So instead of posting this afternoon, I decided to make a few changes to the site ‘first’ and got caught up, as usual.

There is still a little more to do, mostly cleaning up colour issues (like the unsightly light pink on hot pink mess over there <----) and a few broken images in the sidebar all of which will be fixed tomorrow, but overall I'm a little in love with it. Thoughts on the font? Adoring love for my social media coffee cup icons? They're amazing, right? I'm so modest sometimes I don't know how you stand it! Ha! Anyhoo, as my Dad has always said ‘Nothing comes as early as the dawn’, and unfortch, tomorrow is an early morning for us.

So much is in store for the site this year!!

Oh, BH Cosmetics, how I love you so!! My delicious husband bought me a serious BH collection for my birthday in October and I could not possibly be happier with the eye shadow selection I have now. Like woah, a la Joey Lawrence. This face was done with just four colours from one of two trays in the 120 Color Palette 1st Edition!

I started with the bright purple crease colour and smudged it up to almost the brow bone, then I added the matte purple on the lid and then I blended out the crease colour with the white for the brow bone. When I was done I added the sparkly lid colour over the matte purple I already had there.

When the shadow was done, I went with a Urban Decay black liner and BH lashes in Foxy! I also used Tarte cheek stain cream blush and super sheer pink gloss from Too Faced. The combinations with this BH palette are as close to limitless as I’ve ever gotten so I am beyond excited about this!

Just a few days ago, I proclaimed to one of my best friends that I will not be making resolutions this year. Actually, it went more like this.

May: Did you see my new boots on Facebook?
Talea: I did, way to upload pics right away.
May: I know, right?! That’s my only resolution.
Talea: That’s it?! That’s your only resolution?! I’m sitting here racking my brain for more things to list!
May: I’m going to keep up my healthier eating, I’m going to work hard on my blog, but uploading pics quickly is my only actual reaolution.
Talea: Pfft.

Pfft indeed, Talea. Pfft indeed. So after thinking about it a little, I realize it is pretty lame of me to not make resolutions. Not because the idea of not making resolutions in itself is lame, but I always make resolutions and most of the time I do ok. One or two fail before spring – always. A couple more make it to summer/fall, and there are usually at least 1 or 2 that make it all the way into the following year and become a regular part of life.

Last year I didn’t make any public resolutions but privately I resolved to save as much money as humanly possible and be well on the road to buying a house in 2011. We ended up saving more than I ever thought could be humanly possible and we bought our first house on August 2, 2011!! Mission accomplished!

I’m feeling really ambitious about 2012, because so many exciting things about my husband’s job and his goals are really coming together and as much as I would looooove to go on and on about them here, it’s not really my place to talk about it all. I will say however, that I am incredibly proud of him and it makes me want to work so much harder on my own goals – especially goals I have come close to touching in the past but for whatever reason allowed myself to back away from. Some of my resolutions are to keep up past resolutions I’ve succeeded at, because if they fall off the list, I may stop being mindful of them! So first, things that need changing, followed by changes to keep up.

1. Maintain a vegetarian diet and take steps toward cutting out as much dairy as possible. I have said so many times that I could never be a vegetarian because I love certain foods too much to give them up or because there are some foods that are so ingrained in my life and our family’s traditions that I just can’t imagine what those traditions would look like without those foods. However, I have also said so many times that it’s just not possible to un-know stuff, you know? I’m not at all out to turn anyone else into a vegetarian – at all. My husband and kids eat meat and I will still prepare meals with meat for them and I will still blog about those meals, so while I am going veg, this blog/website is not.

2. Get down to my goal weight. Sadly this is one of those goals I’ve come close to hitting! I lost 50lbs last year and fell off the wagon when my Granny passed away. Once my emotions leveled out, I never got back into positive eating habits. I’ve been limping along again for the past two months and have lost some of that weight again. It looks like there is a very exciting move happening for our family in the nearish future that will keep me on track. More about that as details unfold here.

