hey you!  hows it?  you knee deep in winter wonderlanding yet?  i am.  last week, meh, not so much. this week, game friggin on.   the countdown is on mang!  but for me, it's less about days till xmas and more about crafts, gift projects and fun festive things to do with friends and fam.  literally doing the heimlich on our calendar this month to get up and make me some more days already! seeming impossible to fit it all in.  but!!!! those halls......i'm deckin' them.  who's with me? (the crowd goes wild....no...jolly with carols and nog cheers!)

k, so, mason jar snow globes.  love them.  have wanted to make these forevz and i gotta say, the only thing holding me back was not having the perf little bits and bobs right in the moment of whimsy.  you know the moment i'm speaking of.  when you get inspired to make something in particular, your eyes get bigger, cuter, crazier as you rummage around looking for all those bits.  for me, it was not having the perfect little scene to put in the jars.  all the holiday stuff i'd find  wasn't the right size or was too cheesy.  defeated, my crafty halfie would go down and i'd just make something else.  

well, a couple thrifting expeditions this past year have been fruitful in the finding of the cutest vintage creatures for this project. i paid 25 cents for the little angel i've used here and for all three of the deer, 50 cents!!! 

tip: i used to always get annoyed seeing holiday items at thrift stores post xmas, but since i've been wanting to make these for so long,  i'd check out the sad abandoned ghosts of xmas' past.   once in a while i'd find a tiny treasure but realized that it was the winter theme that was what was inspiring me, not xmas, hence the deer in the snow.  so, get clever with what you put inside.  i have a few vintage ornaments that wont fit in any jars i have, so, in a vase, or on a cake stand they go.  get creative. "make a scene!"

don't buy snow!!! make it!!! make your own fake snow for holiday crafts and decor!!

taaaa...daaaaah!!!  aren't they cute?  i hope the pics tell you all you need to know.  if you want there to be water in them, like traditional snow globes, be sure to glue everything down, including the lids. they'll have to be sealed with water proof glue of some sort.  i, however, am cool to make these fresh each year in exchange for the storage space and use of the mason jars throughout the year.  save the snow.  This is such a cute craft to do with my lil man!  we are going to make more tonight.

i couldn't fit all three deer in the jar, so up on top he went.  i loooove him there!!! 

k....now go make you some snow globes! 

guess what i made this snow out of.....a white plastic bags.  yup.  kind of excited about it.  i can't stand plastic bags!!!  i feel so guilty when i stop by the store and do not have my cloth bags with me. i seriously have nine hundred and fifty three thousand cloth bags.  now...what to do with them... hmm... but first... here's a cute repurpose for all those scrunchy plastic bags that make they're way into your home and wish to become something in life...for those plastic bags sick of carrying around other peoples sh*t! ...for those plastic bags that just might want a festive holiday season too... okay..seriously...i could go on for days...

to make:

• take a 3-5 white plastic bags and cut off any coloured logos, you don't want yellow snow. ha. had to.
• roll them all together and cut in thin strips into a big  bowl and keep cutting it up with your scissors or put it through the food processor at that point.  vrooom.  voila!  snow. 
• fluff it up and store it wisely.  little ones, humans and animal friends, can obviously choke on such things.  so, please store in a responsible fashion. also, reuse every year.  please take care in disposing of plastic materials! our fishy friends down the waterways can choke on little bits, as well. 
• please never buy fake snow again silly goose!

potatoes are pretty much amazing.  they are kind of a big deal.  cheap. comforting.  they make cameos on breakfast, lunch, and dinner plates. basically i curse them for existing.  i also want to set up an altar, ancient egyptian style, and leave offerings of butter, chives and herb gardens at it's feet. yes, at it's big potato sphinx feet.

this recipe is super yummy and literally has 3 ingredients (besides salt and pepper).  for reals, i make this for holiday dinz all the time.  it's that spesh, but also is a healthy potato dish and laughs in the face of other potato dishes that lavishly soak themselves in creamy baths of caloric cray cray.  not this one.  you think you are indulging, but really, you are at the heavenly boom boom room of spud paradise deluxoid. 

first, dust off the mandolin you know you have somewhere, but can't really remember where. figure it out, it's easier than you think, and get ready for kitchen fun times. it is very sharp, however, so wait on pouring that second glass of wine until after your spuds are sliced right up. thinner the better. i peel them prior. this recipe just works better without the skins.  how many potatoes you will need really will depend on their size. i have made this dish with every type of potato and gotta say, use your fave. they all work beautifully. have a sack of them by your size and make a mound of coins. i usually start with about 8-10.  

you will also need to mandolin a couple onions.  white, yellow, again, use what you like.

start layering. salt and pepper between each layer. start with 2 layers of potatoes and then one layer of onion rounds. keep that up until your baking dish is pretty full. leave a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch at the top for the stock to bubble a bit...mmm...yum.

