How To Bake A Pumpkin

  I know a lot of you out there in blog land are getting ready for American Thanksgiving. Are pumpkin pies on your menu?

  I bought some pumpkins at the farmer's market earlier this fall to use in my fall decorating. (Click here & here to read about them.) Since fall is officially over here in Saskatchewan & winter (including snow) has come, my pumpkins were due for a makeover... a cooking makeover that is.

  If you have bought pumpkins & have struggled to peel them before cooking them, then this post is for you, my friend! This couldn't be easier!

What you need:

• A pumpkin (this is for a 4 lb. pumpkin. If your pumpkin is bigger, you'll need more water & leave it in the oven longer.)
• 1 cup of water
• 1 roaster pan or 2 smaller baking pans
• An oven :)

1) Preheat the oven to 350° F.

2) Split the pumpkin in half & seed it. Remove the pumpkin guts (stingy fibres) by scraping the insides with a metal spoon.

3) Fill roasting pan with 1 cup water (more if your pumpkin is bigger). Place the two halves cut side down in the pan. 

4) Bake the pumpkin until very tender. About 90 minutes. Longer for a larger pumpkin. 

This is what they will look like. All blistered & bubbly.

5) Flip them over & scoop the flesh out of each pumpkin half. 

6) Puree pumpkin flesh in a food processor or blender & use as needed. It also freezes well.

Here's visual run down of the instructions (feel free to "pin it"):

Pin It (Aak! this pinning button doesn't seem to be working... I'm still figuring this out. Sorry!)

What do you plan to make with your pumpkin? I use mine for yummy muffins & pies. 

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

Chef In Training

Spool Christmas Trees

  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Most of the stores are decorated for the Season & I must say I'm getting the urge myself! I have a few friends who have put up their Christmas trees & other Christmas decorations. I haven't put any decorations up yet, but I'm busy crafting them!

  I made these sweet little spool trees this weekend. I think they'll look darling in my little girl's room. The colours are perfect.

Supplies:

• Spools - I bought them at Michaels, but you could use vintage ones too. 
• Patterned paper strips
• Twine
• Buttons
• Adhesive & glue - I used glue dots to adhere the paper & buttons. Then hot glue to glue the spools together.
• Die cut stars

I hadn't used hot glue for ages so I got it a little gloppy in places. I got better at it the more I did. :)

Are you getting excited for the Christmas season? I am!!

Enjoy your Monday!

Linkin' Up:

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Craft-o-Maniac

Skip To My Lou

Everything Under The Moon

Tuesday Talent Show

Mommy By Day... Crafter By Night (my Christmas Banner from last week was featured!!)

The Twelve Crafts Of Christmas

Home For The Holidays

Sweet Little Gals

Holiday Highlights

Let Birds Fly

Crafty, Scrappy, Happy

The ArtsyGirl Connection

The Creative Paige

One Artsy Mama

Crafty Mom's Share

Shabby Art Boutique

Classic Sugar Cookies

  Every year I try to start my Christmas baking in November. Some years it happens. Some, it doesn't. This year: so far, so good. :) My goal is to make one Christmas sweet each week & when December rolls around, my Christmas baking is pretty much done! Like I said, we'll see if that happens. At least I'll have a head start, right?

  This week, my little girl & I made these colourful Sugar Cookies to tuck away in the freezer for our Christmas celebrations. You can use whatever coloured sugar you want. I wanted to go for Peacock type colours. We bought these pretty coloured sugars at the Bulk Barn here in Saskatoon.

Classic Sugar Cookies

Makes 3 1/2 dozen. These are soft & chewy unlike a lot of sugar cookies. I also like that you don't have to roll out & cut the dough. Simply roll into balls & dip in pretty sugar.

2/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup butter

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/3 cup sugar for decorating 

(Use regular white sugar if you don't have any coloured sugar. You can also use food colouring to tint your own.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, & sugar. Stir in the eggs & vanilla.

Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Stir into creamed mixture until dough comes together. 

Roll dough into truffle sized balls & dip the balls in sugar. Place them on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

Bake 10-12 minutes in a preheated oven, until bottoms of cookies are light brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.

~~~

When do you usually start making Christmas treats? 

These pretty sugars make me want to go make some other goodies!

