day 149: sour cream coffee cake

sour cream coffee cake

day 149 and we had some sour cream that needed using so i went to my favourite recipe book to find inspiration and sure as eggs pinterest provided me with heaps of alternatives!

ali at gimme some oven provided a sour cream coffee cake recipe.  this recipe looked perfect, all basic ingredients and not too many eggs (our chooky's appear to be on strike down in the fields, either that or they are hiding their nests!).  i have used recipes from ali's blog before with great success so i was more than happy to try another of her recipes.  and just in case you are wondering the coffee in this recipe refers to what you would drink with the cake as opposed to an ingredient of the cake ;)  i pinned this to my recipe must do's board and started work on the cake.

you do need the heavy machinery out for this recipe but i was happy to pull it out today as the cupboards needed some filling even this far into no spend november :)  the cake is a simple creaming of butter, sugar, and eggs followed by the flour mix and sour cream.  the nice surprise with this cake is the topping goes in the middle AND on top!  i made the cake while the rest of the family dished up dinner around me, so it was definitely easy on time to make.

bringing the wet and dry ingredients together

ready for the oven complete with topping inside and out!

the delicious smelling cake

outcome:  35 minutes after going into the oven, out came a yummy smelling cake that looked delicious.  we had it warm as a dessert.  i couldn't believe how light and airy the cake was, i'm guessing that's what sour cream does to a cake.  if you want something light after a meal or in the afternoon with coffee this cake is a must ... it was really hard to say no to another piece and actually most of the family didn't!  this is the perfect cake for taking out to friends and family as well because it's large, delicious, and if you are rushed for time it doesn't need frosting!

thanks once again to ali at gimme some oven for yet another delicious recipe.  i will be making this again very soon to share with others!

day 148: shabby art boutique's simply christmas

xmas organisation diary

day 148 and i have signed up for shabby art boutique's simply christmas for the coming holiday season :)  yeah, i am a christmas addict and totally proud to be one. i love the feeling christmas provides and the opportunities it gives people to do kind and generous things they otherwise might not.

i love the idea of making more progress with my christmas planning in november so december runs more smoothly and a little less frantically!  lucky for me someone is doing all the hard work and putting all the planning and ideas in place so i can follow along ... thank you kerryanne from shabby art!

first on her list of things to do is an A5 planner for all the to do's that go along with christmas ... and again she has provided all the necessary printables for you to download here in pdf form.  what a lovely lady :)

i grabbed an old A5 notebook and ripped out the pages that had been used then glued in the downloads i needed, making muliples of the ones i wanted more of.  i then jazzed up the cover very slightly and added a pocket to the inside cover to put the list downloads into.

the downloadable free christmas organisation pages

the inside cover pocket for the shopping lists 

november weekly printables

a gift list for all the immediate family with a santa's stocking
list hidden underneath :)

outcome:  not too shabby ;) but hopefully shabby enough to make christmas in this household run just that little bit smoother.  i have yet to put any figures onto the christmas budget page (that would be just plain spooky) YET but i am planning on mulling this page over with my dearest and seeing if we can find a happy medium after the argument about christmas spending of course!  honestly, my husband is so laid back and he knows my passion for this time of the year (and our kids) that the argument is more of a roll of the eyes kind of deal where i know i'm wrong but we do it anyway :)

a big vote of thanks to kerryanne and her blog the shabby art boutique for this wonderful concept of simply christmas, i am totally excited to play along and make christmas a far more home made and home baked occasion!  hoping this will make no spend november a little easier too ;)

day 147: free printable tags for christmas

let the christmas wrapping begin thanks to free elf tags from
jenny at allsorts

day 147 and i have started to wrap christmas presents ... not mine i hasten to add but all the presents my sister left when she visited recently and didn't have time to wrap!  my mum and i purchased a whole lot of wrapping paper at a pre-christmas sale a couple of weeks ago and i thought i would make a start on the wrapping tonight.

unfortunately i realised i had no tags and seeing the amount of christmas gifts my sweet, unbelievably generous sister left to wrap i decided this wasn't the night to sit and make a whole heap of them either!  plan b was required ... so i checked out pinterest and as always their was the answer ... freely printable christmas tags for personal use!  my favourites i pinned to my chirstmas is coming board to use over the next month!

for tonight's gifts i eventually chose these ones from jenny at allsorts.  i absolutely loved the little girl and little boy elf and as the presents were for my little girl and my little boy (yes they are CRAZY spoilt by their amazing aunt) i thought they would be perfect ...

step one: print tags

step 2: admire jenny's beautiful girl and boy elves :)

step three: wrap present and attach the
right gender elf ;)

happiness is a pile of smiling elves!

outcome: ... and you know what, they are! they were easy on my computer ink (a consideration given i can't replace any cartridges until december!) and they are just so cute on the packages!  hopefully my sis approves ;)

my sincere thanks to jenny who offers a huge amount of free printables for personal use that are for all different types of holidays.  they are just adorable and i have become her newest follower :)

day 146: hello flower card

hello card

day 146 and i need a special card for someone i know and this one i found on pinterest looked perfect :)  i pinned it to my paper crafts board but unfortunately i can't tell you any more about who made the card even though i spent a lot of time looking for the original post about it on the making memories blog.  if you know where i can find the details of the maker of this card PLEASE let me know, i really hate not acknowledging people's skills :(

for my version of the this card i used the following bits and pieces from my stash given it's no spend november!  the flower was one i made on day four of this journey!

