Happy Day

Are you watching the Royal Wedding? I couldn't help but be intrigued as thirty years ago I watched a beautiful woman, barely five years older than I, marry the future king of England. I was just as enamoured with Princess Diana as the rest of the world. She truly was beautiful and graceful. I watched as she emerged from hospital with Charles by her side, holding the newborn William. I followed the tragic story of her marriage and life and enjoyed with others all the touching photos of her with her sons. You could always so clearly see her love and devotion for them all over her face! I had a newborn son of my own the night she was killed. I was up with him in the middle of the night as the news broke, the country's heart with it. Watching William and Harry walk behind that hearse, you couldn't help but wonder if they would be able to find peace and happiness.
As I am watching the two of them now, so handsome, so admired, so close to one another, I truly believe Diana is watching over them still and terribly pleased and proud of the men they have become. I believe they both feel her presence and  I truly wish Kate and William all the happiness.
Now on to my observations as the wedding progresses:
 I was not expecting to see William in Red - Harry might be even more splendid in his dress blues.

It is fun to see everyone all dressed up. Catherine's mother looks lovely, I really like her hat. The Queen is wearing a beautiful, bright, cheery yellow - she looks very happy. I must say that Camilla's hat is Fab-u-lous! Haven't been a fan of hers, obviously, but she can't be all bad as the boys seem to admire her greatly. The deliciously naughty Fergie (not that one, the original) has not been invited, but her daughters have arrived and look amazing. Those two know how to dress to impress.
 Catherine has arrived and looks stunningly, traditionally beautiful. The congregation is singing and they just showed Elton John! The dress is not what I had expected, much simpler and more traditional perhaps, but it does have  a full train and beautiful lace.

It is totally quiet as Catherine walks the aisle; as she gets to William, he says "you look beautiful". The congregation singing is pretty funny, really. At several points during the ceremony, you can hear the crowd cheering. It makes William and Catherine smile!

It's 6:30am and there is still a lot to go - they have yet to leave the church and we still have to wait for the balcony kiss!

the happy couple in the carriage on the way to Buckingham Palace and the wedding breakfast.  While waiting for them to come out, I switched over to the BBC station - really fun to hear the accents and see the crowd interviewed.

And finally, the kiss - sigh - so lovely! I can't believe I have spend more than three hours watching this - its gone by so fast! Truly enjoyable -

Green Butterfly Vegan cookie

This is a picture of the official Green Butterfly Vegan cookie! (on a compostable plate!)
Baking vegan simply means no eggs, milk, or animal product butter. What you have to watch out for when baking vegan is texture and consistency in order to have a dough/batter that you can work with and sets up correctly.
These cookies are not only vegan, but also wheat and gluten free!
Here is the recipe I used for this batch -
2 cups vegan, wheat free, gluten free flour - I used an all purpose one from red mill
1 c sugar - I used an organic sugar
1 c vegan butter - I used earth balance
2 ts extract - I used almond - again organic -
a pinch of salt
2 TB water


cream sugar and butter then add flour, extract, salt and water
thoroughly mix the dough - you may need to add a little more water, or flour to get a good mixture
This dough needs to chill completely - put it in the fridge until firm - it is best to wrap it in parchment or wax paper, and shape it into a log.

When you are ready to work with the dough, you have a couple of options - the easiest is to create balls, roll in organic sugar (white or brown) indent wth your thumb and fill with an all natural, sugar free preserve.
If you wish to make shapes as I did hear, you will need to thoroughly flour the surface and roll out, flatten the dough  - this is a fairly delicate dough, so I found that keeping the dough about a 1/4" thick worked the best, as well as using a larger cookie cutter.
Bake at 350 degrees until golden on the bottom. I also baked these on parchment paper.

While the cookies are baking, make the vegan frosting
it will depend on how much you need, but I used
1 c powdered sugar - organic
1/4 c vegan butter - earth balance
and to flavor - lime juice, zest, and a little fresh mint
You can flavor with extract, other fruit juice or just mix the sugar and butter.
The butter needs to be soft in order to mix it well - keep in mind you will not have the consistency of store bought, canned frosting, but the flavor will be awesome!
Refrigerate the frosting until you are ready to use - the cookies need to be completely cooled before frosting -
This is a basic recipe that can be adapted. You can play around with flavors until you find the ones you and your family like best. The Good news is, you have a yummy cookie you can feel good about serving your family! Even my son, the non-sweet eater (pretty much) says they are good!
Happy Baking!!

