Monday News

Thanks to everyone who voted for the Cashmere Cloche in the Etsy kids March Contest! It didn't win, but you can check out the winner here: trendypeas. Also the Ribboned Baby Hat in Lime and Pink was featured in a Treasury this week! Check it out if you have time, thanks!

My Four Monkeys: Product Reviews

My Four Monkeys: Product Reviews & Giveaways For the Family

Posted using ShareThis

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

I haven't done a whole lot of baking recently, but then I started this Great American Bake Off campaign and things have picked up a little in the kitchen. I made brownies and butterscotch blondies for Meredith (had to make something that could survive the mail). And Last night I made carrot cake for Craig (he lost a bet that MD wouldn't cover the spread against University of Houston, they did!). I forgot that the recipe for carrot cake that I have only makes about a dozen and a half so I decided to supplement his carrot cake order by trying a new recipe I found on Baked Perfection. Here is the original post by Risa of Baked Perfection: YUM. Here is the recipe with a few changes by me (super easy!):

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

Makes ~30 mini brownies
1 box of Ghirardelli brownie mix
1/2 cup Reese's peanut butter chips
1/2 cup Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup JIF reduced fat creamy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray or grease mini-muffin cups.
Prepare boxed brownie mix as directed. Spoon batter evenly into muffin cups (about 1 Tablespoon). Bake for 13-15 minutes or until top is set and a toothpick inserted into center comes out slightly wet. After brownies are out of the oven, wait for centers to fall. This will happen upon cooling. If not then tap the centers with the back of a teaspoon to make a hole for the peanut butter.
Place peanut butter in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 45 seconds then stir. While brownies are still warm spoon about half a teaspoon of peanut butter into the center of each brownie. Top with semi-sweet chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Cool completely in pan.

Not sure how it would work with the peanut butter setting if you didn't "cool completely in pan", but you should try it with a few because I had lots of trouble getting these buggers out of the pan once they were cool. I had to use a knife and scoop them out. Never the less, they are like little pieces of heaven, so delicious!

A couple of great reviews!

As I mentioned in this post, I had sent out a few products for reviews by moms and thier kiddos. Read up on Jamie's review on Love To Shop Mom and Melissa's review on Sweet Tea & Biscuits. Hope this provides a little more insight into what I'm making :)

Vote for the Cloche!

I entered my Cashmere Baby Cloche Hat (listed under jaclyn43552) in a "Nature Inspired" Etsy Kids contest. Please vote for it here: CONTEST Here's a pic of the hat in case you forget which one it is:

Thanks everyone! And if I win I'll do a sale via this blog :)

Black Eyed Peas at Rodeo

I only made it to the Rodeo once this year and even that was only because my friend James asked me to go. I made no actual effort to see say Lady Antebellum (which would have been awesome!!!), for shame. Anywho, I was very excited for some Rodeo action last night and I was not disappointed. We got there in time (stupid Houston traffic grr) for some cattle round up and mutton bustin so I was happy. The Black Eyed Peas were def better than I was expecting. They're not exactly a group that's at the top of my play list, but I had tons of fun. Here are my crappy too far away pics of the concert:
Opening scene

Crazy transforming/ robot dancers

BEP exit in Ford pickup, naturally


If you want to read a fairly hilarious account of the whole concert and see better pics, this blog post is great: HOUSTON PRESS

Review of Ten And Ten Products!

For those of you out there that can't touch and try out my products, I would like to direct you to a great resource for deciding on whether to purchase from Ten And Ten. Jamie from Love to Shop Mom recently wrote a glowing review of some Ten And Ten products I sent her for her little Miss Diva. Check it out here: REVIEW. Thank you so much, Jamie!

Tutus

I have an ad up on the Mom Made That website detailing info on Ten And Ten and allowing people to request a review. With a review, typically the store sends a popular blogger a free item from their stock and the blogger tries out the product and writes up their opinion of the items. This is especially useful for online stores since customers don’t have the hands on option of a brick and mortar store. After convoing a couple of the bloggers I came up with these new tutus for their toddler children. One of the girlies was referred to by her mother as “Miss Diva” so I made this very girly hot pink and violet tutu for her:


And the other girlie was referred to by her mother as “Ladybug” so I obviously had to make this ladybug tutu:


Both items are now for sale in my shop, so if you’re interested check them out!

Superfreaks

Another indoor season at Horizon has come to an end. And since we actually had the entire team at this last game we took a team pic afterwards (my apologies for the sweatiness):

Silly Pic:

Yay team!

P.S. We are looking for a new full time girl, so if you’re interested give me a holler!

Disney Treats

As I reported in an earlier post, Christine went to Disney with her family this past weekend. Obviously the pups and I were super jealous but she was nice enough to bring back presents! It’s Baloo and Bernoulli’s birthday at the end of the month and they got an early birthday present yesterday. Here are some pics of them enjoying their goods:

Another Ten And Ten Feature

Hey everyone, Ten And Ten has been featured on a fellow Etsy Knitters' blog- Sherri Crochets & Crafts Blog. She was nice enough to post a little blurb that I had written about my store. check it out here: FEATURE

Dodge Ball!

