Christmas Decorations Part 1

Tis the season to be jolly, fa lalalala lalalala!

Behold! My Christmas decorations :) I'm not finished yet and I haven't taken pictures of some of the other decorations around the house so stay tuned :)

I'm going to make a couple of DIY decorations, hopefully this weekend, so I'll post those when I'm finished as well :)

Our beautiful Christmas tree!

 Below is a Christmas ornament Przemek and I got from my dad last year. It doesn't match our colour scheme this year but I wanted to show it off anyway because it;s very cute :)

MORE COMING SOON! :)

Delicious Homemade Pumpkin Pie

My first ever homemade pumpkin pie! I've never seen pumpkin pie at the grocery store here in Poland and I used to looove this perfect fall pie back in Canada so I decided to make my own. Out of an actual pumpkin :)

Ingredients:
Half a pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk (I used almond + hazelnut milk)
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1.4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups cookies (after crushing)
1/4 cup grade seed oil
2 tbsp honey

First thing's first! Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Next, cut your pumpkin into halves and scrape out all the blah stuff from the inside (seeds mostly). Then cut your pumpkin into smaller pieces and lie them skin down or up (doesn't matter) on a baking tray. Set your timer to 45 minutes and wait until your pumpkin roasts :)

While that's happening, you can make your super easy cookie-crumb crust. Take any cookies you like, and crush them until everything turns into teeny tiny crumbs. Do this by a) putting everything into a food processor or b) placing the cookies into a plastic bag and rolling a rolling pin over them. You can use a hammer or anything of that sort if you don't have a rolling pin. When you're left with fine crumbs, put everything in a bowl and take your grape-seed oil and honey and pour it all over the crumbs. Mix, mix, mix! Put your mixture into a pie tray and with your fingers, press everything together as much as you can. Now put your tray into the fridge so the pie crust can firm up.

Time to make your filling!
When you've taken your pumpkin out of the oven, let it cool down a bit. Then, peel the skin off (it comes off veery easily!) and place the pumpkin into a blender. Blend away until your pumpkin turns into pumpkin cream. Place the cream into a clean bowl and add ground cinnamon, milk, brown sugar, ground nutmeg and vanilla extract.. Mix all that together until everything is combined. In a separate bowl, mix cornstarch with the 2 eggs. Add this to the pumpkin filling.

Take your pie crust out of the fridge and pour the batter into the pie tray, covering the entire crust. Now, place the tray into the oven and set the timer to around 40 minutes (until the centre of your pie isn't jiggly)

After 40 minutes let your pie cool down. I put my pie into the fridge over night before I ate any, so it could firm up even more. Since pumpkin has so much water in it, it's very possible for the pie to be a bit moist even after baking it so putting it in the fridge helps.

If you want your pie to be gluten-free, simply choose cookies that do not contain gluten :)

Bon appetit! I love the scent that fills my house while making this delicious pie!

Something Delicate

My most recent purchase! It's delicate, subtle and feminine! I love my new necklace from Elma. Found it on pakamera.pl, where you can always browse through tons of unique items. From home decor to jewelry to  clothes, everything is different and worth a second glance. Everyone can find something they love :)

It's very simple but I think it looks gorgeous and I might buy another one soon :)

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies

First time making pudding cookies! And they are the softest cookies I'ver ever made! Seriously. When I first took them out of the oven I thought they'd harden up as they cooled down but they stayed super duper soft! They are light and delicate and you could eat and eat and eat and not feel full. The best part is that they are guten-free and have very little sugar so you don't have to feel guilty after having one or two or eight :)

Ingredients:
2 Cups Corn starch
1 Tablespoon honey
96g (1 pack) Pudding of your choice (INSTANT not cook and serve)
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1/2 Cup brown sugar
1/4 Cup Grape seed oil
Dark chocolate chips
2 Eggs
1/2 Teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat over to 180 degrees Celsius. Mix the grape seed oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, honey and pudding together. Add in flour and baking powder and mix until everything is combined. Sprinkle in chocolate chips and roll the dough into balls. Place these on a non-stick cookie sheet. Place in oven and bake for 11-13 minutes. Cookies should be soft but not falling apart when taken out of the oven. Let them cool down for about 10 minutes and then transfer onto a (pretty) plate of your choice :)

Bon appetit!

The Perfect Pair

My top two makeup products, which I have been using for over a year and I am 100% content! The first one I'll be talking about is Watts Up by Benefit.

This highlighter is absolutely gorgeous! I have gotten so many complements and questions about what I use. The price is a bit on the high end (In Poland it costs 145zl) but I think it's worth every penny! The colour is stunning, the way it blends into your skin is perfection and it lasts about 4-5 months. And that's if you're using it every day. :) Oh and also, it lasts all day :) It's simply beautiful and I highly recommend it to everyone looking to complete their makeup look. 

Watts Up comes with a soft sponge you can use to blend out the highlighter on your cheekbones and brow bones. Although, personally, I don't use this sponge and just use my fingers instead because I find that body heat blends everything out much more nicely.

This champagne colour is super soft and gives the perfect glow! 

