Little Bites

Little bites like little steps are my plan of getting through the next steps in my life. While trying to follow the writing in The Secret. It all makes great sense...good thoughts attract good things, think that you deserve good things and good things will come to you. There is so much more but that is the gist of it. We attract the vibes we put out into the universe, so if you say I can't ...you probably won't. So I am now saying I am and I can instead.. My son is a perfect example, from the time he was a small child he has thought and jokingly said "he must have been left behind by a rich family" He wanted nice things, he got them. Yes, he works hard but enjoys life and is a very generous man. I am taking a page from his book and using the tools taught in The Secret to change the course of my life NOW. It is never too late for change. I also have a grand plan... a 14 day trip to Ireland to see where some of my family came from. The farthest back a cousin has tracked is Coleraine Londonderry, Ulster Ireland.   So, I am saving my change, using my cash from recycled cans and the checks I earn from Josephines. The trip is about $2,600.00 so I have a way to go but I WILL get there.

The Secret teaches us that we create our lives, with every thought every minute of every day. Living The Secret offers tools and ideas to help you live The Secret and create the life of your dreams.
    
So to reward myself for all the GOOD thought I am sending out to the world I searched the internet and found a wonderful blog that contained what must be the perfect treat
Brookie Bites
First you need to bake up your brownies...


I usually use a box, just because it is so much easier (and lazier:-)



While the brownies are cooling, mix up your cookie dough.

I used this same recipe found HERE but

I used vanilla extract this time.

Bake the cookies for about 7-8 minutes.

You want them to be soft and gooey...not crispy!

Try to resist the urge to inhale said gooey cookie.



Oh what the heck!

Go ahead and eat a few:-)



Let the cookies cool slightly, then

roll them into small bite sized balls.

(definitely easier to do before they cool all the way)

Place in the freezer and wait until frozen.

It will be hard but you can do it.



Then...

yup you got it.

Place that frozen cookie in the center of a small brownie

and start smushing it all around that cookie ball.

Now here is the hardest part...

you've got to freeze them AGAIN.



I know it's torture, but well worth it in the end.

You can reward yourself by eating

some of the brownie scraps to pass the time.



Once they are frozen enough,

melt some chocolate in the microwave and dip away.

Any sprinkles on top will do,

but it is that time of year so

hearts it is ♥
http://insidebrucrewlife.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-to-do-during-snowstorm.html

I also got inspired to make up a few new hats and items for the Etsy shop .

This idea came about from the boys bag of goldfish crackers.......another good thing in a little bite! I am working on a lion and a hippo. I will get them done today and I will get them posted. The are adorable!

Have a great day ( I am sending out good vibrations)   like that 60's song....I know I WILL

Tooting ones own Horn

In todays world this seems like something you need to do, not only do but be good at. this is extremely hard for me. I don't know if it is from childhood, or a personality thing but I am AWFUL at it. Yet, I have been told I NEED to do just that if I ever want to get anything done for our town. I have huge dreams that we can restart our town. It was and still is a very pretty little town, Set in some of the best hunting, fishing and camping in Wisconsin. Times change and people go where they see the ads for and unfortunately there have been no huge ad promotions for Montello since the 70's. The lakes and woodlands we had then we still have, the rivers and bike trails, birds and wildlife. We need to get visitors to our town and new small businesses to fill the shops and make stopping here something to talk about. Now with all that said , where do I come in.....I had a dream     you've heard that somewhere before. Let me go to the beginning, I am a MOM of 5 grown kids who since the early 70;s has had symptoms of myastenia gravis ( a form of MD )  , I muddled through when no one knew what was wrong. The in 1989 I was told the diagnosis, I had one small grandson and was give some very good advice from the smartest woman I knew ( My Gram)  make each day count, none of know what is in store for us, don't waste a day) so I have tried. I have taken Granddaughters to ballet, moved to Wisconsin. Here to my every day is vacation spot and am raising 3 teen age grandkids and two adorable but tiring great grandsons. Yet there is more to my dream. It has three parts. First to open the small diner in our downtown and add to it a cupcake bakery. The kind of diner where you can depend on Monday Meatloaf , homemade soups and desserts and a basket of fries to share. Second to enter Iron Cupcake Milwaukee and third to help put Montello back on the map for tourist year round. Now to alot of people this sounds out of reach but, I think it is possible...maybe bot to win Iron Cupcake Milwaukee but at least the diner, the town and get entered in Iron Cupcake.  I was given a link to a great site where you can post your project and people from all over can learn about it and if they choose give you a donation and earn some perks for doing so. I have that link and please check it out, share it with friends and help me toot my horn! http://www.indiegogo.com/Patti-Lekas  I will check back time and again and let everyone know how we are doing! Thanks in advance for getting the word out!

