Friday, November 09, 2007

Prim Talk Radio Show #80

This Week's Show Contents:


  • Angie Owner of Heartland Graphics I will be sharing a great Thanksgiving Recipe and also a segment on how to draw quality traffic to your site.




  • Michelle Lammers from Scrappin with Army Wives talks about how you can involve your kids to help you out with your crafting business




  • Linda Pinda from Linda Pinda Designs Linda is sick this week and will be back next week




  • Heather from Cotton Pickin Prims is here to talk about how she lost weight due to a New Year's Resolution and and how she plans on losing more!




  • Michele from
    Briar Patch Prim
    is here to tell you how to make dried fruit




Visit our site at www.primtalkradio.com to listen to our latest show

How to get your kids to help on your crafting business by Michelle Lammers

Greetings and welcome to my segment this week. Last week I took a break from doing a segment. I had
to get ready for a big craft fair on Saturday. To say the least I was thankful that I had plenty of
goodies for the customers to buy. Since I did the craft fair I thought that I would talk about how we
can have our children help us out when possible.

All three of my children seem to be very helpful children when it comes to certain things. They like to
help me get the truck loaded, which can be like a jigsaw puzzle. Once the truck is loaded, we can get
moving towards the craft fair. I have found that if I can set up the night before it makes a great
difference, I am not rushed the morning of the craft fair. Once we get to where we can set up. The
kids can be very helpful in helping unload the truck. I have a couple of heavier pieces that I need help
both setting up and taking down.

Now that the vehicle is all unloaded it is time to set up. You can give the children small tasks that they
will be able to accomplish without to much fuss. One of the things I have found that my youngest can
do without problems is my ornie tree. I have a very simple post that has pegs that can have the ornies
put on it. After putting the ornies on this, they can help put some extra ornies on a small primitive tree.
I have found that this works in my area as it shows what the ornies look like on a tree but you don’t have
to carry a large tree and set it up.

After that simple task is done, they are great to hand you things that you need. I have found that the
more that you include the children with the process of doing craft fairs, the more understanding they
are. Now that you have finished your set up of the booth, then it is time to go home and rest for a few
hours until the next morning. I usually like to have one of my children help me at the craft fair. I don’t
take my youngest as she can be a handful and talks about silly things to the customers. But the older
ones can be great helpers for you. If there is a small break they can sit with the booth while you run to
the bathroom or to get something to eat.

Once the fair is over my children are great helpers on getting things packed and loaded into the truck.
This is just another aspect of the craft fairs that they can learn about. I find that it is important that
I make sure that I load things back the way I had time before. That way if I need something I can
find it without issues.

So now that the vehicle is loaded and we are on our way back home it is a great time to ask them how
they thought it went. Mine always like to know how it went, so we talk about it. This is a great way for
them to see what the customers were buying. We even come up with new ideas for the next time. Some
craft fairs are better then others, so this helps the children understand why we can be frustrated.
Sometimes it feels that if we work hard and can’t sell much. Then there are the other times that it
works out great and we do well at the craft fairs. Having your children see both ways helps them
understand that it is a hard venture, but can be a rather rewarding one in the end.

I realize that not everyone will want to include their children in the process of the craft fair set up on
take down. But I would recommend at least giving it a try once to see if it works for you and your
children. They may get an eye opener and understand what we go through durning craft fair season.

Thanks for listening to my segment this week and I hope that you have a great week. If you have any
comments about this or a past segment please feel free to stop by my site and send me an email. Visit
at www.scrappinwitharmywife.com Happy Crafting and Craft Fairs!

The Holidays and Maintaining Your Weight Loss by Heather


The Holidays and Maintaining Your Weight Loss
Goal



 



 


Hi everyone, it’s Heather from Cotton Picken Prims. 
Welcome to this week’s Prim Talk Radio show.  I’ve just wrapped up my craft
shows for the season this past week and I’m happy to report they were very
successful.  I hope you’ve had the same success with your shows this year.


