This is part of the series A Creative Start To The New Year- read part one here

image: Lo&

I love January & February because I see them as a time when I can set my intentions for the year. I love feeling energized and inspired after a little time off, and taking the time to lay out plans to make sure I’m doing what I can to have an amazing year.

What’s talked about less at this time of year is that it’s also the perfect time to consider the way we think about our goals & plans for the year, and how that can impact our daily life, and what we decide is worth spending time on. So much of the time our concept of goals or plans have an external or “end results” focus. They’re things that we can physically observe or experience and feel rewarded by. Job changes, hair styles, losing weight, travelling- these aren’t negative things, but they’re only one way of thinking about the coming year and how we can spark change for ourselves.

This year I made a point of shifting my focus from the end result focused changes to changes I wanted to make to my experience of the coming year. These are what I call expansive & experience focused goals, because they allow for more room to breathe and flexibility in how you carry them out.

Some of My Experience Focused Goals for 2012:

• Do what I can to have a rested body & positive mind every day
• Strengthen my relationships with my family & friends
• Get my body stronger and explore healthy savoury foods I can make at home
• Spend more time on handmade & cooking
• Add more personality into my home’s decoration
• Make choices that are stress reducers to decrease my experience of GAD
• Give myself unscheduled time in the evening’s and weekend’s

Moving my focus to goals and priorities that are experience focused has made a huge difference in how I think about the coming days & months. Knowing that I’m an over achiever, when I make goals focusing on end results they can quickly change into rigid schedules that aren’t realistic, but that I’ll still feel guilty about not living up to. We’re taught to goal set in this scheduled, To Do list way during school, and while checking items off a list is effective for some things, ultimately our lives are the sum of our everyday experiences. Thinking about the little choices you can make to have more of a fun, authentic and energizing daily experience can have an incredible impact on your overall happiness- but it does takes a little effort to change the way we usually think about what a goal is.

So far, I’ve felt like my effort has been well spent. Switching the focus of my goals to from end results to experiences means that I’m putting value on how I approach and feel during every day, which helps me make choices that are great for me in the long term but that I’ll also benefit from right away. So far that makes it both a stress reliever, and a fun experiment!

1. Think about the end result focused changes that you’ve been wanting to make, and try to see the experience behind it. Is there a feeling that you’d like to have as a result of achieving that goal? Is your end result goal an attempt to schedule in a bigger experience? (e.g. Reading two books a month could be part of a bigger goal to keep learning or to explore the lives of historical figures you’re curious about)

2. Is there a way you can make that experience your goal, and then schedule different ways to achieve it every month? Separating out the feeling you want to get from how you’ll build that into your life means you can work toward your bigger goals in ways that are flexible and grow with you. You’ll still have that item on your To Do list to cross off, but if your new goal is to keep learning and previously you were going to read two books every month, you could listen to an audio book while walking to get your groceries and go to a free lecture at your local university. This flexibility in approach will help make it enjoyable to stick with throughout the year.

3. Schedule a “check in” reminder every one or two months. I’ve found that digital reminders on my smartphone are the best way for me to remember these maintenance tasks without cluttering up my daytime, and scheduling them to reoccur is extremely easy. When my reminder goes off – mine are always on a Sunday afternoon – I’ll take a detour what I’m doing to make a pot of tea and sit down for 15 – 30 minutes to look at my expansive, experience focused goals and schedule fun ways I can meet them every week of the month.

4. Make a reward system you can love! Using a results focused way to motivate yourself is an amazing way to get moving in the short term. If you were trying to blog more projects like I am, for a month you could “earn” a drink from your favourite coffee shop for every week that you posted a project on your blog, and then you could change the motivator after a month or move it to another goal you want to focus in on.

5. Remember that your life is about experiences, not items on a check list. Even though I’ve married myself to my day planner, sometimes I lose track of what I want my experience of daily life to be as my routines and looming deadlines take over my focus. Creating expansive goals that focus on my experience is a monthly reminder to ground myself in how I’m living every day, and to remind myself that adventure and possibility are always waiting for you to invite them in.

