July Recipe - Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

1 Lemon Cake Mix
1 1/4 cup cold water
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 tsp. Poppy Seeds

Beat all ingredients on medium speed for 4 minutes. Grease and flour two 8" or 9" round pans. Pour batter in pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

(2) 8oz. pkgs. softened cream cheese
1 small lemon
1/4 cup powdered sugar
8 oz. Cool Whip

Blend cream cheese, zest of lemon and juice of lemon until smooth. Add Cool Whip and blend. Add powder sugar. Spread frosting on one of the cooled cakes. Carefully place the second cake on top and frost with remaining frosting.

Shells, Rocks, Glass

What do all of these have in common? The Oregon Coast! While visiting there for vacation Mom, Daddy, Mike, Shelly, J'Amy and even Maycie got into the act!!

We found some beautiful agates, shells, and gorgeous sea glass. I will be making some jewelry items of interest from this adventure. Sam, my nephew, even found some great pieces (somethin, somethin coming your way Donna!)

Wait Maycie - - your form is totally off - - your butt MUST be sticking up in the air... What is up with the squat position! I guess I should cut her some slack, after all it is her first time at the beach.... amateur....

Muah!

Mission: Vacation Outcome: Successful

Wow - - what a great vacation! Here is the pictorial view...

We did everything from a fishing excursion - to beach combing, to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, and of course we hit a bead shop while we were there. And... the name of the bead shop is my maiden name!!! What a coincidence!

Muah!

Almost Vacation. . .

It sure has been hard to work this week! Vacation starts this weekend with a trip to the Oregon coast... I can hardly wait! We are continuing the celebration of my parents' 50th Wedding Anniversary. I think it was a good excuse to get together as a family for a vacation - - - like we really need an excuse! But off to the coast to do a little fishing, a little sightseeing, a little (okay A LOT) of lounging, and just an all around good time.

It is going to be hard to stay away from my jewelry Etsy shop and my bead Etsy shop ~ but I think I will survive... lordsy mercy it is addicting...

So maybe I can get an aircard for my laptop? hmmmmmm

Wow - Flicker Mosaic

What a cool thing! I was reading Ms. Belle's (a fellow jewelry designer) blog and found this way cool tool. And I made this lovely mosaic! When I look at this, it really does say a lot about me - without really knowing the answers to my questions...

You can make your own too. Here's how:

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into a Flickr search.

2. Using only the first page, pick an image.

3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker and make a cool mosaic to put on your blog or flickr.

Viola!

The questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One Word to describe you.

12. Your flickr name.

HipChickeeBeads!

Okay, so there was another bead show this weekend. The Gem Faire was in Salt Lake City. It was then and there that I said to myself "Cindie you have a problem." But doesn't every gal need several different types of chalcedony, amethyst, and garnet??? That is normal right? Truth be told, I have known for some time that this could be an issue. Okay, okay... Hi, my name is Cindie and I am a beadaholic. Satisfied?

So, it was at that moment when I had several hanks of beads in my hands with that crazed look on my face that I came to the realization that it really isn't a problem...it is okay - - I could just open up another Etsy shop to destash. I mean you don't always use the whole strand of those perfect little twisted step cut amethyst gems do you? And why not share the love right?

So there you have it... I still can feed my addiction (it could be waaaay worse) and also share a little somethin somethin with all of you... So my new destash shop is HipChickeeBeads - - Way Cool Beads for Way Cool People... It really is me, dontchaknow....

By the way....there is another Gem Show in a few weeks...

Slow Times at Etsy Dot Com

Wow - I was commiserating with my partner in crime, Marika, about how slow things have been on Etsy.... We think it is one or more of the reasons listed below:

1. All the floods, tornadoes, wild fires, earthquakes.
2. All the jewelry lovin folk are on vacation in Tahiti with no Internet access.
3. Gas costs are too darn high and disposable income is limited.

I know that gas costs certainly have limited many folks. In my family, my son-in-law has started using public transportation and the savings have been amazing! My brother commutes well over an hour every day - each way - and they save money by having him do the grocery shopping while he is in town instead of his wife driving the same commute to accomplish the task.

The cost of gas absolutely makes a person think about what we can do to limit our addiction to fossil fuels, which leads to other thoughts about sustainability of the planet in general. May be silly, may be a minute help to the planet, but I found a pattern for reused, re-purposed grocery bags. I am going to try it! I will update you on my environmental efforts at a later point. No, I am not ready to join Green Peace yet, or believe like Al Gore does about global warming ~ but if I can help in my little corner of the world - woo hoo!

In the meantime, I hope the jewelry lovin' folk in Tahiti come home from vacation soon!