 


The holiday’s are just around the corner, my how time
flies.  Our US friends will be celebrating Thanksgiving in just a couple of
weeks and then Christmas is on the horizon a month later.  With all the family
gatherings and social parties that will be heading our way soon, it will be
difficult not to be tempted by all that turkey and delicious array of sweets
that will be offered to us.  Last year I made a New Year’s resolution to get
into shape and start eating healthier.  My goal was to loose weight.  I didn’t
start my resolution right away as with every resolution in years past would fall
by the way side before the first of February.  I waited and started my new
resolution in April.  I joined a weight loss program with a friend.  I struggled
at first and then started to see some results.  I didn’t push myself into my
goal weight too hard.  My personal goal each week was to loose one pound.  If I
lost more it was a bonus for me.  I started weighing and measuring out my food
and counting my points for the day.  I began walking and exercising daily as
well.  Just 30 minutes each day will give you simple results.  A few months
later I joined a women’s only gym and started a simple weight training and
toning workout three times a week.  Soon the pounds started to shed off.  I was
looking better, had more energy than I’d had in years and was eating healthier
meals each day.  I’ve lost just a little over 40 pounds now and it feels so
great to walk into a store and purchase items a size smaller.  I still have
about 80 more pounds to go and will get to that goal weight by the end of 2008. 
That’s my personal goal, is to be down the 80 pounds by this time next year. 
Baby steps, I call it.  One day at a time, one meal at a time.  Loosing weight
is not about being on a diet, you have to think of it as a lifestyle change.  A
lifestyle change at any age can be a challenge, but once you start seeing
results and feeling better, you will realize that this new lifestyle will make
you so much more happier and healthier. 


 


With the holidays approaching, I’m starting to plan ahead
for meals so that I’m not tempted to stray away from my weight loss challenge. 
I’m searching out recipes that offer a healthy alternative.  For stuffing, I’m
going to be using a low fat recipe.  Desserts will consist of low fat items or
more fruit this year.  Hey nothing wrong with a red or green jello with fruit
and a dollup of fat free cool whip on top!  I find planning ahead keeps me from
binge shopping and eating.  This will be my first Christmas on my new lifestyle
change and as with holidays that have past by this past year, I’ve found
planning ahead keeps me on my toes and allows me to still enjoy the festivities
of the season without gaining the weight I’ve lost.


 


You’re probably saying, Heather that’s all good for when
I’m home with family, but what about those dreaded work parties and those nights
out attending holiday parties at friend or relative houses?  Well that’s not a
problem.  A work party, you usually will know where it’s going to be held.  If
it’s going to be held at a restaurant, familiarize yourself with their menu
ahead of time and plan out a meal that will work for you.  Start with a soup or
salad and then look for a broasted chicken or non battered fish plate on the
menu.  Top it off with maybe a fruit cup for dessert.  If an alcoholic beverage
is to be served, opt for one small glass and then stick to water or
decaffeinated coffee or tea after that.  Don’t worry if you feel you aren’t
eating as much as our co-workers.  I used to feel that I had to eat huge
platefuls for that’s what others did.  Little did I know how many calories and
bad items I was putting on that fork and into my mouth.  Now I eat a little
slower than the others and it looks like I’ve had just as big a meal and still
stay to my plan for loosing weight.  Heading out to a friend’s house party? 
Don’t worry, make up a fruit bowl or a low fat cheese and cracker platter and
take it with you.  Don’t feel that you’re imposing on your host or sending the
wrong message that you don’t care for her food.  Taking your own little platter
will give you the confidence that you have something at her party that you can
eat and not feel guilty about later.  If your friend is a true friend in your
weight loss challenge, she won’t be offended at all.  Another little trick I
like to do when we’re heading out to a house party is I will have a pre party
snack.  I’ll eat one of those 100 calorie dark chocolate Aero bars (only 2
points) and will eat a small apple just before heading out the door.  In 4
points I’m good to go and won’t overindulge at the party.  While at the party,
move around and socialize.  Doing so will leave you less tempted to hit the
trays upon trays of food sitting out.  Don’t be tempted by all the wonderful
alcoholic drinks that will be available.  Those are high in points value.  Opt
for a diet soda or a fruit water.  Don’t be ashamed in bringing your own items
to drink for the night.


