There's no pimping here

Our new pumpkin biscuits have been giving me a few little challenges.

First of all, we printed up some lovely new pumpkin tags featuring Sammy. The tags look great, but after packing our bags into shipping boxes I realized there was a little problem...the tags are 1/4 inch wider than all of our other tags. This probably seems like a very small detail, but let me tell you it makes a difference when you are trying to snuggly pack rows of 10 bags into shipping boxes. An extra 1/4 inch adds up to an extra 1 & 1/4 inches when you pack a row of 5 bags...and there's not that much room to spare in our shipping boxes. Sigh.

Secondly, the pumpkin biscuits have been wildly popular (which is a very good thing) but so popular that I sold out a couple of weeks ago. Not to worry, I had our bakery bake up some more and picked them up earlier this week. I opened up the box and much to my surprise, it was filled with pumpkin biscuits...but the wrong ones.

A couple of years ago, we had a pumpkin biscuit which was truly uninspiring. We dropped them due to dismal sales. We revamped the biscuits a couple of months ago. We dropped the corn, dropped the grains, and added pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds and sesame seeds...oh yes, and a dash of allspice. Yum.

But the pumpkin biscuits in my boxes had no seeds! Seems my bakers used the OLD recipe, not the NEW recipe. Sadly, I am still sold out of pumpkin biscuits.

But...I still had to smile. I took a look at my packing slip. My production manager is originally from Switzerland and her written English is interesting sometimes. It seems I picked up "pimping pieces" instead of "pumpkin pieces"!

An interesting business alternative, but I think we won't diversify into pimping just yet.

Handmade Christmas

This wonderful illustration is available for you to use for Christmas cards courtesy of Julia at Lineanongrata. Go to her blog to check out the details or her etsy shop to check out her wonderful illustrations and bags. Truly original and inspiring. Now, if you are part of my family and live on the "right coast"...please stop reading right now.

For the rest of you, I want to share part of my handmade Christmas....for our lovely Miss M.

Back in the summer, I blogged about an auction we went to. I purchased 2 wooden silverware cases For $1 that I planned to revitalize and turn into treasure boxes for our 2 grandchildren. That didn't go as planned. Some things just don't work out I guess. The boxes were the perfect size. I took out the old velvet linings, but no matter what I tried I couldn't get rid of a terrible musty smell. Yuck. I abandoned my plans. But I did come up with an alternative for Miss M....a wooden mini chest of drawers that I bought and painted. Here is the finished project:

I filled some of the drawers with wrapped presents. Her Beebee Mod shirt...some "jewels" to make her own jewelry...some rhinestone flowers with sticky backs...some sticky foam letters and flowers...Purple is her favourite colour. I hope she likes it.

It's all how you look at it

On Friday we took a little trip. To Toronto. Four hours of driving to take a look at Cody's new home. Well...the home is not so new. But it's new to him.

His dad drove him and all his worldly belongings down to Toronto on Thursday. John and I took the drive on Friday. Our first little problem was that we arrived (by using our new GPS system) at the address on Danforth. But the address was a little bungalow in a neighbourhood that just didn't seem right. And I knew he was living in an apartment over a bar. (it sounds worse than it is). I didn't have his cell phone number with me (he just got a new number the day before). We don't own a cell phone. So off we went...walking to the nearest convenience store to see where the closest pay phone was. We got to talking with the convenience store owner. After about 5 minutes we discover that we are on Danforth Road. There is also a Danforth Avenue. Ahhhh. Back to the car, rekey in the address on the GPS, and off we go.

You have arrived at destination. (I don't know if I'll ever get used to the woman's voice on the GPS system) Cody was waiting for us and very excited. This was great to see, because usually he's pretty laid back. The first thing he wanted to do was show us his apartment.

It's funny how life is. He is on top of the world because he has a place of his own (well, he's sharing with one of his best friends). His own stuff. His own responsibility. It's perfect for him. And I'm comfortable with it too. The neighbourhood looks great. Lots to see and do. Lots of opportunities for part time jobs...good for a struggling actor. And it looks safe...important for a mom's well being.

Look Mom...it's perfect. We've got all the movies and games we need. And we have table hockey too!

So, he's really happy. But you know how life is...at our stage of life...if we had to live there...we wouldn't be so happy about it. We'd think that we had come down in the world. It's all how you look at it, isn't it?