The Green Butterfly Pitch Day

I am getting ready to make a batch of vegan green butterfly cookies with a vegan lime zest frosting - I will post pics and a recipe once they're done. I plan to take them to the pitch meeting tonight!
I have experienced a flood of new connections in the last few days and am feeling so empowered to get my business open. I am more confident than ever that it will flourish.
While conducting some research for the pitch meeting tonight I found some interesting statistics regarding consumer purchases of green products. Acccording to the latest study I could find, 84% of consumers say they would purchase. even at a premium price, products and services which were certified green. Only 43% of businesses produce or trade ANY type of green product (which could be as simple as a travel mug or reusable tote) and of those companies, 74% don't have a green policy or guideline or fail to communicate the policy to the consumer.
Bottom line - The Green Butterfly will serve this touch point in a big way, not only by providing certified green products and services, but by helping consumers to understand the issues and eliminate confusion. (such as how and why a green product works and how and why it is just as good or better than a 'regular' product)
Join us by: subscribing to the blog, making a donation at www.indiegogo.com/the-green-butterfly, and/or passing that link along, visiting us when we open!

Weight Loss Tips for Healthy Eaters

Weight Loss Tips for Healthy Eaters Page 2 Active.com
This is an excellent article which highlights some of the pitfalls many health eaters encounter as well as some solutions - I saw a similar article from Marie Claire which had several nutritionists write down what they ate for a day and it was shocking to see how many calories those healthy plates piled on! Portion control and calories are important no matter what you are consuming. Since many fruits and vegetables are high in sugar (even if its natural sugars) you have to be careful about consumption.
I have to admit this is something I struggle with at times. I sometimes think that because it is vegetables or fruit, I can have as much as I want. There have been days I have eaten two or three bananas at one sitting ( well usually standing in the kitchen).
We owe it to ourselves to be conscious not only of the foods we are eating, but how much of it we are consuming!

Aparagus and other gifts of the season

It has been an amazing few days -
The spot on Good Morning American ended up airing on Easter Sunday morning - I missed the actual airing as I didn't know it was going to be on that day - however, several friends let me know they saw it. I was able to download the link and view the spot, which was pretty neat.
Jared and I went to dinner at his Aunt Grace's. They had ham and turkey, as might be expected, but also some yummy cheesy potatoes, great biscuits, and delicious fresh veggie platter. Grace also made an amazing chocolate cake with a dark chocolate frosting - I can honestly say I have never had better chocolate cake  - I will be getting the recipe from her and making any moderations needed to make it a healthier version and post it here as long as I can get it to come out the same way.
When I returned home from dinner, there were three facebook messages for me from our local ABC affiliate - WJRT - they had seen the piece on GMA and wanted to interview me! So, around 3:30 or so the reporter and camera man were in my driveway talking with me about the GMA piece and what I thought about high gas prices. I was able to give the reporter, the super nice, lovely, Rebecca Trylch my business card as well and told her to feel free to call on me with any green or eco-aware pieces they might be doing. She in turn said that they would definitely send someone out when I get ready to open to cover the store!
It is going to be a busy week - Wednesday night I have the pitch meeting with the BWA group in Freeland, Thursday I am checking out the building downtown and trying to make a decision on that, also on Thursday is the business to business expo at Perani arena, and Friday I am looking at another space in downtown Flushing. Today I applied for a 20K business grant from American Express. I am still trying to find out about the grant program from Ascension Health.
The asparagus salad was wonderful, and we had more asparagus and fresh corn on the cob for dinner tonight. It was so nice to have corn on the cob again! I just steamed them both lightly and then grated fresh pepper over top - absolutely delicious!
Oh, and more good news - I just heard from I'm Organic - a great company which I have all ready contacted about products for the store - I won a recent blog comments entry contest they had and am receiving a tote and wonderful eco-friendly cleaning products! This is super important to me as I am looking for cleaning products both to use in the cafe/store and to sell and this line sounds wonderful - I will let you know how they perform when they arrive. Thanks, I'm Organic!!

Gas Prices and Green Salad

This is one of the pictures I sent in to GMA (that's Good Morning America) as part of my interview packet regarding accommodating life to high gas prices - It aired this morning in the first ten minutes of the show and I, unfortunately, missed it! It was supposed to air yesterday but got bumped due to the St Louis tornado coverage. I thought it might show up later in the week, but was busy with the doggies this morning and didn't turn on the show until about 8:20. I found out from a facebook post that it had aired. Hope some others caught it and hope maybe it shows up again tomorrow - trust me I will be watching!!
If you saw it, let me know -
I am also going to be checking to see if it shows up online and will add the link if it does -
At any rate, today is Easter and Jared and I are going to his Aunt Grace's house for Easter dinner.
I am taking an easy asparagus salad.
I am using about 2 lbs of asparagus - shave it like you would carrots in long strips
Mix - in a small bowl or even a glass - lemon juice (from fresh lemons); lemon zest (from the same lemons, about a ts of olive oil, pepper (fresh ground if you can) and  freshly shaved Parmesan cheese. Stir together well and toss with asparagus
serve immediately!

