The Art Of Baking

I received some recent goodies in the mail :).I got one of my giveaway wins, which is a lovely lavender flower headband from Valerie Jordan. She has a wonderful Etsy shop at bloempjes ,where she makes colorful fabric flowers.They are so well made and she even offers, design it yourself flowers. You can choose color, type, center piece and backing. I chose a lavender modern flower, cluster of pearls as a center piece and all attached to a headband.I am so happy with my choice and it is now my favorite summer accessory.Thank you Valarie!.   Also,at Valarie's store you can get 20% off an order by using the coupon code, LUCKY20. Trust me the code will work, she told me herself :). Go check out her etsy shop, you wont be disappointed. Thanks again Val! The packaging was adorable and I will certainly enjoy the flower :). It reminds me of something a Hollywood actress would wear in the1920 or 1940 with a fancy gown. I love vintage looking items, especially accessories :

Well I finally used up my Dove Conditioner Treatment sample on Sunday. I actually got 11 washes out of this small bottle for my short length hair. I think I could of even got 12 washes,if I wasn't in such a hurry in wanting to share my experiences. This conditioner was super easy to use and goes a long way. The directions told me to use a quarter sized amount of conditioner, but I ended up being able to use a lot less for my short hair. I really like conserving products and stretching them as far as they can go. I really loved this product and its so far my favorite conditioner. From the first day to the very last day , I loved rinsing out the product because my hair felt so smooth even when wet. I saw a big difference in my hair while washing and when fully dry.It made my hair smell really good and I definitely recognize the aroma of coconut oil. I even blow dried my hair the first couple days to see how it would hold up overall. My hair felt very lightweight and sof

There is a great summer giveaway going on right now at Lemon Drop for one lucky winner to receive not one, but two awesome Meri Meri Cupcake Kits. This would be an fantastic item for a gift or to keep for yourself.They are super cute kits, including 24 cupcake liners and 24 toppers in one single kit. It is awesome they are giving away two kits in different patterns. Check out for yourself what this giveaway is all about. Also this contest ends, August 5th at 11pm est. So get your entries in as soon as possible. There are multiple entries as well to make your chances higher on receiving these lovely kits. Have an awesome day everyone!

I went to town today and found Always infinity pads at Wal -mart Super store, priced at $4.98. I used my free coupon for the new product, however it wasn't 100% free because I had to pay 25 cents in GST . That is actually the first time I've had to pay tax using a free coupon, but I guess its because all the other things were food items. I don't know, maybe if I had a different cashier they would of let it go. Oh well,25 cents is way better then paying full price of over five dollars. The coupon was well worth it though because I wouldn't of bought this product with out it, in sense of the price,amount and never have used it before.Anyways this is what these freebie coupons are all about. To get consumers to try a product they might of never thought to use or buy . I haven't yet tried the always infinity, so I have no full opinion on it yet. From what they have told they are really soft, non stop absorbency for 8 hours and flexes to fit you.Well will see i

 My awesome friend Krysta recently created a brand new doodle of me. It represents my passion for baking and being a proud Canadian blogger .It's adorable and I'll be permanently adding it to the top of my sidebar :).Thank you Krysta Also I received a coupon this week for a free pack of Always infinity.This is a new and improved always pad with protection up to 8 hours. Along with other added features for a more trusting protection. This freebie is a great find because its definitely needed and hygiene products are sometimes very expensive for a little amount.So if any one's able to get a whole pack for free because its new on the market then that is a score in my book. I haven't yet use my coupon, but I will next time I go to the store.I am happy I get to try out this brand new product even though its during a time no women really likes.However good full protection puts that time a little at ease.

I've got some great summer recipes to share with all of you. I also have a few ideas in the back of my head for these couple months, but I will keep that on the down low for now. Anyways, Its basically the start of the summer over here on Vancouver island, but it sure hasn't shown it self . It was sunny a few times and now recently its been cloudy,rainy weather, but still quite humid at times. I guess I cant complain to much because the rain is great for everything too and I'm glad that it hasn't been horribly hot yet. I probably jinked myself saying that and now I must throw salt behind my shoulder.If it comes to that I'll go towards my trusty unbaking recipes and try to fit in some swimming too. For everyone that knows me personally will already know that I'm really interested in all picnic stuff. For everyone that's new to this interest I'll tell you that recently I've been trying to find a vintage picnic basket that is affordable a

The mail this week has been nonstop with gifts and samples. Yesterday, I received one of my giveaway wins, which I must keep secret for now since its an actual gift for someone :). However I can tell all of you about the freebie samples I got.  The first sample that I got yesterday were the Moo business cards I ordered. These are now one of my favorite samples, since they let me have so much control on what I really wanted in the cards. Moo is an awesome website and their cards are so durable, efficient and have a great finish.I recommend them for anyone that needs great and reliable business cards. If you really want to see for yourself what they are like visit, Moo . They still have their free samples to try out. Ten full sized business cards for free, including free shipping.Free sounds great doesn't it and they let you have a lot of control in either choosing a template or uploading photographs. If you want a great business card from them I say take your time

