I’m more creative with icing than words lately.

As you can imagine, I did some baking:

Gingerbreads

Sugar cookies

These cupcakes were heavenly!

Scott and I also put up our very first Christmas tree, which we trekked into the woods to find. It’s a true Griswold tree, in that it takes up half the doorway between the living room & dining room, but it made the house feel like instant Christmas town.

Note: we left 3 feet of tree in the ground, and had to cut off another 2 feet when we got home.

We spent time with family & friends, my whole family gathered on Christmas eve at my parents house for dinner (minus my brother, he’s in Brasil right now) and on Christmas day we drove north to Scott’s parents lake house for a few days of R&R.  Not having to go into work for the week has been great so far.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, but it’s nice to focus on the important things in life for a while, loved ones and sleep.

When you move into a previously loved home you discover things the longer you live there.  Things that are broken, things that were covered up (like how they let their daughter paint words on her walls with puffy paint, in the right light, all I can see is the word Fabulous and LOL in one of the spare bedrooms) and things that they left behind.  We have an old drop leaf table of theirs which I am going to re-do in the spring, Scott threw out probably 20 old light fixtures, and we found an old pair of ladies white ice skates.  Scott was about to toss them, when a light-bulb went on in my head.  No, it wasn’t, hey you might finally nail that triple axle that has always eluded you, it was, hey you could turn these into a Christmas decoration.

Before

Add some time, glitter and ribbon.  Subtract the thoughts of, I should really be cleaning the bathrooms.

And this is the end result.

After

Not bad for a total of $8.00. If you subtract the cost of the house which included the skates.

I plan on spending more time on here in 2012.  There will be lots to share, I’m taking on a photo 365 project and will share my pictures with comments weekly.  My cousin Amanda is also getting married and has asked me to be a part of her bridal party, and my little brother got engaged on Christmas eve (or day, not sure of the details) to his beautiful and sweet girlfriend Monica in Brasil, so depending on when they set the date for, there may be some amazing opportunities for travel stories to be shared! Oh, my best friend is also expecting a baby, and everyone loves pictures of babies!!

We also plan on getting off our septic tank and hooking up to the city sewer, but I promise not to bore you with the details of that!!

Hope everyone, or anyone, who’s still visiting here had an amazing Christmas, and I wish you nothing but the absolute best for 2012~

Our wedding was featured in the Spring/Summer 2012 issue of WeddingBells magazine!!!! What an awesome and priceless way to remember our big day!

If you would like to pick up a copy of WeddingBells magazine, this issue hits newsstands across Canada on December 12th.

That’s right, Scott and I are H.O.’s (Home Owners) and we move in a mere 15 days!

Stolen from the MLS listing

The house was built in the ’70′s and has a lot of mature trees on the property.  Oh yea, that property…. It’s 84 feet x 282 feet, and we have a stream in our backyard!  Which = no houses behind us, ever!

Our stream! Or brook, whichever you prefer

We also lucked out with an above-ground pool and a hot tub, people, get ready for summer parties at our place in 2012!  And y’all can spend the night, cause we have 4 bedrooms.

The pool and hot tub! Oh, and HUGE deck!

I cannot wait to get into the house on November 5th and start making it my own! (By mine, I mean ours) I hope you’ll stick around and give me some feedback on all the little projects I am going to undertake.

First-up (hopefully) Built-in bookcases to surround this little gem.

Love wood burning fireplaces

These make a delicious gift!

Enjoy your retirement Marg!

Happy 2nd birthday Kayla!

Oh how I hope that the lighting will be better in the new house for photographing cookies at night :S  That or I need to spend some time with my camera and the manual……

Back with an actual post another day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was determined to have this turn out nicely, I really took my time and read through the recipe carefully before I even started (I have a history of skipping over parts and having to start over, see, I did learn something good from all that time in the kitchen with mom).  I think it turned out pretty darn good, I even made the crust from scratch and did a lattice top!  The inside was a little watery, I think I will just add a little more flour next time, I had REALLY ripe nectarines.

The recipe I used?  Well one from Canadian Living of course, Raspberry Nectarine Pie, two of my favourites in one pie together!

Classic Pie Dough

Directions:

In bowl, whisk flour with salt. Using pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter and lard until in coarse crumbs with a few larger pieces. Drizzle with water, tossing with fork until ragged dough forms and adding up to 1 tsp more water if necessary.

Divide in half; shape into discs. Wrap each and refrigerate until chilled, about 30 minutes. (Make-ahead: Refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 1 month.)

Raspberry Nectarine Pie

Classic Pie Dough recipe
1 egg yolk
2 tsp coarse sugar
Filling:
5 cups sliced pitted ripe firm nectarines
1-1/2 cups raspberries
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions

Filling: In large bowl, combine nectarines, raspberries, sugar, flour and lemon juice; set aside.

