Happy Halloween!

After taking last week off to try and find some inspiration to write again, I’m back and ready to blog. I have to admit that I really missed blogging. Last week was a rollercoaster of a week for me. Not only did I have a sick/teething baby to deal with, Stephen and I got some unexpected news that has added some more stress to our lives. I did Tweet about it, but I’ll get more into on Wednesday. I’m just going to ease back into blogging today, so this post is going to be short and sweet.

Stephen and I worked on carving our pumpkins this weekend. As you can see from the first picture, my pumpkin was a rather simple witch. Stephen still hasn’t finished carving his pumpkin, but 10 points to you if you can guess what he’ll be carving! (Click the picture to make it bigger.)  We’ll just be staying in tonight and handing out candy to any trick or treaters who find their way to our place. We’ve been told by our neighbor that even though our community if filled with kids, we can expect to get only a handful at the door tonight. Apparently they all head to the mall.Where’s the fun in that?

What are your plans for tonight?

Writer’s Block

As you can tell from the title of this post, I’ve got writer’s block. When you blog about your day to day experiences, things can get boring pretty quick if you haven’t had much of an exciting life recently. I figured I would just skip Monday’s post and get back into things today, but not even Ten on Tuesday could get my creative juices flowing. I just couldn’t relate to the questions at all.

I’ve decided to go ahead and take the rest of the week off from blogging. I’m hoping that by Monday morning, I’ll be ready to write again.

Have a good week!

7 Quick Takes (Vol 58)

1. I can’t believe that it’s finally Friday. This week seemed to drag by, I think mostly because I haven’t been getting enough sleep. Hopefully I’ll take the time to catch up on sleep this weekend.

2. I went to Pier 1 this week to look at Halloween decorations, yet ended up walking out with 3 Christmas ornaments. (An Eiffel Tower and 2 skeleton keys.) The Halloween decorations were just too expensive. Either that, or I’m too cheap. I just can’t bring myself to pay $25+ for one decoration.

3. I also bought my winter jacket. I hate that it’s already just about that time of year, but I need to be prepared. I also got some winter boots.

4. Monday night, I had dinner over at my Mom’s house. I got to see a friend’s daughter that I hadn’t seen in ages. She had just turned 3, and is mighty cute! She took a liking to me, and was even wanting to sleep over at my house by the end of the night.

5. I didn’t realize that poking someone on Facebook is still a thing. Who does that still?

6. I held the door for a guy one morning this week, which lead him to strike up a conversation with me. When I tried to part ways to go catch my bus, he tried to make me go get coffee with him. This took place at 6:20 in the morning, and he was much older than me, so I was rather leery of him. Awkward.

7. I took Baby E on a walk to one of the many ponds in his community. After snack time, we were looking out at the ducks, when I noticed muskrats! I think it’s funny that up until last month, I had never seen a muskrat, and now I’ve seen three. There’s so many great place to walk in E’s community, so we’ve always got something exciting to do!

What are your plans for the weekend?

Apple Butter

Before last month, I had no idea what apple butter was. I know what you’re thinking: that I must lead a sheltered life. That may be the case, but at least I’m not as sheltered as my friends who don’t even know what an ampersand is! Ok, I kid. They made fun of me for knowing what one is, so I had to get them back somehow.

I first heard about apple butter from Pinterest. (I promise that one day, I’ll go back to cook books for my recipes!) The recipe that I had read was quite the process, taking 22 hours and involved a slow cooker. I contemplated using that recipe, but wasn’t quite committed to something that require so much of my time, especially if I didn’t even know if I like apple butter. I did some Googling around and came across this recipe from chef Michael Smith. It looked easy enough, so I was sold.

The process is quite easy and didn’t require me to stand at the stove the entire time, which I liked. It’s not a large batch that you would can, but I did get three decent sized jars out of it. I wrapped up 2 of them to pass along to my family and already have had requests for more. Wondering what the heck to do with apple butter? Stephen and I heated it up and used it as an ice cream topping, which was seriously delicious. I may have done that more than once. I’ve also spread it on toast, and it apparently tastes good swirled into some yogurt or oatmeal. I’m thinking of making a bigger batch and canning it to last me (and my family) the winter!