Wow! I must be super lucky today because I received not one, but 3 gifts in the mail.Checking the mail has now become a exciting event for me to see what surprises are hidden behind each door :). Anyways before I ramble on, we all know why were here,  is to see what I got right? and what new stuff I get to try out :). Well one of the first items I opened up was a freebie sample from Dove that I ordered a while back.It was pushed back from the mail strike imagine, but I'm so glad I actually received it. They gave me a really good sized sample of  their Dove Daily Treatment Conditioner .I haven't yet tried this product; however I know so far that it smells really good and dove has never failed me in the past.I'm so excited to try this Dove product since I'm new to their hair products.  They tell me this conditioner will make hair weightless, control 100% frizz and repair. Well if it can do all that in one product I will be in love with it since my hair is so

Saturday afternoon I went to the yearly local Chemainus Summer Market. It was a really nice day for it but super hot as well. Me and my mom went together because we love checking out the garage sales items and jewelry is another guilty pleasure of mine, which is avid in these markets.I also love finding used baking equipment or old canisters you never find and can fix up. My mom wasn't to lucky in finding anything she liked but I got two good jewelry finds at a great price. We all know most handmade jewelry at these markets are a pretty penny for them but I got some costume jewelry which is just as good. I scored a really pretty reddish cameo necklace and a charm necklace which I loved because it had two vintage styled keys on them. I could even remove the rest of the charms and keep the keys :). I am still scouting for a skeleton key pendent alone or on a chain. They are hard to find especially the really vintage looking ones.I am going to keep my eye open especially f

For a few days me and my sister Anna did some house sitting and pet sitting for our Sister Heidi. While I was there I did a couple baking recipes with the ingredients that were around. I made a few dozen white chocolate raisin cookies and about a dozen chocolate chip nut cereal bars.I experimented and changed quite a bit in each online recipe I used. The cookies I made were a really fun experiment to see what worked well together and the overall turn out.In good news it all came out with positive results. They had a really unique flavor of sweet and slightly salty. There texture changed every time you tried one because they were packed full of treats. The white chocolate raisins gave a smooth and chewy texture. While the coconut and mixed nuts gave a crunchy and layered texture.It had arrange of flavors that is pretty hard to pinpoint exactly when you just eat one.I can see everyone finding something they like about this cookie. It was a lot of fun to make these and I loved bak

I just received two of my giveaway wins in the mail today. I got a two box set of Scholastic Bob books for beginner reader and advancing reader that I won at Mom-a-Logues blog.  Thank you Dawn for the great giveaway. I'll be giving these to my nephew next time I see him for a belated birthday gift.I think he will find the illustrations and word play really fun. I also received this adorable tooth fairy box made by Jenny Loom. It even has a really cute message from the fairy herself. Jenny sales her own tooth fairy creations and crafts at her own etsy shop at jenniferstar sullivan . Thank you Jenny  for your wonderful and unique creation. I will be giving this to my nephew as a birthday gift too and I can see him going "Awww"  when he see the little kola bear. Big thank you to both of you! I'll keep you updated by e-mail on how he liked the gifts :) Also this evening I went to a local u-pick strawberry farm with my mom, sister and brother

Today I got a pair of adorable mug cozies in the mail and I like to say thank you to Tutus & Tea Parties for making them for me. They are lovely colors and I'll be using them for my next hot drink or to give some color and cuteness to a mug :).One cozie will be going to me and the other I plan on giving to my mom. She loves coffee so it will be a perfect match for her. I don't drink coffee or even tea, however I love hot chocolate. Also who says you cant put these colorful cozies on a mug with a cold drink in it lol.These are summer colors and I wont let them be ignored :). Thank you again T&TP!

 I got my first freebie in the mail on Thursday since the mail strike ended and I am still using. 4 days so far of using Garnier Fructis Pure Clean sample which includes conditioner,shampoo and a 1 $ off coupon. Its a super easy product to use and I saw quite a difference in the first wash. My hair was so lightweight and soft I kept running my fingers through it.It also made it very shiny and it smelled really good. The great thing about this product is you get a lot with less. Ive had short hair for a while now  so I hardly use that much of this small sample  each time. I can see myself stretching this sample to 3 more days in a once a day shower. I have tried Garnier Fructis before in the pasted and always really liked their products. I think its also thoughtful of them of moving in the direction of  more environmentally friendly  in this new shampoo and conditioner.I'll be definitely be using my coupon towards this product in the future.  Also for more e