Whole Wheat Muffins

These are delicious!

Whole Wheat Muffins (Makes 12-16 Muffins)

2 C. Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 C. Milk
1/2 C. Melted Margerine or Butter
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 C Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Soda
1 Egg

Mix all dry ingredients and liquid ingredients seperately. Then mix together. Put in greased muffin tins. Bake 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Enjoy :)

Mermaid Party Invition Necklaces

Here is a fun way to invite your guest to your Mermaid Party.  A personalized message in a bottle inviting them to the party. This is also a necklace!

Etsy Shop Feature Eyelah

Blog feature today is Etsy Shop Eyelah. If you have an interest in having your shop featured, please let me know! I will be doing Etsy Shop Features every Friday.

My name is Ayla and it's pronounced as "Eye-lah" hence the name of my etsy shop and blog. I started my blog a few years ago when I started making jewelry. I thought it would be a good way to keep track of my work and write about my thoughts and journey. A friend told me of Etsy in 2009 and thats how I got into the handmade business.

I have a science background and I never thought in my dreams that I would prefer making things and selling things over working in a lab. Learning to craft and sew really has changed my life in such a positive way.

Do you have a favorite piece that you have made?

I have so many favorite pieces it's hard to pick just one. I would have to choose my floral clutch purse. It was the first final product that I made that was really really happy with.

Here are some items from her shop:

Describe your workspace... (include a pic if you'd like)
my workplace is a constant cycle of mess and cleanliness. The picture I have included is my work area "cleaned"

When you are not working on your crafts, what else do you like to do?

If I am not crafting I am either working at my full-time job, spending time with my boyfriend, or cooking.

Lastly, do you have any advice for fellow crafters/entrepreneurs just
starting out?

It's hard to say because I feel that I'm a crafter starting out too. But, I think I can say is have a set goal. Once you figure out what you want to do it makes it a lot easier to run the business. It took me a while to finally decide what I wanted to make , sell and promote. Writing goals down and completing them is definitely helpful.

Another piece of advice would be to start a blog. I have found that having a blog bring so much traffic to your shop and people really enjoy being able to see the life of the shop owner too. I know I enjoy reading about fellow shop owners.

Other Places on Etsy to find Ayla:

Links:
Etsy Shop: www.etsy.com/shop/Eyelah
Blog: www.eyelah.blogspot.com
Tweeter: twitter.com/eyelah2012
Facebook: www.facebook.com/EyelahAccessories

My Favorite Banana Bread Recipe

Do you have a recipe book that just opens to certain pages automatically because you have used those pages so many times?  This banana bread recipe is one of those. I just love it!  So next time you have some bananas that are just a little too ripe to eat, enjoy some yummy banana bread. Actually the riper the bananas the better the bread!

Banana Bread

1/2 c. Oil (I like to use a light tasting Olive Oil)
1 c. Sugar
2 Eggs
2 Ripe Bananas Crushed (the more ripe, the better)
2 c. Flour
1 t. Baking Soda
1/2 t. Salt

If you like nuts and blueberries you can add them (I don't add them, but they are probably delicious)

1/2 c. Chopped Walnuts
1-1/2 c. frozen blueberries

Cream oil and sugar together well. Add eggs one at a time mixing well after each one. Add bananas. Sift flour, soda and salt together. Add to sugar mixture. With last 1/2 c. flour, dust nuts and frozen blueberries. Add and mix as little as possible-just enough to distribute evenly. Pour into greased loaf pan (or into 4 mini loaf pans).  Bake for 45 minutes (30-35 for mini loaf) at 350 degrees.  Test.  May have to cook longer if you add blueberries. 

***I recommend using Bakers Joy to spray the pans.  It combines flour in the spray to have a wonderful baking experience. :)

A Lavendar High Tea Birthday Party

I was sent an message from a customer that I made a special order for. She had requested purple necklaces. They turned out beautiful. She posted this beautiful party on her blog, and I wanted to share. The cake is absolutely amazing and the treat bags adorable.  Click on the picture for a link to her blog:

This necklace turned out so cute I added it to my shop after making it:

Blog Features

Today was supposed to be my blog feature day. I didn't end up getting the feature done, but plan on doing it for next week. If you have an Etsy shop and would like your shop featured on my blog, please let me know! I will be looking for shops to feature :)

Recipe for Glitter Playdough

Today I'm going to share one of my very favorite recipes. Homemade playdough. I like to add extra fine glitter to it to make glitter playdough! The kids love it! 

Here is the recipe:
2 c. Flour
1 c. Salt
4 t. cream of tarter
2 T. cooking oil (I use olive oil, you could use any vegetable oil)
2 c. water
food coloring
extra fine glitter

Mix all dry ingredients (including extra fine glitter) in a bowl. 

(this picture you can't see the glitter, but I did add it here. I added an extra fine iridescent silver glitter)
In a pan, add water, food coloring and oil. Bring to a boil. Pour into dry ingredients and mix together.

(this is the boiled water and the dry ingredients before I mixed them.)


 Knead like bread dough (with hands-it is hot so I mix with a spoon until it cools enough to touch). The more you knead the smoother and nicer the playdough gets. Makes quite a bit (you can do a half recipe).

Here is the finished playdough. The glitter doesn't show well in the picture, but makes the playdough fun and sparkly. 

Store in a zip lock back. Can be used over and over as long as it is kept in an airtight container. Hope you enjoy!