Vodka, Vanilla and Love by Sarah's Goodies Bakery

Building Chicken Saloon

2023-09-19T12:36:00.001-07:00

I'm so excited to share my chicken coop build with you all!!!!

I wanted to build my chickens a new house when we moved onto our new property but since we just closed escrow we were working on a budget. I had been scrolling Pinterest and was thinking BIG!!!

I mean I have a lot of chicken (30+ at that point) and we have a lot of predators. Coyotes, foxes, mountain lions, raccoons, opossums, skunks hawks etc. So I had to think of all the angles to protect my little raptors.

I started by colleting lots of pallets, against my husbands wishes. I then started collecting scrap lumber, old fence boards and my parents gave me some old used redwood siding from our family cabins. So after collecting for several months I decided to get to work.

I started by hitting Lowes and getting a couple boxes of screws and a roll of Tyvek weather wrap. That's all I had to buy, everything else was free or reclaimed.

After leveling the ground I laid out 4 pallets of equal size and attached them all together and leveled them out. I had to dig out two small holes and place 2 small cut 4 x 4 and concrete them in to hold up the from of the the platform.

Once I got the base leveled and stable I started working on the walls and the roof.

My daughter jumped on board to help. Homeschooling at its best!!!

We wrapped the whole structure in plastic for weather proofing then went back and wrapped again in the Tyvek as well.

All the windows are build into the structure. There is not glass, just hardwire cloth. I put plastic over the windows on the inside in the winter when its cold and windy.

I have an automatic closing door to keep out the predators. It closes at dark and opens in the morning.

Super proud of myself, I'm almost done!!!!! My son took this picture, he was also very proud of me!

Very happy chickens!!!

Already getting lots of eggs!!!!

They were happily checking it all out!!!

Only the over hang left to go on the house and it's done!!! Then I have to build the yard!

It's all done!!!!!!!

All build with reclaimed and recycled materials!!! The two posts are from trees from by our family cabin that my dad cut down. The wood on the outside it also from out cabins so that has a special meaning! I absolutely LOVE how my chicken coop turned out!

Its actually 10' x 8' x 8' x 8'.

Thanks for checking it out!!!!

Making Money Online (in no time)

2023-09-18T08:02:00.010-07:00

How to make money blogging (in no time) This article may contain links from our partners. We may receive a small commission if you make a purchase through a link. Please read our disclosure and how we make money.

Is it still possible to make money blogging starting today? Yes! And here, I will share the steps I used to go from $0 to over $3,000 after only a few months of blogging part-time.

I started my blog 3 years ago and let it set without much thought. Then I went back and looked at it after trying to figure out how to start making money from home when money was getting tight with my family,

I noticed even without much effort I was getting traffic to my blog. So I decided to do some research and figure out how the heck to optimize my site to make some money while I'm at it.

After some research I have found some helpful information I wanted to share.

First of all its best if you can pin pint a niche you want to focus on. Wither that be heath and wellness, fitness, making money, creating eBooks, baking cooking or whatever your passion is. Focus on that and that is your "Niche"!

1. Ad Networks

Displaying ads on your blog is one of the easiest and quickest ways to start making money with a blog. If you’re not familiar with hearing about ad networks, there is a popular ad network that is widely used for monetizing a blog.

Google AdSense

There are other but this is the one I am currently using and will add more as I go along.

You need to have a blog with unique and well-written blog posts to get approved for AdSense and those ad networks and they will show ads automatically for your blog visitors based on the context of your article and on user interest.

The screenshot below is about my AdSense account in the first few days when I got approved for displaying ads on my blog:

Google AdSense is a good way to start earning money online when you are first starting out for making money from your blog. As you can see I was getting good attention and then I let my blog sit but was still getting a little traffic with zero attention from me. So I decided to get back to work on my blog.

However, your earnings will be depending on your monthly blog visitors. But remember, no website gets thousands of traffic when it’s new and you need to keep publishing and promoting unique content to grow your blog traffic.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate advertisements are one of the most profitable ways to make money from an intermediate-level blog.

The best thing is you can make a lot more money than a single click on an ad that you’re placing through ad networks on your blog.

In fact, Affiliate marketing is the most profitable way that I used to make money from my blog since I started.

This is popular among most bloggers these days and most big brands also offer affiliate programs with their products.

All you need to do is, join with related affiliate programs in your blog niche and share your unique affiliate link of the product you are recommending for your blog visitors.

When someone makes a purchase from your affiliate links, you will earn a huge commission from the sale amount.

