I'm posting a recipe!

That's right! I've decided to post a recipe here on my blog, aside from the usual rants about design, jewellery and joblessness.

I did try starting up a food blog over a year ago and although I was excited about it at first, reality quickly sunk in that I kind of sucked at it! There are so many talented food Bloggers out there, that I just didn't feel I could successfully join the ranks and keep plugging away at it long term. So, I gave up on my food blog only after a few months, but I still love trying out new recipes and eating delicious food and of course, commenting on other Blogger's food blogs.

Here is the first official (sweet!) recipe on Keep it Simple: Walnut Fudge Truffles.


I love my desserts and I love my chocolate. What I don't enjoy are my wide Mediterranean hips - the first place I tend to gain weight and the last place I tend to lose the weight.

This recipe for chocolate truffles is taken from a fantastic cookbook called: Carb-Conscious Vegetarian by Robin Robertson. I've been creating recipes from this cookbook for the past 4 months and I have enjoyed every one of them. I've also managed to shed about 13 lbs in that time span yet have not deprived myself of fantastic food and desserts!

I've made these truffles before and loved the intense cocoa flavour combined with the buttery, creamy texture. Hard to believe these truffles are low-carb. And they are made with prunes...prunes! They were so amazingly good and were consumed so quickly that I forgot to snap a photo of them. The illustration I've posted does not do these justice.

Walnut Fudge Truffles (taken from Carb-Conscious Vegetarian by Robin Robertson)

1/2 cup walnut pieces
1/3 cup pitted dried prunes
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp stevia, or to taste (I used about 2 tbs agave and was happy with the results)
4 tablespoons non-hydrogentated, trans-free margarine, at room temperature
(I used Earth Balance which is suitable for a vegan diet)
Ground toasted walnuts and unsweetened cocoa powder, for rolling truffles onto

• In a food processor, finely grind the walnuts and the dried prunes.
  
• Add the cocoa, stevia, and margarine; process until well blended. (Note: If you prefer a nuttier texture in the truffle, add the walnuts towards the end of the blending process to maintain a coarser textured mixture.)
• Shape the mixture into 1" balls and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat.
• Consume as is, or to make them all fancy and pretty you can roll the truffles in the ground walnuts or cocoa, or a combination of each. (I loved them with the bitter cocoa on the outside).
  
• Cover and refrigerate until firm and keep refrigerated until ready to use.
  

Makes 12

Extra notes about recipe:

Variation: You can substitute butter for the margarine

The "dough" will be quite soft when it first comes out of the food processor, but it should roll up just fine and then firm up nicely in the refrigerator.

For a sweeter, firmer truffle, you can replace the dried prunes with dates. Keep in mind that dates are higher in carbs, because of their high natural sugar content.

Product Review: airplus™ shoe accessories

This past week I had a job interview. Yup! Finally, after all these months I had a call from an organization I had applied to asking to see ME! They were interested in my "diverse" resume, i.e. years of administration experience plus a design degree plus a former small business owner teamed with months of unemployment gaps.

In preparation for this job interview, I bought a business suit: a black jacket and black pants, a button down dress shirt in a baby blue shade, a new black handbag, and nude stockings - my least favourite kind. Yes, I know - very corporate. I also purchased some kind of new shoe inserts called "airplus™"... rubbery, gel cushion shoe insoles for my black pumps in order to avoid blisters. You see, I seldom wear high heels (no more than 2-inches) and when I do...ouch!


This product was a disappointment. The part that goes under the toes (the forefoot), cutely named "Gel Steppies" eventually became unglued from the shoe insole underneath and bunched up, and thus made walking very uncomfortable. I tried several times to fix the problem with no luck. The "steppies" just reverted back to their pre-disposed bunching. It made my one shoe much tighter. I hobbled home. I developed a blister as a result.

I also purchased the gel "heel cup" product from the same airplus™ line. The heel cup on the other hand was fine. I did not notice a significant improvement in my ability to walk in heels. In fact, I don't think that it did much. But thankfully I did not get any blisters!

