Cucumber Cream Cheese Bites

I'm all about fast, delicious and healthy bites when it comes to party food. For M's second birthday I wanted to make a veggie platter, but it was just too boring for me. So I decided to turn the veggies into simple and original bites sized snacks! Meet the cucumber cream cheese bites. c:

The best thing though is that you don't even have to prepare them ahead of time. All you have to do is slice up some cucumber and put everything in a platter with a knife to spread the cream cheese and let your guests make their own! You could even get creative and offer different toppings. It's almost like a cracker bar but with cucumbers instead.

INGREDIENTS

Cucumber
Cream cheese
Dried cranberries

Seriously though, these are delicious.

Do you have any quick snacks that you prepare for guests at special events?

On another note, I started to think about Christmas gifts. I know, kind of early, but I'm always late, and this year I promised myself I'd be early! As I was writing this post, I found out that Blurb is offering Canadians an exclusive 25% off photo books until October 31 (using code CANADA25). So I thought I'd turn my recipes into a book and give them away as presents. Good idea no?

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Blurb. All opinions are my own.

Life Lately

What have you been up to lately?

Lately...I visited Michael's. I swear to god, every time I go in there I come out with 10 times as much stuff as I originally went to buy. I guess I'm just an impulsive craft buyer. I try to stay away from craft stores as much as possible for that reason.

Lately...World of Warcraft baby! I actually don't play that much anymore, but I'm kind of excited for the new expansion coming! Like, really excited.

Lately...I bought myself some super cute notebooks in an attempt to get my home organized. That has yet to happen.

Lately...My family and I went apple picking. So. Much. Fun. We're planning on making this a yearly fall activity. I've been creating apple recipes so stay tuned!

Lately...Just a selfie, 'cause ya know...

Lately...Gosh I love snuggling with my newborn. I just can't get enough of that new baby smell and super soft skin. Can he stay like this forever pwease? Those adorably pure smiles just melt my heart.

Lately...Baby color stimulation. Have to get those little brain cells warmed up!

Lately...I started a mini series over on my Instagram about similar colored items in my home. I get bored sometimes.

Lately...My 2 year old son just can't get enough of his little brother. He always wants to be close to him. It's just so adorable and he's so gentle with him. He has such a beautiful soul.

Recent favorites

1. This chocolate oatmeal crepe cake by Oatgasm looks devilishly delicious.

2. This home looks too perfectly style to be real. I wish I could keep mine that tidy for more than 2 seconds.

3. Brainstorming Halloween costumes. White buck maybe?

Random facts about me

1. I'm starting to have so much white hair that it's getting impossible to hide.

2. I finally mastered the cat eye liner! Or almost.

3. I absolutely adore children and being a mom, but sometimes having no time for myself gets the best of me.

DIY: Make Your Own Wall Stencil

Ever since we bought our first home 2 years ago, I've been wanting to decorate. DECORATE! Every time I run ideas by my husband though, more often than not, I'm faced with rejection. At first I wanted to try a false brick wall. He said no because he was worried that if we didn't like it, we wouldn't be able to remove it. Ok, I agree. On to the next idea; wallpaper. That got the same response. A white trim at 1/3 of the wall got a maybe.

Then I saw this super cute wall on Mer Mag and the stencil idea got a yes because it could easily be painted over. Oh my god a YES! After that, I just knew I had to try to make my own. I wanted to paint clouds on my son's wall so bad that I was dreaming about it every night. Ok, maybe not that much, but I just couldn't shake the idea. I'm glad I ended up doing it because it makes the room look so much brighter.

I haven't finished decorating yet but the new accent wall is one step closer to making the room complete. I've been trying to make it a bit of a Montessori style and I'm really glad I did. My son just loves having everything at his level. He does belly flaps on his bed and takes pride in aligning his book neatly on the little shelves. He's just too adorable this one.

MATERIALS

Paint
Sponge roller
Paint dispenser (or whatever that black thing you pour the paint into is called, lol)
Painter's tape
Pencil
Paper
Clear paper
X-Acto Knife

PROCEDURE

1. To start, I drew the shape I wanted on a piece of paper. It took me a few tries to get exactly what I wanted but it turned out super cute. At this point you can draw pretty much anything you want. You could even do geometric shapes.

2. Using an X-Acto (and a piece of cardboard to protect my surface), I cut out the shape.

3. I stuck a grid on the wall using painter's tape. Each square is the same size as the piece of clear paper I cut my stencil out of.

4. I taped the stencil in one of the squares and painted the shape with the roller. At first, I thought if I used a tiny bit of paint, that it wouldn't go under the stencil and ruin the shape, but it did because I had to go over it so many times. I then tried by rolling an ample amount of paint on right away and it was much better. I also tried to roll the paint from the outside in as much as possible. Every time I moved my stencil to another square, I made sure to wipe any excess paint off from the under side. Oh, and please don't laugh at my funky hairdo. It was one of those days. ;)

5. I painted a cloud in every other square on the grid and did opposing squares in the next row.

Overall, this project took about 2 hours but I went back over the shapes the next day just to make sure they were well painted so it took me just over 3 hours total.

When my 2 year old son saw me painting clouds on his wall his initial reaction was: "Waaaoooow"... and he just kept repeating it every time he entered his room. I'm pretty sure that means I won. God I love that little mister.