Twitter Magic!

Why does it "pay" to twitter? Well first you can connect with people in a way that is different than any other, it's a great marketing tool, and sometimes it leads to really interesting opportunities. Case in point, you just may see me on Good Morning American on Saturday, April 23! That's right! They posted a question on twitter, I responded, and they contacted me to be on the show! I had to put together a short video clip and send in some photos, which sent me into a bit of a tizzy, but a couple of hours later, it was all done and sent with the help of my adorable son and two willing puppies! I really don't know how or when it might be used tomorrow. but just talking to a producer and putting that package together was thrilling!!
I love social media, especially since I am attempting to live as Green as possible, and am trying to get a new business off the ground - it is so awesome that we can email, facebook, blog, flicker, and twitter for immediate contacts and results. All of the responses to my crowdfunding page are from people in other states. When all  they have to do is click a link and fill out some information and hit send its easy to get people involved. So, use whats out there, you are saving paper and might get a great, fun opportunity from it! -
Please continue to support The Green Butterfly - we have less than 40 days!!

Location, Location, Location!

Well, I finally made it to downtown Flint to see if there might be a location for the cafe and store. While encouraged by the response of those with whom I spoke, there wasn't a space readily available that I could see or get pricing on. That kind of surprised me, especially since there still seemed to be a lot of empty store fronts on S. Saginaw. I met with the management at Capital Theater, Uptown Developments, The LandBank and the Flint DDA without any solid leads. I mostly heard, hmmm, there's that space over there that might be good, or I think so and so is moving around the corner so that might work, or that space would have been perfect but its leased. Not terribly helpful at this point. I was also told about locations in Grand Blanc and down by Mott College, but that is not the areas I wish to be in. I either want downtown Flushing, or downtown Flint. I dont want to drive to Grand Blanc or Clio everyday and since I also want to have community involvement, I want it to be a community which I care about and have some investment in terms of connection - I have that for Flint or Flushing, not the others.

Glad I decided not to register for the race this weekend - mostly to save money - its raining today and probably will all day and its very windy again, so I would NOT have enjoyed it or done well at all - phew - one right decision this week! Still have to get some miles in this weekend, so hope it at least dries out at some point.
Christine

Spring Training

It was so nice to run without five layers plus hat and gloves! I have survived my first winter as a runner. I completed 5 races and discovered wool socks. I also spent more for one pair of running pants than I have ever spent for any single piece of clothing, but cured the frozen thigh issue.
Yesterday it was over 75 degrees and breezy. I ran in capris and a tshirt style champion shirt with no shoe socks. And it was hot! And it was crowded! I have had many runs during which I have seen maybe 1 or 2 people, yesterday it was a mob of walkers, dogs, kids, bikes, rollerblades, and the occasional runner. Several times I had to walk due to the press.
I have a 5K on Saturday and after that the miles will increase as I ready for the 10 mile Crim in August and the half marathon in October. Right now my focus is increasing distance and then I will go for time.
See you on the trails!
Christine

Spark and Hustle

Spark and Hustle - those two words inspire a lot of images, don't they? This week I have been immersed in the meaning of the two. Really it's been mostly learning about the hustle and the practical applications. I have met tons of women with the Spark, and many with the Hustle. I have been inspired and motivated, and believe even more strongly in my concept and mission to create this business and provide this service.
There was a speaker today who said to pay attention to the "coincidental" experiences in your daily life. When I checked into my hotel I was given a goodie bag which contained, among other things, a little magazine about the Chicago area - the cover declared it to be the "Green Issue" and has several articles about sustainable, green, eco-friendly products and services - coincidence? At dinner last night every one at my table chose the veggie pizza - coincidence? I heard a speaker who has created an amazing product called Signature Flan which is all natural, no artificial flavors or colors and by its nature vegetarian - and really delicious - coincidence? I have been constantly seeing signs that the time is now. I really believe that others are not only going to be receptive to my cafe' dishes but the options that the products will offer for their daily lives.
I can't wait to open! Oh, and Tory Johnson had some suggestions for my crowd funding site, so I will be tweaking that  - please continue to pass along that information and help this business get open so I can get the service and products going!

Huge Step!

This weekend will be a huge step towards cementing my business plan! I am so hoping to finally get things moving on the Indiegogo site and get all the ducks finally in line for the grand opening. Please keep a good thought, and pass along my crowdfunding website and help me get this going for the good of all! It's going to be so great!!!