Jelly Bean Happiness

Goose Girl & Foxy LOVE jellybeans! I bet you didn't know that about them!

Love Hearts

Yesterday admist all my dusting, mopping, pantry tearing apart and vacuuming (with my new hoover), there was a knock on my racing green door and a Valentine's package was placed into my arms.

It was filled with all kinds of wonderful surprises and too many of them! Including the love hearts above. When one is presented with such a gorgeous Valentine's surprise, you know it is time to take a cleaning break, tear into that package and just enjoy all that delicious candy before you. A girl's gotta keep her cleaning strength up, you know!

And, most importantly as you munch away on candy while going through all your surprises, you can't forgot the "Love Heart Eating Rules", you have to read what your heart says before eating it, Mr. Michie forgot that part yesterday, but I reminded him!

Thanks Mom, Dad & Maisy, you as always, are too generous! ♥

Thank You Easter Bunny!

We must have been really good this year, because when we went to bed our basket looked like this:

But, when we woke up, it looked like this:

Thank you Easter Bunny! How did you know I love Rococo's chocolate, especially wrapped in pink gingham?

1st Valentine's Candy of the Season

Last night while at the grocery store, I got my 1st bit of Valentine's candy. These little jellybeans just jumped right into my basket, they must be jumping beans, instead of jellybeans.

They tasted like the good Easter jellybeans, you know what I mean?... YUMMY!  So, last night while sitting on the couch with my sweetie and watching an episode of "Rescue Me" we munched away on Valentine's happiness! I have to go back for more, these would be adorable on top of cupcakes or pressed into a sugar cookie...the possibilities!!

P.S. speaking of hopping, those little bunnies hopped right into their box and hopefully by now are safely in the hands of the lovely Penelope.

Making Me Smile

It is bitterly cold here tonight. My cutie pie picked me up from yoga and walked me home so I wasn't walking on my own in the dark.  Our breath came billowing out in front of us as we strolled, illuminated by the headlights of a car approaching behind us.

We were bundled up, but still shivering and as he kissed my forehead he told me this was true love -- freezing to death so he could walk me home....and for me, it is.  I know that, that simple act of kindness (coming to get me) was one of his many ways to say " I Love YOU!"

We had homemade Italian Wedding soup tonight and after doing the dishes, I plopped down on the couch (my first break today) for a little internet window shopping, and this is what brought a smile to my face on such a frosty frosty evening:

Maple Snow

All this snow has made me think of "Little House in the Big Woods".  I loved reading this books as a child, it was a world I wanted to belong to.

I wanted to be in the sleigh with them as they drove through the snow to their Grandparent's house, for the sap harvest.  Once, they arrived Pa joined the men folk, trudging off into the snow to help start the sap buckets.  Drilling holes into the thick bark to place a pipe that would drain the sap into the buckets below.

The women worked hard indoors for the party that would come that evening under the starlight. At the party to celebrate the winter harvest, Laura and Mary scoop fresh powdery snow into bowls and their Grandma ladles a stream of hot syrupy sap onto their dishes to make snow candy with. The sap hardened on the snow, thus making a chewy maple candy to enjoy.

"Grandma...poured hot syrup on each plate of snow. It cooled into soft candy, and as fast as it cooled they ate it. They could eat all they wanted, for maple sugar never hurt anybody."

I always wanted to do this when I was little, I loved reading about Laura's pioneer girl existence, I wanted to be a pioneer girl myself! I wanted to run through the fields with my hair in braids and my bonnet hanging down my back, the warm sun baking me as I brought Pa his lunch pail.

I found this recipe for "Snow Sugar" on the Laura's Prairie House website:

I have not tried this particular recipe myself, so I will have to wait for the next snowfall and pull out my glass bottle of syrup and get to work!

Halloween Countdown

October is here and All Hallows Eve is on its way. This was a time of important decision making in my childhood - what to dress up as was a daily dilemma? One of my favorite costumes was the year I dressed up like my American Girl Doll, Kirsten, we each went as Santa Lucia. My mom pulled out her advent wreath and we put battery powered candles in it. She braided my hair up in rings and with a white tunic and a red satin ribbon, I looked just like my doll. We were costume inventors in our house.

My mom always made the best Halloween packets so everyone always came to our house to be sure to get their treats. You always knew who's house to avoid, like the lady down the street who always spent Halloween eating candy on her couch, but when you trick-or-treated at her door she gave you a penny and a pencil, I was holding out for the real goods. Pennies and pencils were not handed out at our front door, my mom is the Candy Queen and so her Halloween bags were filled with an assortment of goodies.

Now, is the season where I want to make candy apples, I usually cheat and just melt caramel and then dip in apple slices, just as yummy, but not the same teeth almost breaking experience you get at the fair trying to bite into your first candy apple of the season. That first bite is one to be savored and cherished anew each autumn. So here's to October and blustery days, cold apple cider, candy corn and Indian corn, leaves crunching underfoot, pumpkins and witches and Halloween.

(Click on the image above to go to a candy apple recipe from Martha Stewart)