Clayton Show Review

Had a blast this past Saturday at the Clayton Youth Theater's Christmas in July Shopping Extravaganza..it was fantastic!

The youth were soooooo talented!! The solo performances were amazing I couldn't believe the big voices coming out of these young adults they will go very far in theater! Sales were good too the crowd was fantastic and we got tons of great feedback on our items.

They seem to be a hit with tweens and teens for sure! S0o0o if you have any of those age groups in your midst then some of Sinner's Sweets jewelry would be a great gift idea! Just sayin' hehehe.

So now that I've had a taste of these arts&crafts shows I'm dying to do more of them! I'm currently filling out an application for the Yule Mart that the FBAOSC put on here on Fort Bragg.

The only problem is I can't seem to find info on upcoming shows! So if any of you hear anything please let me know! Or if you have any advice on how to find out about upcoming shows I'd really appreciate it too!

Be sure to check out the shop as we're listing new items everyday now =)

www.tiffeaddington.etsy.com

Well that's all for now =) Have a great night folks

New New NEW

Wow yet again it's been like a month since my last blogging adventure. I'm battling insomnia so writing a blog with my bedtime glass of wine shouldn't hurt right?

Well after doing our first booth at a craft show we decided we should do a test on a name. We're going to be at a show in Clayton, NC that's being held by the Clayton Youth Theater and we will be setting up a booth with the name Eye Candy!

We want to reserve Sinner's Sweets for when we can get our own bakery.

So with that being said I encourage all of you within the Raleigh area to come out to this Christmas in July Extravaganza! It is going to be held at the Clayton Center from 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. this Saturday, July 24th, 2010. There will be lots of booths, food, face painting, 50/50 raffle and mini performances throughout the day bu the Clayton Youth Theater.

The address for the Clayton Center is 111 East 2nd Street and admission is FREE!! So if you were looking for something to do with the fam this weekend there ya go! Come check it out! Christmas is just around the bend if you really start thinking about it! Don't be like me and wait until the last minute to get those Christmas gifts =)

Roasted Garlic and Shrimp Pizza

Wow, it's been a little while since I "blogged" so here we go! I wrote in an earlier blog that I would share some recipes with you but looks like I haven't really done much of that so I'm going to share with you a new family favorite. This recipe is for a homemade Roasted Garlic and Shrimp Pizza, this is a white pizza.

Now, my fellow parents of picky eaters...I have 2 children who are EXTREMELY picky when it comes to food, both of them ate 2 slices of this pizza...2 slices a piece. So without further ado lets dive right in. This recipe makes one 12-15 inch pizza (depends on thick you like your crust).

You can use a store bought pizza crust if that's what you want but I wanted a rustic looking pizza so I made my own crust. I used Bobby Flay's recipe for Flat bread courtesy of http://www.foodtv.com/ if you want to use that recipe.

The ingredients you will need for the sauce recipe are as follows:

• 1 cup of whole milk (I would not substitute this or you might have a watery sauce)
  
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted sweet cream butter
  
• 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
  
• pinch of salt
  
• pinch of red (cayenne) pepper (or more if you like it spicy)
  
• 4 heads of roasted garlic (the garlic takes an hour to roast so plan accordingly)
  
• olive oil and salt and pepper for the garlic
  
• a couple tablespoons of cornmeal to put on your pizza pan
  
• about 1/2 a block (8 ounces) of cheese (if you want a plain white pizza use mozzarella, I used Colby Jack cheese for the kiddos)
  
• 1/2 pound of cleaned uncooked shrimp
  
• fresh chopped basil (the basil we use comes from our garden..it is an African blue basil which is slightly less sweet than the basil you buy in the supermarket)
  
• fresh chopped parsley (optional, we left this out but I think it would be a great addition)

If you are making your own crust you are going to want to do that about 3 hours before you want to cook your pizza, about 2 hours into your dough process you'll want to roast the garlic to make sure everything falls into a smooth timeline. If you are using a store bought flat bread or pizza dough you'll want to roast the garlic about an hour before you're ready to set this baby up.

To roast the garlic set your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, then you take your 4 heads of garlic and cut the upper quarter off, rub about one teaspoon of olive oil into the top of each head of garlic then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place your heads of a garlic, cut side down, onto a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil and bake for approx. one hour, or until the cloves are golden and soft. Your house will smell amazing!! Even the kids commented on how yummy it smelled, they thought it was garlic bread or spaghetti. They should look like this when they're ready:
After they are done roasting set them aside until they are cooled down, once they're cool enough to handle carefully take out the cloves of garlic. Don't worry if they don't all come out you can squeeze the heads and a roasted garlic paste will come out. Set the bowl of garlic aside.
Now if your dough is ready go ahead and sprinkle some cornmeal on your pizza pan and start preheating your oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll the pizza dough out into the size you want and place it on your pizza pan. The cornmeal will prevent it from sticking to your pan.

Now lets make the sauce.

Heat your milk in a small pan until it comes to a simmer, once it starts to gently simmer take it off the heat and put a lid on it.

In another pan (this is the pan you will make the sauce in so make sure it's deep enough) melt your butter, once it's melted down add in your flour and cook for about a minute you do not want the flour to brown, just cook it enough so that the butter and flour make a smooth paste.

Gently pour in the warm milk and whisk to combine. Add the salt and red pepper and turn up the heat to about medium high, cook the sauce until it comes to a boil and thickens up. Remove your pan from the heat and add in about 1o of your roasted garlic cloves, if you ended up with a paste add in about half of it. Tear up a handful of basil and put it into the sauce mix as well.