For each post in A Creative Start To The New Year I’ve asked a special blogger I love
 to share her thoughts and today’s post features Diana from Our.City.Lights:

Advice & Insight from Diana of Our.City.Lights:

“2011 was a year for recovery and planting roots. After overhauling my life completely from the people I shared my time with to my diet, I’m ready for 2012 to be a year of growth. I don’t have exact goals, but documenting my vegan and sometimes raw diet through Instagram has been a huge step for me. What I put in my body determines my day & sharing the healthy choices I’m making through photography has made sticking with my new habits something I look forward to”

BLOG // INSTAGRAM // GADCHICK

Thanks for sharing Diana, I love how sharing your vegan diet through Instagram
has added another element of something you love to your day & helps you stay motivated :)

I love getting organized and when it comes to planners, day timers, agendas… whatever you call them, I’m a sucker for a great system that will keep me motivated through the week.   Inventing my own system is the most fun for me, and while I’ve posted a DIY planner tutorial that I used to make my 2011 planner, the problem with making a planner for yourself that will last you a year is that you have to bind it yourself, and make it durable enough to last a long time. That’s a big stumbling block for many people, so when I made my 2012 planner I wanted to come up with an approach that more of you could try for yourselves :)

This tutorial will show you how to take a Moleskine Notebook and turn it into a weekly & monthly view planner that you can start at any time of the year, and need almost no supplies to make! It’s completely customizable and uses every last page of the notebook, but each week is infinitely flexible so you can naturally change how you use it over time, and let your planner evolve as your year unfolds.

Supplies

• A Classic Extra Large Moleskine Notebook (I used the squared, soft cover version)
• A Pen
• A Ruler
• Optional: determination & a distraction, tracing the template takes a while!

What’s Inside

Weekly Pages for the Day To Day

The weekly view pages are what makes up most of the planner. They have a large space for every day To Do lists, appointments and projects that need to get done. Then above and below the weekly notes there’s lots of space for checklists, notes and anything that you’d like to add in! This extra space means that I can adapt how I use my planner as the year goes by so I’ll never grow out of it or be locked into one system. I love how flexible it is!

A Monthly Calendar View Page & Blank Pages for Dreaming and Planning 

At the end of every month I have three double wide pages. One is a monthly view page with a calendar layout for planning my projects, client plans, appointments and being able to see things in a slightly different layout. Then I have two more: one for brainstorming & dreaming (I call it dreamstorming for myself), and one for planning how I’m going to approach work with my design clients in the coming weeks.

How I Use Mine

I use my weekly pages differently every week! Right now I’m using check marks for the things I need to get done everyday, and I’ve added an extra line under the main section for what I’ll be blogging about every day. I write my husband’s travel in on washi tape for a pretty reminder of when I’ll be a solo-puppy mama.

Above the weekdays I’ve made notes on fun projects I can work on in the evenings, and below the weeks sometimes I have the steps that I’m working on with my current clients (like above)…

Sometimes I add in cue cards for special projects- like here when I was working on the launch of Indie Business, or I’ll add sticky notes that I can move forward from week to week.

Then sometimes I’ll make time lines or check boxes to keep track of clients I need to invoice or pieces of work I need to get done. This whole bottom section can be whatever I like it to be, and change as much as I need it to from week to week.

And of course, with the Month View I can still plan with a big picture view of how each month will go, and I can stay on track of my goals and dreams throughout the year.

Steps To Make Your Own

1. Take your ruler & pen, and open your Classic Extra Large Moleskine Notebook to the second page, so you can see two pages opened up at the same time like in the photo under the “Weekly View” heading at the start of the post.

2. Consider where you would like your week days positioned vertically on the page- you can put them right at the top, so there’s no space to write above them or place them in the middle of the page, whatever feels the most natural to you. When you’ve decided, draw a horizontal line all the way across both pages.

3. Consider how much vertical space you would like the week days to take up, and how much space you will need for each day. I strongly recommend leaving 2-3″ of space at the bottom of the page, so you can make a flexible system that will adapt as your year progresses. When you feel decided, add a second line that will form the bottom of the weekly area, across both open pages.

4. Create the divisions between the days of the week! My measurements make weekends more narrow than the week days:

Saturday & Sunday are 1 and 7/16ths of an inch wide

The weekdays are 2 and 3/8ths of an inch wide

5. Add the labels for the month and days of the week, and then move forward to repeat steps 1 – 5 again until the end of the month.

6. At the end of each month, leave some pages blank for tracking your goals and plans. I recommend leaving six individual sheets, or three pairs of pages that open up facing you together, and then starting the weekly view pages again. These blank pages can be used for anything you like (or you can skip them and leave extra space for writing at the end of the year) but adding them in will allow for a perfect 13 month weekly calendar that has room for monthly brainstorming and tracking.

Thanks for following along!

