not me monday

— I have a perfectly valid excuse for not writing a Not Me Monday post last week. Righttt ...

— I was totally faithful to my running schedule last week. I obviously ran five times, and not twice.

— I did not purchase a dress for the ICE Awards instead of making it, like I had planned. I always follow through with all of my ambitious schemes.

— While putting away the Halloween decorations last night, I didn't secretly eye my box of Christmas decor. I am totally rational when it comes to holidays and I don't expect to decorate for another as soon as one passes by.

november to dos

Oh, November. You are so sneaky.

October was a blur. I know, I think I say that every month, but seriously?!

I've been sitting on, mulling over and generally neglecting many projects on my to-do list. And it's time to get my butt in gear.

Goals for November:

• Craft like crazy in preparation for the FemFest Craft Fair, which is taking place on Nov. 29. At the fair, my lovely crafty friend HH and I will have our first table as Magenta Revolution.
• Run at least 100 km. I know that sounds like a lot, but it really isn't when you're training five days a week.
• Paint the candle holder that I blogged about last week and then forgot about.
• Go see New Moon in the theatre. That's right. I said it. Don't judge.
• Celebrate my birthday with Husband and lovely friends.
• Shower sister-in-law A with lots of love at the baby shower that I am co-hosting with sister-in-law C.
• Take some time to relax and enjoy at least one pumpkin spice latte.
• Take inventory of all Christmas decorations and plan accordingly.
• Start working on some handmade holiday gifts.
• Finalize Christmas card list and continue to work on handmade cards. Have all cards ready to mail by the end of the month.

See? This is what you get for doing nearly nothing in October.

come on in

When we have a house, I want to create a spacious, yet cozy, entryway/mudroom for our family and our guests.

With a comfortable bench —

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With some pretty decor —

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With some baskets and bins —

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With some convenient organizational aids —

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With some perfectly placed hooks —

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try it tuesday

For next week's edition of Try it Tuesday, I think I will actually try backing up my computer. Apparently our little Mac isn't pleased about storing more than 5,000 high-res images, and has chosen to punish me for it.

So, for this week's Try it Tuesday, I give you one. single. image.

These are our pumpkins. And this is the only image that survived the upload process this morning. That will teach me to select, "Delete Originals." But I digress.

The project of the week is toasted pumpkin seeds. I've never done this before, but I remember my brother doing it in an elementary class and speaking very highly of the salty snack.

I carved into the tops and, with help from lovely friend T, we scooped out all of the gunk. I then transfered the seeds into a strainer and gave them a thorough rinse. I tossed about 2.5 cups of seeds in a few teaspoons of melted butter, gave them a few generous dashes of salt and then baked them in a single layer on a cookie sheet for 45 minutes at 300 degrees.

Here is a Google Images simulation of the end result:

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Quite tasty too! I give this project 4 stars. I'll definitely do this again next year, but next time I want to experiment with different seasonings and flavours, like garlic, jalapeno or cinnamon and sugar.

Oh, and don't worry, the pumpkins have been carved. I'll reveal those later in the week, when our little Mac is over its temper tantrum.

fa la la la la la la la laaaa

In a flurry of organization last spring, I threw away our Christmas tree. It was a cheapie to begin with, and it had lasted two years, but I had no place to store it and hadn't kept its original box, so it shed needles no matter where I shoved it.

So, I'm pretty excited at the prospect of picking out a new one this year. Yes, I realize it's still October. No, I'm not buying one right away. But I feel like I should be smarter about this purchase than I was when I picked out the last one. So, I'm mapping out some criteria.

1. Get a real tree Sadly, real trees aren't allowed in our apartment building.
2. Get a tree that looks as close to real as possible. And invest in a pine scented candle to simulate the real thing.
3. Tree should be pre-lit. Why deal with stringing lights when we don't have to?
4. Tree should be reasonably sized for our small apartment. Which brings me to this beauty of an invention —

Manufacturers are making half and corner trees now, to suit those of us with less square footage. Isn't that thoughtful?


What do you look for in the perfect tree? Any advice to share?

when i have a house, i will redecorate

I know I've said it before, but I really do love yellow and grey. So much.

