whimsical jars

My dear friend Jorica gifted these whimsical jars to me as part of my birthday present, and they were too sweet not to share!

As she explains in the card, each jar represents something different: the jar of love was filled with chocolate hugs, the jar of possibilities was filled with an assortment of pretty, glittery things (all with special meaning), and the last (and my favorite!) was the jar of smiles....which was filled with 22 special notes/quotes/lyrics!

Jorica had picked up an assortment of jars at a dollar store, and painted them with white accents, and little details which I just loved!

This was definitely one of the most thoughtful gifts I received this year!  I absolutely adored it.  Such a sweet and simple gift idea!

p.s.  ♥ kelsey

diy : cozy fall elbow patches

Today's diy comes from my love of oversized, cozy sweaters and all the adorable elbow patches I've been seeing lately on pinterest, my campus, and fashion magazines! 

All you need are: a cozy cardigan, extra fabric, some thread, a needle, scissors, and a cardboard heart cut-out! I purchased my cardigan & red fabric at the local thrift store, so this project ended up being under $10 =]

First, use your heart cut-out to draw on a heart on your coloured fabric. Then line it up approximately with where your elbow should be on your cardigan (Sorry the order of my photos are mixed up!)

And secondly (&lastly), start sewing! This project doesn't require a sewing machine, any crazy sewing skills, or a lot of time. I didn't worry about how accurate my stitches were and still loved how it turned out. Messy and cute and totally original.

And you're done! That's it, so simple and such a cute detail to dress up any plain cardigan and cozy it up!

Stay warm, friends!

p.s.  ♥ clara

tasty tuesday: mini apple crumble

So this creation came about one day when my roommate and I were both having a serious craving for apple crumble, but we didn't want to have an entire pan of it in our apartment since it's just the two of us!  And voila! Mini apple crumbles were born, and then quickly devoured.

They turned out beautifully (and very tasty!), but I would highly recommend using silicone cupcake liners for easier serving.  My paper ones ended up collapsing a bit, and ended up a bit messy.  Baking them in little ramekins would be lovely as well!

I just love the cozy smell of apples and cinnamon baking, and these flavours combined with pecans was just delightful!

mini apple crumbles

yields: approx. 4 mini crumbles

ingredients:

3 medium apples (tart apples are best for baking...I used elstar!)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 TBSP water

1/4 cup chopped Pecans

1/4 cup Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

very small pinch of Salt

2 TBSP Butter

1/3 cup Brown Sugar

1/3 cup rolled cooking Oats

directions:

1)  First peel and chop up your apples, and place in a small saucepan over medium high heat.

2)  Add a the water and cinnamon to this, and let the apples cook until they start to soften (this step will help reduce the cooking time in the oven!).

3)  Add pecans to the apples, and stir.

4)  Once apples are slightly softened (but not fully cooked), remove from heat and distribute into four cupcake tins (or ramekins).  

5)  Now prepare your topping by mixing together the flour, baking powder, salt, brown sugar and oats.  Then cut in your butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

6)  Sprinkle the crumbs over your apples.

7)  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until your apples are nice and soft, and your crumb mixture is crunchy!

If you make these, not only will you have a delicious snack, your house will also smell like heaven.  Seriously it will.

You're welcome.

p.s.  ♥ kelsey

weekly wrap-up: birthdays and brits

My dear friend Jorica and I had "birthday breakfast" together at Provence in Vancouver, which is a lovely restaurant located right on the seawall!  Our birthdays are exactly two weeks apart, and it was nice to get together for breakfast and a walk!

 (their roasted potatoes are the best I've ever had!)

I love the above photo....it almost looks like we're floating in the sky! 

We've been so blessed by SO MANY wonderfully sunny Fall days here in Vancouver!  However the rain did start this weekend, so I'm hoping that it doesn't stick around for long. (Although I was secretly happy to be able to legitimately wear boots and not be sweltering!)

I was also able to see Ed Sheeran perform at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre last week.....and he put on an AMAZING show!  I was truly blown away by his musicality and artistry on stage.  If you haven't heard of him, I encourage you to give him a listen!

p.s.  ♥ kelsey

diy: indian corn decorations

While I was working on our farm last weekend, restocking our Indian corn display, I overheard the sweetest little girl ask her mom if we painted our corn to make it look like this!  I giggled a bit to myself, imagining how long it would take us to do that....and then I had a flash back to Alice in Wonderland where they paint the roses for the Queen!  

So, in case you're wondering, no we do not paint our corn!  And for those of you who are unfamiliar with Indian corn, it's a type of ornamental corn that grows brilliantly coloured kernels....completely naturally!

I absolutely love Indian corn!  It's so wonderfully festive, and they make for beautiful decorations. 

When we sell ours, we always leave the husks (or the "tails") of the corn on since it looks nicer...but sometimes they just fall off!  I had small collection of husk-less corn at the end of the day, and decided that they'd look cute bundled together!

First you'll need a few cobs of Indian corn.

tasty tuesday: mini chocolate bundt cakes

I have a serious obsession with bakeware...and will soon need a giant cupboard to store everything in.  My latest addition to my collection are two absolutely adorable mini bundt cake pans!  My lovely mother picked them up for me...and I was so excited to try them out!  

(Displaying one of the mini cakes is a cake stand that was from a d.i.y. that we did a couple of months ago!)

I used our favorite chocolate cake recipe, and filled each bundt cake pan just over 3/4 of the way full.  It's better to fill it a bit more than you think, because you can always cut of the excess....but you want to make sure that your cake for sure meets the top of the pan!

Chocolate Cake

  (adapted from Our Treasured Recipes by Central Heights MB Church)

Ingredients:
3 cups Flour
2 cups Sugar
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
2/3 cup Cocoa
1 TBSP Vanilla
2 TBSP Vinegar
3/4 cup Margarine (melted)
2 cups Warm Water

a thanksgiving special: turkey cupcakes

Some of you may recognize these cupcakes from my other blog (which has now been "deactivated"), but these were too cute not to share on this thanksgiving Monday.

Now sometimes I find myself in a baking rut...and that baking rut is usually called "chocolate cupcakes".  But I tried this recipe last year, and it has since become one of my new favorites!  

It's a brown sugar pound cake.  To me this sounded dense and potentially dry.  In reality?  Totally not dense, and totally moist. 

I got the idea for the turkeys from I Heart Baking's Blog, they're just so darn cute.  And the icing?  Absolutely divine.  The recipe is similar to your regular butter cream, but you replace the milk/cream with Bailey's.  Soooo good, and a perfect compliment to the cake!