New home for us

I've decided to move to another blog because Blogger has been driving me crazy. I'm now located here on Wordpress. So update your bookmarks or feed and I'll slowly be changing everything over to there.

Nursing covers

I've been making nursing covers for a while now. I love the funky fabric. I order it online, usually from Etsy because selection of cool fabric is extremely limited at our local Fabricland. I like being able to peruse through the vast amounts online and it comes right to my door!

Another day in the life...

Don't ask me why Maya needed 3 bathing suits on all at once while sitting in a plastic bin, eating her snack!

I love baking!

I really can't help myself. Honestly whenever I look at a recipe book the first thing I do is turn to the dessert section to see what kind of desserts and sweet things are in the book. That's pretty much how I determine if it's a good cookbook or not. I like to bake when I have some free time...sure beats cleaning any day! I came across this recipe on a blog and immediately I had to make it. They're M&M cookie bars and cookie bars are so much nicer than individual cookies because I detest taking too much time to bake things (and not using more than one pan if I can help it!) I happened to have gone down to the States shortly before this and had a stash of peanut butter M&M's, mint M&M's (side note: those ones are seriously to die for; I pretty much inhaled them), pretzel M&M's, and regular M&M's (do I have a problem?). There was a plethora of M&M's in my bars. They were fantastic! UPDATE: Here's where I found the recipe

Another genius recipe!

I often have a lot of overripe bananas sitting around and I forbid Dave to throw them out because they're delicious in smoothies but especially banana muffins and banana bread. I came across this recipe - banana bread with a coconut lime glaze - and thought it sounded divine. It came out delicious and I had to limit people from eating the entire loaf in one go! UPDATE: Ok, so I guess I should post my recipes in case people care!! This one can be found here

Diaper Bag

This time around I decided to get myself a proper diaper bag. Then I thought I'd splurge and get a really cool one. I love the red and it's so nice! It's made by Petunia Pickle Bottom and it's their "Cake" line.

Baby announcement

So Rylan is just about 11 weeks old and I finally got around to doing a baby announcement. Maybe I'll eventually get them mailed out too!!

Things I Love...

Here are a few products that have made my life more livable (especially on those days when very little sleep has been had). I feel much more human with a few of these puppies in my arsenal!

Ahhh, the flat iron. Makes me feel polished and sophisticated (also I can't say enough about a great salon haircut)!

I love love love this colour, although I don't own it....yet!

This liquid eyeliner is wonderful (with some practice)

Urban decay eyeshadows...lots of colour, pigment, love them!

Mac lipglass - I have a few different shades. I always inhale their scent, they're all vanilla-y.

Mac fluidline (another eyeliner) - my current shade is blitz and glitz (black with tiny gold flecks)

Amazing! Urban decay eyeshadow primer potion. NO CREASING!! Also having good eyeshadow helps with that too.

Mac prep and prime - great for those days when kids interrupt my routine. As long as this is on, I can come back to foundation when the children are distracted (even though I end up doing my makeup at the kitchen table!)

Mac pro lash mascara. I love trying new mascaras. This one is quite nice. I also have the waterproof version, and I must admit, it's my first waterproof mascara ever!

The crowning glory! Unfortunately I have not been endowed with lovely creamy smooth perfect skin. Therefore I need a little (and some days a LOT) of help with that! This has been the best foundation ever! I wish I could get away with mineral foundation or something like that, but this is it for me for now!

Rylan James

This is Rylan James. He was born December 31, 2009 at 6:54 am. He was 7 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long. Of course now he's 8 weeks old and growing like a weed! He had his last midwife appt today and he now weighs 11 lbs! Yay! He's been sleeping very well and is a joy to us! Maya is being a great big sister (even if Rylan gets hit every so often!)

Valentine's sugar cookies

Dave wanted to bring his seminary kids a treat for Valentine's Day so I jumped at the opportunity to make some sugar cookies to decorate. (He was going to just pick up some cookies or doughnuts, but I said, "Nonsense, it has to be something homemade and Valentine's appropriate) I must say I LOVE sugar cookies but always hated decorating them, but since discovering royal icing, it's pretty much a breeze to decorate and they look much more appealing than having some frosting slathered on them with some random sprinkles (although they still taste good).

Apparently the kids totally thought they were store bought (apparently it was too early for them to really see them) and just loved the flavour. Royal icing is notoriously terrible tasting but I bought some potent flavouring (blueberry) and that did the trick! I was quite pleased and still have a long way to go with learning how to decorate well, but it's fun and the results are delicious!

The outlined cookies

Filled in

Deliciousness in a ball

I had a hankering to make these cookie dough truffles the other week after seeing them in a blog I subscribe to. Bad idea!! They were so easy to make and so good that I'm pretty sure I ate them for more than one meal! I did manage to give some away since it was Valentine's Day and all (I'll have a separate post for the sugar cookies I made too). They turned out quite delicious and I would definitely make them again but have a plan to get rid of them right away. That's the problem with making things that are bite-size. They're so cute and easy to just pop in your mouth as you're walking by!