In the screenshot below, you can see one of my affiliate incomes from an affiliate program I’ve just recently joined:

(I literally just started... one sale)

Here are some of the popular Affiliate marketing marketplaces and programs that you can join:

Amazon Affiliate Marketing

There are many different types of affiliate programs, from online services to web hosting, website builders, VPNs, travel, finance, fashion, beauty, fitness, and more.

3. Hello Pink

I also am a Hello Pink representative and share on my social accounts as well as my blog and on Pinterest; all the things we have to offer and get a commission.

Here is the information about Hello Pink and how to sign up. You earn a commission off every sale and the items area absolutely adorable and are updated frequently.

Signup Link

https://hellopinkstylist.com/create-account?ref=SarahSwitzer

Check out the adorable offerings here!!!

Network Commissions

Level	Commission
Level 1	5%
Level 2	3%
Level 3	2%

I have not been selling Hello Pink for very long and am making some sales and commissions as well.

So every little bit adds up. I have lots of different avenues of income right now and my blog is helping direct traffic to those different places.

4. Avon

I also sell Avon, you know, your Grandmas skin care company from back in the day. Well its still here and its better than ever believe it or not. You get paid a commission on sales. Everyone knows Avon and its a reputable brand. They have everything from Skin care to that gaudy jewelry, laundry soap and clothes and almost everything you can think of in between.

Campaign	Sales	Estimated Commissions
202318	$7.98	$0.00
202317	$164.65	$36.72
202314	$17.98	$0.00
202313	$32.98	$0.00
202312	$88.69	$22.17
202310	$210.13	$45.32
202304	$145.91	$36.50
202227	$46.96	$10.24

Sales Total

$715.28

Estimated Commissions Total

$150.95

Lots of different income streams are very helpful but having them all linking to one blog and keeping track in one place making it a bit easier.

What next?

Want to drive Traffic to your blog?

I highly recommend Pinterest!! My blog has been sitting idly by for the last couple years but I have still been pinning ideas and stuff to Pinterest and directing it to my blog and getting traffic, little did I realize. All of the items from Avon, Hello Pink and Amazon get pinned to Pinterest and shared to my blog. Here is where you get your traffic, hence make your money.

Your income is based on the amount of traffic you get and you will get your traffic from the larger sites such as Pinterest. They you will run ads on your blog using AdSense.

I will add more on this as I learn more. I hope this bit of information was helpful. Please feel free to message me with any questions. I'll post again once the blog gets up and running more efficiently.

5. Digital Products

I also have an Esty account and I have started selling digital products. There are lots of different ideas and products you can sell. In fact a lot of bloggers sell their own products such as eBooks.

Digital products such as eBooks have many advantages such as practically zero cost or overhead and attractive to sell to many blog readers. Plus it adds value to your niche.

You can put it for sale on your blog or you can use an outside source such as Esty

Here are some ideas for your blog.

eBooks
Stock Photo/Video
Pintable's
3D models
Audios (Jingles, Ringtones, Sound effects)
Templates
Mockups
WordPress themes/plugins
Graphic elements
Lightroom/Photoshop presets

Its pretty easy to create pintable's. You can use the program Canva to create the printable for free. I created the Journals in my Etsy shop using Canva completely for free and they were fairly quick and easy.

There are many other ideas as well and using Canva your options are quite honestly unlimited. If you are creative and have a few minutes you can create anything.

I highly recommend you check it out.

I'm so excited that you took the time to read and learn from me. I am just getting started and I'm so excited to help you get started as well. I know so many who have done so well financially on this journey and so far I am so excited with how things are going for me. The sky is the limit as they say and I cannot way to see where my future goes.

Well in closing I'm sure there are lots of questions. So please feel free to leave a comment below and I will be happy to help if I'm able. If not I will try.

Happy Blogging!!

😀

Cake Servings and Prices

2020-01-09T13:38:00.000-08:00

Cake Servings and Prices!

These are general prices to get an idea of what you cake will cost. Please email me to get more specific pricing.

Cake Pricing

Tiered Cakes starting at…. $3.95 per serving (serving size is Industry Standard)

Teeny Cakes starting at ….. $20.00

Cupcakes Pricing

Basic Cupcakes starting at ….. $25/dozen or $2.50 each

Filled Cupcakes starting at …. $30/ dozen or $3.00 each

Custom Cupcakes starting at ….. $30/dozen or $3.00 each

Cake Pops starting at ….. $35/ dozen or $3.00 each

Bars …. $7.00 for a Six Pack:

· Lemon

· Pumpkin

· Brownies

· Raspberry

Custom Decorated Cut-Out Cookies

starting at ….. $4.00 each ($15.00 set up fee may apply)

Common Cake Flavors

· Chocolate

· White

· Marble

· Yellow

· Spice

· Carrot

· Red Velvet

· German Chocolate

· Lemon

· Pink Champagne

Common Cake Fillings

· Strawberry

· Raspberry

· Triple berry

· Chocolate Bavarian Creme

· Vanilla Bavarian Creme

· Cookies & Cream

· Cheesecake

Common Cake Icings

· Buttercream

· Chocolate Buttercream

· Whipped Topping

· Cream Cheese

· Chocolate Ganache

Boy, Noise with dirt on it!!!