Apple Butter
from Chef Michael Smith

10 apples (recommended: Spartans, Macs, Granny Smiths. I used what I had on hand: Gala)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup apple juice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cardamom
1 tsp vanilla

1. Peel apples. Core and quarter them.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan and cook over medium heat, until apples soften.
3. Continue cooking until the liquid has reduced by about 80% and is thick and dark.
4. Using a food processor, puree the mixture. Let cool, then store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday

Ten on Tuesday

#102 at Roots and Rings

1. You’re packing for a week long vacation, do you pack ahead of time or wait until the last possible minute to pack?
I'd get excited and start thinking early on about what I'd like to pack, but I'd realistically not start packing until a day or two before. Actually, probably not until the night before, after I've done laundry.

2. Are you a light or heavy packer?
I think I'm a bit of a heavy packer. I swear every time that I won't pack so much, but I always end up taking things that I don't end up using. Can you imagine what it'll be like when I have kids? Scary!

3. What are your favorite road trip snacks?
Junk: chips, candy, chocolate, pop and juice. If I'm with my Dad, then we stop at several Tim Horton's on the way, so my staples then include iced cappuccinos and Tim Bits.
Oh, and all of that junk above? That's not all consumed at one time!

4. Do you take any reading material along?
Always, especially because I'm not a driver. If it's a long car ride, I'll even take more than one book.

5. Do you prefer to drive or fly to your vacation destination?
Since flying is obscenely expensive here, driving is necessary. I do really love flying, though I haven't done it in years. Hopefully next year though!

6. What is your favorite time of the year to take your vacation?
Anytime, honestly. I never have the chance to go on vacations, so I'm just thankful to get out of the city when I can.

7. Where is your favorite place to vacation?
Out of the (limited) places that I've been, it's between Vancouver and Toronto. I'm definitely a big city kind of girl.

8. You are vacationing in the mountains, what is your favorite thing to do while there?
If the weather is nice, then get out and explore! Hiking is always fun. If the weather is bad (as in winter), then i love curling up with a hot drink and a cozy blanket. My uncles used to live in this amazing house with a giant window that had a gorgeous view of the mountains. I loved spending Christmases there!

9. You are at the beach for your vacation, do you like to take it easy on the beach or play all day in the water?
I'd say a mixture of both, but I've never been to a true beach.

10. While your on vacation do you prefer to eat out every night or cook some of your own meals?
I prefer eating out. Half the fun of vacation for me is the food (Stephen and I spend forever researching good places to eat), so I wouldn't want to waste my time cooking! However, if I were to ever go on a long vacation (several weeks or more), then I'd like the chance to be able to cook. As if I'd ever have the time or money to go on a vacation that long though!

My Life In Instagrams

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it here before, but I love Instagram. I love applying different filters to my pictures and keeping up with everyone else’s pictures through the app. I use it constantly. I’ve been seeing a feature around on some blogs called InstaFriday, which seems to have originated from Life Arranged. I think it’s a great way to share little peaks into a bloggers life, but since I usually post 7 Quick Takes on Fridays, I thought I’d just go ahead and share some of my recent Instagrams today! If you follow me on Twitter, then there’s a good chance you’ve already seen most of these pictures. If you don’t have Twitter, then here’s another look into my everyday life.

This little Q-Tip skeleton was a craft project with T on Friday. He loved making it so much, and we happily chattered away about our bones while making it. He even burst out that I’m the best babysitter in the world! He’s too precious for words.

Here’s a grownup craft project from last week: a Halloween yarn wreath. It’s residing on my front door, and I kind of love it. Stephen thinks that I should add some bats to it though.

This was a little project during nap time at work last week: a homemade pumpkin spice latte. (Find the recipe here.) It was super delicious, and just what I needed to get me through a rough morning.

Speaking of pumpkins, I roasted my own pie pumpkin for Thanksgiving. It was a surprisingly easy process and produced some delicious pumpkin puree. I’m tempted to go back to the grocery store to pick up another pie pumpkin before they all disappear!

Any idea what I was getting ready to make with this line up of spices? Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes, of course! I am so glad that Stephen and I took the time a couple of years ago to organize all of our spices like this.

On Thanksgiving day, we took a little walk over to the river before dinner. Stephen climbed down the hill to grab some pictures. While looking through them later in the day, I found out that Stephen had gotten a picture of me posting this picture to Instagram!

Stephen and I took turns taking some pictures of my sister and her boyfriend. They’re too cute.

Do you use Instagram? If not, do you use any other camera apps?
Also, if you’re on Twitter and we’re not already friends, find me here!