Pour the sauce into a blender. Make sure the lid is on securely!!!! Or you will be cleaning garlic sauce off the ceiling for a week. Blend your sauce until it's smooth. Let the sauce cool down just a tad and then pour it onto your crust. Be sure to leave a border so that the sauce doesn't run off the pizza and create a huge mess in your oven. Now slice your cheese however thin or thick you like and put the cheese down over the sauce. Take your cleaned uncooked shrimp and arrange them on top of your pizza in anyway fashion you choose. Take your remaining garlic cloves or garlic paste and sprinkle or dollop it all over your pizza.

Bake your pizza for about 8-10 minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on it, your pizza will be done when your crust is golden and the cheese is melted and golden brown in spots. When your pizza is down take another small handful of basil, tear it and scatter it over your pizza, you'll want to do this with the parsley too if you chose to use it.

Serve Hot! This is definitely going to become one of your favorites!

I mentioned in the listed ingredients that we used African Blue Basil, the following pictures are off my Basil plant.

The first picture there is of the blooms that grow at the top of the basil plant, I had never seen this before on regular basil. The blooms smell amazing!


As you can see the leaves have a purple/blue tinge to them. I bought this lovely culinary helper at the Fayetteville Farmer's Market. They run on Wednesday from 3-7:00 p.m. and Saturday mornings from 9:00a.m.-1:00p.m.!

The next recipe will be courtesy of our wild blackberry picking adventure..the literal fruits of our labor!

Sneak Peek!

New items coming to the Etsy shop this week and the days following!! I've fallen behind on my duties as blogger but all is well!





hehe this Hot Chocolate Lovin' necklace was listed today!!


I've been busy making new items, photographing, editing all that lovely jazz. So here is a sneak peek! Be sure to check the shop daily for new listings!


Who doesn't loooove strawberry shortcake? Especially in the summer time when the berries are sweet and fresh. This is a broach with all the makin's of a great strawberry shortcake. Light pound cake, rich whipped cream and sweet strawberries.







MmMmM...Banana Split!!! This is a mini banana split necklace, one scoop of strawberry one scoop of chocolate topped with hot fudge, whipped cream and a jumbo cherry on top!


Great way to cool off on a hot summer day, this necklace is fun to wear year round (and it won't melt and get sticky...always a plus!)

Creating Block

I feel like my creating skills are in a lull right now. I have zero motivation to start new projects! Maybe I'm just missing my coffee, sure..that's it! I need my coffee back.

Today just seems like it's going to be a fail day. It's yucky outside, I tried to spice up some instant oatmeal and instead made it waaay too sweet (Added too much honey) and I have lots of studying to do as well as a mountain of laundry to fold. All of this with the hops that 3 little ones will cooperate with my efforts to get these things done!

Anyone want to do my tasks for me today? Oh, and find a way to ensure I pass this exam tomorrow? haha Can't wait for school to be done with so I can get a break from it for the summer. Trying to figure out what the Father's Day give away is going to be....

My little man turns ONE next week!!! So on top of all of the other things I'm planning his Pirate extravaganza (his sister's picked out his cake pan..it's a pirate ship). Ahh the life of a Stay at Home Momma =)

Well I'm off to find my caffeine fix and try and get this day off on the right foot!

Tagging Virtual Lab

For those of you that were around the world of Etsy today you know that today was the Tagging Lab! I decided to post about that today because the virtual lab was packed full! I have never seen that many people in the labs ever!!

So in all my nerdy excitement I took a screen capture =) How crazy packed is that lab!!! I didn't get to stay for the full lab but I did get some good tips while I was there. I definitely urge you to go to all the labs you can!

I was in the lab for about 30 minutes of everything that was being said, by the time I left daniellexo was taking questions from the people there.

Here are the notes that I took for myself:

• Add more of your own tags, meaning don't use only subcategories that Etsy has available but be creative and come up with some of your own
• think like your buyer, add tags that you would search for if you were trying to find your item
• use your main material as a tag, this could be very helpful to the buyer as well, for me I would list polymer clay because that is the main material
• look for keywords in your description. I know for myself I always get stuck coming up with tags, daniellexo had a good tip, look through your description chances are you have good keywords in there
• think like the buyer!
• don't forget color! Color is a good tag as well
• for photographers use size as a tag
• always think like the buyer! (have I said that already?) hehe

I don't know if they're going to do another tagging workshop but I think it would be a fantastic idea. Again if you haven't been in the virtual labs they are extremely helpful!

"How do you get to the Virtual Labs?"

Okay, to get to the Virtual Labs log in to your Etsy account and then click on the Community tab (it's where the Buy and Sell tabs are) Then once you've done that click on the Virtual Labs tab and on the right hand side is a schedule of all the labs going on soon.

When I first started Etsy The Newbie lab was a great help and the Shop Critique labs are always a great help too. Another great feature in Etsy are the teams, I'm proud to say that I am a member of the Homefront Team which is an amazing team for military members, and family members you should check it out! I've had nothing but great experiences being a member of this team.

That's all for now Folks!!

xoxoxox!

Dinner=Fail

Okay so I said I'd post this new delicious dinner idea...if it worked. It failed. LOL oh well. I was trying to do a potato encrusted tilapia with bacon wrapped asparagus and rice but the mandolin I have is cheapo. Cheapo mandolin=not thin enough slices. Layered my potato "scales" and went to fold them over the fish..it wasn't happening. Dinner wasn't what I wanted it to be but it still came it delicious!

But because it was a failure I took zero pictures =( BOO!

On a happy note I made breakfast for dinner tonight which means I had a huge cinnamon roll for dessert...MmMm! Oh and my Mother's day present from my Mother got here today, a gift tower from Harry&Davids.

Trying to figure out what kind of giveaway or contest I will be having for Father's Day. I shall keep all you lovely readers posted!!