night in with my favorite boys

One of my favorite parts about the colder weather? Staying in for the night and cuddling with two of my favorite boys <3

cranberry macarons

 This year for our various Thanksgiving stops, I wanted to make some festive macarons to bring along. I decided on Pumpkin Spice, but at the last minute inspiration struck and I also made a more adventurous cranberry batch!

Above is the Cranberry Tea I used in the batter for the macaron shells.

 The beautiful meringue.

 Adding the sugar / almond meal / cranberry tea to the meringue.

 I piped and dried the macarons. I made 140 macarons! That's 280 individual shells. My wrists were in full carpal tunnel mode after piping all those little circles!

 Cranberry macaron shells, fresh out of the oven.

I filled the Cranberry macarons with my own improvised Cranberry Buttercream Icing. I made regular vanilla buttercream...and added some canned jellied cranberry sauce! 

 The finished product. Surprisingly, the cranberry flavor was very subtle. I think using cranberry tea in the shell batter helped keep the flavor more refined and sophisticated. This is definitely my favorite flavor of all I've tried to make so far!

And I did make a few batched of pumpkin spice too with cinnamon shells and pumpkin spice buttercream. I can't wait to make them again for next Thanksgiving!

free birthday drinks

 It was my bestie's birthday last week, and since last year she conquered Biergarten's Free Birthday Boot, this year our first stop was Bomber's for a Free Birthday Margarita. We sat at a table under this gorgeous lamp.

 Here she is, claiming her birthday prize, complete with sparkler!

You would think the festivities and good times would end there on a Wednesday night. But no! We were on the move up Lark St to claim the next free birthday drink!

Elda's on Lark has a similar deal to Bomber's Free Birthday Margarita, only at Elda's you get to choose from 6ish options, rather than just the one option Bomber's offers.

She went with a purple vodka based drink called "Great Sex." 

And no, she didn't drink them both. In fact, M ended up drinking almost all of the Great Sex...which lead to a very funny voicemail left to a friend while I drove him home ;)

suggestions

1. cheerful christmas tree cookies

2. lot of vintage christmas tree jewelry

3. bottle brush tree gift box

4. a miniature christmas - scene 1

letters

Dear Thanksgiving Leftovers,

You've been delicious, but I'm glad you're gone.

Dear Styles,

I don't know if I can handle the fact that as long as you are around we will never be able to have a real christmas tree. fake trees aren't the same, and it kind of bums me out that you're allergic to real ones.

Dear Christmas Shopping,

I am terrible at coming up with good presents for my family. I wish you could be easier. 

Dear Candy Canes,

I can't wait to eat you!

fantasy christmas wishes