 


One of the most important elements to the holidays is to
get out and exercise.  Taking a brisk 30 minute walk after all that turkey will
make you feel so alive and will help shed those few extra pounds at the same
time.  I know with the colder weather approaching us, it’s not overly tempting
to be out there walking.  Bundle up and get out there for that walk.  Trust me
after a few minutes of walking you’ll be sweating and feeling warm in no time. 
While out strolling, enjoy your neighbour’s holiday decorations and clear your
mind.  You’ll feel so exhilarated and alive.


 


I hope I’ve helped give you some ideas on how to prepare
for the holiday season and not falter on your lifestyle change routine.  If you
haven’t started that new lifestyle change, give it a whirl today.  There are all
sorts of weight loss centers out there that can help you reach your goal.  Find
one that best suits your needs and jump on the wagon to a new you.  If you
started today, you could be less 10 pounds by Christmas.  It’s true.  That’s my
new goal for these next few weeks….to be less another 10 pounds before December
25th.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress.  If you have any
questions or want more information on my personal quest to a new me, drop me a
line.  You can reach me through Prim Talk Radio here or through my website,
Cotton Picken Prims.  You can find us on the web at:

www.cottonpickenprims.com
   .   I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s segment. 
Start planning for those holiday meals and gatherings now and let me know how
you’re progressing with your new lifestyle change!  Till next week everyone,
have a great week!  


 


 

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Holiday Issue of Primitive Times Magazine




Our November Issue was full of great Craft Ideas!


Full of wonderful crafts and business articles, Table of
Contents Below:



1.

Front Cover



2.

Welcome and Index



3.

Holiday Special



4.
Meet
Our Editors



5.

Wanda’s Corner



6.

Country Christmas w/Laurie



7.
Cats
in Barn Pattern



8.

E-Pattern



9.

E-Pattern



10.

E-Pattern



11.

E-Pattern



12.

E-Pattern



13.

Country Coasters w/Laurie



14.

Christmas Past N Present



15.

Strawberry E-Pattern



16.

Punkin Dough Critters



17.

Punkin Dough Critters Cont



18.

Punkin Dough Critters



19.

Punkin Dough Critters



20.
A
Harvest Blessing



21.

Adveriting your own Website



22.

Adveriting your own Website



23.

Household and Recipe Tips



24.

Household and Recipe Tips



25.

Household and Recipe Tips



26.

Remembering Christmas



27.

Remembering Christmas


28.

Chocolate Covered Cherries



29.
Featured Crafter



30.
Featured Crafter



31.
Ads



32.
Wanda’s Country Farmhouse



33.
PMT Info



34.
Dear PMT-



35.
Country Folkart Marketplace



36.
The Keeping Room



37.
Primitive Grungy Jar



38.
Primitive Grungy Jar Cont



39.
Ads



40.
Ads



41.
Featured Crafter



42

Featured Crafter



43

Featured Crafter



44

Recipe Corner



45

Recipe Corner



46
Ads



47
Mini
Crab Cakes Recipe



48

Primitive Braided Curtains



49

Choosing and Preparing Gourds to Paint





CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR MAIN SITE


 

Thanksgiving Decorating Ideas by Angela Wenke

Today I thought since Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching
it might be a great timet o start talking about how to decorate your home and
table for the holidays! The great thing about Thanksgiving is that a lot of the
decorations can be for FREE and found in just the outdoor elements such as
gourds and pumpkins and leaves and acorns and so one!

 


If you are in a quick pinch and need a simple centerpiece
idea you can take either treenware bowls or vintage pots and pans and line them
down the center of your dining table and then taking fresh fruits, leaves,
acorns, ghords, squashes, cinnamon sticks, mini pumpkins and dried flowers you
can fill with a beautiful assortment of fall autumns! And you cost you next
nothing to create but it will fill your house with beautiful autumn colors and
textures and scents.