7 Quick Takes (Vol 57)

1. Even this has only been on a 4 day work week, it has felt so long. I don’t know what it is, but I just feel like I haven’t been getting enough sleep. Combine that with a baby going through a ton of changes all at once, then you’ve got one heck of a fussy week.

2. These changes I’m talking about? No more army crawling; he’s finally perfected true hands and knees crawling. He’s also learned how to pull himself up in his crib, so that means no more crying it out while laying down. Nope, it’s full on screaming while bouncing around. Then there’s the ever present teething, and I’ve been seeing the first stages of clinginess. He’ll start crying when I’m out of sight. Always fun.

3. Good news though, I got a raise from both of my nanny families! I’m so thankful that one has already taken effect, and the other starts at the beginning of November. Just in time for Christmas shopping.

4. I finally filled the last frame on my gallery wall. It’s been empty for so long because I just couldn’t figure out what to stick there; nothing seemed good enough! I borrowed this idea from Pinterest (of course), and just stuck some buttons on a paper in Roy G. Biv order, then stamped Smile underneath. Easy enough!

5. I made a yarn wreath last night for our front door. My original idea didn’t work out, so in the end, I ended up copying another idea. I think it looks pretty good, especially for my first ever yarn wreath. I just wish our neighbors would get in the Halloween spirit and decorate. They don’t put any outside decorations up for any holidays. How boring!

6. Stephen has switched back to night shifts for the next couple of weeks. This means that I haven’t truly seen him since Monday! He does wake me up when he gets home from work, but that’s only for a minute or two. He typically comes to bed about an hour or so before I wake up. I’m definitely not a fan of night shifts, but I he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. It just means that my nights are rather lonely now.

7. So far, the only weekend plans that we’ve made is having some friends over for lunch and then we’ll go see a movie. I’m hoping to also get in some crafting time. What are your plans for the weekend?

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

It’s that time of year; the holiday baking has begun. During the fall and on through winter, all I ever want to do is bake. I often having marathon baking sessions actually. Naturally, I’m in charge of the holiday baking in my family. My great grandma used to be in charge of it, but I think that since I’ve become so passionate about baking, she doesn’t mind handing that torch over to me. She still brings a few things around though!

Thanksgiving was this past weekend, so I needed a pumpkin type dessert. Pumpkin pie is a mandatory staple, but I wanted to shake things up a little bit this year. I came across these pumpkin pie cupcakes on Pinterest (of course), and knew that I had a winner. They don’t have the texture of a cupcake though, like my entire family expected. They’re honestly just little pies baked in cupcake wrappers. They have a bit of a “crust” around them that helps them hold up though. While reading through the comments, a couple of people claimed that these cupcakes didn’t taste like much. I added in more spices, as suggested by a commenter. When I sampled one of the cupcakes, I still felt like something was missing. Stephen, on the other hand, who is not a fan of pumpkin pie, ate several of these cupcakes throughout the day. I did make some cinnamon whipped cream (which was actually the star of the day), and I felt that the cupcakes were just right after that!

Just a quick note about the whipped cream in these pictures: I made it 20 minutes before we were supposed to leave for my parents house. I didn’t realize that I hadn’t whipped it quite enough, so it looks a bit sad in these pictures. I wish I had pictures of them with the cinnamon whipped cream, but it was already too dark for pictures. I didn’t measure out the sugar, vanilla and cinnamon though, so there’s no recipe for that. Store bought whipped cream will just not be the same in  this instance! Also, these cupcakes will fall when they come out of the oven. No big deal, because that just means there’s more room for whipped cream!

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes
Adapted from Baking Bites

2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
15 oz pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup evaporated milk

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake wrappers.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, brown sugar, sugar, eggs, vanilla and evaporated milk. Whisk in the dry ingredients just until fully combined.
4. Fill cupcake wrappers and bake for 20 minutes.
5. Keep cupcakes chilled and serve with cinnamon whipped cream.

Enjoy!

Top 10 Moments

Last month, Claudia tagged me in a meme. Like the pro blogger that I am, it slipped my mind and I forgot about it, oops. Hopefully I can make up for that by writing out my answers now! Head on over to Claudia’s blog to read her answers.

1. Discovering my passion for baking.
I didn’t always have this passion, so I’m thankful that I was able to discover (in the last few years) that I adore baking. It’s a great stress reliever for me, and I just love feeding the people around me yummy food!

