Wedding Favors

My sister’s wedding is this Saturday, March 27 and hubby and I took the liberty to make the wedding favors. We had labels printed by SitckerDiva on Etsy with their name and wedding date on it. We originally were going to use Kraft pillow boxes, but when the labels arrived the Kraft boxes would not have done them any justice. So I spent the better part of the evening shopping for the perfect color pillow box. My intention was to go with white pillow boxes but the craft store only had black and after visiting several other stores, I was tired so black pillow boxes it was. I still had to do even more shopping for the perfect blue ribbon to tie into the label and the perfect color card stock to make round circles to affix the labels to. Now this wasn’t suppose to take much of my time but whew it took partially half of the rest of my evening. The black pillow boxes were slightly smaller than our Kraft boxes, therefore the soaps had to be cut down even more. Then I thought affixing the ribbon to the boxes would be a breeze but that took a deal of time because we had to use double side tape and had to be sure that where we placed the tape was the right place. We didn’t want to run the risk of having to peel the tape off and ruining the boxes. Then we had to cut the cardstock circles to affix the label to, this was easy since I brought one of those circle punch tools. Now the biggest challenge was affixing the circle cardstock to the box. The circle was partially on the box and we didn’t want to run the risk of it falling off. So hubby applied glue with a Q-tip to each one and held each for a few minutes so that the glue would hold. We both were glad when this job was over. The good thing is we had a lot of fun doing it and it was definitely for a worthy person, my baby sis. Here are pix of the favors, we still have to do the Lucky Bamboo favors, just waiting on one more thing to come in the mail for them, should be here today.

Things in the works

I know it has been a while since I last blogged. I have been really busy getting ready for my sister’s wedding on 3.27.10. I am doing favors for her wedding and I am also participating in the I Do Brunch swag bag giveaway. So it has been a little hectic around here. Then on top of all of this I have an infant, orders to fill, promoting and two kids in school and into sports. There sometimes seem to not be enough hours in the day.

Today I have multiple things going on. I am working on orders so I had to make up more whipped cocoa butter and salve. I had to steep my herbs in the crocket pot overnight last night for my salve. This herbal infusion is with olive oil along with herbs of St. John’s Wort, Calendula, Chickweed and Plantain. We use this infusion in our Salve that is good for itchy scalp, small cuts, dry patches and many other uses.




Here are some pix of our soap favors in the making with labels printed by StickerDiva on Etsy. We have put a couple of the boxes together for the I Do Brunch giveaway. We have not started my sister’s favors yet because I need to go and get some white pillow boxes. I thought the Kraft boxes would look nice but with the label I had printed for her, white boxes would look much better. Thank goodness it is a small ceremony.

Cranberry Spice Handmade Soap Etsy Feature

Guys I am too excited, I just got out of a meeting and had a post to my FB FanPage (www.facebook.com/kkfans) and discovered that my Cranberry Spice soap (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38780031) was featured on the frontpage. Came to the front page and it had already disappeared so I went to http://www.craftcult.com/etsyfeatured.php to verify it and sure enough it is true. This was a first for me YEAH!

Thoughts on Almond-Crusted Tilapia

Okay, as promised. I said I would come back and give my thoughts on the Almond-Crusted Tilapia recipe that I posted yesterday from allrecipes.com. It is delicious. I finished dinner right before 6 so I didn’t feel guilty sampling the fish since I am suppose to stop eating at 6. Anyway, I made a few changes. Instead of using Parmasean (which I thought I had in the fridge) I used low fat cheddar cheese. Since I cooked 8 fillets I ran out of the almond cheese mixture, so I used Italian seasoned bread crumbs for the last 3 or so fillets. Also after sautéing the first 4 fillets in the pan, the butter disappeared. So for the rest of the fillets I used 3 tablespoons of olive oil. The next time I make this I will either crush the almonds to a fine powder or save time and use the bread crumbs. I loved the almonds however my youngest son didn’t care for it. I will also use either all egg whites or one egg and one egg white. In addition, I will use whole wheat flour instead of white flour. For my side dishes I prepared brown rice and a medley of vegetables (zucchini, squash, carrots and cauliflower). Tonight I plan to prepare a low-fat chicken lasagna recipe and I hope I can locate a good recipe.