On lightly floured surface, roll out half of the pastry to generous 1/8-inch (3 mm) thickness; fit into 9-inch (23 cm) pie plate. Trim to leave 3/4-inch (2 cm) overhang. Scrape in filling.

Roll out remaining pastry. Whisk egg yolk with 2 tsp water; brush some over pastry rim. Fit pastry over filling; trim to leave 3/4-inch (2 cm) overhang. Fold overhang under bottom pastry rim; seal and flute edge. Brush top with remaining egg wash; sprinkle with sugar. Cut steam vents in top.

Bake on baking sheet in bottom third of 425°F (220°C) oven for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F (180°C); bake until bottom is golden and filling is bubbly, 50 to 60 minutes. Let cool on rack.

Ingredients

SALAD
1 cup Quinoa
1 each sweet red pepper and sweet yellow pepper, quartered
1 zucchini, cut lengthwise in 1/2 inch thick strips
12 asparagus spears, trimmed
1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
3 tbsp chopped cilantro

VINAIGRETTE
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp honey
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp pepper

Directions

Soak quinoa in cold water for 3 minutes; drain in sieve.  In saucepan, bring 1.5 cups salted water to boil; stir in quinoa and return to boil.  Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer until no liquid remains, 12 – 15 minutes.  Remove from heat and fluff with fork; cover and let stand for 5 minutes.  Spread on small tray and let cool for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together oil, balsamic, honey, cumin and pepper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, toss together red and yellow peppers, zucchini, asparagus and 3 tbsp of the vinaigrette until coated. Place on greased grill over medium heat; close lid and grill until charred and tender, 4-6 minutes for asparagus, 10-12 minutes for rest of vegetables. Cut into large chunks and return to bowl.  Add remaining dressing, quinoa, half of goat cheese, the pumpkin seeds and cilantro; stir until combined. Return to tray, sprinkle with remaining goat cheese and serve.

Makes 4 – 6 servings.

Adapted from Canadian Living – June 2011

Heaven.

Our private patio, where we enjoyed several glasses of wine

The hotel also welcomed us with this little treat in our room.

I told Scott he should be making the reservations for this trip!

We almost felt guilty drinking the wine that the hotel set out for my parents, LOL.  Because we had had such a long night on the train, and such a busy week in Paris, we had decided that the weekend was going to be SFA time (sweet f@*! all), so we wandered around town, had some lunch and then a nap!  Lunch was at the little pizzaria across the street, and when we ordered the lunch special for 2, we were not expecting this to arrive!

Pizza Margherita

But somehow we managed to finish it!  The rest of the day was spent on one of the many lounge chairs by the pool, it was a pretty tough day!

yes please!

Our first adventure into another Tuscan town was to Monteriggioni, which is one of Italy’s perfectly preserved walled medieval village, the wall includes 14 towers which were referred to as “a ring of giants” in Dante’s ‘Inferno’.   You can walk along the town walls, and take in the views both externally and internally, this is when I learned that I am now afraid of heights, well, not really afraid, but being up there definitely triggered my vertigo.  I chose to stay on the ground when Scott wanted to go to the top of the second portion of the walk.

3 of 14 walls

The town is big enough to walk around in 30 minutes and it’s impossible to get lost as there are only 2 streets, but the town is exactly how you would picture a Tuscan village.

Of course there are grape vines over the front door

Shopping in the streets

So many options for pasta!

Our second day trip was to Volterra.  I feel that I should note that the roads in Tuscany are incredibly winding and narrow, these days trips involved me having to live on Ginger Gravol just to be able to function once we reached our destination.  Heads up “Twilight” fans, Volterra is an important location in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. In the books, Volterra is home to the Volturi, a coven of powerful and ancient vampires. (The movie, however, was shot in Montepulciano, which we did not make it too.)

Piazza dei Priori

Piazza dei Priori was built in 1208 and is said to be the oldest ‘town hall’ in all of Tuscany.

Teatro Romano, a roman-esque theatre & baths that was unearthed and partially reconstructed by archeologists to give a proper representation of the size and detail that the theatre once had.  We also found this little gem, which we sadly could not bring home. Sorry Scott!

We finally find a suit of armour and its 2000.00 euros

Italy was incredible, and we cannot wait to go back.  We miss our nightly cappuccino’s & espresso’s on the patio, all the amazing foods, including out new addiction, truffle sauce and wine being just as cheap as water!  We saw so much more, but to share ALL of the pictures on here would take up WAY too much of your time.  However, if you are still curious you can check them out on my Flickr page.  See Paris & Italy at your leisure.

"our" table at the hotel restaurant, we miss it.