then, you will take your stock, in this case, i am using homemade fennel chicken stock, but you can use whatever you've got, and pour it over your potatoes until it is just covering them. now, pop it into the oven covered with tin foil for 20 minutes.  should be all bubbly and delish when you uncover it and throw it back in for another 20-half hour till its golden brown and the edges of the potatoes are slightly curling up. it will cook down till these beautiful layers fuse together and you can cut perfect slices of heaven onto anxiously awaiting plates. you will swear you're eating some creamy gratin, but really, it's just the starches from the spuds and onions coming together in a beautiful symphony of comforting goodness. enjoy!

i was so excited about my morning off of work and kidlets to have a lil bit'a blog time that i almost forgot to eat breky.  so, whipped up a "quickie" and thought i'd share it.  you should try this delish and nutrish version of "the sexy mason jar breakfast"…derived from memory, like all really good recipes are, from a recipe on sexyfoodtherapy.com.  Melissa Ramos.  love her.  seriously love her. check her website...it is so awesome.  anyway, i think the only difference is that i omit the ground flax seed.  i like the texture  better without it, myself.  hers also calls for ground chia, which i always just use the whole seeds and love.  try both.  

ingredients:

2 tbsp chia seeds
2 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tbsp nuts and or seeds (i like a mix of chopped almond, sunflower and pumpkin…or pecan, hemp seeds and walnut…just use what you have)
1/2 a chopped apple
1/4 tsp cinnamon
dashes of fresh nutmeg, and cardamom, a couple grated clove buds in there are very good too.
1 scoop of your fave protein powder (i love the vanilla Sun Warrior)
if you have a sweet tooth, add a packet or a few drops of stevia (sub any sweetner you'd like-doesn't really need it though, in my opinion)

and then just fill with boiling water when you are ready to eat.  give it a good slow stir...needs to be mixed up or the chia will clump up a bit.  yu-um.

soooo goood! you can make a few ahead of time to have on hand to take with you to school or work. just mix the dry ingredients in mason jars and chop 1/2 and apple to toss in before you head out the door.  you just need boiling water to mix in when you are ready to eat.   bon appetite!

i'm tempted just say this...."Put a bundle of fresh lavender on the dash in your car.  your life will change.  wait and see."

no but for real.  trust me.  wink. me smiling....you nodding...  then you smiling the next time i see you.

every time you turn on the heat....oh my josh!  every time you hop into your car on a sunny day...oh my josh!  every time your friends sit shotgun...josh curls his toes in splendiforous olfactory bliss.  mmm.  i am going to go sit in my car on the driveway now.  that is all.

yes, some of the little flower buds with fall into the vent.  yes, like i did, you will think, "oh no, what have i done?"  then, also like me, you will join josh in his toe curling and think...mmm..."totally meant to do that. so good.  smells so good."        enjoy.

my son is obsessed with ice.  he makes magic potions, freezes them, does science experiments...you name it, it looks cool frozen.  this one was fun.  i had snuck some of his old dinosaurs out of his room to make a cute craft i peeped on Pintrest.  i swear he hadn't touched them for over a year.  those prehistoric friends were soooo five minutes ago!  

i glue gunned them to several metal lids of jars and then spray painted them bright neon colours.  i was going to store art supplies in them...but, as they were drying outside, i came out and he had pulled them right off the lids. i was suuuper choked and asked him why the heck he would have done such a thing.  he answered my question with a very similar question inquiring how the heck i could steal his dinosaurs.  touche'.  after some snuggle laughter therapy, we decided to do something really fun with them cause they were definitely dressed up for a party now.  this is what we came up with.  an ice age story.

we threw them in a metal mixing bowl and added a few crystals, some crazy alien looking guys, a magic trinket or two and invented a story about why they would have frozen in there like that. then, we popped it in the freezer and forgot about it for a couple days until his buddy Jasper was over and we pulled it out.  i had them run some warm water over the bottom of the bowl and it slipped right out.  i grabbed them some stools and they stood and played with that chunk of ice for what seemed to be hours.  laughing and reinventing the story over and over....it was so stinking cute.

this happy fun time has spurred on a bright future of frozen possibilities.  i am constantly finding random containers with random objects frozen inside of them. yup.  fun.

since we're all getting to know each other here, i thought i would post a picture i took while on the ferry going from vancouver, bc to the sunshine coast, where i live.  as you can see, sometimes i spend my winters on the un-shine coast.   where are you living? what kind of winter are you having?

I know, I know...it's winter now, what can we do but stay at home where it's nice and cozy.  There is lots, actually.  You just need to be more creative.  For instance, embrace the cold.  Get all layered up, fill those thermoses up with hot cocoa, meet a friend at the beach, for a hike, or at a park and go take pictures of ice, puddles, snow, or whatever weather you gotz going on where you live.  It is awesome to breath crisp cold air and get the kidlets outside for a bit because at the end of it...you get to come home, take a hot bath and cozy on up to take a look at the pictures you took and the memories you made.  The framed images make for a cool prezzie for the friends you go with the following Christmas.