Baking's not my bag.

During the holidays many people head into their kitchens to make delectable goodies to share with their family and loved ones. There are so many wonderful recipes floating around the internet that it causes excitement and mistaken baking abilities in people that have no business trying to bake anything. I am one of those folks.

I found this recipe for S'mores cookies and I knew they would be a big hit at the in-laws. All the kiddos love s'mores and cookies so what would be better than slapping both of them together for one mighty fine dessert, right?

This is how they are supposed to look when real bakers who know what they are doing make them.

Property of Cheat Day Cafe.

This is my first batch.  I use the term "batch" loosely.

Not quite right. Let's try this again, shall we?

This is my second batch.

What in the world? How hard can it be to make some danged cookies?  I will admit to forgetting that I was baking anything during the making of the second batch.  Just slipped my mind.  But at least these are starting to look like cookies in the general round shape of cookies.

The only thing that I did differently from the recipe was that I did not have any sticks of margarine. I only had a tub of butter. So I grabbed a big spoon and estimated the required amount. Yes, I said "estimated". A tablespoon is a tablespoon, right? Guess not. I can't believe not measuring out butter exactly could cause this. Paula Deen never measures out her butter and she is famous for her cooking.

I will say that the first batch actually tasted pretty good.  Maybe this weekend I will try it all again. I promise to use sticks of margarine and to actually measure the stuff.  

Woodworking with no bloodshed.

This year I decided to try my hand, really Hubz' hand, at making some presents for my Chick-In-Laws. Last year I found these magnetic recipe holders by Shanty2Chic and fell in love with them. I didn't have enough time to make them last year so I decided to save the idea for this Christmas.

I think they turned out pretty. I can see tons of things we can improve on the next time I convince Hubz to help me make them. Surprisingly, there were no trips to the ER involved, no homeowner's insurance claims, not even a single band-aid was needed during the construction process.  It was a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Here's wishing a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

Love, Pinkie and The Bean

Queen of Procrastination

Here it is that time of year again when I am finding myself behind the proverbial eight ball. It's Christmas and I am running out of time to get all the things done I wanted. For some reason, I can't seem to make myself understand that it is okay and perfectly reasonable to work on Christmas projects in October or November. Knowing me, I shoulda started last January the way I get behind on everything.

I came up with our Christmas card idea a couple of months ago and purchased most of the materials that would be needed to make them. I just finished them Monday night after staying up until 2 am. I am still addressing a few straglers here and there. I could have had these done and ready to mail just like my friend, Tracy, who mails her Christmas cards the day after Thanksgiving every year. Heck, even Tracy was early this year because I received her card the day BEFORE Thanksgiving. I've known Tracy since first grade and this ability to pre-plan has never worn off on me. I don't get it.

I have a gift idea that I stole found on another blog last year that I decided to make for my female in-laws. Well, I purchased the materials for these right after Thanksgiving. They are currently sitting all lined up on my kitchen table waiting to be painted. Yes, they still need to be painted and stained. And a major component of the gifts still needs to be cut with a tool that I don't have and have no access to at all. Hopefully one of my BILs will be able to help me out with this step today. Let's all pray.

Now, I wanted to make enough of these gifts so that I could send them to some of my online female friends that I've made over the years. Ladies...don't hold your breath cause they definitely aren't on the way to you. Sorry.

I am still not finished decorating for Christmas. Yes, it's in 3 days! I know. But I still have big totes sitting all around and not everything is where I want it to be.

We just started and finished Bean's Christmas shopping last night. Um hmmm. Don't give Santa much notice, do I?

I have baking on my list that I want to do but...where's the time gonna come from? I am supposed to be on vacation all week but where am I? I am at work because one of my bosses will be on a Caribbean vacation next week and also suffers from this same inability to pre-plan that I do. Whatevs, dude. Hurry up making those red pen corrections so I can get outta here!

Why do I do this to myself every year? I don't know why I say "every year" because it seems that I find myself in this predicament all the time, all year long. Maybe my new year's resolution should be to teach myself to plan out my projects and stick to the schedule. Is there anything you procrastinate on or are you like me and just procrastinate on life in general?

Thanking the teachers.

