Vote – Couch dilemma
So my hubby & I have been in the market for a new couch for quite some time now. We’ve put off buying once mostly because I couldn’t make up my mind of what I wanted. Now years later I’ve narrowed the search down to two! I really like the look of the upolstered couch, but am worried with babies on our future that the couch will look dirty & grungy in no time, you know will all the drool, spit up, spills, etc. Both are very similar in style and bone structure so I think it’s a matter of fabric here… tell me what you think!
Option A – Fabric couch
Option B – Leather couch
Merry Christmas
I am so excited Christmas is almost here! We can’t wait to spend our time with friends & family. Need we not forget the true meaning of Christmas. If you’ve become distracted, as I easily do in this crazy season, read the words to this all to familiar Christmas song…
- O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
- It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth.
- Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
- ‘Til He appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
- A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
- For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
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- Fall on your knees! O, hear the angels’ voices!
- O night divine, O night when Christ was born;
- O night divine, O night, O night Divine.
- Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming,
- With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
- So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
- Here come the wise men from Orient land.
- The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger;
- In all our trials born to be our friend.
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- He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger,
- Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend!
- Behold your King, Behold your King.
- Truly He taught us to love one another;
- His law is love and His gospel is peace.
- Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
- And in His name all oppression shall cease.
- Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
- Let all within us praise His holy name.
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- Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,
- His power and glory evermore proclaim.
- His power and glory evermore proclaim.
Have a Merry Christmas & I’ll be back around the new year!
Whole wheat cranberry bread
Around Thanksgiving, I bought fresh cranberries with the dream of making my own cranberry sauce. My hubby did not share in my dream and was instead dreaming of a certain cylinder shaped cranberry gelatin like mixture to grace our Thanksgiving table. Needless to say I had a whole bag of beautiful cranberries to use up! Oh the possibilities, cranberry scones, cranberry bark, cranberry cookies, cranberry butter… I could go on and on. Anyway since I wanted something relatively healthy & simple ingredients I landed on this bread recipe. It is a nice change having this for breakfast instead of cereal. My hubby said it the citrus went well with his morning coffee…
Whole Wheat Cranberry Bread
recipe from www.folkmann.ca
- 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 ½ cup sugar
- 2 ¼ t baking powder
- 1 ½ t salt
- ¾ t baking soda
- ¾ cup butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 ½ t grated orange peel
- 1 ⅛ cup orange juice
- 3 cups fresh cranberries, chopped
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into large bowl. In a separate bowl cut butter and sugar together until the mixture is crumbly. Then add to the other dry ingredients and mix together. Next, add eggs, orange peel, and orange juice all at once; stir just until mixture is evenly moist. Fold in berries and spoon mixture into greased bread pans. Bake for about 40-50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Images: sammyw
Winter Wednesday – Sale
I was in Pottery Barn the other day & noticed they have already begun marking down there holiday items…these babies $19 bucks.
Homemade snowflakes
I know this isn’t Wednesday, but I couldn’t resist, there is so many cute things for Christmas this year. Anyways I was watching the Martha Stewart Show a couple days ago I saw this clever idea. Take a look, can you guess what is being used to make these? (pun intended)
Starbucks cranberry bliss bars – copied
These bars were a big hit back in my barista days… they sold out almost every time… so when I came across a similar recipe I had to try. These were very similar to the real thing. White chocolate, dried cranberries, candied ginger… a shortbread like crust, with a creamy not to sweet frosting and a drizzle of white chocolate speckled with dried cranberries. I’ll surely be making these again. They are perfect for gift giving since it makes a full 9×13 pan and they’re plain delish…
I stole a corner…I couldn’t resist…
Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars
recipe from bakespace.com
- For shortbread base:
- 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
- 1 and 1/4 cups brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 t ground ginger
- 1 t vanilla
- 1/4 t salt
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1/4 cup minced dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup white chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup minced candied ginger
- For frosting:
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 T butter, softened
- 1 t vanilla
- For garnish:
- 2 T dried cranberries, minced
- 1/3 cup white chocolate chips, melted
Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a 9×13 pan. Beat butter and sugar together for the cake base, and add eggs/vanilla beating until fluffy. Sift together flour, ginger, and salt and then add to the butter/sugar mixture beating well. Fold in the cranberries, chocolate and ginger. Spread thick batter in pan and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden.
When cake is cooled, mix all frosting ingredients together and spread a thin layer over the cake. Immediately sprinkle with the minced cranberries. Next use a sandwich bag with a small corner cut (as your homemade pastry bag) add melted white chocolate and drizzle the chocolate over the cake. Refrigerate until chocolate is firm, cut into triangles and serve.
Given as a gift…
Images: sammyw
Dining chairs…
If you’ve been to our apartment you know we eat sitting on the floor – Jesus style. We had a table my parents graciously gave to us when we got married, but on our second move it was to large to fit in our tiny eating area, so we had to part ways with it. Well we’ve been in the market for a new dining table & chairs for about a year now. We’ve been waiting til we found something we liked, which has taken this long. My hubby is more modern & I am more traditional but clean lines & simple (think Nate Berkus). Well all this to say we’ve decided on some chairs, 1006 Navy Chairs! We both just love them. Isaac likes their modern, durable, raw material look & I adore the metal as well, very clean looking, simple, yet very homey looking almost a modern farmhouse approach. So now we have our chairs down, we just are in search of a table. We’d love to find an old old wooden table, from a flea market or something. We’re keeping our eye out & will for sure update with photos once we find ‘the one’!
Image: design within reach
Happy Birthday
My sweet dear hubby hit the big 25 this year. I’m so thankful for this boy…
Sugar roll out cookies
I have *so* many memories with these cookies. We usually just made these around Christmas growing up, but since my dad loves them so much, we’d be known to decorate these cookies for Easter, Halloween & Valentines Day. The recipe is quite simple but takes time to roll & cut each cookie. My dear mother would make a bunch of the cookies, and let us kids go to town frosting them. It is such a special memory for me & am super excited to pass the tradition on to my kiddies one day. This cookie tradition would mot be complete without the plain o’ powdered sugar/water frosting… my daddy’s favorite!
Isaac & I recently flew back home for a wedding & I had to make a batch of these for my darling daddy as a surprise. It feels like Christmas now, the cookies have been made…
Rolled Cookies
family recipe
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 t vanilla
- 2 1/2 cups sifted flour
- 1 t baking powder
- 1 t salt
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth & fluffy. Next add dry ingredients until fully combined. Cover dough & chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour. Once dough is cold & slightly hardened, flour a work surface, roll out dough and cut into shapes. Bake on parchment paper for about 6-8 minutes. Cool on wire rack completely before frosting.
ready to be baked…
cooled…
Daddy’s Favorite Frosting
- powdered sugar
- water
- food coloring
Mix powdered sugar & water together until a paste forms. It can be any consistency, but the thicker it is the better it tastes! Add a couple drops of food coloring to make it look pretty! Allow frosted cookies to dry on wax paper until completely dry, or else they will stick together…trust me I know!
trees…
snowflakes & stars…
mittens…
Images: sammyw
My findings…
Remember how I told you about my Linen’s N Things gift card? Well I finally spent it all. It was really hard for me to spend that 100 bucks – that place is expensive! I realized how cheap I really am, not only did I have a gift card but everything in the store was 30% off and still I thought the prices were outrageous! Sheesh… well here is one of my finds…
For under a buck these little babies were a just what the doctor ordered – bed skirt pins!
These little pins screw into your box spring & keep your bed skirt from shifting – awesome!
Images: sammyw