Baby Shower

Vanessa had a baby shower for me last Wednesday. It was really fun, we played a couple of games (match the celebrity to their own baby/child photos) and guess the baby food (thank goodness no tasting!) She did some great food and it was really nice. Thanks Vanessa!!

My new favourite breakfast

Ok, so I like oatmeal. I don't love it simply because I feel like I can never get the consistency right and then it usually doesn't have enough flavour for my liking. I have come across 2 kinds I have liked and one I made just this morning. First is one from the Quaker Oats website and it's a banana bread flavour one and the second is a baked oatmeal from the Brown Eyed Baker website. I really liked this one because it made a great amount and I put the leftovers in individual containers so I've got a quick (and filling) breakfast for the week. I added some cinnamon and vanilla to the recipe. To serve it I put a dollop of vanilla yogurt and drizzled a bit of maple syrup! Yum! Oh, and I used dried cranberries instead of the raisins. I think I would try some frozen blueberries in it next time because I LOVE blueberries! You can follow the links to the original recipes.

Banana bread oatmeal

Baked oatmeal

Yay, updates on the kiddies

I found this website in a magazine and thought it seemed pretty cool, so I've been checking it out. You can post about your kids and follow along in their growth, daily occurences, etc. So family and friends can follow along too. I have one for Maya and one for Rylan. I am just using the free one so I guess you can have up to 3 kids on it. The storage amount is a bit smaller, so we'll see how it goes. It's kind of fun!!

Maya

Rylan

Another project

I decided to recover the old infant car seat we had before Rylan was born. It needed a little spicing up so I picked out some neat fabric, got a tutorial off Etsy and went on my way. I have to say it's not bad for my first try (especially with outlining it all with bias tape) although it took a while. The most tedious part was pulling the old cover apart, tracing the pieces to make new ones, then sewing it all back together. Otherwise it wasn't difficult and I'm more than pleased with the result...a custom car seat cover! Car seat before:

Christmas goodies

I wasn't going to do any baking this year for Christmas, but ended up doing some anyway because Rylan decided to hang on a while before being born, so I had some time on my hands and it was either baking or cleaning and baking won out. Here are some of the things I ended up making: I was getting really into making sugar cookies and decorating them with royal icing this year so I practiced a few different things. I think there's still a long way to go with the decorating (and the patience) but it's a lot more fun than decorating sugar cookies used to be for me. Turtles are always on the menu at Christmas. I think the homemade ones are a million times better than store bought. I always use Callebaut chocolate and that makes all the difference! I found this recipe for baked Jello popcorn. I LOVE my grandma's marshmallow popcorn balls, but thought I'd try some baked "caramel" popcorn. It was really addictive and I'm glad I made these to give away! PS - I've made since then a cinnamon caramel with white chocolate and pecans baked popcorn and it is heavenly...I'm planning when I can next make it for an event since I won't be able to keep it at home or I'll eat it all! I also ended up making two-layer peppermint bark and cranberry pistachio bark with white chocolate. The picture wasn't too good, so I'm not going to post it. So much for my resolution of not doing any Christmas baking this year!! (Side note - I also said I wasn't going to do Christmas cards this year, so for anyone who did or didn't receive cards or they weren't personalized enough for you, Dave did them all)

When bad things happen to good people

All I can say about this picture is that Dave kindly gave Maya a blue sucker (before dinner I might add) and that it makes my teeth quiver....yuck!

Ok, so funny!!

Maya during her bath, "Back sore...chiropractor fix it?" Upon telling her they were closed for the night, she got really upset and kept repeating "Chiropractor fix it??" Seriously, I think you'll survive Maya!

Nearing the end...

Well, I'm trying to get everything in order for the Christmas season as I have only 2 weeks left until my due date. This photo is taken at 37 weeks, and, for the most part I'm feeling pretty good. It's nice to finally be close to the end (or beginning, depending on how you look at it!) I hope everything goes well and that I have some baby pictures to post soon!

A little Halloween treat!

I decided to bake some Halloween cupcakes, then thought mini ones are always more fun! They turned out delicious! Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Cupcakes:

1/2 cup (50 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 cup (240 ml) boiling hot water

1 1/3 cups (175 grams) all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

4 ounces (120 grams) unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

2/3 cup (150 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/3 cups (160 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly butter, or line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

Fill each muffin cup two-thirds full with batter and bake for about 16-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing. You can either spread the frosting on the cupcakes with a small spatula or if piping, use a large Wilton 1M open star tip to make lovely swirls.

Chocolate Frosting: Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the chocolate and beat on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth and glossy (about 2 -3 minutes).

Makes about 16 cupcakes

Read more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateCupcakes.html#ixzz0WHhTePCm