Almond-Crusted Tilapia

Okay, many of you know that I had a bundle of joy on 1/4/10. Prior to her arrival I was on a serious healthy living kick (which is probably how I got pregnant, eggs that where dormant came to life…lol). I was working out and eating right. Well now that little Ms. Wynter is here I am trying to pick up where I left off. I have eliminated red meat from my diet (the Baconator from Wendy’s was my best friend during pregnancy). I only eat fish, chicken and turkey that is broiled, grilled or baked. I double and often times triple my vegetable servings and aim for much smaller portions all while eating frequently. In addition I am exercising at least 45 minutes 3 days a week (my favorite exercise right now is walking on the treadmill because I can hold my baby while I walk). Anyway back to my eating habits. Instead of having a good portion for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I break my meals up to the point that I am eating 5 small meals a day and 2 snacks. You know how the saying goes, eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince(ss) and dinner like you’re deprived. I also make my own snacks instead of buying things like cereal bars, trail mixes, etc. This to me is just like making soap I can control what I put in it, which I love.

Eating just fish, chicken and turkey can become real boring very fast for some people and I happen to be part of the some. Therefore I am always on a quest to find different things to do with my meats of choice. So today I found a recipe that sounded wonderful on allrecipes.com (submitted by Michelle Woolf) called Almond-Crusted Tilapia. I am preparing this for dinner, which my family will eat but I will take it for lunch tomorrow…forgot to mention that I cut my eating off at 6:00. I will hopefully post tomorrow my thoughts on this recipe that received great reviews. Here it is

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 teaspoon lemon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic pepper
1 cup ground almonds
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
8 (6 ounce) tilapia fillets
1/4 cup all-purpose flour for dusting
6 tablespoons butter
salt to taste
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
8 sprigs parsley
8 lemon wedges

Directions
1. Beat the eggs with the lemon pepper and garlic pepper until blended; set aside. Stir together ground almonds with 1 cup of Parmesan cheese in a shallow dish until combined; set aside. Dust the tilapia fillets with flour, and shake off excess. Dip the tilapia in egg, then press into the almond mixture.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook tilapia in melted butter until golden brown on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Reduce heat to medium, and season fillets with salt if desired. Sprinkle the tilapia with the remaining Parmesan cheese, cover, and continue cooking until the Parmesan cheese has melted, about 5 minutes.
3. Transfer the tilapia to a serving dish, and garnish with parsley springs and lemon wedges to serve.

Back to work cont'd

Today was my first day back to work from maternity leave. I must say the day went a lot better than I thought it would. Even though I did some work from home while on maternity leave it was much better doing it from my desk at work. I had very little distraction and it felt good to be able to get out of the house and interact with some adults even though I was working.

I did not do much business related stuff today however I did manage to unpack an order that had been sitting in my foyer since Saturday. I got a load of fragrances in some old and some new. The two new ones that I think will be favorites are Honeysuckle Grapefruit and Stress Relief. Honeysuckle Grapefruit is very nice and the grapefruit has a very strong presence. The honeysuckle doesn’t come through as much however it does mellow the grapefruit out so that it is not as tart, kind of hard to explain this complex fragrance that would be very nice for the summer. Stress Relief in my opinion doesn’t really live up to its name. When I think of a stress reliever I think of something that would have me melting at the moment I smell it. Even though this is a very nice fragrance it is just not the wow I was looking for. It is a balanced soft floral scent.

Facebook Fan Page

Okay, my day started early as usual. Binka, which is the nickname for my darling baby girl Wynter, woke up around 5 am to eat. Feed her, gave her to daddy, and I went to do my work out. Did Walk Away the Pounds one mile walk this morning. Nothing to strenuous, but enough to get me pumped. After that I made my grocery list, then an avocado shake. I got this recipe from the Dr. Oz show. It is one ripe avocado, 2 cups of low fat milk (I use skim) and 2 tablespoons of honey. Mix in the blender and enjoy. It was right tasty too and had a beautiful pale green color. As I was peeling the avocado I couldn’t help but say to myself, boy I bet this would be nice in soap. We do use avocado oil in some of our soaps but we have never soaped real avocado. So of course it is now on my to-do list. After the shake I hit the Internet in search of how to change my landing page on my facebook fan page. Of course it was a very simple task, just needed to take the time to sit down and do it. For those who would like to know you go to your fanpage, click edit, then wall settings and there is a drop down box to change your landing page. Anyway take a look at our fan page and become a fan.