I will have to admit that I am almost happy to see Christmas come and go this year. I am so tired from working on our cards and gifts. My back hurts, my fingers hurt. I kept telling myself to get to work on everything and not wait to the last minute but I never listen to myself.  I know that's not the Christmas spirit to have so...Merry Christmas!

I made these coasters for all of Bean's teachers and helpers at her school. They are made with tiles, napkins, felt or cork backing and a ton of Mod Podge. I am still peeling Mod Podge off my fingers. This is a craft project that has been going around the web for almost a year and I'm sorry that I don't remember where I first saw the idea so that I can give proper credit to the person who thought it all up.

It's just a small gift from us to thank Bean's teachers for everything they've done for us and all the small kindnesses they've shown to us.

I'm sharing some pictures of the finished products. I know the pictures are not the best quality but it will give you an idea.

Bean helped me "paint" the tiles with the Mod Podge and she was a very good painter.  She showed off her favorite set to me this morning.  Poor thing looks so pale.  I had to take her to the doctor yesterday for her first sinus infection.  My poor baby.

Thanks to all the teachers out there and in our lives.  Nothing can ever say how much you are appreciated.

Christmas tree huntin'

I seem to have taken a bloggy break it looks like. I didn't mean to at all. I've just gotten wrapped up in  holiday preparations. No pun intended.

It has really gotten cold here. It even snowed here yesterday and some today but nothing accumulated. I know if it has already snowed here then you guys in the really cold places here in the U.S. must really be dealing with a lot of snow. I hope you all stay safe and warm out there.

Here is Bean all bundled up on her way to school one morning. It just cracked me up looking back at her and realizing she could barely move.

Last weekend we went out hunting for our Christmas tree.  At the tree farm, Bean got to hold a Christmas bunny.  I wanted to take this bunny home with us but Hubz wasn't having it.  Fuddy duddy.

After all the huntin' and peckin' and selectin', we decided on the tree.  We headed back up to the little store they have at the farm and got some cookies and hot chocolate.  Then Bean found something new she could climb on and took off for it.

Then she realized she could help Santa drive his sleigh.  I wonder if she would ever tell Santa "move over, I can dood it myself"?  Probably not.

We were almost ready to go when I saw some smaller trees off to the side.  I had wanted to get one that we could put in Bean's room.  I always wanted my own tree in my room when I was little and I think I channeled my inner kid when I decided this was a good idea.  I found one that was only $5 so I started trying to saw it down myself.  After about 3 minutes of that junk, I asked Hubz if I couldn't just kick it over instead.  He took over the sawing.

So now we have our family tree and a Bean-sized version in her room.  I will try and take some pictures of the trees once they are all decorated.  It's been a week and I'm still trying to decide if I should put some ornaments on her tree or just lights.  From the looks of the ornaments on near the big tree, maybe it's better to go with lights only. 

Another first: x-rays!

I got a call at work from Giggles, my MIL, yesterday. She called to tell me that when she picked Bean up from preschool, the teacher explained that Bean had tripped and fell on her hand. It was swollen and red and Bean wouldn't let them look at it or move it. My first thought was "you guys never call just to say hello, do you?"

My second thought was "well, she's about as graceful as her mother and that's not saying much."  I really didn't think much about it at the time. Grandmothers tend to want to baby their babies so I figured it would all be fine with some extra hugs and a bunch of "don't tell mommy about this" candy.

When I got home from work last night, Bean was still favoring her hand. She wouldn't pick anything up with it and wouldn't really move her thumb. So Hubz and I took her to a local urgent care center just to make sure it wasn't broken.  I need to put it out there right now that Hubz said everything was fine and it was just sprained. He wants to make sure you all know that after all the episodes of House he has watched, he came up with this medical diagnosis on his own.

So after a couple of hours at the urgent care, half a bag of Goldfish crackers, and three x-rays later, Bean's hand is officially...sprained. Dr. House Hubz called it.

The nurse wrapped Bean's hand up in a bandage, told her she was a really great patient and sent us on our way.

She looks pretty happy for a kid in urgent care, huh?  But now we have a different problem.  She thinks if we take the bandage off that her hand will fall off.  I don't know if Dr. Hubz had anything to do with that twisted logic or not.  Hmmm....