2. Meeting Stephen.
The reasons for this one are pretty obvious: He loves me unconditionally, encourages my passions and is just an all around amazing guy. I don’t think anyone else could ever put up with my crazy.

3. Moving out for the first time.
Yeah, I moved out with Stephen. It was seriously awesome, and I loved those 4 months in his apartment.

4. Moving into the condo.
It was the first time that Stephen and I lived alone. I felt like we had hit the jackpot with the condo we had found: it was affordable, in downtown, and had an awesome kitchen. It was tiny though, so we only lasted there a year.

5. Getting my proof of Canadian citizenship.
This is something that I’ve never blogged about because it’s been a fairly private struggle for me. It’s a bit of a long story that I don’t care to get in to, but just know that when I opened up the envelope containing the proof of citizenship card, I cried tears of joy.

6. Realizing what I want to do with my life.
I don’t know for sure if this one counts as it hasn’t quite happened yet, but I feel a sense of calm knowing that I’ve figured out what the heck I want to do with my life.

7. Getting my current jobs.
I’ve always liked being a nanny, but it’s my current two jobs that made me realize that I LOVE my job. I feel awesome knowing that I can say with confidence that I love my job, since not many people can say the same.

8. Moving on from a toxic friendship.
During the friendship, I didn’t see just how toxic it was for me. The end of the friendship was messy and hurt like hell, but once it was over, I realized how this was the best thing for me. I had felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders. I now have little patience for toxic people in my life.

9. The Women of Wonder Project.
This may not seem like a big deal at all, but the fact that a company came across my blog and then offered me all of these amazing opportunities was a big deal to me. Blogging has been such a good thing in my life!

10. Moving into the townhouse.
Another move? Yeah, they’re big deals to me. We had a hard time trying to find a place to live after the condo, and Stephen looked at this place by himself, then signed the lease without me even seeing the place. I trusted him completely, and with good reason because I love this place! Stephen knows me better than I know myself. Cheesy, but so true.

I feel like if I get married and start having a family, then half the things on this list wouldn’t even matter in comparison. Just thought I’d throw that in there since I feel like my list may seem trivial in the grand scheme of things.

Ten on Tuesday

#101 at Roots and Rings

All about Pasta
1. Red Sauce or White Sauce? I’m not picky, so it just depends on what type of pasta dish I’m trying to make. I typically use more red sauces though.
2. Do you prefer pasta you can twirl or stab? I prefer pasta that I can stab.
3. Baked or boiled? Baked, especially if there’s lots of cheese involved.
4. Do you like meat in your sauce or do you kick it vegetarian style? It just depends on what kind of mood I’m in. I often like to make a meat sauce with a bunch of frozen vegetables thrown in.
5. Where have you had your very best pasta ever? There was this great little Italian restaurant next to a dog groomer's. It honestly was tiny, and there were so many people there. I can’t even remember what kind of pasta I ate, or the name of the place, but it was amazing. Some memory, huh?
6. What is your favorite pasta dish? Just pasta in general! I’m not quite sure if there’s one I favor more than others, but I do make a really good BBQ Chicken Mac and Cheese.
7. Do you serve meatballs when you make spaghetti or just do a meat sauce? Normally, we just do a meat sauce. If we’re up to the extra work, then Stephen will make meatballs.
8. What type (rice, whole wheat, egg, etc) of noodles do you use? Just regular noodles? I have no idea what they’re called, but I don’t use anything different.
9. What type of meats or vegetables do you put in your sauce? Typically just ground beef. As for vegetables, I usually just throw in a frozen mixture that normally consists of peas and carrots and such. Nothing fancy when I’m cooking. (Baking is where I get fancy!)
10. Do you make a “Sunday gravy” to use throughout the week or do you just open a jar of whatever and heat it up? (No judgment on this one!) If I’m cooking, then the sauce is coming out of a jar. If Stephen’s making it, he’ll make the sauce from scratch. He just made an amazing Chicken Americano, actually!
P.S. I’ve never heard of “Sunday gravy” before.

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving here in Canada. A lot of people celebrated and had their turkey dinners last night, but my family isn’t doing it until tonight. I’ll be headed over to my parent’s place in the early afternoon to hang out and eat massive amounts of delicious food. I’m in charge of dessert: pumpkin pie cupcakes, peanut butter chocolate chip bars and pumpkin pie ice cream.

{I roasted a pie pumpkin for the first time this past weekend!}

This year, I’m thankful for the many wonderful things in my life; Stephen, my family, my friends, my house and my job. My list stretches on far beyond this, but we’ll keep it short and sweet today.

