Thursday, January 27, 2011

Engaged!

So Adrian and I had a long conversation the other night, which ended with our decision to get married. I'm so very excited! We set our date, tentatively, for July 28, 2012. We need time to save up the money. I've already started planning, it's hard not to! I have so many freakin ideas!

Adrian gets to plan the honeymoon, so he's excited about that! He's planning a road trip to California and Tofino. I'm excited for that too! One thing I really wanted was to get married on the beach in Tofino. But it's pretty far away and for some, it's a pretty expensive trip to make. So I'm happy with going there for our honeymoon =)

I'm just so excited! I'm happy that I finally get to vocalize all my ideas, which I've been saving up in the wedding file section of my brain! I plan on making most things myself, which is also good reason for having the wedding in a year and a half.... more time to get everything made. I've also already found the dress I want, but I'm still going to look around here because the one I want is in Burlington .... and it's in store only!

That's all about the wedding for now!

But in other wedding related news, I started working on a wedding bouquet some time ago, because I'd love to sell wedding stuff in my Etsy shop. It`s taking me a very long time to finish but when it's done, I will list it. I'm thinking of even adding some pictures of the progress. I plan on making a matching maid of honour and bride's maid one, as well as boutonnieres. Hopefully I can get it done soon!

That's really all for now =)

Thanks for reading!

xoxxoxxxooo

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Giving Away!

So I've been thinking about doing a give-away of some kind for a while now and I recently came up with a really good idea. It's going to be a Facebook based contest, with the winner getting a free custom hair accessory handmade by me =) So here is how it will go:

- Invite your friends and family members to like my page here
- Get the page to reach 50 members by February 11th, 2011
- If the page reaches that goal, I will post a status update saying something like: "Like this status if you want to win a free custom handmade piece!"
- On Feb. 22nd I will put the names of anyone who liked the status into a 'hat' and draw a name. The winner will get a custom made hair piece!

Exciting, right!!? Well, I'm excited!

Toodles for now =)

xoxoxoxoxxoooxxx

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Crafters Crafty Room

When we lived in Kamloops we had two bedrooms ... so we converted the big room into a studio/craft room. Unfortunately I was too stressed with my job and other things to utilize the area to it's fullest extent. So when we moved to Vernon, I was fortunate enough to have time to craft... but in a smaller space there wasn't much room. For a while I was crafting out of a rubber-maid bin in the living room. But now, I have a lovely space in the bedroom against one wall ... it's a very lovely, small, wall that I've been able to convert with three pieces of furniture, into a half decent place to make my hair accessories.

This is the wall in its entirety! The photos on the wall were taken by my hunnie, the pro photographer: adrianstonge.com The sewing machine is my favourite item I've ever owned. My Nana bought it for me a few years ago for Christmas, which was probably the start of my need to create things... so, thanks Nana!



This plastic set of drawers is full of all my odds and ends and mostly scrapbooking stuffs. The drawers don't close properly and it's kind of wobbly, but it does the job decently enough!



I stole this shelf from my hunnie, which was holding his photo stuff in the storage room. It works perfectly for what I need it for. I hammered in nails on the one side to hold my thread spools, and used some jewelry wire to string my ribbon.



And finally, here's Halloween!




Thanks for reading!

xoxoxoxoxxxoooxx

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Favourites

I love to cook. It's something I've loved doing for many years, but never really explored it to any extreme. When my mom was alive, she always did the cooking because food just tasted better when she made it!! After, for a while, all Adrian and I did was eat out. And then when we moved to Vernon it was summer and too hot to make anything but salad or, again, eat out. So when the colder months came, I decided to see what I could come up with. I've become a master at making dinner meals that consist of more than just a piece of chicken and a salad .... (which was pretty much all I made in Kamloops and for the first few months here in Vernon). And I have lots of recipes to share, but that's for another post.

Our holiday season consisted of lots of yummy snack type foods. Chips, crackers and dips, appetizer type tasties and my own creation of a super easy appy: mushroom and asparagus wrapped bacon with cream cheese. Now I'm not claiming fame to the original idea of this, I'm just saying that I found a way to make it my own. I had planned to just use the veggies and the bacon until I realized I didn't have any toothpicks and therefore had no way of keeping the bacon on the asparagus. But cream cheese came to the rescue and here's what I ended up with!:

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
You will need:
- 1 package of bacon cut in half (a whole piece will be too long)
- 1 bunch of Asparagus washed and dried(but, really, you can use as many as you want)
- About 1/2 a stick of cream cheese (depending on how thick you want to coat the asparagus) softened enough to be spreadable
- wax paper (enough to cover your work space)
- Cookie sheet layered with tin foil
- cooling rack
( I use the cooling rack to place my asparagus on because it cooks the bacon more evenly and lets all the fat drip off .... it's handier to use but you don't HAVE to use it)

What you do:
(Now I haven't actually found a non-messy way to do this yet so it's really up to you as to how you want to coat the asparagus)
1. Using a spoon or spatula, cream the cream cheese in a thick layer onto the wax paper
2. Take a piece of asparagus and roll it around in the cream cheese until it's nicely coated
3. Take a slice of bacon and wrap it around, pressing it lightly into the cream cheese as you wrap
4. Set each piece onto cooling rack/foiled cookie sheet
5. Bake in preheated oven at 400 degrees F for about 20-25 minutes (or until bacon is cooked and crisp)
6. Let cool for about 5 minutes and then enjoy!!



