Saturday, August 22, 2009

Do you like coffee?

I do! One of my favorite things to do when I have the time is to curl up w/a big cup (and yes, my "cup" holds a half a pot!!) of coffee, enjoying the sounds of our small community mingled with the birds, distant traffic from the freeway, frogs and crickets while I wait for the rest of the day to unfold before me. It's the perfect time for me to count my blessings, and there are many. Even on days such as this when I feel invisible to the world around me. Time to make the coffee and concentrate on God's love for me. I hope you can feel it too.

IHOP Flavored Coffees

Cafe Bavarian Mint
1/4 C powdered creamer
1/3 C Sugar
1/4 C Instant Coffee
2 T cocoa
2 hard candy peppermints

Process in blender on liquify until well blended. Store in air tight container

IHOP Cafe Cappuccino
1/4 C Powdered Creamer
1/3C Sugar
1/4 C Instant Coffee
1 Orange flavored piece of hard candy

Process in blender on liquify until blended. Store in air tight container.

Cafe Swiss Mocha
1/4 C Powdered Creamer
1/3 C sugar
1/4 C Instant coffee
2 T cocoa

Process in blender on liquify until blended. Store in air tight container.

Cafe Viennese
1/4 C Powdered Creamer
1/3 C Sugar
1/4 C Instant coffee
1/2 teasp Cinnamon

Process in blender on liquify until blended. Store in air tight container.

What would go good w/a great cup of coffee? Perhaps some Cinnabon Rolls. ;)
Rolls;
1/2 cup warm water
2 packages dry yeast
2 T sugar
3 1/2 oz pkg. vanilla pudding mix
1/2 cup margarine, melted
2 eggs
1 teasp salt
6 cups flour

Combine water, yeast and sugar. Stir til dissolved, set aside.
In a large bowl, add pudding mix, prepared according to directions.
Add margarine, eggs, and salt, mix well.
Add yeast mixture and blend.
Gradually add flour, knead until smooth.
Place in greased bowl, let rise til doubled, punch down and let rise again.
On floured board, roll out to approximately 34" x 21". Spread w/1 cup soft butter.
In a bowl, mix 2 cups brown sugar and 4 teaspoons of cinnamon. Sprinkle over the top of the buttered dough.
Roll up very tightly, cut with a knife every 2".
Place on lightly greased cookie sheet, 2" apart.
Lightly press down on each roll, cover and let rise til double.
Bake at 350 degrees, 15-20 minutes, remove when they start to turn golden. Do Not Over Bake!

Frost w/Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup margarine
1 teasp vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tbl milk

Mix all ingredients, mix until smooth.

Treat yourself today. You deserve it. Be well and be blessed my friends!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Hump Day!

Good Morning! I hope everyone out in blogland is doing well. I'm in the shop and ready to start working. Waiting for the kiln to cool down so I can start the painting on the new fused glass coasters. It has cooled off 200 degrees in the last 2 hours, but still too hot to open. Argh! I am not always patient when it comes to waiting to see new fused pieces. :)

I received a call from the client that ordered the Vegas pieces. She loves them! It was a relief since I went out on a limb on the design for those. Sometimes it's just gotta be a certain way, more than what the customer had requested but I'd rather go overboard and do the job right than to just to an average piece. I hope she comes up soon, I can't wait for her to see them in person.

Today's job should be packing up for Riversong Studio, getting them some new autumn inventory for the shop. She has such a lovely place! Chock full of wonderful accents for home and garden. http://www.riversong-studio.com/index.html If you're ever in the area, Riversong is a great place to spend a few hours browsing all her little treasures and treats! It's one of those places where you go thru and do a good look around, then go thru again and discover even more goodies. Laid back and genuine, funky to fabulous, this little shop is just a wonder that must be experienced first hand! Leslie herself is such a wonderful friend to many, myself included. I get so much inspiration from a visit with Leslie that I can't wait to get home and start creating. Everyone that has shopped at Riversong says the same thing so I know it's not just me.

So my friends, have a terrific day no matter what is on your To Do List! I'm off to see what kind of trouble I can get into here at the shop. Be well and be blessed.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Somedays I love my job!




As my kids would tell me, I am a Rock Star! LOL But after having a 12 hour day in the shop, no calls, no customers, it amazes even me what I can get done!! Sweetness and Light! There may just be a mess of new fall pieces for all the shops this year. I'm not sure where the ideas for these came from, but I am totally loving them all. Now I have more ideas, one or 2 large ones, and several more small to medium ones. I can't wait to get to work on them. But it will wait til tomorrow since I am going to reward myself and take off early tonite! Spending time w/the 2 granddaughters, Tim, Samantha, and Julia when she gets home....and my sweetie Bobo. ;)
Have a terrific nite everyone! Hope you were all Rock Stars today too!











Sunday, August 2, 2009

things that make you go, "Hmmmm?"

Don't know why this one didn't load before so here it is! :)

Kick Butt Weekend!




Hi all!
Surprised to hear from me again so soon aren't you? tee-hee! Well it's been a kick butt weekend in the shop and I'm so happy w/all that I was able to accomplish! Got an order to Riversong Studio delivered today, 60 new pieces are already displayed in Leslie's fun shop! Got alot of pics taken too, gotta edit some of them but finally got the Vegas Collage
pictures uploaded to the bucket. It's been very busy but wow....I love getting so much done in such a short amount of time. Tomorrow it's back to work again of course, and some of the old mojo has kicked in and I'm anxious to get started on some new autumn pieces. Along w/working on the new pieces, there are some custom orders that will be in the works as well. Several fused pieces so I'll be able to kill 2 birds w/one stone in the coming week. Get the kiln loaded, then back to the new fall pieces. Hoping for a quiet week in the shop so I can get as much done as possible!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and are ready for the week ahead of us! Be well my friends!