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Thursday, December 30, 2010

So, now that Christmas is over ….

…. I can go back to my “regular scheduled programming” and carry on with doing things around the house.

 

Halloween and Christmas sort of happened in mid-home improvement flow and was put on hold.

 

We still have the other bathroom to finish, I’m still trying to figure out what to do with the living room shelves to turn them into sleek and functional built-ins … or at least make them look like that. I can’t quite decide if now is a good time to do that though since the living room is still the main battleground playground for the kids and a LOT of their toys! And the system I have in place right now works to keep the toys at bay and out of view at the end of the day and make it into an adult space! It might be wiser to do it once the kids are older and don’t need the living room as their main play area any more.

And I don’t know that it’s worth my effort to do it with our existing IKEA furniture. It may be cheaper and sturdier if I just went and built it all from scratch, but that makes it a MUCH larger project and would certainly necessitate a real workspace with real tools!

And the way our garage is, which is nothing short of a HUGE dumping ground for EVERYTHING, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

 

And as always we have the pressure of the weather upon us. Once it gets hot again, lots of things just can’t happen. Painting the furniture outside above 90F isn’t usually a good idea, nor is being in the non-air conditioned garage for any length of time in the 114F summer heat that we have for months at the time.

 

But there’s only so much one/ I can do, so I’ve been going in circles in my head.

 

Our major circle currently is that the one room that still needs to have the really awful, disgusting and stained original carpet pulled up and replaced is the master bedroom with the walk-in closet.

 

This however means that ALL the furniture needs to come out and go – WHERE? In fact it will mean that ALL our semi-built ins need to be cleared out AND dismantled as they don’t actually fit through the door way. The only place to put it all is in the garage. But our garage is full to the brim, and needs sorting out first. In order to sort our garage, we need to have the walk-in closet converted into our “storage” room. Can’t convert the walk-in closet into the storage room until the carpets are done. See my dilemma? *sigh*

My father is also coming to visit from Germany in Mid-March, so I am also reluctant to start tearing the house apart again before their visit!

So, I think we’ll do the bathroom first, that definitely needs doing and we have half a chance to have that finished within 2-3 weeks (famous last words?) and then I think I shall revisit the other dilemmas Confused

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I’ve also wanted to redo this area a little. Less busy, more stream lined, even though with the same elements. It’s also time to switch out a few of the photos!

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I also just realized that I never got around to posting what I did with the laundry door! I must remedy that soon! Hopefully I can find all the project photos again!

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So, with this and a very long to-do list in my head, I leave you today and wish you a very happy 2011!

I hope you will all have a delightful New Year’s eve and a great start to the year 2011!

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas – A Lot Of Did And Didn’ts

So, Christmas is over, the relatives are headed up the mountain again and I’m reminissing!

  • We did have a pretty nice and relaxed Christmas!
  • The kids did think that Christmas was magical and wonderful!
  • We did have the odd little melt-down!
  • I didn’t get to the hair dresser before Christmas and I look pretty shaggy! Short hair cuts are so much less forgiving!
  • We did eat lots of good food.
  • I did spend days making all that good food.
  • We did laugh a lot.
  • We did talk a lot!
  • I did manage to do a lot of very important and precious reconnecting with people I care about near and far over the weekend!
  • At times the living room did look like something exploded in it! The kid’s rooms still look like that!
  • The special gift for my SIL I ordered from Germany at the beginning of November didn’t get here in time.
  • My husband did have Monday off!
  • DH and I did go for Lunch to our favorite sushi place yesterday while the kiddos were with the Grans! Date lunch! Yay!
  • I did succeed a little better in not sweating the small stuff this year!
  • I did spend most of Christmas in my most comfortable leggings and I didn’t care a bit! In fact I’m still in leggings now!
  • The oven rack did collapse just before I got ready to serve Christmas dinner. But it didn’t ruin the mashed potatoes OR the roasted squash!
  • I did get a fright a couple of times when Anna put the grape lip gloss she got from Max on half of her face and it made her look just enough like she was turning blue. If you are familiar with the health problems of her first year, you’ll know this is not as far fetched as it may seem!
  • I didn’t get any “the kids pose in front of the Christmas tree in their Christmas best” photos done this year.
  • Max didn’t change out of his Christmas pjs for more than 24 hours, and that was just to change into new PJs.
  • Anna did change after 24hours - many, many, many times in fact - with her cousin and practically her entire wardrobe was on the floor. 5-year-old fashion shows take some sacrifice!
  • I didn’t get all the decorating or baking done I wanted.
  • The gluten-free Boule didn’t rise nearly as well as I had hoped for the Christmas Eve dinner, but was utterly delicious anyway and gobbled up by all in no time at all!
  • I didn’t take enough pictures or a single video – I was too busy being in the moment with the  kids! I will probably have moments in which I will regret that again!
  • I didn’t make the bed once, even with family here.
  • I  didn’t take one piece of Christmas decorartion down yet. And I won’t until the kiddos are back in school!
  • I didn’t break out in hives when the tile floor got pretty groddy and I never actually mopped it for 36 hrs. Still haven’t done all of it!
  • The kids did love their gifts and have been playing beautifully together and apart for days now!
  • I didn’t read a single blog in 5 days and shudder to think how much catching up I have to do now :)

