Fudge! It's Not Just For Christmas :)

Chocolate Fudge Homemade Hillside Bakery

I love fudge - I normally am not a chocolate eater, but I make an exception for fudge. I am mystified by the properties of fudge, it isn't like a mess of melted chocolate that sticks to your fingers or refuses to come off the package. Instead, it is a block of delicious goodness that when eaten triggers an overwhelming urge for a glass of ice cold milk.

I admire people who can make fudge. I am not one of those people. My one and only attempt at fudge making was in August of 2004 in Florida. I somehow missed an ingredient and it refused to solidify or even to look pretty. I put it in the refrigerator and kept an eye on it. Occasionally, I would go and take a chunk out of it- the taste wasn't bad - but when I would go back and look at the pan, the missing space was filled in with more fudge.

It became the pan of the perpetuating fudge. It always self-leveled, it became thinner and thinner the more I picked at it. Then we had the hurricanes of 2004 and we personally took a couple direct hits. After the first one, we had no power for a couple weeks. The fudge lived on in a dead refrigerator. Never drying up, never going bad - just sat there perpetuating.

Good homemade fudge is hard to come by and it is obvious that I can not just whip up a batch the next time that I want fudge, so it was a “beoutifool” thing that I discovered Lisa at Hillside Bakery. Lisa knows how to make fudge!! Happy dance!

I got a sampler box and we have been sampling. She sent us her candy bar series and I staked out the coconut filled fudge (Mounds) and the candy dot fudge (M&M) as my momentary favorites. My other half has laid claim to the Pecan and the Almond Coconut (Almond Joy) fudge as his. The peanut butter (Reeses) is still pristine in its package. As a die hard Reeses fan, I am squirreling it away for an emergency.

Lisa is lovely to work with and I have two more half pounds in my shopping cart on Artfire waiting on me finishing the purchase. I am going to try some vanilla fudge this time. Yum!

Go buy some of her fudge and tell her that Julie and Blu sent you.

Go now, buy some!

http://www.artfire.com/users/hillsidebakery

October 2011 BluPrint Official Newsletter of Blue Morning Expressions

Volume 8 Issue 10, October 2011

What's New in October?

Artfire—In an effort to conserve space, accommodate my regular customers and to take advantage of a great handmade site, I have consolidated all my websites into one at Artfire. All of my other sites are still updated and used, you can still access your customer information and your order history, I am just using Artfire to save space and make it convenient for my customers. You will find Blue Morning Expressions, X-Stitch-Patterns, The Seed Bead Pattern Store, and Clipon Earrings Boutique. If you are interested, you can find me at http://www.artfire.com/users/bluemorningexpressions

Writing—I have spent the last month writing full-time and I must confess, I have sorely neglected all my canes and polymer clay items. I did over 250 web articles and one feature article for a local newsmagazine. All of these things were fun to do, but very time consuming and my clay suffered. I had quite a few sales of canes and over half of my inventory went out in boxes this last month. That is good for clearing space for me, but bad for providing a great selection of canes for you!

Kaleidoscope Canes -I started to do my canes that I had drawn out and ran into problems with my clay being too soft to work with. I put it out to leach some of the moisture out of the clay and got busy doing other things. This made the clay unsuitable for the project I had in mind, so I have to start over. This would not be a problem, except that one of my canes was specific to Halloween and featured candy corn. Oh well, off to work on new designs.

Beads—I am working on new focal beads and doing a few necklaces with the penguins that I did last year for Christmas. I have six focal beads ready to go and will get those necklaces done soon. The next sets of focal beads will be ready in the next couple of weeks. You can find both the beads and the finished necklaces on www.bluemorningexpressions.com or at my Artfire store http://www.artfire.com/users/bluemorningexpressions

As always, thank you for all your support and emails.

www.bluemorningexpressions.com

Until next month,

Julie & Blu

New Products:

Earrings—These are all created from my bead sets, I used both floral rounds, heart swirl lentils, and full size 20mm pillow beads to create 30 new sets of earrings. Each set is under $4—I wanted to create an affordable set of earrings for gifts that can be easily purchased in groups. The only sets not under $4 are the dangle heart swirls, those are under $10.