~~~

On another note...

  It being November 11th, let's all take some time to remember the men & women who have served our country & given their lives to fight for our freedom. We must never forget that there is a price to be payed for peace & freedom. I'm so thankful that we live in a free country where we are free to worship God. 

  I, for one, will never forget their sacrifice. I hope you won't either.

~~~

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

Just a Girl

Tatertots & Jello

A New Little Family

  Fall is officially over in Saskatchewan. The temperatures have turned colder & we now have snow. Since winter is now here, I took down my fall decorations this week.

  My mom & I also went to a Christmas open house at Creekside Decor & Antiques. The store was decked out in gorgeous Christmas decorations. I picked up a couple of Christmas gifts & bought this little family of owls for myself.

I can't wait to add them to my Christmas / winter decorations!

My kids even helped me name them. :)

Heehee. They make me smile.

Enjoy your day!

Why Do We Create?

  I wanted to take a break from the projects & recipes today & focus back on why we create. Have you ever thought about that? Why do we desire to create beauty... whether it be crafts, furniture makeovers, or tasty recipes? I believe it comes down to us wanting to be like our Creator. God created each of us with unique talents & abilities. Think of it - Not one person on this earth is exactly like another person! The creative power of our Father God is incredible. I believe our wanting to create a little bit of beauty of our own comes from a desire to be like more like God.

  And there's nothing wrong with that. I love how Bailey from Let Birds Fly puts it,

"Exodus 35: 31-33, 35 says, "and the Lord has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills--to make artistic designs of work in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts....He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers-- all of them skilled workers and designers."

To this day, what we do is for the glory of Christ. God gave us skilled hands; with everything we make, craft, create, draw, paint, cook, etc, it should be to the glory of God, because He is the one who commanded us to use our talents." 

   I couldn't agree more! God didn't give us talents for us to squish in the back of a closet & never use. We are to use them, enjoy them, & create with them - to His glory!

Via

So go create something wonderful & know that you're using the gifts that God placed in you to enjoy.

Have a fabulous day!

Christmas Banner

  It's done! Yesterday I finished making the Christmas banner for my friend, Angela's store window. Here's the big reveal!

I'm so in love with it that I HAVE to make one of these banners for myself!

Supplies used:

• Patterned paper - 5 patterns
• Solid cardstock - cream, green, red
• Eyelets
• Stickles - brown
• Ribbon
• Cricut machine. Cartridges used: George & Basic Shapes (rectangle), Winter Wonderland (scalloped tag), & Alphalicious (letters)

A close up while just after I finished putting on the Stickles (glitter glue)

  Fun little tip: While I was oh-so-carefully applying the Stickles, my hand slipped & I got a little glob off the line I was working on. I asked my daughter to quickly run & grab me a Q-tip. She came back with some toothpicks! Haha! It ended up being a fantastic mistake because I tried them & they worked like a charm! The tiny little end made it perfect for tidying up the uneven parts or any stray sparkles. 

~~~

What crafts are you currently working on? I realize that those of you who live in the U.S.A. will be celebrating Thanksgiving soon whereas we've already celebrated that holiday here in Canada. 

Do you decorate for Christmas before American Thanksgiving or after?

Whatever the case may be...Enjoy your day!

Pin It

Linkin' Up:

Tuesday Talent Show

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Craft-O-Maniac

Skip To My Lou

Ta-da Tuesday

Get Your Craft On

Everything Under the Moon

Let Birds Fly

The 36th Ave

Crafty, Scrappy, Happy

Uncommon

Just a Girl

Shine On Friday

The Creative Paige

Tatertots & Jello

Shabby Art Boutique

The Twelve Crafts Of Christmas

Update

This banner was featured on these blogs:

Christmas Crafts To Try

  It's feeling very Christmasy around here. We got our first real snowfall this weekend & the Christmas music has started in full force. I was working on whipping up a Christmas banner for a friend this weekend. I'm almost done & will post photos & details soon.