3. Blog, blog, blog!. There are hundreds of photos waiting to be posted about – really hundreds! Decadent desserts, healthy mains, super fun crafty projects, heaps of makeup photos and random tutorials. Partly it’s about finding the time to post about it all, but I have no doubt that I have that time, I just need to take it from somewhere less productive! I also have a pretty intimidating/impressive idea list of things that will end up being blogged about too. Even though this is technically #5 on my list, it’s defo one of the most important resolutions this year.

4. Keep up positive parenting. By this I mean keeping the kid’s feelings and hopes in mind when making decisions as well as the obvious not screaming and yelling and generally lashing out at them when they are, let’s say, difficult. I think it’s fair to say I have been developing this skill for the last 11 years but of course I can always get better. I’ve been being really mindful since I read How To Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk and even more so since I went to the workshop. Yes, I dig parenting classes. Anyhoo, treating our kids with respect is an ongoing resolution.

5. Keep up the domestic goddess habits. This is a goal I achieved a couple of years ago, where I have manged to keep cleaning and kitchen routines going – regardless of vacations and babies and visitors and moving and head colds and all the things that I used to allow to derail me. It’s an ongoing process though because messes happen every day and meals need to be prepared everyday. So I’m keeping it on the list!

6. Keep up the hair and makeup everyday. I know people think it’s funny (or maybe a little crazy) that I wear some pretty alarming makeup, including gorgeous lashes, out in the woods in my town of 300 people (maaaaaybe, probably less). On an average day, I see one other mom and two other dads at the school bus stop. I see my next door neighbor when he waits for his kids to get off the other school bus and 3 other people who walk their dogs past my kitchen window. That’s it. But they are not why I take the time to get snazzy everyday, I do it for my husband and kids. They claim I look adorable even without doing my hair and makeup and that’s incredibly sweet of them to say, but we all know how much more adorable I look with effort.

7. Help my husband with his goals. This goes without saying really, and my husband has said this shouldn’t be a resolution because I’m always supportive of his goals BUT, just like with the kids and the house, there is always room for improvement and I think it should always be on the list. He’s also way more supportive of my hilariously big dreams than pretty much any other husband I’ve ever met, so I think that calls for above and beyond, right? Right. <3 I feel like I should have 3 more for a rounded out list of 10, but 7 is where I'm at this year. I honestly wish everyone success in 2012 so that when we all sit down to write out our 2013 lists we are full of optimism and have a nice list of completed goals under our belts! Onward!!

This was one of my extremely silly Christmas gifts this year. I saw this on Pinterest, and knew I had to do something with it. Originally, I saw it as ‘Carpe the hell out of this diem’, but that wasn’t serious enough for the friend I wanted to use it for. There are so many Scrabble tile crafts all over the web that I fell in love with and wanted to try so badly. So instead of buying a handful of them, I bought 398 Scrabble tiles! I have a bunch left over but I only did about half of the crafts I wanted to do with them.

I made some Scrabble tile pendants, using the initial of the person I made them for with multicoloured chains. I made other tile pendants from rando letters that I covered with super cute pictures and other images. We churned out some name plates for the kids’ teachers using tiles, charms and Scrabble tile holders. We even made Chrismtmas ornaments of our friend’s last names using ribbons and tiles. These magnets are just one example of what we were up to with them. Of course he can use these letters to spell out whatever else he can with this combo!

These were made with Scrabble tiles and magnetic tape. The adhesive on the tape wasn’t amazing so next time I’d add a drop of hot glue or crafty epoxy to it as well to keep it on just in case.

Sometimes, Seize the Day just wont cut it. Sometimes, we need to Seize the Fuck Out of This Day

Naturally, you could do this for any saying you or the person you’re making it for loves. Or you can just do up a bunch of random letters to make a set, I did a little research and it seems that this is the most popular combo.

8 x A D I N O R S T
4 x B F G H K L M P Q U V W X Y Z
12 x E
6 x C
2 x J

We are still out of town doing some Christmas visiting. So much fun has been had this week! I will do my best to add any content I post about on the rest of the trip to the main site this week. These are my favourite photos taken since Christmas morning. I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season with your friends and family. <3

I am pausing mid-Christmas vacation to announce fantastic news! My delightful husband got me a shiny (and more importantly fast) new laptop for Christmas so I can edit photos and blog and actually get stuff done without having to use his laptop or desktop. Hooray!

