Easy Holiday Latte

I love my Keurig, but I have found myself at Starbucks a lot more recently, for one simple reason: I am a sucker for holiday flavors. I love pumpkin spice lattes, gingerbread and caramel brûlée lattes, and peppermint mochas. In order to save a little money, I've been trying to create holiday coffees that I can make at home, without buying special syrups. 

My old stand by is an easy pumpkin spice latte. I brew a Cafe Escapes Vanilla Latte kcup and stir in a little pumpkin pie spice. My newest favorite flavor is the gingerbread cookie latte. It starts with the vanilla latte, which is a pretty good base because it is creamy, but lends itself well to adding other flavorings. Then I add some ginger and cinnamon, and before I stir it all up, I stick the end of my stir spoon in molasses, stirring the molasses and spices into the latte all at the same time. 

I'd love to hear your favorite coffee recipes, feel free to share!

I'm done!

I'm all done with my Thanksgiving baking! Now, before you go rolling your eyes and shooting me dirty looks, you should probably know that I started a couple of weeks ago and have been freezing some of it, so I didn't have a ton to make, plus I've got big plans tomorrow - lunch and "Catching Fire" with my sister, and an afternoon of cookie frosting for the big game on Saturday (go Bucks!), so the Thanksgiving stuff had to get done today.

Here's what I've made:

Pioneer woman pumpkin cinnamon rolls (honestly, the best cinnamon rolls EVER, you can find the recipe on the Pioneer Woman website)

Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins

Molasses cookies

Cranberry Chocolate chip tarts

I made cranberry chocolate chip cookie bars last year at Christmas time, and couldn't wait for Christmas to make them again. This year I used the cookie dough to make a tart and filled it with the chocolate chips and fresh cranberries. These couldn't be the more perfect mix of tart and sweet, love them!

Sewing day

Today was my favorite kind of day, a free day to spend sewing!  I'm almost done with all of the Christmas gifts that I wanted to make,  so today I let myself on a few projects that I wanted to do for myself - kind of.

We just got a Hancock fabrics dangerously close to my house, and they had a great sale yesterday, so I splurged on some fun fabric for a new tree skirt. This isn't a traditional tree skirt by any means, it's for the tree that I put up in my studio. I love this tree because I get to decorate exactly how I want! which means the entire thing is purple. Last year I didn't get to put the tree up because the base was broken, but my husband fixed it for me last night, so it is up and ready to go, with a purple ruffly tree skirt. 

I promise that I'm not the kind of person who decorates for Christmas before thanksgiving, in fact I love decorating on the day after thanksgiving, so I'll add all of the ornaments then.

I made a tree skirt for our tree in the house last year, and I definitely learned a couple of things in the process. That one was quilted, and while it turned out beautifully, I don't have that kind of time, so I went with a more simple pattern for my studio tree.. The other thing that I remembered from last year was how hard it was to make the skirt a perfect circle. I spent some time thinking about it, and let me tell you, the solution that I came up with. Is genius, if I may say so myself.

For this tree skirt I placed the fabric on top of the round table in my studio and cut using the table as a stencil. It was so easy! That worked so well that I actually had the patience to measure all of the ruffles for the border. I love how it all turned out - although I may do a little research on how to biase bind the inside circle, because that was a total disaster! Oh well, you win some, you lose some :)

Getting in the spirit

Though it may not even be thanksgiving yet, it is the Christmas season according to Starbucks. The red cups are back, and when I went to Starbucks for coffee last week, I found myself with a conundrum that could really only happen to someone like me.

You see, I have an adorable re-usable coffee sleeve that my best friend bought for me, it is bright and springy, and I have used it as a pattern for similar sleeves for fiends and family, but I always use the same one.  I like things to match - it's part of my aesthetic OCD - and when I went to put my cute pink and teal coffee sleeve on the red Christmas cup, I nearly had a mismatched meltdown. I know, only me.

Of course this meant that it was time to break down and make myself a new Christmas coffee sleeve. It turned out really cute, and I was super excited to use it, until I realized that my sleeve had bright cherry red, and the Starbucks red cups are a darker, deep red this year. I can't seem to win, but at least I got in the same seasonal theme and color family, and it is still really cute!

Happy distractions

The approach of the Christmas gift giving season makes it very difficult for me to share all of my fun crafty diy projects. Mainly because they are meant for my friends and family who may or may not read my blog. 

This year is going to be a mostly DIY holiday, due to the fact that I am on an extremely fixed income, and also because I have had ample amounts of time to craft. It has worked out really well, and I'm slightly jealous of the adorably cute things that my favorite people will be receiving. I'm also incredibly thankful for the distraction that all of this crafting has provided.