Please tell me, what are you thankful for this year?

7 Quick Takes (Vol 56)

1. I only worked 2.5 days this week, which was a welcome change from the 40+ hours I was working the past two weeks. It seems like this week was the one to travel; one family went to Nashville and the other split up to go to Vegas, Victoria and Golden.

2. It’s been a rather dreary week here. Yesterday was so cold, rainy and windy that the wind broke my umbrella when I was going to pick up the boys from school. Hopefully the rain will stop soon so I don’t have to buy an umbrella until next year.

3. Stephen and I both needed some new winter gear this year, so we ordered winter coats online. Keep your fingers crossed for us that we got the sizing right! Oh, and after more than 20 years of surviving cold Canadian winters, I’m finally getting a proper pair of boots. I have no idea why I ever put it off. I really should be buying some snow pants as well (for days spent outside with my nanny boys), but they were a wee bit out of my budget.

4. Stephen has been begging me for 3.5 years to get into video games. I’m not much of a video game person to be honest, so I really couldn’t find anything that I’d be willing to play consistently. I finally caved in and tried out the Sims 3 though, and I have to admit that I’m kind of hooked. Stephen’s just happy that he can take over the TV with his XBox games and I’ll sit next to him on the couch playing Sims on my laptop.

5. We brought our winter duvet this week. The nights have been getting so cold that our summer duvet just wasn’t cutting it anymore. It’s been so hard to get out of bed in the mornings though, because I don’t want to leave that cocoon of warmth!

6. It’s Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend. I’m in charge of dessert (naturally), so I decided to go with pumpkin pie cupcakes instead of an actual pumpkin pie, just to switch things up. I bought a pie pumpkin for the first time this week, so I’m pretty excited to make my own pumpkin puree! Expect a recap of that adventure sometime next week.

7. What are your plans for the weekend? If you’re a Canadian, what are your plans for Thanksgiving?

Brown Sugar Cookies with Browned Butter Icing

Every once in a while, there’s just something irresistible about soft cookies. You know those kinds that they sell at the grocery store? Soft sugar cookies with brightly colored icing that will make you feel sick if you eat more than one? Yeah, those things call out my name every once in a while. I’ve never caved in and bought them myself, but I’ve had them while at work, or if Stephen brought some home. I’ve been wanting to find a similar recipe so that I could make them at home, and when I came across these cookies on Pinterest, I knew I found what I was looking for. They’re really not the same at all, but in my mind, these are so much better.

A friend of mine had a birthday earlier this week, so I knew that it was the perfect excuse to bake these cookies. The dough is rather soft and sticky, so I had to use two spoons to work it into lumps to stick on the cookie sheet. Don’t let that put you off; this dough produces some of the softest, fluffiest cookies ever. The icing was quick to throw together and tasted divine. I believe that the icing is what takes these cookies over the top! I started off putting a bit too much icing on the cookies, so by the end, I had a few naked ones. The recipe produced well over two dozen cookies, so if you’re a heavy icer like I am, then you’ll want to double the recipe. (I totally just invented the word “icer”.")

Brown Sugar Cookies From Scraps of Life

2/3 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla.
4. Fold in the flour mixture and the sour cream, making alternate additions of each.
5. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto lined baking sheet. Bake for 8  minutes, or until golden. Let cool on wire rack.

Browned Butter Icing From Scraps of Life

1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 tbsp milk
1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, brown the butter.
2. Once browned, remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the icing sugar and milk. You’ll want to add enough milk to get it to a spreading consistency, but it will thicken up as it cools.
Cover cookies with some of this icing.
Enjoy!

If you’re feeling generous, wrap some up and share with a friend!

Keurig

Have I mentioned how much I love my Keurig? It’s true, I really do. You see, when I first wake up in the morning, my klutziness is enhanced, to the point where at times, I stumble around like I’m drunk. That’s half the reason why I can’t just wake up and get ready to leave for work; I need time for the klutziness to wear off. With my regular coffee maker, I was constantly making a mess. I always bought whole coffee beans, so I was consistently spilling them (once they had been ground) all over the place. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Then, last year, I started with my Friday Family, and was introduced to the world of one cup coffee makers. They have a fancy Nespresso machine, and while it’ll always be my one true love, it was a bit out of my price range. Luckily, I have the most amazing boyfriend who surprised me one day while we were out shopping with the chance to buy a Keurig. It was affordable, and exactly what I needed.

