Live Everyday like a Holiday!

Now Offering Free Printables to my readers!

New! Free Printables Coming Soon

Hello Friends,

I’m thrilled to share that a new tab has appeared at the top of this blog: Printables. It opens a shimmering doorway to helpful tools, holiday resources, and party prep guides you can download, print, and use year after year. For Free!

Whether you’re planning a seasonal gathering, organizing classroom magic, or keeping track of your Realm rituals and celebrations— I will be creating printable pages to make it all a little easier. (and a little more enchanted).

Inside the Printables section:

Party Prep Tools
Seasonal & Holiday Resources
Celebration Planning Pages
Forgotten Holiday Spotlights
Calendar Inserts & Seasonal Timelines
Welcome Sign Prints for the door
Frame-worthy Poetic Printables
Coloring Pages
Puzzle Pages

✨ A Dash of Creative Mischief

Some printables are inspired by my seasonal books, with sneak-peek coloring pages, themed puzzles, and activity sheets tucked in for readers who love to play inside the Realm.

All files are formatted for black-and-white printing and designed to sparkle with crooked charm, no matter the season.

🕯️ Visit the new Printables tab at the top of this page to explore what’s ready—and keep watch for fresh downloads added soon.

Visit the new Printables tab at the top of this page to begin.

Blessing to all, Pam

I’ve Been Crafting something meaningful and I'm ready to share it

For years, I’ve shared seasonal wonder on this blog

—rituals, traditions, recipes, forgotten holidays, and cozy little moments that bring meaning to the calendar. But behind the scenes, something new was stirring.

I started writing books.

Not just books—seasonal companions, poetic party guides, holiday wall art, and coloring pages that echo the same shimmer I love to share here. They’ve been quietly growing like pumpkins in moonlight.

I’m proud of them. They carry my love for forgotten lore, print-only beauty, storytelling, and celebration. They’re playful and heartfelt. Some are narrated by Raven the Watchcat. Some are traceable. Some have spider secrets. I even tested the waters on creating puzzle books and found I love to create them. lol~

And yes—now they live on Amazon.

Here’s where you can explore them:

I've added an Author tab at the top of the blog for those who want easy access to my books.

"I’ll be sharing more soon—book spotlights, seasonal downloads, perhaps a few behind-the-scenes whispers. For now, thank you for being here. You’ve walked beside my journey even when you didn’t know the path had pages."

Let’s keep celebrating the Holidays, together.

Here's to coloring carefully, dreaming wildly, and following the light wherever it leads.

Pam 🖤

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🕯️ The shimmer doesn’t stop here…
Explore my seasonal library of print-only books, poetic party guides, and curated creative picks.
📚 Visit My Author Page | 🛍️ Shop My Seasonal Storefront
Curated by the Keeper. Judged by the Cat. 🐾

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Download your free Halloween Party Prep Checklist: Click here to open the PDF

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My favorite Dark Chocolate Mint Cupcake Recipe

Several years ago, I hosted a Chocolate Mint Party in honor of National Chocolate Mint Day, and this is the recipe that I used. I wanted to share it with you because it's my favorite recipe to use when I'm using fresh chopped mint from my garden.

National Chocolate Mint Day is celebrated annually on February 19th, but chocolate mint desserts are enjoyed all throughout the year! What better way to enjoy the flavor of mint than by baking up some sweet chocolate mint cupcakes.

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Dark Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

2 cups walnuts, toasted, cooled
1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

White Chocolate Mint Frosting

1/2 cup whipping cream

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

8 ounces high-quality white chocolate, chopped

1 tablespoon green crème de menthe

Preparation

For cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter two 12-cup mini-muffin pans. Using on/off turns, blend first 4 ingredients in processor until walnuts are finely chopped. Whisk flour and baking powder in small bowl. Stir chocolate and butter in heavy small saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool slightly.