Every year, I have all of these visions of what our Christmas  will be like in my head – usually it involves pristine decorations, magazine like food and table settings. Beautifully polished children, delighting in every moment …. I am effortlessly put together, looking good and glowing, being the perfect hostess and many pounds lighter!

Well, ok, not quite all that but you get the idea. Every year I also think that I will take lots of photos of every precious moment of the children’s absolute delight in everything that is going on!

And it never happens that way. Every year, life and reality get in the way … I don’t get everything done I wanted to, the house is not nearly as clean as I would hope, somebody/something always comes late … or too early, I am usually flushed from cooking all day (or days as it was the case this year,) with clothes that reflect the same etc. The kids whine to open the presents, or throw tantrums when they get way overtired, something  in the kitchen always goes a little wrong and some relative always exasperates another.

And I never have photos beyond the stocking opening! I am usually way too busy making it all happen or actually making the memory rather than making the video – and you know what, that’s ok too! I’d rather my children remember me opening gifts with them or decorating cookies with them, or making great food than my face stuck behind a camera!

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Our Christmas was great! Life might have gotten in the way, but it was US and it was real and it was wonderful! There was a whole lot that didn’t happen, but all that DID happen was memorable and I am OK with it all! And very grateful! And happy!

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So, how imperfectly perfect was your Christmas weekend?

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Monday, December 20, 2010

Make Your Own Pressed Sugar Decorations

Pressed sugar decorations you can make yourself! It’s really quite easy once you know how and your possibilities are endless!

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I went with snowflakes only this time around, but you  can go with any shape your like. Use candy molds you already have on hand or, if you’re cheap like me, save the plastic inserts from the kid’s advent calendar and use those Smile

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These are not just for Christmas either, you can use this method to create your own edible sugar decorations for cakes, cookies, cupcakes or as fancy sugar “cubes” as a special touch for sweetening festive drinks all year round!

 

You will need:

2 cups granulated sugar (finer granules like castor sugar tend to work better for finer details)
4 tsp or so of Water
1/2 tsp Meringue powder
Food coloring (optional)

 

First off, I prefer to use a spray bottle to add the water. I mix up the meringue powder and the sugar in a bowl, then I give it a couple of sprays and work it into the sugar, either by hand or with a fork. Then repeat the sprays until there is the right consistency. I just find that I have more control with a spray bottle and need to work the sugar much less than if I used actual teaspoon drops.

 

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The sugar mix needs to feel moistened and pack like damp sand. Just a bit more than brown sugar packs into a cup!

 

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Keep mixture covered with a damp cloth as you work.

You can color your decorations. If you just want to tint them you can just use liquid food coloring, but remember to reduce the amount of water you’re using. If you want a really deep color I would recommend powdered food coloring, or the pastes as you would need way too much of the liquid to get a dark shade and then your consistency is off. Tinted sugar makes really pretty molded decorations for cakes and cupcakes.

If you are using advent calendar inserts, cut each mold individually as they are easier to handle that way.

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To make sugar molds, pack the sugar mixture into mold as firmly as possible. Pressing everything in really hard and packing it as tight as possible is really key here. Otherwise your sugar creations will fall apart really easily once dried!

PC206305[1] {Please ignore my food color stained fingertips/nails Tongue out}

You might want to brush the mold with some corn starch to prevent sticking if you are going to use the same mold over and over.

You don’t even need anything too fancy. consider plain molds too, I will show you how to “fancy them up” with the help of a tooth pick!

 

Remove excess sugar with a spatula or knife, so the top is even with edge of mold.

Unmold sugar at once by placing a piece of cardboard over the mold.

Then turn the mold and cardboard upside down and lift mold off releasing sugar shape.

 

If you are happy with your shape, you can just dry it as it is. If you want to “fancy them up” a little, you can do so by carefully “pushing” the sugar around with a tooth pick. This part works a whole lot better with the finer granulated sugar!

