Awesome Mail

My super cool blogger friend Luka sent me some mail and I photographed the opening of it so you could all share in the excitement.

She sent me the very first coin purse she ever made and it's fantastic!  She also sent me lots of cool stuff that I put on my art wall.  Luka is a super cool talented girl who makes cool clothing and jewelry.  You guys should definitely check out her stuff.  It's amazing!

Do you like mail?  I love mail!  If you feel like sending me mail, you can do that.  My address is:

Jessica Beebe
4547 19th Ave. NE Apt. 15
Seattle, WA 98105

If you send me something, make sure you include your return address and I'll send you something back.  And if you send me something you made, like art for my art wall, I will be positively giddy for at least a week.

Two for Tuesday: Vera's Eyecandy and NarjisDesigns

I'm still trying to figure out a format to share Etsy finds.  I'm going to try out this one and see how I like it.

Two for Tuesday is a new post series where I'll be sharing two great Etsy shops and two of my favorite items from each one.  Click the image to go to the product on Etsy.

The first shop this week is NarjisDesigns.  This shop is filled with some of the most unique and creative jewelry I've ever seen.  And I feel like the items are seriously underpriced, which means that you can get an amazing one-of-a-kind piece of wearable art for next to no money.  Here are my two favorite pieces from her shop.

Vera's Eyecandy is the second shop this week.  This shop sells some really cool clothing, including cute dresses made from band tee shirts.  And her prices are lower than you would expect for handmade clothing.  These are my two favorite items from the shop.

Gluten-free Granola Bars

I love to carry granola bars in my purse so I have something to eat in case I'm not around a store or just have to eat on the run.  However gluten-free granola bars are expensive!  So after buying them for awhile I decided to make my own.  This recipe seemed really easy (the same difficulty level as rice krispy treats), so I decided to try it out.  I didn't have all of the ingredients but I did have stuff that would work, so I improvised, and they turned out amazing!  I gave some to eight different friends, none of whom have to eat gluten-free, and they all loved them.  Their comments included telling me I should sell these and asking me if I would make more of them tomorrow.

What I used this time was: 2 cups gluten-free certified oatmeal, 2 cups of Honey Nut Chex (crushed up), diced pecans, a handful of craisins, 1 cup of chocolate chips, 3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter, and 1 cup of maple syrup (highly recommended!).

This recipe didn't make nearly as much as I thought it would!  Next time I will definitely double the recipe.  They don't really taste like granola bars.  They taste more like no-bake cookies (which is not a bad thing in my book!)  Next time I want to make some with more craisins, white chocolate chips instead of chocolate chips, coconut, almonds, and honey and corn syrup, because I don't want them to taste peanut buttery.

These were super easy to make.  They were done in ten minutes, aside from setting up.  I will definitely keep making variations of them instead of buying expensive granola bars.  The ingredients are way cheaper and last for more than one use.  I definitely recommend this recipe, especially for kids who have to eat gluten-free.  They can even help make it!  And it's really easy to customize to your own tastes and dietary needs.  Let me know if you make these and what you used in yours!

More photos:

News of the Bad Kind

I got laid off today.  I also caught a cold, which I had been trying to avoid for about a week now.  So it would help me out a ton if you could maybe share my shop with all of your friends, since that's my main source of income until I find a new job.  I also sell desktop wallpapers now, for just $5 each!

You could also sponsor my blog for one month from just $3 to $7!  And if you really like me you can donate.

And as a thank you, you can download 6 tileable patterns that I made for use in Photoshop here.

Etsy Love: WTJCOLLECTION

This shop was just opened by my boss, and I really do love the jewelry in it.  Besides these lovely earrings, there are also necklaces and bracelets, with more items coming soon!  I really love these earrings, as well as these and these.

So I would really love it if you would visit the shop, and maybe Pin an item or two, share the shop with your friends, or even buy something!

Also, I have decided to stop doing a blog and shop of the month, and go back to doing Etsy love and blog love posts instead.

Seahawks Won and Seattle went Crazy

If you don't care about football, you should probably either skip this post or just watch the video.

As you probably know by now, the Seattle Seahawks won their first Super Bowl on Sunday.  And I am a big Seahawks fan, so it kind of doesn't seem real yet.  It feels more like I dreamed it.  Especially since the Super Bowl victory was sooooo much easier than the NFC championship game.

And after the victory, Seattle went crazy.  And since I live pretty much on Greek Row, and am surrounded by frats and sororities, going crazy means the Greek system kids lit couches on fire in the street (as you can see in the above video that I filmed from my front porch).  They started four separate fires, with the cops and a fire truck showing up every time to put the fire out.  In this video it's the fourth fire and there are two couches and three mattresses ablaze.  Plus there were a bunch of cops in riot gear standing in the street right in front of my house, which was pretty cool, since they didn't have scary guns out, only nightsticks which they didn't use.  I'm really surprised none of the frat kids got arrested, actually.  They were actually smart enough not to mess with the cops.

These cops and about 8 others meant serious business.  They just stood around looking menacing.

Birthday Recap

It was my 22nd birthday on Tuesday.  The night before G took me to get a burger, fries, and a shake at Blue Moon Burgers.  My burger was huge! (as you can see from the picture)  It was called The Code Blue and had two hamburger patties, cheese, lots of bacon, Blue Moon Sauce, onions and peanut butter!  It sounds like a weird combination but somehow the onions and peanut butter balanced out perfectly.  I also had sweet potato fries and a strawberry milkshake.  It was so good!  The burger had a gluten-free brioche bun that was so good I wouldn't have know it was gluten-free if I hadn't specified three times that everything needed to be gluten-free.

Then on my birthday I worked from 9 until 1, then went to Trophy Cupcake on my way home to get a gluten-free red velvet cupcake.  Then I came home and baked myself a birthday cake.  I used Bob's Red Mill gluten-free chocolate cake mix and it turned out so moist and delicious.  Everyone loved it and even N, who said he isn't a cake person but would one bite, ate five bites.  After that I just hung out with my friends and then they gave me a "birthday card" they got me.  It was a cardboard cutout of my favorite Doctor from Doctor Who, Matt Smith!  My housemates all signed the back of it.  It's both like a really amazing gift and a prank, because before I leaned it against the wall I would see it out of the corner of my eye and get startled because I thought there was someone in my room.  I can also use it for additional necklace storage later on, if I need it.  And what better place for The Doctor than by my outer space art?!

All in all it was a great birthday.

Do you watch Doctor Who?  Who's your favorite Doctor?