Saturday 28 November 2015

Toddler OCD

Do all toddlers have these OCD tendencies? Blocks, bottles, puzzle pieces...anything that can be removed from something and carefully placed on the floor she will find.


--Siobhan xoxo

Tuesday 24 November 2015

Some Sweet Culinary Adventures

I love working in the kitchen. Cooking comes pretty naturally to me (must run in the family) but baking has always taken some work. I am on an endless quest to make the perfect brownie...still working on that. I have perfected my cookie recipe and a few types of loaves but I am always on the look out for fun and easy new desserts to try.















I have great memories of my mom making ice cream with my sister and I when we were young. So when I inherited the old hand crank ice cream maker a few years ago I knew I had to perfect my ice cream technique. Well I never really got around to it until I had some leftover cream in the fridge and an ice cream loving daughter. So I made some fresh mint ice cream. Oh my goodness, was it perfection! I am a great lover of lemon so sorbet will be my next endeavor...I also may need to hint at my hubz for the ice cream attachment for the Kitchen Aid. The hand crank takes FOREVER! Thank goodness I have a strong left arm from holding Daphne all the time.


I also had some chocolate lying around my cupboards (how in the hell did that happen?) so I froze some banana slices, sandwiched them with peanut butter and topped them with melted chocolate. They need to be kept in the freezer but they are a great little snack to pull out when you need a little sweet treat mid day...and so goshdang easy!



 Remember that Millionaire Shortbread I posted a while back that just fell completely apart? Well my dad still talks about how good it was so I think I'm gonna have to attempt it again. Worst case I make the caramel and pour it on store bought shortbread, or commission my mother to make a pan for me to use. Although the shortbread did taste great so it may be worth it to make another go at it myself before throwing in the shortbread towel. I will let you know how that goes.

I'm sure there will be lots of baking in the next month. What is Christmas without lots of goodies? Truffles, peppermint squares, nanaimo bars...I'm excited! What kind of baking do you do around the holidays?

Friday 20 November 2015

DIY Natural Air Freshner

I've never tried a simmering pot air freshner...which seems ridiculous seeing how easy it was...but I didn't have any seasonally appropriate candles so I figured this would be a good time to try one.

My sister, Holly, said she liked to do apples and cinnamon so I had to try that.


 

Of course it made the house smell like pie. No complaints. 


I also searched the web for inspiration and found the combination of lemon, rosemary and vanilla was popular...so I tried that as well.




The lemon rosemary smelt amazing. Although next time I will use a little less vanilla. I believe the recipe said a teaspoon and me being me I just glugged a bunch in the pot. Measuring, Siobhan, learn about it. The house was quite vanilla-y but once I poured out some liquid and topped it up with water the rosemary and lemon came through and I was very happy with the scent.

Lastly I tried pumpkin spice, cinnamon, and vanilla.

I enjoyed all the smells. It's nice that your able to keep the pot on the stove for days as long as you top the water up as you go.

I saw someone else did a pot with pine needles and bay leaves...sounds Christmas-y....must try once Halloween is over!

--Siobhan xoxo

Tuesday 17 November 2015

Sneaky Pasta Sauce

Made some sneaky pasta for dinner tonight. Not a new concept, I know, but the first time I've tried putting all the veggies in the sauce and blending them to oblivion.



I loaded the sauce with pureed carrot, mushroom, cauliflower, spinach, peppers, zucchini and onion. She didn't know the difference. Sometimes she will eat chunks and sometimes she won't. But she will always eat noodles. 



My mom always tells me how she could always get us to eat vegetables if they were puréed into a soup. Still true. Not for my girl, though. I've tried a few soups and she has taken a bite or two and refused to have any more. 



So this worked great to get those into her diet. 




Friday 13 November 2015

I whine and whine and then...

I whined on and on about Daphne not napping on her own. 

I spent over a month nap training her so I can have some free time. 

