31 Days of Coffee: Love You a Latte!

What to do, what to do...when your anniversary happens to land at the very beginning of the 31 Days of Coffee challenge! What to do? Make a "Love You A Latte" card, of course!

And it just so happens that the Sentiment challenge at the Lawnscaping blog worked perfectly into my plan! Here's a link to the challenge:

http://lawnscaping.blogspot.com/2015/10/lawnscaping-challenge-sentiments.html

And here's the card:

Aww, Hers and His coffee mugs! What could be more love-erly?

Wait. Is there more love hiding inside that card?

Yes there is...a latte love!

I came up with this card idea when I found this scrap left over from one of my earlier diecuts. The negative space from the tag made a nice frame for the coffee cups and love sentiment.

I popped it all up using foam dimensionals. I tend to add a lot more bulky three-dimensional elements to my cards when I'm giving them in person. No worries about it getting mangled in a USPS sorting machine!

{Today's Brew: Love You a Latte stamp set and dies (Lawn fawn), Holiday tags and dies (Lawn Fawn), Love die cut (Lawn Fawn), twine and leaf (Lawn Fawn), papers and note card (Lawn Fawn)}

Love you a latte, cafe friends!

31 Days of Coffee: The Perfect Coffee Cookie

There is something you need to know about me.

I'm not sure that I've ever met a cookie I didn't like.

Cakes I can pass by. Pies...I'm very picky. Rich chocolate mousse-like dessert? No thank you.

But a cookie? A homemade, warm, just out of the oven cookie?

Yes, please! I'll have just one. Or six. Or maybe an even dozen just to be safe.

Aaack! I love cookies! They are my Kryptonite!

Sam once said to me "Mom, you bake the most amazing cookies! And you always say that you love to bake. Why don't you bake them more often?"

"Because I love cookies, Sam. Because I love them. That's why."

Of all the cookies in the world, I think the shortbread cookie comes closest to perfection. Four ingredients. Simple and melt in your mouth goodness.

Last year, after Christmas, my sweet Mom snagged the deal of the post-holiday season. She found a Nordicware shortbread cookie pan with a Snowflake motif, on clearance at Target, for some ridiculously cheap price like $2. She bought two, God bless her, and she gave one to me. I loved that pan so much!

Last week, I happened to be at a fancy mall (Oak Brook) that had a Sur La Table store, and I found a non-holiday/traditionally themed shortbread pan from Nordicware. I did not pay $2 for it. I'm not even going to tell you how much I spent on it. I had to have it, so I paid what they were asking, end of story.

The recipe is so simple. Press the dough into the greased pan (I greased mine with butter), bake and then let cool, and turn it over onto a cutting surface. I turned mine onto a pizza stone and used the pizza cutter to cut into nine squares. Yes, the recipe only makes nine cookies, but they are big cookies. And they are special. I think they'd make a lovely gift, too.

I've tweaked the recipe and made it my own. I think you can also fancy this one up, and I've included instructions for that as well:

Perfect Shortbread Cookie

3/4 c. (that's one and a half sticks) of butter
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. flour

Cream butter until fluffy. Add in powdered sugar and then vanilla. Add in flour. Then knead dough on a non-floured surface. Form dough into ball and wrap in Saran wrap. Place in fridge for about 20-30 minutes. Then press dough into greased pan. Prick surface with fork and bake at 325 for 30-35 minutes until golden. Let cool for 10 minutes in pan, then turn over onto cutting surface. Cut in squares and enjoy!

For extra fancy cookie, melt semi-sweet chocolate chips in microwave (app. 1 cup) with 1 T. salted butter until smooth, stirring often. Turn cookie over to non-decorative side and spread on chocolate. Place on a pan covered with wax paper, chocolate side up. Then sprinkle chocolate with finely chopped pecans. Place cookies on sheet in freezer for 10-15 minutes, or until chocolate has set. Remove from freezer and enjoy!

Coffee and shortbread cookie...the perfect pair!

31 Days of Coffee: PTI M.I.M. #226 Stripes

Welcome to 31 Days of Coffee! Today's Brew is brought to you from this wonderful Sweater Weather coffee bag that I found at Bennett's Orchard in Ottawa Lake, Michigan. Don't you just love those stripes? So cozy!

