Our Featured Guest Star- The Answer is Chocolate

You know what?  Somehow I ended up with nobody to interview today.  Summer is in full blast here, so I imagine folks are doing family things.  As they should.  So rather than take a day off, I’m going to bring back one of my more popular interviews. A summer rerun, so to speak.  My interview last year with Carol from The Answer is Chocolate.  And my buddy Tom Selleck and his mustache and I will take advantage of the break and spiff up that Green Room.  So, sit back and enjoy the interview…


Today we have as our guest, Carol from The Answer is Chocolate. Carol’s site is full of great crafty goodness, including jewelry, papercrafts and much more. And there is tons of chocolate! She even offers some chocolate recipes for those of us that simply cannot get enough.

I wanted to make her feel at home, but the budget at Suzy’s Artsy Craftsy Sitcom is rather slim. Since McDonalds doesn’t really offer anything covered in chocolate, I was kind of at a loss as to what to do. Then my buddy Tom Selleck and his mustache had a brilliant idea. He managed to round up Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, Cat Cora and Alton Brown from Iron Chef America. Tom is a rather sneaky dude when he wants to be. He summoned them all to my Green Room which he had redecorated to look similar to “Kitchen Stadium”. After he had their full attention, he yelled, “The Secret Ingredient is Chocolate!”

You wouldn’t have believed the rush to claim kitchen utensils! Tom is a genious! As we stand here watching the hustle and bustle around us, I can’t help but anticipate the wonderful things we are going to taste. Alton is in full commentary mode and I can see Cat Cora working steadily on something to do with rock crab. Hmmmm… I’m really hoping she is just snacking on that as she makes something fabulous out of chocolate. So, while Battle Chocolate continues, lets take a moment with Carol and find out more about her.

Suzy: Tell me a little about yourself, your family, your other hobbies…
Carol: I’ve been married for 19 years to a guy who manages to make me laugh and not take things so seriously which is something I’m prone to do. We have a 17 year old son who’s a senior in HS and getting ready to go off to college. Outside the stuff I cover on my blog, my other hobbies would be reading, I love movies, we love exploring on day trips and when the opportunity presents itself, travel.

Suzy: When and why did you start blogging, and where would you like your blogging to lead? I love your blog name, by the way. Oh, and I do love chocolate. It should have been my middle name.
Carol: I started blogging in May . I’ve always done crafty / creative stuff and I had lurked on several blogs I’d found while looking for tutorials etc. It’s funny because in real life I get teased about not being a people person. We’re homebodies and we don’t do a ton of social things. But I loved the sense of community I saw in the blogging world and my husband just doesn’t get that excited about what do to with Mod Podge so I figured through blogging, I would find other people who appreciated stuff like that. When I was thinking about what to name my blog, I saw a variation on the saying that became the title and it clicked. Crafts and chocolate? Totally me!

Suzy: I couldn’t think of two nicer subjects to combine. Who or what inspires you?

Carol: In art and in life, I’m inspired by people who see ideas or possibilities in everyday things. I am still hesitant to call myself an artist because I recall a discussion with an art teacher in college who was very snobby about what art was and he insisted it had to be certain materials, certain techniques etc. and it intimidated me. While it may be true (or not!) I think art is wherever anyone finds beauty and something that speaks to them.

Carol:  I also don’t think you should have to spend a lot of money to have pretty things around you so I’m more likely to be impressed by what someone does with a free-cycled find or a recycled tomato sauce can than a piece of “fine” art.

Suzy: Name a few of your favorite websites that you go to for inspiration.
Carol: Oh where to start! I love what I call the “big blogs” like Tater Tots and Jello, Someday Crafts, UCreate, One Pretty Thing, Under The Table and Dreaming. Some others ( but only because I can’t list them all!) sites that I visit frequently are All Things Related, Christine & Co, Frou Frou Decor, Flamingo Toes, Michelle’s Scrap Shoppe..the list goes on!

Suzy: You seem to do a bit of everything, craft-wise. You are very talented. What are your favorite things to create?
Carol: My first love remains paper so I love to work with it and incorporate it into as many things as possible. I love to make things for my home, or gifts for other people. It’s really hard for me to narrow it down to anything particular because I just kind of go from one thing to another!















Suzy: Is there another type of craft that you would like to learn in the future?
Carol: Definitely! I actually have a soldering iron that I haven’t tried to use and would really like to learn how to use it. I also want to explore playing with resins and I’ve barely scratched the surface on using my Cricut.

Suzy: You have so many successful craft projects. Is there one that just never seemed to come together? I know I have several “errors in judgement” hanging around my closet. Do you have a crafty horror story?

Carol: Usually if I do, I just make it into something else. But I did buy some gorgeous glass tile at Home Depot that I thought I was going to use for a mirror. FAIL.

Suzy: I love asking this, because most folks are like me. A total packrat. But I’m going to ask anyway… I would like to show your crafting space- can you send me a photo? Is there anything that you would like to tell us about it?
Carol: Gonna have to pass on this one! I’m too embarrassed because it’s in a perpetual state of chaos. I’ve tried and tried to be neat about it but I find that I can’t relax and create when it’s all perfectly neat. Not something my husband understands!

Suzy: Is there anything that you would like me to particularly promote? Giveaways? Any special tutorials coming up?
Carol: I haven’t really entered the sponsor world although I think I’d like to. Primarily from the standpoint of having sponsored giveaways so if anyone’s interested….I’m going to be doing a project with instructions that’s tentatively called” The Girl Who Played With Fire” which will combine a butane torch and metal embossing.

Suzy: Wow! Sounds interesting! Be sure to stop by and check out Carol’s site, The Answer is Chocolate. If you are looking for great crafting ideas, link parties or maybe a chocolate fix. Well, that is the place to go!

Well, the hour is up, so let’s see how they did! You ready Tom? Hmmmm….looks like we have a line up here. Isn’t it fun how they are standing there looking at us so expectantly? Makes me feel so important! Their entire essence of self worth at this very moment is based on our opinion of their food. Such a heavy burden to bear.

So, what have we here? Is that chocolate covered salmon? No really. I’m not so sure I’m up to that. Let’s uncover these other dishes….chocolate broccoli with fetuccini, chocolate and asparagus risotto, and shrimp ravioli with chocolate sauce. Yeah. Oh wait, here is a version of chocolate ice cream! What? Chocolate and fennel ice cream with roe topping? Ummmm…well, Tom. You are the judge, right?

Tom? Hey, where did he go? Carol?

Well crap.