Soo, I just realized that my blog/wordpress account wasn’t working and new comments weren’t getting published… sorry about that. I apologize if you thought I wasn’t allowing/answering comments. All fixed now! (I hope). UPDATE: Apparently, it’s not fixed yet. I’ve been very busy studying but I’ll try to fix it as soon as I can!

Anyway, I’ve been busy building this week. And the more I build, the more I like it! If I weren’t scared of the circular saw I’d do it all by myself, buuut since it’s too heavy for me to hold it anyway, I have to rely on my boyfriend. That’s okay though, we have fun building together. Although the weather’s been so crazy here for the past week (more than 30ºC /86ºF the first week of April, really? we don’t even get that in July most summers!) that it gets really hot outside, so we’re doing things in 2-3h bursts. It’s true that I also have to study so it’s not like I can do much more than that anyway… so far we’ve done two huge planters (our plans) and two rustic benches using Ana White’s plans. If anyone is interested in metric measurements, let me know… I have everything written down in a piece of paper. Since we increased the length of the benches a little to match the outdoor farmhouse table, I also had to obtain the correct angle for the cross supports. Thank you Pythagoras!

The other day was my mom’s birthday, so I baked some cookies for her. These cookies were rich! You just need butter, flour, sugar and cocoa. Delicious and really easy to make. Oh and I also made a no-sew throw pillow cover as a gift. So here’s the recipe… and a link to Centsational Girl’s no sew throw pillow cover tutorial. You basically use bonding tape and an iron. I had all the supplies on hand, so it was f-r-e-e! As you can see, the fabric is a scrap from the guest bedroom curtains. (And I just realized that I never properly shared them. Will post a decent picture soon, I promise! I think I’m gonna have to start a to-do list to keep track of all the things I want to share on the blog, since it keeps getting longer and longer)

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

Recipe from Martha Stewart

Note: I’ve made this recipe twice… I think it has too much butter or too little flour, since it comes out a bit greasy. I’m writing it down as it appears in Martha Stewart’s webpage, but I’d recommend decreasing the butter a bit or increasing the flour. It might be my oven though…

• 1 stick (113 g) softened butter
• 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar or confectioner’s sugar (I used confectioner’s one time and then white the other day because that’s what I had around and didn’t notice a difference)
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 300ºF (150ºC).
2. Beat the butter until creamy. Add in the rest of the ingredients and beat until just mixed.
3. Press the dough into a mold (a brownie pan, for example) and bake for about 30 minutes. Cool and cut into small squares/rectangles.

And now I’m signing off to go back to studying… counting the days til April 15th!

What do you think? Share your opinion in the comments.