Holly Jolly Christmas

So once again, a Christmas post. But really, is that such a bad thing?
At this time of year when we are constantly told that it is not okay to say Merry Christmas I get so frustrated. I personally do not feel that it is either right or fair that we are now no longer supposed to say something that has been such an integral part of our culture. People have celebrated Christmas for centuries and suddenly it's a bad thing? I don't think so!

Oh shoot, I got a little ranty there didn't I? I'm sorry about that folks. I get pretty wound up about stuff like that more and more lately. Not the best way to start off a post is it?

Let's get on with this post shall we? (Sheesh, I need to work on my typing skills a bit. I'm using that backspace key way more than I should be. Haha!)

Double Whammy

I started planning this post before I even finished my last one. Yep, I'm that organized. Just kidding! I just suddenly had ideas popping into my head so I had to start writing them down quick.
Whammies are usually considered bad right? Well, this really isn't so bad. It really, really isn't.

So Christmas is coming up pretty soon so I've been trying to find a recipe that I could share with you and here's what I've come up with: (Drum roll please!) Candy Cane Thumbprint Shortbread Cookies!

Bake Sale Take Two

Ah, peace and quiet. This never happens for me until after my little Miss K goes to bed. And luckily my husband is also asleep. It's so nice. Very, very nice. I'm half wishing I had some wine right now. But I don't so let's move on shall we?

People following my Facebook page are aware that I once again did another large bake sale. This time it was in Winnipeg and it was not nearly as stressful. Except when I almost ran out of change early in the day. But I'll talk about that in a bit.
This time I had to drive barely 20 minutes to the community center that this craft show was taking place. What a relief! It was nice getting up in the morning early, having my first cup of coffee and chatting with my husband while I did a few last-minute things to get ready. And of course my munchkin woke up shortly before I had to leave so I was able to get some snuggles in real quick before I headed out the door.

So much to say....

Hey folks,
I would like to let you all know that I would very much like to do another craft show/bake sale event down the road. The one I participated in earlier today gave me an idea of what it would be like and a general idea of what to expect. I spent a small part of my time at the event to consider some changes I would need to make in order to do more larger bake sales. 

Very basic changes really. How I package and display my items is my number one concern. 
My second biggest concern is what items sell the best. Surprisingly the items I believe to be the most popular really didn't sell at all. Who doesn't like chocolate chip cookies? 
Now, I also realized that I baked a lot more than I probably should have. And I had a lot of people pass by my table with barely a glance or people who would browse and appear to really be interested only to have them walk away without purchasing anything. I won't lie. I found this very discouraging. It also made me realize that how things are presented is a very, very big deal.

More Up & Coming Stuff

Alright, so I made a boo boo in my last post about when my first household project was going to start. It won't be happening for another week yet. But that's okay. There are other projects I can tackle in the meantime. Or at least start on.

I also know that my title is really lacking in creativity this time around. I'm slightly ashamed of myself. Ha ha.

One of those projects is our living room. When my husband and I first moved into our place we had no furniture at all. Kijiji saved us and we found a leather sofa and love seat which we paid $70 for. Yep, that was it.

We had already bought a tv but had nowhere to really put it. Until I remembered this old tv unit I had built shortly after I finished college. So I touched it up, stained it and we hauled it in. It's done the job for over a year now. But I like it less and less all the time.

Up and Coming

So for the past couple weeks I've been busy figuring out things for around our apartment. We currently live in a basement suite but had hoped to move to a new place before the new year. When we were suddenly faced with a rather large and unexpected bill we realized that our plan wasn't going to work out quite like we would have hoped.

And since our place as always been rather sparse I made the executive decision to decorate. Unbeknownst to my husband but knownst to me.

And because of this big bill we need to take care of and our single income I knew that anything I chose to do would have to be done as cheaply as possible. So I scoured pinterest for budget saving ideas and I think I've got a pretty good idea of what I'd like to do in each room of our apartment and how to do it.

'Tis the Season for Pumpkins!

So fall has arrived and with it pumpkins flavored everything's have arrived with it. So of course I absolutely had to make something with pumpkin in it. I even decided to be a bit more ambitious and I made two different treats. Yup! Two!

The first is a new recipe I decided to try. My Mum decided we shouldn't do a traditional pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving so I offered to make a cheesecake. And of course I once again trolled pinterest in search of a recipe to try. And I found one that looked absolutely amazing.

