My visit to Georgetown Cupcake

I had to go to Washington, D.C., for the day last week for a non-profit group I'm involved with. I had a couple of hours from the time my flight arrived until I needed to be at the purpose of my visit, so I met a friend for a bit of indulgence (and pre-event carbohydrate loading).


My friend picked me up at the airport and we went to Georgetown Cupcake.  In case it looks familiar, this is the cupcake bakery from the TLC show "DC Cupcakes".  Kinda neat how it looked just like it does on the show.  We were both fortunate that we didn't have to wait in line long at all to place our orders.  My only complaint is that there is very limited seating to sit and eat your cupcakes at the bakery.  We got ours to go and went to a group of tables around the corner.









My friend got four cupcakes in a cute pink to go box.  (She didn't think she could get away with going and not bringing any home to her family.)  I had already forewarned mine that there was NO chance that cupcakes would be coming back on a plane.














So what did I get?  I got the red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting.  My take:  the cake was good.  Not great, but good.  The frosting, however, was KILLER.  Sweet, tangy, and perfect for the cake.  I would definitely do this one again.  (but who knows when that will be.)

Have any of you been?  What is your favorite cupcake (from here or any of your other favorite bakeries)?

Thornebrook Festival pictures

I am FINALLY getting around to getting pictures up from the Thornebrook Art Festival this past weekend. What I've been so busy doing the last few days will be in a few future blog posts.

I completely revamped my booth for the festival.  While the wooden boxes with the glass were very artsy, I desperately needed something I could easily handle myself.  I used two folding tables and covered them with ivory tablecloths.  I used risers to bring them up to counter height. 

This festival also kicked off my once a year sale.  You can see all the sale items in the basket on the right.  (By the way, I'm working on getting more sale items on the KMS Designs website).  Stay tuned.


The colorful wire flowers made another appearance.  The picture doesn't really do them justice.  The resin and pewter jewelry looked great on them and they made a nice pop of color on the table.








Isn't if funny how the scrabble tile pendants display nicely on the scrabble game racks??  The flowers and circles are the little foam sticker types that you can get at a craft store.  They were a last minute addition to break up the whiteness of the table.















There was Halloween jewelry galore!  Get your ghost on and be ready for the holiday.












The funny part for me?  Not a single customer said anything about the new display.  Here I worry and fuss over the little details and no one said anything.  Not that I was expecting people to oogle, but I was a bit concerned that people wouldn't know it was me since I had changed the display.  I suppose this also turned out to be an interesting experiment in human behavior.  (Although several customers said they were looking for me in this spot.  Sounds like location is more important that appearance.)

Overall, I really liked how the booth finished and it was MUCH easier for me to handle by myself.  You will see this again at the Downtown Festival and Art show in November, but ramped up a bit more.

Resin jewelry pendant pictures

I haven't been making new pendants so much this week as I have been attaching the silver bails to the pendants I have made.  Here's the assortment that will be at the Thornebrook Art Festival next week.

Birds.  Pretty fall colors.  My kids love birds.  But I don't have cardinal pendants...yet anyway.  Those are their favorites (mine too).

Geometric pendants.  A neat little way to be funky without people thinking you've lost it.

Wow, almost looks like a tray of cookies.  With sprinkles.

Still thinking cookies.  Must focus on jewelry.  No cookies until September 26.


There were three more batches of these.  I hope I will be covered.  I never know these things.  All I know is that I will run out of one or two patterns and those won't be the same one or two patterns at the next show.  (Note to self -- invest in a good crystal ball). 

See you next weekend!

Preparing for Thornebrook Art Festival

My next art event is at the Thornebrook Art Festival, September 24 and 25.  I've actually been getting inventory ready for the past month (including Halloween jewelry), so I just need to get my game on and get organized.  I probably wouldn't be thinking about this too much at all, but for all intents and purposes, I'm going to be unavailable the week prior to the event.  Yeah, I know that doesn't sound like a good idea, but an incredible opportunity with my other line of silver jewelry presented itself and I couldn't pass it up.  I'll be out of town selling that jewelry almost the entire week before.

No worries.  I'm getting ready this week and next.  Here's what I have to do:

1. Since I'm redoing the booth to make it as easy as possible for one person to set up and decorate, I need two new tables and two tablecloths.  I might also go with some organza table covers.  Not sure.  Still thinking about that one.
2. Since I have my only sale of the year in conjunction with this show, I need to get that jewelry packaged.  It has worked out well to have that jewelry packaged and priced in a basket for people to sift through.  
3. I will also have wireless access in order to process credit card information at the show this year.  That will be a big time savings and I don't have to worry about declined credit cards later.
4. Of course, I need to get focused on having enough finished jewelry.  That means that I had to be finished with pouring resin LAST week in order for me to finish it this week.  I'm actually doing the best on this one.

Stay tuned for picture updates.

Figs and #foodporn

With hubby working at the grocery store, I don't go very often.  I'm grateful for that and after I stopped in this past Friday, he's probably thankful too.  As I was loading up in the produce section, I noticed that fresh figs were in season.  Woo hoo!  I loaded up and surprised hubby that night with one of my favorite easy appetizers. (Sorry I shot our budget this week sweetie.)

Take fresh figs and cut off the top.  Scoop out a bit of the center.  Insert a heaping teaspoon or so of your favorite cheese.  I personally like something pungent like a stilton or goat cheese.  Wrap with a slice of proscuitto (did I spell that right?) and drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil.  This also works well with a bit of camembert or brie (still not sure I'm spelling these correctly) and drizzle with honey instead if a pungent cheese isn't your deal. 

Super.  yummy.

The movie is never as good as the book

I knew better.  Can anyone name me a movie that is as good as its book?  (I can only think of one -- Cold Mountain -- that book was ghoulish to read)  I was the only one up in my house the other night (working on resin jewelry of course) and I flipped through the tv channels.  The movie "Angels and Demons" was just getting ready to start.  Suck-er.  Yeah, I'm a sucker for the Dan Brown novels.  I absolutely LOVE his books and this one was a favorite.

I won't spoil the plot or anything here, but, the movie -- well -- it wasn't nearly as good as the book.  So here's my one sentence movie review:  "Read the book."  Really.  It's a fast read and you get more of the story (and it makes more sense).


What other book to big screen movies have disappointed you?