Friendship personality:

Start Your Own Online Craft Business

Many crafters out there have given up traveling to craft fairs every weekend. Instead they are selling their crafts on the Internet. If this is something you’ve though about, but dismissed due to a lack of familiarity with ecommerce or the Internet in general, you may want to reconsider. You too can sell your crafts online. It might be much simpler than you think.

So many developers and supportive websites exist out there today, that even complete computer novices can start their own online craft business. You can do something as simple as a blog where you advertise just a few items to a large multi-page website featuring an ecommerce store, online shopping cart, message boards, etc.

The craft industry is booming, not just domestically, but internationally as well. You can join this rapidly expanding business, not just selling your own crafts, but selling craft supplies also. Starting your own ecommerce store can be as simple as a few clicks away. There are even online craft resources that provide free hosting and setup.

Etsy is a powerhouse in the online craft industry. They will help you start your very own online store for free. From there it is just a matter of taking a few pictures of your crafts, determining a sale price and uploading that information to your website. Etsy is just one of many online resources available to crafters.

Another option is to sell your crafts on a site like Ebay or Amazon, or look for online craft stores that are looking for vendors. A great many crafters are willing to sell your crafts for you for a small commission. Or you could just stick with Ebay or Amazon. They have tremendous exposure and are trusted sites. Most people feel more comfortable making purchases from names they know. The downside to this is your crafts could be lost among their huge inventory.

Maybe you’d like to build your own site from the ground up and sell your crafts there. That, too, can be easier than you might imagine. There are a great many web building software packages available, many of which can be downloaded free. You can also find free or very economical web hosting.

But don’t stop there. If you build your own site, you can increase your revenue by placing ads on your site. The ideas for crafters to start their own online craft business are endless. Search the web for inspiration and ideas.

Once you find out what your online goals are, start looking for support or software to get started. Don’t be afraid to join craft forums and ask other crafters how they got started. Sometimes it’s as simple as just asking a question to get you started on an exciting new online craft adventure.

For cocoa lovers, here are the top 5 trends of chocolate wedding cakes. Original and tasty ideas for any sweet couple...

Trend #1 – Classic and Smart
The “classic” chocolate wedding cake can either be made of superposed pieces or set up on cake stands. The superposed version will allow you to easily practice the “cake cutting” ritual, while stands can give a very aesthetic aspect.

Trend #2 – The Cup Cakes Paradise
Cup cakes will allow you to vary the flavours, while offering a nice mix of colors to the eyes of your guests. They are also cheaper than classic wedding cakes. Cup cakes covered with chocolate syrup are simply gorgeous.

Trend #3 - Mix It Up!
Your cake doesn’t need to be 100% chocolate. Chocolate can be within the cake itself, the cream, the topping and decorations. Also, any cakes mixing chocolate with vanilla or fruits are definitely winners.

Trend #4 – Chocolate Croquembouches
Croquembouches are commonly used in traditional French wedding cakes. Think of a pyramid of small puffs filled with cream and covered with icing. Chocolate can be included in any or both of those parts. Definitely trendy, simply delicious.

Trend #5 – The Chocolate Festival
Don’t forget there’s more than one kind of chocolate. By mixing dark and white chocolates on cake, you’ll definitely catch the eye of your guests. You can also combine this trend with cup cakes or croquembouches for a very special (and tasty) dessert.

These are my top 5 chocolate wedding cakes ideas. As creativity is an essential part of your dream day, I hope they do give you some nice inspiration.

I wish you a wonderful wedding.

With warmer weather looming on the horizon in Northern America, many women and men start to simplify and streamline their diets. Gone are the heavy chili dinners and beef stews that fill our bellies in the dead of winter. Enter the salad: cool, fresh, crisp bursts of flavor - but not necessarily a significant caloric savings over a meat and potatoes dinner. The culprit: creamy, oil based dressings. The solution: for most, it's to take their dressing on the side.

Traditional commerically prepared salad dressings are an easy way to turn a healthy salad into a calorie-dense, fat-laden disaster. Bottled dressings can have anywhere from 8 to 20 grams of fat per serving.

Take your dressing on the side? Never! At least, there’s never a need when you make your own healthy salad dressings.

Of course, you can buy decent commercial low-fat dressings, or even organic dressings but, more often than not, they are loaded with unhealthy elements like sugar and heavy amounts of heart-unhealthy sodium.

It’s hard, however, to beat a homemade dressing!

The key to making delicious healthy dressings at home is to reduce the oils and other fats, and bump up the ingredients that add texture and flavor.

The oil in any salad dressing serves several functions, including providing a “cling" or "binding" factor, so your acidic and other flavorings (such as vinegar and herbs) don’t end up in a puddle at the bottom of the bowl.

Oil also serves to soften and balance the acids so that they're more pleasing to the pallate.

When thinking of healthier dressings, most people eschew creamy dressings in favor of lighter vinaigrettes. But classic vinaigrettes often use a 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 ratio of fat to acid (for example: olive oil and red wine vinegar). Such a ratio can yield at least 10 grams of fat per tablespoon! And who uses just one tablespoon?

So what constitutes a healthy salad dressing?

Let's look at oil.

When choosing oils for your dressing, think carefully about flavors. Extra-virgin olive oil is almost always an excellent healthful and flavorful choice. But so are nut oils such as almond, macadamia and hazelnut. Each contributes complex yet subtle flavors that can complement a salad. Olive and nut oils also are rich in healthy monounsaturated fats.

You can reduce the amount of oil, however, in any dressing by approximately 40 percent if the other ingredients that balance the dressing are not too acidic.

A common complaint when reducing the oil content of a dressing recipe is that one often misses the thick texture that oil adds to your recipes. Try adding Dijon mustard as an emulsifier to make up for the reduced oil. Like oil, mustard is thick enough to bind the other ingredients and adds a tangy flavor.

In creamy dressings, the emulsifier often is sour cream or mayonnaise (and sometimes oil, too). Providing a healthy option for these ingredients is an easy fix.

Nonfat yogurt, reduced-fat sour cream, and reduced-fat mayonnaise all make good substitutes. They each have good flavor and produce dressings that hold together and coat vegetables quite well.

Or try buttermilk. Buttermilk is always either nonfat or reduced-fat. Its thick texture and mild, tangy flavor makes it a useful ingredient.

With a little bit of ingenuity and creativity, it is possible to make healthy salad dressings without sacrificing good nutrition by cutting calories, fat and chemicals.