Happy Easter & Carrot Muffins

Hello lovelies!         Hallo, ihr Lieben!

The long Easter weekend is almost here. I'm not religious, but I do appreciate a couple of days off! I plan to wind down after some really busy weeks. Perhaps I'll get to reading that book that's been laying on my nightstand untouched. How about you? Anything nice planned? 

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Das lange Osterwochenende steht vor der Tür. Ich bin zwar nicht religiös, aber ein paar freie Tage kann ich gut gebrauchen! Nach den doch sehr arbeitsreichen letzten Wochen werde ich entschleunigen und endlich das Buch anfangen, welches seit Wochen unberührt auf meinem Nachttisch liegt. Wie sieht es bei Euch aus? Habt Ihr schon Pläne?

small flower fabric in turquoise

Emma's Garden Stoffe

Back in the days when my family all lived in one place we would have a leisurely brunch on Easter Sunday, with my Mom baking / cooking and me helping. Usually the job of setting and decorating the table fell to me which, by the way, I enjoy doing to this day :) Afterwards my brother and I went on an egg hunt. Our Mom would tell us the number of chocolate eggs she had hidden and off we went. We had this rule that once all eggs were found we'd divide them up equally. The rest of the day was spent chatting / reading / playing and eating chocolate eggs. Those were fun times!

Damals, als meine Familie noch an einem Ort gewohnt hat gab es am Ostersonntag immer ein gemütliches Brunch mit Rührei, viel frischem Obst und leckeren, von meiner Mutter selbstgebackenen Kuchen. Ich durfte den Tisch mit dem hübschen Service meiner Mutter decken inklusive frische Blumen und Deko. Und bis heute mache ich das gerne :) Nach dem Brunch durften mein Bruder und ich auf Eiersuche gehen. Bevor es los ging teile unsere Mutter uns noch die Anzahl der versteckten Schokoladeneier mit. Zum Schluß wurden alle Eier in einem Körbchen gesammelt und gleichmäßig zwischen uns aufgeteilt. Den restlichen Tag verbrachten wir mit Reden, Lesen, Spielen und natürlich Schokoeier naschen. Das war eine schöne Zeit!

Today I'd like to share an easy, no-fail carrot muffin recipe! These come out golden, not too sweet and nicely moist on the inside. 

Ingredients

120 gr whole wheat flour

140 gr plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon, dash of nutmeg

2 - 3 medium carrot, peeled and grated

1 egg

120 gr brown sugar

125 gr margarine

250 ml buttermilk

Und hier kommt das sehr einfache Rezept für die Möhrenmuffins! Sie sind goldbraun, nicht zu süß und innen schön saftig.

Zutaten

120 gr Vollkornmehl

140 gr Mehl

2 TL Backpulver

1/2 TL Natron

Prise Salz

1 TL Zimt, Prise Muskatnuss

2 - 3 mittelgroße Möhren, geschält + geraspelt

1 Ei

120 gr brauner Zucker

125 gr Margarine

250 ml Buttermilch

This little bunny was gifted to me by my Mom several years ago.

♥

Diesen niedlichen Hasen habe ich vor ein paar Jahren von meiner Mami geschenkt bekommen.

Carrot Muffins. How to

Preheat oven to 356°F.  Line 12 pc muffin baking tray with non-stick muffin liners. In a bowl mix the dry ingredients. In another bowl beat the egg with sugar und margarine until creamy, add buttermilk and stir well. Pour into dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Add grated carrots and stir well. Lastly, spoon the batter into the muffin tray. Each should be about 2/3 full. Bake on middle shelf approximately 30 - 35 minutes until tops are golden brown. Remove tray from oven but leave muffins in tray for another 5 minutes. Finally, remove muffins and cool on wire rack. Enjoy!

This adorable handmade bunny coaster was gifted to me by the lovely Britta. And the sweet polkadot pegs are from the lovely Ani!

♥

Dieses süße bestickte Deckchen habe ich von der lieben Britta bekommen. Und die hübschen  Klammern mit Pünktchen von der lieben Ani!

Möhrenmuffins. So werden sie gemacht

Ofen auf 180°C vorheizen. Papierförmchen in 12er Muffin Blech einsetzen. In einer Schüssel beide Mehlsorten, Backpulver, Natron, Salz, Zimt und Muskatnuß vermengen. In einer zweiten Schüssel das Ei mit dem Zucker und der Margarine cremig rühren, dabei langsam die Milch zufügen. Die cremige Masse zum Mehl geben und gut verrühren. Zuletzt geraspelte Möhren unterheben. Der Teig sollte schwerreißend sein. Mit Hilfe eines Löffels den Teig bis zu 2/3 Höhe in die Muffinförmchen einfüllen. Circa 30 - 35 Minuten backen bis die Muffins goldbraun sind. Blech aus dem Ofen nehmen und die Muffins noch weitere 5 Minuten ruhen lassen. Dann auf einem Gitter auskühlen lassen. Genießen!

Have a wonderful Easter holiday!

Ich wünsche Euch allen ein schönes Osterwochenende!

Etsy Shop Home [ redesign ]

I'm sure every Etsy shop owner will have heard of the shop home redesign that Etsy is rolling out this month. The purpose of this is to give shop owners more creative control including branding. In addition everything will be on one page. Currently we have until April 5th to edit our shops before the new look will go live for all buyers to see. While I'm all for change if it helps me get more exposure, the timing is a bit unfortunate as the first quarter is typically my busiest of the year. Nevertheless, I made some preliminary changes. Here's an overview.

This is how my shop home page looks right now. Clicking the edit button at the top will lead you to the new shop from where you can fine-tune the new look.

There are now three banner options available.

1. small banner 760 px x 100 px 
2. cover photo minimum 1200 px x 300 px
3. none

I tried all three, but finally went with a large cover photo that shows some of my bestselling work. I made it a little taller to accomodate my larger pieces. The small banner is what I had originally, but it won't be visible on mobile devices and choosing none leaves too much white space for my taste.

Also, since I've received a lot of compliments on the new look of my blog, I'm considering having a custom logo to replace the current shop icon (the two hearts). In my opinion the shop owner picture could be a little larger. It looks kind of lost...

Featured listings are right below the header. They are a bit larger, and same as before you may choose up to four images. I didn't previously have any items featured, because the overall look was much more compact, but in the new shop I wanted to fill that gap between the header and the listings.  Also, the about and policies sections that were previously on the left sidebar are now above the featured listings. These are a bit difficult to spot at first. The shop announcement has moved to underneath the featured listings.

And finally...the actual listings. While editing my new shop I realized that buyers will need to do a lot of scrolling up and down. Not sure how they will feel about it. I know that some don't like scrolling prefering to click through the pages instead. But in the new shop there are no pages! Instead there is a button to click at the bottom of the home page to show more items, much like Google images. Reviews are now visible right beneath the listings. Now more than ever it's crucial that the latest review that most buyers will read when scrolling down that page has a high rating.

Have you finished editing your new shop look yet? Which banner type do you prefer and do you feel these changes will have a positive impact on your sales? Do share in the comments!

Monday Moodboard

Hello and Happy Monday! I'm back from an amazing but also exhausting weekend at the trade fair. I promise to share pictures soon. But first, here's my bunny moodboard - after all, it's almost Easter :)

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Hallo ihr Lieben! Ich bin nun wieder da nach einem tollen aber auch anstrengenden Messe-Wochenende. Fotos zeige ich noch, versprochen. Aber zunächst meine Häschen-Collage - denn bald ist Ostern :)

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