Although the nap training did work she has only been able to sleep in her room for about half an hour. Good but not great. I can't get too much done in 30 minutes.

So the other day I put her down for a nap and go to my room to wait out the whimpering. She ended up sleeping for an hour and a half. An HOUR AND A HALF. 

Wow, the things I could get done in 90 minutes! 

Cooking, cleaning, showering, cat manicures........

What do I do? Pass out for the entire time. I needed the sleep, obviously, but my floors don't seem to want to clean themselves. 

It's only happened that one time but now I hold out the hope every time that it will happen again. And when that happens I'll probably nap again...

Monday 9 November 2015

Fuzzy Chairs, New Ride and a dinosaur attack

My hubz has just made me a cuppa and I'm sitting here reflecting on the last week or so. Seems like we have been so busy! I mean, we are always pretty busy with Daphne. She is very active and demanding but soooo dang adorable.


Daphne did get to spend an evening with Nona and Bapa, which I know she really enjoys. I miss her but it gives me a chance to clean the house and myself.


We also had a lovely visit from Mimi and Opa. They brought over some cake and we had a cup of tea and chatted for a couple of hours. They also brought Will's telescope and his old rocking horse.


Oh and a few boxes of (mostly) crap but we found a few gems. Some hockey cards, this magnificent tyrannosaurus and lots of pictures from his childhood.


Will took Monday off for...well no reason really...so we could have a long weekend. We got lots of shopping done. Made our way into toys'r'us and found this really soft chair for MacGuffin Daphne. 

She has taken to pushing it all over the house and putting it in the MOST convenient (can you feeeeel the sarcasm?) spots. No no I can't imagine I would need to get into the freezer while making dinner. You just relax right there, little lady.


Found this AWESOME wrapping paper while picking up a few groceries at Walmart...and with that my Christmas theme has been decided! At least for the presents. I have a few other ideas swimming around this big ol' head of mine for the house and tree.


And last but not least a sneak preview of the new addition to our family. Her name is  Zelda and she is awesome. I will reveal all her glory in a later post. To be honest it's just too dark out to take any pictures of her right now. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Friday 6 November 2015

Chocolate Avocado Poops

Someone posted this recipe on Facebook so I thought I would try it. I believe it was off the Ziplock website.



- Avocado

- Cocoa powder 

- Honey

- Vanilla







Blended until smooth.











And piped onto little poops on a baking sheet. 



The recipe said to put them in the freezer for 4 hours but I've just left them in there while we snack on them.





Really yummy. 



Daphne REALLY liked them. 









She liked it warm, she liked it cold, she liked it frozen.

She ended up being an adorable chocolate mess! 







We're still discovering new places she put her sticky little fingers before I got her into the bath.

Tuesday 3 November 2015

Three years...

Happy 3rd Anniversary, hubz.

Three years ago we had the most fun exciting day I could ever imagine and it's been a great ride since.



Can't wait for all the fun shit that I'm sure is heading our way!

Third anniversary is traditionally leather...so I guess I'm off the buy us a whip...

--Siobhan xoxo

Sunday 1 November 2015

Halloween Night!

I hate to put up two posts in one day but I wanted to put up a few pictures from Halloween!


Daphne is still too young to understand what was going on but we tore up and down the street for a good long time!









She knew we were about to head inside and she was NOT happy about it. She had so much fun running around outside.


We had a Skype with Aunt Holly, Uncle Dan, Miles and Riley. Always good to see them...even though I spend the whole time just trying to keep Daphne from hanging up on them ;P


Pizza and bed for the little lady. 

The rest of us stayed up (too late) playing a board game called Catan: Family Edition and had (one too many) cocktails.

I hope you also had a great Halloween and weekend.

Happy Birthday, Will!

Happy Birthday to my amazing husband, Will!




 I know we will have another amazing year together! I always have a blast with you and I'm sure this next year wont be any different.



We love you so much!



--Siobhan xoxo