Holidays
I suppose since I can officially see December on my calendar it’s time to embrace the holiday season. It took the course of several days, but our tree is finally up & decorated, and most of our household decorations are up.
I’ll be honest, not everything made the cut this year- chasing an almost-walking baby away from breakables and enticing, sparkly, pullable things just isn’t really my idea of holiday fun.
Nonetheless, it’s time for some of my tried & true holiday favorites to start making their appearances.
First up: Sugar Plum Spice Tea, aka holiday in a toasty warm mug. Forget Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride {I do not understand the widespread appeal of that nastiness}. Warning: not gluten free. Yup, glutened tea.
Next up: Evergreen room spray. The only thing that makes an artificial Christmas tree semi-acceptable. I spray it approximately 800 times a day.
Coffee & cute reusable mugs: ok, this isn’t seasonal…but necessary and eagerly welcomed on a daily basis.
Green smoothies: not seasonal either, but gotta counteract all those holiday treats with some power packed nutrients, right?
All things fleece. Blankets, pullovers, and of course, baby goodies. The best.
Notebooks/Journals. Because let’s be honest, my brain isn’t remembering anything on its own any time soon. And there’s LOTS to remember this holiday season!
What are your seasonal favorites?
Holidays
It seems inherently wrong that this morning I was outside in a t-shirt planting flower bulbs and now I’m inside gearing up to decorate for Christmas.
When the sun is shining and I can go outside barefoot without catching pneumonia, I’m definitely not in the holiday mood. But there’s no way I’m waiting until the end of December to decorate just to pack it all up again.
So here goes…
It’s amazing how much stuff you accumulate in a matter of a few years.
Four years ago we had a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, and gifts of whatever we could make out of paper and glue.
Now we have two Christmas trees….and gifts slightly better than paper and glue. 
On second thought, I’m gonna go put off decorating a bit longer…I just can’t do it yet.
Recipe
Recently I’ve gotten more than a few comments/questions about the way my house is painted. I’m guessing it’s from my ‘I love lamp’ post? Who knows.
So with that in mind today I’m channeling my inner Young House Love and sharing some before and after house pictures with you. 🙂
A little background: The husband and I bought our house two years ago, after the rental rates at our apartment sky rocketed and we were tired of being harassed by our neighbor (that’s a story for another day.) We looked and looked and looked and looked. Just as we were about to throw in the towel and succumb to inflation and badgering, we stumbled upon this “beauty”.
Now, this was when we were newly employed, newly wed, and newly grown-ups. We barely had a dime left by the time the process was done- we considered things like beds, console tables, and kitchen chairs a luxury. I’m not kidding: we slept on a mattress on the living room floor, and our high end furniture consisted of mismatching camping chairs. There was a lot of work to be done on the house, and no money to do it.
So what did we do? We worked on it ourselves. Little by little. With the cheapest things possible. [Read: paint & elbow grease.]
And with that I present Casa de SoS:
The Kitchen
Before:
After:
The Living Room
Before:
After:
The Dining Room
Before:
After:
The Office:
Before:
I kid you not on this one. It gets worse:
After:
Oh how I wish I knew of Young House Love before I embarked on this process. I’m pretty sure they’re now my heroes.
Cookie Time
To reward you for suffering through my house pictures, I’ll present to you my award winning cookie recipe. Ok, they’re not award winning. Unless you count “Oh my gosh these are amazing!” as an award.
(Why cookies + house? Because baking cookies before an open house is supposed to make it sell faster!)
Caramel Filled Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookie Recipe
1 c butter, softened
1 c granulated sugar
1 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c egg substitute (or 2 eggs)
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp warm almond milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 c all-purpose flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1 c oat flour
1 c chocolate chips
1/2 c toasted pecans, chopped
12 caramels
(See, even I can leave a recipe unveganfied. Although I had to whole grain it up, I couldn’t help it.;))
Cut caramels in half. Put in freezer for at least an hour.
Cream together butter and sugars.
Add eggs & vanilla.
Dissolve baking soda in warm almond milk. Add to bowl with salt.
Mix in flour 1 cup at a time. Mix just until combined.
[To make oat flour just spin some oatmeal through the food processor. Try not to spill it everywhere.]
Oops.
Steal some cookie dough to eat. (I don’t like chocolate so I like to have some dough before it gets tainted.)
Stir in chocolate chips & pecans.
Feel free to add in double the chocolate chips. (Again, I don’t love chocolate. Let’s move past this. ;))
Tip: toss the pecans in the oven while it’s pre-heating to easily toast them. Just don’t forget about them!
Here’s the fun part.
Make cookie dough balls as you normally would, but stick a frozen caramel candy in the middle and roll the dough around it.
This is a good time to use one of those silicon baking mats if you have one. Parchment paper will work too.
Put the formed cookie dough balls in the freezer for a few minutes (your hands warm them a lot.)
“Clean” bowl while you wait. And yes, by clean, I mean lick. I do not fear salmonella. (Ahem, consider this your disclaimer. This is what I do- not what I suggest as an professional haha.)
Bake at 350 for ~12 minutes. (Cooking time will vary depending on how long you left them in the freezer.)
Let cool for a minute, then move cookies to cooling rack. It’s probably a good idea to spray your spatula with cooking spray (those caramels are sticky little devils.)
The caramel may melt out of the cookie. It’s ok- just stick it back in there. After they cool a little bit you can turn them upside down if you want.
Mmmmm. Delicious cookie with a surprise in the center.:)
YUM!!
Dinner
I whipped up full fancy dinner tonight. Salmon, rice pilaf, zucchini.
Jusssst kidding. Although I did make the zucchini. 🙂
The husband had a catered lunch at work today and was able to snag some some yummy leftovers.
Even though I love to cook, sometimes it’s really nice to have a home-cooked type meal without actually cooking it. 🙂
So this has nothing to do with anything. When I first moved into my house I was obsessed with redoing it and decorating it. Then I got completely burnt out, and didn’t do another lick of work. I still have random edges of unpainted window sills. It’s sad.
Well, buying that lamp yesterday put the bug back in my brain. Time to finish projects & do the finishing touches!!
I need a little inspiration though- tell me your favorite decorating idea or place for ideas. Double triple bonus points if you can give me creative storage ideas. Especially for all the stuff I insist on storing on my kitchen counter……