  As many of you, I've been pinning lots of wonderful craft ideas for Christmas on Pinterest. Here's some crafty projects I plan to do for this Christmas:

You may remember that I found some vintage spools on my last thrifty outing. 

This is what I plan to do with them.

Update: To see the ones I made, click here.

via

I've started on these candy canes already. I'm doing mine in blues & greys. 

I quite like the twine & newsprint too. 

I think sheet music would look divine as well.

via

I have a big bag of pinecones I love to use & have been looking for different ways to incorporate them into my Christmas decor. I have this exact vase & think this is a fun use of spray paint. 

My Christmas colours are blue, white & silver. I think I'll paint them in those colours.

Update: To see the ones I made, click here.

via

I've been diligently saving toilet paper tubes to use as treat packages for my kid's little school friends. 

I have several different ideas like this pinned. We'll see which one I go with. :)

Update: To see the ones I made, click here.

via

So, what were you up to this weekend? Anyone decorating for Christmas yet?

Enjoy your day!

Linkin" Up:

5 Minutes Just For Me

This Weekend's Project

  This weekend, I'm delving into another Christmas project. This one is for a friend of mine who owns a store & wants to hang a "Merry Christmas" banner in her front window. Here's the inspiration:

Source

She wants her banner to actually be two separate banners. One for "Merry" & one for "Christmas".

I'm excited to start working on it! I'll post about it once it's finished.

Enjoy your weekend!

Birthday Card Bliss

  Birthdays... they come every year without fail. They seem to be coming more often the older I get. Why is that? My birthday isn't for another month, but just posting these has me thinking about my upcoming birthday... I think I'll throw myself a party... But seriously, what lady wouldn't enjoy getting a hand made card for her birthday? I know guys aren't always appreciative of this kind of thing, but ladies usually are, right?

I stamped that flourish with brown ink, then used Stickles to "colour" it in.

  Have you got a birthday coming up? Are you doing anything exciting to celebrate?

I'm thinking of adopting my friend Sarah's birthday tradition. 

She invites all her girlfriends out for lunch (last time we all went for sushi). 

We just talk & get to have some fun, girl time. 

I think that would be pretty perfect.

Enjoy your day!

Pinterest Recipe Reviews

  A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about Meal Planning via Pinterest. I haven't tried all the recipes I've planned to yet, but I thought I would do reviews of the ones that I have made. Don't worry, I'm a nice person. I won't be mean.

  I didn't include this dessert in my Meal Plan - mostly because I forgot. We had friends over for dessert on Friday evening & this is what I made:

Reese's Fudge Pie

  I'm all about chocolate & peanut butter. And really, I didn't think I would ever say this, but... this was almost too sweet. It has a fudge layer which is really dense & super rich. A ever-so-small piece is ample! I don't think anyone finished the big pieces I cut. I would make it again, but cut the pieces smaller. Definitely serve with coffee. Note: I made the crust with Oreo crumbs instead of graham crumbs.

  Red Lobster Biscuits

  These get a 10 out of 10. They were amazing. We each had one in hand & put it in our mouths at the same time. You should have heard the sounds coming from us! You must try these, if you haven't already. AND they are super easy to make. I would definitely make them again. Actually, I already have made them again. :)

Cajun Chicken Pasta

  This tasted very good, but I didn't get the cream sauce right - it was too soupy. It was delicious though. Make sure you have everything prepped before you start cooking. Things get cooked & added pretty fast. I would make it again.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

  This is a fabulous recipe! A couple of notes: read the recipe through before you start making it. The instructions are laid out in a different order than the ingredients. That confused me for a minute until I read everything through. Also, be warned that you need to freeze the cream cheese filling before you can use it in the muffin batter. That takes a couple of hours. If you know these tips in advance, you'll have a happy muffin-baking experience. :) I will most certainly be making these again!

