The L word

Meaning LEMONS of course. There is something about bright sunny days and warm weather that makes me crave these citrus fruits. They yield such yummy delights in both baking and cooking, that they are one of my favourite ingredients, something I always keep on hand in the fridge. Mum had found one of my Vegan Lemon Scone recipes tucked in her box, and that seemed like reason enough to make them. First thing this morning I hopped on my bike and went to the store to fill up on some fresh summer picks.

The recipe for the scones is as follows, and an easy peasy tutorial is here too!

Vegan Lemon Poppyseed Scones :

-2 cups whole wheat flour

-3/4 cup white sugar

-4 tsp baking powder

-pinch of salt

-3/4 cup margarine

- 1 lemon, zested and juiced

-2 tbsp poppyseeds

-1/2 cup soymilk

-1/4 cup water

First thing, sift all dry ingredients together into a bowl. It will sift out the yummy bran of the flour, so just dump those bits in after everything else is sifted. Cut margarine into dry ingredients until its all nice and crumbly.

Zest and juice your lemon. Note : zest the whole lemon first, THEN cut it and juice it. Add to dry mix.

Add remaining ingredients, poppyseeds, and slowly add the liquid. If your mix seems too liquidy, then you can use less water, or, add a bit more flour. Combine it all up til its a nice ball. Then with floured hands take chunks as small or large as you like your scones, and roll them into balls.

Make sure to space them. They'll expand quite a bit in the oven. Now I wish I knew how to do fancy triangle scones, but i'll have to find a tutorial and learn it for myself first. For now, round will do. Bake at 400F or 200C for 10-15 minutes.

And voila, yummy lemony vegan scones. They're not overly sweet, but they are lovely fresh.

Now foods with lemon are not all that have been on my brain, I simply adore yellow this time of year, and was browsing Etsy for some sunny finds.

This sweet lemony organizer holds coupons and a notebook for runs to the market. You can find it and others at offthehookbybrooke.etsy.com

I practically squealed when I saw these cupcake wrappers. Hello fun tea party accessories? So cute, and a dozen is so affordable, find these and other cute paper wrappers at Oliviaspapershoppe.etsy.com

Lastly, you know I can't help but browse through pet things for my darling Daisy. I found a super sweet yellow polkadot collar. It would be so fresh for summer! These and many more accessories for your pooch can be found at collarsbydesign.etsy.com.

I'll be keeping with the lemon theme this week, as I have more recipes and things to share. There will even be a sweet giveaway of one of my own jewelry creations from Daisy*Kisses!! For a head's up, you'll be able to enter the giveaway contest by leaving a comment under Tomorrow's post, 2 entries by leaving a comment AND following the blog, and 3 entries for commenting, following and posting a link/featuring the contest on your blog!

Thanks for popping in, remember to leave some love, and spread the word!

-Katrina

Midweek Musings

I'm trying to post regularly, so I can get myself back into the blogging habit. Granted, everyday life does not always seem post-worthy, and it is rarely accompanied by photos. But there are a few things I should very much like to share with my readers.

First off, I received an exciting parcel on Monday afternoon, and inside was such a treasure. I had custom ordered a pair of earrings from a fellow Etsy seller, a Canadian to boot, and they had just arrived. Had I been thinking, I might have taken pictures of the cute packaging, but I was so eager, I simply dove right in.

Inside were my earrings, the sweet wire wrapped pair I had been checking the mailbox for everyday since I bought them.

Simply amazing aren't they? Giddy as I was to try these on, to my surprise and further excitement, Joella had included a second pair of earrings completely free as a thank you gift!!! They are gorgeous gold and turquoise dangles, and I will post a picture soon. She has been so sweet, and her work inspires me. I want you all to check out her shop right now and click favourites, I promise you won't be disappointed by her wonderful handmade designs. http://www.etsy.com/shop/jkfoster I already know I'll be shopping with her again soon.


Also, tonight was our last Young Womens activity before summer break, so we had a little party for the girls at church. My friend ordered gourmet cupcakes from The Cake Box, and I made yummy fruit-kabobs with Marshmallows included. I also helped the girls create their own monogrammed door hangers. Mine is shown there at the top. I simply printed out large letters for each girls name, cut out the letter from coloured cardstock, and then glued that onto a 6 by 6 inch cardboard square which I had modge podged patterned paper onto. Add some pretty ribbon with little brads, and voila, a cute, easy paper craft!

Hope everyone's weeks are going well. Leave me a comment and let me know. Don't forget to check out Joella's shop!

