goals

I'm going to make myself a fancy list of goals for this blog so that I don't keep posting random stuff every few weeks. Since it's that time of year and I'm finally making some money, crafts should be happening (:

No excuses.

{ I'll Do It Myself }

I'm going to make myself some decorative Christmas cones. Big ones! But first I need to go out and find some pretty fabric & other supplies.

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Then, in these little guys:

Sugar Scrub with Coconut Oil

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I'm going to make hand made Christmas cards this year. 

With fun fabrics, paper, glue, sparkles, tea, & no patience. I might post some tutorials if they turn out well. 

Don't get your hopes up. 

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Also, this guy is pretty darn cute. I got him for super free at World Market. I might try my hand at ornaments. 

doh (:

{ Looks }

Since short hair is in & growing it out is a pain, I've found a do that I've been wearing almost every day now, so I'll post a tutorial for that.

I've been trying to get pictures of my red lipstick and winged eyeliner that has become a part of my everyday makeup. You can kind of see it in the picture above, but I really haven't had the best of luck with pictures of that or of my outfits that I've been a little bit proud of. I need a partner or a tripod that actually holds my camera.

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Since I've stopped dancing, I've gotten a little -cough- out of shape. I found this workout a while back on pinterest that I loved a lot, so I'm going to take a spin off that and post it so you can print it out and take a stab at it with me, if you'd like.

{ Projects }

From my last post [on my room] : my wardrobe & both desks need some help, also cleaning up apple crates, finding burlap for my cheapo trashcan, find/fix up old lamps, make little mismatched pillows, find the rest of my knick-knacks & books and then probably clean them up. I also have some little wooden chairs that Joshua has kidnapped that we'll get to eventually. Most of this will probably be done in the spring when the weather is lovely.

{ Tasty }

mint layered fudge! 

marshmallow wreaths!

& so many other of my very holiday favorites.

{ Photography }

Someday someone will ask me to take their picture. Until then, vous avez moi. So, I'll take this time to work on photoshop. & no, that isn't going as well as planned.

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So, I have a few ideas. I'll probably come up with a lot more as I go along as well. But honestly, there's no reason I shouldn't be posting more than I do.

chocolate pumpkin pie

Crust

2 cups of graham-cracker crumbs (I used chocolate Teddy Grahams which was about 2 3/4 cup before I smashed them up)

6 tablespoons - butter, melted

1 tablespoon - granulated sugar

2 tablespoons - brown sugar

half teaspoon - salt

half teaspoon - cinnamon

3 ounces - bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used semisweet)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugars, salt, + cinnamon in bowl. Firmly press mixture into bottom & up the sides of a deep, 9 1/2 inch pie dish. Bake until firm (8-10 minutes) 

Remove from oven to spread chocolate over the crust. Return to the oven for another minute, then spread chocolate over the bottom & up the sides - let cool & reduce oven to 325 degrees.

Filling

4 tablespoons - unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 can (15 ounces) - pumpkin

1 can (12 ounces) - evaporated milk

3/4 cup - brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon - cornstarch

1 teaspoon - vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons - salt

3/4 teaspoon - ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon - ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon - nutmeg

ground cloves

1 ounce - semisweet chocolate (finely chopped)

Mix pumpkin, milk, brown sugar, eggs, cornstarch, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, a pinch of cloves + finely chopped semisweet chocolate bits in a medium bowl. Place pie dish on a rimmed baking sheet, pour pumpkin mixture into crust, bake until center is set but still a bit wobbly (which should only take 55 - 60 minutes, but sometimes people turn ovens off halfway through the baking process. Watch out for that.), refrigerate until well chilled (8 hours), then eat that tasty thing.

Hello, Fall!

I have a job! & it is my very favorite. I love everyone I work with, I get to eat some tasty food whenever I'd like, and I get to see loads of pretty happy people. It is food service (which I am horribly afraid of), but instead of dealing with uptight people at a fancy restaurant, I get to deal with high college students who are oh so happy and only have the munchies (: well, maybe not all of them. But almost all of them, and the professors, seem to be in really good moods all the time. Plus, I really just work a tiny griddle and microwave, so it isn't the toughest job in the this whole wide world. But I have been working lots, so there's my next excuse. I worked about 70 hours in the last two weeks - but now I have this WHOLE week off to work on baking and photoshop, which I've already taken a bite out of. Oh! & make this blog quite lovely (more on this later). My next post will have the picture I am most proud of over the last few.. well, ever really.

 But for now, my little hand at baking:

Only a few days till Thanksgiving! This year is going to be a rather small bunch since half my siblings are super duper far away. Which means I get to take over my sister's delicious job of baking. I've commandeered pumpkin. So, Sunday night I spent the night baking some tasty pumpkin and butterscotch/white chocolate cookies. They turned out a lot better than expected, especially with all the wee problems we ran into. I had to bring just about every ingredient with my to my friend's house since I knew he wouldn't have any of it, but I forgot vanilla, butter, and eggs. So we skipped to the store and I bought vanilla, butter, and eggs - and we began! But then I realized I lost my butter and vanilla and he already had plenty of eggs and SALTED butter. So, I left the salt out of the recipe and used Kahlua instead of vanilla. The original recipe had twice the amount of baking soda and half the amount of spices (and I added "all spice" just for fun) and I believe they turned out really well.

They are very soft and almost cakey with how chewy they are. The recipe was for 60 cookies, but seeing as I make ginormous cookies, I probably got about 20.

+ + +

I cooked them at 350 for 12 minutes (:
1 cup (two sticks) - butter
1 cup - sugar
1 cup - brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon - vanilla (or kahlua;)
1 cup - pumpkin (I added a few tablespoons extra)
3 cups - flour
1 teaspoons - baking soda (original recipe asked for 2 teaspoons)
half teaspoon - salt (I left this out because of the salted butter)
2 teaspoons - cinnamon
1 teaspoon - ginger
half teaspoon - nutmeg
half teaspoon - cloves
1 teaspoon - allspice

12 ounce bag (two cups) of whatever flavor baking chips - butterscotch was my very favorite. I also used white chocolate for part of the batch, which wasn't as sweet. You could either grease the cookie sheet or use baking sheets(which I did), I only had to use one and there was no clean up at all after :)

Comment with anything you tried differently!
I'll be making these again, but this time with pictures. Promises, promises!

à la prochaine fois,
Gabrielle