A Piece of Cake to all Grandparents

This past Sunday was Grandparents Day. 

I officially do not have any grandchildren. 

I do have a sweet 4 year old who does the honor's of calling me Grandma Pat.  His mother at one time was my supervisor; she being many years younger than me but we became friends.


Since her marriage, and having a child; our bond has grown even more. 

I love her and family dearly.  Jerry Ray is my little heart of happiness.  He is bright, handsome, eager to be your best friend in a flash, and hasn't met a stranger who isn't entertained by all he knows.

And he will tell you if your wrong about something in a flash also LOL! 

On Saturday a card arrived wishing me and my guy Happy Grandparents Day.  Let me tell ya - this ole meanie had tears in her eyes.

So to all who are officially Grandparents - I have to say it's a great place to be.  And to us who are honorary Grandparents IT'S EVEN BETTER!

Thank you DeeDee for allowing me to be Jerry Ray's Grandma cause to be a part of your lives is a gift indeed!  It is one I shall cherish with all of my heart.

Coupon - Get yours while they are hot off the press

NOTE: Refund will be via Paypal - applies only product Not Shipping if for mailing outside of 
Anchorage, Alaska.

Eating Bitefuls of Sawdust

Ever eat a item so dry it felt like sawdust?  Croutons remind me of sawdust, even when one pours a liquid dressing on top of those crunchy bits my mouth sends a message to my brain 'sawdust'. 

We are a house divided on croutons.  My guy really enjoys them, I don't.  So I will purchase a bag of different types for his eating pleasure with his salads.  Usually though, they sit in the pantry forgotten and then tossed in trash after determining that they have been in the pantry past the expiration date.

I'm also a person who likes my bread lightly browned when toasted but not tortured on both sides turning that slice into a rock; a slight crunch on top with a wonderful softness of the fluffy cooked dough is the type of toasted bread I enjoy.

Today's Gourmet Sweet Treat picture is: Pecan Cookie Bars (before slicing & cutting bars)

A Little Cocktail to Go

In Anchorage is a family that at one time owned 3 different sites under the name La Mex.  Totally awesome Mexican food I shall add! 

The oldest Location is on Spenard Road, one was on 6th Ave downtown (now closed for last several years and has been changed into some nightclub) and then they have a location on King Ave - just off Dimond Blvd.

On facebook La Mex has been running a daily contest "Win a Free Lunch" as they celebrate Cinco De Mayo which is May 5th, with a photo of a different margarita flavor for 30 days.

I seldom will enter a contest - in fact I think in my lifetime I have entered a handful.  I  did enter this one because I love the food.  Well I'm happy to report I now am the proud winner of a free lunch!  My first ever:

"I WON ANYTHING!" 

We will be going next week to have lunch and I'm even going to have a frozen strawberry margarita to go with my lunch!  


I plan on wearing a Cocktail Hat as my claim to fame!

Spring Cleaning and Renewing Life

Snow is melting in Anchorage, spring is in the air!  After a brief vacation from writing and recipe testing I am happy to say:

I'm BACK!

I'm also very happy to see Blogger has new templates and designs easily available for changing up our blogs.  Oh baby I love tomatoes!  Which is now my background, makes this old momma look hot!

I've cleaned out my pantry, rearranged shelves, and got the approval from my sweetie even he knows where things are again.  Over the winter that pantry became a black hole of me saying "Where is it? I know I put that in here last shopping trip!"

Today I made up a dish of homemade Hummus.  I know it's easier just to walk into the grocery store grab a small container but it's so much more fun to experiment with different beans and seasonings.

'Just barely Garlic Hummus' was is my recipe for today!

Beer, Cocktails and me

It is seldom that we drink beer.  It's not one of those items I ever liked...I grew up in a city that had two breweries.  Most of my family enjoys a good beer; I was the outcast.

Cooking with beer is a new experience for me but heard others talking about the different beers they have used in Sweet Desserts and I had to try in some of my creations.

Alaska is a budding community of brewers!  I must admit I was drawn to the label on the ones that I chose to try out.  From a brewery down in Juneau, and they do like 5 types and I selected 3 with the help of the sales clerk in the liquor store.  Alaska groceries stores do not sell any liquor, its found in a separate store.  Most are located right next door to the grocery store, or in mini malls.