There has been so much Christmas crafting and baking going on around here, so many fun things in the works for the coming weeks and months and some exciting news in the near(ish) future (no, I’m not pregnant).

In the meantime, here’s a parade of photos from our Christmas celebrations so far!

Greetings!!!

I’ve been gone far too long, I know. I was doing a little web design, and I was doing a little home child care and you know, that whole ‘life getting in the way’ thing. Things have calmed down a bunch though. I’m not doing home child care anymore and have a much smaller list of web design work to do. The good news is I’ve been cooking and baking as usual – maybe even more than usual lately, so there are heaps and heaps of recipes to add to the site and talk about. With Christmas coming at light speed I’ve been doing a lot of crafting but I’m a little nervous to post much of that until after everyone has already opened their gifts because I know a lot of my friends and family read my blog (thanks guys). You can expect a parade of deliciousness and hopefully some crafty inspiration around here in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I’m also thinking about breaking ‘Domestic’ into ‘Kitchen’ and ‘Cleaning’, because while they’re both domestic maybe someone looking for a homemade cleaning solution recipe doesn’t care about chocolate covered Oreos (but really, who doesn’t care about chocolate covered Oreos – what’s not to love there people?!). I may also add a ‘Kids’ section for the same reason. I don’t love when a site has too many sections but I think these additions make it easier to filter out what you’re not looking for. Yes? Good, I thought you’d agree.

Before I get to changing anything around, here’s a few new additions to the site!

Even though there is only one recipe in this whole post, I’m calling it a Tasty Tuesday and I’m participating in all my favorite foodie link ups – Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Tuesdays at the Table, Made From Scratch Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday (@ 33 Shades of Green), Tasty Tuesday, Delectable Tuesday, Tea Party Tuesday, and Hearth ‘n Soul. And since this is a very crafty post, I’m also linking up with Get Your Craft On, Made With Love, Craftastic, Tip Me Tuesday, Tuesday Crafty Confessions, and Totally Tuesday.

Before I even get into what I posted on the site in the last few days or the collection of crazy cute iPhone photos I’m amassing thanks to a ridic app that I can’t stop playing with – I bring you my kitchen. I posted a crooked picture of it when our offer was officially accepted, 90 days before we closed (longest – and somehow also shortest – 90 days ever). So here it is, a much better view of the room I spend the most time in. The other half of the kitchen has the eating area, the cookbook bookshelf and Wee One #2’s play kitchen – and the pantry! That deserves it’s own post. I have never lived in a house with a walk in pantry or one with this many cabinets, so when we set out to buy a house both of those things were on my wish list. What I really love about it, though I know I’ve said it before, is the working triangle of the fridge to sink to stove. I honestly hadn’t even noticed it until my uncle in law was here on moving day (I can’t call him ‘my husband’s uncle’ after being married for 11 years, as I now adore him like my own uncle) and mentioned that it’ll be a great kitchen for cooking and baking because of the triangle! I had no idea it was an actual ‘thing’, I thought it was just something he said till I later read about it.

Anyhoooooo, out the sink window is the ‘main road’ of this wee town, I guess there are actually two main roads in this town and this window shows the corner of them. There is a whole lot of tractor and horse trailer action on this corner. Also, every single house in town (except ours, I’m not lying) has a dog and they all walk it by this window. (Sidebar- yes we are now entertaining the idea of getting a dog and we are trying to settle on a breed, it will likely be a year until we actually welcome one home). On one hand, a curtain would be a good thing so randos can’t peep in, but on the other hand, there are no randos in a town this small and I like waving like an 80 year old Granny at everyone. For reals. The big patio doors are just out of the frame in the second photo, but you can see where they are from the curtain, just beside the stove. Those doors are very high traffic around here, and I can keep mixing while I glance out to do a quick head count and be sure everyone is accounted for. Love!

I will take photos of my pantry this week – I could make an entire post out of all the weird ingredients in there. You never know when you might need actual honeycomb or hazelnuts or oat flour or dehydrated sugar cane or condensed/evaporated/powdered milk! Not to mention of course the stockpile of apple juice – three kids can easily go through a single can a day.

