Uncategorised

Hello everyone! I decided to start some Christmas baking today and thought I would make a cheesecake. I usually use my aunt’s recipe but it was lost when she moved recently. I thought I would get a recipe from one of the many sites online.

I got out my trusty old Kitchenaid mixer that I love!

I started with a graham cracker crust.

Then I mixed all 4 packages of cream cheese with sugar.

This is where it all went wrong!
I’ve seen on  cooking shows when using eggs that they are broken in a bowl first and then poured into a mixture, however…I was in a hurry and felt like an iron chef and decided to crack them over the mixer. That’s  how one egg shell fell in the batter and was mixed up with all the wonderful cheese and sugar!
I quickly stopped the mixer and…held back the tears…all that wonderful  cream cheese, ten dollars worth!
After I regained my compsure, I proceeded to wade through the  batter and tried to pick out all the eggshells. I’m still hoping I got them all out.

Then I poured the batter into the crust.

Set upon a baking pan ( this is my old crusty trusty one)
Placed in a preheated oven for 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees

 I removed it from  the oven and let it cool and then  refrigerated overnight.
I won’t bother you with the recipe because I used a combination of two!
Suffice it to say, it was pretty close to the recipe that comes on the package of Philadelphia cream cheese.

It looks great but I hope I got all those eggshells out!

I now have 100 Followers!

I know it’s just a number but it shows that you all cared about and liked what you saw enough to take time out  to hit the follow button.  It means a lot to me and I’m very greatful to you all!

I managed to finish my Christmas decorating today and ended up in the dining room. I have a mantel in here and didn’t digress too much from my theme in the family room. I continued using greens, pinecones and some sparkle which came from lights and candles.

At one end of the dining room I have the mantel and my montauk. The montauk is a beast of a chair or as some may know it… a chair and a half! It is all down filled and is so comfy!

I added some pointsettias in white!

I continued using birch as well and I made one of my little logs into a candle holder in the same way I did with my driftwood candle holder. The tutorial for that is here.http://www.kimpowerstyle.com/driftwood-candle-holder-tutoria/

I added this lovely planter with greens, birch logs, pinecones and battery operated lights.

I have my harvest table in the middle of the room. I just draped it in a red toile PB table runner and placed some candles on it with a bit of greenery.

At the other end of the room, I have two armoires that I use for storage as my kitchen is really small and lacks a lot of space. You can see where I finally put my coffee filter wreath! I love draping greenery everywhere.

These are my paper whites in all their glory!

My tree is in the family room. It’s all in whites, creams and some pale gold. I don’t know if you can see but I used a burlap bow as a tree topper. I usually don’t put one on.

I went for a walk yesterday in the park and manged to find all kinds of birch bark on the ground. It was everywhere! (No trees were harmed in the making of this candle craft)lol.

 

I simply wrapped the birch bark around the candles and attached with push pins.

Here is the tree all lit up.

I wanted to show you the tree unlit as it looks so pretty with the green and white. I love it both ways!

These little buckets flanked my fireplace in the family room which I photographed in my mantel post.

I draped both windows in a cedar mixed garland.

I hope you all enjoyed some more Christmas decorating!

I’ll be partying with these ladies this week…

When we first started our tradition, I would design my own house, bake it and we would put it together with the myriad of candies we would buy from the bulk store.
Once I went back to school and then to work I discovered these wonderful little kits with everything included!  So easy!

We’ve managed to keep the tradition alive (unlike our annual tree cutting which ended last Christmas which I won’t go into now because I  may start sobbing.)
So…even though my daughters are in their twenties they managed to make one of these…

Isn’t it lovely? Complete with accompanying laughter, candy- eating -with -me- yelling- at -them- not- to and cat -playing -with -tiny- ball- candy!

I think they did a wonderful job! (much better than my girlfriend’s and my attempt a couple weeks ago with two kits of our own!)