the bits and bobs

five petal fabric flower from day four!

outcome: it's a nice simple card and when i come to terms with my handwriting and doing cursive stuff i will gladly make this card again!

in other pinteresting delights i stumbled across craftaholics anonymous and their twice annual craft gift exchange which seemed too good an opportunity not to miss so i signed up for that as well today!

day 145: no spend november

downloadable cash envelopes from today's nest :)

day 145 and the family and i are embarking on no spend november so we can all spend in december :)  i absolutely love and adore and treasure and embrace christmas ... it truly is my favourite time of the year.  that means i also spend a lot of money on christmas, lucky for me my husband never complains but it does put a strain on our budget big time :(

inspired by all the wonderful budgeting advice on pinterest, i came up with the no spend november motto for our family. literally this means we have decided to give ourselves a weekly allowance for petrol, milk, fruit, vegies, rhooibos, and the emergency items required for the survival kit over the next month.  the remaining money will go to paying off debt and saving for christmas.  more scarily this also means for the next month my pinterest creations will all have to be from stuff we have at home ...eeek!

that said, i am really looking forward to this as we have a ton of food in the freezers and pantry that would otherwise go off because i fail to use it because it's so easy to pop to the grocery store and buy everything for dinner rather than scouring the cupboards and freezers! i hope at the end of november mother hubbards cupboards will be bare and clean of chaos, clutter, and unloved foods.

to help with this task i am going to use the cash envelopes from today's nest that you can print out and make up with a register of money outgoings on the front and a handy pocket on the back for receipts. theses envelopes i found on pinterest and pinned them to my ideas for organisation board. each fortnight during november i will fill these up with my allotted money for each thing and that will be it until the following fortnight.  i am also freezing my credit card and eftpos card so i am not tempted (think of the movie confessions of a shopaholic!)

outcome: SO VERY VERY PENDING, but please wish us the best :)

my thanks to the pinners of pinterest for all the wonderful ideas for making life more frugal but still fun.  it has totally inspired me to curb the spending of this family and get the budgeting of my family sorted.  granted, no spend november is rather extreme but so is doing 365 days of pinterest creations and i am almost halfway through my year!  my thanks also to today's nest for the freely printable envelopes which will no doubt come in very handy for dispersing the fortnightly money so petrol money doesn't get chewed up by the fruit expenditure!

day 144: halloween cheeseburgers

wishing everyone a very happy and safe halloween 

i love home-made burgers, especially with a halloween twist

after such an exciting day yesterday enjoying all that halloween has to offer i wanted to give the kids one final 'taste' of halloween today given it is hallow's eve!  i thought halloween cheeseburgers would be a perfect way to end our halloweening this year.  

i was completely inspired by these jack'o'lantern burgers created by vicki schlechter and showcased on all recipes and loved the idea of family making their own halloween hamburger ... nothing is better to the peeps than personalising their food :)

we set to work with our smoky cheese slices (i never buy these so the peeps thought it was special anyway!) and some paring knives to cut out our own cheese for the burgers. 

granny hard at work creating a masterpiece
jack'o'lantern with her cheese!

a couple of the jack'o'lanterns pre-burger!

the grilling halloween cheeseburgers

the finished product with the hidden halloween lantern
... these were so good, especially after a game of netball!

outcome:  i love home-made burgers (probably my favourite meal) but these were especially fun because everyone felt ownership of their burger and passionate about the design they created.  my sweet husband couldn't just do a cheese face though ... no he had to go the extra mile and attach onion ring glasses to his! it was definitely a fun way for us to finish off our halloween festivities for 2011 :)

 special thanks to vicki schlechter for posting such a great idea on all recipes, they really were a great way to finish off a fun month.

day 143: its halloween party time :)

party at our place ... a pinterest halloween :)

day 143 brings us our much anticipated halloween party .. we are all SO excited for today and the weather has played its part!  i could easily call this my pinterest halloween party because almost everything at the party whether it was decorations, beverages, food, or games it was inspired by the great finds on pinterest. today, for example, i made:

 chocolate covered strawberry ghosts inspired by the ones from taste of home

these were a huge hit with everybody :)

the mummy game from all free crafts

this was HILARIOUS!

the popping pumpkin was a huge success with the kids and was inspired from martha stewart's website

thank you to my sweet husband who huge this game up :)

as were the felt pumpkin canvases with the littlest peeps i made yesterday :)

finished canvas to be proud of!

i had lots of little allergens at this party so pinterest was incredibly awesome for finding gluten free, nut free, and egg free recipes, such as:

egg free chocolate cupcakes from simply recipes, egg free vanilla cupcakes from sweet rosie, and egg free double chocolate chip cookies from art of dessert

the food at the party was a HUGE hit!

outcome:  i LOVED the party and so did my family.  the food was amazing for being egg free, the games were fun, and the people were exceptional. it was wonderful bringing families together and sharing heaps of fun with our kids who thought it was better than a birthday party (and i'm no slouch with their birthdays!) which was the best compliment i could have been given today.  hopefully everybody who was their also had a great time.  below are a couple of photos that i wanted to share :)

its a shoot out at 275 :0

my little pollyanna or casper's girlfriend as we like to
call her ;)

chillin between games :)

the start of the eyeball race!

polly in the scarecrow game :)

some of the weirdest scarecrows i have EVER seen!

i'm off to sit and relax with a cuppa and my newest treat, a mug rug given to me by one of the sweetest people i know AND its a halloween one ... thank you dee i LOVE it :)