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Not too long ago we had a chili cook off at work. It's been an annual occurrence for almost 10 years! This was the first time I participated and it was a lot of fun!

The chili's were lined up on the table and had small jars in front for anonymous voting. Each individual was given one dry bean as their vote. Fun!

I've only made chili a handful of times in my life, to be honest I never used to like beans, but in chili they are okay. I quite enjoy making chili though and another confession, each time I make it I use a different recipe! The cook off was no exception, I had the attitude that I was participating for fun and if I won great, if not, it was fun to try (an ancient family recipe wasn't a stake here haha).

And in fact I got 2nd! (out of 5) The man who won last year won again this year. It was good chili I'll admit, but I've got a plan now and I'm in it to win next year!

If you'd like to know which recipe I used I'm going to share it! I made some adjustments from the original as I doubled it to feed more as well the grocery store didn't have all of the exact ingredients I needed. I also took a tidbit from another recipe I read and incorporated it in. But hey, it's chili and the greatest thing about that is it is completely flexible and fairly forgiving :) That's my kind of cooking!

Enough talk, let's cook!

Chocolate Bacon Chili

Ingredients
-1 package of bacon
-2 pounds ground beef
-1 onion, chopped
-1 tbsp + 1 tsp chili powder
-1 tbsp ground cumin
-2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
-3 garlic cloves, minced
-Two 15oz cans Home-style Baked Beans
-1 tsp dried oregano
-One 15oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
-One 15oz can red beans, drained and rinsed
-One 15oz can diced tomatoes
-4 cups tomato sauce
-2 cups beef broth, low sodium

Directions
In a large fry pan cook your bacon. Fry it fairly crispy, but not burnt. Set it aside, but leave the bacon grease in the pan. On medium heat add your ground beef and brown it. Drain off the fat.

In a large dutch oven over medium-high heat, stir together your ground beef, onion, chili powder and cumin. Next add the cocoa and garlic, mix together and cook for 2 minutes. Next, add the home-style beans and oregano and cook for another minute. Add the black and red beans, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and beef broth. Lastly, crumble up the bacon and mix in. Cover your chili and simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

I love to eat my chili over nachos with sour cream and cheese, delicious :)

The trophy - next year!

The competition!

When you double a chili recipe it make for a lot of cans!

Notes:
*Original Chocolate Chili recipe courtesy Paula Deen, see it here.
*This recipe I've provided is not doubled.
*I typically like to make my chili in the slow cooker, works for any recipe, just add a couple of hours and cook on low.
*I also don't like anything spicy...not fitting for chili I know, so I eliminated all peppers and anything that might give it too much kick, but feel free to add your own!

Want to make a beautiful, easy, and practical gift for the expecting/new mom friend in your life? Make a diaper cake! It simple and fun to put together, it makes a wonderful decor piece at a baby shower, and afterwards it's extremely useful for the new parents :)

3 Tier Diaper Cake

Supplies:
1 package (84) of size 1 baby diapers
1 round base (I found a cardboard cake base at the dollar store)
1 small package of multi-sized elastic bands
1 paper towel roll
A hot glue gun
2-3 rolls of ribbon
3-6 baby items to decorate (baby utensils, socks, pacifier, hair brush and comb, hair bow, etc.)

Directions:
1) There are two methods to assemble the diapers to create the cake tiers, I used both. The first way is to roll each individual diaper. I did this for the base and top tier. For the base layer I used an elastic to hold them in threes around the paper towel roll, and I did enough to cover the entire cardboard base. The second way is to stagger layer them one on top of each other (does that make sense? see the picture below if you're not sure.) Once you've got the entire layer done you'll use 1 or 2 very large elastics to hold it all together.
As you can see above I didn't start with the paper towel roll in the middle, but I realized part way through assembly that it would be extremely beneficial to keeping the 3 tiers together!

2) Once you have the cake built, it's time to jazz it up! Use the ribbon to conceal the elastics. (It also helped cover the faint blue bears on the diapers in the middle row!) Use the hot glue gun to keep the ribbon in place.

3) And now the best part! Decorate with all the baby items you collected. There should be space enough that they rest easily on the different levels of each tier. I used a hair clip as the bow at the top and I didn't glue the items to the cake because when stationary, they seem to stay just fine.

This cake was obviously for a baby girl, but I've seen some just as cute for baby boys, plus you could just as easily create a gender neutral cake if the sex is unknown at the time you're making it. Just let your imagination go!

Recently my lovely friend and her husband had a baby girl! What an exciting time for them (though not without any hardships - that's another story)! I had the pleasure of first being asked to help plan their gender reveal party and most recently the baby shower! I love this kind of stuff - 'showering' people with love, ya know! ;) So this post is dedicated to the basics and ideas of how to throw a successful baby shower!

The basics of any party in my mind are three things: decorations, games/activities, and food. Let's break it down!

Decorations
I am not the most visually capable decorator so I rely heavily on the ideas of others... yay Pinterest! But it doesn't take too much to create a nicely decorated space. The basics are obviously streamers and balloons, easy and simple. You can really make some nice accents with streamers that are unique to the usual.

try to ignore what's outside the window...

I also was able to find some banners and specific baby shower decor at the dollar store, didn't use all of it, but it could be a one-stop-shop for the person who doesn't want to do too much 'DIY'!

The idea I will take credit for :) is the framed quotes. I'm not a graphic designer, but I love to play around and make some fun posters (though I'm limited to Microsoft Word I think they still turned out nice). I looked up some relevant quotes and bible verses online and then printed them as pictures and framed them. Placing them around the room for the shower was cute! And it gave mommy some extras to take home for the nursery! I will work on providing the printouts for these soon!