I’d love to see how you take this idea and make it your own,
so if you use this for a planner make sure to link back to this post :)

At the start of this month I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would make intentional choices in my life to change it for the better. I  poured through my daily routine, looked at how I had been scheduling my days, thought about how I was using my free time, and tried to take a critical look at the habits and tools I was using every day. I wanted to know if all the things I was putting my energy into were actually serving me. In my experience, your daily choices can either re-charge your batteries or drain you, and taking a little time to reflect can make for amazing positive change.

Over the next two weeks I’m going to be sharing a series of post’s called A Creative Start to The New Year. I’ll be sharing some pieces of my life that I’ve been daydreaming about and brainstorming on, along with words of advice from some of my favourite online personalities. It’s going to be a great time to do some reflection and get really excited about the months to come, and I hope that you’ll join me by sharing your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

Not least of all because I have a very pretty new way of replying to your comments and I cannot wait to dive in!

To kick start the series I quizzed some of my January sponsors and they’ve shared some truly beautiful thoughts- and at the end of the post you can grab the questions to answer in a blog post or in the comments below!

Do you have an intention setting ritual for starting off the new year?

I am not one for resolutions in the New Year, however, every year for the last few years I always start the new year off with the intention to change and grow during the coming year. This includes doing small things from reading more to larger, emotional changes like being more patient. There are definitely proverbial goals of exercising more, but the only real thing I hope in accomplishing each year is to change in a positive way.

Are you the only handmade enthusiast, toy camera lover, vintage pyrex collector, blogger or fill-in-the-blank that you know? How do you embrace your differences & the things that make you unique in your every day life?

The funny thing about answering this question is how it directly relates to the first question. I am actually the only blogger I know in my physical life. With that said, my goal this year is to better connect with readers and other bloggers and cultivate these relationships with other like-minded folks. I am proud of what I do and how I have grown as a blogger, foodie, wine nerd, etc., which has spread amongst others around me. My friends and family may have not been blog readers before, but it has been interesting and rewarding to captivate their attention and welcome them into the blogging world. I am sometimes so excited by my passions in food, wine, fashion and writing that I think it is infectious with others, and I hope, charming? I began Fork and Vine almost a year ago and it has grown more than I could have imagined in that year and I hope to continue to nurture it for more time to come, which really, is reward in itself.

Do you have an intention setting ritual for starting off the new year?

I’ve never been one to set many new year’s goals or resolutions (whether from laziness or from fear of disappointing myself I’m not quite sure) but my favorite new year’s ritual is buying a brand new planner. I take my shopping seriously as I search for theee most perfect and theee cutest one. Perfect as in having plenty of room to organize my busy schedule and having plenty of blank note pages in the back for my many lists, and cute as in cute. I love transferring my notes, dates, and lists from the old planner to the fresh new one! It’s seriously one of my favorite things.

Do you have any tips or inspiration for staying connected, engaged & inspired without getting lost in online limbo or feeling overwhelmed?

I confess that I definitely don’t have this one down pat – I often times find myself stuck in routines of checking my social media sites without end. But I am always careful not to let it take precedence over the important relationships in my life. I make sure to unplug daily from the computer to spend time with my hubs when he gets home from work, and also to head to the gym with my bff, or go thrifting with my mom and sister, or have a fun night out with the girls. These things help keep me refreshed and energized. Plus I don’t have a smart phone, and although I would LOOOVE one, not having one definitely helps to be able to escape from the wide world of interwebs.

Ciera’s blog, twitter, facebook & instagram

Do you have an intention setting ritual for starting off the new year?

I am always striving to improve my business, blog and personal life so this year I decided to write a 30 before 30 list. I wrote down 30 goals, both personal and professional that I would like to achieve before turning 30 at the end of the year. I will be sharing my progress on my blog so this is a great way to keep me motivated throughout the year!

Do you have any tips or inspiration for staying connected, engaged & inspired without getting lost in online limbo or feeling overwhelmed?

There are a few approaches that I use in order to have a fun and active online world without feeling overwhelmed.

• Creating a list each day of online priorities keeps me from getting distracted
• Coming up with a realistic online schedule helps to minimize wasted time. I like to check all of my media while I drink my coffee in the morning. When that time is up then I move on to client work!
• I don’t feel the need to prove myself. I know that I’m busy but don’t have to update my networks each time I send an email to feel accomplished.
• Unfollowing people or blogs that are negative or make me feel jealous or frustrated is a good way to keep your online world positive.
• Interacting with people instead of just following is important to me. I love being able to connect with all types of people all over the world.

