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Thursday, March 1, 2012

Pinch Me! I am Martha Stewarts Dreamer Into Doer of The Week!!

Yesterday on our bonus day I was named Martha Stewart's Dreamer Into Doer of the Week!! I am so honored! I am on an amazing journey and I can't wait to see where life takes me next. I am so happy to have such a support team of friends, family, and community! Thank you so much for helping me achieve my goals!
Love and Blessing!
Brigitte
Come on by and see the interview and feature!
http://dreamers.marthastewart.com/page/doer-of-the-week-brigitte-klotzek-obringerdoer-of-the-week-brigit?center=856244&gallery=874704&slide=874907

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Candy Land Birthday Party

What a party!! After receiving the game "Candy Land" for Christmas my daughter was all about having a Candy Land themed 4th birthday party. We had so much fun with the planning of this party! We sent out invites to her preschool class in the shape of cupcakes like the ones on the game. The cupcake came out of the wrapper to reveal the invite.
Yanna and I got more excited as the RSVPs started to come in. The party was officially on! Although after getting involved in a number of other activities this month my budget for the party was significantly cut down for this party. So I knew that I would have to edit and really channel that DIY goddess from within. One of the best parts were the giant lollipops! We purchased some really fun donut shaped balloons from Party City and picked up some PVC pipe from Home Depot. We attached the balloon to the PVC pipe and wrapped it with cellophane and some ribbon. We made the base out of cardboard and tin foil. Our livingroom looked hilarious with 15 of these standing all over the place. It was awesome to see the kids faces light up when they walked in and saw lollipops bigger than they were! Each Lollipop ended up costing about a $1.00 a piece!
My mother-in-law Jane and my mother worked side-by-side assembling these party hats that I designed. They were so sweet on the kids! Although, I have to admit, they didn't last long on their heads! Especially on the boys!

I was really inspired by a backdrop that I saw on Pinterest for a flamingo party. I had the 4" circle die for my sizzix ready to go and punched out circles to my hearts content. Jane was then put in charge of putting them up onto the strings. She may still be seeing spots today and may never want to see one again! While it was a little tedious to put together it cost about a total of $5.00!! What a bang for the buck!! I used the Candy Land Font for Yanna's banner.



For food we did all sorts of things and one of the things that I learned about myself...I am not a baker! But hey, I am still learning in my quest of domestic goddessdome. My sister found an amazing bakery Just Baked and brought some delicious buttercream cupcakes. Jane helped me by putting together the cake so that we could decorate. While I was going to dabble in marshmallow fondant we used the M&Ms that we had sorted. It ended up going together quite quickly! I went back to one of my favorite things making chocolates! We did giant chocolate dipped marshmallows, chocolate covered oreo cookies, chocolate covered hearshaped marshmallows, and these amazing cake pops made with crushed Oreos!! The kids seemed to really love everything including the fruit!! We of course had to make rainbow fruit kabobs!
I am also really proud of the candy display. It was so easy. We tiered styrofoam that you would use for floral arrangements and made an arrangement of lollipops!
For activities we played musical sugar dots, gumdrop bowling (beware, boys also like using giant bowling pins to bludgeon each other with) we decorated cookies and played freeze dance. We tried to have them run off the sugar as much as we could! The parents loved me! I sugared up their kids and sent them home with more candy and noise makers!! They LOVE ME!! (Ok, you may want to say a few prayers and send some positive thoughts my way for all of the curses that may have been sent)

All in all it was a total success!! Granted next time I may hire a party planner and I will stick to the designing aspect to save some sanity. But I had such an amazing time for an amazing daughter, with my amazing family and friends!! Thank you so much I love you!

I will post some more pics soon with some tutorials on things like the backdrop, lollipops, display, and the song list that my sister put together with all candy related songs!!

As always, Stay inspired and Stay Posh! Hugs!!


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Etsy Newsletter Feature

It has been some month!! Just as I was knee deep in candy land party planning my computer started to go nuts!   When I went to look it was all from my wonderful Etsians! I knew that had to mean that something of mine showed up somewhere and here it was! The Etsy Newsletter Jackpot! Etsy's Gillian Herring released the "Let The Good Times Roll" Newsletter with my Harlequin blossom box in it. I love it! And for all of you who found me due to this, welcome to my crazy world! :-)
Happy Fat Tuesday!! I hope that you Packzis were worth every calorie!! Mine sure were!