Today's Make it Monday challenge at Papertrey Ink? Stripes! I chose a few of the colors based on this ingenious coffee bag!

{Today's Brew: Warm Happiness stamp set (PTI), Distressed Stripes stamp set (PTI), cardstock/ink/die/impression plate all from Papertrey Ink}

I wanted to give the stripes a little sweatery texture, so I stamped the stripes and then ran them through my Big Shot with an impression plate.

Blessings on your Monday, cafe friends!

{psst! Are you a regular at the cafe? If not, become a subscriber! I'm going to be serving up some piping hot cups of latte love each week. Giveaways, my friends! So grab your favorite mug and make yourself at home!}

31 Days: Home Brew...in the garden

Welcome to 31 Days of Coffee! Today's Home Brew finds me in the garden with my warm cuppa.

We are working diligently on our Fixer Upper house that we purchased this summer. The gardens and landscaping were sad sad sad. Weeds in every garden bed, and overgrown bushes that looked like the original contractor specials from 20 years ago.

We thought we'd have to wait until our contractors finished work on the exterior, but with this nice autumn weather we decided to plow ahead (literally) with our re-landscaping plan. Bushes were removed, soil was tilled, sod was busted. It's been a workout...which is why we do  not need a gym membership!

I made the decision to keep these yews. I'm hoping to prune them back even more in the spring, but for now I figured they'd make a nice green backdrop. I knew I'd have to extend the bed out another two feet to make room for some other flowers and plants. My husband, Mr. Left Brain, required a line to know where to dig. I did not have any spray paint, so I made the line using flour in a sifter. It worked!

Nice clean beds ready for planting! We're hoping to get a pagoda dogwood planted in this bare corner where the giant overgrown bush once resided. This variety of dogwood has a nice shape, with lovely interest during every season. Blossoms in the spring, leaves in summer that turn red in autumn, and red branches that will look amazing in the winter.

This week, we turned our attention to the bed by the front sidewalk.

We purchased plants and bushes, and put them in pots where we hoped to plant them.

We started with the back row of bushes.

Incrediball hydrangeas will add color in the summer and autumn, as will the pink spirea. The azaleas will add a dose of pink in the spring, and their waxy green leaves will add interest to the garden in the winter, too.

Next we planted a few hostas at the front to make a nice border for the shrubs.

This should look much better when the plants and bushes have filled in next year.

There it is! Today's Home Brew! It's amazing what we can accomplish with caffeine every day (and sore muscles and Advil every night!).

31 Days of Coffee: Why I Did Not Buy a Keurig (and a review of the Kitchenaid Personal Coffee Maker)

This summer, I gave some serious thought to adding a Keurig coffee maker to my coffee bar. It seemed like a good solution for a number of reasons. One, I'm the only coffee drinker in my house, so a personal coffee maker seemed ideal. Two, when family comes to stay, it's a lot easier for them to make their own coffee whenever they want one. 

I started looking at the new Keurig makers and began to read the reviews online. Woah. Not so flattering reviews of this product. For starters, Keurig introduced their lid reader technology, which means that it will only brew coffee that is certified by Keurig. That means I could not purchase the K Cups from Trader Joes or Aldi or any other knock off brand. (Yes, I've heard of folks taping K Cup labels to the readers, but how silly is that?) Second, I could not use a permanent filter and brew a cup without using a K cup.

I began to price out the cost of K Cups. Wow. Those little cups of plastic sure are pricey! And let's not even begin to think of how many of those bits of plastic are going into the landfill every year.

(I once had a love affair with the Senseo coffee makers. They were so easy to use, and they made a perfect espresso with a crema layer every time! Sadly, they stopped making the pods readily available when Keurig came on the scene. After that, I decided that I would never again purchase a coffee maker that would only make coffee using their pods. Too risky! Senseo, you broke my heart. I'm still in mourning. sniff! sniff!)

I did a little research on personal coffee makers and found this sweet gem! My new Kitchenaid personal coffee maker!