It is not easy and I have to concentrate on this balance daily. I hope these tips help you with a fulfilling online space without it taking over your life!

Do you have an intention setting ritual for starting off the new year?

I don’t really have an intention-setting ritual, but like many people, I do spend some time at the end of the year reflecting on what was good and bad about the previous year. I try to focus on everything as a learning experience so I can avoid making the same mistakes, and build on the successes I’ve had. For me, 2012 is about connecting with people and trying to spread a little kindness wherever I can, while at the same time trying to grow and be successful personally and professionally.

Are you the only handmade enthusiast, toy camera lover, vintage pyrex collector, blogger or fill-in-the-blank that you know? How do you embrace your differences & the things that make you unique in your every day life?

I spent the better part of my 20s trying to figure out who I am. I’m turning 30 on February 24th, and I finally feel like I’ve figured it out, but more importantly, I discovered that I knew who I was all along — what I had to do was become unafraid to BE that person. Now that I have made that step, I am a much happier person!

I’m a geek — I adore blogging, web design and development, and reading/learning about everything tech-related. I have a few “geeky” friends, but I wish I had more — especially more female geeky friends! (Incidentally, if any one is from the Erie, PA area, get in touch with me!) I also have an artistic side that I’m only beginning to allow to shine through: Knitting is my passion, and I also love art and design in general.

I’d love to know your answers or tips & tricks to any of these questions below in the comments or in a post of your own so we can copy off each other’s notes & make this an amazing year :)

• Do you have an intention setting ritual for starting off the new year?

• Are you the only handmade enthusiast, toy camera lover, vintage pyrex collector, blogger or fill-in-the-blank that you know? How do you embrace your differences & the things that make you unique in your every day life?

• Do you have any tips or inspiration for staying connected, engaged & inspired without getting lost in online limbo or feeling overwhelmed?

Today I’m really excited to be featured on one of my very favourite blogs- A Beautiful Mess! I’ve made a new tutorial for Elsie on transforming a thrifted dress into a camera cozy that you can customize to suit anything from tiny toy cameras to your big DSLR. It’s great to give as a gift or to make for yourself so your camera is protected inside your bag and is still at the ready for blogable moments.

You can find the tutorial here, or if you’re visiting my blog for the first time
explore other DIY & Creative Living posts in my featured post index

Today I have a guest post (a guest recipe post! yum!) from my friend and this month’s featured sponsor Margarita from Adventures of a Fab Brunette. I met Margarita & her daughter two years ago in Vancouver and we had such a great time together! She’s a total sweetheart who makes a mean cupcake and I think you’ll really enjoy getting to know her & peek into her kitchen. xo, k.

My name is Margarita and I run the blog Adventures of a Fab Brunette. I’m 27, recently married to the love of my life, I have a 5 year old daughter, Princess, and I’m pregnant with Fab Baby #2 who is due in May 2012! I love to travel, cook, and eat! I live in British Columbia about 30 minutes away from Whistler, a lovely skiing town, and when I’m not running around town shopping and eating at my favourite restaurants, I am at home in the kitchen creating meals for my family.

I’ve created a fabulously domesticated blissful for myself and my blog is reflective of that. I run a Cupcake and Cake catering business called Le Petit Cupcakery and I adore spending hours perfecting edible designs for weddings and birthdays. I would love to spend a whole day in absolute luxury. Bubble baths, mani-pedis, and concierges, and shoe shopping – with an unlimited budget of course. Dining at the finest restaurant and spending an evening at the theatre – that would be fabulous.

My favourite current recipe is this one for Banana Streusel muffins. Every bite is a bit of homey goodness!

I don’t know about you, but I love anything with streusel on it. It’s silly, really, streusel is only flour, sugar and melted butter, thrown together – but a muffin is just a muffin until you throw some streusel on it. Really, try it.

These banana muffins are amazing, and I think a secret is slicing the bananas instead of mashing them up; every time you take a bite a juicy morsel of banana invades your mouth and you surrender. So good.

This recipe is from Sarabeth Levine’s cookbook “Sarabeth’s Bakery: From My Hands to Yours”, which is quickly becoming one of my favourite books to bake from.

