'Tis the Season....to still be sneezin'!!!

Hi everyone. (if anyone is there)...

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas/ Holidays!!! I've had a rough couple of weeks. And I wanted to let you all know that I'm taking the week off to re-coup, and not just catch up, but to get ahead!

My little 5 yr old has Mono! Not sure how that happened, but it did. She's been sick now for 3 weeks and on top of that - we now have some cold virus traveling through our family. 3 out of the 4 of us - have it - yuck!!! Bust out the tissues - we have issues!

So if you are just now finding my blog - and this is the first post you are reading - please find one of my better posts to read and stay a while! But I am off to rest my head and drink some warm water with Honey and Lemon juice! It's my favorite thing when I get sick. That and my Neti Pot!

I wish you all a VERY WONDERFUL & SAFE New Year! Please follow along with me - the new year will be bringing some really fun tutorials and cool updates about my 2 is Beautiful business!

Thanks so much for checking me out and reading about all the things I love to do and share! And if you wouldn't mind, please vote for your favorite post categories on my blog - up on the right hand side! Thanks! -kg

Edible Wednesday: Creamy Potato Soup

During this time of year when we all need a little "comfort food" to wash away all the colds and other illness' we bring home or our kids bring home, potato soup will comfort like no other.

This isn't the potato soup recipe that my mom always made when we were little (still waiting to get that copy from her)....but here's a great Creamy Potato Soup recipe you will enjoy by Jason Hill from Chef Tips.

Here's what you will need from the grocery store before you get started:

2 Cups of Shredded Smoke Gouda
1 tbsp Dried Basil
4 Tbsp Butter
2 chopped Carrots
2 Chopped Celery Stalks
1 cup Chopped Onion
2 cups Heavy Cream
6 Cups Chicken Stock
6 Red Potatoes

He also adds a little Cracked Black Pepper on top of the soup at the end, but I'm allergic to that - so I'd say that's optional!

To find out how to put it all together - check out this video by Chef Tips. To Find more recipes by Jason Hill - check out his website - Cooking Sessions with chef Jason Hill. So Yummy!!!

Have a great comforting Wednesday! Soups up! - kg

Edible Wednesday: Gingerbread House Part 1

I'm off to a late start today. My daughter and I have been sick for the last few days, but on Saturday when I couldn't do much, I at least sat at my computer and got my Monday & Tuesday post ready and scheduled. That felt great. Yesterday when I started to feel a little better, I was busy cleaning house and unable to get going on today's post. But no worries - I've got it all under control!
Today I am sharing with you all the Gingerbread House Template my daughter's and I will be using to make our village this afternoon. If you haven't made one yet - this is for you too! Because blogspot won't let me upload a PDF file - I have inserted this as a JPEG. It will print nicely on an 8 1/2 x 11 - just check before you click print! It will be a small size Gingerbread house - so if you have a few kids, you'll have a village of gingerbread houses and not just one mansion! This is the recipe I plan on using from epicurious.com since I was not able to find the box gingerbread mix this year at my grocery store! They have all the instructions too - for mixing and baking after cutting out your pieces.

Oh - I can just smell it now....I'll post some more pictures later too of our house in progress...Tune in Friday for the decoration celebration, and have a great Wednesday!

Busy Monday: Starting a Blog Part 1

As you can see from my archive list, I signed up to start blogging in January of this year. But as you can also see from my archive list, I didn't start really blogging until September! I really wasn't sure what to blog about, I didn't have my product up and running anywhere to purchase or promote and I wasn't sure I'd have anything interesting to say!

As soon as I got my Etsy shop up in September, I started to hear "the" buzz that blogging was a great way to promote your shop. But I didn't really want a blog that was all..."hey everyone , look at me"!
So where do you start? First you have to decide which free blogging service you want to sign up with. There are pros and cons to each, so please do your research. Here's a few to check out:

Blogger (aka blogspot)
Wordpress.org or Wordpress.com
Live Journal

Not so free blogging: fees
Typepad - you can start blogging with a free trial, but it can cost between $8.95 a month for the minimums to $89.95 a month for a Business Pro account.

If you want to blog and get paid to blog - check out this list of sites...from Hongkiat.com.

After you've checked out those blogs, and you've signed up, come back here next week for more information about changing the look of your blog and personalizing it to really represent you!

See you tomorrow for a little bit of This 'n' That! Happy reading! -kg

'Tis the Season....

So it's monday night and I never had time to post my Busy Monday post - because I was too busy.

Today: I shipped out orders today (yeah!!!) and a bunny for the facebook fan giveaway (yeah!!!) and a christmas owl to my dear friend (yeah!!!)! Along with all that I went to karate, then the grocery store, to the post office twice, changed my little girls bed sheets (after making them dinner and giving them a bath)...and then discovered we had a can of frozen orange juice down in our basement in a bag with some jars and cans for our food storage that needed to be put away...only the frozen orange juice wasn't supposed to be there. Slowly but surely it has leaked out everywhere, creating a nasty mess I now have to go clean up.

So instead of sitting here, and trying to catch up, I am going to go clean, and then finish some sachets while hanging out with my hubby and resume my normal schedule next week. With Christmas coming quickly - I have presents for my own family I need to start and finish!

Wednesday I will be helping out at an American Red Cross Blood Drive at my church and anticipate that being all day! But I am happy to serve and for such a great cause. So I hope you all have a great week, and will feel free to browse my blog for some other really great posts!!! See you next Monday!

Kerry

Stayed up tooooo Late

So today is not Seller Saturday. I was up really late last night posting my Balsam Fir Sachet stack and ichatting with my twin..and photographing my cute little owl friend. This owl ornament was a special request from my friend Sharlene....she wanted an owl ornament with balsam fir. I'm not into using muslin for prototypes...so this is my first one. I may make a few adjustments in the tutorial, but I'm pretty sure, it will be 95% alike!

I'm sharing the owl today - because I wanted to let you know I'll be writing up a tutorial for this owl in the coming weeks! How exciting?!! This will be my first tutorial of many - and I would love to know what other kinds of things you'd like to learn to sew. What other tutorials would you like to see here on my blog? Please post below to share your ideas. It may not have to be a sewing project, but fabric related would be great, as I have much fabric I need to destash before I can buy more!!

Have a great saturday. I'm going to get our shoes put out for the Feast of St. Nick, and then I'm going to rest my aching head. -kg