Cream Cheese Filled Mushrooms with Bacon:
What you'll Need:
- 1 package of bacon cut in half (a whole piece will be too long)
- About 10 stuffing Mushrooms OR 10-15 small mushrooms (better for bite-size appies) washed and stems removed
- About 1/2 a stick of cream cheese softened enough to be spreadable
- Half a tomato diced into very small pieces
- A couple green onions diced into very small pieces
- Cookie sheet layered with tin foil
- cooling rack
( I use the cooling rack to place my mushrooms on because it cooks the bacon more evenly and lets all the fat drip off .... it's handier to use but you don't HAVE to use it)

What You Do:
1. Cream the cream cheese in a bowl with diced tomatoes and green onions (you can add other veggies too, like cucumber, white onion, zucchini, or any softer veggie that has a low cooking time)
2. fill mushroom caps with cream cheese mixture
3. Place onto cooling rack/foiled cookie sheet
4. Lay bacon halves over top of the mushroom caps, pressing the middle into the cheese
5. Bake in a preheated oven at about 400 degrees F for about 20-25 minutes or until the bacon is cooked and crisp
6. Let cool for about 5-8 minutes and enjoy!!



The easiest after dinner treat I made was butter tarts. Now, you can find tart recipes anywhere and are usually simple to follow. This is a link to the most basic recipe I could find: http://www.cookingnook.com/butter-tart-recipe.html But I made some changes. Firstly I didn't have corn syrup so I just omitted it!! Secondly, I used equal amounts of butter and brown sugar for a more sweeter taste. Thirdly, I only used one egg...(this was due to some seriously bad luck with about 4 cartons of eggs) and I added extra vanilla. I use a bakers emulsion vanilla... which seems to always taste better in my baking. In the end, this is what I came out with (and they tasted so darn good!!)



Well, this was possibly my longest blog ever!!

Thanks for reading!!

xxooxxoxxoxxoooo

Friday, January 14, 2011

The Winter blues ... and greys

It's funny how the excitement leading to up to Christmas can seem to abate the feelings of depression and sadness that the grey skies seem to bring.

This year Adrian was ready for Christmas in November. So was I!! But then again, I'm ready for Christmas all year long. We set up the tree in November this year, going against every rule my Mom ever set out about Christmas decorating. And now I see why. Her rule was, 'the tree can only go up on the first weekend of December, no sooner!' She was definitely on to something there. Having the house ready for the holiday 2-3 weeks after Halloween will only bring the blues sooner. Not only that, but I found myself getting tired of holiday cheer before December 25th even came.

Adrian's blahs started very shortly after the holidays were over.... but didn't last as long as usual. But for the first time ever the blahs have affected me. Winter is usually the best time of the year, in my books... I love snow and I love scarves and mittens and sunny cold days. I love drinking hot beverages all day long and walking in the park while the snow falls. Although I still love all those things, I find myself feeling sad. I feel that part of it is that my holiday cheer dissipated rather soon.... usually lasting until the middle of January or longer.

After much introspection I've come to the conclusion that my blues are due to a jealousy that has been firing up inside me for a few months now and boiling to the surface only a few nights ago. As childish as it might seem, and as embarrassed as I am to admit it, I find that I'm jealous of all the people on Etsy who are making regular sales of their handmade items. I know my sales will come with time and that I should find a way to channel my jealousy into my crafts, but I really just want to pout and stamp my foot! And the icing on the cake was to see a store downtown, which seemed to step right out of my dreams .... not necessarily selling what I would want to sell, but a shop set up exactly how I would do my own. Same in the colours on the walls, same in the way items are displayed..... same, same, same. So, now not only am I NOT selling on Etsy, but if I ever wanted to open a real store, I'd have to change the whole look and feel that I've already imagined. Alas, I let the blues was over me until I'm verging tears and longing for sunny days that shine pretty pinks and yellows and make me feel whole and warm.

Anyway, my next post is going to be about two foods I made over the holidays that were our favourite! And I'm also thinking about doing a 'Thing-a-day' challenge. That might be fun!!

Thanks for reading =)