 

The smoked porter was very heavy and dark -tried it in a beer cheese broccoli  soup and it didn't work in fact was a total mistake; the soup turned an awful brown LOL and cheese soup as we all know is a pretty yellow and since I had added the whole bottle the flavor was overwhelming - I had to toss the soup...maybe a lamb stew it would be better - needs a heavy meat to go with - next adventure in beer I will do lamb for sure I really believe it will be the perfect match!  

The Winter I totally enjoyed - I was really surprised super great flavor, we liked it so much it didn't even get to be tested in any item for cooking LOL and I have to say I've never drank a whole beer until this one - we had it with mild white fish and went very well with the total dinner!

We have not opened the White yet...I'm making enchiladas today for dinner with pulled beef so I will stir in a 1/2 cup into the meat mixture and save the rest for drinking with dinner.  We are looking forward to this.  And will make for another post.

The past week I've worked on various things...getting ready for several juried Art Shows, sewing up a few new Cocktail Hats that I been trying to fit into the schedule; plus planning on activities I will be attending for Fur Rondy which starts next week.  I love this little Cocktail number:

 

If your a follower and live in Anchorage: I have a photo entered into the Fur Rondy Photo Contest that is held at Sears Mall:

 

This handsome guy is my little guy I mention every now and then!  He is as close as a grandchild I'm ever going to have.  I'm Grandma Pat to him and that makes my heart sing let me tell ya!  On this day we were down at Ship Creek looking for salmon and within 3 seconds of walking on the boardwalk  (don't read the rest Little guys mom) but stepped in gum warmed by the sun Grrrrrr...his exact words where GRAMDMAA PAT I STEEPED IN GOMMMM!  I don't chew gum, totally dislike seeing folks chew their cuds with it and think those who just spit it out where ever should be hung by their thumbs over boiling oil with snapping sharks.  The picture keeps one guessing to what he is up to... it was snapped just before his announcement and yes we did clean off the gum.

Monster Attacks ~ Slain in Kitchen

What to do when the monster attacks?

Bake!

I tried to do productive things today...all failed or without much success - being an A personality this was Not Acceptable!

So I turned to my trusty oven and pantry filled with all sorts of treasures.

Bam....Bam in no time at all ~

Mouth Watering Cookies!

We have White Chocolate chip cookies

Then Chocolate White Mocha White Chip cookies

And Coconut White Chocolate Chip cookies.

 

 

My recipe bakes up 3 dozen cookies so I just divided the basic mix into 3 bowls and added either cocoa or coconut flakes.

Covered in Chocolate is working on her "Wild & Crazy Alaskan Baking Recipes" cookbook otherwise this would be a wonderful recipe to share but not today! 

Scout Em' Down Soup

Saturday’s dinner I fixed a small pork roast, rice, mixed veggies, a tomato onion cucumber salad, plus brown pork gravy; along with applesauce and a tangerine.

Today as most Sundays I don’t want to spend all day cooking because it has turned into a day of doing things in my craft room ~ so

Last night’s left over’s turned into soup.

White Bean Scout Em’ Down Soup 

(cause sometimes 

you have to scramble 

to find some ingredients)

Chop the port roast into small bite size cubes

Mix the left over gravy and 2 cups water toss in large cooking pot

Stir in rice plus bite size pieces of pork.  Plus two teaspoons of Worcesterhire Sauce (I use the Thick Classic) Next:

Dice one stalk of celery into very fine pieces & Slice & dice two garlic cloves ~ add both to pot.

Measure out Two tablespoons of dried onions (Walmart sells at 68 cents a bottle and can’t be beat for price) and add to pot.
 Toss one handful of frozen Sweet Pepper slices into pot.  I always have a bag of frozen sweet peppers on hand.  Taste just as good as fresh and it saves time when using for soups or stir fry, since they already sliced into small pieces for me!

Add additional seasoning to taste. I added one teaspoon of “McCormick’s Grill Mates”:

Spicy Montreal Steak

Add one can of White beans to mixture

Cook on medium heat on stove for 30 to 40 minutes! Stir occasionally so that nothing sticks to bottom of pot And dinner is ready in no time at all!

Serves 4 or 2 very hungry peeps

Add a croissant for each person plus a small plate full of red grapes and tangerine slices 

A perfect quick Sunday Night Dinner

'Let Them Eat Cake'

In a household of only two people cooking recipes for 12 or even 6 becomes a challenge of what to do with the excess.  There is only so much room in our small freezer which is the top portion of the refrigerator.  In many recipes one can divide the recipe so that one does not have huge amounts that are left over.

