A Busy Shipping Day . . .

They finally arrived yesterday – our first shipment of the new Tim Holtz Distress Markers.  We know (and appreciate) that many of you have been waiting patiently for them – some for more than two months since they were first introduced on Tim’s blog a week or so before CHA.  So we immediately went into Shipping Mode so we could get as many full sets as possible shipped the same day they came in.  We got our first surprise when we opened the boxes . . .

Most of the lids had come off the plastic canisters in transit.  And the bottom was broken off one of the canisters (don’t worry if you placed a preorder – you didn’t get that one).  So a step was added to the process . . .

We put each set of markers into a cocoon of shrink wrap that will hopefully keep everything in one piece until it reaches you.

Debbie and Patti already had stacks of boxes waiting to be filled.  I had to snap the picture of them from another room while they weren’t looking – no doubt I will pay for this later.  Then the boxes came to me, where I was printing out shipping labels.

Made for quite a mountain of boxes – there were about 70 here when I took these shots.  Then we had to get them to the post office – I really wasn’t sure if I could get all of them into the back of my truck.

But I did, and had room for about 15 more than we had.  My bed cover folds back in three sections, and I realized that just one section didn’t do my packing job justice.  So I rolled it all the way back to shoot one last picture, then closed everything and headed for the post office.  There, I got quite a few looks from those in line – first when I grabbed an empty rolling bin from the lobby and wheeled it out the door, then again a few minutes later when I wheeled that overflowing bin back into the lobby, and again as I brought several armloads of boxes that surrounded that bin.

I tried to take a quick picture before a postal worker started moving everything into the sorting room – obviously it was out of focus.  But you get the idea . . .

We’ll go through the process again when the next shipment arrives – hopefully sometime next week.

Distress Marker Update . . .

Thanks to all of you who placed preorders for Tim Holtz’ new Distress Marker sets and have been waiting patiently for them to arrive.  We received word from Ranger overnight that our first shipment of full sets will arrive tomorrow (Wednesday).  We will begin shipping the preorders in the order they were received as soon as UPS arrives.

Another Benefit from Our World Tour . . .

One the things I treasure most about our travels is the friendships we have made over the years.  At every show, there are faces that I have to see before the weekend is complete.  Some of them are vendors, some are customers, and some help us set up and tear down the booth and work in it during the show.  I enjoy the conversations and getting to know more about your families and the local culture.  And the support and encouragement that many of you have shown my mom during her fight with cancer is simply overwhelming.

Today’s entry is another benefit from our travels.  At the Indianapolis show earlier this month, our friends Kaaren Sadtler and Ann Hathaway made their annual appearance to help us with set up and tear down.  And Kaaren brought goodies – Caramel Chip Bars.  They are fantastic – she was kind enough to share the recipe and I made them and took pictures last week.

Here’s what you’ll need (I’ll print the whole recipe at the end of this post so you won’t have to print out all of the pictures):

1/2 cup Butter
32 Kraft Caramels (side note – has anyone else noticed that these things are half the size they were years ago?)
14 oz. Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 Pkg. Yellow Cake Mix, dry
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
2 Cups Miniature Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Vanilla or White Chips
3 Heath Candy Bars, 1.4 oz. each, chopped

I made a few changes to this – I like milk chocolate chips and those don’t come in miniature.  And I like fewer chips in my cookies, so I used 1 cup of milk chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of white chips.  I only used two Heath bars – but I was told that next time I need to stick with three to give the finished product a little more “crunch”.  And I always use margarine instead of butter and Egg Beaters instead of eggs.

 

You’ll want something in the background to keep you occupied while you’re making these bars (in my case, it was the NCAA basketball tournament on my computer) – from start to putting the finished product into the refrigerator to cool, this took almost 3½ hours.  And it goes in and out of the oven three times!

Here we go . . .

Line a 9” x 13” pan with aluminum foil and grease; set aside.

Combine the butter, caramels and condensed milk in a microwave safe bowl and microwave, stirring at intervals, until smooth when stirred.  Cool in refrigerator while working on other ingredients.

In a mixing bowl, combine cake mix, oil and eggs; mix well.

Chop the Heath Bars – I broke them up in a Ziploc bag instead of using a chopper, but next time I’ll just buy the Heath Bar Pieces at the grocery.

Stir in chips and candy bar (dough will be stiff).

Press 2/3 of the mixture into baking pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, then cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.

Pour caramel mixture over the crust and spread to the edges (getting to lick the spoon or knife after this is an added bonus)

Drop remaining dough by spoonfuls onto caramel layer.

The edges of this recipe tend to get dark and unattractive before the middle gets done – so trim the edges of the pan with foil.

Bake 15 minutes and then remove foil.