 

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Let dry 8-10 hours or in 200 degree oven for 15 - 20 min.

I generally just let them dry overnight. They get pretty sturdy that way!

Around here the air is VERY dry though, so use your judgment if your climate is different!

 

Store in a dry and cool place. Place tissue paper or cardboard between layers of sugar shapes.

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These would also make really sweet (pun intended) Christmas gifts, packed in cute little cellophane bags – either for the tea or coffee lover in your life or the baker and cake decorator!

Or you can make a little hole with a toothpick, string them onto some clear fishing line and use them as ornaments for any holiday occasion!

You could even go further and decorate larger ones with colored royal icing and a fine tip.

Lots of ways to use these!

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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Our “we don’t have a fireplace” Mantle

Ahhh, the long awaited “Mantle” has arrived!

We have this piece of wall  that doesn’t really serve much of a purpose, other than keeping the refrigerator in the kitchen.

Before decorating I just had a wall mirror there. We used to have a little bench and hooks there for the kid’s clothing and bags before we had a mud room. I’m much happier having all that mess in the mud room and not in the walkway between the kitchen/dining room and the living room. But this wall is so bare now. And since it is part of our “walk way” from living room to dining room/kitchen, I can’t really have much there or anything that protrudes too much!

We don’t have a fire place, nor do we actually want one, but I sure would like to have the mantle that comes with fire places to decorate seasonally. So for the longest time I was on the hunt for a mantle ledge/shelf that would fit that space, without being so shallow that I can’t decorate it – or stick out so much that it would be visually disturbing! Or well a hazard for the kids. Or cost a fortune! NOT an easy task I tell you!

So eventually I found somebody on Etsy who makes these shelves to measure!

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Gorgeous right? Unfortunately it took a bit longer to arrive than anticipated, so everything else got decorated before the mantle.

Now before I show you what I did to our mantle, let me introduce you to a very handy little thing! Especially handy when decorating a space with fragile things where people keep on walking by, children are running and toys will be wielded: Museum Gel!! Love that stuff for various reasons! It works on any clean, smooth, finished surface.

It’s a clear gel. You take a little of it, roll it into a ball and stick it to the bottom of your fragile stuff. Then you place the fragile thing where ever you want it on the  shelf and it will bond with the surface. No more accidental knocking over and all that! No little tugs from toddlers causing disaster … no dusting accidents for your nick knacks.

If you want to remove the item, you just give it a little twist and the bond is instantly broken and you can just peel the gel off your item! I use this stuff all over the house and one of those jars goes a really long way!

If you have unfinished wood however, the museum gel won’t work very well. I use removable Glue Dotsfor those occasions.

But I digress!

Here’s the finished mantle! As you can see I continued with the sparkly, silver, glass and frosty theme I also have for the Christmas Tree this year!

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And here’s what I did:

1.) The mirror and the wreath are from Target. I wanted a real sparkly mirror there anyway and the one I had there before was a little on the rustic side.

I just added some ribbon to the wreath and hung it from the mirror.

 

2.) The tutorial for the little votive candle holders is here.

 

3.) I got the bauble garland from Crate and Barrel and the branches from Michaels. The glass vase is from the dollar store.

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I might still “frost” the branches though. I keep on wanting to sparkle them up with the german glass glitter to simulate frost, like I did here:

PC0160862[1]When filling a vase or other transparent vessel with something, it is always advisable to insert another container inside, so the filling can be sandwiched between two containers.

This enables you to take the flowers/branches out without the whole display collapsing on you every time.

Since mine is filled with a glass garland, ie very fragile, ie no give at all, I opted for something else. I took a piece of acetate paper, cut it to a rectangular shap to fit the vase, and made a tube secured with a bit of tape. Then I wound the bauble garland around that, inserted the lot in the vase and THEN added the branches!

And I was glad I did the 5 times I had to pull one or the other branch out again because it didn’t look just right Open-mouthed

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4.) The rhinestone sparkly snowflakes on the wall are scrapbook stickers I got from Hobby Lobby on sale. They just peel off the wall and mirror and from what I have found, they probably stick again as long as I don’t get them dusty!

 

6.) I wound the wire bead garland around everything on the shelf. Also much easier when the museum gel is keeping things in place!

 

7.) Since we don’t have a real mantle, I didn’t want the shelf to have to take the weight of the stockings (once filled), so I dug out the stocking stand! The feet are adjustable and right now I have it all pretty flush to the wall, but once the stockings are filled I will turn them in a little more to make it a really sturdy stand! Those stands are a great alternative to hooks!

