Create a masterpiece! Paint by Sticker + Win a copy!

I know there are a bajillion other blogs you could be reading right now besides mine, so when somebody tells you yours is one of their favourites and they’ve discovered all kinds of things from it, well it makes you feel pretty great. Thank you Paméla! B, and thanks to all of you making try small things part of your day. Quite a few of you like to craft and colour, either by yourself or with your kids, so I think Paint by Sticker (out just last week!) is something you’d really enjoy. Just like paint-by-number, each of the pictures is divided into spaces, only instead of colouring them in with paint you fill them with the corresponding sticker. There’s a version for kids too, but I thought my almost-nine-year-old daughter could totally tackle the more detailed grown-up version so we put that one to the test. 

Five things + A giveaway!

School’s out and summer’s officially here! What’s in store for the weekend, everybody? My kiddos are away visiting family for a couple of days so I’m catching up on some reading, doing a lot of cleaning (it’s really the only time I feel like I can make some headway) and going out to dinner tonight with girlfriends from the neighbourhood. Here’s a look at some of the goings-on in the past week or two.

The Sweetapolita Bakebook + A Giveaway!

Random House Canada sent me a complimentary copy to review, however all opinions are my own. 

If I slept with a book under my pillow like my kids, The Sweetapolita Bakebook would be the one I’d tuck under my head and dream about each night. Baker, blogger and photographer extraordinaire Rosie Alyea invites readers to a magical land where playing with your food is not only allowed, it’s encouraged. Colour and paint on decadent cookies and cakes with edible paint and chalk, make your own sprinkles and candy clay, and top your cupcakes with toasted marshmallow frosting — Alyea shows you how in step-by-step instructions even the newest (and littlest!) bakers will want to try. And if you have a few flops along the way, she’s there to remind you she’s had her share of failures too. The teenager who fell in love with the world of cake and confection working at a bakery grew into a multi-talented entrepreneur, mother of two, and author of this most endearing first book where decorating takes the cake.

Win my Fall faves!

Ahhh, Fall. The perfect time to curl up with a good book, a hot beverage and chocolate bar. Even if that’s just 20 minutes after the kids have finally fallen asleep and the dishes are done and the email’s answered and that sticky patch is scrubbed off the floor (what was that sticky patch?) and you can barely keep your eyes open but dammit, you’re going to get some time to yourself. And then maybe finding the book so good you stay up way too late reading and the morning comes too damn early and you curse yourself for not going to sleep earlier, knowing you’ll do it all over again. Maybe tonight. Maybe with some of my Fall faves!

That’s right everybody, it’s giveaway time! One lucky reader is going to win three of my favourite Fall luxuries: maple sugar DAVIDsTEA, a bar of Camino (fair-trade! organic! kosher! gluten free!) milk chocolate and the fantastic new sequel to The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Effect.

You don’t need to read The Rosie Project to get The Rosie Effect, ‘tho it’ll help you understand and empathize with the main characters so you might want to start with that first. I wanted each page of The Rosie Effect to be a surprise so I never read a summary, but you can read one here from Chapters (where I ordered it for 50% off). If you could see the bags under my eyes you’d know I couldn’t put it down. I stayed up late several nights to finish it and miss the characters already.

The maple sugar tea is a recent discovery; it’s smooth and sweet (but not too sweet!) and smells divine. It goes great with the Camino milk chocolate (my all-time fave!) and the fair trade cancels out the calories, so enjoy it guilt free!

Now for the giveaway! To enter, leave a comment below telling my some of your Fall faves, then click on this link to indicate you did so and to obtain additional entries. (If I could, I’d put the form here so you wouldn’t have to click on an external link, but my blog isn’t self-hosted so I don’t have the capability.) The giveaway is open to Canadian and US residents and ends at midnight EST on October 30. Enter today, then come back and enter again!

Good luck everybody! Can’t wait to hear about some of your Fall faves!

This is not a sponsored post. I just wanted to share some of my favourite luxuries with you!