The must have decor piece at a baby shower these days is a diaper cake. So that I went to the internet for a tutorial and ideas. It was quite simple and fun to put together! Stay tunes for more on this later!

Games/Activities
The mommy is not too much of a games person so I didn't want to overwhelm the shower with game after game. I wanted the feel to be relaxed and a fun time to mingle and see the new baby and just spoil the new parents. Thus I only planed two simple games to do as a group and two activities that could be done while people mingled.

The two games were The Price is Right: Baby Style and What's in Your Purse. Both ideas I snagged from Pinterest :) The first has everyone guessing the actual retail price of typical baby items like bottles, diapers, baby food etc. and the second is un-baby related, but just for women to see if what they have stashed in their purse can win them a prize!

That said, I did have a few prizes for the winners of each game. Nothing extravagant (some colourful socks, bath salts, lip balm, and notepad), but it's always nice to have some treats for the guests as well.

The two activities were Make Mom Laugh and Wishes for Baby. I loved both of these because it meant that Mommy and Daddy would have some fun things to bring home and laugh at/cherish later. Again, both ideas from Pinterest! The idea behind the first is for people to write fun notes on diapers so that when changing the diaper there is a little something to laugh about despite the current situation! The second is a print out for each party attendee to fill out with wishes for the new baby to read when she grows up :) I will work on providing the printouts soon as well!

Food
I have to admit I had nothing to do with the food at this party as it was collaborative effort! And unfortunately though large and has the word 'cake' in it, the diaper cake was not edible haha! Here my co-hostesses had some crunchy nachos, a sweet fruit platter, scrumptious cupcakes, a delicious lemon cake, and a refreshing pink lemonade!

That's it, it's as simple as that! I hope that you found as much inspiration on this page as I had as much fun doing all of this! Now go and plan that party and have fun!

I wrote this several months ago as I had just come out of wedding planning season for my own wedding and felt like I should share some of the things I learned. I originally posted on Facebook, but now I can share it here as well!

1) Write thank-you cards as soon as you get the gift - the longer you leave it, the easier it is to procrastinate, plus if you’re worried about writing more than one for guests that attend showers in addition to the wedding, just do one for each as they occur, it will be easier in the long run. {tip in a tip: keep an excel sheet tracking who gave you what, paper can get lost amidst the chaos!}

2) Kijiji is your best friend! – Buy, sell, and rent décor and other wedding items for less than you would pay new. I was able to sell most everything I bought there and surprisingly come out even in the end (when it came to decorations).

3) Delegate like crazy – you can’t do everything yourself! You may be a bride, but you are not superwoman. When you do ask someone to help you, give him or her specific directions so as not to be too vague, but also be conscious not to nitpick everything they do. Yes, it is your day, but you don’t want to lose a friendship over something trivial (let alone be dubbed 'Bridezilla'!).

4) Have an idea of the photos you want – Your photographer should know what the basics are, but if there are any very specific ideas you want (such as what you see on Pinterest :) you have to let them know in advance by showing them examples. On the day be flexible during your bridal party pictures, have fun and let the photographer take charge so you can just enjoy your time!

5) When you have chosen your theme and colours and are buying items in those colours, forget trying to match right down to the same shade. It's just not going to happen. Besides, those items are not going to be side by side anyways!

6) Think about other weddings you've been too - Do you remember certain features about it, for example what the chairs looked like? Unless the wedding was over the top and/or you are super observant down to the salt and pepper shakers, there are trivial things you won't remember about each wedding you've been to. Now, if you think about your guests, they are not going to remember the small details like whether the table cloth had a lace fringe or not so don't fret whether you have a feathered pen for the guest book, or a fancy aisle runner! Think of it this way, people won't necessarily notice what's missing, but they may notice the unusual or extravagant so spend your time, energy, and money on the things that matter most to you (it can't be everything) or don't spend it at all!

7) On your wedding day: Take many moments during the day to stop - Litterally Stop. Be very conscious if soaking in the moment as much as you can.

8) Do not plan to rush out of your reception – Linger as long as you can to get the most out of visiting with your guests, especially those who are from out of town. Also, visit with the youngest and more senior guests first because they are the most likely to leave first.

9) Give your caterer a headcount less than your actual count to save some $– Don't worry you won't run out of food! They always make a certain percentage more than required (10-15% typically). You will have people cancel on you last minute, could be due to weather for out of town travelers, no shows on the day of due to sickness etc. by then it is too late to change the catering numbers (the number difference you provide depends on the size of your guest list, I would say 5%).

10) Always have a contract with companies you are renting with, the church, caterer, photographer, bakery, etc. and read the fine print so you know what is included and what you are paying for – We only had a few small issues with contract wording and what that meant with one of our vendors, but I’ve heard horror stories of couples being charged double what they were quoted because they didn’t have it down on paper. Buyer beware!

11) Be very intentional about spending time with your groom in the months leading up to – you are still creating a relationship and just because you are planning what is currently the biggest event of your life, it doesn’t mean you forget what that day is actually about. Cliché, but true.

12) At the very last minute some things will be out of your control, you just have to let it go and trust God!

13) At the end of it all you will be married to your man and that’s the most important!

Mini Tips:

-Don’t forget to drink water during the day. A dehydrated bride would not be fun!

-Make sure to have a prettier hanger for photos of your dress photos.

-Commit your wedding (day) to God. Who better to be in control of it than Him!

-Enjoy yourself! You have family and friends to worry about the nitty gritty for you. (You’d do the same for them wouldn’t you?)

-Pinterest puts out unrealistic expectations of what weddings can look like. Don’t be discouraged! Pick a few things to focus your time and money and the rest will still be so wonderful!