Saturday, February 11, 2012

Cotton Candy Cake Pops

Yes, I did something horrible!! This planning of the candy land party had made me go mad. I now have a...COTTON CANDY MAKER!!! AHHHH! Not only that, but it is not just any cotton candy maker...oh no it is not...It can make cotton candy out of hard candies! So I can make Chocolate, Caramel, and Coffee cotton candies! You want to know something even funnier? I don't even like cotton candy! (I know, my blog following has just cut in half with that statement) But, something about chocolate cotton candy and I may be made a believer. But seriously, what is a candy land party without cotton candy!? Hmm? Ok...

So needless to say, I have been playing with my Nostalgia Electronics Cotton Candy Maker (Oh, it works with sugarfree candy as well!) and I have been trying all sorts of things out. From making my own paper cones to of course using what I have like the paper straws I recently used for the gliders! Yet another great use for them!

Then I put the cake pops that I was working with into the darn thing and look at what I got! Oh yes, cotton candy cake pops! Soooo happy! So stinkn cute! I also discovered something new. The cake pop stands are little funnels! I got a ton of them with this sand art kit for my daughter so now I have a use for them!
Overall a good day if you ask me!

Well, I shall continue play around with things!
In the meantime, stay inspired and stay posh!!
Hugs,

Brigitte

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Freebie Printable - Straw Glider

What do you get when you have two preschoolers, a biologist, a GM exec, a lawyer, and a graphic designer at a Halloween party at a science center making a paper plane with a straw? A bunch of adults acting like little kids throwing planes at one another while the preschoolers stare at them wondering what is wrong with them and then ultimately a free printable designed to share with everyone in time for Valentine's day...whew! That was a mouthful!
So in my quest to become a rock star mom, I took on planning Yanna's preschool Valentine's day party. My hubby outright said that I didn't have enough time to Mrs. Davis and I kicked him under the table and said that I would love to:-) But planning became a little more complicated than anticipated since I tend to sometimes make things rather complex and I had to think more in line with a 3-4 year-old. Plus so many projects for Valentine's day is geared to girls. The other day my package from ThinkGarnish.com arrived for the Candy Land Party that I am planning for later this month and right on top were the paper straws that I ordered. I then remembered this project that I did at the science center! It is normally made with two loops, but I tried to make it more "valentinesy" (yes, that is a word!) by trying to do a heart shape in the back and it worked!! You have got to try this at home with your little one, or gee, do it even if you don't have a little one!


Start out with downloading the Straw Glider Printable Template from my shop for FREE! I have instructions on the sheets now as well.
You will need:
 - Straw Glider Printable Template
 - Straw (I love the paper ones)
 - Scissors
 - Tape

Cut out the strips. You can cut these down as well and try out different sized loops. The big loops tend to glide the easiest while the smaller loops tend to go faster.



The the circular version tape strips to each end of the straw. Roll the paper around, overlap edges and tape. Done!




For the heart shape, fold the long strip in the middle and tape the straw to the middle. Curl the top around to form a heart shape and tape together. Add your front loop to the straw and Done!!


Hold it like a regular paper plane and throw! I mean, how easy was that! You will be pleasently surprised at how well these things fly! I think that this is going to work out well for one of the projects! I hope that you enjoy them too!
As always, Stay Inspired and Stay Posh!



Thursday, February 2, 2012

Candy Land Party Planning



After receiving the Candy Land Game for Christmas, Yanna asked for a Candy Land Themed Birthday Party. Oh yes, parents are going to love me when their kids go home hopped up on sugar! I think that I may also go up a dress size or two with just the planning. We have been having so much fun!! Here are the invites that we sent out today. The cupcake invite comes out of the cupcake wrapper. We placed them in some cello bags with twist ties and name tags. I was really happy with how they turned out. We have such fun things we are planning for the party. You can see some of my inspiration on my Pinterest Board  
Eeep! We are going to have so much fun!!

Monday, January 30, 2012

The Printable Shoppe


As you may know I have been building The Printable Shoppe site forever and a day. Then I wised up and hired Stephanie from Sweet Boutique Design. Best idea ever. It was so nice to talk to someone who knew what she was doing. I would come up with an idea for the site and she would tell me what it is called! She is great to work with and we came up with a fabulous site with all sorts of awesome features!
- All of the digital items have INSTANT downloads!
- All items earn reward points towards other items
- We now can offer gift certificates, and amazing coupons
- A bunch of freebies
- We have an affiliates program
There is so much more! Now I just have to fill the shop up. I am chugging away at it. Between the whole family being sick and my computer crashing, things got a little slow for a moment! But these are the joys of working from home!
You will find new products in the shoppe everyday now. Our Etsy Shop is still in full swing.

