Shameless Self Promotion

 Considering it’s Monday – in February mind you – and I am still coming off last night’s 30 minute post Downton Abbey ugly cry, yes, you could say I was having a rough morning. Somewhere in-between clearing my inbox and watching videos of Pomeranians dancing to Beyoncé, I opened an email from a long-time reader, Julie, that prompted a rainbow to fly out my butt.

With Julie’s permission, I am sharing it here with you.   

“Dear Aunt Peaches

I am big on writing thank you letters and I owe you a thank you. Probably the biggest thank you of my life. Are you ready?

In August 2010 you published a recipe for a chocolate zucchini cake with peanut butter cups [The Liza Minelli of Cake] and it looked so amazing I let out a small scream when I saw it on my computer screen at work (I work in a library, so everyone noticed.) My brother Mathew loves Liza Minelli so I even commented that I was going to make it for him (see “anonymous” Sep 1. I never comment on blogs so it’s strange that I did, but now I wish I had at least put my name. You’ll know why in a minute.)

On September 14, 2010 I made the cake and brought it to a restaurant where we had dinner to celebrate Mathew’s birthday with his friends and coworkers, including his super hunky coworker Jake. I had a passing crush on Jake for months but he never paid attention to me, even though he will tell you different now. (We know the truth.) (Don’t tell him I said so.) Long story short, everyone loved the cake. Jake liked the cake so much that he started asking me how to make it, we started talking, one thing led to another, we got together. Can you tell where this is going?

Two and half years later I came home last Thursday to find my valentines gift – a beautiful homemade dinner topped with, of course, that peanut butter cup cake. His wasn’t as pretty as mine (Don’t tell him I said so.) but it tasted amazing. Then what did I find at the bottom of my slice? A ring!!!!!!! We are engaged!

Later that night, when I complimented him on his delivery he said he had been planning it that way since day one because, and I quote, “That cake is where it all started.”

I am so happy right now. I did not see this coming at all. We are already planning to serve that cake at our wedding and we will say a toast to you. Thank you for getting the ball started. I owe you one!

Julie”

That’s right y’all: I made a love cake. This recipe will no longer be called The Liza Minelli of Cake, but The Man Catcher Cake.

Congratulations Julie and Jake!

May you enjoy a lifetime of blessings and peanut butter cups! 

Late last summer I started asking friends, colleagues, and readers to tell me about random acts of kindness. Tell me about a time a stranger turned around the course of a dismal day. Tell me about a time you reached out to help someone you didn’t even know. Tell me how that made you feel.

And you did.

And I took note.

And I didn’t know what I would do with all those little anecdotes, but I knew if I collected, cataloged, organized, and displayed them nicely, someone might want to see them. What is the old expression? “If you can’t be good news, be the first to share good news.”

So that is what I am doing: I am sharing.

A couple of months ago I decided that I would make my 2013 New Year’s Resolution to share one act of kindness each day. Come Thanksgiving I started posting on a dry run basis…now it’s nearly Christmas, and even though the official ‘launch date’ is still January 1, recent events have made me realize that some things shouldn’t wait. So go on and be one of the first people to take a look at my new baby: I Believe in Strangers.

I can’t tell you how excited I am to share this with you guys. Except for the handful of friends who contributed to the existing content, you guys are the first to know. I should probably wait until Jan 1 but I’m feeling impulsive. It’s Christmas. That’ll happen.

In case someone was wondering — this second adventure is not going to conflict with or diminish auntpeaches.com. No, sir. It’s just a sibling operation. Having a second kid does not lessen one’s love for the first.

For the foreseeable future, I will not be making any money off of I Believe. No ads or sponsors. I want to keep it simple. It is not a business. It is an opportunity to share. Period.

And now, this is the part where I need your help: If you did not join in the first round of people telling me about your own experiences with random acts of kindness, please do. Then tell others about I Believe as well. The more people who see it, the more people contributing, the more we have to share.

Yes, there is a lot of sharing going on up in here.

Kumbaya.

Alexa will be so glad she shared her old class picture with me 😉

My Kentucky friend, Alexa Westerfield, was kind enough to interview me on her blog, The Swell Life. 

I initially came to know Alexa as the creator of the Snooki Pumpkin, but it was clear before long she is busting with great ideas. Do yourself a favor and pop on over, and if you are inclined, you can read a little more about moi. I can tell you, with considerable confidence, that this is the only interview wherein I will compared to Vera, Norm’s wife from Cheers. And there may be a love connection in store for Lola. Feel free to weigh in. 🙂

This was fun. Thanks, Alexa!
 

