The great big fake tree is out of the attic and nicely posed in front of our big window. Sure, I’d love a real tree, but I’m trying to cut back on my carbon or something. This year, I’ve kept the tree simple. Dameian and I hung a bunch of red apples and red mini disco balls plus these favorites.
This first ornament was sent to me by Linda, of Robin’s Egg Blues. She has a lovely blog with lots of pretty blue inspiration. I love the ornament she sent me. It sparkles with glitter and rhinestones and makes a sweet addition to our tree.
My top picks:
This owl kind of reminds me of Fritz.
Christmas tree lights make great backgrounds.
My muse of the day, Sir Roscoe.
I’m just falling apart at the way the lights are reflected in his eye.
Get yourself to your kitchen, pronto. I mean it. This cake is so good. What is it?
Fresh Pear & Apple Cake with Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting.
First, you take lots of pretty photos of your picturesque pears. Then, you peel and chop those babies up. Add apples if you don’t have enough pears. I used three pears and two apples. Mix a bunch of sugar with the chopped up fruit and let is sit and marry for an hour. Go and do something for an hour. I vacuumed.
Next, your gonna measure and mix your dry ingredients. Then crack four eggs and separate the whites from the yolks. Or the yolks from the whites, which ever you prefer. You can decide what you want to do with those yolks…just don’t throw them away. That would be wasteful.
Mix up your wet with your dry. Bake. Cool. Whip up some frosting. I taste-tested my recipe until it was perfect. Not too cream cheesy, just right. Now frost your cake and top with chopped nuts. I used walnuts. They’re good for you.
Look! It’s a piece of cake on my freshly painted chair. Remember, it was blue just a few short days ago?
That’s it. If you like, you can carry your piece of cake around and take pictures of it, or you can go ahead and eat it straight away.
Fresh Pear & Apple Cake with Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
4 cups peeled and chopped pears and apples
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 egg whites
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
1. Mix pears, apples, and sugars and let sit for one hour.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray 13×9 pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper.
3. Mix egg whites, oil, and vanilla. Add to fruit mixture.
4. Whisk flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. Stir in the fruit mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan.
5. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.
6. Frost and top with chopped nuts.
Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
1 8 oz. package cream cheese
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions:
1. Soften butter and cream cheese.
2. Whip all ingredients until soft and creamy.
This time tomorrow, these dining chairs will be a different color – creamy white. I know, I too love the shade of blue in this photo. Looks a lot like my blue bench. However, this color is just a result of a little editing.
The chairs actually are a more dusty country blue. Like this:
Gah, it’s really more country looking than that last photo.
So, I want to paint them white. I think the white will contrast nicely with the pale maple stain of the table. Eventually, my kitchen will no longer be yellow. I’m hoping it will be a calm blue green gray someday. With white bead board all the way around.
While I was taking pictures, I shot these as well.
In case it’s not obvious, I will be making an apple pear cake later this week. Yum!
I’m not going to lie. There was a time in my life when I wondered why in the world anybody would hang a plate on a wall. I mean, aren’t you supposed to eat off a plate or serve mini pigs in a blanket on it or use it as a candle holder? But hang on a wall…it always seemed a little strange to me. Until I started a blog.
Then I began to see lots of people, mostly women I think, hang plates. The installation, that’s what I’m calling it (sounds more artsy fartsy that way), often looks really nice. Whether its a symmetrical appealing installation, or a cloud-like mishmash or plates, I kinda like it. I’m feelin’ it now. Yeah. I like plates on walls. I’m a convert.
Exhibit A:
Guess what? I made the plate hangers myself! Martha taught me. You know, Stewart. I did it just like she said.
All you need is 18-gauge wire, wire cutters, and needle-nose pliers. Making them myself was much cheaper than buying ready-made plate hangers. Those brassy things retail for over $3! Each. I just spent a few bucks on wire and made six hangers. Plus I have a ton of wire left…for some other random project that I’ll nuture and care for and then send off to college.
Here’s a quick and easy way to reuse an old jar.
Yes, I have a gazillion empty glass jars in my pantry. I’m basically like the “Cat Lady” of glass jars. I keep taking them in. Dameian finally put his foot down and said, “Enough already!” So now I’m trying to find other uses for them. Meet my new pen holder. Ain’t she cute.
All I did was take off the label of the formerly known as Tostitos Salsa jar, measure around, cut scrapbook paper to size, glued on. Simple!
There’s another photo of the jar in my last post about my new burlap-covered corkboard.
My craft project collection groweth to ginormous proportions and has taken over my dining table. Apparently, this has been causing Dameian much anxiety. Lucky for me, Dameian decided he wanted to eat dinner at the table again, so he bought me a folding table from Costco to place in my office. Now I just have to get organized. To start, I’m streamlining my desk space with some new accessories.
First is a new cork board. It used to be kind of sorry looking, but for only $1.99, I knew I could fancy it up.
Here it is after a coat of Heirloom White and covered with burlap. Everyone’s doing it you know. The burlap thing.
I printed out the word “treasure” (since I plan on tacking little bits of inspiration to the board) and placed it under the burlap. The burlap is loosely woven, so you can pretty much see through it. Then I traced the word and painted it with white acrylic paint.
*Note: Please do not use a pen to trace your word. The ink will seep right through the paint and you’ll have to apply way too many layers past the point of sanity.
Wrap the burlap around the cork board and staple it on the back. Throw, or gently place, it in your frame and admire.
You can even glue pretty shell beads onto thumb tacks just like I did. It’s easy.
Come back tomorrow for a recycled jar project.