Lentil Tacos

  I actually made these just last night. I've been trying to include meatless meals in my meal planning more lately both to save money & because it's healthy to not have meat all the time. These tacos were delicious! Our kids even loved them. I will be making them again soon.

~~~

  So those are the recipes from my Time To Cook! & Sweet Treats boards on Pinterest that I've tried so far. If you haven't signed up for Pinterest yet & want an invite, leave me a comment with your email address & I can send you one! I promise I won't send you any spam. None.... Zero. Zilch. Nada. 

  What have you cooked up from Pinterest lately? I'd love to hear about it! Now that Christmas is less than 2 months away, I'm itching to try some of the crafty goodies I'm seeing. I'll be sure to post about them. Stay tuned!

Update: Click here to read part two

But for now, over & out.

Enjoy your day!

These are not my photos. All images owned by the bloggers who originally posted their recipes in blogland.

Butterfly Wall Art

  Welcome to November! Where has this year gone?? How was your Halloween? I actually ran out of candy this year for the first time ever. I think it was due to the mitt full I was giving to each kid. I was determined not to have any left overs. Nope, no leftovers here. Now just to fend off the temptation from the candy my kids collected at the Fall Festival...

  Awhile ago, my friend Sarah from Prairie Perch asked me to do a butterfly project for her little girl's room. She brought me the frame & a pillow sham that had the colours she wanted me to use. I finally got to it this weekend. Here's what I came up with:

I used my Cricut to cut the butterflies. The butterflies originally had antennas on them, 

but it looked too busy with the layers so I trimmed them off. 

I used mostly paper from My Mind's Eye with a little Echo Park mixed in.

With the pillow sham

I can't wait to see it in her little girl's room! I'm sure she'll be sharing the space when she gets everything in place. 

When she does, I'll link up, so you can all see too.

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

Skip To My Lou

Tuesday Talent Show

Mommy By Day, Crafter By Night

Today's Creative Blog

Crafty, Scrappy, Happy

The 36th Avenue

Fall Festival

  In the last few weeks of blogging, I've been talking about the Fall Festival that our church was planning. Sunday was the big day. My friend, MJ, & I had set up our booth on Friday afternoon. I was full of anticipation to see what people's reaction would be.

  We started the day out getting our kids all costumed up for our church's Candy Carnival. Our little girl was a hula girl & our little boy was a pirate. I got the hula stuff at Dollarama. Most of the pirate costume came from thrift stores (ladies slouchy boots, too-big black pants, & a ladies ruffled blouse). We got the pirate hat, stick-on moustache, eye patch & sword from Dollarama. The parrot came from Wal-mart. The coat is mine. :)

  The kids partied in the gym while we were having church. After church, everyone headed into the gym for a yummy meal of fried chicken, rolls, & salads with home made pies for dessert. Delish!

  There was live entertainment, fun fall decorations, caramel apples, carnival games, popcorn, sno cones, tons of candy for the kids, & of course the booths which were run by different people in our church. 

  Our booth was well received & MJ & I both sold about half of what we brought. I'd call that pretty successful. 

The goodies in our booth. Top row: my offerings. Bottom row: MJ's fabulous creations.

  

  I didn't get a lot of photos as we were kept pretty busy with our customers, but here's a few:

A great time was had by all! I, for one, hope it becomes an annual event. A huge thank you to everyone who helped pull it off!!

Enjoy your Monday!

Linkin' Up:

Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Before & After Home Tour (Part 5) : The Little Girl's Room

  I love how this blog inspires me to get more of my projects done so I can tell you about them. It's wonderful motivation!

  My little princess & I cleaned up her room & hung some new pictures this week. She says, "My room is awesome!" :) I quickly took some pictures to share with you.

  It went from bo-ring to bright & cheery.

  This was actually one of the better rooms in our home when we moved in. It was just bland. We removed the carpet & old navy blind.

  We painted it a pretty pink for our princess-in-training. She wanted a pink & purple bedroom. When I heard that I cringed. I was imagining a hideous, neon shaded room. Fortunately, things didn't turn out that way. Lots of white with only small splashes of purple helped pull this off.

And because we all love a before & after:

  On another note, this weekend is the Fall Festival I've been working so hard to prepare for. If you'd like to see some of the goodies I'll be selling at my booth this weekend, click here, here, here, & here. I'll let you know how things went on Monday. I hope you'll join me.

Enjoy your day!

Linkin' Up:

The Creative Paige

Tatertots & Jello

Playful Decor