Say hello to Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars!

I didn't take tons of pictures this time around. Partly because I almost forgot and partly because there aren't too many steps to take pictures of.

Crushed Velvet

So I'm pretty sure one of my sisters sent this recipe to me via pinterest and it has been just sitting there waiting ever so patiently for me to try it out. Well today was the day.

Say hello to these little darlings! Red velvet cheesecake brownies! Can you say yum?

Now, I can safely say that I've never been a huge fan of red velvet cake. Don't get me wrong, it's good, but it certainly has never been my favorite. So this was an iffy idea for me. But I figured that since it was also cheesecake there was no way I could not like it.

Where For Art Thou... Henry?

This recipe is from a family cookbook which has a pretty varied collection of recipes. And each recipe is credited to whoever submitted the recipe so I have no idea who the actual genius is behind this delicious snack.

These are called oh Henry bars. But they are nothing like the chocolate bars they get their name from. And personally I think these ones are better. Blasphemy I know.

Shall we get started?

Everything's Peachy

This post is a day late but I think it'll be alright. And this one is actually a bit of an experiment. The recipe is the experiment, not the post. Sheesh; I gotta work on my wording.

So I decided to buy some peaches one day when I went to the grocery store. And then I realized that there was no way my little miss and I could eat all of them by ourselves. So I had to come up with a tasty treat that we could share.  Luckily I had a couple cousins coming to visit plus my grandparents. And they would be the perfect guinea pigs for this.

I'll add pictures to the post another day. I made this dessert a couple weeks ago and it didn't even occur to me to use it in a post then so I didn't take any pictures when I made it. Go figure. 

Anywho... 

He's a Crafty Little Fellow

Oh man that title is a terrible pun! I should be embarrassed but at the same time I chuckled when I came up with it. 

I did say that I was going to make a return visit with my little crocheted sheep. And this is it! I finally had made the time to get him finished. Quite frankly I've been lazy about getting this guy done. I could have had him done the week after I introduced him, but I just kept putting him in the corner.
He looked rather sad in the corner despite having no face at the time. Poor little guy was just a fluffy little ball. Just sitting there oh so patiently waiting until I finally sucked it up and got him done.
And of course now I regret not getting him done sooner. Look at him! He's adorable!
And he's super soft and cuddly too boot!

Yummy In My Tummy Chocolate Cake

Chocolate cake! Who doesn't like chocolate cake?

Okay I admit I'm not a cake fan. At least not usually. But this one took me by surprise. I was once again surfing pinterest trying to find a decent chocolate cake recipe. I was actually planning to use it for cupcakes, but hey, they are technically still cake.

Finally I came across one that looked promising. And so I gave it a go. It turned out beautifully in cupcake form. Just a bit of crunch to the outside while the inside was so perfectly moist and crumbly. Because it worked so well for the cupcakes I used it again to make a cake for miss K's cake smash. And later for her birthday. And they turned out pretty darn good.

Introducing Crafts

I've been working on something the past couple weeks now. And it's not a new recipe! Nope! It's this adorable little crocheted sheep. And I wish I had pictures of him finished. But I'm still working on him so he's still in pieces. 

I found the link to the pattern here: http://curlygirlcoop.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/sheldon-sheep.html?m=1

He's pretty cute I gotta say. And I'm really looking forward to getting him done. 

I'm planning to start adding my crafts to my Facebook page too soon. But we'll see how I do with this guy and the response I get here on the blog. 

I will also do a very quick blog once I have this little guy finished.  :) 

Not Your Traditional Oatmeal Cookies

For the life of me I cannot get my dad to even try these oatmeal raisin cookies. His mind is set on the fact that cookies should not have raisins in them. However, these cookies could very well change his mind... If he ever tried one that is. 

I should mention that a good number of my recipes I have found via Pinterest. When my little munchkin was born I would spend long hours late at night searching the many, many pages of Pinterest for lack of anything better to do to keep me awake. This is one of the recipes I found. And I freaking love it!

I'm not the only one. I've had family rave about them. I think they think that I put something in them that makes them mildly addictive. I swear I didn't!

Pilot - Skor Toffee Bits Cookies

Here we go! First post of a shiny new blog. It's taken me a while to come up with how to start, and even though I've written it and rewritten it a few times I am still a little unsure.

I've gone through recipes trying to pick one for the first post. I have quite a few recipes apparently. It took a while to decide on only one. 

So here it is!