holiday kisses

No mistletoe involved, I decided to try and make these amazing peanut butter cookies my sister makes every year at Christmas time. I was so lucky as to find a hershey add in the holiday issue of Good Housekeeping, and it was for hershey kisses peanut butter blossom cookies. I was like "omg - those are the cookies i love". Here is my attempt to make them.





First I had to remove all the prettyful wrappers. Easily done with only one casualty along the way. So much chocolate really is tempting.

Then you need to mix the ingredients in a big bowl. (See the recipe below). Peanut Butter smells so dang good, but I resisted tasting the dough, knowing how good these cookies are when finished.

Then, roll into one inch balls. Then roll those in sugar. Yum. I do love rolling cookiedough balls in sugar.

Then bake. After 8 - 10 minutes ( don't be fooled and think they're not cooked. Overcooked peanut butter cookies get hard) remove from oven. Now kiss each cookie...with a chocolate kiss, and let cool. Then indulge all you freakin' want!

Delightfuly Delicious Hrsheys Kisses Peanut Butter Blossoms Recipe

48 hershey's kisses (I used milk chocolate)

1/2 c shortening

3/4 c peanut butter

1/3 c. granulated sugar

1/3 c. brown sugar

1 egg

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

granulated sugar (for rolling)

1. Heat oven to 375 F. Remove wrappers from chocolates.

2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl. Add granulated sugar and brown sugars; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into mixture.

3. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate into center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes about 4 dozen.

See more at www.kissescookies.com

quick holiday centerpieces

So my Mum was in charge of a christmas dinner at church, and she mentioned that she needed some centerpieces for the tables. The budget for decor was really small, so she asked if I could help her find/make something pretty and stick within the budget.

I was excited by the challenge, and immediately rummaged through our craft room for supplies. I found a collection of these great, deep red baskets. I also found some large bunches of fake poinsetta. The perfect foundation.

We then took a quick trip to the dollar store to see what I could find to go with this. I bought a floral block, a bouquet of sparkly mini pears, a package of holly berries, and 3 pretty gold wire reindeer. All this for $6.00, four dollars under buget.

I took my supplies home, snipped, arranged and voila, lovely centerpieces! What do you think? I've got lots of supplies left over too, so I'm going to make more holiday decorations. Hopefully it inspires you.

delightful dozen

After seeing the cards I had created on Monday, I saw that look of "I want some" in my Mum's eyes. So on Tuesday I set down to work making her a dozen of her own individual cards.

I had six pretty sheets of paper, so I did two of each. I put my new stamps and punches to work again, and was quite pleased with the result. So was Mum. She said she couldn't pick a favourite, that she liked them all. But I'm slightly more baised than that, the purple one in the bottom set is my fav, with its sweet little bow and scalloped edges.

So tell me, which one is Your favourite and you'll be entered to win 6 handmade greeting cards just for you! Sent express just in time for you to hand them out to your friends & family!! (see yesterday's blog for more info on the contest!)

going card crazy

This past Saturday, we had an activity at church where we put together these five gorgeous christmas cards. My very talented friend Natalie designed the poinsetta, tree, and snowflake one, while I design the argyle and the one with the bow. Everyone had a good time remaking these cards for themselves. These cards were just the beginning...

On Sunday I designed these sweet birthday cards. I'm so hooked on card making right now. Natalie has inspired me to use more than just paper and stamps for my cards, I've started using ribbons, flowers, brads and buttons. I even bought some fancy new Martha Stewart punches. (thank goodness for Michael's coupon which made the punches half price for me!).

On Monday after going to Value Village for the 50% off sale, I could not resist stopping in at Michael's. I was so close....And I saw these adorable Christmas stamps in the $1.50 bin, and well...I bought five. And of course I could not wait to use them sooooo...

I proceeded to make more Christmas cards. I was really pleased with how these ones turned out, and I felt quite proud to have done them all on my own. Let me know which Christmas card is YOUR favourite, and you'll be entered to win a set of 6 handmade greetings cards. The draw closes Wednesday, November 25th, and the prize will be shipped express on the 26th so you'll get them just in time to hand them out to friends & family!!

thrifty tuesday

Yesterday was a good day for thrifting. Value Village was having a 50% off sale all day. So naturally, I had to go and see if I could wrangle any brilliant finds from the racks. The store was absolutely packed, so my friend and I split to shop in our sections (she had to look at maternity clothes), and we shopped with intent.

We each found a handful of things, waited in the line to get a dressing room, tried them on, and we both got lucky. While she found herself some practical pants, I walked away with three stellar dresses!

The first one is actually cheetah print, with a hankerchief hem and a sweet ribbon. I wasn't sure I could pull off the animal print, but, I fell in love with it once I saw it on. The second dress is black with white polka dots. Its so swooshy and has an asymetrical hem. It has a matching belt, but when I do wear it, I think I'll swap the belt for something with colour. And lastly, an unworn black shift dress. So perfect for the upcoming holidays, and the possibilities to modify it are endless. I'm going to put my thinking cap on and see what embellishments I can add to make this dress my own. And all of these, half price! What a thrifting extravaganza indeed.

I also picked up the Value Village coupon calendar, and will be sure to post what I buy each month with my coupon. Happy thrifting everyone!

french twist

I have always thought there was something so elegant about the french twist. Its like the perfect updo, and you can't see any unsightly elastics, pins or clips. I've tried it many times over the past ten years, with varying lengths of hair, and never once could I get it to work for me. I would buy hairstyle magazines and follow the directions to the 't', but to no avail. My hair would just unravel and fall down. On Sunday I solved the mystery of my failure. I had always used bobby pins, which apparently are very different from hair pins. As seen in the picture, hair pins are rounded and don't press shut firmly like a bobby pin.



Well...They worked like a charm! My hair was wet, I twisted it up, used these new 'hair pins' which I had bought and lo and behold, a french twist that lasted all day. I was so amazed I had to post about it. In case anyone else is wondering how to get their hairstyles to stay in place, and bobby pins aren't doing the trick...Go and buy some hair pins in your hair colour. They're magic I tell you. I'm probably going to have my hair up like this on a regular basis for the next little while, just because I am so enamoured with it. So here is a shot of how it looks when I do it (practice will make perfect, I'm sure).



Leave a comment on how you think it looks, or any tricks you might have to make french twists (or any great hairstyle) look good and stay in. Also, be sure to vote in the poll, and leave a comment on the November 12th post, to be entered into Daisy's Goodie Giveaway to win some free doggy stuff.

Cheers.

Daisy's Goodie Giveaway!

In celebration of November being the month in which I adopted Daisy from the local shelter, and also the month of her birthday, we wanted to extend the celebration to our blog readers. As I have been in scrapbook mode lately, Daisy's album is now complete too, but I've got so many stickers left over, I thought I'd share them. I also made some pretty stamped note cards, and sewed some sweet bandanas. Daisy is seen above, modelling the medium size. And I picked up this sweet pocket puppy calendar for 2010. So how can you win these goodies? Simply leave a reply here on the blog and tell me a little bit about Your four legged friend!! Leave an email address where you can be reached and your name will be entered in the draw which will take place on November 30th, Daisy's third birthday!




Good luck, and also, remember to vote in the blog poll, it helps me know what you're interested in!!


cheers.