Its' begining to look a lot like Christmas...in my kitchen!

I love baking.
And Christmas baking is the best. Because it allows me to use my passion to celebtate the birth of our Savior.

I've made Paula Dean's Ooey Gooey Buter Cookies for the cookie exchange at work and got some tasty goodies in return, including mini-gobs and caramel apple oatmeal cookies the size of my FACE.

Saturday night I made these super-cute reindeer cupcakes with red hots and pretzels:

 

And now I'm off to make a confetti cake!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....at work!

I work at a fabulous place owned by a really great Christian man. We had a door decorating contest between the four departments. My department went with a gingerbread house....and we tied for first place. Check it out

 

This is our gingerbread house! Its decorated with real candy and snacks.

 

Inside we set a Christmas scene, complete with a fire with real wood!

If you peek in the window you will see our family portrait that hangs above the fireplace.

'Twas The Night of Christmas

Last night was my girls' night in "Favorite Things" Christmas Party. We hada great time and I'll share more details about the party in my next post. But for now I want to share a little poem that I wrote to include in the favor bag.

‘Twas the Night Of Christmas

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

‘Twas the night of Christmas and all through the house,

 all the creatures were reverent, even the mouse.
 The baby was swaddled and tucked in with care,
 and the angels rejoiced that the Christ-child was now there.

A long journey it had been,

from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
On the back of a little old donkey, slowly rode Mary.
Though a virgin, the Son of Man, she did carry.

She was soon due,

but the rooms available were few.

The only refuge to be found was with the animals and hay.

The sign of a star, hung high in the sky, gave the objects below the luster of midday.

The shepherds traveled far from their beds,
while visions of angels and a Savior, danced in their heads.

The wise men also journeyed from afar,

sent out by King Herod, they followed the star.

Out on the street, there arose such a clatter,

Joseph sprang from his watch to see what was the matter.
The shepherds and Magi arrived to worship the newborn King.
Gifts of myrrh, frankincense, and gold, they did bring.

 

They played their harps and sang   
praises that proclaimed His mighty name.
Then the shepherds set out again,
to spread the good news to other men.

 

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Pretty Pots

My mother is an avid gardner so for Christmas I thought it would be nice to make her some pretty pots. I found inspiration on Pinterest. I got the idea HERE, and the below picture is  one of her examples.

I bought pots in three different sizes and sprayed them inside and out with clear acrylic sealer so that the pots can be used outdoors. I started with the smallest post and used outdoor modpode to glue the fabric on. I then pleated the fabic at the tops and bottoms of the pots so that it would lay flat. I mopodged the completed pots to make the fabric hard and water resistant. I also made sure that the pots' drainage holes remained uncovered.  I think they turned out cute!

 

The smallest pot was the hardest for me because there was so  much  extra fabric and it was causing what was glued down to wrinke. The second one I sat in my lap and rolled the fabric aorund it on a diagonal. I ran out of fabric 2about 3 centimeters early so I just cut a strip out of th extra fabric and overlapped it. For the third pot, I tried sittong it on the table. I modpodged a section and then wrapped the fabric, and went around section by section. This seemed to work the best. at the end I cut off  the surplus fabric at the top and then what was left around the inside of the pot. By the time I'd done the third pot I'd really gotten the hand of it and wished I had more pots to do!

Hershey Here We Come! Yum!

We went to Hershey this weekend for our anniversary getaway (although our anniversary isn't technically for a couple more  weeks). We took a tour of the chocolate factory, participated in a marketing taste test and watched a Hershey Bear's Hockey Game. Basically, we had a blast.

 

 

 

 

All of the  yummy candy!

 

The Hershey Cows

Making the candy...

Packaging the candy

All your favorites

Hardening the chocolate

Bird;s eye view of the bakery!

A Dessert I Don't Have To Feel Bad About

Craving something sweet?

Want something a little more balanced than a candy bar or half gallon of moose tracks doused in chocolate fudge and topped with homemade whipped cream?

Have you ever had Yoplaits whipped yogurt?

Okay, now stick one in the freezer until its the consistency of ice cream. I love the strawberry and chocolate with this.

Melt 1-2 Tbsp of peanut butter.

Chisel frozen yogurt of the cup and dump into a bowl. Top with a sliced banana, half of a crumbled granola bar (nature valley crunchy are best for this) and the melted peanut butter. You could also sub actual granola for the bar but thats all I had on hand.

You have a crunchy, sweet and salty dessert that is packe with fruit, dairy and protein.

Yeah I know, its still got a good bit of sugar  (from the flavored yogurt, pb and granola bar) but this is a DESSERT. Dessert without sugar is just dert. And you know thats what it tastes like too- DIRT.

Enjoy!

You Know Whats HARD?

Have you seen the title of my blog?

Theres a lot of truth in that I'm discovering.

Some friends and I are doing an 8 Week Get Healthy Challenge. I can eat the fruits and veggies- I love them. I can make myself do pilates and aerobis because in the long run I love them. I can drink half my body weight, in ounces in water. Because thats all I drink most days.

But to only eat sweets one day a week?!!!

ARE YOU INSANE?

My body runs on chocolate!
My blood may be paritally chocolate.
Thats why my eye are brown.

 Unless you ask my husband, he may give  you a slightly different reason.

Last week was week 1 of this makerachelwannajumpoffabridgeintoariverofchocolate thing we're calling a "challenge". And I couldn't do it. I couldn't eat chocolate just one day a week.

For goodness sakes I've had 3 different chocolate cookies today!

So Week 2 rolled around and I decided "cold turkey" is not for me. I want to be healthy and eat less junk. (Don't tell the Reese's I said that) so I am "weaning" myself off of what has become my "self-medication". My husband chews tobacco, I pop M&Ms like thier Vicadian.

Anywho, this week I'm allowed chocolate everyother day. And next week every, 2 days. Week4 every 3 days, and so on until I reach the point where I can go with eating it just once a week  or (gasp) not at all.

PRAY FOR ME.

(And my husband's sanity)


PS: Where have I been? I've been spending my writing time working on a book. I hope to post more often because I MISS YA'LL. (NO, I will not say you'ns. WILL NOT)

Devilishly Cute!

I have quite a few crafty friends. They have much more talent than I do, which is why a few of them have opened Etsy shops. One of my particular favorites is Shelly's shop, Devilishly Cute Designs.

I've known Shelly for a few years and she has helped me and gifted me with quite a few wonderful handmade things. She helped me do many of the decorations for my wedding.

One year on my birthday, she gave me a lovely bright red scarf with a green R on it. The scarf is nice and thick and warm and I get complements on it whenever I go out. Its so beautiful!



Most recently, she gifted me with a lovely, long, turqouise scarf. She knitted this scarf in front of me, but kept telling me it was for another friend of hers. I was mooning over this scarf. It was so pretty and sparkly and it matched my sweater just fine. And what do you know, she gave it to me for Christmas. I was so happy. 
And it happens to look a lot like this one, for sale in her Etsy shop!

She's also got some great wreaths, hair clips, and hats for sale. Go check her out and stock up goodies for gifts! Her headband holders are flying off the virtual shelf!