Not only was I unimpressed with these products but it cost me around $22 for both the forefoot "steppies" and the gel heel cups. One more thing, the excessive plastic packaging REALLY annoyed me. When I got home, I kept thinking of ways that I could re-use the packaging rather than just discard it. Ultimately, I threw the packaging out after I realized how disappointed I was with their product.

One aspect that made this product somewhat redeeming was the pink ribbon symbol on the packaging, suggesting donations (or sponsoring) to breast cancer research.

What kind of product do you use to make your high heels more comfortable?

The weakest link

Hurray, I finally finished the second of two identical sterling silver bracelets. Chain Maille bracelets to be exact. If you're not familiar with Chain Maille, it is also called "Mail Armour" as it was used to make protective garments of armour in the Dark Ages, High Middle Ages and during the Renaissance. You can read some history about Chain Maille here.

Chain Maille jewellery is made from links (or jump rings) that are linked together (using small pliers) to create necklaces, bracelets, earrings, you name it. The end result is very beautiful and very strong and durable. Getting there is another story.


The first bracelet took me a total of about 6 hours to complete within a span of several days. The second bracelet took me even longer ( 10 hours maybe?) because I messed up half way through the bracelet and had to undo several rows of the mistake and start over. What a pain in the you know what!! Argh!

Anyway, both bracelets are now complete and I can send them off to Greece to the woman that ordered them from me. Chain Maille jewellery is not something I make very often due to the cost of the materials (ahem, customs and duty fees, shipping fees, weight of silver) and because of the duration it takes to make it.

Here is a photo of the finished product. Beautiful! It's called a "European 4-in-1" (4 rows in 1 bracelet). There are so many different styles and patterns that you can make just by following the detailed instructions that arrive with your supplies.


Check out my Etsy shop for another style of Chain Maille bracelet called the "3-in-3" bracelet. I've also added a genuine jade laughing Buddha charm on the bracelet for some visual interest and charm. Pardon the pun!

Spring cleaning

Welcome.

No, no...don't leave!

This IS the "Keep it Simple" blog. You ARE at the right place.

I did some Spring cleaning. It was long overdue actually.

I decided to change my blog header. (Hurray Photoshop course!!)

I went with something lighter on the soul and um, let's call it ..."tranquil and peaceful and zen."

Ommm....

I grew a bit tired of the black background and so I decided to go with a more traditional sterile white. I may change this though. There is such a thing as too much white, right?

I've also changed some font colours around.

I'm still experimenting with things so next time you visit, the blog may seem a tad different again.

I love feedback. So if you have any sound advice, I'm listening.

The Distillery District and polka dot beads

This long Easter weekend was a complete blur. It went by so fast. I did however manage to squeeze in a visit to The Distillery District in Toronto. A former whiskey distillery that stopped operating in the 1920s. (Trivia: The movie "Chicago" starring Catherine Zeta Jones was filmed there because of the 1920's feel of the place). The district is a vast area of cobblestone brick paths and an assortment of newly renovated Victorian Industrial buildings transformed into posh restaurants, cafes, artisan shops and artist's studios. You can even go for a tour of the grounds on a Segway.

I especially enjoy going to The Distillery for my fix of Soma chocolates. Pricey? Yes! Delicious? YES! Olive oil, salted caramel and pecan butter crunch are just some of my favourites. No chocolates were consumed on this visit since I had another purchase in mind.

A trip to The Distillery is not complete without visiting some of the in-house artist studios, and getting a glimpse at their crafts. There are several jewellery studios over here. Need I say more?

One such venue is TANK fire + metal. This place is like eye candy for a jeweller or bead collector. It has so many stunning hand crafted glass beads and yes, some beads can be extremely pricey. They also sell their own line of jewellery using these handcrafted glass beads. Drool...

On this particular visit, I perused the bead selection and spotted these lovely polka dot beads. I love polka dots. Red polka dots especially. There is something very spring like and playful about them.


I purchased them. Ouch! A painful purchase when you aren't working. There goes my eating out budget for the month. But you see, I was smitten with these glass beads and gosh darn it, they are SO cute!

Being the proud owner of these happy beads, I have already come up with several ideas as to what to create with them. I will be eventually selling the end result on Etsy so stay tuned for that.

UPDATE! Have a look at the earrings I designed with the above glass beads. Now available on my Etsy shop.