I just wound an artificial garland and a sparkle garland through the top of the stand to decorate it a little more! Then my kids stuck in a few more branches of this and that to add their own touch Smile

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Seems my displays change daily – courtesy of 5-year-old decorating style. Every day I find new additions or alterations made to the various decoration areas in the house.

Yesterday evening I found a frighteningly real looking little toy rat hanging in the Christmas tree!

 

8.) The mirrored and silver ball Christmas tree are from years ago. The silver one is from Target I think but I might be wrong. The mirrored one I made myself with an old mirror and some left over grout.

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9.) I dropped a few of aquabrites into the display, so at night time I can just push their little buttons and light it all up a bit.

{insert night time photo here once I have one!}

10.) Here’s the tutorial for the snowball.

 

11.) For the “center” piece I used one of our Rosenthal plates, imported my PC166281[1]

12.) The little gift ornament is made from left over mirror tiles and some white ribbon.

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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Printable Mini Calendars and Seasonal Items Sale

I want to introduce you to some fun little items I just put in my store: Printable Mini Calendars!

They make for a great holiday gifts for family, friends, teachers, neighbors and co-workers!
Buy it one time and print again and again!
This pack contains PDF files for easy printing,  3 pages, each 4 months to a page. I have also included an optional cover and note page.
Simply print on white, cream or colored card stock and cut.

 

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Or print on magnetic paper to create fridge clings! Or how about full sheet labels to create calendar stickers for file folders, books, journals etc Or use textured card stock for a special touch!

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Or clip it onto twine, or string, or ribbon with a clothespins for a super cute, decorative and useful gift. Or reduce the print size to make a tiny match box calendar! The possibilities are endless!

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You have several style to choose from.

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This one has 3 pages of months for every letter from A-Z, so you can personalize the monograms for every person on your list!

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With the quarter foil one you can even use different colored card stock!

I hope you like these mini printable calendars and you’ll check them out in the store. All of them are currently 29% OFF!

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And don’t forget, I still have the Tree Masks on sale right now at 20% OFF:

 

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As well as the Holiday Printable Favor/Ornament Boxes at 16% OFF:

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And my 2010 Christmas Cards at 42% OFF:

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Have a wonderful day everyone!

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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

New Winter/Christmas Tree Masks

I just put this new pack of whimsical Winter and Christmas trees is ideal for adorning your seasonal pages, cards or gift tags!

You can either use the trees as they are or clip your photos and/or background papers for a stunning effect! Or apply your favorite style to the tree!

 

30% OFF right now! Don’t miss it!

Discount ends on Monday, Dec 13th, 2010

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Please go to the product listing for a closer look as I have  a close up preview there!

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Super Easy, Super Moist Coconut Macaroons

I admit it, I’m a bit of a Macaroon snob. I just don’t like them much when they aren’t really moist inside. The challenge is always to get them to stay moist beyond that first hour out of the oven with other recipes.
Years ago I stumbled upon this recipe and we’ve enjoyed super moist macaroons ever since! And they are the easiest to make too – gotta love that!
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For the basic recipe you need only 3 things!

Ingredients:
- 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk (for german readers: Baerenmarke Milchmaedchen in der Dose)
- 13 oz of desiccated coconut (also called coconut powder sometimes, even though it looks nothing like powder) If you can only get shredded coconut, that works too, you will however need closer to 15-16 oz.
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

I like to dip our macaroons in chocolate once they are baked, so here are the optional ingredients for that:
1 large bar of chocolate (any flavor or brand you like)
1/4 tsp coconut oil (optional)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Add the sweetened condensed milk, the coconut and the vanilla extract in a mixer bowl and combine thoroughly with the paddle attachment.
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Let it sit for 5 minutes. Then come back and gage the consistency. If you scoop some out, can you easily form it into a ball and does it hold it’s shape without looking crumbly or falling flat? Then you are right on!
If it seems a little wet, add a little more coconut, like 1 tbsp at the time, mixing in between.
Scoop them onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
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You will know when they are done when you see the edges just catching some color on top and the bottoms are golden brown.
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Let them cool on a cooling rack.
Melt the chocolate and the coconut oil.
Dip the bottoms of the macaroons into the chocolate and let the excess drip off.
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Once all bottoms are dipped, dip a fork in the remaining chocolate and lightly drizzle chocolate over all the macaroons. Long strokes help.
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Let the chocolate set and store the coconut macaroons in a cookie tin.
This recipe makes 20 large ones (as in regular ice cream scoop size) or 34 small scoop size macaroons.
Enjoy!

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