Since the majority of my testing recipes are desserts; Well…

I send many of my trials to preselected testing folks to eat ~ as a shop who sells sweets it is really hard not to eat everything I bake.  But the saying goes ‘after awhile you don’t want to eat cake anymore’.  Now I can tell within one or two bites of a sample if it is wonderful or not.  If it makes my approval it goes to the testers.

This weekend I’m meeting several dear friends for lunch and as a surprise for Valentine’s Day I baked up a few tasty treats!

 Brownie Cheesecake:

 
This serves 12 folks very easily.  As with any cheesecake following the directions are the key to success!  

I also always recommend using the best ingredients.  It does not pay to scrimp on flavor or taste. Plus the end result will be well worth the smiles you receive when folks bite into your tasty meal or dessert!

One word describes this tasty morsel:

Beautiful!

Drooling Not Allowed or is it?

My sweetie pie was going with a friend down to Girdwood and Portage Glacier to visit some friends who work at both places and spend the afternoon out of my hair. What a better way to celebrate than a day alone to do things I like SO:

Instead of sewing I decided ~ Today was a baking day for home and family members who sometimes get special desserts because I love testing out new things!

Father in law who lives in Mill Valley was going to be treated to cookies and muffins; totally new recipes I wanted to test out.

After gathering up all basic supplies for the different recipes, I got my cookbook out and read once again over each recipe I wanted to experiment with for my tasty treats.

I choose a Pecan Cookie Bar, plus Raspberry Muffins, and Carrot Cilantro Muffins. All items I had not made before and was excited to try out!

Starting with the Pecan Cookie Bars, I followed the recipe and my mouth watered as they baked. When the time was up they look heavenly! The aroma was driving me crazy it filled the house with vanilla and that wonderful smell only cookies give a home! Since they even look like Pecan Pie I was thrilled – One of my favorite pies and rarely get since the mister is not a fan of pecan pie LOL.

I then proceeded to the muffins. Both recipes had the same basics and cooking time so I thought I would whip up the basic dough then divide and add the different main ingredients of carrots/cilantro and the raspberries for the other.

I quickly measured everything out for the dry ingredients. Using the blender to grade the carrots, I hand chopped the fresh cilantro. I mixed the two into one bowl and set aside. Measured the raspberries and set aside.

Adding the eggs and buttermilk to the dry ingredients I was happy with the texture and it even looked yummy. So I divided the dough in half and mixed each half with my different additives.

Baking for the desired time since I was making king size muffins I had to experiment with actual time…recipe called for 20 minutes for normal size muffins; it ended being an additional ten minutes for the king size.

Oh my ~ the kitchen is filled with aroma’s that are so delightful I wish you could all sit at the counter and take deep breaths in of fresh baked goodies!

I put butter on the Carrot Cilantro muffin OMG yummie!  The Raspberry muffin needed nothing!  It was sweet from the fruit.

Now I just have to decide if drooling is permitted

Amaretto - Its Not Just 4 Drinking!

I don't drink very often.  I do enjoy a shot of Amaretto once in awhile, a glass of good wine, or a splash of Kahlua in French Roast Coffee.  Rare treats these days and to be enjoy for special occasions.
 
But for cooking it’s another whole adventure!  Many of my stews have 1/4 or 1/2 cup of wine for an ingredient, have even tried Vodka, and for baking sweet treats; Rum and Amaretto my personal favorites in cakes and cookies.  

Wine reduced brings out flavors in many cooked dishes.  The alcohol is cooked out but the flavor left enhances any dishes that the chef may have added to a boiling pot or batter of dough.

Today I baked my Amaretto Silk Almond with Chocolate Frosting Sandwich Cookies and a new Crockpot Stew I'm testing out - I'm naming it 'Sunday Gone Crazy'.

In these cookies is 1/4 cup of Amaretto   My recipe makes 3 dozen cookies.  So the amount of Amaretto is very small per cookie but adds a delightful taste.