Technorati Tags: raw canes,polymer clay,polymer clay canes,fimo canes,fimo beads,polymer clay beads for sale,blue morning expressions,kaleidoscope canes,tab beads,polymer clay earrings

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Walked For 11 Miles!

September 06, 2011

Walked For 11 Miles!

My peeps are generally well adjusted and rational, but this holiday weekend, they took leave of their senses and decided to go for a walk.
Normally, we all go for a walk together - a couple miles - , sometimes they take me to places like "Drinking Horse Mountain", or The "M", which is the Montana State University M on the side of the Mt. Baldy in Bozeman. Or, mom just takes me to the dog park where I can run around 15 acres or so and play.
But "Labor Day", they decided that we were going to go and see the waterfalls in Hylite Canyon. Being a Beardie, I am also game for a good walk, or a climb over some rocks, or even herding pugs in a dog park. So I am always the first one to the truck.
This time though, I didn't know what was going to happen, I heard the words "Truck", "walk" and my all time favorite - "GO".
And off we went. We headed up to Hylite Canyon, which is a wooded canyon that runs down the Gallatin National Forest. The reservoir at the top provides all the drinking water to the Bozeman, MT area. I have been there several times, and I like the way it always smells like wet dogs. I see a lot of those retreiver fellows and they always seem to be muddy and messy. Oh to be a retriever.
Today, I heard we were going to the falls. I like the falls, I think I should always stand in the middle of a stream and let water fall into my mouth. Sometimes when I am tired of walking, I just lay down in the cool mountain stream and smile happily.

My peeps were talking about a lake. I dont remember seeing a lake there, but if they wanted to go, then so did I. Not that I had any choice in the matter.
I heard them say that if we can walk two or three miles, then we can walk five or six to get to the lake. They forgot, that was one way.
So off we trekked to see the mountain lake. And we walked, and we climbed, and we panted, and we stopped and rested, and we walked some more. We saw 11 waterfalls, five golden retrievers, one Saint Bernard, 15 black labs, one beagle doxie mix, and several running college students. Oh, and a pair of men's briefs hung on a log. Hmmm.
Then we crawled over the top of the meadow and saw the mountain lake. Wow, lots of water! No one would let me go and play in it. My peeps took pictures and some of them are of me.

                                          We turned around there and came back down. I drank out of every stream I crossed and even laid down in a couple. I collected lots of black mud and sticks in my feet. I had pine needles in my tail and my face looked like I had been eating chocolate cake. I was happy! They ran out of water, I had all the water I wanted.
We all got tired coming back down, my mom had clown feet and kept tripping over herself. Then I had to wait for her, she is slow.
We finally got back to our truck and they said they were getting chicken for supper. We were gone over seven hours! All I heard was "chicken". Mmmm, I like "chicken".
They stopped and got chicken in a bag, I could smell it, it was so yummy smelling.
Then they stopped at the car wash and threw me in the dog wash! They cleaned all the mud and sticks that I had been collecting. I was saving them for later. Now I am wet, clean, and still don't have any chicken.
In the end, they had a great hike, I saw some cool dogs, and got to get as muddy as I wanted. Mom did give me some chicken. I like chicken!

Me and Dad at one of the mountain meadows.

This is what the canyon looks like from almost the top of the mountain. If someone had wanted to walk two more miles, Dad would have had us at the top of Hylite Mountain.

Posted in Blu Musings by bluemorningexpressions on September 06, 2011 at 1:07pm | Add comment

Blue Morning Expressions Newsletter September 2011

 

Volume 8 Issue 9, September 2011

What's New in September?

 

Counted Cross-Stitch Pattern and Loom and Peyote Pattern sites are now completely updated and ready to go. Both of these sites are current to date, but there are many other patterns that have been sitting and waiting while we worked to get these sites up and running. So, there will be new items and patterns added and if you wish to be included in the email updates, sign up on the sites and we will update you as soon as we get these new patterns created and uploaded. Thank you so much for your patience and your support while we worked on these sites to get them updated and the downloads working. www.x-stitch-patterns.com and www.theseedbeadpatternstore.com.

 

Puzzles and Games—new section www.bluemorningexpressions.com includes crossword puzzles, e-jigsaw puzzles, word search puzzles and other goodies are available for immediate download for your enjoyment. They are free and fun, written and designed by me.

