Scent of Christmas

One of the best parts of Christmas is the smell of cinnamon. 

A friend shared this recipe with me and I want to share it with you. 

Enjoy!

2 cinnamon sticks

2 bay leaves

1/4 cup whole cloves

2 orange peels

2 sections of lemon

4 cups of water

-place all ingredients in a pot and simmer on low 

-add water as needed

-will last for days

Butter

My family eats toast.....ALOT! We also use butter. 

Butter is useless straight from the fridge, so we always have a little dish of butter in the cupboard - until I found this - the cutest butter dish EVER! 

The best part is it came from Superstore and cost $6!

Piece of cake

My friend Rachel bought some adorable cake platters from Costco in the States when she went down in the summer, and I feel in love with them. But our Costco didn't have the same thing in stock, so I sadly let it go.......until....... I was in Winners one night and spotted these cake platters. They are a little different, but every bit as cute, and I love them too! They can be used singly or the can be stacked for cupcakes ect. And when I am not using them to present food I can use them to display my dishes!

The Last Straw

I was at Superstore today and I saw these really cute straws for 99 cents, and I thought, I don't have straws, I should get some for the kids {they are always asking if we have straws} and just to have on hand for get-togethers. Who doesn't love straws! They just make everything taste better. {Oh, and for the record I am a notorious straw bitter. So much so, that if Darren and I share a drink he will ALWAYS get 2 straws. Not for germs, oh, no - but because I bite!}

Anyways, I bought 6 packages {well o.k. I bought 12, but the other six packages were a different color, so it really doesn't count}. It wasn't until I got home and I was looking for a place to put them that I realized that each package contains 200 straws! I am sure that you can do the math - do you think I got enough?! 

Months ago, I bought these 3 metal nesting containers at Liquidation World. I use the biggest one for a trash can in the main bathroom, and the medium one is being used in the kids bathroom and I had the smallest one sitting on the bookshelf, looking pretty but not really doing anything. So I used it. It fit all 6 packages of straws perfectly! Now whenever the kids want a straw, they are ready and available.

A Step Up

I have had this box sitting in my pantry for about 6 months. I wanted to paint it before I put it together. The problem was I wanted to paint it white and my cupboards are not white. This is most obvious when something truly white is placed right up against them. Sometimes white and off white work really well together, but in this case it made my kitchen cupboards look old and dirty. Not the look I am going for. So today, after seeing the box in my pantry for the hundredth time, I decided to paint it gray with some paint that I already had in the house. It turned out nice. And the thing I love about painted wood furniture is that it can easily be repainted another color if ever I want to change the look. For now, at least, it is out of the box and ready to be used.

Holy Fruit Flies, Batman!

This is a repost from last year. Because I am AMAZED with how well this really works I thought I would post it again for those out there who may need help with unwelcome summer house guests and who may not know about this. I must say that I am not one who enjoys the smell of apple cider vinegar, actually there isn't much I like less. Every time I walk into the kitchen I think, WHAT is that smell? EVERY TIME! But very quickly I remember. I would rather put up with the smell than the flies. Enjoy!

So, we have fruit flies. EVERY YEAR! I have tried in vain to rid my house of them (and I am pretty tidy). Yesterday while all of our family was over for Thanksgiving dinner, my sister-in-law, Tracey said, "So do you know how to get rid of fruit flies?" and I said, "No, do tell me please!" She said to put out a little mug of apple cider vinegar with a few drops of dish soap mixed in. So this morning I did just that. I will not post a picture, but I will tell you 1 hour later when I went back to check, I was more than surprised- it worked disgustingly, amazingly well!! I could not believe it. Thank you Tracey. 

This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you

I stopped by one of my favorite stores today. I was in Victoria for a check up on my foot. I had no children with me, so I hobbled into Home Sense. I wasn't planning on buying anything - I was content just to browse.....until....I saw IT! Last week I wrote about a juice dispenser I found. The real story behind it goes like this - I was having a dinner party that night so I searched all over town to find a glass dispenser, when I found the one I posted about last week. I thought that it was the best I had found so far and I liked the way it looked, and i did not have time to search in Victoria, so I went ahead and bought it. When I got it home I realized that you have to turn the value around and around like a screw instead of just one twist, like a tap {make sense}, and it had to go so close to the edge of the table or counter to be able to get a glass underneath it. I thought since I liked it though and I wanted it for the dinner party, I would just live with it. Anyways, guess what I found in Home Sense today - Meet the new and improved.

I really, REALLY had to talk myself into this one, as I JUST bought the other one. But now that I have it home I am so glad I did! {It still dispenses juice at an incredibly slow rate, but I am maintaining that it is better for little ones that way and everyone else will just have to deal with it, because it's CUTE!}

Fun Summer Finds

We love to entertain, especially during the summer. What better to have at a BBQ than lemonade! After much searching I found this juice dispenser from Canadian Tire. I love it - it holds up to 192 ounces/24 cups of liquid, it dispenses juice at a moderate speed, not too fast, which is great for kids {now they don't spill while trying to pour from a pitcher} and best of all it has a really charming old fashioned look.

One thing I was concerned about was the fact that, like some glass juice dispensers, it did not come with a base to stand it on. You have to put it on the edge of the counter in order to put your cup underneath. So I cut out a piece of plastic mesh shelf liner or area carpet non-slip padding that I had left over from other projects - now it sticks really well to the counter and you cannot see it when it is filled with lemonade. The night I bought it we had a dinner party that included 14 children - it passed the test. The kids loved it and I didn't have to refill it once!

The metal caddy was actually found by my friend Rachel while we were shopping at Winners. When she said she wasn't going to get it I scooped it up. I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with it, {so many possibilities - I thought cupcakes would be cute}. Rachel said that she saw something similar that was used for glasses. Great idea!

We are all set now with a cute and practical way to serve beverages at our parties. Enjoy your summer!

Our Kitchen

People always ask - We really do change the chalk board every week, it's part of our home-schooling curriculum.