Chocolate Chip Dumplin Set

Chocolate Chip Dumplin Set
Originally uploaded by magicbeanbuyer

I listed a few new lil dumplins in my shop yesterday. This one is the first of my new "set" of dumplins. A mama and baby dumplin. The baby is barely an inch tall to give you an idea of size. SO cute and teeny. I love them!

we have a winner!

Lou is so picky when it comes to anything I cook. I call him a ham and cheese/peanut butter and jelly boy. Anything even slightly "exotic" and he doesn't like it. Who doesn't like onions? Or mushrooms?? He doesn't even like homemade pasta sauce...he PREFERS prego. Are you kidding me?
Anyways, I was ready to serve him just a handful of ground beef on a plate, seeing as all he ever wants is meat. But I decided against it and instead added the ground beef to a few other things. Elbow macaroni, chopped onion, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, taco seasoning, garlic, crushed red pepper and a generous pour of jar spaghetti sauce. I eyeballed everything. Pretty simple. But tasty. Oh, and parm cheese and fresh basil on top.

Adventures in felting.

A while back (practically a year ago..) I bought some wool roving because I kept seeing these awesome wool felted beads and jewelry that people were making and selling and I wanted to give it a whirl. I found some tutorials and tried my hand at it. It didn't work out so well. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. The wool didn't stick together and become bead-like like the tutorial claimed it would. After a few tries, I gave up and stashed the roving in the back of a drawer for another time.
Just today I ran across a post on the Etsy forums mentioning felted beads and it reminded me of the roving I had. I pulled up a tutorial online and noticed this one said make sure to not use "superwash" roving because it won't felt. Oh my god. I looked up the roving I had purchased way back when and yep, it was a superwash. So all this time I thought I was a moron but really I just didn't read or do my research when I bought it. I did have another color that I hadn't tried out that wasn't a superwash. So that's what I did today! I made a few felted beads before my hands decided to get all pruney. It definately takes practice!

It starts out as a big fluffy cotton candy-like ball.


Then after you roll and roll and roll it becomes a teeny harder ball!


This is the roving I used and the beads that spawned..I wish I had more colors to play with!!


Oh, and the tutorial is here How to make felted beads

Boob cookies.

It's amazing the things that you can discover on the internet. I was searching cookies on google to get some inspiration for lil dumplins and ran across the funniest thing. Apparently Japan has cookies to "enhance" your rack. If only it was that easy. Here's the link to the whole post F-Cup Cookies

A fresh batch of dumplins.

I finished another batch of dumplins. I'm getting pretty good at making them at a faster pace. I think they're coming out better and better with each one I make too. Trial and error finding the right brush to work with and practice with getting the hair to look just right. It's a lot of fun coming up with new dumplin ideas too. I was toying with some other ideas. Peanut butter and jelly lil dumplin? Pizza dumplin?? Or maybe a birthday cake lil dumplin. It would make a great birthday gift. I'm still not sure if I want to branch out of the dessert/sweets realm with them. Pizza is definately not a dessert. But it would be cute. They're all listed in my Etsy shop here

Busy bsuy busby bysuu

I FINALLY (phew..) finished listing a crap load of destash supplies in my supply shop.Magic Bead Buyer It's all totally cheap. I really just want to get rid of it and make room for more things that I'm currently using. I feel bad for the beads, they look sad and unloved.

I also finished my candy necklace! Let's see now, how long has it taken me? I actually ended up making three of them. And it's listed in my main shop currently..Candy Necklace



Well back to work. I scheduled myself three seconds of breather time to show some blog love.


XO

Dumplin love

Dumplins are going in my Etsy shop like hot cakes and I couldn't be happier! I try to express my excitement for my Lil Dumplins finding new homes to Lou, but he just can't grasp the awesomeness of it all. Typical boy. I just finished two custom dumplins for a customer and I also sold another to a repeat customer today which is so wonderful!
I'm just really happy that other people can appreciate these little ones as much as I do. They're so much fun to personalize and the color combinations are endless.
I also made a final decision on packaging for the Dumplins. I was originally packing them in little white boxes and tying them with bows, but when I went to the store to buy more I saw these really cute mini chinese food boxes. And when I fill it with crinkle paper it looks adorable! The box looks a lot bigger in this picture than it actually seems in person.
I'll be listing most of the Dumplins in the first picture for sale tonight. The smiling aqua cupcake and red mushroom are already reserved!

Cutesy

I must say, I was feeling a little down about my art today while browsing the internet for any kind of art related job I might be passed off as qualified for in some sense. On top of literally being turned down in under three hours after submitting my portfolio for consideration on Trunkt online. I should've known anyways, they have "mature" and "sophisticated" jewelry and art. I didn't really expect to be admitted, but I also didn't think they'd be so speedy about my turn down. Nevertheless, today I've been scanning in my artwork and really trying to focus on what I want to create/do. I think I get hung up on thinking of what other people want to see. There's a painting of a cupcake I finished a few days ago sitting next to me, and I can't help thinking "god, who would want this kiddy kitsch in their home?" But I think I just need to run with what makes me happy. I really think that's the key to being successful (in a broad sense I guess). If I'm not happy with what I'm painting, for example, how am I going to be happy with it in the end? When will I consider it done, if I never really cared for it in the beginning? Not everyone likes cutesy, but everyone likes something. And I'm someone. I need to stop making myself feel bad because I don't think my cupcakes live up to the next person's landscape of a white sand beach.

Aside from my dilemmas, I was notified of a very exciting thing. I was featured on the website Cuteable! Cutable is a great website/blog showcasing..you guessed it...cute things. It's a great source for all the things I love to look at.

You can check out the feature here: Cuteable Feature

It's motivating to know that my creations and art DO have a place. And there's nothing wrong with cute.


Happy Friday!

Kielbasa Stew

Oh my god, I just made the most amazing stew EVER. I had a package of kielbasa thawing in the fridge. But I was really craving cabbage (I have no idea why) so I went on Allrecipes.com to search for a good recipe. They have a nifty ingredient search function so I searched for kielbasa and cabbage together and up came Kielbasa Stew.

This is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS
1 pound kielbasa sausage, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 tablespoon butter
1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
1 (10.75 ounce) can tomato soup
1 1/2 cups water
3 cups shredded cabbage
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 cup sour cream


DIRECTIONS
In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook sausage in butter until brown. Pour broth, tomato soup and water into pan with sausage. Stir in cabbage, onion and bell pepper and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes, or until flavors are well blended. Stir in sour cream and heat through before serving.


There were a few variations though...I used beef stock instead of broth (because I had it on hand) and tomato sauce instead of soup (same deal). I also added two cans of diced tomatoes and crushed red pepper. Oh and about 1/2 cup of little red potatoes. I added more cabbage also..probably closer to 4 cups. I wanted to stretch it the best I could. I still have more than half a head of cabbage left over. I guess I could make coleslaw...

Oh, and for the sourcream...I made it an individual dollop per bowl of stew instead of mixing it in the whole thing. Gives you the option if you want the extra calories at the time or not. It tasted delicious!

I wish I had a picture to show...but I'm lazy, and my bowl is empty.

Finalist!

I entered a photo of one of the scarves I wove in a color contest (You can check out the website here: Polka Dot Creations)and it was a finalist. How exciting is that?



That was some nice icing on the cake of morning.