2012-09-05T20:05:00.004-07:00

I have seen this wall sticker over and over and I love it, It's my son [to a tee] but they are pretty expensive so I wanted to try and re-create it as a stencil; so I made my own.

Here's what I did!!

I started by printing out the quote and taping together all the sheets of paper.

Then I cut out all the letters to make the "stencil". This part was tedious but well work being patient so the letters are all correct. (Sorry the pictures is hard to see white paper on a white wall) You also have to be careful when cutting out your letters with a middle [d's, o's e's] if you don't leave a small piece connected they will not turn out correct. I left a small tab on each side when I made my cuts so they were more stable. You can see on the picture below that the little centers fell down once weighted down with the paint so be sure you hang onto them when paining.

I took my sponge 'brush' and gently dabbed on the paint [you can use whatever color you want, my son's room is grey and white so i used the grey I already had].

A close up of how it looks after dabbing on the paint.

The finished product.

It looks small but its really big, about 4 feet across and 2 foot tall. I love how it turned out. So does everyone who I proudly show it off it.

It didn't cost me anything because I already had everything!! (Even better)

My new Hobbie... Cake Decorating!

2012-07-05T09:58:00.001-07:00

My newest hobby is cake decorating!!!

I love it.

Here are some example's of my work... Enjoy!!!

You can check out my CAKES and more page for more examples.

I made this "Cars" cake for my nephew's 4th birthday. It was one of my first ones after taking several cake decorating courses.

This was a cake for my sister's baby shower for my second nephew. She obviously went with the western theme.

A 1st birthday cake for beautiful Serena. Mike Wazowski from "Monsters Inc".

My friend Lisa turned 50. She breeds and sells Chihuahua's so I made her a cake with her "kids" likeness on it.

And this one, My friend Michelle is quite the crazy women. She wanted her birthday to be "Mexican fiesta themed. She asked for a "sexy man" cake. Well here you go!!

I look forward to sharing allot more with you!!!

My First Blog!!

2012-07-04T15:23:00.001-07:00

Welcome to my new blog. I have never done this before so here we go!!

I was inspired by on other blogger on my name by making homemade Vanilla Extract.

All you need is Vodka and Vanilla with a little love. I will post on how to make that fun project later. Just waiting on getting the fresh vanilla beans.

A little about me, my name is Sarah, and a proud mother of 2, who keep me very, very busy. I am married to a wonderful man, whom I'm madly in love with.

The reason I am starting this blog is that I am hoping to inspire you with of my baking, trying new DIY projects, informational posts, tips and tricks to keep healthy and happy.

I've struggled with my weight since I was diagnosed with a 'hypothyroidism' at just 13 years old. That summer I gained over 30 pounds and that's when I began to dislike the reflection in the mirror and that has taken a tool on my self esteem. After having my kids and ballooning to over 200 pounds I decided to do something about it and work towards a healthier, happier me, not just for me but to be a good roll model for my kids. I'm not at my ideal weight or fitness level but I'm working on it daily.

I hope you will join me in learning together how to do this healthy lifestyle.

Let's do this!!!

~Sarah

I live in the beautiful state of California. I am a licensed Realtor and love that job. I also finished my Wilton cake decorating courses and have opened my own little bakery that I run right out of my kitchen (for now). I have made some very fun cakes and love to see peoples faces when I deliver their cake to them!

We are an animal loving family (Im sure thats where he gets it) and if it was not for my husband putting the breaks on it I would probably have many more rescues.

Here are a few of our Fur-Babbie's.

Bubbles our cocker spaniel/Cavalier spaniel mix. The princess of the crew.

Mya, this is Bubbles daughter. She is the comedian of the crew and very protective of Racket Maker, she sleeps in his room every night and sometimes during naptime as well.

Mr. Chubbs, Bubbles son,he is the lover of the group and my perminant shadow. Always under me feet at my desk. Its great in the winter, me own personal (always warm) slippers.

And our newest addition, Astro. This is Gavin's doggie. He's just over a year old and is very protective over Gavin. He is a mix, Catahoula, Hound and Black Mouth Cur. He's tall and can jump over anything. Including all our 6 (plus) foot fences. He has tough little Mya how to jump the 4 foot fences so far. Naughty doggy.