Then bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until edges are golden brown.  (I baked mine 14 minutes and it was a little too crumbly for my tastes – I will cut this back to 10-11 minutes next time)

Cool for 10 minutes – then run a knife around the edge of the pan.  Cool for 40 minutes longer, then cover and refrigerate for at least one hour or until serving. 

It was 10:20 when I put mine into the refrigerator, and I intended to go to bed and see how it tasted in the morning – at exactly 11:20, Ryan came downstairs and demanded that we cut into it!

And I suggest you cut this into small pieces – it’s really rich!  Enjoy!

 

Caramel Chip Bars (Kaaren Sadtler)

1/2 cup Butter
32 Kraft Caramels
14 oz. Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 Pkg. Yellow Cake Mix, dry
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
2 Cups Miniature Chocolate Chips
1 Cup Vanilla or White Chips
3 Heath Candy Bars, 1.4 oz. each, chopped

Line a 9” x 13” pan with aluminum foil and grease; set aside.

Combine the butter, caramels and condensed milk in a microwave safe bowl and microwave, stirring at intervals, until smooth when stirred.  Cool in refrigerator while working on other ingredients.

In a mixing bowl, combine cake mix, oil and eggs; mix well.

Stir in chips and chopped candy bars (dough will be stiff).

Press 2/3 of the mixture into baking pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, then cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.

Pour caramel mixture over the crust and spread to the edges.

Drop remaining dough by spoonfuls onto caramel layer.

The edges of this recipe tend to get dark and unattractive before the middle gets done – so trim the edges of the pan with foil.

Bake 15 minutes and then remove foil.

Then bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Cool for 10 minutes – then run a knife around the edge of the pan.  Cool for 40 minutes longer, then cover and refrigerate for at least one hour or until serving. 

Reading Material . . .

You’re going to need some reading material while you’re making those Chocolate Chip Caramel Bars (if you’re reading this on Friday, the recipe is coming tomorrow).  And if you’re a Tim Holtz fan, this is right up your alley.

Click on Tim’s picture and you’ll go to a site with an 84-page Flip Catalog of all of the Tim Holtz products, including all of the new stuff (like the Distress Markers – nothing new on that front) that hasn’t been shipped yet.

Here are a couple of sample pages.  It really is pretty neat – you can turn the pages and flip through the entire book online, or you’ll find five little file tabs sticking out of the left side of the screen – if you click on the next-to-last one (it has a little “PDF” on it), you can download the whole catalog to your computer and look through it at your leisure.

And of course, if you see something you just can’t live without, you know where you can get it . . .

How I Spent My Weekend Could Affect Your Taste Buds . . .

I love the NCAA basketball tournament.  I don’t watch a lot of college basketball during the regular season, but once the tournament starts, I’m hooked.  And the first two days of the tournament, with nonstop games all day long, are the best sports days of the year.

Thursday, I spent the day at work with a “splitscreen computer” – games running on one side of the screen while I was working on something on the other half.  But Friday was another matter entirely . . .

You may recall that last March, my brother Blake and I went to Arizona on the first weekend of the tournament and alternated days of hiking with Dad and days of NCAA basketball with Mom.  This year, we decided to stay home so Mom could concentrate on herself for a change – if we went to Arizona, she would insist on taking care of us instead.  Besides, there were NCAA games at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, a little over an hour from home.  We watched games from noon until almost midnight on Friday – and at halftime and between games we went out onto the concourse and watched games from other sites on televisions!  Then we went back on Sunday for two more games.

How could this affect you?  Well, on Friday the NCAA breaks the day into “sessions” – two games in the first session and two games in the second session – and they clear the arena between sessions (partly to clean it and partly to require you to buy two tickets).  So Blake and I packed a cooler and “tailgated” on the back of my truck, with a glorious view of this electric substation.  You can’t tailgate without a good dessert . . .

So Thursday night, I took a stab at the caramel chocolate chip bars that I teased after the Indianapolis show two weeks ago.  Mine were almost as good as Kaaren’s – and I took lots of pictures while I made them.  I suspect that they will make their way into this space within a couple of days.  Stay tuned . . .

Perhaps I Should Avoid Things I Know Nothing About . . .

Wow, did I get an education yesterday – about beer.  Within minutes after I posted that picture, I started getting e-mails from people who knew that “Craft Beer” was not a typo – apparently it is another name for “microbrew”.  I was even sent a link to a website that is loaded with Craft Beer info . . .

http://www.craftbeer.com

And of course got a very nice e-mail from a lady who offered to demo it for us at conventions . . .

I tried to correct my mistake before Blogger e-mailed the post, but it was too late.