What I'm thankful for

School pictures.

Here are the first ever school pictures taken of Bean. I think these are so nice.

What have we Bean up to lately?

Since starting my Handmade Holidays series, I haven't talked about Bean much so I thought I'd do a Bean update for you all.

So, what has she 'Bean' up to?

She can count to ten.

She has started calling people "mean heads" when they don't agree with her. I have no idea where mean heads came from or who taught it to her but I guess it could be worse.

I had my first ever parent-teacher conference with her teacher at the Montessori school. She is being recommended to move up to the next class level after the holidays. Her teacher told me that she is a very sweet, VERY social little girl. I have no idea where she gets that from. Definitely not from me. Her teacher said that she can tell Bean is getting a little bored with what's available for her to work on and play with in her classroom and she has had to pull out other things for her to work on. I just hope we can make this all work within our budget so she can keep going. I have seen a real difference in Bean since starting toddler classes there and I know she loves going. We'll see how it shakes out, I guess.

She finally wore the Abby Cadabby Halloween costume I made for her. Her cousin had a costume birthday party and I forced asked Bean to wear it.  I bought an iron-on and made the shirt.  I was going to make some pompom hairbows for her and some wings but when we switched to Minnie Mouse, I gave up.

I made my first ever hair bow.  I think it turned out cute.  I would like to start making and selling them but I have to make myself sit down long enough to do them.  I know the top loops need some work though.  I asked Bean if she liked it and would wear it and she said "no".  Thanks, kid.

Bean has decided she loves to dress up, or even just change clothes.  She probably changes her clothes three times a day when we are at home.  Right after Halloween, we were shopping for a birthday present and I found this costume marked down for $5.  This is a great tip for parents of kids who love to dress up - pick up a bunch of costumes marked down after Halloween and throw them into the dress up box.  Like I said, this one was only $5 while the other dresses they sell at Target or Walmart run about $15 each.  But then you might have to do what I had to this past Friday and fight with her about wearing it out to eat.  If it hadn't been chilly out, I probably would have let her wear it but I didn't think it was a good idea.  She disagreed with me and I was subsequently dubbed a "mean head".  That won't be my last mother-daughter battle over clothes, I'm sure.

Bean got to pick the winners of the giveaways.  If it had been up to her everyone would have won.  She kept picking out the folded up papers and saying "she won...she won...she won."

She has started her Christmas wish list.  We must be on page 145 by now.  Her main wants this week are Hello Kitty makeup, a camera, and one of everything else in the Toys R Us ad.  "You buy me this, Mommy.  You buy me this."  Umm hmmm.  You didn't win the parent lottery, kid.  Sorry. 


What have y'all "Bean" up to?

Halloween Pirate House

In my earlier post today I mentioned a house we went trick-or-treating to last night. The owners made the front of their home into a pirate ship. Here's the picture.

And I couldn't even get my husband to bring down the one and only box of Halloween decorations from the attic.  Sheesh!

Our Halloween 2010

I wanted to share some pictures of Bean in her Halloween costume. I had worked really hard on an Abby Cadabby costume for about 3 weeks when she informed me that she didn't want to be Abby, she wanted to be Minnie Mouse. Wha? But I...okay, let's go to the store.

So we found the last 2T Minnie Mouse costume in town and Bean got her wish.

Introducing Beannie Mouse.

Our first stop of the evening was Nano's where Bean got to see all of her cousins dressed up.  Then it was off to Nanny Red's for a short visit.

Bean was really starting to get the hang of this trick-or-treating business so she was ready to head off downtown to start plundering.  I will try and share a picture of one of the most creative homes decorated for Halloween that I've ever seen.  Hubz has that picture on his phone and I'm trying to get him to send it to me. A family transformed the whole front facade of their home into a pirate ship.  It was amazing.  Hopefully, I'll get the picture and can share it with you soon.

Bean had a very good Halloween.  She was reluctant to take off her costume and even wanted to wear it to school today.  I hope you all had a great Halloween, too.

Happy Halloween!

May your tricks be funny and your treats be plenty.  

Happy Halloween from the Bean!!!!

A look back at my little pumpkin