Stay tuned, we have some more fun news on the way! Always something to keep me busy!! But we are having fun!

Stop by The Printable Shoppe and let me know what you think about it so far!
The Printable Shoppe

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Party Patisserie: City Chic Girls Night In

Isn't this party stunning! Debbie from the Party Patisserie put together this fun party for her girls. She used my printable blossom boxes as bags! I love it! And she also used the Posh Dots Place Cards. She has a great blog. Check it out and share some love! http://partypatisserie.com/2012/01/party-theme-city-chic-girls-night-in/
Bold Damask Blossom Box
Posh Dots Printable Place Cards

Friday, January 27, 2012

Feature in Meetings and Conventions Magazine!

Meetings and Conventions
Today Jennifer of Meetings and Conventions Magazine contacted me to let me know that we were featured as the Daily Hot Idea! I love the idea of our products being used at meetings and conventions! I already got a bunch of ideas from their site. I think that everyone can use their tips no matter if they are planning a small meeting or huge event! Be sure to check them out!

http://www.meetings-conventions.com/dailyhotideas/dailyhotideas.aspx

Thank you so much Jennifer!

Monday, January 23, 2012

My Papas Split Pea Soup

You may hear this all of the time. That certain soups are better than the other. People argue on who has the better recipe. Blah blah blah...Well, I am not here to say that I have the best pea soup recipe in the world, no, but I will say that it is the BEST SPLIT PEA RECIPE IN THE UNIVERSE! Ok, now that I have that off of my chest I can continue. Granted this may be since I grew up on this recipe, but my father has always made the best soups. I mean it is just ridiculous! Back in the day when wind would get out about my father making soup, people would start showing up at the house. We would have 20 people sitting around just to get a bowl of his soup. The two that he is particularly famous for are his Split Pea Soup and his Lentil Soup. He also does a mean Chicken Noodle and the most delicious Kale...but those will be other posts. As I gain experience in my quest for Domestic Goddessdome I have been slowly attempting to learn his recipes. This bitter cold weekend I felt was the best time to learn a soup! Oh my oh my, delicious! Just the perfect soup for the cold days. This will practically serve 20 people or 10 people who want second servings...Maybe 5 super hungry soup fanatics! So get a big pot! (This is a great soup to freeze for later use) I use a large pressure cooker I will look at the size and put it here. This makes life easier! The picture doesn't do it justice. I finished when it was already dark out and didn't want to set up my light box, so ya know, it works right!?

Ingredients:
1/2 lb Bacon cut into small pieces (make sure it is particularly smoky!)
1 large onion chopped (I like the sweet onion for this)
1 lb Smoked Kielbasa slices (did I mention we are making a bunch of this?)
1-11/2 cup baby carrots (you can cut up large carrots if your prefer)
1 Stalk Celery with leaves chopped
a few sprigs of parsley chopped with stems and leaves
1 lb smoked ham cubed
1 bag dried split peas
1 ham bone or pig hock (I used to think my father would say peacock!)
Water
Pepper and Salt to taste (you probably will not need the salt)
(optional: Potatoes)