Sunday Gone Wild Crockpot Stew:

1/2 pound sirloin round steak

2 medium sized potatoes

one white onion

1 cup fresh whole mushroom tops

1/4 frozen corn

1/2 cup frozen cauliflower (I used green & purple cauliflower from my Farmers Market I purchased in late September and froze)

1/2 cup frozen Brussels sprouts

1/2 red sweet pepper

1/2 yellow sweet pepper

3 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons Olive Oil

1/2 cup water

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Pepper

1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/4 teaspoon Celery Salt

1/2 teaspoon Dill Weed

1/2 teaspoon Ginger 

Slice meat into 1/4 inch strips, slice onion and sweet peppers.  Heat frying pan on med high.  Add the olive oil to pan.  Add meat season with the above seasoning until brown on all sides.  Stirring often.  Add onion and peppers; cook till onion starts to turn translucent. Place all in crock pot on high.  Cut potatoes into 1 inch chunks.  Toss in hot frying pan with butter & brown potatoes wedges on one side.  Season with all the seasoning to your own taste.  Add to crock pot with the rest of the ingredients. Cook on high for 3 hours.

Serves 4 - Salad, Cheesy Breadsticks will round out the dinner!  Serve with a glass of white wine of your choice.

Wrapping It Up - Blondies Grow Up!

As a baker the major concern for any of my treats is Wrapping them Up!

I want everyone to see the beauty of the treat, know instantly what the product is, and drool about the treat!  I also want to include something that is memorable ~ isn't that the goal of every business owner.

I've developed new labels for my "Treats in Jars" and now developing new ways to label my baked goods but with a way so that you can take the label with you and use in other ways. 

Tis boring to stick a label on the food safe cello pack.  After the treat is eaten - its tossed away.

Now with my sweet Tags you can use over and over.  As a bookmark for that newest paperback, or to put in your own cookbook to remember to visit my blog to get new ideas plus recipes for cooking and baking!  Even to visit one of my shops! Or you can wrap up you own little gift to someone by ordering a package of my Tags that will be available soon and sold at either of my Covered in Chocolate Shops!

http://CoveredinChocolate.1000markets.com

or

http://CoveredinChocolate.etsy.com

Blondie Brownies All Grown Up:

Cupcakes Gone Wild ~ Lemon Coriander Vanilla or German Chocolate

Oh how I love testing day!  New recipes get me all excited in a way nothing else can. 

Tasting different new treats makes my mouth water at times !

These Lemon Coriander Cupcakes will definately make ones mouth water with the sweet and sour flavors that tease a normally sane person into eating two!

Owning about 20 recipe books you could say I have a small passion.  But my weekly visits to the library bringing home the allotted 11 books at times is enough to break my arms they are so heavy!  Depending on my mood the cookbooks could be just about cakes, or just about candy, or only certain ethnic foods.

To me each and any cookbook is a treasure to behold.

Then taking a recipe and changing it up so that you are not infringing on someone prize is another whole task. 

In this day and age very few recipes are truly unique and original.  Just walk in any bookstore or library and view the Hundreds if not thousands of books using flour, eggs, and sugar.

We all like to pride ourselves that we came up with the newest & best theory but in baking and cooking there just are so many ingredients and certain ones are the basics to any recipe and then you can add to them.  Its like being a mad scientist.

Its totally fun and intoxicating.

Easy Cheesy Chili

 

After two days of snow falling making my neighborhood look like a Norman Rockwell painting, plus shoveling & using the snow blower on the white fluffy stuff Plus its about a good 12-18 inches deep now I have decided its time for one of my winter favorites!

Chili!

Deciding on chili as a last minute thought for dinner requires my Easy Cheesy Chili recipe.

In this using can beans and canned stewed tomatoes eliminates a long cooking process.

It is totally the most delicious quickie chili's one can make plus serve proudly or I would not be sharing this  with all my readers.

Easy Cheesy Chili

2 cans Red Kidney Beans
1 can Cannelloni Beans (these are just white kidney beans)
1 can unsalted Stewed Tomatoes

1 can of V8 (11.5oz size) juice

1 pound ground beef or ground buffalo

1/2 yellow onion

4 garlic gloves

2 teaspoons dried Cilantro

1 teaspoon Zesty Seasoning (Mrs. Dash or any other brand)

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon French Grey Salt
1/2 teaspoon Celery Salt

1 teaspoon Cumin

1 teaspoon Coriander

1/2 teaspoon Paprika

1/2 teaspoon crushed red chili peppers 

1 Package Mexican 4 Cheese Blend

Rinse tops of all cans and open. For the 3 bean cans pour contents into large cooking pot. On the stewed tomato can open and pour juice into pot.  Then take the drained tomatoes place on chopping board and diced into small pieces. Then add to pot.  Add the can of V8 juice.  