Want to add some pizzaz to your candles for your
Thanksgiving dinner? Take a couple of pillar candles in white or autumn colors
and some floral wire and autumn leaves and you are on your way to a fancy
display! Using tall pillar candles of any width put autumn leaves on the sides
of the candles so that it forms a nice row of leaves around the base of the
candle and hold into place with floral wire. Make sure there is a couple of
inches from the top of the candle and the top of the leaves to allow you time to
burn your candlewithout ruining the leaves.


Don’t’ forget the lighting this year! You need some abience
and to do so fill your home with autumn scented candles, the smell will fill
your home with wonderful autumn aromas and the candle light will give your home
a certain ambience! If you don’t have or don’t want to use candles you could
always use carriage lights or lanterns also.


Another idea is if you grow your own herbs In your herb
garden think of picking your herbs and adding them all around your home in small
baskets in your kitchen and living room filling your home with wonderful aromas!
And we don’t want to forget to decorate the all fun Kid table! You will want to
decorate the kid table to keep your little ones entertained while they are
waiting on everyone to finish up their meals. Since our theme is Thanksgiving
you could add a map the table as a tablecloth and add some small boats to
represent the first boats to discover



America, to add another fun touch you could have handmade
headbands for each of your kiddos laying on top of their plates! Just take
construction paper and scissors and stapler and create your headband don’t
forget to adorn it with a colorful ribbon now you have a table full of Indians.
And lastly offer small boxes of crayons so your little Indians can chart their
path on the map of where they plan to sail off too.

Chocolate Pecan Pie Recipe by Angela Wenke

My Aunt brought over a YUMMY pie for our last Christmas
that we all fell in love with so I decided to share the recipe! We all love
Pecan pies in my family and this year my Aunt tricked us as we thought we were
getting ready to bite into her traditional pecan pie we all love so much only to
find out it was chocolate pecan pie! Can we say it was to die for!!! It was soo
delicious I hope you will love this recipe as much as we did.


Crust:

1-1/4 cups flour

Pinch salt

6 Tbsp. unsalted, cold butter, cut into slim pats

About 3 to 5 Tbsp. ice water


Filling:

1-1/3 cups pecan halves or large pieces

4 eggs, graded “large”

1 Tbsp. instant espresso powder

1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 cup sifted or strained unsweetened cocoa powder

Pinch salt

1 cup light corn syrup


For Crust:

In medium bowl, combine flour and salt; stir to mix well. with two knives or
pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture is in fine crumbs. (This step can
also be done in a food processor fitted with a steel blade; pulse on-and-off
until butter-flour mixture is in fine crumbs, then turn into medium bowl.)
Gradually add just enough ice water so that pastry holds together. Form into a
ball, then flatten into a disk. Handle as little as possible. Wrap tightly in
plastic wrap; chill at least 1-2 hours. Roll out crust on lightly floured
surface with lightly floured rolling pin. Turn crust over frequently, and
lightly re-flour work surface and rolling pin as necessary. Crust should be
rolled into a circle about 13″ in diameter. Fit crust into ungreased, 9″ pie
plate of heatproof glass; form a high-standing rim, trimming excess from edges
and pinching or fluting rim decoratively as desired. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
F. Thoroughly prick crust all over with fork. Chill at least 10 minutes while
oven heats. Bake in preheated oven 5 minutes (crust will not brown). Remove to
rack and cool completely before filling.


For Filling:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. If your pecan halves are very large, break them
up a bit with your fingers; otherwise, use them as they are. Scatter them evenly
on the bottom of the cooled pie shell. In small bowl, with fork, beat eggs to
combine. Add espresso powder and beat to mix. Let stand at least 10 minutes,
beating occasionally to dissolve espresso. By hand, in medium bowl, cream
softened butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in cocoa and
salt. Add egg-espresso mixture one-third at a time, beating after each addition
until smooth. Stir in corn syrup. This “custard” will be thick–that’s OK. Pour
mixture slowly over pecans in pie shell. If any pecans do not get completely
covered by “custard”, submerge them until they do. Let stand 2-3 minutes; with
toothpick or tip of sharp knife, pierce any remaining air bubbles (during this
standing period, pecans may rise to top of pie–OK). Bake in preheated 400 degree
oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F; bake 33-37 minutes longer
(total baking time is 43-47 minutes), or until edges are cracked and risen but
pie center still quivers slightly when pie is shaken gently. Do not overbake. If
pie begins to brown excessively, cover top lightly with foil. Remove from oven;
cool on rack before serving.