Heat up your pot. Put the bacon and smoked kielbasa into the pot to brown as they start to release fat add the chopped onion. Let that cook down a bit until the onion is caramelized and transparent. It may almost look like it is slightly burning on the bottom. Don't worry. Once all is browned up add a few cups of water (3-4) and bring to a boil. Add your carrots (you can throw the baby carrots in whole to make things quicker). Put in your chopped celery, parsley, cubed ham. Let it boil for around 5 mins to let the flavors infuse a bit. The pour the whole bag of split peas in and place your ham bone or pig hock in. Cover with water until your pot is about 2/3 full. Bring to a rolling boil as you stir to make sure that nothing sticks to the bottom. Place pressure cooker lid on according to manufacturer's instructions and bring up pressure. Once pressure is built to the point where you can hear the steam, turn down the heat to about half and let it cook for 15 minutes. After 15 mins take off heat and take off lid according to your directions. (if you have never dealt with a pressure cooker before, BE SURE TO READ THE DIRECTIONS! if one of those blow saurkraut into the air and all over your legs you will never move so fast to remove your pants in your LIFE! Trust me on this one!) Stir the pot to make sure that the newly hydrated peas are not sticking to the bottom. Make sure that everything is mixed nicely and is quite loose (if it is thick, add some more water). Bring back up to a rolling boil and place lid back on. I am paranoid, so I tend to do this every 15 minutes for an hour. The soup is finished when the meat on the ham bone or pig hock has pretty much fallen off of the bone. If the soup is still a little too liquid let it cook a little longer without the lid making sure to stir it occasionally. Your soup will be complete!
Make a pot of boiled potatoes (salt the water) Place some potato in your bowl and put a few ladles full over them. Yum!!
Get yourself a bowl and enjoy!
As with most soups, this soup is even more flavorful the next day when the flavors are infused throughout the soup.
I really love this soup! I hope that you do too!!
As always, stay inspired and stay Posh!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Things that I wish that I knew before hand...

My dearly beloved husband in his attempt to make me more comfortable in my studio, fried my computer. My work horse computer that has made it possible to start a business at home and contribute to my family finances. Yes, my third baby. NOTE! Never plug a heater into the same surge protector as your computer!!
I called my computer guy and he pretty much laughed saying that that same thing happens all of the time. He explained to me that they would start by checking the power supply and replacing it. If it is the motherboard he would have to change the power supply and the motherboard. So I was looking at between $90.00 to $325.00 to get my computer back up and running.
Well, remember how several posts back I explained that I am a "I can do that myself" kind of gal? I decided to look up power supplies for my computer. Spent a night reading about them. Then spent a night learning about installation and Electric Magnetic Static safety precautions. I found a power supply on Amazon for 30.00! I felt like I was a ... genius! I waited patiently for the part to arrive and the day finally came! My husband was my moral support and forbidden to touch the computer. (I figured then I could only blame myself) I slowly began to take apart my computer. I mean what was the worst thing that could happen??
After a tense hour of what could only be described as watching a surgery on one of those medical dramas, I was done! Success!! I plugged everything back in and had a vomit bag waiting just in case I totally killed the machine. I turned on the power and TADA!! Everything started up and DID EXACTLY WHAT IT DID BEFORE. Nothing showing up on my screen. Siiiiiigh. Well, positive points...I didn't make it worse, I had successfully taken a computer apart and put it back together without passing out, and now I know how to replace a power supply.
I ended up having to go to the computer guy after all. He opened the computer up with no hesitation tilted it to the side and said, "Yep, your motherboard is busted."
Yes, he was able to tell within two seconds. He then showed me these little nobs coming off of the motherboard that were domed out. This means that they are bad. Well, gee! Would have been nice to know before I went through all of this!! Oh well, here is a picture of my computer as I was taking it apart. I zoomed in on the little dodads to show you. Maybe if this happens to you, then you can save yourself the time and just go straight to the computer guy.
I ended up purchasing a new computer and they spent two days transferring my data. I then spent another two days adding back all of my software and personal touches. I am glad to report that I am now back to business!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Haute Aprons


I have been looking for cute aprons for a while. Today as I decided to look around, I found a whole new take on aprons, glamour aprons! High-end aprons for the hostess with the mostest! (and, well the money to spare as well!) Above is a duprini silk apron by Elizabeth Cokin Productions for $200. It is beautiful, but I am unsure about how I feel about a dry clean only apron. I may have to throw more elaborate dinner parties! Here are more by her below ranging from $125-200


The one below I really want! It must be all of the frills! COOKie by Lukrecja in Poland $300


I also really like this apron by Anthropology. Not as glam as the ones before, but super cute!
 So what do you think? Would you wear any of these aprons? Which one is your favorite?

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Tangerine Tango - Pantone Color of the Year



It looks as though it will be a bright year! Tangerine Tango was named 2012's Pantone Color of the Year. Orange always seems like a contraversal color as it seems that you either love or hate it. Since I tend to look pretty darn good in orange (if I do say so myself) I love it! And how can you not when you see some of these things in orange!
Doesn't this just cheer up your day! I particularly want the purse. I have held it in my own to hands and it is divine! My birthday is coming up, so gladly get it for me!