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space savers

Those of us who live in apartments or small condos feel each other's pain. Not only is storage often an issue, but simply having space for furniture and decor can be a challenge. Here are a few ideas I've been mulling over —

• Try smaller, more efficient furniture

This post was inspired by this nightstand alternative that I noticed recently on Apartment Therapy — convenient and cute:

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• Make use of every nook and cranny.

And this made me think of other ways we can create more livable space. Have you ever tried these?

Having a higher bed would feel more luxurious, and we'd have double the storage area to boot. The only issue is disguising the totes, since an average bedskirt wouldn't do the job. Maybe a custom-made skirt is in order?

• Get creative.

This also seems smart:

Using over-the-door shoe racks to store miscellaneous junk drawer items, tools, office supplies, or other annoying little things that have no real place.

How do you make the most of your space?

try it tuesday .. er .. wednesday

A recent New York Times dining article suggested substituting eggs in cookie recipes for ground flax mixed with water.

Huh. Well, lets give it a go, shall we?

For this week's Try it Tuesday, I give you yet another cookie recipe. Not very original, I know, but I just couldn't resist trying out this recipe and doing a blind taste test to see who, if anyone, would notice the difference.

This is the flaxy mixture, as seen in the NYT article (spoiler alert: mine did not turn out looking like this):

Here goes nothing. The ultimate goal is to pull one over on Husband; if he can't tell the difference, everybody wins.

Cookies With Flax

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed mixed with six tablespoons water (or 2 eggs)
2 cups chocolate chips

Editor's note: What I hadn't realized is the flax we have is actually whole flax seed, not ground. A quick Google search informed me that the whole seed doesn't actually have the same nutritional value, as they can pass through your system undigested.

The food processor didn't even touch the tiny seeds, so I had to bring out the big guns:

The blender mulched it up perfectly. Then I added the water and tucked it into the fridge for an hour, as the article suggested. When I was ready to add it to the cookie dough, it had become slightly thicker — sort of the consistence of egg whites.

Method
With an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugars and vanilla extract, and then add the flaxseed mixture.

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and oatmeal in a separate bowl, and then stir into the butter mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips. Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for about eight minutes at 375 degrees.

And the taste test? Delicious! I give them a full 5 stars, especially for the chewy texture. Lovely friend A guessed that the secret ingredient was marshmallow because the morsels were so soft. Lovely friend T also gave the cookies the thumbs up, and Husband has been eating cookies like crazy, and still has no idea, until he reads this post, that I made a switch. Success!

what do you think?

I have this cute wicker pillar-candle holder that I picked up at Jysk for less than $10 last year. The problem is, the inside of it has become stained with black soot from the burning candles and I can't seem to clean it.

It wasn't something I exactly invested in, so it wouldn't be the worst thing if I threw it away, but I'm thinking that's just too easy.

So I'm going to paint it and see if I can transform it into something I'll use. But what colour? I've narrowed it down to three — deep red, chocolate brown or sage green.

Readers, you choose!

i swear, i tried it on tuesday

Blogger was in a bad mood last night. As a result, I could not post photos of the Try it Tuesday that I so diligently created when I got home from work yesterday. So, please bear with me and my buddy Blogger; we promise to have a new trial adventure posted before day's end.

not me monday

— It was not WW3 here last week when sweet little Ellie had to go to the vet to be spayed. She looked at me with her loving eyes that said, "Sure, I'd love to get in my carrier and head over to the vet for a mid-week invasive procedure." She did not maim my arm and proceed to pee all over her blanket, which was lining the carrier. It was a very pleasant experience for both of us.

— For the first morning in a long time, I got up before Husband once last week. And, being the perfect wife that I always am, I did not flip on the light in the bedroom, where he was still asleep, and open the door to let Scarley and Ellie in to give him a proper wake-up call. Given the opportunity, I would definitely let Husband sleep in.

— After hours of cleaning and organizing over the weekend, the apartment does not still look like it's been hit by a tornado. I don't get very easily distracted and hop around from project to project, resulting in many, many half-finished tasks.

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