Babies Are Such A Nice...

"Babies are such a nice way to start people"-Don Herold

Ah...if you know me even a just a little bit, you will know how very much I agree with this statement. Babies are the very best. They smell good, a baby snuggle is probably the best thing in the whole world and I have yet to come across a baby I didn't love for one reason or another. Adults on the other hand...

I also love my friends and how my friends are having babies (perfect since I don't want any...at least not any time soon!). I have been invited to over twenty...TWENTY (!!!) baby showers in the last year alone.  Baby showers mean shopping for cute little outfits, ridiculous hats that only a baby could get away with and it also means sweets, treats and anything (like pickles) an expectant mother is craving.

My dear friend Josee' is one of these lovely pregnant ladies. She looks fab, goes to pottery on pretty much her due date and is a total trooper. What else is great about her? Well, she is french but besides that she is not buying into pink and blue or gender neutral things. Her nursery? Monster themed. Her onesies? Hand painted fruit, french words and aquatic life. She is so very creative and so very fun! For her shower I made cupcakes (it was a request!)...pink and blue I did do.. Recipe follows!
-m

Yellow Buttermilk Cuppy-Cakes (adapted from M.Stewart)

This is a go to recipe of mine. They are moist and fluffy and probably my most requested recipe! A few too many ingredients for my liking but very simple and the kind of teat you can mix up by varying the frosting!

• 3 cups cake flour, (not self-rising)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) butter
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 5 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature (that is a crap load of eggs)
• 2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together dry ingredients. In another bowl cream butter and sugar then add whole eggs one at a time and  beating until each is incorporated. Add yolks, and then slowly add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and beating until combined after each. Beat in vanilla. Pour into cups (3/4 full works) and bake about 20 mins or until toothpick comes clean. Let cool and dress to your liking!

Yellow Buttermilk...thanks Martha Stewart, it is no fail!

Cute right?

Starting to be braver!

There Is Nothing-Absolutely Nothing...

"There is nothing-absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing than simply messing about in boats.."

-Ken Grahame

So on a random sunny and moderately windy Sunday, I popped my sister's Mahone Bay Cherry. She has been living in Halifax for around five years and had never ventured out that way.

Mahone Bay is lovely...it was originally a wooden ship building town that has since became well known for it's picture perfect views, three steepled churches and unique shops/eateries that cater to tourists. Picture beautiful, stately houses that are very well kept and painted in stand out colors. They also have a little market and every fall they have a scare-crow festival. Totally awesome.

On this day we hopped into my little white car and just drove till we got there. We stopped and got coffee from a cafe, paroozed the shops, enjoyed the scenery and found a lovely little antique shop. Perfect way to spend an other wise lazy Sunday.
-m

Nice right?

Dad's Ice Cream and Ma's Antiques...gotta say, odd combination and even odder smell..

LOVED. Loved this place!

Wanted to take this chest home with me! Not for sale!

Also wanted to take home everything in it! Clip-on heaven!

So pretty!

It's A Wise Husband...

"It's a wise husband who will buy his wife such fine china that she won't trust him to wash the dishes"- Unknown

Remember that birthday I had in August? The one where I got a stunning amount of china and crystal for almost free while antiquing with my mother? Well...it is all washed and put away in my hutch and I must say it is looking some classy and all  fabulous! I had dinner on it once already. Pasta, for no special occasion (well there did happen to be a handsome boy over for dinner, but does that count as a special occasion?). I just feel like you don't always need a special occasion to use nice things, if you save them you don't get to enjoy them. Same goes for lipstick (why save it for a fancy night out when it perks you right up?), jewelry and anything else people hoard. Plus I have a feeling these dishes have been through a lot before they made it to my little life-vest-orange and lime green kitchen. May as well have Kraft Dinner, on a rainy Tuesday, on fine bone china. Why not right?
-m

Cute right? It's called "Moonstone", I heart diddly heart it!

Wine in crystal. How fab.

Some old papers to frame!

Believe In The Beauty...

"Believe in the beauty of the future"- Sarah Lucero

Two things...
Did you know...

1) Sephora, beautiful and magical and sparkly Sephora has opened in the Halifax Shopping Center! Sigh..how fun, and directly across from MAC. A make-up-a-holics dream.

2) If you save your empty cases, such as lipstick, blush etc, MAC will give you a free lipstick, lipglass or eyeshadow just for being environmentally conscious and turning in six empties. That is my kind of makeup.

As I am on a serious budget (debt free when 26 is the goal!) and as I needed a serious pick-me-up on a very humid, very dull day in Halifax, I hunted in my vanity for six empty cases. I then picked up the Sephora gift card my beautiful friend Lesley gave me for my birthday and headed off in the hopes of a new fabulous self...or at least an upgraded version for the fall! At MAC I met my new soon-to-be best friend Greg (he just doesn't know it yet!). He picked out the perfect berry colored (and free!) lipstick for the fall and turns out all my favs are his favs...like I said we are gonna be best friends. After success at MAC, I crossed the hall to Sephora where I was accosted by a few too many good smells and genius marketing/ packaging ploys. Ah how a vintage themed packaging sucks me in every time. I held my ground though and wound up at the Stila counter transfixed by an eye palette that could go from bare to smokey. Pretty much the perfect ten go-to shades that can be mixed and matched anyway a girls heart desires. Needless to say I whipped put my gift card and the rest is history. Have fun being fabulous!
-m

Stila in Hali, who woulda thunk it?

Woop!

I Don't Want Any Vegetables ...

"I don't want any vegetables, thank you. I paid the cow to eat them for me."- Doug Coupland

The farmers market is absolute madness this time of year. Veggies galore, veggies everywhere and varieties of veg.  that I have never even seen before. Fresh, local and affordable. Fun fact.... Fresh onions murder the eyes when chopped, save your eyes by keeping a match between your teeth (not lit). I promise your eyes will sting no more, I even tested the theory myself.  Happy market-ing and happier onion chopping!
-m

So Pretty!

Varigated purple and yellow beans.. how odd but so delicious!

Dahlias...one of my favorites and at fifty cents a pop how could I resist??

When You Look At A Cupcake....

"When you look at a cupcake, you have to smile"-Anne Brynn

 As many of you know, cupcakes are one of my favorite things. What is there not to love about all the flavor from a favorite treat being baked into an unassuming, single serving that is adorable in every way?  They are the right amount of sweet, each a little unique and for the novice baker the perfect endeavour to practice detailing.  For Kristy's shower I made chocolate mint with mint frosting..mmm. They were delicious! I topped them off with a fresh mint leaf dipped in chocolate with a little para-wax, for a fun and fresh detail. Recipe follows, enjoy!

-m

Chocolate Mint Cuppy-Cakes: (...adapted from Martha S.)

-1.5 cups flour

-3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

-1.5 cups sugar

-1.5 tsp of each baking soda and baking powder

-3/4 tsp salt

-2 eggs

-3/4 cup buttermilk

-3 tbs veg. oil

-1.5 tsp peppermint oil

-1/2 tsp vanilla

-3/4 cup warm H20

Pre-heat oven to 350...mix dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another. Slowly beat two together until mixed. Fill each liner 3/4 full and slap in oven and bake for twenty minutes. Allow to cool and dress however you deem appropriate! I made fluffy vanilla frosting and added mint extract instead of vanilla! 

Choc. mint details!

My skills are getting better...slowly...

Cute!