Tie Pattern

Hubby and I are both in my brother in law's wedding on Saturday.

Because of this, we will both match in pictures!

The boys aren't in the wedding, but as they are family and will be in pictures it was oddly important to me for them to match my mister and I.

The rental place the guys used for the wedding had little man bow ties, but no actual ties. I really wanted the boys in actual ties as this is what my mister is wearing, so I went on an internet hunt for a pattern and found one here. It's super easy and makes a quality looking tie.

I can't wait to see them in their suits!! I think they're going to look so dashing.

Hopefully Eli will wear the tie...

Sugar Cookies

I am currently up to my eyeballs in wedding baking.

My brother in law is getting married this weekend and, being the crazy nice person that I am, I am making their wedding cake and favors. The favors are doubling as place cards so I am piping all the guests names onto sugar cookie "plaques" along with a heart cookie with the happy couple's initials piped on it.

Like I said, I'm crazy nice!

I'm using a wonderful sugar cookie recipe that you can find here, I use it all the time because it's just sooo tasty!

A great way to use up the scraps from "cut out" cookies like these is to roll the dough together into a log and chill again for a couple of hours (or even overnight), cut it into slices and then proceed per the recipe's baking instructions. Once they've cooled top with jam or sandwich two together with jam.

The buttery cookie with the sweet jam is deeee-lish!

Musical Monday: Meaghan Smith - Summertime

I just love Meaghan Smith. I could listen to her all day everyday!

The video's a little shaky but I was so excited to hear her singing this song, I just had to share!

Peanut Butter Pie

Peanut butter and chocolate are probably my most favourite combinations on the planet.

Pie is a close second (I'm choosing to consider pastry crust and pie filling as a combination).

Peanut Butter Pie with a Chocolate crust? umm, yes... yes please.

I made this up a couple of weeks ago for a BBQ with friends and have been dreaming of it ever since. I'm considering making up another for myself but the fear of an ever tightening bridesmaid dress keeps holding me back...

I made the filling as per Ms Joy the Baker's instructions found here, for the crust you'll need:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (or oreo crumbs to make it extra chocolate-y)

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

In a bowl stir everything together and press evenly over the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate (or spring form pan) Bake at 350 roughly 10 minutes until it feels firm. Let cool & fill with the filling.

...darn bridesmaid dress...

Father's Day & Musical Monday: Jason Aldean - The Truth

We are currently traveling to Ontario!!

It's been a year since our last visit and let me tell you, hubby and I are both ready to feel the comforts of "home" again.

That said, over the next little while it may get quiet around here. I still intend to stop in and share what we've been doing, but I doubt I will be as regular with my postings as I have been. I'll still be around though, so keep on checkin' in!

Because we started our travels yesterday and my head was in a bit of a different spot, with packing and all, we celebrated Father's Day a little early this year.

My mister and I are horrible at celebrating Mother's and Father's Days. We usually don't do too much, if anything, for each other but try to at least get a card with the boys.

This year I printed off one of the free printables from Ucreate (mentioned here) and made cookies (using this recipe). I wrapped the cookie jar with an adorable tie print off from Martha Stewart (here) and was pretty pleased with how everything looked once we were finished.

The boys cards say "top 3 reasons my daddy's the best..." it was a bit of a challenge getting some answers (especially from Eli) but I managed and I thought they were so sweet.

Zac's reasons:

1. He plays freeze tag, hide & seek, pirates and puzzles

2. He shares his dessert with me

3. He cleans up my toys

Eli's reasons:

1. He's nice

2. He plays train tracks

3. He helps with my Thomas (the train) Puzzle

and they colored some pictures on the back of "Daddy & Me".

It was too cute (Eli insisted on also coloring "Mommy & Me").

So in honor of Father's Day I decided this weeks Musical Monday should be my misters favorite song. You Tube wont let me put it on here but you can click here to see it!

Father's Day

Father's Day is coming up, did you remember??

If not check out this post over on Ucreate. Even if you did remember, there are some really fun and cute free printable links to remember for next year!

The Boys First Fondant Cake

I'm making my brother in law's wedding cake in a couple of weeks and am beginning to panic a little.

There was a time when covering a cake with fondant was relatively effortless and I was fairly confident with my ability to do so. Those times are long gone now though.

I'm pretty out of practice with fondant cakes and have taken the opportunity to practice as much as possible over the past few months, but am still slightly intimidated by the wedding cake I have promised to prepare.

Given my nerves I made a cake the other day and covered it with some marshmallow fondant (easy stuff and way better tasting then the "real" stuff!). I could have used some false/dummy cakes but I find they always work out way better then a real cake and I was looking for practice on the real thing.

It worked out pretty decently, but looked incredibly boring once I covered it...

have you ever heard of these?

They are food coloring markers and they are awesome!!

I unleashed the boys on the cake and let them decorate it until their hearts were content and we sent it in to the hub's work.

Not too shabby for their first decorating job!!