How to Achieve a Marble Cake Look!

I tried this recipe today from Anna Olson's Back to Baking cook book and it was pretty good! It was my first time making a marbled dessert and as you can see it turned out quite well.

*You can do this to any simple vanilla cake mix to make it more fun! Just split your cake mix in half and add melted semi-sweet chocolate to one half. 

To achieve a marbled look, you first dollop the chocolate and vanilla batter alternatively into the loaf pan. Then you use a paring knife to carefully make swirls in the batter. This is done by dragging the knife around in various directions a few times.

And there you have it, a marble cake!

Christmas Presents Centerpiece!

 Try this fun and inexpensive craft for your dinning table! Most of the materials were found at the dollar store. You can do this with any colour scheme you wish, but I love using red and gold because it makes the house feel warm and cozy!

*Find 3 sets of boxes that are 3 different sizes. They are pretty hard to find so I had to fold up my own out of cardboard.
*Wrap the bottom and top box in one colour and the middle box in another. Do the same for the other two sets. Make sure the three sets match!
*To finish, wrap each set of 3 up together with a bow.

*I found these great gem stickers at the dollar store and added them to the very bottom of each of the stacks of 3.

*I then placed the present bundles on three candelabras at different heights for visual interest.
*I put the candelabras on a beautiful silver tray I found. It's a great opportunity to showcase your antique silverware. If you have it, flaunt it!
*I also added plastic diamonds, gold balls and pinecones to fill in the empty space on the tray. I found these items at the dollar store of course!

*I found a matching table runner to pull it all together.
And there you have it, a beautiful holiday centerpiece for you dinning table!

Beautiful Christmas Centerpiece! (DIY)

My favourite store to shop for decorations is Dollarama! You can get so much for so little! I used to think they only sold junk but in reality, they sell many of the same things you find in expensive craft stores but for much less. Who doesn't want to save money?

Everything you see in the picture above was bought at Dollarama except the large cream candle and the silver platter. I found the platter in my basement and shined it up a little. It looks beautiful now!

What You'll Need For This Project:

• A platter of some kind
• Pinecones 
• Balls of yarn or sticks
• Bells
• A few candles
• A few small statues (I used deer)
• Plastic jewels (I have them on the bottom so you can't really see them in the picture)

These are the objects I used to create an elegant/rustic theme. You can incorporate or substitute anything you you like! These are just guidelines. 

This craft literally took me about 5 minutes. There is no gluing or tedious work involved, just arrange any objects you bought or gathered from your yard on a platter for an easy, beautiful centerpiece for the holidays!