 E-jigsaw puzzle sample:    

 

I have a lot more to upload, but have run out of time. I am trying very hard to get organized but it seems like a futile effort.As an example, I have over 50 more of these digital jigsaw puzzles to get ready for the website and then upload for you to download. Crossword puzzles are next.

Polymer Clay Canes—These canes are available on www.bluemorningexpressions.com and along with some regular canes, these custom color canes are located in the cane section. I reorganized the cane section and split it up by type and color. That makes it much easier for everyone to find what they are looking for. I will be adding more geometric and kaleidoscope canes as soon as I unpack some of my tools.

Kaleidoscope Canes—I have been working on drawing out my patterns and the actual construction of a few new large kaleidoscope canes should take place this month. Watch my blog or website for the new photos. I am trying some new techniques and I am excited to see how they turn out.

Artfire—I have my complete stores on artfire.com—I loaded everything into it. You will find Blue Morning Expressions, X-Stitch-Patterns, The Seed Bead Pattern Store, and Clipon Earrings Boutique. If you are interested, you can find me at

http://www.artfire.com/users/bluemorningexpressions

As always, thank you for all your support and emails.

www.bluemorningexpressions.com

Until next month,

Julie & Blu

New Products:

Earrings—These are all created from my bead sets, I used both floral rounds, heart swirl lentils, and full size 20mm pillow beads to create 30 new sets of earrings. Each set is under $4—I wanted to create an affordable set of earrings for gifts that can be easily purchased in groups. The only sets not under $4 are the dangle heart swirls, those are under $10.

Blue Morning Expressions August 2011 Newsletter Polymer Clay

Volume 8 Issue 8, August 2011

 

What's New in August?

Counted Cross Stitch Patterns— We are happy to announce the grand opening of www.x-stitch-patterns.com—over 300 patterns are uploaded and ready to go. Prices are right around $2.50 per pattern and they are currently on sale for $1.88. At the moment, we will not be creating any more patterns, while we work on …….

The Seed Bead Pattern Store—patterns are being uploaded and we are a third of the way through the complete catalog. There is a freebie section and many of the tapestry patterns are under $2.50 as well. There are more freebies and patterns to upload, there are 250 more to go. You can find all these patterns at www.theseedbeadpatternstore.com

Puzzles and Games—new section www.bluemorningexpressions.com includes crossword puzzles, e-jigsaw puzzles, word search puzzles and other goodies are available for immediate download for your enjoyment.

They are free and fun, written and designed by me. E-jigsaw puzzle sample:

I have a lot more to upload, but have run out of time. I am trying very hard to get organized but it seems like a futile effort.As an example, I have over 50 more of these digital jigsaw puzzles to get ready for the website and then upload for you to download.

Crossword puzzles are next.

Polymer Clay Canes—These canes are available on www.bluemorningexpressions.com and along with some regular canes, these custom color canes are located in the cane section. I reorganized the cane section and split it up by type and color. That makes it much easier for everyone to find what they are looking for. I will be adding more geometric and kaleidoscope canes as soon as I unpack some of my tools.

Artfire—I have my complete stores on artfire.com—I loaded everything into it. You will find Blue Morning Expressions, X-Stitch-Patterns, The Seed BeadPattern Store, and Clipon Earrings Boutique. If you are interested, you can find me at http://www.artfire.com/users/bluemorningexpressions

As always, thank you for all your support and emails.

www.bluemorningexpressions.com

Until next month,

Julie & Blu

Mini Tutorial
To create rondelle dangle earrings, simply take the rondelle bead and using a eyepin, string a crystal, a spacer bead/bead cap, the rondelle bead, another spacer bead/bead cap and finish it off with another crystal.
Wire wrap your top and add color coordinated crystal wire wraps to the eye of the eyepin.
Attach the dangle to a leverback or a french wire and you are ready to add sparkle to any outfit you are wearing. Substitute a coin or a tab bead in place of a rondelle.
Here is a finished example.

Let me know if you have any questions,

or need any help.

One of a kind rondelles are available at

www.bluemorningexpresions.com

Have fun,

Julie and Blu

Let me know if you need any help with creating these earrings.
Julie and Blu

Fawn in Bozeman, Montana from Zazzle.com

Fawn in Bozeman, Montana from Zazzle.com