I don’t like to set a new year’s resolution.

I like to set many new year’s resolutions.

And it’s not because I’m an over-achiever type, (which, if you know me, is a laughable concept at best).

No–the fact is, if I set one big goal like “give up chocolate” I’ll fail before February. Guaranteed. But, if I make 20 or 30 small resolutions, a handful might actually work out. And you can’t fight math like that, people.

So, in addition to my typical personal goals to loose weight, live healthier, get organized, and find the perfect  possum shaped rhinestone brooch, I thought I would add a list of blog goals for 2012. Then maybe next year at this time I can check off a few and y’all can hound me to get working on the rest!

*** TRUMPET SOUND TRUMPET SOUND: AUNTPEACHES.COM GOALS FOR 2012

1. Learn to properly use my camera’s manual mode. See the blurry shooting star images above? Bethcha thought I was all sophisticated and stuff, right? Betcha’d never guess this was my 57th attempt to manually shoot Christmas lights last week.

2. Get a handle on video editing software. So many of the things I want to share don’t lend themselves to simple photographs –some simple videos will speed things up big time.

3. Open an online store (ie. Etsy, etc). This has been on my mind for years. This is not likely become a major source of income, but I know how good it feels to make a dollar off of something made with my own two hands. I want more of that feeling. And I like money. So there is that.

4. Take on select sponors. Emphasis on select. As you can see, over in the sidebar, I joined the Blogher ad network last year as a way to underwrite supply costs. But there are a lot of small businesses that could never afford to buy into a major ad network like Blogher. Rest assured, this site will never become some annoying flashy pop-em thing with posts about crap I got for free, BUT, I also know that keeping sponsors will mean I will be obligated to post on a regular basis –instead of my current twice-a-week one week, and ten-times-a-week the following; taking on sponsors will mean this blog turns from a Hobby Thing into a Part-Time Job Thing. This is not something I take lightly, and there may be some bumps in the road, but I’m hoping you will bear with me. 

5. Post on a regular basis. I posted gift wrap ideas every Monday in December and it worked out surprisingly well. Now I’m tinkering with the idea of scheduling regular column or two. Let me know if you have any ideas or requests –I’m all ears.

6. Get better at Twitter. I have been on Twitter for over a year but I never really understood what I was doing. I just saw it as a fast-paced, chaotic version facebook. Then I sat down over the holidays and maybe-sorta-kinda figured out the language. Talk about Pandora’s box…

7. Get to know you better. This is a big one. See, I have always shied away from meeting people through other blogs for fear they will think me weird and stalkerish. But then I met a few people through my own blog and realized it’s not weird at all. If anything, it makes me feel better because then I don’t feel like I’m in a one-sided relationship with myself. Fact is, blogging can be narcissistic at times, especially when I realize there are people walking around who know all sorts of ugly personal crap about my life and I don’t have any dirt on them at all. It’s awkward. It makes me feel like I should just keep my ugly crap to myself, which would be fine, except sometimes I need to let the ugly crap out or I’ll go crazy. Literally. So I’m hoping to do a blog conference one of these days, or maybe a smaller-scale craft night closer to my home a little sooner. I’ll keep you posted. But in the mean time…

Anyone in the Chicago area want to join me and some awesome folks on January 12? I’ll be demonstrating a craft or two at the official book launch party for “FOUND IT: A Field Guide For Mom Entrepreneurs” by the amazing Jill Salzman of Founding Moms, with illustrations by John Hartzell (if you follow me on facebook you’ll know John’s work from Middle Aged Riot). The book is, “50 chapters brimming with practical advice, tips and tricks to help a woman fine-tune her self-starter skills and raise a successful company.”

Thursday | Jan 12 | 2012 | 6 to 10pm
Maya Del Sol | 144 S Oak Park Ave 
Oak Park | Illinois
No RSVP required. Click here for Details.

You should totally come!


Founding Moms is an amazing organization with oodles of resources and for Moms and entrepreneurial types in general. I know a lot of you are running small businesses from your home or are wondering how to get started. Well here you go! 

Can’t make it on the 12th? Founding Moms have meetups all over the US. Check it out!

Next time you are cruising the newsstand, check out the March 2011 edition of Disney Family Fun Magazine. It’s always a great publication, AND, this month, you might just see a new twist on an old project, including a brief story on my Grandnanna’s obsession with buttermints!

Many thanks to Debra and everyone at Disney Publishing Worldwide who pulled this project together. It always feels nice to be in good company 🙂