Next dice onion, and chop garlic.

In a large frying pan you will need to add 1 to 2 teaspoon of oil heat over medium heat, add diced onion saute until tender and translucent, and add chop garlic stir until mixed.  Add ground meat at this time by breaking into bite size pieces to pan, sprinkle all seasonings onto meat and onions at this time. Stir meat, onions and garlic together ~ try not to break up the bite size pieces of meat. 

Cook mixture until meat is throughly cooked thru and browned a bit.  Once cooked add to the pot of beans, tomatoes and juices.  

Simmer for 1 hour. 

Serves 4 to 6 

to Serve:

Fill bowl 3/4ths full with chili, sprinkle with a handful of the the cheese completely covering chili with the cheese,  then place bowls under broiler for 1 minute til cheese bubbles and starts to brown. Now is ready for serving!

Serve with your favorite beer or as we do a tall glass of Chocolate milk.

Holidays past and present

Mom always made Christmas magical.  Even a life time later she still makes them fun and exciting for her great grandchildren!

Growing up within a large family any holiday was a major feat for my mother to get us ready, attend church service with 8 kids in tow, come home to prepare & serve a wonderful meal for us and my father and other family members who would visit, then she got to relax once we all went to bed that holiday night.

Anyone who grew up in the 50's and 60's can tell you our lives where simple and was not unusual for neighbors to have 3 to 15 kids.  In the seventies and eighties family size became 2 or 4 kids.

At Christmas the early years we always had a 'live tree' once grandchildren started appearing within the family my mothers tree became a "Fake Tree.

My tree's were live until we learned my one child had allergies.  Then I became a convert to the artificial trees.

In a way that turned into a problem.  I could put the Tree up the day after Thanksgiving and not take it down until mid January.  Then because I would fall in love each year with the tree and how it was decorated I would leave up to Mid February. Then it became a problem to take it down before the Easter holiday.  One year the tree was exceptional.  It was a dream ~ I put the tree in the library of my Victorian home.  That tree stayed up to Memorial Day.  I would have left it up all year but my family began teasing me as well as the neighbors.  I succumbed to pressure and took my favorite decorating job down.

A couple of years later a divorce followed, the sell of my Victorian home deemed selling and tossing things away. Two years later I move to Alaska.

The move brought about the lost of interest in celebrating and decorating for the holidays.The magic of the tree was gone for various reasons. For a few years I didn't bother with a tree.  Then brought a 5' fake tree and brought out the ornaments and the house once again became a place of magic.

I was happy with the One of a Kind ornaments.  Each one has a different story and range in age from 35 years old to four years old.   I haven't brought new ornaments for a couple of years.

This year I decided to enjoy the 'Christmas fake trees of the past'.  I've brought a 2' silver foil tree.  Tis lovely.  I went with lime green as the major ornament color, with a slash of a few other bright colors.  The larger 5' fake tree hasn't been set up yet, it will follow getting decorated the next couple of days; pictures of the beauty will be up this weekend.

This will sit in the kitchen window, so that as folks drive by the will have a glance of a time when I was a child of 10 and we lived in California that year and my great aunt had two trees, one a silver 6' with the colored light, and my favorite the "pink flocked angel tree".  Both seemed so very magical and different than the 'green' tree's I had seen all my life.  One day I will own a fluffy Ostrich Pink Feather Tree.

Can't wait for the 'after Christmas sales'  because I have my eye on several online sites that had the tree of my dreams for a perfect magical holiday next year.

Covered in Chocolate Catering is available for Holiday Parties in the Anchorage Area.  Visit either of my online selling sites to contact me.

Holiday Giveaway Package!

The Holidays are fast approaching!  Oh my ~ oh me!  Santa's everywhere are busy in their various shops making beautiful handmade gifts for all our loved ones!

A member of Team EEAT is having their first Giveaway for their shop located at Etsy.  Truly a very holiday special event for her.  May you have much success SugarPlums Bakery!

I thought it would be a fun idea to also do the same thing as SugarPlum's ~ Tell me and my readers about your favorite holiday!