This weekend was such great weather in Houston. Sunny and 75+ the whole weekend. Luckily I was invited to play in a dodge ball tournament with some of my friend and was able to enjoy the sunshine! The tournament was free to enter and the first place team got a $300 tab at Pub Fiction, the bar that was putting on the tournament. We were the Draft Dodgers and wore camo (not a good look for me) as our uniforms. We won both of our matches (best 2 out of 3 games) and were sent to the semifinals of the winners’ bracket for Sunday. Unfortunately our luck ran out on Sunday and we lost both of our matches. It was tons of fun and I’m terrible sore now from using all these non-soccer muscles haha. Here are some team and action pics courtesy of our #1 fan, Steph:

Happy Thursday!

Lots of things going on today. First, I scored another treasury today. It's pretty much a hodgepodge of my favorites but I did organize it by rows. The first is babies, second is kiddos, third is ladies, and last is home etc. Here's a Screenshot of the treasury but you can also visit it here: TREASURY

Next, there are a few new things in my shop like this set of booties:

Finally, I'm jealous that Christine is in DISNEY this weekend. Especially since the Disney Princesses Run (half marathon for women at Disney World) just passed. Check out the Disney blog article about it here: PRINCESSES

Great American Bake Off

Ok everyone! I've been waiting for this charity event to start up since I found out about it in the Fall. The Great American Bake Off is a collection of bake sales all across America that are being held to end childhood hunger in the United States. So, by eating yummy goodies you can help feed kiddos right here in the good ol' US of A. My team is called Delicious Donations if you would like to join. My approach to the bake sale is to ask anyone who wants to donate to give $20 and I'll bake them anything they want. If you keep up with this blog you know my skills are wide and varied. This offer is obviously open to those of you living in Houston mainly. However, if you live far away and choose something that is easily shippable (like cookies for instance) then this deal is for you as well! I hope everyone will join me in my efforts to end hunger in the US! Donate HERE

Feature!

This week my Etsy store, Ten And Ten, is featured on the Mommy Marketer site. Amber has such wonderful things to say and she should know, I sent her a Mini Ears Hat for her adorable Jaxon. She also blogged about my store here: Because I Said So. If you check out her site feature you can find a coupon code for 20% off your purchase at my store. It's worth giving it a look-see :)

I'm in a Treasury for the first time!

Making Treasuries on Etsy is difficult, but getting featured in one is even harder! I'm finally in my first Treasury. You can see it here: TREASURY and I've added a screen shot below, check out my Baby Crib Blanket!

Many thanks to peacefu1 for featuring me!

Fantastic Tutorial by Smaller Box on how to list your items with Google Products

Get Listed on Google Products

Adopt Me!

When the weather is nice we take our dogs to 'doggie socialization' on Saturday mornings at the Bay Area Pet Adoptions shelter. They have a giant fenced-in field behind the shelter where everyone gathers and the dogs run around for an hour. Let me tell you, the dogs LOVE it and are completely pooped for the rest of the day. Jason Vasconi, our trainer, runs the event and is an amazing moderator. There are volunteers that come to socialization and take dogs out of the shelter so they can have play time too. Christine and I did the training for this volunteer opportunity in case we ever had visitors that could hold our dogs while we got out shelter dogs. Recently Georgie, the volunteer coordinator, asked me to make dog scarves for some dogs that were being taken to an event in hopes that they would be adopted. In order to draw attention to them and designated them from other dogs at the event, I made these "Adopt Me" scarves from handkerchiefs and iron-on letters:

They're really easy to make. I just folded the handkerchief in half and then rolled it from the folded edge until it fit on my dog (about 3 rolls 2 inches thick). I sewed the top edge and the bottom edge of the fold but not the sides. This way the ends of the fold can be cut off and a dog collar can be slipped through the fold instead of tying the scarf around the dog's neck. I prefer this but sometimes the shelter doesn't have enough collars so I left the ends of the fold on the scarf for the tying option. I then ironed on the letters and voila:

My handsome models didn't want to sit still today!


If you are interested in adopting a dog or cat and are in the Kemah/Houston/Galveston, TX area you should definitely add this shelter to your shopping list! The cost is $140 for dogs and $100 (limited time price) for cats and this includes the cost of spaying/neutering, vaccinating, and microchipping the animal, really a great deal! Check them out here: BAPA

Great Urban Race

Christine and I did the Great Urban Race this weekend in Houston. The idea is that you sign up as a team of two and you are given a set of 12 clues that pertain to some place in the city where you will perform some task. We had to fold origami at the Houston Public Library, do a wheel barrel race at Cherry Hurst Park, and sink 2 balls playing pong at Murphy's Pub. Christine and I finished in 75th place (top 100!) with an official time of exactly 3 hours, which I think is pretty awesome for two Houston foreigners. Our saving grace was having our friend Mike on the phone helping us decode some of the clues, thanks Mike! Here are some of the clues we had to document via photos:
The line to pick up our packets:

Our stranger with a cowboy hat:

Our stranger on a bike:

Shaking the paw of a dog (it was a blue lacy, so pretty!):

Totally found this clue by accident, Leopard Lounge:

We had an amazing time and got lots of great exercise running all over Houston. If they come to a city near you, give it a try!

Auburn Baby Gift: Finished!

I handed off the Auburn-inspired baby gift yesterday. I was in such a rush I forgot to photograph the final package and the booties, but here are some pics of the blanket and hat finally finished:





Read more about the trials and tribulations of this project here: AUBURN