As promised…Nadja’s Apple Cinnamon Upside Down Muffin Recipe!

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A couple weeks ago we posted a recap of our first ever B3 Talent Showcase and promised to share the recipe for one particularly delicious talent presented by our General Operations Manager, Nadja.  You may remember that we also shared her recipe for Blue Velvet Cupcakes back when we were celebrating B3’s Birthday – she is quite the little baker!  So here you go – enjoy (we sure did!)

Apple Cinnamon Upside Down Muffins.

For topping:

  • 4 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 apples, peeled and cut into small pieces
  • 2 tablespoons honey

For muffin batter:

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup plain yogurt
  • 1/4 cup butter, melted
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  1. Preheat oven to 375º.
  2. Generously grease 12 cup muffin pan.  Butter is best!!

Prepare topping:

  1. Mix together the 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon in small bowl.  Set aside.
  2. Mix apple and honey together in a separate bowl.  Set aside.

Prepare muffin batter:

  1. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cups and level with a knife.  Add to large mixing bowl.
  2. Add sugar, baking powder and salt to flour.  Whisk thoroughly..
  3. Make a well in center of flour mixture.
  4. In another medium size bowl, combine the yogurt, butter, milk and egg in a bowl and whisk thoroughly.
  5. Add yogurt mixture to flour mixture, folding just until moist.  It will be thick.
  6. Sprinkle less than a teaspoon of the cinnamon and sugar mixture into each tin.  Reserve rest for layering in the batter.
  7. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the apple mixture into each muffin cup.
  8. Spoon batter in each muffin tin filling each cup only about halfway, top with  1/2 teaspoon or so of the cinnamon sugar then top each cup with evenly with remaining batter.
  9. Bake at 375º for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
  10. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes.
  11. Flip the pan onto a wire rack but do not remove the pan.  Let them sit for a couple of minutes.
  12. Remove the pan.  If some of the apples stick to the bottom, simply spoon them onto the top of the muffins.

“Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder” Online Jewelry Exhibition

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We came across this very cool online, International, jewelry exhibition on Wearable Art Blog today (a blog we highly recommend – they feature tons of inspiring things on there!)  As we were clicking through, we noticed not one but two pieces made by B3 Ambassador Vanessa Walilko.  You all know Vanessa as a very talented chainmaille artist, yet (as these pieces prove) she is an equally gifted beader and one look is enough to let you know why she is so frequently featured in exhibitions of awe-inspiring jewelry and wearable art.  We are so proud to have her as a supporter of Blue Buddha and wanted to give her props as always on being included in this cool collection of contemporary jewelry.

Dreams of the Fallen by Vanessa WalilkoPhoenix Reborn by Vanessa Walilko
Photos by Larry Sanders.

 

Clicking through, we also noticed a couple very striking pieces from jewelry artist and mailler Anne M. Kelly (who incidentally, like Rebeca, is a contributor to Chain Mail Jewelry: Contemporary Designs from Classic Techniques!)  We of course had to visit her site to see more and boy, we were not disappointed.  Really beautiful work.

Fractal Scale Maille Earrings by Ann M Kelly Timorphic Neckpiece by Ann M Kelly

Calling all crafters – get to know IndieMade!

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Last week, Rebeca and I got to meet the savvy lady behind what is sure to be a huge hit in the craft world – IndieMade.  A DIY-er herself, Jennifer Rapp Peterson started IndieMade with her husband just a couple years ago and has big plans for it in the future…and with good reason.  Jennifer noticed that a great website (complete with shopping cart system) was either too pricey or just too intimidating for most artists.  She received business card after business card with long lists of websites – Etsy, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, etc. – but no personal url.  She saw the very real need for an easy solution to this website plight.

IndieMade follows in the footsteps of layman friendly website-building services like WordPress and Tumblr but focuses on the needs of the artist/crafter.  IndieMade’s websites (which can be set up in as little as 30 minutes of you’re prepared with your images and content!) are powered by a content management system (or CMS) called Drupal.  For those of who don’t spend your free time learning about content management systems (*wink*), Drupal is an open source content management system with millions of developers behind it.  Basically, lots of smart folks are constantly working to program new modules or pieces that can be puzzled together into a website that works and looks great to your site’s visitors and yet is about as easy as editing a facebook profile for the website owner (you) to update and manage.  Need an event calendar that you can update easily?  Drupal has a module for that and IndieMade has taken that module and placed it into a great looking template.  Need a shop you can easily manage?  They took care of that too.

Setting up and maintaining an IndieMade site is incredibly user-friendly even for those of us that don’t consider ourselves exactly tech-savvy.  There are also a ton of tutorials and resources on their website and there will surely be more to come in the future.  Also, because IndieMade uses Drupal, the pieces and parts they are using to build the website templates will only improve as time goes on.  They have a lot of bases covered already when it comes to the needs of the artist/crafter and have a bunch more features (like inventory management) on the horizon.  Right now they are offering two sleek and simple template designs for your website but we learned on Tuesday that they will be releasing more by the end of the summer.  Your website comes with modules for News/Press, a Blog, a Shop/Shopping Cart, and Event Calendar.  You also have the option of adding custom pages in the higher tiers of their monthly pricing.  There are also some back-end perks just for the website owner including a simple customer database and reporting tools.

