Peanut Butter Jelly Time

I made my first popsicle out of the book pops!  This one is peanut butter and jelly, and it really does taste like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!  It's made of peanut butter, yogurt, honey, juice and fruits.  I made some with grape and some with raspberry.

Hopefully when I get the time I'll make some banana, which is what my roommate and boyfriend are excited about.  I saved some of the peanut butter mixture, so hopefully it'll be a little more painless next time. 
Although this is my first out of the book, I've made a few of my own creation: a berry mint, and coco coconut.

I'm going to keep experimenting, and when I come up with a good one I'll post the recipe here.  Next I'm thinking grapefruit, rosemary.  Sounds weird I know, but the flavors are surprisingly good together!

Etsy Treasury East

 (My previous mini treasury, fleshed out into a big girl treasury)

click to see it in action!

Etsy has premiered in beta, the new treasury east.  It is in a land of unlimited treasuries without expiration.  Initially I was amazed and excited, but then I realized, there has to be a catch...

Never again will I have to sit by my computer, antsy to see the magic number of 332.  Never again will I have to organize my day around when the treasury is opening.  Never again will I have a beautiful treasury just waiting in poster sketch for the rare opportunity to be published for a mere 2 days.

It's just a little too good to be true.

Then I made one.  I like the new set up, there's more space, and if you don't feel like filling up all the spaces, there aren't just blank holes.  I struggled with making my treasury publish (you have to hit enter, simple enough, but I'm very stuck in the old ways of treasury).  No big deal, just small changes to get used to.

The real problem showed it's face a little later.  I made this treasury 2 days ago, and it has approximately 2 views.  I didn't contact all of the featured artists.  I decided that with the high frequency of never-ending treasuries that could actually be a little like spamming (etsy has always said that contacting the featured artists is spam.  Wha-what?).  I did post it on twitter.

The problem seems to be that unless you launch a full on campaign, it's very difficult to get seen among the masses in an unlimited space.  It's a problem that seems to be showing up across etsy, as the community grows larger and larger.

So, there are positives and negatives with the new treasury system.  Along with all of the other changes that etsy is making, I'm sure we have yet to see all of the many ways that it may rock our little etsy world!

Hoarding

There's a new show on TLC about people who hoard.  Their houses are wall to wall covered with stuff.  My friend Elizabeth was talking about how she saw an episode where the husband was saying that he simply couldn't understand his wife's behavior.

Elizabeth and I were talking about how we really could identify.  Not that either one of us are real hoarders, but I can certainly start to understand these people.  I am awful about collecting things for craft projects that I never get around to.  Often I don't even have something specific in mind, I just feel that some day it could be useful.

The later is the case with can tabs.  I've been collecting them for too too long.  But I have finally found an excellent use for them!

click to check them out

Now I just need to use the various interesting paper, cardboard, and plastic bags that I have collected.  I simply love the idea of making something pretty out of what could be trash!  Too bad it means that I have junk all over the place.

Planting time!

Here are my potato plants.  I think they seem pretty tall and spindly compared to the pictures I've seen.  Here's hoping there are potatoes under there.  I planted them from sprouts on old store bought potatoes.  I'm also working on growing some tomato plants to put in my topsy turvy tomato planter.  I'm hoping I don't have to start them too too late.

I'm getting pretty excited about having some plants.  In a way I think of planting things in a similar way as crafting.  It's a way of creating something, from something else that seems to have no value.  My friend and I were talking recently how it seems like it would be super cool to be farmers.  I'm pretty sure that we have no idea what we're talking about though!

Sunshine Award

Thanks to Jennifer from Sea Willow Herbs for this Sunshine Award, and for following the blog.  What a nice surprise in my comments section!

So, this seems to be sort of like a chain letter (but in a way that supports good bloggers).  Now I choose 12 blogs to whom I wish to give the award.

SillyLittleLady's spot on the web

Sweet Harvey

red or gray art 

Bitter Betty Industries

From Japan With Love

I only have 5 right now, but I'll add more later, although I'm not promising to get up to 12.  There are a lot of great blogs out there, but the decision making is tough!