Wedding Bells

A little wedding day slash nativity scene fun in SanD today.

XOXO,

whitney & nicole

Old Town

Went to Old Town SanD today.

Struggled to get some descent pics.

Handlebar mustache. Literally.

Today was kind of a losing day, not to mention the mary jane smelling up our hotel hallway. Wish I could take a picture of smell, you'd all be high with us.

Losing Day,

nicole & whitney 

Day after Xmas

Hello 75 degree weather.
This year the family decided to take a ride on a big jet plane to Cali the day after Christmas!
What did you all do the day after Christmas?

Merry Christmas!!

I am so happy with how my Fall Family Pix turned out that I decided to share my Christmas card with you.

Merry Christmas from my cute lil family to yours!!

XOXO,

Whitney

I'm Pathetic

I'm just going to admit this right now, I am Obsessed with weddings (as if no one knows that I am?) But it's not a big deal because every other 19 year old year is too. I think this wedding video is the best of the best, I want one just like it, can you blame me? Probably going to have one just like it when I get married... okay ya we all know that won't happen, the great video quality part not the get married.. of course I'm gonna get married ha. Also I want to name my daughter coco.. just a thought.

much love,

nicole

Peppermint Bark

I needed to put together a cute gift for some ladies that I visit with. I wanted to do something tasty, cute and easy! I saw this recipe for Peppermint Bark about a month ago and it sounded so easy so I thought I would try it out. Thanks for the super easy recipe Paula Deen. It turned out great!!

 This peppermint bark really took me ten minutes, then about an hour in the fridge. Then all I had to do was break it apart...

 I put them in little bags with some homemade oreo cookies with cream cheese frosting.

 Tied it up with a bow and an ornament and.....

Sure hope my neighbor ladies liked it!!! Tis the season!

XOXO,
Whitney

Peppermint Bark
By Paula Deen

Ingredients

• Crushed candy canes, to yield 1 cup
• 2 pounds white chocolate
• Peppermint flavorings, optional

Directions

Place candy canes in a plastic bag and hammer into 1/4-inch chunks or smaller. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Combine candy cane chunks with chocolate (add peppermint flavoring at this point if desired.) Pour mixture onto a cookie sheet layered with parchment or waxed paper and place in the refrigerator for 45 minutes or until firm. Remove from cookie sheet and break into pieces (like peanut brittle.)

Iphone candy

Maybe I bought myself a little Christmas present last night.
J. Crew is my weakness
Now I have some iphone candy thanx to them.

much love,

nicole

Last minute

Every year I plan out my Christmas shopping. I try to plan out everyone's gifts and my goal is to get all my shopping done during Black Friday and the first week of December. And guess what? It never seems to work out that way. And here I am. Running around like a crazy woman, busy as can be getting all my last minute gifts. I don't hate it though and I don't let it stress me out because I love shopping for the ones I love. Maybe next year I will be a little organized but let's be honest that probably won't happen. I guess last minute shopping is just part of my christmas tradition!

XOXO,
Whitney

How to make a flower.

Alright so here is the flower tutorial I'm sure everyone has been waiting for!!! Guess what those lovely peony flowers I showed you on Friday are made out of, Coffee filters! How exciting is that. Not only are they gorgeous, they are inexpensive to make as well. I got this great flower idea from here.

First go get some coffee filters.

Then you will fold one coffee filter in half at a time.

You will need five coffee filters to make one flower.

Fold the coffee filter in half again.

And then fold it in half again...

And finally fold it in half one last time.

(you will have folded it four times)

Now that you have folded your coffee filter four times.

Cut the edges so the top is rounded like so...

And when unfolded it will look like this.

You should now have 5 coffee filters that look like this.

Now you will want to cut a piece of floral wire and curve the top like a Shepard's hook.

Take one coffee filter and poke the bottom of the floral wire through the center of the coffee filter.

Slide the wire so that the Shepard's hook on the wire is still on the top side of the flower.

Then place a dot of glue where the wire hook is.

Now twist the coffee filter around the hook.

Keep adding the remaining coffee filters one at a time. Twister them together at the top.

Continue adding coffee filters and twisting.

Once you have finished add all the filters wrap floral tap tightly around the bottom of the flower.

The flower should now look like this with the floral tape.

And here you have the finished product! Hopefully your flower turned out like this or even better!

We also wanted to make purple flowers but were struggling to dye the coffee filters with food coloring so instead we used grape juice and it was exactly the color we had hoped for. We put grape juice in a pie tin and then place 5-7 coffee filters in the juice at a time. The coffee filters were left in the grape juice for about 5-10 minutes.

After the coffee filters sat in the grape juice we layed them on old towels to dry.

Purple Peony.

The finished product.

We added wooden dowels to our flowers for more stability in the larger vases.

Well everyone there is my craftiness for the next year, lets be honest crafting is a whole ton of effort, and with that much effort I expect a perfect product in the end. Which is never the case, therefore I never finish any craft I start except for this one because I mean just look at those flowers they are Uhhmazzing... okay so maybe you don't think so, but I do. And plus the purple flowers smell delicious, so make them.