Using electric mixer, beat sugar, eggs, and vanilla in large bowl until very thick, about 4 minutes. Gradually beat in cooled chocolate mixture. Stir in walnut mixture. Spoon 1 1/2 tablespoons batter into each prepared muffin cup.

Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. Cut around cupcakes to loosen; turn out onto work surface. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; store at room temperature.)

White Chocolate Mint Frosting:

Bring cream and butter to simmer in heavy small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until butter melts. Remove from heat. Add white chocolate; stir until melted. Mix in crème de menthe. Transfer frosting to bowl; let frosting cool at room temperature until firm enough to pipe, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours.

Spoon frosting into pastry bag fitted with medium star tip. Pipe frosting decoratively atop cupcakes.

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My Closing Thoughts~

I make these cupcakes in Spring Summer and Fall, when my mint is growing so perfuse all over the place.
I also like to make these cupcakes at Halloween. The colors just go great on a Halloween decorated table. Once I created a Frankenstein table where all the food and drinks were either black or green. This cupcake was a hit on the table that night.
I also made this cupcake for a small garden party I went to. All the guests brought something that was made with something from their herb garden.
Happy Chocolate Mint Day. ~ "Live everyday like a Holiday" Pam

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses some material from wikipedia /article chocolatemint©/and other related pages. Photo:flickr.com/26396724@N05/ / gone-ta-pott / epicurious.com

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White Christmas Candy Recipe

What is White Christmas Candy?

White Christmas is an Australian no-bake sweet, made from a combination of Copha or white chocolate, icing sugar, sultanas, glacé cherries, desiccated coconut, milk powder and rice bubbles.

It is cooked in a rectangular slice tin, and cut into small slices or cube pieces because of it's richness. It is very well known in Australia, being a sweet that children can easily be taught to make. This sweet treat is also popular given as gifts in clear cellophane bags or jars tied with ribbon.

White Christmas Recipe 1

250 g copha
3 cups rice bubbles
1 cup coconut
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 cup full cream powdered milk
30 g glace cherries (red and green)
1/2 cup sultanas
30 g glace apricots
30 g glace pineapple

Line 28cm x 18cm lamington tin with baking powder-

Melt copha- Add to all other ingredients combined in a

large bowl and mix thoroughly-

Press mixture into tin and refrigerate until firm-

Cut into serving size pieces-

White Christmas Recipe 2

250g Copha
140g (1 cup) pure icing sugar
180g (1 cup) sultanas
100g (slightly rounded 1/2 cup) chopped glace cherries
100g (2/3 cup) finely chopped dried apricots
85g (1 cup) desiccated coconut
106g (1 cup) full cream milk powder
40g (1 1/4 cups) rice bubbles

Line an 18cm by 28cm slice pan with baking paper.

Melt Copha in a small saucepan over low heat.

Sift icing sugar into a large bowl. Add sultanas, cherries, apricots,

coconut, milk powder and rice bubbles and stir until well combined.

Add melted Copha to bowl and stir until well combined.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan.

Firmly press the mixture into the pan using the back of a spoon.

Tightly cover pan with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, and then refrigerate until slice is cold and set. Cut White Christmas into small squares to serve. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. / Wikipedia / Photo: Whitechristmas.jpg

Party Food / Fried Dill Pickles and dipping sauce recipes

A fried pickle is a snack item found commonly in the American South. It is made by deep-frying a sliced battered dill pickle. Great Party Food!

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Example of Fried Dill Pickle Recipe

1 qt. sliced dill pickles - sliced long or slice round
1 egg, beaten
1 c. milk
1 tbsp. flour
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
6 drops hot sauce
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. pepper
3 1/2 c. flour
Dried dill for seasoning
Vegetable oil for deep frying

Combine first 5 ingredients, stirring well. Set aside. Combine 3 1/2 cups flour, salt and pepper, stirring well. Dip pickles in milk mixture and dredge in flour mixture, repeat process. Deep fry in hot oil, 350 degrees until pickles float to surface and are golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Sprinkle with Dried dill to your liking.

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