Ingredients

Streusel

• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Muffin

• Softened butter (to grease pan)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled
• 1 cup superfine sugar
• Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, beaten & at room temp
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 cup sour cream
• 4 small ripe bananas, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter the muffin pan.
2. To make streusel: mix flour, superfine sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and vanilla with your fingers in a small bown until combined and crumbly. Set aside.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
4. In a stand mixer (or a bowl and hand mixer) beat the butter on high speed until smooth (1 min). Gradually add the sugar and continue beating, scraping sides when necessary for about 5 mins. Beat in lemon zest and vanilla. Slowly beat in the eggs, then the milk.
5. Reduce mixer speed to low. In thirds add the flour, alternating with the sour cream (F,S,F,S,F), do not overbeat. Fold in the bananas.
6. Use an ice cream scoop and fill the muffin cups equally and generously. Sprinkle the tops with the streusel.
7. Bake for 10 minutes then reduce temperature to 375°F and bake until muffin tops are golden brown and cake tester comes out clean, about 15 minutes more.
8. Cool in pan 10 mins. Remove the muffin and allow to cool completely.

I learned how to knit the year I graduated from high school and ever since it’s been one of my favourite crafts. It’s practical, colourful, and is a great excuse to have a Netflix marathon! I started learning on straight needles but soon I learned a trick from a friend that made knitting way more fun- using circular needles to knit straight projects like scarves.

Knitting on regular needles can really tire out your arms, especially when you like knitting with Big Yarn like I do. As your project grows you have to hold and balance a lot of weight, and it’s hard to sit comfortably or travel with large needles. Knitting on circular needles is comfortable and compact, lets me knit for as long as I like.

Which, just to clarify, is a lot :)

This isn’t too hard for beginners & it’s a good way to feel quite fancy when you’re knitting out and about.

Ready to get fancy?

You can either start a project on circular needles or switch from straight needs to circular needles that are the same gauge, so for this tutorial I’m just going to show you how knitting a row of a straight project works when you’re using circular needles- that way you can use the method for either starting or switching.

1. Start your row by knitting normally as though your needles aren’t connected- just knit, purl and do what your project calls for.

2. Knit right to the end of the row, and prepare yourself for using this fancy new technique.

3. Stop knitting at the end of the row. Take the the needle that has no stitches on it and pass it to your other hand so both needles are together.

4. Take a moment, are you sure you’re ready for all the knitting cred you’re about to gain? Are you sure? You may have to teach this technique to people on the bus, at your place of work, and maybe even to members of your own family!

5. Okay then, brave knitter! Here you go: take the work that’s in your hand, and pass it to your other hand.

6. That’s it- you can start knitting your new row! I said it was fancy, not that it was complicated :)

This is one of the reasons I love knitting- it’s not hard to do neat things! I’ve been working on lots of projects lately and I’m going to be sharing my results soon, along with a really cool little accessory invention that I came up last week.

Do you knit, crochet, or make your stitches however the mood strikes you?

I do both- I love making small things with crochet and giant things by knitting. I can’t choose a favourite!

Soft pretzels are one of my favourite “once in a while” treats- as a carb addict having them is a delicious and dangerous road to venture down.  However, I’m a firm believer that if I put in the work and make something indulgent in my kitchen then I can enjoy the results- and these soft pretzels are so worth the effort!

Pretzels are a three part process that isn’t hard but takes a bit of time time- first I made the dough & let it rise, then I shaped the pretzels and give them a hot bath before going on to bake them. It was a really fun process to follow! The steps aren’t complicated and the pauses between them let you clean up and change gears- but there’s enough steps to feel like you’re really an accomplished baker.

In my life, striking that delicate balance between challenging yourself and having in tact self esteem (along with tasty baking!) after all that work is an important principle in recipe selection.

The best part of these is that I could enjoy them without worrying about eating too many- they were snapped up by everyone who stopped by my house and were all gone in 24 hours. They were especially a hit with Jesse, who doesn’t have a sweet tooth like me, which makes baking that he can get really excited about a special occasion.

Soft Pretzles

Recipe from Alton Brown, altered for toppings

Get…

• 1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
• Vegetable oil, for pan
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
• Pretzel salt & a little butter

Okay!

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap (I used a damp towel) and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture (Don’t add too much of the mixture!). Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

While pretzels are still warm, rub with butter & sprinkle with desired toppings such as pretzel salt or cinnamon and sugar mixture. Enjoy!

What’s your favourite savory indulgence?

Looking for a simple way to light up your home up as the nights grow longer? This is a quick way to create an early winter centrepiece or a reading lamp for your favourite corner.

