May 15, 2011

It started with cake baking.

Then it turned into cake icing.

And cake piping.

And mixing the fondant to add some funky colour.

And then cake assembling.

And stopping to pose with our creation.

Then cutting the first layer.

And the second layer.

Lastly, the third layer.

And peeking into the three tiered goodness inside.

And just because I have you here, this is how I spent my Sunday morning.

Watching Darcy play street hockey in the parking lot of Kildonan Place Shopping Center. They lost. But it was nice to be in the sunshine with friends, having brunch on the patio, and enjoying each others company.

I also couldn't post without showing you these beautiful flowers I got from my sweet sister in law for my b-day. These pictures don't do justice to how gorgeous the colour actually is, but here they are.

It's been 13 days and they still look amazing. I love waking up to fresh flowers every morning!




It all started with one batch....

....so I donned my apron,


put my recipe on my handy dandy metal note holder thing Darcy made me, (since we have a stainless steel fridge and no mementos can be magnet-ed to there I wanted a place to put cute pictures of my niece's, cards, etc. and realized it would be a perfect recipe holder for when I bake. )


admired my view,

and got to work.

An innocent evening of baking a batch of auntie Renee's 5-star chocolate chip cookies (one of Darcy's all time favorites) quickly turned into this....


Since I just bought flax I thought I might experiment and throw some ground flax in


And some whole wheat flour, who said cookies couldn't be healthier?

Well as it turns out adding flax and whole wheat flour made the cookies a little bit of a flop. But I will continue to experiment because if I recall correctly Mckmama once said "You can also use 1 Tablespoon of flaxseed meal and 3 Tablespoons of water to replace an egg in a recipe, provided you are not already using it to replace oil".

I also tried out baking on parchment paper. I have used it in the past and never really liked it. So I stopped buying it.
But most of my recipes say to use parchment paper so I figured I'd give it another try, since it was on sale at superstore anyway. Well, wasn't I pleasantly surprised.


I have now converted to parchment. so. much. easier. to. clean.

After I took these pictures I thought that this was a much better idea for my change of heart.


Since all my ingredients were out any way I may as well try something new....


Darcy said the Oreo's were hard to taste - so next time I will try more cookies or leaving bigger chunks. The meat pounder kinda got away from me : )

And since all me ingredients are STILL out I may as well make MY favorite... (even though I can't eat them yet : ) )

(not exactly the same recipe but it's pretty darn close - the only difference is I do 1/3 cup EACH of the 5 different kinds of chips)


and why not toss in some more flax seed?

And since I have made 3 different kinds of cookies I may as well use some of my new cupcake liners and make some bran muffins....



And even though I didn't use my new birthday muffin liners that I love (thanks Kels) I may as well make a batch of humming bird muffins to test them out...
.
Ok, so these never made it to the oven. It was getting late and I wanted to do some of the delivers tonight yet, so these will wait til morning. (we'll see if it works...)

Aaaaaaaand since I am baking all these for just Darcy I may as well give some to my loved ones...

Using my leftover-good-intention-but-never-got-around-to-making-gifts (did you get that?) Christmas wrapping paper

Poor penmanship and blurry I know...


Look at this nifty way to store cupcake liners. Instead of having them free floating in my cupboard they are all nicely contained in mason jars. (Are all jars mason jars? I am not even sure I know what a mason jar is!)



Have I mentioned that I love to bake?!

May 13, 2011

all things loved - may


My Shark Steam mop. I have been looking for a good steam cleaner forever and have never taken the plunge to get one. While shopping with Amber, we found one on sale and after me humming and hawing over it she told me to get it since I had been talking about getting one for years. So I gave in and purchased it. When we got back from shopping Darcy went into the office to get me my birthday present....and he pulls out none other than a shark steam mop!


My new flower ring from Pier 1


Anything Puma
Like these pants - I love that they are oldies ugly



Booking a weekend away to Fargo using MC points


Kaylee introduced me to a new kind of coffee


My bright green pedicure

Target

Our new dining tent, complete with 4 fold down sides for less than $100



My Ikea scale - I like it even more now that the numbers are going down instead of up!

Discovering new stores in St.vital that lead to purchasing this sweater


my bedroom set



Summer Veggies

New foods




MPI rebate cheques that I can spend on updating my wardrobe



Journaling. I read my journal from right before I got married and want to start again.

Flip Flop season


my new serving dishes from Pier 1


Our deck (this is not ours...)


Contigo! water bottles, travel mugs it's all good!


Love, love, love Candies, there clothes fit me well
black coffee, cream and sugar used to be the only way to go but simple is better

my new votive holder