Boredom Busters

LOL I've been a bit bored lately. This no working thing is actually harder than I thought! My mom was laughing at me yesterday because I was cleaning out the pantry. She said "wow you must really be bored."

Yesterday I made nanimo bars, my FAVOURITE dessert. I made chocolate chip cookies today, and for supper I am going to make two types of pizza, regular and taco pizza. I haven't made taco pizza before but I saw a recipe and it looked good!

I've been listening to a LOT of music on youtube too. I think my new favourite band is Lady Antebellum. Perfect Day might be my new favourite song at the moment. Every song is very catchy and relatable.

Friend, let's call him D. He came over last night and the night before. We went for a walk and watched some a movie both nights. I think he is going to come over again tonight after work. I think we are going to watch Disney's Earth. Looks pretty interesting, like the Planet Earth series. Last night we watched Hancock which I thought was good too!

I've also been reading Harry Potter. I'm about halfway through the first book. It's getting more interesting. I think I will finish this one but not sure if I will read any of the following books. D also brought me over a book called Generation A by Douglas Coupland. Ever read any of his books before??

My friend's parents rented a cottage for the week so I will be heading there tomorrow morning for the day, yay a change of scenery!

Off to read a chapter outside now and then do some grocery shopping. Happy Thursday!

Do You Like Baking?

I love to bake! But I do not enjoy the cleanup afterward. So many bowls, sugar/flour over the counters. The end result is totally worth it though.

My mom's friend gave me a sugar cookie package when she moved. I decided yesterday that I would make some! I also bought these new wedding cookie cutters so what better time to make them then for my roommate's bridal shower. If they didn't turn out, I could eat them myself.

I bought a rolling pin yesterday since we didn't have one then went to work. Made the sugar cookies and then went to decorating. This was very annoying because I didn't have the right tip for the frosting I made. So I had to go back to the store to buy an icing tube with the tip I wanted. I piped the edges and then flooded the middle with white or pink icing.

After that set...or at least close to set ;) I started decorating. This is my favourite part. I only had 5 different shapes so a lot of my decorating was the same. It made me feel like a kid again. Kinda looks like a kid made them too, but I don't really care it was fun to do.

What was the cost of this activity? Well the package was free :) I'm sure it would be cheaper to do it from scratch if you didn't have a free package. I bought the rolling pin for $11.99 from CTC, the cookie cutters for $4.99 at Bulk Barn, icing tube was $3.99 for 4 at Metro, icing sugar we had, food colouring we had, decorations I picked up at Bulk Barn as well and they probably totalled $2 and I have a bunch left over :) I'll be able to do the same thing again for much cheaper now that I have the materials needed.

Yesterday I also bought that kitchenaid stand mixer. It was $180 and came with a pouring shield. I took it out of the package and turned it on and it sounds/looks good. I didn't make anything with it, but I look forward to using it. I don't think I will take it out of the package again until this summer when I move in with BF. It was a refurbished model and it did have a couple of black scratches on the base but still worth it to be $300 cheaper than buying it new. I think I will invest in the coated accessories just so I can put them in the dishwasher (I think they look nicer too). I look forward to making some bread and desserts with it :) 

November and December Goals...and a little baking

November goals recap:
Go to the gym at least twice a week. FAIL. I went twice in total :S

Read a new book. PASS. Somewhat of a pass, it was a children's chapter book (217 pages). Still counts right?? Mmm maybe not.

Complete the quilt I started. PASS. It's done, and so are all my pillowcases and a pillow. I am working on a second pillow and a second quilt.

Complete Christmas shopping for my friends. PASS. This is all complete, I just need to mail them, but will wait until the second week of December to do this.

20 no shopping days. FAIL. It was close though, I had 11 spend days and therefore 19 no shopping days.

Keep $1500 in my account. PASS. Of course this is going toward my family loan but that was the goal. Yay I will avoid monthly bank fees for the first time in a long time!

New December Goals:
Go to the gym at least twice a week. Let's try this goal again.

Finish buying and wrapping all Christmas presents. Hopefully this will be done in a couple of weeks.

Try to get  work over Christmas break. I think it might be possible to work at the rec centre over the Christmas break for at least 5 days. This will help as otherwise I have very little income for December.

Open ING account. I have sent the $100 in the mail but once it gets deposited I want to look more into the different options ING has. In January I want to set up a TFSA with them.

Determine some personal and financial goals for 2010. I have a few in mind but want to lay it all out.

Do some Christmas baking. I think I want to make and decorate Christmas sugar cookies. If I can find some cute cookie cutters!

Yesterday I made some braided bread. I think I could have let it rise a bit more, but it turned out pretty well for baking bread for the first time!