You see, I have a tendency to be a bit of a worrier. You could say that I have a little anxiety problem, but so much of what I have to worry about at the moment is completely out of my control. I have been fighting hard to keep up my faith, and having fun distractions has been a saving grace! 

Of course, I have made some cute stuff for myself, whenever I make a gift I like to make a practice one first, for a couple of reasons. #1: I want the recipient to get a really nice gift, so I try to work out the kinks on a practice project first, and #2: the stuff I make usually ends up being so ridiculously cute that I want one too. So I figure if I make the practice one for myself, everyone wins (please tell me that I'm not the only one who does this!)

So thank goodness for Christmas crafting and hopefully I can get back to work soon!

How I spent Halloween

The weather at my house was perfect for Halloween (maybe not perfect for trick or treating...) it was stormy and really windy. I probably should've watched a scary movie - although Scream is about the worst I can stomach - but I didn't. Instead I spent halloween doing two very un-halloween-ish activities. First I worked out (who works out on halloween?!), and then, I made some Christmas decorations. Yes Christmas decorations. What can I say, I had nothing else to do. 

Here's a photo of the painting that I made to hang in my kitchen this Christmas season. I think it turned out pretty good considering I NEVER paint , at least not since high school art class. Enjoy your candy-induced-day-after-halloween coma, and don't forget about Thanksgiving, which according to the calendar is the next major holiday, even though most department stores beg to differ!

      

                           

Yummy Mummy!

I told you yesterday that I LOVE Halloween. Today for lunch I made a Mummy Pizza, the recipe is from Yummy Healthy Easy and it is definitely very easy, and super quick! Enjoy your Halloween!

A little bit of control

Last week didn't go quite as I had planned. On Thursday I found out that the school I had planned on teaching at for the next 30 years will only be open for 3 more months, needless to say I've been a bit of a wreck.

Today I was ready to be in control of something again, so luckily I had a job to do that I knew I could accomplish - frosting cookies. Here are my St. Patrick's day cookies, I had to get a little creative with my cookie cutters, and I'm really impressed with how well they turned out. It's just what I needed today.

I also decided to dress up my nails a little, so I went for some light-hearted polka dots, maybe they'll be enough to make me smile a bit.

Hope you had a great St. Patrick's day!

Ah Valentine's Day

I am a romantic. A romance-novel-reading, chick-flick-loving, hopeless romantic. Needless to say, I LOVE Valentine's Day.

Now don't get me wrong, I am realistic. My husband is not the romantic type, and while he tries very hard, and is super sweet, I know better than to expect and over-the-top gesture on this particular holiday - although he has surprised me once or twice.

So on Valentine's Day I choose to share my love for all things girly and romantic. Which is exactly why I spent my Sunday watching chick flicks and baking, one giant chocolate cake and a tone of heart shaped cookies later, I am so ready for this holiday!

Oh Martha

Every time I get a new issue of Martha Stewart Living I flip through and think to myself "why am I paying for this, it's all flower arrangements and recipes that I will never make." But then, I inevitably find one beautiful gem that jumps off the page and screams "this is why you pay for this!"

This month it's this adorable, and completely do-able zip tie heart garland. I love this and will completely be making one for some reason or another. Thank you Martha.

So true!

My absolute favorite candy is Dove Promises Dark Chocolate. I really dolce dark chocolate, but the best thing about these are the quotes on the wrappers. I have been seriously craving some chocolate, and I was all set to buy the valentine version, because what is better than chocolate shaped liked hearts, so I was super bummed when they didn't have them. But it's not like I was going to not buy chocolate, so I bought the regular ones. The first quote that I got made up for the lack of lovey dovey heart shaped cuteness!

Feeling festive

We were having trouble keeping our glasses straight before lunch when I remember that my mom had these cute glass markers - we've never used them before, but the were perfect for today!

Merry Christmas to me

I hope you all enjoyed your pre-Christmas weekend, but now it's time for the fun to really start. For me, Christmas officially begins when I wake up on Christmas Eve day. The morning is traditionally filled with running around like a chicken with my head cut off, and loving every minute of it. Then towards dinner time, things slow down a bit and I get to just enjoy.

Today has been no different. I put ribs in the crock pot for dinner and made some homemade ice cream, stood in line for an hour at the bank and the post office, and finally got to pick up my Christmas gift from my husband, and may I say he was very lucky that it got here before Christmas, but somehow it always seems to work like that for him.