This week so much of the additions around here have been crafty! I’ve been baking up a storm of course, but most of the projects I’ve added to the site were in the crafty section. There was one recipe added though! It’s another recipe on the health(ier) side of things, a burger from Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious – with mushrooms and zucchini!

	Homemade Plastic Bowls – Am I really writing about a boxed kid’s craft kit? Sorta. I have always been a fan of crafts like these Makit & Bakit type things. The concept of putting plastic in the oven is so alarming and amazing at the same time, I’ve loved it since I made my first record bowl about 15 years ago. These little ‘Makit & Bakit’ crystals were different and I wanted to try them but I couldn’t find them outside of a kit.
	Birthday Wishes – My mother has always made a really fun and (often a really big) to do out of everyone’s birthdays. Not just my Dad & my sister, but also my aunts and uncles and close friends have had serious birthdays courtesy of my mother. As is the case with a lot of people who work hard for other people, she hasn’t had many serious birthdays of her own.
	Adhesive Bookplates – Finding crafty ideas for teachers can be rough because even after only a few years of teaching, with an average of 20 kids in each class just imagine how many hilariously crafted gifts they already have. Or how many ‘incredibly useful’ mugs they must have! I’m not out to always give the best gift, but I do aim to give each teacher something they’ll actually use.
	Crayon Monogram – I am aware that this is one of those teacher gifts that serves no purpose other than being extremely cute but just look at it! Look! I originally found the idea on Tip Junkie, the inspiration post is over here at Keeping Up With the Comptons – it was posted two years ago and I just did it this June. A quick search turns up so many versions of this craft; Two Peans in a Bucket, Well, How Nice, Dollar Store Crafts, Rainy Tuesday Mornings, Creative Mommas and my personal favorite version from Chic & Cheap Nursery.
	Fabric Bookmarks – These were part of the collection of things we made as end of school year thank yous to the teachers and staff at the wee ones’ school. These were made for the librarians, who are a retired couple and so sweet with the kids. I have no doubt that between the two of them they have a great deal of bookmarks, but they are so often lost or in need of replacing I figured it was a safe gift. Plus after seeing these ones on How About Orange I had to make some myself!
	Deceptively Delicious Burgers, Part 2 – These burgers are the 15th recipe I’ve made from this book. I can’t say these burgers were amazing, because they were not. However, I can say that not one out of all five of us didn’t finish their burger – loaded with mushrooms and zucchini. None of us like zucchini and only one person likes mushrooms. I think that counts as a success, because while no one raved over them, no one complained about them either and we all got a shot of immune system boosting mushrooms, selenium and B2!

I also went and fell in love with the Instagram iPhone app. I fell hard. It’s addicting to have your already super cute phone pictures made extra adorable. See evidence below. There are 16 filters (I think) and the effects range from fading the image slightly to giving it a different ‘mashed potatoey’ feel with a border. My favorite filter is called Nashville, (the first, and last 2 image). I wonder if there’s a 12 step for this sort of addiction??

There has been a lot of cookie baking going on around here and actually, a whole lot of other treat making and painfully-from-scratch cooking going on as well. So much that I’m going to just have to post a heap of my queue as thumbnails to get through it all so I can post the new stuff. It’s not that my kitchen creations (and my craftyness) this past winter/spring/summer are not amazing, because naturally I think they are lol, but there is so much more amazingness on the way!

	As with many of the whimsical creations coming out of this kitchen, these adorable little creations are courtesy of Bakerella! They could not be easier and as usual, these are amazing. I made them as Valentine’s Day treats for Wee One #1’s class party. I wrapped them in foil and made little tags that said ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ for him to give to his classmates with his paper cards. I wasn’t there, but he said they were a hit – despite not looking at all like the kisses I had intended them to look like. Whoops.
	There are so many cute smore-themed ideas for end of school year gifts for teachers. I actually made this one for our principal, because she has really gone out of her way for us more times than I can ever properly thank her for. I first saw this idea over at Back Porch Creations and I loved it, but I needed my packaging to be a little more girlie than that.
	I made these (recipe #14 from Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious) alongside the Italian Meatloaf from the same book. The meatloaf was ok, but I had seconds of these rice balls! They’re not a quick fix though, they take some effort to make, but just like everything else in life, when does quick and easy usually equal amazing? Alonst never, especially in the kitchen. These rice balls are actually loaded with chicken, sweet potato and either spinach, broccoli or butternut squash puree – I used spinach. I also used whole wheat breadsrumbs instead of whole wheat cracker crumbs.

