Merry Christmas! I popped out of bed around 5:30 this morning, buzzing with excitement, just like I do every Christmas morning. I can't help it, it's just what I do. I love the feeling of Christmas- a cozy home, comfy pajamas, loved ones and coffee meant for slow, meaningful consumption brewing on the stove. I also love the act of giving gifts. It's almost more exciting to me than opening them.  I'm dying to wake the Mister but  I promised I wouldn't wake him until at least 8:00, which is clearly a most generous gesture on my part. 

 In the meantime, I'd like to give you a little something.  It's a compilation of soulful tunes from my previous DANCE! posts which post every Friday for your dancing pleasure.  I collected some of my favorites and made a mix over at 8Tracks just for you. I like to think of it as soul food for your ears. Enjoy! 

                                                                     
                                                          Below Image: Up poster by Marcus at Poster-Inspired on Etsy 

Ain't no party like a Christmas party, cause the Christmas party don't stop...I couldn't help myself. 

One little known fact about me is that, on the rare occasion I'm tuned into a radio station that's not NPR, it's mostly likely a station with the word JAMZ in the description.

 I like the jams, especially the old school ones. I heard this gem on one of my Christmas shopping adventures this week. I love the way Kurtis Blow makes a song just sound like a party. There's beats, crowd participation (say OW!), hand clapping, hollerin' and rhymes about Santa.  C'mon, let's get festive, people!  

I'm off to wash all the butter and sugar-coated sin from this morning's baking session and then I'm off for a little more shopping. Then it's Holidatenight Round 2 with Chef Mister preparing something special. Can't wait to see what he's cooking. One last thing, I've got a special Christmas treat for you in two days so come back and claim your holiday gift from yours truly. 

Happy Friday! 

Last Friday, the Mister and I had Holidatenight. It was a festive evening destined to become holiday tradition. In a previous post (see #5 and #11), I made a personal promise to make the Mister feel extra special by preparing a special homemade dinner that included this beautiful, artistic crispy potato roast. This also happened to coincide with decorating the Christmas tree and watching one of my favorite holiday movies, Love Actually.  Thus, Holidatenight was born and guess what? We're having another one tomorrow, only this time the Mister is making the dinner. 

Here's what was on the menu that night:
Grilled Lettuces with Balsamic and Goat Cheese
Roasted Rack of Lamb Persillade
Simple Cauliflower Saute
Crispy Potato Roast
Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Icing

By the way, those potatoes were stupid good and made for some of the best breakfasts since Waffle House first scattered covered and smothered the potato.  I'm off to bake some cookies for the rest of the afternoon. More Holidatenight to come! 

Happy Thursday! 

Just four more days until Christmas and I am scrambling like a madwoman. Planning time was a bit scarce for me this year and it's gonna be a tight squeeze to bake some more cookies, wrap the presents and finish Christmas shopping (yes, I'm one of "those" people).  C'est la vie. I'll do better next year I s'pose. 

Can I tell you a secret? This post was actually supposed to feature my DIY doormat but alas, my doormat turned out to be a grave disappointment. Not so much a disappointment, but something I'll leave undocumented. My future children never need to know that Mommy botched a few craft projects here and there. Instead I'll share with you a lovely (old) video from Tiger in a Jar  and some of my favorite DIY posts from around the blog world. If you're at work, this will be the perfect holiday inspired time waste. Cheers! 


The DIY doormat project I botched. It's super easy and cheap. I just got the spacing all wrong for my design. Le sigh. 

These last minute DIY gift ideas.

Stuff to do and stuff to print here. 

I love how the above video takes simple toys and makes them into something special. See how Sweet Paul glitterfies some toys to make ornaments here. Easy, breezy. Boom!

Tomorrow I bake cookies in hopes of returning the sweet gesture that has made it a leggings and elastic waistband kind of week for me. Fig and walnut cookies, maybe and orange yogurt cake and some other goodies for the neighbors. I figured it's better to be a cheery holiday spazz with a capacity for giving than an incensed holiday shopper with no parking lot manners. 

What are you doing these last few days of Christmas? Are you a crazy person too or are you the Christmas zen Buddha?  

I love the peacefulness of light this time of year. I love being the first to wake up and bask in the glow of the Christmas tree while the Mister sleeps. It's one of my favorite things to do. So peaceful. This morning was one of those mornings. I had the chance to appreciate the stillness of the morning and the warmth of my living room.  As we enter into the final week before the Christmas holiday, I wanted to impart you with the same.  I wish for you to have peace in your heart and a few calm moments to yourself to bask in the light. Love and light to you. 

xx,
Keia 

It's official. I am most definitely, posilutely, abso-tively in the Christmas spirit! 
The Mister and I brought the perfect Fraser fir home last night, busted out the Christmas boxes, draped the Christmas lights on the tree and blasted A Very She and Him Christmas on the speakers.  Naturally, today's song is inspired by our festive and cozy evening in. Tonight, we finish trimming the tree and I have a special dinner planned for the Mister. I'll also be crossing off items #5 and #11 from my 12 by 2012 list. Bonus! This will be documented. 

Also in the holiday spirit is Elsie from A Beautiful Mess who has some great ideas for creating new Christmas traditions with the one you love. Read her post here and check out Fort Christmas. Love it! 

Do you have any fun and inspiring Christmas traditions? I'd love to hear from you. Happy Friday! 

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Hello, hello! How the heck are ya? I can tell you all that I am super happy to be home and more importantly, to be back in my own kitchen having fun. I feel this way every time I go out of town and am forced to be a cook in someone else's kitchen.  Not that I don't love to cook for others, but I miss my kitchen, my garden and all the lovely ingredients and spices that stock my pantry. It just isn't the same. 

