to share my baking with the world.

The problem with baking is that, no matter how delicious whatever it is that I bake is, 3 people can only consume so many baked goods.

Since I was rear-ended last month and my car is still in the body shop, I decided to make some of my famous Strawberry cream cheese cupcakes for the guys at the shop so they take extra good care of my baby ; )

My little brochacho, Adam, is not as big of a fan of the strawberry cream cheese cupcakes as everyone else. I think it has something to do with how he pieces apart the cupcakes starting from the top, licking off all the frosting and then munching on the cupcake itself. I decided to make his own special batch of simple vanilla cupcakes, topped with whipped cream and a strawberry. I think the picture describes how much he liked them!

Adams strawberry whipped cream cupcake on one of my favorite thrifted plate sets!

I got these plates for $1 each at Goodwill, all 8 of them! Aren't they the perfect cupcake serving tray?

Here are the strawberry cream cheese cupcakes. The problem with giving/selling them now is that my favorite cupcake box manufacturer is on a temporary hiatus. I am dying for them to come back so I can keep spreading the cupcake love!

These babies are filled with cream cheese and strawberry jam. For sure my most popular cupcakes to date!

I have a dream of one day combining all of my favorite things in the world into a little brick and mortar store.

It took me a while to come to this dream, for years and years I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. It sort of came upon me accidentally as my interests in things started becoming passions.

Of course dreams take time, motivatio, sweat, blood and tears which I am willing to shed to pursue my passion. But one day I do hope that I can fulfill that dream. That dream, of course, being to have a little brick and mortar cupcake/vintage/handmade shop. Where I sell cupcakes on beautiful, vintage and artsy little plates. Walls of shelves filled with vintage pyrex and Catherineholm bowls and bakeware. I'd like a little corner of vintage clothes, accesories and handmade trinkets/pillows/artwork all the while beautiful music wafts through the air.

Sounds pretty dreamy, right?

I do get a little ok, a lot excited sometimes, and this starts that bubbling up inside of me that I just cannot contain! It makes me giddy with excitement just daydreaming about it until I can finally put it into fruition.

In the meantime I'll start with my modest online cupcake-facebook page, making local deliveries and my humble little etsy shop with only a few items in it. But one day, I hope to turn it all into my full time career, spreading the joy of all the things I love to everyone else in the best way I know possible.

Maybe Meatwad can even make a cameo as a little shop bunny. ; )