chocolate – Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker

My birthday

May 28, 2017May 28, 2017 by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Adult children, books, celebrations, friends, italian, local fun, Party for one, the beach

I hope you all had fun with me this week. In addition to the week of cakes, my daughter gifted me with a cake today, bringing my total to eight for the week, and this is the one with which we celebrated with singing and candles.

Here is today’s cake from Wells IGA: Caramel Sea Salt Cake!

Here is a slideshow of all seven cakes in the BirthdayCakeWalk2017.

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For my actual birthday today, I did more than just eat cake, if you can believe it! I ate whatever I wanted. A chocolate bread from Boulangerie in Kennebunk for breakfast. Sausage Flatbread with a salad from Pizza Napoli in Ogunquit for lunch. So far, that’s all. Oh, and the Salted Caramel Cake from my daughter!

And I tried to include things I love (besides food!) in my day. Connecting with my family and friends! Lilacs! The ocean! Reading! Writing! And of course, a visit to a bookstore!!

Now, for the point: It is my birthday wish that all of YOU have a day like this, too. Why wait for your birthday to be kind to yourself? Do it now. Today.

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Birthday Week CakeWalk (BWCW) Day 7: FINALE!

May 28, 2017May 28, 2017 by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, celebrations

Today is the final day of my birthday week cakewalk, because today is my birthday! To celebrate, I decided to go all out and get nine cakes instead of just one! Is that wrong?
It’s okay, they’re minis! Mini cupcakes from The Cake Cottage in Wells!

These cupcakes are amazing. I haven’t eaten every one of them yet, but I’ve had enough of them to know that they are so worth eating.

The lemon is my favorite so far, but as I said, they are all delicious. If I could build my own, I would make a chocolate cupcake, strawberry frosting, and the green angel wing things from the lemon cupcake. 🙂

I hope I have inspired you to have your own birthday week cakewalk this year. I hope you had fun participating in mine! 🙂

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Birthday Week CakeWalk (BWCW) Day 4

May 25, 2017May 25, 2017 by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, celebrations, local fun

Wow, Day 4 already! It is going by TOO FAST. Today’s cake is from Spiller Farm in Wells, and it’s a Boston Cream Pie.

I grew up eating these cakes, or pies, as they are officially called. I know not why. There is no pie crust. There is no (traditional) pie filling. What there is is a yellow spongy cake, pastry cream, and chocolate frosting. That adds up to a cake in my book.

In the taste department, it was just okay. The cake was sort of wet, for some reason, and not in a good way. I am giving this cake a fail. It doesn’t live up to the Boston Cream Pies of yore. I wouldn’t buy it again.

Birthday Week CakeWalk (BWCW) Day 1

May 22, 2017May 22, 2017 by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, celebrations, local fun

Last year I had a blast doing a Birthday Week CakeWalk. I had a different cake for every day leading up to my birthday. Seven cakes in seven days! Yay!

Never heard of this? That’s because I made this up (hmm, maybe I should trademark that term…). I had a lot of fun. I also had a lot of cake. I got creative some days, when work (or whatever) prevented me from getting the cake I wanted.
I was bummed because it turned out that I must have just posted the photos of them on FB and now they are gone forever. So, this year I am going to memorialize the cakes in my blog. I will also be rating them as I go, pass or fail. Keeping it simple.

Day 1 is from Market Basket: Chambord Cake. Hello!! You had me at chocolate!

This is my opinion: Swoon. There is a layer of cream cheese and a thin layer of raspberry filling (jam?) that balances the chocolate very well. And the frosting? Excellent. Cake #1 is a pass. One improvement would be if they had strained out the seeds, but it’s not a deal breaker.

Okay! One cake down, six to go!

Be still

January 20, 2017January 20, 2017 by Karen, posted in author, family, Metaphysical healing, writing

I am sitting here on the couch trying to write a ‘signature talk’, which would be so much (expletive) easier if I could just decide on one

topic, already! I am trying to figure out how to combine my metaphysical nurse blog with my kwrites blog under one domain, a version of my name, which I bought 14 months ago as part of a workshop but that’s where it ended. I never did anything with it, except to look at it longingly from time to time. Now I am trying to decide if combining it all is even a good idea!