Now I am eating what may be the best Christmas Eve lunch that I could think of - Taco Bell, and running to Target to join the crowds and spend my gift card before Christmas :). Then I'm going home to put in one of my all time favorite Christmas movies - the Muppet Christmas carol (if I can find our VCR) and make some chocolate chip cookies, which was the only thing that my husband requested for dinner... I wonder about him sometimes...

Merry Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful couple of days!

Christmas Party Time

I'm hosting part of our annual teacher and staff Christmas party tonight! You read that right, I'm only hosting part of it. We are going to attempt a progressive dinner, so we are meeting at school for appetizers, then going to one house for soup and salad, and another home for the main course. We are going to end at my place for dessert and drinks.

I love hosting because it give me the perfect reason to scrub my house from top to bottom. Right now my house is spotless, it looks like something out of a magazine, and I love it.

The girls clearly know me well because they assigned me dessert, and I may have gone just a little overboard. I made red velvet brownies, cranberry chocolate cookie bars, molasses cookies, and pumpkin hand-pies. And of course I had to try everything, so who knows if I'll have room for all of the other courses!

Here are some photos of my cute table!

To get you in the Christmas spirit

Thanksgiving is long gone and my week has been all about getting ready for Christmas!

Last night we took the kids in my class, and their families, to the Lights Before Christmas at the Toledo Zoo. The Lights are always a magical experience, but it is so much better when you attend with kids. Not only were they in awe of the sights an sounds, they were amazed to see each other outside of school.

I didn't take too many photos, I was too busy corralling kids and parents, but I got a great shot of the famous Toledo Zoo Christmas Tree!

Christmas Cards

Yes, you read that right, Christmas Cards, as in, I just ordered this years' Christmas Cards.  Now at this point you are probably thinking something along the lines of "this girl is out of her freaking mind!" But hear me out, because I have a perfectly good reason for doing this;

It's simple really, the closer it gets to the holiday season, the more card choices are available, and i cannot for the life of me make up my mind.  I have found that when I order them in the middle of the summer, there are fewer choices, and therefore, it is far easier to decide.  There is also the fact that I took the photo that I knew I wanted to use for our Christmas Card last week, and I'm not really a patient girl, so I got right on it. Plus I got to take advantage of free shipping that Snapfish is offering at the moment.

I want to give you a sneak peak, without ruining the surprise for those of you who will eventually receive my card in the mail, so here is the design with the photo supplied by Snapfish - it's classic!

4th of July Cookies

This is what I spent my day doing - baking and frosting is my version of therapy, I get to go to that place in my head where I am totally in the zone.

I tried a couple of new things today, inspired by pinterest, Martha Stewart, and the very talented Sweet Sugarbelle, and I am super pleased with how these turned out! Happy almost 4th of July! I'm still celebrating the fact that I had time to make cookies!

Another wreath

Here's what I made today! I was feeling the Memorial Day spirit and ready for a summer decoration, and this is one that I can keep up through August (it fits the fourth of July and the county fair too).

Happy weekend!

Happy Memorial Day weekend from me and my giant bowl of pasta salad! Yum!

No worries, it's not all for me, we're going to a BBQ tonight. I hope you all enjoy your weekend plans!

Valentine's day...already?

I don't know about you, but I have fully embraced the craziness that is Valentine's day (and yes, I do realize that it is a month away, but you know me... obsessively organized...). Anyway, I spent the evening contemplating what I would create for Valentine's day this year. It all started with my hankering to bust out the cookie press that I received as a Christmas gift.

My parents had one of these, and as a kid I loved that thing, but I've always been just a bit to cheap to purchase one for myself, because I know that it would only get used a few times a year (a la all the other random kitchen gadgets that I own). I was more than overjoyed to get one as a gift, however, and Valentine's day seems like the perfect excuse to bust that baby out.

Therefore the first holiday treat on my V-day list is pink and chocolate heart spritz cookies, just like these:

From there my mind wandered to marshmallows... I know, random, but ever since my first attempt at making them, right before Christmas (and my surprise at how easy the whole process was) I have been looking forward to doing it again - this time I want to cut them with a heart shaped cookie cutter, because duh, Valentines day, just like these:

However I am leaning towards pink, and possibly on a stick, oh, and drizzled with chocolate - so much for that whole eating healthy thing...

Finally, sensing a theme here (heart shaped and gadgets that I don't use nearly often enough) I'm feeling the urge to dust off the awesome Message-in-a-cookie Cutters that I purchased from Williams Sonoma and used to create last years V-day cookies (not to mention all of our wedding favors - see picture!)