Bringing Back the Spirit of Christmas!

I'm huge on the holidays, love everything about them...but it seems somewhere along the way, it's become more about the presents, and less about being together and the true spirit of it all, this year I'm changing that..starting with this weekend.

The tree is up, and decorations are all coming together. This year I want to get ahead of the game so that we as a family can truly enjoy the holidays.  I want to craft until our fingers hurt and bake until our tummies ache, I want to enjoy eggnog and hot chocolate, read Christmas stories and watch Christmas movies,  I want to start new traditions and continue old ones.  As I've said before I concider myself a very lucky person and am so thankful each and every day for all I've been given in life, so this holiday season I plan to make the absolute best of it all.

Our daughter is now old enough to help me creatively craft some gifts, so that's what I plan to do.  What ever happened to the idea of a homemade gift being the best?!   Now-a-days if you make something yourself you're scoffed at or considered cheap...and that is a world I don't want my daughter to grow up in.  It doesn't need to be all about that ipad, ipod, laptop or big screen tv that the 6-12 year olds in this world are receiving, we're living in a consumers world, and sometimes it just gets to be too much!

We are a one income family, and keeping up with the trends of the world is most of the time just not an option, and it worries me a lot sometimes.  I want to provide, but it seems so crazy to buy into the world we live in.


The holidays are about giving, and family, and togetherness and I am going to make sure my daughter knows this <3

My Craft Room

A.K.A The room where the magic happens!

  I consider myself a very lucky lady, we had a spare room that just wasn't getting used as a guest room as it was intended, so we got rid of the spare bed, then ended up just using it to store JUNK in...so that wasn't working either... here is the before:

I'll be the first to admit, it was a disaster.  On the rare occasion that we did have company, this bedroom door stayed closed!  I knew it, and so did my husband, something had to be done, we need more organization and the room needed a purpose.  So we got to work

Empty room under construction:

After:

The picture just does not to it justice, we added glitter to the hot pink wall.. it's much much more sparkly than it appears, absolutely love it!

Close up of the glitter wall:

 Still needs a curtain, but haven't been able to find the right one yet

Under my seating area...to keep me nice and warm

The rest of the L shaped desk & my wonderful Cricut:

Computer desk/area on opposite side of the room, I plan to add a cushion to the seat on the left, it has a hinge for hidden storage

Again:

Pumpkin Cheesecake Mini Muffins

Pumpkin and Fall just seem to go hand in hand, and pumpkin pie happens to be my favourite pie so these were right on the button for me!

MUFFINS:

• 1 15 oz can pumpkin
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

 (Recipe also called for this, seemed weird, I left it out, you be the judge)

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

FILLING:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans) (optional- also left them out)

DIRECTIONS:
 
Preheat oven to 350F, Mix pumpkin, oil and sugar together (I did this recipe by hand as my mixer was in use for another recipe, if you use a mixer combine ingredients on low.)  Add eggs, mix after each, add in vanilla.

In seperate bowl mix together dry ingredients and spices.

Slowly add flour mixture to liquids and mix until well combined.  In another bowl combine your ingredients for your filling--minus the nuts they go on top afterwards.

Grease muffin pans (I used mini muffin pans, what a surprise!) or line with paper, then drop pumpkin mixture by spoonful, followed by cream cheese mixture by spoonful, then use a skewer and swirl them together, then add nuts if you chose to use them.

 

Bake for 20-25 minutes

I somehow managed to not take a picture of them swirled or the completed product, but these are good and perfect for fall, worst thing is they're bite sized so if you're not careful you can get carried away :)  Enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Oh my goodness these were good.  Too good almost as I'm sure they probably are not very low in calories.  The recipe I had for these called for 1 cup all purpose flour, and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, but since I didn't have whole wheat flour I've changed it, wish I did have it maybe then I could pass them as more healthy? haha but delicious nonetheless.


MUFFIN:
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1/3 cup milk
2 medium apples, peeled, cored and chopped

TOPPING:
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions: 
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line with paper muffin liners. (I will note this recipe only made 9 nice sized muffins for me)

2. In a medium bowl whisk together dry ingredients. Add oil, egg and milk and stir just until combined. Fold in apples. Divide batter between the 9-12 muffin cups.
 

   3. In a small bowl, mix topping ingredients (I found a fork worked good to make it crumbly). Sprinkle over unbaked muffins.
 

 

 4. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.