Summer Shop Talk

I've been very absent from the blogging world for the past few months. Life has its ups and downs, and I was meeting quite frequently with some down portions, so I felt it was necessary to just step back and not worry about these sort of things. However, I'm feeling wonderful now, and with the sun making attempts to break through the rainy clouds, I can see clear skies ahead.


I thought it was time to get back on the blogging bandwagon. Though I have always felt blogs were incredibly self centered things, I've noticed that they can be therapeutic. And there are blogs which are so wonderful and inspiring.


My etsy shop Daisy*Kisses, has slowly been updated with new summer earrings. I've really got the earring bug at the moment, and keep feeling inspired to make more little danglies to adorn your lobes.

Just yesterday I added three new sets of sweet floral earrings, excellent accessories for girly girls in summer. Take a peek at the shop here http://www.blogger.com/www.daisykisses.etsy.com ! If having a green thumb isn't your thing but you still love flowers, then these are the perfect way to show it.


I also attended a 2 hour photography workshop that a friend of mine had put on this past Saturday, and boy was I glad I did! One of my biggest frustrations with the whole etsy endeavor, is that the pictures are absolutely essential in selling a product. If one can't see the quality of the item, because the picture is too fuzzy or too dark, then buying is a scary process.


I have an HP Photosmart M415, and its really not the best for great photography. However, I was able to learn some great tricks in the class, about how to take better pictures, and was eager to try it out. The new earrings gave the opportunity to do just that. See here, I'm quite pleased with the improvement in my shots.

Granted, I still want to save up and get a better camera. She talked about Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed in the class, all functions in a camera that can make taking good quality pictures so much easier. I'm definitely going to start piggybanking for that now, and also, try and use my camera more often to take some more artistic, or just plain better, photos.

Love and gratitude to all my visitors

~Katrina

the lovely lemon tree

I have long been absent from the blogging world and I have ever so much to catch up on reading. But my days have not been entirely fruitless (pun intended). There are some new items in my Etsy shop, most notably this sweet little collection of lemony jewelry.




The above bracelet is three strands of sunny cuteness. The gold & silver closure is salvaged from a vintage necklace I found. And all the pearls used are also recycled from old jewelry. All other yellow and white beads are made of glass.




These earrings remind me of a tangy lollipop! So fun, they'd be sure to brighten up any outfit.

And this single strand bracelet has the perfect combination of delicate recycled pearls and fun fruity swirls. All items are available for sale now in my shop! www.daisykisses.etsy.com . Please have a look, and leave me some feedback!

My Esty Shop

Finally...After an entire summer of saying I was going to do it, I've finally gone and done it!! My shop, Daisy*Kisses, is finally up and running on Etsy.com. I am just sooo excited, and really quite relieved. You can find it by clicking here http://www.daisykisses.etsy.com, or it will always be in the sidebar under My Other Pages.



For the past few months its been somewhat frustrating every time someone would ask me "So what are you doing these days" and I would explain what I was working towards, but I felt like I had nothing to show for it. Now I can finally say I make and sell jewelry (and soon other handicrafts), and then easily direct them to my shop website.



Hopefully you like what I have to offer. I absolutely love the creative process of finding neat pieces to work with, and then putting them together into something wearable. Some of my pieces use chain, and lots of it, others use recycled jewelry from broken or unwanted pieces, and others use silk cording. I'd have to say the silk cording is my favourite media to work with, as it seems to be something you don't see much.



It really has so much potential though, for both casual and fancier jewelry. I wanted to get all my jewelry posted first, and perhaps in the coming weeks I'll start posting some of the other things I've made. Now that all this jewelry is ready to go, I'm eager to start working on the next batch. What sells first or gets favourites will be a good indicator of what ya'll (that's right I said it) are looking for, and while I will try and cater to the market, I still want to be creative and make sure that my pieces are inspiring to me as well! Thank you for all of your support in reading my blog and encouraging me towards accomplishing this dream of mine!



xx

Katrina

shop banner

So I finally got around to designing a banner for my etsy shop today. I'm certainly no graphic artist as is quite obvious, but I still wanted to give it a try for myself. After playing about with the Paint.net program, I managed to create something I was fairly pleased with.




I wanted something that seemed a little bit vintage & unique. The background is a dictionary type definition of Daisy*Kisses in alphabetic form. What do you think? Do you like it? Let me know what you think.

In other shop news, I'm in the process of uploading listings to the shop, and will activate them once they are all done. Its a time consuming process to a newbie like me, but its not broken my enthusiasm yet. Items will be available on a Grand Opening day...which will be this week....Some time. ^^