I am giving several topic-specific talks over the next few months and I am trying to write those.

I am writing a parent ad (sorry, but this feels like a ploy to get more money from us) for the high school yearbook because my graduating daughter WANTS one.

I am debating (OMG! YES! STILL!) if I should give yet another talk at an upcoming event (this internal debate has been raging for months now) and if so, WTF to base the presentation on.

And then I realize that I am actually doing none of these things, except the ‘just sitting here on the couch’ part. Okay, and eating a large quantity of chocolate (#lunch).

Surrounded by paper. And pens. And my laptop. And my iPhone playing Pandora.

I am a (expletive) mess.

And then this song comes on:

And I hear the words: Be still and trust my plan. I’m more than you think I am.

And then, with tears streaming, I know it’s true.

Top 10 tips (I think!) for having successful author reading

November 29, 2016 by Karen, posted in author, books, local fun

As I mentioned in my prior blog post, there is a definite learning curve to this whole ‘promoting your book’ thing. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is this: assume nothing! (Remember Felix Unger’s lesson on what happens when you ASSUME?!).

Anyway, here are what I think are the top 10 tips (in no particular order) for having a successful (eg: well attended) author reading.

Create a Facebook event (you can figure it out; it’s not hard) and then share it on your own page, your author page, and the pages of any friends that will have you.
Make an author page on Facebook, if you haven’t done that yet.
Design some flyers (this can be as simple as a photo of your book, the date, time, and place of your event) and put them up around the town where you’ll be speaking (grocery stores, hairdressers, health food stores…any place that has a community bulletin board).
Ask the person with whom you book your event to send out a press release to any and every newspaper that they can.
Write a press release, so it will be ready when you need it. This can be as simple as your (short) bio, your book title and a little about it, and again the date, time, and place of your talk.
Word of mouth is your friend: tell people and ask them to tell people: their friends, their families.
Make sure you bring business cards, book marks, and any other promotional materials you’ve got to every talk and/or signing you do.
Consider offering a ‘free gift with purchase’ to your book buyers. This doesn’t need to cost you much at all. In my book, there is an Italian grandmother who makes the best gravy in the entire world, so I gave out a recipe for it (from my own Italian Nana, whose recipe really IS the best in the entire world) as a bonus gift.
It doesn’t ever hurt to have chocolate spread out around your book. As people reach for the chocolate, you are also drawing their eyes (and hands!) toward your book!
If you are doing a library talk, they usually will have a sidewalk easel to put out to alert people about your event. Make sure they use it for you!

That’s all I have for you today. Please comment below if you have any additional tips that have worked for you!

SPOTLIGHT ON: Nonesuch Books, Biddeford ME

July 15, 2016July 15, 2016 by Karen, posted in author, books, Crystals, local fun, shopping

There is a great book store in Biddeford: Nonesuch Books. They have books for sale, of course, both new and used. They also have a lot of interesting magazines along the left side wall of the store, complete with strategically placed chairs, to aid and abet your magazine perusal.

🙂

What you might not know is how many other cool things they sell.

Some of the best little greeting cards I’ve ever seen; I buy them in lots.
Himalayan Salt Lamps! At a very good price!
Lots of wind chimes and prisms!
Engraved stones…I found one with myoneword for 2016 on it! Grace!
Tarot card decks! As if you can ever have enough of those…
Stonewall Kitchen products!
Candles!
Chocolate!

And of course, the best thing they sell is my book, One Brave Thing! I stopped by last night and they still have 2 copies left.

Just sayin’.

Learning from others

July 8, 2016July 8, 2016 by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, Animals and pets, author, Brave books, local fun, writing

I went to the Kennebunk Community Market a few weeks ago, and I saw another author selling her books. Hello? Great idea! She was very kind and answered all of my (zillions of) questions about how she got started and such.

