Spotlighting...

Hello Everyone!

I'm hooked on Spotlighting! And just what is spotlighting? Spotlighting is a super-cool feature at the artisan website byhand.me that is similar to the Etsy Treasury feature, with a couple of significant exceptions: 1) You don't have to wait until the spotlights drops to 333 before you can score a spotlight -- how many times have you waited until 1 am in the morning to get in on the treasuries, only to miss it by like 4 seconds? and 2) You can use listings from sites other than Etsy, such as Artfire, 1000Markets, Made it Myself, and others!

Here's an example of a spotlight I recently created... featuring just some of the things I have on sale right now!

So as you can see, spotlighting can be an effective marketing tool! They're very addictive (and you don't have to create one just to promote yourself... you can create one based on a favorite color scheme, or a favorite theme... you are only limited by your imagination!)

Stop by byhand.me today, and join (registration is free!) in the fun!

~Anne

PS: don't forget my sale: 15% off all orders; 20% off all orders $20 or more; 30% off all orders $30 or more! Valid at all my stores, through March 1 at midnight!

Wow, it's Saturday already!

My how time passes when you're having fun!

I have been busily listing items in my newest venue:

Made it Myself!

Yes, yet another store! I currently have 3 other shops: My Etsy Store, My Artfire Tea Shop, and my Artfire Art Studio. And I am considering adding at least one more shop to this list, besides the new one at Made it Myself.

You might ask why? why make all these stores, why not instead concentrate my efforts into just one venue?

Basically, I'm doing it for added exposure. Since I am a one-person operation, essentially breaking even with this venture for the time being, I can't really afford the investment for a decent advertisement package. So, while I do what I can, blog constantly, join forums and hype my products, the fact is that I don't have the money that a lot of the bigger guys out there have to bring attention to my product. It's a great product, and once you try it, I feel like the quality of the product speaks for itself, but, it's about getting the exposure, getting my name out there to get the attention first... so I open these other venues with the hope that someone might see me at one of the venues where they might not have seen me at another...

So... this weekend, I'd like to celebrate my new venue with a special offer!

Buy any 2 tins of tea from my Made it Myself Store, get a box of T-Sacs (size 2, 100 count) absolutely free! Hey, I won't even charge you additional shipping! ABSOLUTELY FREE! This is a $6.00 value (that's what I normally sell these boxes for) free of charge!


Now, if you, for some reason, can't find your favorite LiberTEAS flavor at my Made It Myself store, simply email me, and I'll get it listed for you. Or, you can shop at one of my other two tea sites - My Etsy Store ~or~ My Artfire Tea Shop and get the same deal. I won't hold it against you! But please, do take a moment to visit my Made it Myself Shop first!

To take advantage of this offer: simply place your order for the 2 tins (or more!) of tea, and process through paypal (or if you prefer, you can pay via check or money order). I will automatically include the T-Sacs with your order, so long as you've ordered 2 tins of tea!

Now, if you're a tea purist, you probably don't like T-Sacs and want nothing to do with them! Alright, I can appreciate that. I'm somewhat of a tea purist myself, although I have been known to use T-Sacs on occasion (especially when I'm brewing a Rooibos blend, as the needle-like leaves of Rooibos are very thin and often sift right through my tea strainer!)... so here's a special offer just for you!

Buy any 2 tins (or more) of tea, and get a $5.00 rebate on your total purchase.

To take advantage of this offer, you need to let me know that you'd prefer the rebate over the T-Sacs. So, please email me after you've placed your order and processed your payment (or if you're mailing your check or money order payment, please email me before doing so, so that I can give you an ammended total). I will refund $5.00 from your paypal payment as soon as I receive notification of the payment.

So, what are you waiting for? This offer is not going to last forever... in fact, it is only going to last through Monday, February 23rd, at midnight (Pacific Time). Visit my Tea Shop at Made It Myself right away and take advantage of this amazing offer!!!

~Anne

Lemon Cupcake Recipe (Contest Winner!)

Hello Everyone:

Well, I've heard back from the contest winners (there were two!) and so I think it's safe to publish one of the two recipes -- I'll post the other one in a week or two.

Here is the recipe for Lemon Cupcakes, submitted by Christine from Ohio! I used Meyer Lemons for this recipe, mostly because they were available at Whole Foods when I shopped there, and they looked irresistibly beautiful!

Lemon Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 cup of butter (room temperature)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
zest from 4 lemons
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Juice from 2 lemons
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Lemon Drizzle:
Juice from remaining 2 lemons
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray muffin tins and dust with flour. Alternatively, you can line the tins with cupcake liners, however, there is a step that follows baking that can leave your cupcake liners somewhat sticky. If you don't mind sticky cupcake liners, then use the liners instead of spraying and flour dusting.

Cream butter and sugar together at medium speed for about 5 minutes. Do not skimp on this step, it greatly affects the texture of the cupcakes.

Add eggs, one at a time, to creamed mixture, blending well before adding another egg. Add lemon zest, and blend well, taking time to scrape down the sides of the bowl of your mixer and the mixer blade. The zest accumulated on the blade for me when I made these, so do make sure that you scrape the blade to make sure that the zest gets well incorporated.

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In a different bowl, mix together the lemon juice, buttermilk and vanilla. Gradually add 1/3 of the flour mixture, blend, and then half of the lemon juice mixture, blend. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture, blend, the last of the lemon juice mixture, blend, and finish up with the last of the flour mixture. Mix for about 20 seconds on medium speed, making sure that batter is well blended but do not over mix.

Scoop batter evenly into muffin tins, filling each cup about 2/3 full. This makes about 24 cupcakes.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Cupcakes are done when a wooden skewer inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Now for the sticky part!

Juice the remaining 2 lemons (remember, you zested 4 lemons, but only juiced 2 of them), and pour into a small saucepan with 1/2 cup of sugar. Heat over medium heat until sugar is completely dissolved.

Using a wooden skewer, poke several holes into the crown of the cupcake. You should drive the skewer through to almost the bottom of the cupcake, as you want the syrup to be absorbed throughout the cake.

Now, spoon the lemon juice syrup over the cupcake. I used a soup spoon for this, and used about a spoonful and a half for each cupcake. Allow the syrup to absorb into the cupcake.

Allow the cupcakes to cool completely, and then frost them.

Thank you Christine for your winning recipe! I love these cupcakes! So yummy!

A note about the syrup ... do not make the same mistake I made and drizzle the syrup over the paper lined cupcakes while they were still in the muffin tin. Instead, move them to a cooling rack and drizzle them there... use yesterday's newspaper underneath the cooling rack to catch the drippings to avoid a sticky mess!

Christine won a Chatsford teapot, along with a tin of her favorite tea! (and I might add, these cupcakes are the perfect accompaniment to tea!!!)

Thanks for reading along, I hope you too will enjoy this recipe!

~Anne