Cody used his new tool kit and hung some pictures. We headed out for lunch, and then shopping for a futon. (for some reason, he didn't want a bed and had his heart set on a futon). That was not an easy thing...rush hour through downtown Toronto traffic. It took us 3 hours of driving around, but we found the perfect one. We managed to squeeze it into our CRV and crawled at a snail's pace through traffic. We got it up 2 flights of stairs, got him settled, and headed back home. It was dark when we left. Here is a shot of his building. He lives on the top floor. Rails and Ales is at street level, 2 apartments on the second floor (one occupied by 2 girl's from Cody's Theatre program), and Cody and Mike's place on the top.

Another 4 hour drive. I shed a few tears on the way. Sad, but happy too.

Have fun out there.

I love this commercial. The look on the guy's face when the wolf swallows the bird just cracks me up. (not to worry...the wolf spits him out and starts to sing)

Any one remember Andy Kim? I want to dance and sing every time I see this on tv. John thinks I'm crazy.

If I buy a Jeep, will all my driving be like this? Fun!

More of my favourite things

Yum. That's all I can say.

Well, maybe I can say a few more words. It's been a Christmas tradition every years for the past number of years that Cody make a party mix to give away to some family members. It was born out of necessity...he being a poor, penniless, starving student. But it continues because it's such a popular gift (well, to be honest he's still poor & penniless but now he's an aspiring actor...not a student)

So here is the recipe for Cody's Party Mix. It's GOOD.

6 cups Cheerios
6 cups Crispix
2 x 200 gram bags pretzels
300 grams salted peanuts
1 cup melted butter
4 - 5 tbsp worcestershire sauc
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion salt
1/4 tsp celery seed
1/4 tsp chili powder and/or
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix up dry ingredients in a foil roasting pan.
Melt butter and add other ingredients. Mix well.
Pour over dry ingredients and mix well. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes and stir every 15 to 20 minutes. (Keep an eye on the top layer - it may get dark - reduce heat or cooking time) YUM!!

Another favourite thing...continuing in my theme of hand made things for Christmas:

A wonderful long sleeved t shirt from Beebee Mod for our lovely Miss M. Isn't he the cutest snowman? Check out Jen's etsy shop to see all her great designs.

Are you ready for Christmas yet? I'm getting there!

Things change

Our son Cody has been home for the past seven months, after spending two years in Theatre School. He lived a 6 hour drive away so we only saw him a few times a year. He moved home after graduating to work and save some money. He has saved enough, he's found a place to live in Toronto, and he'll be leaving us for good on Thursday.

After spending 20 years raising him to be independant, it's time to let him go and live his dreams. I'm so very excited for him, but it's bittersweet for sure.

He's going to have so much fun. He'll be sharing a 2 bedroom apartment with Mike, who graduated from Theatre at the same time. They'll be living one floor above 2 very beautiful young women from the same program. I'm sure they'll go through lots of ups and downs together as they work their jobs, and all try to "make it" in acting.

But I'll miss him.

The picture of contentment

Meet Jasper and puppy Skyler...two of our special customers in Cornwall, Ontario.Here are some words from Mary Lynn:
Skyler is almost 4 months now and is a JOY. He is very smart of course and Jasper just loves him. He was so very sad after Spencer passed away and just moped around and didn't want to do anything and now he runs like the wind and the little one prances around behind trying to keep up to his big brother. They sleep during the day curled up together and every once in a while they give each other a little kiss. He is exactly like Jasper, a minature blond Golden that's as sweet as could be.

Did I mention I love hearing from our friends and customers? That's what makes what I do special to me.

Speaking of special...Saturday was a very special day. A "Photo With Santa" fundraiser for BARK. Two hundred and fifteen photos were done (one photo even had seven dogs in it...yes seven...all sitting pretty).

It was a long day, and I have a confession to make. It was a very slow morning for me. We started at 8 in the morning. At 11:00 I thought I would leave at noon. Sales were dismal. But I didn't have the heart to leave so I sent John home and I stayed until 5:00 when it ended. And you know what? It turned out that it was the best show I've ever done. Sales were amazing. It goes to show...it's not over till it's over. I'm embarrassed that I even thought about leaving early.

A very good reminder for me. Sometimes it's easy to give up, but it's usually better to work things through.

Today we're in for a big snow fall. I have some orders to get to the post office so I think I'll get them done early and then snuggle in by the fire to watch the storm. It's going to be a great day!