So I suppose it will surprise no one to learn that I’m not a drinker?  I don’t have a reason for it – just always liked soft drinks and never saw the need to expand my horizons.  Honestly, when I was a teenager someone told me that beer was something you had to develop a taste for – and I won’t even eat things I have to develop a taste for!

Some might find it boring, but I like my routine and I’m a creature of habit – when I go into the McDonald’s up the street, I often don’t have to order since they already know what I want.  One of the workers there once asked me why I never order anything different, and my response was “When I want something different, I go someplace else.”

A New Item We Should Be Carrying?

I was on the way home at lunchtime, headed for a dentist appointment.  As I passed a local carryout about halfway there, I saw the message board underneath the gas prices and the gears in my brain started turning.  I couldn’t wait to get out of the dentist’s office so I could head back and snap a picture – my only fear was that they might have corrected their mistake before I got there.  Lucky me . . .

So is this a new item that we should be carrying?

Egg on my face – I put this on our Facebook page and several people immediately informed me that there is such a thing as “Craft Beer”.  Oh well – that’s what I get for not being a drinker . . .

This Should Keep Us Busy for Several Days . . .

They’re here – the new Spellbinders dies.  And they have taken up a whole room at the mail center . . .

They cover a table . . . they block the refrigerator and the microwave.

They cover a desk that usually holds gift card envelopes . . . they displaced the crystal clear envelopes.

They displaced more crystal clear envelopes . . . and they covered stacks of vellum.

And while I placed these pictures and typed captions, Green Eggs and Ham got stuck in my brain -- “Do you like them on the table?  Do you stack them where you’re able?  Could you put them on a shelf?  Could you reach them as an elf?

Sorry . . . I’m back now – my apologies to Dr. Seuss.  As soon as I hit the “publish” key, we will start shipping the preorders.  Translation – we’re gonna be in the bunker until early next week.  Thanks for making this necessary!

Sights from a Blustery Weekend in Indy . . .

We were very fortunate last weekend.  Under normal circumstances, a couple of strong thunderstorms on Friday during setup and cold/wind during the weekend might have irritated me.  But less than 100 miles south, tornadoes destroyed towns and families – by comparison, our weekend was easy.

The show moved to a new building this year – but I didn’t know this until after I arrived.  I’ll admit that when Heirloom sent the show literature, I stopped reading after “Indiana State Fairgrounds” – besides, the names of the buildings wouldn’t have meant anything to me.  So Friday morning, I made the drive to Indy on I-70 and backed up to the garage door where I usually unload.  Thankfully, another vendor drove by as I was getting out of the truck and informed me that our new home was across the driveway.  I like the Our Land Pavilion – the traffic flow was much better and lots of customers said they enjoyed it.

This is something I had missed before – Pat Larson from Heirloom took lots of pictures and posted them on their Facebook page.  When Pat took this one, we were hard at work setting up the booth . . .

Then this was mine of the finished product.

After setup, I headed out to the Residence Inn in Fishers (NE of the city), where I got a surprise – the back parking lot was full of dumpsters and trailers and the entire hotel was being renovated.  I was told that it started the day after the Super Bowl.  This lovely plastic sheeting blocked off what is usually the breakfast area – instead, breakfast was available in one of the rooms at the back of the building.

Want to swim or hit the whirlpool?  Not this weekend!  And I have to admit that I have never seen an elevator coated in cardboard (and yes, it was operating).

That said, I ended up in a room where the renovations were mostly complete and I was comfortable . . .

Sue Rothamel was already on her way to sunny Florida for rehearsals for her gala appearance on HSN on Tuesday, so we spent another weekend with “Virtual Sue” on my laptop.  At right are our friends Kaaren Sadtler and Ann Hathaway, who have helped us with setup and teardown in Indy as long as there has been a show here.  Kaaren brought goodies for us to enjoy – these are Caramel Chocolate Chip bars, and they are simply amazing.  She was kind enough to provide the recipe and I will be trying my wooden spoon at these soon – if they turn out, I’ll share pictures and ingredients here.

More pics from Pat at Heirloom – since Robin Arnold is wearing different sweaters, I can say with confidence that the left pic is from Saturday and the right pic is from Sunday.

Keia Arnold was demoing gelatos on the other half of the table – Pat must have taken this shot early on Saturday when she was still working on that morning cup of coffee!  And I spotted him on Sunday just as I was about to begin the giveaway – it appears that he snapped the shutter just as I started to tell everyone to turn around and wave at him . . .

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Update for the Spellbinders Preorder Crowd – I found out Monday morning that they have shipped and should arrive here on Thursday.  We will start feverishly shipping your orders as soon as they arrive.  Still nothing new on the Distress Markers – we’re checking constantly and still hearing that they won’t arrive until after March 15.  As always, thanks for your orders and your patience during preorder season.