Thanks for joining me today and yes even when they’re older you still display their artwork like it’s the greatest creation ever!

Hello everyone!
We’ve seen them all over blogland lately…those wonderful coffee filter wreaths. They’ve come in different colours, some coffee stained, some tea stained, some au naturel and I love them all!
I just had to make my own. I don’t know if I did something wrong but this little gal took me
over 3 hours to make!
I used a green foam base, don’t know how many filters I used as I didn’t count! And a glue gun. It’s the first time I’ve used in a glue gun in years! And I have the burns to prove it!

I’ve been wondering where I should put it. It was a toss up between the breakfast nook and over the dining room mantel.

Here she is

She is so pretty that she looks good just resting on the table…

or on the wainscotting…

I took pics with the lights on and off.

The weather has been rainy and  it was very dark, not the best for taking pics, but my little point and shoot did ok. (Hoping for something a little better under the Christmas Tree this year! Fingers crossed)

I flanked the fireplace with these two little buckets. I had a vintage galvanized bucket but couldn’t find another one so I bought this little guy on the left at the dollar store. I was going to cover them both in burlap but used the burlap for the bottom of my tree.

It is a winter wonderland mess but I really like it.

This wreath was the only item I bought new for the mantel. It was $16.00, I had everything else. I just loved the sparkle, which doesn’t show well in the pics.

I bought these little battery operated lights that fit so nicely into my buckets. It looks really magical at night when they are lit up.

I kept my previous chairs with it. The chairs that came with the set need some work that I don’t have time to do just yet!

It is so comfy and cozy in there now! So much roomier with the round table than with my little harvest table.

In my last post I showed you a mercury glass lamp from PB that I fell for but couldn’t afford.

I found a pair of these at value village.

Although not mercury glass. It is very similiar and I fell for them.

 

They are quite large! 
I used my old shades on them for now and have been looking for new linen shades.

Here is a little peek at my topiary outside the sliding glass doors in the breakfast nook
(Just thought I’d throw it in!)

Really enjoying my new table!

This is a pic from anthro. Don’t you like their little cedar garland with the spoons?

I thought it was a cute idea myself.

I decided to make my own for my cedar garland. I bought a few little pieces of cutlery at GW.
I used  spray glue on the bottom of the utensils and then covered them with glitter like the anthro ones had.
It looks like sugar here but they really do sparkle!
I also used burlap instead of tartan as this is more in keeping with my look.

 

I even put in a couple of forks!

Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting with me today!

I’ll be partying it up with these ladies this week,

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

I hope that everyone is enjoying this festive time of year and taking time to give thanks and to share with family and friends.

I recently went to the Seasons Christmas Show and was so inspired by all the wonderful Christmas decor. I felt like a kid in a candy store!

One of my favourite things to do is decorate and redecorate and this show offered up plenty of inspiration for the season. Please take out a few minutes of your busyness, grab a cup of cocoa, find a comfy chair and  be inspired!

Loved these urns filled with greenery!

It needn’t be expensive as many of these items could be found in your yard. Some greenery, a few branches in the center, I’ve even placed green apples on sticks and placed them in my urn one year along with everything else and it looked great!

Don’t you just love this? Some simple topiaries , a plain green wreath and  just add ribbon.

Another great urn.

Isn’t this a lovely wreath? Apparently it’s made from rattan. I like the little variegated boxwood wreaths beside it too.

A few little real trees in some dirt in a box and presto! Place a few berry picks and you have a real show stopper. Love it.

I also love mixing greens into everything, my favourite is cedar branches. They looks so festive even when draped over the counter! Here they are with some lovely hydrangeas.

This little olive wood camel fits in nicely don’t you think? My hubby and I got him outside of Jerusalem as a keepsake after our camel ride.

Love the sparkle with the old linen. I just began making some new stockings. This one is almost finished. They are a little large… but I fill them up!

Yep, I think this is where I’m going…