Sweet snacks

Today I'm making Christmas Crack, Peppermint Bark and Hard Orange Candy minus the corn syrup (same method as cinnamon, but we use sweet orange essential oil instead of cinnamon leaf).

These will be given to the guys at Sherwin Williams where The Hubbs gets his paint, and some family friends.  The Hubbs wants me to attempt caramels too, but we'll see ;)

Update on Christmas shopping

We're about 1/5 of the way done with fall/winter birthday and Christmas shopping.  This is our 4th year of having a goal where we get all shopping done BEFORE Thanksgiving.  My mom's Christmas gifts are all done except for the body care items I'm going to make.  Today I scored on a BUNCH of stuff at a garage sale and at the Salvation Army...

Nine West real down vest $3.89, retails for about $30

SigTac jacket for The Hubbs (resembles CarHartt) for $4.89, retails for $65

Glo jeans for me $4.89, retail for $20 at Kmart

Chicos shirt for my mom $1.89, retails $55

I also got Little Mister the rest of his 2t wardrobe for early next year for $7.  Tons of light long sleeve shirts, khakis, jeans and more.  I got Miss A 2 footed sleepers and a long sleeve shirt for $1, woot!

What you scored on recently?

My favorite Etsy stores

With Christmas shopping in the early phases around here I've been window shopping on Etsy lately.  Here is a link to my favorites page, well it's actually 6 pages ;)


http://www.etsy.com/people/Smidgerooski/favorites?type=shops&ref=favorites

Enjoy!

Who are some of your favorite Etsy artisans?  Do you have a certain artisan you buy from time and time again?

Creativity abounds

I came across this book last week and surprisingly our library had it.  So, I reserved it and picked it up yesterday.  WOWza is it awesome.  It's going to be awesome for gift giving this year.  So, if you're a personal friend, you'll likely be getting some body/facial care items for Christmas *wink wink*

I've made simple milk baths, soothing soaks, and body scrubs in the past, but this opened my eyes to the many possibilities of toners, cleansers, massage oils, and lots of etc.

On to cooking, or whatever you'd call this...

Watermelon Sorbet

My dad goes to Hermiston, OR a lot for work.  He picked us up 2 LARGE seeded watermelons and they are delish.  Seeded watermelons are the bees knees if you ask anyone in our family :)  So, now that we're all a little full of watermelon I'm going to make some sorbet.

I've adapted this recipe from here

Ingredients

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 5 cups cubed, seeded watermelon

Directions

1. Heat water and sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar has dissolved, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool. Place watermelon in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Whisk watermelon, lime juice and syrup together in a large bowl. Cover and chill in the refrigerator.
2. Pour the chilled mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions until it reaches "soft-serve" consistency. Transfer sorbet to a one- or two-quart lidded plastic container; cover surface with plastic wrap and seal. For best results, sorbet should ripen in the freezer for at least 2 hours or overnight.