I also just found out a few minutes ago that today, August 30, is National Marshmallow Day. What?! How did I not know about this?! I will whip up something with marshmallows in it for dessert – what are you making to celebrate now that you know? 😛

This post title does not at all describe what I’ve added to the site today, just what’s keeping me from adding more. Whenever my amazing, wonderful yarn-spree-paying-for husband buys me heaps of yarn, all I want to do is knit it up. We have been buying from Knit Picks a lot lately, not just because their prices are very reasonable (though they really are) but because their shipping isn’t painful. Ordering the same types of yarn from other shops will run us twice as much! Now that the wee ones have three other wee ones next door to play with everyday, I plunk down on the patio and watch all six of them run and chase each other and throw their little heads back in laughter and make delicious memories. Wee One #2 is the only one to have a new playmate her exact age and man, do they get along well. Instant besties, it’s the sweetest thing. The oldest kids are just a year apart and have created a series of videos for their new You Tube channel. Yup, that’s what I said. My favorite is when the neighbor kids stay for supper and we fill both kid-sized picnic tables, it’s soooooo cute to have half a dozen kids running around. I know, I know, that’s crazy. Don’t worry, I will probably not be having another three kids. Probably. I am still the weird neighbor that brings baked goods next door almost everyday – except now my next door neighbor totally gets it and so far likes everything I’ve made for them. Score. Anyhoo….

We’ve also checked out the park and we’ve gone swimming at the dock a few times. I have to admit though that I miss walking for an afternoon swim in the lake by our old place. There were often pretty decent waves on the lake, which was fun for so many reasons and the sand bar was sweet too. However, being able to go for a swim whenever is rad – dock or lake. 🙂

I added two posts today, one in Crafty and one in Healthy, though as I have noted before I am aware that most of the recipes in that section should be dubbed healthier, and not necessarily healthy. Ahem. I’m getting through the backlog of things to post. I should be totally up to date in less than a month! I’ll be posting Halloweeny stuff on time! Hooray!

These were silly and fun to make for the last day of school for Wee One #1’s class. He just finished grade 5, so it had to be something fun but not too cute. They’re one of those projects that’s done in 20 minutes and only requires a few supplies. These are literally Rolo sleeves wrapped in construction paper.

This is Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious version of Italian Meatloaf. It’s made with spiced breadcrumbs, lean ground turkey, carrot puree and turkey bacon (among other things). It was just meh but I think if I took out the extra liquid and just left the carrot puree it would hold together a lot better. Or maybe adding some ground oatmeal? We’ll see if I even re-do this one again. This book has had enough winners for me already as it is and this was the 13th recipe I made from it.

I also remembered to take photos of the kitchen to show you, so I’ll get on some pictures of the pantry and talk about that tomorrow!

I almost posted about homemade bacon wrapped tater tots, but I realized I didn’t take photos of the actual tater tot process, just the bacon wrapping bit. So I will fix that and get those up this week. Instead, I went with Nutella. My girl Sammie made a batch too! Her post on that is here, and she did a great job!! She really is my kitchen soul mate. She used this recipe from Su Good Sweets and I used an adapted version of the recipe she wasn’t crazy about. Both of our batches turned out well and our husbands and children (and maybe us too) ate enough to prove they were both delicious!

Here are a few pictures of the process:

More baking and cooking and crazy fun to be had around here this afternoon. I’m working on a slow cooking pork shoulder for pulled pork sandwiches later. I wanted to try the Pioneer Woman’s Spicy Dr Pepper Shredded Pork but my husband isn’t a big fan of anything too ‘unusual’ in the kitchen lol.