I Want Candy (DIY Gumball Dish)

I made another gumball-style candy dish this week. 

Here is the full tutorial on how to put it together. 

It's simply just a clay flower pot with saucer, wooden ball, and round bowl.  This time I used a bowl with more detailing on the sides and a plain mouth.  The fluted mouth of the other bowl made it difficult to set the top on level.

This time I also added a 1/2 inch wooden disc to the bottom to give it balance.  It's kind of like adding fancy baseboard moulding to your room - it's just looks finished.  And it isn't as top-heavy as before.

I painted this one with gold acrylic paint as I have somone in mind for it and she likes "spah-kles".  She's also a lover of chocolate so I found cookies & cream kisses and mini peanut butter cups to fill it.  I used a blue and silver ribbon for the bow to match the candy inside.  If she decides to change up the candy it's easy enough to just change the ribbon.

Even the sewing machine in the background matches!

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Linking up here this week!

Cookies & Brownies & Squares, Oh My!

I got a little baking done this week.  First I whipped up a batch of my "famous" chocolate scotcheroos (recipe here).  I swear these are no-fail.  And I've never met anyone who didn't like them. If you need a quick crowd pleaser - this is your guy.

I also tried some chocolate-dipped sugar cookies.  I'll confess - this is the second batch.  They started out as shortbread but I ran out of butter.  And since I do all my baking at 10 o'clock at night (don't you?) I wasn't going to run out to the store for more.

I added some cocoa to the batter, and I found that it really cut down on the sweetness of the cookie as a whole.  I wasn't expecting that.  Not a bad thing considering how sweet the frosting/icing/dip/I-don't-know-what-it's-called is.

I dipped them in melted chocolate - green of course - with a few drops of peppermint extract added.  I don't think I'll be opening a bakery any time soon (unless it's a scotcheroos bakery) but I'm kind of proud of my little trees.

Tom also got in on the baking fun.  His specialty is brownies.  His brownies are also the reason why there wasn't enough butter left.  Thanks dude.

They are chocolate-banana-mint brownies with buttercream frosting.  That's right, Tom has never met a flavouring he didn't like.  If one is good, why not three?  But these are pretty fantastic.

Our house is now full of baked goods.  Our flour-free, sugar-free, trying-to-be-Paleo house.  Not good. Not good at all.


Note to the dogs: When you see me leaving with plate after plate of food, I'm not sneaking off to eat it without you - I'm just taking pictures.

Honest.

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Linking up to these great baking parties!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

I haven't been able to get many pictures of our Christmas tree that I'm happy with - other than some bokeh ones that often aren't intentional - so I've been holding off on a tree post.  But I gave it another try tonight.

Some of my favourite ornaments:

We've got a "turtle"

and a "tail"

pinecones and burlap

and a little red wagon

This is the star of the show though.  You can turn the tree lights on and off just by touching the bell - you don't have to be messing with plugging and unplugging the cord.  There are even 4 brightness settings depending on how much light you want.  Love.

And a final up-skirt shot.

So that's all well and good, but what I'm really crushing on is our Charlie Brown tree in the basement TV room.

When we were at my father-in-law's property collecting branches for the wreaths and mantel, I found an entire pine tree that had fallen down, and the top of it was a perfect little Christmas tree.  So I hacked it off and dragged it home.

The fun part was figuring out how to get it to stay upright without a stand.  Top third of a plastic water bottle + small jam jar (for water) + larger vase filled with sand = makeshift tree stand.  I'll give Tom credit for coming up with that one.

What do you think of our little guy?

Since there were so few branches available it took mere minutes to decorate.  Just some pinecones, toy drums, a string of lights, and a bow on top.  Plus a skirt made of burlap.  We also added two ornaments that are brand new this year.  One is a minature milk jug, and the other is a little tree made of branch slices.  Both so cute.

And this was my helper for the day.  

Trust me, she begged to wear the hat.  

Later she let me try out lighting patterns on her.  

So patient.  So Zen. 

So easy to bribe with a potato chip.

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Linking up to these parties (and check out the Holiday parties to the right)