Mary Jo’s Segment on our Prim Family

Hello Prim Talk Radio Listeners, this is Mary Jo with
FineCountryLivingPrimitives.com. I’m sorry I missed last week’s show. My husband
and I are opening our own brick and mortar store here on our property and we are
doing all the work ourselves to save on start up costs. What we are paying for
is our lack of extra time, and last week the days just got away from me!


I’m glad to be back this week, but I’m here with a bit of sad news. A few
months ago, Angie had a wonderful segment on joining eBay groups and networking.
I’ve been a member of a wonderful eBay group for well over a year now called
APCG A Primitive Country Gathering. Many of our contributors here and on
Primitive Times Magazine are also members, and it is a wonderful gathering of
primitive sisters and we share the love of crafting, art, and sisterhood.


Our wonderful leader since the beginning is Kassy. Kassy passed away just
this week after an illness, and it is devastating news for all of us in our very
close-knit group. She was a wonderful person, and touched each and every person
she ever met with her unending kindness, support and love.


We will miss Kassy greatly, and I want this segment to be in honor of her and
what she has taught me. This segment is going to be about our primitive
community.


Until I entered into this community of primitive lovers and crafters, I never
knew that it existed. It’s not a community located in one place, it consists of
many locations throughout our country and even our world, but brought together
with everyone’s love for primitives and things that remind us of the simpler
times.


This community ranges from the online magazines and craft malls, through to
chat rooms, eBay groups and WAHM forums where people gather to meet and chat
about our work. What ends up happening is you see one person in one forum, then
maybe when you read a great online article or hear a segment on a pod cast such
as Prim Talk Radio, you realize that it’s that person you’ve been chatting with
online for a few months. Many forums do exchanges where you are partnered up
with another member and you exchange something handmade and it’s amazing how
much you get to know a person just from that little gesture!


When I speak of our prim community with what I call “outsiders” such as my
family and my local friends and neighbors, people look at me as if I’m a bit
crazy! I will be laughing and tell them of a story I heard from one of my
friends, and they will say something like “Who?” I then usually reply, “Oh, my
online friend Michele, or Renae”, and they just don’t understand that you really
create a bond with these people.


We all share a common thread with our love of primitives, and many of us are
WAHM’s that are always there for each other when times get crazy or tough. Many
times we bounce new ideas off of each other or ask one another for opinions on
store names, or new doll ideas, because only one of us prim lovers can truly
understand what the other is saying or even thinking.


I guess that what I’m trying to say is that it is a large community online
for us crafters and prim lovers, but it is also so small when we all get to know
each other, support each other, and lend a helping hand when needed.


I encourage all of you to get involved with this little community if you have
not already. And if you have, next time you are online, say thank you to your
friends who always seem to be there when you need them most, those who truly
understand how hard it is to work from home and take care of the kids, cook
dinner and do the chores all at once. Take the time to tell those sisters in
your community that they mean the world to you, because someday, they just may
not be there to hear it.


I truly didn’t want this to be a sad segment, and I’m sorry if it sounded
like it was. I want this segment to be a reminder of how special so many of you
are and to continue to enjoy each other’s company. I know that myself, and many
of us, will miss our dear sister Kassy, but I also know that this community
meant so much to her, and if she could, she would encourage all of us to share
our passions with others as she shared hers with so many of us.


May we all continue our sisterhood in her honor and thank you all for being a
part of this special community!


Fine
Country Living Primitives


http://finecountrylivingprimitives.com/store/Default.asp