I can’t even tell you how amazing my Keurig is. I wake up in the morning, stick a K-Cup into the machine (no mess!) and my coffee is done brewing in just seconds (versus the long minutes it would take with a regular coffee maker). I have a little “coffee station” where all of my coffee related items reside in the kitchen. It no longer gets as messy as it used to.

I love getting to pick out my K-Cups. I always order mine online, because I like the variety, and I feel like the price is better than that I can find in stores around here. I’m starting to run low on the variety of K-Cups that I have, but these have been some of my recent favorites:

I don’t have a fancy K-Cup tree, so instead, I just store all of my cups in a basket right next to my Keurig. Easy and accessible!

Speaking of ordering K-Cups online, I recently came across this site, One Cup Connection. They have some of the best prices on the web, offering 24 count boxes of K-Cups for just $12.99.  Visit the K-Cups page to see the wide variety they carry. On the down side, they only ship in the U.S. But for my readers in the U.S., One Cup Connection is offering you a 10% discount. Use the discount code BLOGS to receive 10% off brewers, K-Cups and more! Discount cannot be combined with other offers.  Expires 12/31/2012

Here’s the deal: I wasn’t paid or compensated in anyway for sharing this discount code. I wanted to share this code with others who may be looking to buy a Keurig, or some more K-Cups, because I am always open to new suggestions for places to shop for K-Cups. All of the opinions in this post are truly mine, in fact, I wasn’t even told what to write. I just truly love my Keurig that much. In fact, I was drinking a Jet Fuel K-Cup as I wrote this post!

Do you own a Keurig? If so, what are your favorite K-Cups? If you don’t own a Keurig, what coffee machine do you own (if any)?

Ten on Tuesday

#100 at Roots and Rings

Can you believe that it’s already been 100 weeks of Ten on Tuesday? I haven’t been doing it from the very first one, but pretty darn close!

1. How do you take your coffee? Ideally, with a good bit of flavored creamer. Since creamer is too expensive for every day use, I add a bit of sugar and coffee whitener.
2. Do you prefer soft or crispy chocolate chip cookies? A mixture of both; crispy around the edges but soft in the middle.
3. Do you wear a belt everyday? I actually don’t even own a belt. I really should wear one with certain jeans, but I’m just not a fan of them.
4. What is your favorite color combination? Almost any combination involving pink, although lately, I’ve really been loving the combination of gray and yellow.
5. Do you like sour candy? Yes, I sure do!
6. How often do you do laundry? 2-3 times a week.
7. Did you ever wear braces? No.
8. Are you good at Roman Numerals? Heck no! I get confused after…3. Yeah, I always confuse 4 and 5, so I just don’t deal with it.
9. What is your favorite form of social media? Twitter. I check it at least a million times a day.
10. How do you feel about chin dimples? I’m indifferent toward them.

Ampersands

I’ve always loved typography. You can ask my parents; I’ve loved words and everything related since I was a young girl. Lately though, that love has really blossomed, but I have no idea when my specific love for ampersands started. Whenever I find one that I like, I clip it out and stash it somewhere in my craft room. There’s just something about those curves that inspire me.

This one is stashed on a little shelf with other random bits and pieces, on the edge of a postcard from my blog friend Sue.

This ampersand was clipped from the side of a paper bag from the restaurant that Stephen works at. It resides on my magnetic bulletin board above my craft desk. (Sorry for the language on the pink picture, but it’s really funny!)

Even the background on my laptop is filled with ampersands. Not a whole lot of people understand my love of this curvy symbol. I went to girls night on Friday, and my friends all teased me for loving it, and for even knowing what the official name for it is.

I’ve been wanting to incorporate my love of ampersands into my household decor. Ever since I saw the above picture on Pinterest, I’ve been in love with the idea of having a giant ampersand as a statement piece. Not knowing where on earth I would find one (or if I would ever be able to afford it), I set that idea on the back burner. While out with a friend a couple of weeks ago, I did find an affordable solution.

It’s not the giant ampersand that I wanted, but it’s still rather big; coming up to about knee height. I’m so glad that Stephen is on board with my crazy love, which means I was able to snatch it right up and hang it right in the living room so that I can admire it.

Here’s what I want to know: do you like ampersands? Or how about a different symbol? Did you even know that it was called an ampersand, or did you just refer to it as an “and sign” like my friends do?