Back on Etsy

Over the past year I have been asked repeatedly by people if I would ever sell on Etsy again.

I would reply with a quick "no."

People could not understand why I was against setting up shop on Etsy (again!)
Don't get me wrong, I love Etsy! It's great! I have purchased many items on there. And I still do on occasion. But, well, let's see...6 sales in 4 years? Hmm, not a good sign!

It's just a lot of leg work photographing and posting new products, typing up all kinds of info and listing and re-listing with zero return. I'm not sure where and why I failed but Etsy just wasn't working for me.

Seems no matter where I went, people would ask me if I had a website to showcase my work. They wanted to see my jewellery designs on-line. They would often mention Etsy to me as if I had no idea that it existed. "Yes, I know all about Etsy," I would say, adding that I had signed up back in 2005. "It's just so saturated with jewellery sellers and there is a LOT of competition," was my often repeated excuse.

Then one day, I heard through the grapevine about a site where I could create an on-line portfolio easily along with a monthly fee - of course. So I decided to do just that. The site is called wix.com. I spent hours and hours uploading images and typing text into my soon to be new on-line portfolio. I was so excited and really keen to get it done. This wasn't going to be an e-commerce site. It would just serve the purpose of displaying my work. I really enjoyed the easy to use web tools and all the interactive widgets on there. And I really liked hitting preview and having a glimpse at what the end result would look like.

Despite the extensive work I did on that site, I was still not 100% happy with it. There were constant technical glitches and often my hard work would disappear (by accident) into cyber space and I had no idea why and then I'd have to begin over again. How frustrating!

Weeks and months came and went and still I had not launched my new site. I desperately needed to set up a site to showcase my jewellery. Etsy came to mind. I toyed with the decision daily. A photographer friend of mine wanted to provide a link to my jewellery site from his photography site, yet I STILL had no site set up. "Just get something up there," he said..."a site of some kind or whatever." "Just do it!"

Becoming impatient with myself and the situation at hand, I sat down earlier today and spent 2 hours uploading images and typing out descriptions. Yes, I re-launched my former Etsy site.

I'm not expecting much this time around. I just want to have an on-line reference for anybody that may be interested - now or later - to see what I've been creating. If I do happen to sell something along the way...bonus!

Anyway, If you have any suggestions or ideas on how to improve the selling power of my Etsy shop, please let me know.

You can find my Etsy shop widget on the right hand side of my Blog.

Projects galore!

In a previous post, I had showcased an assortment of vintage beads my friend K had given me to incorporate into a necklace. Well, the necklace is finished! I have created a long necklace using sterling silver parts (chain, beads, clasp) along with the one-of-a-kind, vintage beads. I am very pleased with the results as I'm sure K will be when she sees it up close!



On another note, I have become inspired to sew a summer dress for myself.
Here is the lovely grey-blue fabric I will be using.


And here is the Burda pattern for the dress. I'm so excited to be making this dress! And you know what? The supplies hardly cost that much. The pattern, 3 of metres fabric and the zipper came out to $30 CDN with the Fabricland member discount card. Of course, there is labour involved, but since I'm making the dress for myself, I'm not factoring in the cost of the labour. I'm anticipating that it will take me a while to complete, as I am a newbie. All I know is that if I had purchased a similar type dress at a clothing store it would have been priced anywhere from $60 to $100 and it would have been made in another part of the world, and probably in a sweat shop.


I have also (finally!) completed the Photoshopped image that my photographer friend J asked me to help him with. Here is a portion of the image with the copyright watermark splattered all over it. Yes, I'm paranoid and neurotic! (As a side note, for the Bloggers that may want to know how to re-create this copyright watermark effect, there is a tutorial on YouTube showing you step-by-step how to do this using Photoshop).

On the image below (and with the help of Photoshop), I tweaked the model's make-up, the skin on the entire face and body, the eyes and eyebrows, the hair, I added a motion blur in the background and I also highlighted some details of the vintage car. I sent the photographer a jpg of the finished image and he really liked the work I did!!! I have learned quite a bit at my Photoshop course. I now have new work to add to my portfolio and a new skill set to add to my resume!