Christmas in July

This souns like a fun idea, the whole town has specials in the shop and people serve Christmas cookies and have treats for the shoppers. Except if it is in the 80"s and you need to bake these cookies. Hot and humid and yes tommorrow starts Montellos Christmas in July.
I had put alot of thought into what I could do in the shop. Bring out the Christmas so those visiting only once this year had a chance to shop, make a few great sale items and the best.....Paint Santas
Painting Santa is a real project when the last thing you feel like is chilly and snow. The shops ari is on the fritz and santa is coming along slowly. Not, one Santa on an old ironing board but three. In the morning , refreshed and hopefully cooler I will add the finishing touches to them, break out the cookies and against my better judgement put on a Christmas cd. Personalized gingerbread families are ready and I dug out the pine scented candles for that Christmas feel. I will have to let you know if it works as well as we had planned.
I am finishing up a few more sweaters for the trip to Josephines Paper Box in Watertown, it will be nice to have another location to sell them out of. They have done fairly well on etsy so I hope they do in this shop as well.

Rock Painting at Pattibears Place

Friday was the first class in rock painting I have given so far this season. Three young men seven, ten and thirteen came. Normally my first class is a bunny so the student learns to make fur strokes and gets the basics of rock painting.  This was not the case, not only did these three not want to paint a bunny, they each wanted to paint a different animal.....and none had fur!

The littlest decided on a turtle ... and angry turtle. He did fairly well for a first time and added some great color to the turtle shell and in the end he did look angry turtle.

Student number two had a rock, not shaped like any animal, so we took another route and painted the animal on the rock.  Not the rock into an animal , like we normally do. He made a lizard, colorful with it drawn completely by him.

Number three had heard his mother say the day before in my shop that she wanted an owl and he found a rock that would work. Just let me say feathers are harder than fur to paint, and this student had never painted before either. But, he listened and tried his best and in the end MOM got an owl

This is how it usually goes!

Find a smooth rock, for a bunny a baked potato shape works great. As you get more experience you can work around odd shaped rocks. Basecoat your rock with black acrylic paint. This gives you a base to work from and helps get shadow and depth to your painting. Use a wide brush, ( good brushes are not necessary for this part )       Use chalk to outlind where the face is, the ears and where the back legs are. This is just a guide and will be covered up later. It helps to look at a picture, I recommend the kids books on HOW TO DRAW ANIMALS a great source to show features and proportions.

Next thin some white paint to use for your fur strokes. The most important thing to remember is to stroke in the same direction the fur grows!  Outline the ears, nose and eyes. you will fill these in later. Remember there is never too big of a mistake you can't correct....Just paint it black and start again! The back legs are painted like wheel spokes coming down , the face fur grows up from the nose and to the sides from the eyes. The cheeks are little white puffs with a triangle of white between for the chin.

As you practice your fur lines will become finer and you can get even more detail. Let your white fur lines dry completely.

The back of the bunny, no tail yet, that is a final detail

add brown for the eyes and flesh for the nose and ears

Delute brown paint to a tint and cover the white fur lines. Leave the cheeks and chin white

Add some white eyelashes around the eyes, paint in the pupils and add awhite reflection dot. Brush in a few black eyelashes and last but not least  Do not forget the tail....and you are done

Tuesday Tutorial

Creating Vacation Memories
By: Rachel Paxton

My daughter and I recently had the opportunity to spend a week at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. We were totally overwhelmed with all the things there were to do, and I had no idea how we would ever be able to remember it all.

We decided to put together a scrapbook of our Disney World memories. We wanted this to be as inexpensive as possible, while at the same time creative. Before we left on our trip my husband's mom gave us some scrapbook pages she got from our local craft store that already had Disney World characters and themes throughout them. So we knew we wanted to put together a scrapbook of some kind.

While visiting the Animal Kingdom in Disney World, we were browsing through one of many gift shops, gawking at the incredibly high prices. While looking through the photo albums I happened upon some discontinued scrapbooks that were marked down 50% to only $8! I couldn't believe our luck. It was spiral-bound with animal designs imprinted on every page. Perfect.

So we brought home the album, photos we had taken, and we already had scrapbooking pages to liven it up a bit, but it needed something else.

I had also saved whatever memorabilia I could think of, like plane tickets, the credit cards you get to open your hotel door, the meal vouchers we had received, our luggage tags, post cards, and our theme park passes. All of these items combined (with a little imagination and some glue!) make up a very inexpensive memory (less than $20 total) that will last a lifetime.


Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit www.crafty-moms.com.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

This article may be reprinted for free so long as the author's resource box is kept intact and all links remain live and clickable. The Article Source must also be included. All rights are reserved by the author.

another apple recipe

I have bee trying new recipes in hopes of winning another ribbon at this years Harvesy Fest on September 13th. As I try them out I thought I would share them here.
Servings:
Makes 12 muffins

Nutrition Information:
Protein: 4g; Fat: 3g; Carbohydrate: 21g; Fiber: 3g; Sodium: 134mg; Cholesterol: 18mg; Calories: 121.



Low in cholesterol and saturated fat, thee scrumptious homemade muffins are much healthier than the average store-bought variety.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup oat bran
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups peeled, cored, and finely chopped Golden
Delicious apples



Method:

1) Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease twelve 3-inch muffin cups or line with paper liners. In large bowl, combine both flours, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In medium bowl, beat buttermilk, oat bran, brown sugar, oil, and egg until blended. Stir buttermilk mixture into flour mixture just until combined. Fold in apples.

2) Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool muffins in pan 5 minutes; remove from pan and cool on wire rack.