It is so easy to use! Take the water reservoir from the top and fill to the desired portion.

Swing out the basket and fill with desired amount of coffee. The permanent basket is such a nice feature!

Place the water reservoir back on top, swing the basket closed, and press the button.

In minutes, you will have a full thermos of piping hot (and I do mean hot!) coffee!

My new favorite flavor this month? Dunkin' Donuts Pumpkin Spice!

The Thermos makes a great To Go cup! I recently took it on the road, and it kept the coffee warm for hours!

But it also makes a great pitcher to simply pour the coffee into your favorite mug. And when you fill it to the maximum capacity, you can easily make two mugs...one for you and a friend! So much cheaper than K Cups, and I can use it with any coffee brand I choose.

I really REALLY love this great little coffee maker! I purchased mine from Macy's (with a great coupon) and had it shipped. It comes in other colors as well.

Tell me, coffee lovers. What brand of maker do you use?

31 Days of Coffee: Inspired by Starbucks!

Welcome to 31 Days of Coffee!

In honor of this 31 day challenge, I had a toast with my usual. Cinnamon Dolce Latte...nonfat, with whip.

And they served it in this beautiful new To Go cup! How lovely!

I knew I'd have to come home and try to recreate this autumnal beauty.

I checked out my stamp sets, and none of them quite fit the look I was going for. No problem! I used the Leaves dies from Papertrey Ink, traced them with a Sharpie, and filled in with some of my own doodles. Here it is!

{Today's Brew: Lovely Leaves dies (PTI), card stock (PTI), Sharpie marker, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors, wood leaf (lawn fawn), baker's twine}

Next stop on this caffeinated journey...Michigan! I'll be filling my To Go cup and heading home to spend some time with family. Tomorrow, I will pop in to my favorite local cafe for a cup of hometown coffee.

Blessings on your Friday, cafe friends!

31 Days of Coffee!

Good morning, cafe friends! Happy October!

Today is the first day of the 31 Day challenge...an opportunity to write on one topic for thirty-one days. This fun challenge was started by fellow blogger The Nester several years ago. You may recall that I did the 31 Day challenge back in 2013, when I blogged about 31 Days of Relocating Home. And here I am, two years later, relocating home once again. Ha ha. But seriously, if I had to write about that topic again, I would cry for thirty one days straight...which is just a few more days than I cry about it now.

I tossed around the idea of featuring 31 Days of Do-Overs...life do-overs, day do-overs, room and house and garden do-overs. But I just wasn't feeling the joy.

What brings me joy? The Lord...and coffee.

You are, after all, visiting Mary Rose's Cafe. It just seemed obvious.

So for thirty-one days in October, I will be writing about coffee. You will find a few coffee themes here, including:

Home Brewed

Projects featuring our Fixer Upper house. October is shaping up to be an exciting month here! New windows will arrive next week, the exterior of the house will get painted, and we've begun our re-landscaping project as well. And fingers crossed, we will start to work on transforming our kitchen this month. BEFORE and AFTER PHOTOS, PEOPLE!  And that's a lot more exciting than an episode of Property Brothers. Really. I promise. Pinky swear.

The Coffee Bar

Yes, I have a coffee bar in my home. I had a coffee bar ten years ago, too...way way back before Pinterest made them so adorable. Here, I'll be testing and sampling and showcasing my favorite coffees, with a recipe or two thrown in for fun.

Cafe Creations

As you may have guessed, I've curated quite a collection of coffee themed stamps and crafts over the years. I'm so excited to have an entire month devoted to these lovelies!

To Go Cup

Traveling...with coffee!

Cafe Love

I love to discover new cafes, and here in the Fox River Valley I have found a lot of them! Joy! My happy place, the local library, even has a sweet cafe. I've visited a few, but there are more to explore. Let's be coffee explorers together!

31 Days of Coffee. Just think of how much our caffeinated selves will accomplish!

It's been a long time since I've thrown around some blog candy. I think this will be the perfect month for that, too.

October. 31 Days. Can we do it? Of course we can! As Anne of Green Gables said "I'm so happy to live in a world where there are Octobers."