Also I apologize for this post being so lengthy. Sorry.

much love,

nicole

Salted Caramels

The other day my mom gave me some of her candles because she doesn't light candles anymore. (Yes, I am one of the few who does not yet have a "Scentsy" type candle) One of the candles she gave me was the scent "Salted Caramel". Are you kidding me? I love salted caramel anything and now I have a candle so that my house can smell like it all the time. I immediately started using it and the next day my Mr. asks, "This candle makes me want to eat caramel". Ya... me too. Not sure if this is a good thing now! But it inspired me to make some salted caramels that I actually could eat. So the other day when I had about an hour of free time while my baby girl took a nap I decided to make some. I researched different recipes, since I was limited on time I wanted something that was a little easier than others. Then, I found this recipe from Inspired Taste and decided to go with it!

You only need 6 ingredients:
Salt
Heavy cream
Vanilla
Butter
Granulated sugar
corn syrup

 You will definitely need a candy thermometer. I got mine at Walmart for only $3. Totally worth it.
Boil the corn syrup and sugar together. Meanwhile in another saucepan warm cream and butter together until just barely reaches a simmer and remove from heat.

 Cook sugar and corn syrup over medium heat until it reaches 310 degrees. It will look like this. DO NOT STIR!!!

 Remove from heat and slowly add cream/butter mixture. Watch out it might jump out at you. Stir until smooth and place back on heat. No more stirring! Cook mixture until temperature is back up to 260 degrees.

 Line a bread pan with foil or parchment paper and make sure it is well greased!

 Pour caramel into bread pan and let cool for a few minutes. Then sprinkle with course salt.

 Cool completely on a wire rack. When it has cooled peel the caramel from the foil and cut into bite size squares.

 And then.... indulge....

So now I can enjoy the taste and smell of salted caramels.

Here is the recipe!!

Salted Caramel Recipe from Inspired Taste

For these, we used salted butter instead of unsalted, the extra salt in the butter really adds lots of flavor. We also use two types of salt in the recipe, first we used kosher salt, which goes into the caramels and a course sea salt that is sprinkled on top. The caramels themselves are slightly hard, but soften slowly in your mouth. These would make a perfect gift for the holidays!

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hours, 20 minutes

Yield: 35 caramel candies

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 4 tablespoons salted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon course sea salt

Method

1. Line 9x5-inch loaf pan with foil; spray foil with cooking spray.
2. In 1-quart saucepan, heat whipping cream, vanilla, kosher salt and 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat until mixture just begins to simmer. Remove from heat; cover with lid. Set aside.
3. In 2-quart heavy saucepan, mix sugar and corn syrup; add candy thermometer. Cook over medium heat, stirring gently, until sugar is dissolved. If granules of sugar become stuck to sides of saucepan, use wet pastry brush to brush granules down towards syrup. Cook syrup, without stirring, until thermometer reads 310°F. If hot spots or darker areas occur while cooking, gently roll saucepan around to evenly disperse syrup.
4. Remove saucepan from heat. Slowly pour cream mixture into syrup. Syrup will bubble violently so be careful to add cream slowly to ensure syrup does not bubble over edge of saucepan. Stir until smooth.
5. Return saucepan to medium heat. Cook caramel until thermometer reads 260°F.
6. Remove saucepan from heat; remove thermometer. Stir in remaining 2 tablespoons butter until caramel is smooth.
7. Pour caramel into loaf pan. Cool 8 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle coarse sea salt evenly over top. Cool completely in pan on cooling rack.
8. When caramel is cool, remove from pan by lifting foil. Peel foil from caramel. Using sharp long knife, cut into 35 to 40 squares. Wrap each caramel individually with waxed paper or cellophane.

Flowers

Look at what I've been working on. I have some lovely flowers I've been making, and the How-To to come! Have a Happy Weekend!

much love,

nicole

Daily Dose

Well hello there everyone, I just thought I'd give everyone their daily dose of YouTube. Hope these videos don't disappoint.

Is it bad that I'm addicted to YouTube?

Even ridiculous ones like the rapping directly above I feel are worth my time.

Sorry if you have already seen the men and women can't be friends video, but not really sorry.

YouTube has my heart,

nicole

Holly Jolly Mail Time

I love this time of the year. It seems as though every day there is a knock at the door and I am presented with a package. Oh the joy! Today I got a bright orange package that looked something like this:

 Finally! The Christmas cards that I ordered have arrived. Now it is time to address them and mail them. This usually may seem like a daunting task  but I am actually stoked to do it. They turned out perfectly! Remember how a few months back I was all stressed out about getting family pictures taken? Well thanks to my awesome Sis in Law they turned out so cute, especially the ones of my baby girl. I haven't shown anyone the pictures because I wanted the Christmas card to be fresh and new! So hopefully in the next few days I will have them all addressed and mailed out to everyone...

Then I can cross one more holiday task off of my list!

XOXO,
Whitney