Needless to say, since being home, I've been a glutton in the garden, furiously dog-earing recipes in my cookbooks, printing recipes from my favorite food blogs like a madwoman and whipping up whatever I can. Before that I was lounging on the couch, snuggled up with my old man kitty watching endless hours of the Cooking Channel. Like HOURS. 

I caught one of my old favorite shows, Everyday Italian, and watched Giada di Laurentiis make these ridiculously good looking [insert Zoolander accent here] cookies and decided to embark on my Christmas cookie adventures with this recipe.

 There is NO, I repeat, NO spinach in a florentine cookie.  I have already been asked several times whether there was spinach in the cookies because they are called florentines. Nope. Florentine cookies are typically made with honey, nuts and sometimes dried fruit. 

And you know what? These things didn't even originate in Florence like you would think. Apparently, they originated in France in the kitchen of King Louis XIV. I still think of them as Old World Italian cookies although I'm sure any Frenchman would beg to differ. Who wouldn't?! They are lacy discs of toffee-like deliciousness, crunchy and chewy and most often combined with chocolate.  I made mine with almonds and dark chocolate chips and local North Carolina wildflower honey. 

The recipe was really easy, but the directions for baking were a bit deceiving. The original recipe said to spoon eight portions of batter (two teaspoons each) onto a large baking sheet. My cookies joined forces in the oven and came out one giant conglomerate cookie. I tried it with six portions per baking sheet and it did the same thing.

 I was able to get the cookies to stay singular by portioning three to a baking sheet, but come on, that's a lot of rounds in the oven. I improvised and took the conglomerate cookies and cut them into bite-sized squares. They weren't the traditional round florentines but they still tasted dang good.  Below, pictured left, are the cookies pre-bake. You can see all the honeyed goodness. To the right is the cookie post-bake, all lacy and golden brown. Dare I say that's a sexy cookie? 

Next, I melted dark chocolate chips and spread them on the bottom of each cookie and made florentine sandwiches. 
Mmm, sandwiches made with chocolate, my favorite. Did I mention that the recipe also called for orange zest in the almond mixture? It was the perfect addition and surprise to the sweet and nutty cookie, plus dark chocolate and orange is a classic combo for dope desserts.  

Oh, one more thing. Did you like my new vintage china? That was a gift from my sister-in-law to be. So pretty. Thanks Angela! Next up on the Christmas cookie adventures are these fig and walnut cookies courtesy of Giada. What's on your Christmas cookie list? I want to hear all about your favorite recipes and holiday stories. 

I took this photo last week while on an emotionally exhausting and difficult trip. This picture perfectly captures the melancholy mood that permeated my days away.  The trip left me feeling contemplative and acutely aware of my own life. Death has a way of putting things into perspective, I guess.

You see, I was given a gift last week.  I was able to see the brightness of my own imperfect life and the richness that surrounds my little corner of the world. I had gratitude for my life. What an amazing gift! I was able to look for the lessons in a difficult situation and I was given the opportunity to consider the life ahead of me. I know it sounds cliche' but bear with me. 

I started this blog as a way to share my happiness with others. It's a place where I can share what inspires me, what feeds my soul and how I find sunshine in even the darkest of situations. It's the reason why I sat down every night last week to record the blessings of each painful day. It's why I choose to share this experience with you today and it's why I seek out the sunshine wherever I go.  For me, it's the only way to go about this journey with all of its unexpected twists and turns.  

I went for a walk with a friend the other day and, as we approached a steep incline on the trail, she noted how we could not see what was up ahead and that life was much like that.  Even though we couldn't see the path, we knew it was there. We knew it would get us to where we needed to go even though we couldn't tell where it was going to lead us.

I encourage you to take this thought with you as you begin your week. Keep to the sunshine wherever you go and trust that you are on the path, even if it doesn't feel that way. If you are going through a difficult time, keep going and if your path is full of sunshine, share it with another. We're all in this together, friends. 

 Thanks for humoring me on my philosophical, "what is the meaning of life" post.  I feel much better. I hope you do too. Happy Monday! 

Hello friends! I am so happy to write this post this morning. This week has been incredibly difficult and I was unable to blog at all.  A family member passed and I was out of town tending to the business of death and family. I drove to Memphis on Sunday and spent a full three days engrossed in life stuff. I missed my home, my friends and my blog life. I am so, so grateful to be home. 

I also had nine hours of driving each way which meant nine hours of awesome music. I heard this song on my return trip and it was the perfect pick-me-up to a dreary visit. If you pay attention to the lyrics, the folks of Chic give you  spot-on instructions on how to live life and when they say "these are the good times" they mean the here and right now. 

Check these lyrics: 
Rumor has it, it's getting late. 
Time marches on, just can't wait. 
The clock is turning, why hesitate? 
You silly fool, you can't change your fate. 

...Don't be a drag, participate...and my favorite
Clams on the half shell and roller skates, roller skates. Good times! 
If there is anything to take away from my most recent experience, it is that life is precious, time is short and we must live it now.  These are the good times. Happy Friday! 

This morning I found myself down the rabbit hole of music videos and somehow wound up listening to French pop. C'est bon! 

 I do love listening to the French language especially in lyrical form. It's a tasty treat for my ears, even if I have NO idea what they are saying. There is much to love about this video, mainly that three people have their own personal party complete with confetti, balloons, cake and keyboards! The word "Hip Hop" appears in the video for no reason (gotta love random artistic decisions) and when Jolie Cherie says it, it sounds like "eep op" which makes me smile. I also happen to love the shoes of our leading lady and her fun pink leggings. It's bright. It's colorful and it's a bit of fun for your Friday. 

I suggest having a party of your own while you have a listen. Happy Day!