The next product I have been using for about 3 years now is this foundation by Dr. Irena Eris. I have always had skin problems and break outs and ever since I can remember I couldn't use foundation which was oil-based. So I finally found this perfect little bottle which is water-based and leaves my skin feeling soft and free. In the sense that it doesn't feel heavy or mask-like, partly because it has a powdery finish. It's not thick, has great coverage and minimizes the appearance of pores. There are 3 skin tones you can choose from. I use 01-Ivory and it matches perfectly!

 This little pump is super comfortable and clean. There's no mess, no clumps and no dirt. The entire bottle lasts me about 5-6 months  (and I use it practically every day).

So there you have it! My two all-time fave makeup products! In all my years of searching, I have finally found two products that fulfill my expectations. :)

Gluten-Free Cookies

These didn't come out exactly right but they still taste delicious so I thought I'd share them here :)

 I used a recipe from this blog although I tweaked it a bit. I used cook and serve pudding instead of instant pudding. This is not what the recipe calls for but I don't think it ruined the cookie in any way. If anything, it added some vanilla flavour to it since I used vanilla pudding. But I am going to the grocery store today and I'm going to buy instant pudding and make more cookies with that! (Apparently, pudding cookies are heavenly!)

Originally, this recipe is not gluten-free. However, it's very easy to switch up the ingredients so that it is :) I substituted the butter for grape seed oil as well as all-purpose flour for corn starch (or cornflour). As you can tell by my pictures, I have also substituted the M&Ms for Milka heart chocolates and Toffifee chocolates, placing one in the centre of the cookie before baking it.

If you're interested in the entire recipe, click on the link above (where it says "this blog")

And of course, bon appetite!

Making Fall a Little Bit More Bearbale

Personally, Fall is my least favourite season. Getting dressed in the morning is always a challenge because it's freezing when you get up and by the time you come home from school/work it's hot and you're trying to get all your layers off before you melt. Especially if you take public transit. 

Plus it rains a lot and it's just this really awkward, frustrating transition between Summer (which I love) and Winter (which I also love).

So this Fall, I decided to make my house a little bit more cozy by buying a bunch of Fall home decor! Yay! I also bought some Yankee Wax Melts, which I already mentioned in a previous post but I'll get to that later. :)

Behold! My cozy home :)

The chestnuts are from the garden, so are the branches with those red thingys :) The mushroom and porcupine are from Nanu Nana

The pretty pumkin is actually a teacandle holder! Bought it at Home&You

 More pumpkins! More porcupines! 

And this is the pattern on my new table runner. From Home&You

And of course, last but not least! My Fall scents from Goodies.pl
So far I've only burned Honey & Spice. I'll post a review of that soon. :)

Yankee Candles- My New Obsession

I first stumbled upon this glorious company by accident and was pleased to find out I can get them in Poland as well! I decided to try them out because I read so many good things about them. I didn't get what all the fuss was about- but now I know. So far, I've bought 8 Yankee Wax Melts. This one called Red Velvet was one of the first to burn in my house.

I absolutely love it because it reminds me of home, and by home I mean Canada. We don't have red velvet anything here in Poland so when I found this wax melt I was ecstatic! It smells just like good ol' red velvet cake and although I can't taste it, the scent is just as yummy :)

The number one thing to know before burning any wax melts is that, although the actual tart is small, you only need to burn about 1/4 of it at a time. And that will last you (depending on how often you burn it) about a month, maybe less. The first wax melt I burned, I used too much and the scent was way too strong. Now I always put 1/4 of the melt into my wax warmer and I'm set for however long I wanna burn the scent. Best part is, the scent stays in the air for hours after you've stopped burning it so your house always smells delicious! Which is great because it feels like with every ordinary scented candle, the smell dies out within minutes.

I'm going to review the rest of my Yankee Wax Tarts throughout the week. I just recently bought their new fall scents and I burn them practically everyday!

If you live in Poland, you can buy Yankee Candle products from this site: http://www.goodies.pl/

No-Bake Homemade Granola Bars!

One of my all-time fave recipes! So you're at the store, looking for a delicious but healthy snack.. Granola bars are usually considered the "healthy" snack to go for. But of course, just when you look at the ingredients you realize you might as well be eating Oreos and Twinkies. The bad news is, you really should put those down. The good news is, you can make super yummy granola bars in the comfort of your own home- with just 7 ingredients!

1/4 Cup butter
1/2 Cup honey
2/3 Cups brown sugar
4 Cups quick oats
2 Cups rice cereal
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons dark chocolate chips
Optional: 1/4 Cup peanut butter

First, put the butter, vanilla, honey and sugar into a pot and melt everything together until it becomes bubbly (medium heat) Reduce the heat and make sure it's just lightly cooking. Next, take your dry ingredients- mix them together and pour all the yummy melted stuff over the oats and rice cereal. Mix everything together so it becomes all stuck together. Lastly, take a  baking pan (not too big) and press everything together so it's as compact as it can get. While everything is still hot, sprinkle the dark chocolate chips the press the into the mixture. Cool on counter top, then place in fridge for about 2 or more hours. Make sure your mixture isn't too thin or else it won't stay together when you cut it! And make sure you cut everything into rectangles after it has cooled in the fridge.

I love making these because I know exactly what I put into them. And the best part is, you can mix and match, experiment, add or take away anything in the recipe to make it the very bestest :)

Enjoy! :)