What Have I Been Doing?

Well, I'm trying to get more items on my little Etsy shop. I have several finished pieces already, several almost finished as well. And of course plans for things that I really need to schedule if I am to actually get them done. I posted 2 new pieces today and have photos of several more that are just waiting to be posted as well.

I haven't yet started my #mailart postcard project but I was able to get better paper. I wasn't happy with the thickness of the paper found at normal craft stores so Gabe made a trip to Xpedex especially for me. I have some ideas for the pieces and not a lot of time so I had better get started.

And of course I've been cooking. With zucchini. I'm thinking I may need to make categories in my blog so they are easier to navigate. Art and recipes and mom stuff. Maybe?

Today's recipe was borrowed from a friend. Marilyn writes for the Denver Examiner and recently interviewed me on my fabulous frugalness. (Really she wrote some questions and I gave her like 8 pages of answers.) I hope to expand on the things I left out in the interview soon.

The recipe was for Mock Apple Pie. I altered it a bit, that's what I do. It called for a double crust but I only had 1 so we made a crumble top for it instead. Here is the original recipe:

4-5cups zucchini, peeled and thinly sliced (like apples) -FB
1 c sugar
1/4 c flour
1 can (2c) applesauce -FB
1-2 T cinnamon
2 pie crusts
mix ingredients and pour into bottom crust, add top crust and make slits, cook for 1 hour at 400F.

Now here are the changes I made and will make in the future:
We had 1 crust so we made a crumble top. Mix 1/2 cup flour, 1 cup oats, 1/3 c brown sugar, and 1/4 c oil til crumbly and sprinkle on top of the pie filling after its in the bottom crust. Bake as normal.


This pie was pretty good, but not totally appleish. Part of the problem, I think, was that Gabe used the apple corer so the zucchini was in big eatable sized slices instead of thin appley pie slices. The bits that were quite small did have the apple pie taste that they were supposed to so I think that was just us not doing it right. The big chunks were not bad, but we could tell that they were not apple pie. Slicing nice and thin is probably an important step in tricking the kids into thinking its apples. I also may add just a bit more sugar to the filling as it was not as sweet as pie. (But we had it for a lunch so less sugar is not a bad thing.) I think I may also add 1 apple next time so that the appley pieness is more appley. And I will probably stick with the crumble top. Its less healthy, but I think its more tasty.

Give it a try, tell me what you think.

Meliss

P.S. Here's a little sneak peek of new items I will post soon...

necklace detail

bracelet detail

a one of a kind ATC with tiny 1" painting by me, sent to customer as a free gift

Sneak Peek

I suppose I should plan these things better. I often have "great" ideas for a blog, but I forget them by the time I sit down to write. (I say 'write' because I'm old fashioned-I deny liking computers at all- and I'm stubborn) I really should carry a notebook with me to jot things down. (come to think of it, Husband has equipped me with a palm pilot that I could take notes in, but again, I'm old fashioned and stubborn. I hate taking notes on the thing. I use it for my grocery list and the calculator.)

In the scheme of things in general, I don't know that I'm being uninhibited or making great strides and working great plans. But I am moving forward, so I guess that's something. Maybe I'm just impatient or expecting to much in too little a time. I can see where I want to be and it's frustrating that I'm not there yet. I think we all have that problem and that's what gets us down. We get discouraged and slow or maybe even give up and stop altogether because we focus on what we don't have or what we're not accomplishing.

Instead, we, I, should focus on how far I have gotten, what I have accomplished, and what I do have. (Kinda goes along with what I was saying in my last post. Even though I'm not where I would like to be, and it sometimes seems like times are bad, I still have many things to be thankful for and I still have what I need.)

So what have I accomplished? (Here's the part where I want to be really negative and spout off all the things that didn't work or I didn't get to or I did wrong-but I wont.)
Well, after many months (over a year actually) I have finally convinced Gabe to help me to open a store on Etsy. I have written and refined (and will refine a bit more) the policies for my shop, as well as the bio and shipping info. (scary stuff, but I think I'll figure it out)

And just this week, Gabe has helped me to take pictures of the first few items that I will be listing on my Tweedlepox Etsy store. Here is a sneak peek of what is to come.

Grace's Garden



Silver Bali earrings

I will be listing these as well as five other pieces in just a few days, with more to come soon after. I'm listing a few at a time to stagger it a bit and give me time to set things up, figure out how they work, and have time to create new pieces as well.

I'm still very nervous about the whole thing. Will I remember everything? Will I do it right? Will shipping be hard? Or accepting PayPal? Or keeping track or things? I've done just about every bit of research that I can to try to get an understanding of how things work and what to expect so there's really nothing left but to go for it.

So I'm goin' for it!

Meliss

Have you ever fought off the negative brain chatter and accomplished something really great? Let me know.