I loved how she set up her table, how visually appealing it was, and spent several minutes admiring it. I am always looking for ideas for how to arrange my books and paraphernalia, and I take my inspiration where I find it.

This is Kimberly Sue McLaughlin, author of Come Running When I Call. I know this book is about a girl and her horse (because I talked with the author and read the cover!) but I haven’t yet read it myself. It is on my list! I love reading books by local authors, especially those that I’ve met.

You’ll know when I’ve finished reading it because I will post a review of the book right here on my blog.

You don’t have to wait for that though! You can come down to the Kennebunk Community Market on Saturday morning and buy your own copy, signed for you by the author! While you are there, stop by my table, where I will be selling and signing my book, One Brave Thing!

P.S. I will have chocolate. 🙂

Connection

December 6, 2015December 6, 2015 by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, friends, Holidays, Karen's Kitchen, my one word

I was just watching Valerie Bertinelli’s new cooking show on the Food Network. It turns out that Karen’s Kitchen isn’t so different from Valeries’s Kitchen. She was making a buffet for a Christmas gathering and it consisted of lasagna, salad, and a favorite Italian cookie from childhood.

I realized as I watched that one of my own favorite Italian dinners is the same. The lasagna recipe I remember from my own family dinners of yore, salad, and a different cookie, but still a favorite Italian cookie that I grew up with (I am not surprised that both of our dessert recipes include chocolate… 🙂 ).

Of course there are some differences, the biggest of which is this: Valerie has both of her parents with her. Mine have long since departed.

At the end of the show, I was surprised to hear them talking about choosing a word for next year! Their words were much different from mine (Hello, ‘Butter’? ‘Bacon’? How did I not think of using a food as my one word? Ha!).

Lesson: we really are all connected, aren’t we? We can be connected to people that we have never met by our food and our (Italian) heritage, as in this case, but there are many other ways that we can find connection in our everyday lives.

The day I ate whatever I wanted

May 13, 2015May 13, 2015 by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, books, Party for one, quest for the best, restaurants, writing

When I read the title of this book by Elizabeth Berg, The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted, I thought, YESSSSS!!!! That’s all I want! To eat whatever I want! So in honor of my birthday month, I did that today. Full disclosure: I was using food to comfort myself because I had to work the day before, on Mother’s Day. You know. Again. Solace eating. I’m on it.

I started with, believe it or not, a bowl of Cheerios and milk, with a banana (the revered food of Minions everywhere!) cut up in it. Hello, childhood. I have been craving this meal lately, for some reason. I’m going with it.

Then I had a chocolate croissant (Him: Do you want me to heat it up? Me: Yes! Yes, Please!) from Starbucks at the mall. This was completely unplanned! I was going to get a Tiramisu Frappuccino, but then I heard the croissants calling my name. How could I let them down?

Next I had Maple Roasted Butternut Squash soup from Kamasouptra. With the tag line: Steamy. Hot. Soup. Really? The best thing about Kamasouptra Soup is the (steamy, hot) roll that comes with it. Once you’ve had it, you’ll want it again. And again. Hey, maybe that could be another (racy)slogan for them..? 🙂

Mid-afternoon, I got hungry again (I know, right?). On my way to get a healthy snack (an apple) from the fridge, I remembered that I picked up a whole wheat wild blueberry muffin from New Morning Natural Foods new-ish Kennebunk Deli earlier in the day. If you get one, here’s a tip: zap it for 20-30 seconds in the microwave before you eat it. You’re welcome.

Finally, I picked my daughter up from track, and she asked that question that daughters everywhere have been asking their mothers for centuries. “Mom, what’s for supper?”

I had no idea.
She noticed my hesitation and knew an opportunity when she saw it. “Let’s get Chinese! Like you wanted to yesterday! For Mother’s Day!” Okay, so you know.

She had me at Mother’s Day.

We went to Maple Leaves. I forgot to take a picture of our food, but I did take a (blurry) picture of my fortune.