Gingerbread house

Babysitting all day, had six kiddos under my care. Over a foot of snow on the ground so we were stuck inside all day.

 What did we do? We made what ended up to be a:

 'Modern Art' Gingerbread House.

Plus we thoroughly decorated these...

...with all of these frosting colors (the kitchen was an absolute disaster). Wish I could babysit for the rest of my life!

Christmas cookies

Feels like Christmas here in Colorado where I spent the day shopping with my mother. The stores were hectic and the traffic unbelievable. On the bright side however, it snowed! We have about six inches on the ground right now, so we spent the evening decorating cookies!

Using the same frosting I used on the apple braid (minus the nutmeg, plus food coloring)...

 ...we turned these plain ol' thangs into...

...these fancy shmancy ones!

Cowl

Finally finished my cowl! LOVE it, so comfy and soft!

Here it is, worn two ways. There are buttons in both corners but it is pretty hard to tell in the pictures. 

I used a full skein of yarn, alternating rows of 30 knits and 30 purls.

It was inspired by this one.

Oranges and cloves

I can't get the smell of oranges and cloves off my hands, not that I'm complaining! The house smells delicious tonight, thanks to the combination of oranges and cloves. It's really such a fantastic smell, embodies fall and winter perfectly. 

In case you have never made them before, they are super simple. Basically you push cloves into the peel of an orange. It does help to punch holes into the oranges where you are going to place the cloves first with a needle, pencil tip, whatever is convenient. That's it!

Easy homemade eggnog

Brrrrr! It's so cold out! Last night and this morning we got plenty of snow once again. Woke up to find this huge icicle hanging off the tree in our front yard and at least six inches of snow on the ground.

It's basically winter already and I saw eggnog in the store yesterday (that is seriously one of my favorite moments of the year!) so I started craving it. In the spirit of my week of having enough free time to cook all day, I decided to make my own eggnog instead! I found this recipe (from Pinterest, obviously) and got to work!

I halved the recipe since I didn't need much, so here is what I used: 

(doubling it serves 8)

2 large eggs at room temperature

1/2 cup of sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 cups of lowfat milk

I whisked the eggs and sugar together until the sugar was dissolved, then added the vanilla, nutmeg, and milk. I simmered the mixture for at least a minute (because of the uncooked eggs) but it was delicious beforehand, so I may be substituting with pasteurized eggs in the future to be able to drink it uncooked.

Yum!

Sweet potato cupcakes

I have a new favorite recipe for fall/winter sweets! Actually, this is pretty much tied with my recipe for apple pie cookies, but it definitely wins for cupcakes.

I roughly followed the recipe found here, but this is what actually went into these cupcakes:

1 cup brown sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup pureed sweet potato
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon

I combined all the ingredients (not in any particular order) then baked them for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. I topped them with my roommate's cream cheese frosting recipe:

8 oz plain cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

These ingredients were blended until evenly combined, and spread on the cupcakes. I sprinkled a little more cinnamon on top and then, finally, enjoyed my cupcakes!

First snow

First winter wonderland of the season...

So much snow!

Hair flowers for fall

I am loving the idea of hair flowers worn in the colder months, especially in appropriate colors. I know that this is something typically associated with spring and summer, but when do you need flowers more than when they are rare in nature?

I'm wearing my own personal hair flower today. I love it so much that i own it in gunmetal too. It's from Eddie Bauer but I don't think they carry them anymore.

Here are some other pretty options...

From Anthropologie

From Zara