IndieMade sites run on a monthly fee which essentially covers the hosting of your website (basically, storing your website and the content, photos, videos, etc.) and the development that I mentioned above.  As someone who has some experience with creating websites, I think the monthly rates are a steal for what you’re getting.  Plus, there is no activation fee and no contract so the you can get started right away and pay month to month.  Kiss the roadblock of needing a couple grand (or more) to spend on getting a website up goodbye.  Not to mention the fact that they are currently offering a 30-day free trial so you could literally get your site up for nothing!

It is likely we will begin tinkering with an IndieMade site or two in the near future and will keep you updated about how it goes.  In the meantime, check out the sites to the left – both made using IndieMade.  We also highly recommend that you check out IndieMade’s website for more information and let us know if you make your site using IndieMade.

B3’s Got Talent!

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For this year’s staff “retreat”, all members of the B3 team were asked to present a special talent as part of the first ever B3 Talent Showcase. The presentation could be no longer than 60 seconds and could be as short as 1 second.  As described by Rebeca, “You can dance, or sing or show us a piece of artwork you’ve made.  You can stand on your head.  Or bake something delicious and bring it in.  So long as you can be done in 60 seconds, whatever you want to do, goes.  (Well, OK, except illegal behavior and such.  *grin*)”

The talent showcase had a little bit of everything: dance, music-playing, monologues, jewelry, sculptures, paintings, drawings, delicious treats and even nail art and the fastest lecture of graveyards of Illinois anyone has ever heard.  We laughed, we chowed down, we oo-ed and ah-ed and in the end we just sat back and appreciated the wonderfully weird and talented group we get to work with each day.

And now, for your viewing pleasure – the documentation of this first ever event.  Enjoy!

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Talent Showcase Video

In order of appearance:

Lisa Rosenberg
Order Processor
Presents a monologue from Austin Powers

Jenna Deidel
Social Branding Coordinator + Marketing Assistent
Tap Dancing

Matt Hucke
Database Programmer, Web Developer, + General B3 Tech Guru
Presents the speediest lecture about Graveyards of Illinois ever (note: Kat’s voice in the background saying “next” was to help him stay within his time limit – not to move him along rudely haha.)

Maximillian Otto Lapine
Quality Control Specialist
Presents a monologue from Pillowman

…and last (but oh-so-certainly not least)

Rebeca Mojica
Owner + Founder of B3
Playing the piano!

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Nadja Aller
General Operations Manager

Nadja presented us with some incredibly delicious Upside-down Apple Muffins….and yes, we’ll be posting the recipe on our blog as soon as I get it from her!


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Artie Keefe
Quality Controller + Order Processor

Artie presented us with customized nameplates for our workspace!  (Later he also made homemade chai tea which was amazing!)

 

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Emily Fiks
Quality Controller + Order Processor

Emily is known for her intricately painted nails and brought in a handful (get it? handful?!) of nails she had designed.  We especially loved the B3 nail :)

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Jennifer Hohe
Inventory Coordinator + Weaver

Jen brought in a number of pieces of her hand cast metal jewelry and sculpture.  Incidentally, we loved it so much that she was the winner of the showcase!

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Aimee Leang
Customer Service Specialist

Amy presents this one of a kind piece made using a combination of chainmaille and wire wrapping.  Being the harmonious and spiritual gal that she is, she also let us in on the meaning behind the piece which celebrates the lessons life teaches us.

 

B3 Staff “Retreat” Today!

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We just wanted to give you all a heads up that we are having our staff “retreat” this afternoon.  As of about 1pm, we will be away from the studio and unable to take calls or answer emails.  Things will be back to normal tomorrow morning and we’re sorry for any inconvenience this causes for you.  It’s been a while since we’ve gotten to do a real team building retreat and with so many new employees added this year, we think it’s important to take the time to stop and really get to know one another to help us work better together.

We mentioned on Facebook a week or so ago that we were going to be having a talent show as part of this team building experience – we’ll do our best to show you guys some of the talents that our employees show off via video (with their permission of course!)  We are also using some personality tests this year to help us gain some insight into how best to communicate to the people we work with.  It’s bound to be very interesting and I can’t wait to learn more about some of my fellow staff members that I don’t know so well.

We also did a Muppet personality quiz just for fun and we thought we’d share our results with you as well as encourage you to take it and find our your Muppet personality (note, our team member Samm had not yet taken the quiz when we made this chart so he sadly is not accounted for).  Check out the B3 team breakdown (clicking on the picture will open a larger version), then follow the link below to take the quiz.  Post your Muppet type in the comments section, post it on our page on facebook or tweet it to us twitter.

The Muppet Personality Quiz