What's New...

I'll be honest. I haven't had the motivation to blog. I've been busy at home creating. Cooking, baking, making jam, craft projects. But every time I think about doing a blog post, I get overwhelmed.

If I want to take pictures of the food or craft project, I need to think about how I want the finished picture to look. Then get the props out and decide if I want to take the pictures during Miette's nap or if I would rather do laundry, nothing or take a nap myself.

My computer isn't working at its peak so its more of an ordeal to turn it on, upload the pictures, edit them then think of what to write! And when I have a little more time at night I have more decisions about what to make for dinner, cleaning up the dishes, hanging with the husband and how to spend the rest of my child-free evening.

So, I guess at this stage in my life that my blogging with be infrequent. But I'll still try to get on every once in awhile to share a bit of my life.

What's new with me? Well, I have a new addiction. Making homemade jam. My first batch was a strawberry-balsamic jam and it was so amazing I had to try others. This summer in addition to the strawberry-balsamic I also made triple berry and peach-raspberry. I gave so many jars away that my stash was down to only one jar of each! So, I started making some Fall jams. Apple, pear, plum spiced jam, pear-raspberry and pear-orange marmalade are my recent concoctions. And they are all amazing!

My new fall wreath.

I spend a lot of time with this wonderful little girl.

Mini cake donuts. On top of chocolate cupcakes with mocha frosting. Delicious!

This year, I decided to make Miette's Halloween costume. Inspiration from Pinterest, of course. I love how it turned out!

Miette didn't want to wear the mask but I think she looked just as cute without it.


This kid LOVED trick-or-treating. Seriously. She was running down the street and saying "candy" over and over again.
Family pumpkins. My first pumpkin carving, ever. I carved both owls and Brian carved the funny face. It was so much fun.
November 1st. Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. I can't wait!

Sewing: Messenger-style Bag

The other day I went for a walk with Miette. Just around the block. And as I started gathering my phone, tissue, keys (just the necessities) I realized I needed some small bag to carry these things. Not my big diaper bag. Not my purse. Something that I could throw over my shoulder and have both hands free.

So while we were walking, I designed this bag. I came home that night and cut all the fabric then sewed the next morning.


It's the perfect size and I just love how it turned out. There are a few things I would change next time around but for now this is just perfect for our walks around the block!



Well, I'm off to stuff some cloth diapers! Happy Thursday!

Decorating: Kitchen Inspiration

Decorating. Does anyone else have trouble committing to a particular color or design for your house? For some reason, I've just never felt confident enough to officially coordinate and decorate our house. We have lived in our house for 10 years and I am just now starting to decorate! And I have to say that Pinterest was a big help to me. I have a lot of gray in the house as well as orange but I wanted to incorporate other colors.
I saw this inspiration photo and color chart on Pinterest and loved the color combination. I went to the paint section at Lowe's to find some color chips that matched as well as a few other complimentary colors. This way I don't have to stick with just one or two colors.

I'm planning to make some curtains, a cake stand to hold my dish soap, painted mason jars for the dish soap (both inspired by things I saw on Pinterest), pillow covers, potholders and who knows what else!

To start, I incorporated some colored cookbooks into a corner of my kitchen topped with a pedestal to hold fruit. Oh, and an adorable owl.


And the second project was to cover a few coffee cans (these have been sitting around my house just waiting for me to decide what to make with them). Instead of one large container to hold all my utensils, I divided them up into three and it is so much easier to find what I am looking for!

I took a few empty coffee canisters and covered them with craft paper, added a few other embelishments and voila! New utensil holders.


I love how they turned out and if I get tired of the patterns I can easily change them out! Now onto the next project...

Creating the Sugar. Blog Sugar 2011.

(photo by Ruthanne Photography)

(photo by Megan of Fairly Fabulous)

My kitchen is finally clean, the dishes are done, the oven is ready for its next job. I'm still finding sprinkles here and there (those little guys are hard to sweep up!) and decompressing from a busy weekend.

In January, Rachel asked if I would be interested in making desserts for the third Blog Sugar and I said absolutely! Immediately, I knew what a few of the desserts would be but it took me a few more months to figure out the rest. I wanted to have variety and to have something for everyone. A little chocolate, a little citrus, an old fashioned treat, and something new. Oh, and I also wanted to coordinate with the color scheme. Orange and pink!

(photo by Ruthanne Photography)
(l to r: Andrea, Rachel & Jen)

So on Sunday, I packed up my car and drove to Westminster to set up the dessert table for Blog Sugar, which was organized by my good friend Rachel as well as Jen and Andrea. I am in awe of what they put together.

(photo by Ruthanne Photography)

Laura and Erica from Proost Events did a fabulous job on the design and decorating! Almost everything was hand made. Oversize orange and pink balloons adorned with decorations, hand painted canvases with pink and white stripes, beautiful flowers, it was perfect.

Just under 200 women (and a few men) came out on Sunday to hear speakers, socialize, meet new friends, enjoy delicious food (and desserts) and be encouraged. I was so busy running around and putting the finishing touches on the desserts that I didn't have a chance to hear the speakers during the breakout sessions. Fortunately, I was able to hear from the keynote speaker, Meg, and that was wonderful.


Sometimes I can be quite shy, well most times. So I sort of stayed in my comfort zone the majority of the day. I wish I had been a bit more outgoing and talked to more people, but I was so happy to meet a few of my "online" friends in real life!

(photo by Megan of Fairly Fabulous)

My friend Mary and I were manning the cotton candy machine and it was so much fun to see everyone enjoy those pretty pink swirls of cotton candy. And it is way more difficult that you think to get a picture perfect cotton candy!

(photo by Megan of Fairly Fabulous)

With the help of a few wonderful friends, we set up the dessert table and as soon as we did, pictures were being taken of all the sugar! And as soon as it was announced that dessert was served, there was a mad dash and a very long line! We had to start refilling the platters immediately and desserts were disappearing as quick as we could put them out.

Here is what I made:

Lemon curd tartlet with a cookie crust topped with a fresh raspberry
Caramel fleur de sel truffles and coconut tea ganache truffles
(photo by Mel at The Larson Lingo)

Strawberry whoopie pies rolled in sprinkles

(photo by Mel at The Larson Lingo)

Salted brown butter crispy treats dipped in white chocolate

(photo by Mel at The Larson Lingo)

Chocolate cupcakes topped with coffee frosting and a mini donut

(photo by Mel at The Larson Lingo)

If you were at Blog Sugar, I hope you enjoyed all the treats!

Note: I was so busy making sure I had everything I needed for that day and I overlooked bringing my camera! Fortunately, there were so many talented photographers taking pictures and I was able to convince a few to let me use their photos. Thanks!