I will be adding Tangerine Tango to my color list this year in my shop. It is sure to brighten my collection!


abstract geo necklace by Ezza Exclusive
Aldo Eggenberg Peep Toe Heel
Prada Nappa Stripe Bag (drool)
Chesterfield Tufted Winged Chair
Safari Orange Pillow 
Posh Dot Orange Printable Gable Box by The Posh Event
Modern Damask Printable Pyramid Box The Posh Event

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Soy Crepe Experiment...


Every weekend I make "german pancakes" or crepes for breakfast. It is something that started when I was a kid and my papa would make them for my sister and I. Every now and then we attempt changing an ingredient or changing ratios just to see what happens. Usually they are quite disastrous. Wheat flour for instance, not very good, my father thinking that he had a good enough blender that would pulverize an egg shell that he dropped into the batter to powder...all time disaster! So I am glad to report, that as long as that debacle is on the books, I most likely will always come out with something better when experimenting...unless I try concrete?
So this week I tried replacing half of the All Purpose Flour with Soy Flour (I chickened out and couldn't replace all of it yet) and I replaced milk/creme with half and half. The idea came from me reading the book The Fat Belly Cure by Jorge Cruise where we are to keep our sugars to 15 grams a day and only have 6 servings of carbs a day. I would really like to not have to give up my crepes! Well, they were not bad, but I have a hard time calling them crepes. They reacted differently when cooking them and ended up being significantly thicker than crepes should be and on the yellow side. But both my husband and Yanna ate them all up with no problems and said that they liked them. I am still fighting this sinus thing so I really can't taste anything! Ugh!
Anyhoo, here are the crepes that I made (the unscientific way, I will have to measure this out in a more standardized way one day) I use an actual tablespoon not the measuring tablespoon. We have done this with different sets over the years and it seems to always work.
3 eggs
3 Tablespoons Sugar or Splenda (yes, I know, splenda is against the fat belly cure but baby steps!)
1 1/2 cup half and half
3 Tablespoons All purpose flour
2 Tablespoons Soy flour
dash of salt
I use a stainless steel pan instead of a crepe maker. (once again, if it ain't broke...)
melt the butter in the hot pan
pour 1/3 cup of batter into the pan and swirl it around to spread thin
when the batter is no longer runny on top take a spatula and flip
after a min start making your stack!

I think that I will keep experimenting with this idea and will keep you posted.
Good Luck!!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

New Year, New Ideas, New Set Up!

Happy New Year!!

WOW! What a year 2011 was!! I think that I have survived it! (I am still not sure, ask me in another week when this darn sinus infection is gone!) With the past few weeks being out of this world crazy, I mean like ,get ready to jump out of a window, crazy. I have had some time to re-evaluate what I want to do and how I want to do it. I have always been someone with a ton of ambition, when I come up with an idea it's a big idea and I come up with tons of ideas. It has always been my blessing and my curse. Mix that with the fact that I tend to have the attention span of a raccoon (oooooh! shiny new thing to do!) life can get pretty...interesting. I want to accomplish SO much, I want to try so many new things, learn so many new things, share so many new things, all while being a good mom, wife and shop owner. Lately it has just felt to be too much and I want this SO BADLY! So I have decided to step back a bit and reorganize. I need to get myself healthy and organized so that I can make this all a reality. Everyday Posh will be getting a little overhaul. I would love to show how every day can be posh, I believe that this is doable and plan on figuring this out! I love coming up with projects that people can do to add a little more poshness to their lives, but with this comes a lot of trial and error which can be hilarious to say the least. I myself am still a domestic goddess in training and do not have much help to figure these glorious ideas out all of the time especially with a baby on my hip. So I hope to share this all with you on here. What works, what doesn't works, what blew up and caught my kitchen on fire, what my husband just looked at, smiled and nodded and ate anyway...ya know. I am opening up to my imperfect perfect life to you. I hope that you will join me for this journey I am now embarking on and will contribute to it! I want to hear your ideas, suggestions, corrections and well, hopefully a bunch of encouragement! I will need it! 

I am going to be working on:
- getting organized while being a mom and business owner
- loosing the baby fat...holiday fat...ok, everyday fat (it just sounds better when you give it an excuse name)
- phasing into a more healthy lifestyle with the family
- coming up with new ideas and products for my shop and to share
- getting my new shop The Printable Shoppe finally launch!!! 

well so much more! Let me know what you think and join me!
New Year, New Ideas, New Set Up, New Successes!

Big Hugs!
Brigitte
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