Tell me about a holiday that was your favorite ~ it can be a happy, sad, funny, or just beautiful.  So post away contests ends Novermber 30th and I'll announce the winner on December 1st.  Then your gift package of my sweet treats will be mailed off on December 3nd.  It can be mailed as a gift to a loved one, or mailed directly to you! Arriving before christmas!  A value over $65.00!!!

A showstopper for anyone who loves receiving or giving a special gift!

The gift package includes:
kiwi jam, apple rosemary jelly, Nectarine/Plum chutney, Sweet Pepper Apple chutney, Red Caramelized Onion relish, white chocolate lollipop, chocolate bar, and a Toffee butter crunch candy.

Please note: There must be at least 6 different members to post for contest drawing! Other wise the contest drawing will be void.  So tell your friends and family about this blog and post your holiday favorite story!

Dinner for Chilly Nights in Alaska

Chicken Slouper

Serves 6
Cooking time 50 to 60 minutes
Prep time 20 minutes
2 whole chicken breasts with bone and skin
1 small bag of peeled baby carrots
1 red sweet pepper
1 orange sweet pepper
1 yellow sweet pepper
2 russet potatoes
1 large onion
1 bunch Purple Kale
1 pound aspargus
5 large gloves of garlic
5 cups water
seasoning: 1 teaspoon Poultry seasoning
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon smokey paprika
1/2 teaspoon celery salt


Clean/rise all veggies. Peel and then chop onion into large chunks. Top the peppers and take out seeds, slice in half, then quarters (each 1/2 should have 4 slices then). Leave peel on potatoes, dice into large chunks. Clean kale take off stem and chop roughly. Slice asparagus into 1/2 inch slices. Peel garlic leave whole. Cut breasts into halves.

In large cooking pot (at least a 5 qt) add water and chicken,seasoning, onion, peppers, carrots and kale. Bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Take breasts out at this point, remove bone and skin. Chop two of the halves into large pieces, leave the other two whole. Place back into pot, add rest of ingredients, simmer on medium heat for another 20 minutes until potatoes are cook through.

Serve in bowls over cooked yolk-less noodles, along with warm slices of herb cheese bread.

Hats a plenty and dreams of Magic on a Website

Secrets passions of mine: Two shops that fill these passions!

Besides my passion for cooking and crafts I have a couple that make me all girly girl. 

One is  heels~~ LOVE THEM ~~ but one learns all too soon Alaska is not High Heel friendly because snow, ice and freezing air is not so nice as toasty warm boots in winter.  So I only have a several pairs of heels that thrill me when I do wear on those rare times that I'm dressed to the 9's.  It's super my life partner is very very tall!

But the one thing about being a midwestern Gal in a state where winter is most of the year...I get to wear Hats.  I have hats for summer, hats for spring, hats for fall, hats for winter, and hats just because their cute.  From baseball caps, to a drop dead black creation by Liz Clairborne, to knit skull hats to silly fleece hats.  Its if it fits and I like - I buy.

At Victorian Crossroads a very dear member is delightworthyn ART/wares.   She creates one of my passions.  And its not for my feet!

I had a hat that I craved of hers.  Then I twittered about that beauty and dang if someone didn't steal it right under my eyes, plus a couple other of Delights' hats. Once you visit her shop you will see why -  they are delightful!

So this picture is another hat but not the one I am saving to purchase!  I don't want anyone stealing that beauty from me.  This little red number is sweet but that black one I have my eye on will be mine some day!

http://www.1000markets.com/groups/victoriancrossroads/products/8401

I greatly admire anyone who has talent of creating items that one can use for different websites that require GRAPHICS.  As a beginner with my Publisher and Photoshop Elements I've so far behind the eightball it's not even funny! I wish I could say I am a graphic designer, but the sad truth I'm not.  Beginner just does not cut it!

I'm in total awe of  the talents of this graphic designer artist: Bearcengic.  Her shop at Etsy has a great following.  With over 1,000 sells You can trust she knows how to please the pickest of graphic buyers!

As a person who sews, I found this banner speaking to me.  If I own a shop that still marketed sewn items I would buy this in 2 seconds flat! Visitors comments I know would be total praise!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28385504

I invite you to take a stroll through Bear's shop and discover her wonderful artwork that she has turned into various creations for websites.  From Banners, to avators, to postcards she does it all! She will build/design items just for you.  Don't wait any longer to get a fanatastic design for your website!