Supplies

10 inch branch ball (look by wreath making supplies in a craft store)
2-3 Pussy Willow branch stems (decorative, not real)
Small Mason Jar
Thin Wire (any kind)
Yarn
Scissors
A Candle or LED tea light

1. Using scissors or wire cutters, clip the pussy willow branches off the main branch into individual pieces.

2. Look over the 10″ ball- there’s a stiff wire structure that keeps its shape. Locate the center line of the ball where the wires inside the ball leave the widest gap, then rotate the ball on that center line, examining it for the section that has the fewest branches crossing through. This will be the base where your mason jar will slip inside the ball- mark it by tying a piece of yarn to keep your place.

3. Weave the pussy willow branches into the ball by gently tucking them under and over the branches. Try to create arcs or spirals that wrap around from one side of the ball over to the other to ensure you have an even distribution of the branches.

4. Head back to the section that you marked with yarn, where we’ll create an opening for the mason jar. First slide over any of the branches over that are flexible and nearest to the wire structure inside the ball- the idea is to create a gap the mason jar can fit through as naturally as possible. When you’ve slid the movable branches, secure them to the wire or other sturdy branches by wrapping them with wire. Make sure you start and finish with the end of the wire on the inside of the ball so it won’t scratch your furniture.

5. For any branches that you can’t move, snip the branch and secure it to another branch or the wire inner structure of the ball with a couple wraps of wire.

6. Test to make sure your mason jar will fit through the gap.

7. For a decorative look, wrap your mason jar in a complementary colour of yarn and securely tie it above the lip of the jar to keep it from falling down. You could also paint the jar for a frosted glass glow!

8. Place a candle in your mason jar & enjoy! I used three LED tea lights to get a bigger glow without having to worry about heat.

Best enjoyed while reading blogs or sipping tea!

Have you visited my featured posts page?

It has all my posts on creative living, tutorials & recipes all in one place - check it out!

I love cinnamon buns. I lurve cinnamon buns. I’ve just had a hard time with them when it comes to, you know, making them. As an amateur baker I have a healthy respect/fear for breads. I know that it’s just basic chemistry and that it’s been around since before trains, electricity, and iPhones. Intellectually I know it’s not that complicated, but I’ve kept a safe distance after a making couple of very sad attempts at cinnamon buns a few years ago.

And at the same time? I really don’t like that something so delicious, flaky & delicate bested me.

A little while ago, my friend Holly tweeted about making cinnamon buns & they just sounded so good! I asked for the recipe she used & she sent it over with some encouragement & I already knew I couldn’t want to try it.

What do they say on kitchen stadium? ”Allez cuisine!” :)

After you’ve rolled out & cut the buns you let them expand into each other a little more…

Looking promising!

You even make a delicious glaze!

The results were so good! Just as flaky and sweet as I’d hoped, and I think they’ve even cured my fear of baking breads. This will only lead to good, carb-heavy, things. But those are the best kind of good things, don’t you think?

Try your hand at the recipe here

ps – What do you think of my new red hair? It’s crazy vibrant and I’m kind of in love with it! I think I’m going to stay a red head for the winter :)

Salted Caramel Hot Chocolates are one of my favourite treats in the fall- the taste of the chocolate is made a hundred times tastier with a little dash of salt. That being said, my favourite part of salted caramel hot chocolates… are the salted caramel tops!  So I wanted to let you in on the way to get a perfectly delicious salted caramel top :)

Once you’ve made your favourite hot chocolate recipe (I totally recommend this Belgian Hot Chocolate Recipe, holy yum!), mix up some whipped cream. I love making mine at home, even just for a small cup, and if you make yours on your own you can make it more delicious by adding a half shot of your favourite flavour syrup to the whipped cream. Make sure you add the syrup slowly, and make sure you don’t over flavour it, better to have a hint of flavour than a batch you can’t use!

Making caramel, cinnamon or mocha whipped cream for chocolate drinks is super tasty!

To get the caramel top just right you’ll want a mix of sweet and salty, and I find that mixing turbinado sugar (also known as raw sugar) and sea salt gets the taste just right.

This is my magic ratio:

The nice thing is that the sugar and sea salt crystals are about the same size so they’re easy to mix at home. If you’d like it to taste even a little more like it would at your favourite coffee shop? Track down some smoked sea salt and use it as a highlight to your normal sea salt.

Confession: As much as I love fancy hot chocolates, my second favourite kind is cheap hot chocolate! If I can’t get a fancy, fluffy sweet perfect cup, I’m all about the powdery, community club hockey arena grade hot chocolate.

But “don’t properly mix the powder into the milk” doesn’t make much of a recipe post ;)