What do you think? Have you tried to write down something to be grateful for each day in November? How does your family do it? Display on a tree? Put them all in a jar to read at once? Tell us!

ALSO!
Over on the Facebooks, I'm curious about slow cookers. Do you have one? Do you hate it? Do you use it every day? or does it take up valuable kitchen space and collect dust? I'm on the fence about getting one. Is it worth it if I don't cook meat?

p.s today I'm thankful for paid vacation time!

Happy Friday! If you're a careful Instagram follower, you know that I am officially on vacation. If you're not, that's ok, because, guys, guess what? I'm on vacation!

I'm treating myself to a yummy breakfast (it's in the oven), that I will hopefully be sharing with you next week. For the first time in a long time, I'm flying east to Home. I get to see parents, relatives, and friends. I plan on apples and cool weather. I'm excited.

Here in the Bay Area we are experiencing an October heat wave. Do we still use the term "Indian Summer"? Please advise.

For today's printable, I'm sending you over to Adventures in Cooking for a two-for. Clicking over will get you a recipe for homemade vanilla extract as well as a template to label them. Because you know what? Now is the perfect time to start if you want to give some away during the month of December. just saying.

Now, if you're like me, and somewhat in denial about the whole thing, that's ok. Make some for yourself!

I hope you're week has gone well. I really hope you all get to be on vacation too, but that seems unlikely. High fives if you are!

Happy Friday! I realized that at some point I let my tradition of free-printable-Friday posts lapse. Bad blogger. So I thought it would be a good idea to bring it back. Good blogger. (here's hoping I can remember to keep it up!)

I always find it fun to go on interweb hunts for free printables that aren't totally out there in crazy land. And by crazy land, I mean printables for projects not based in reality, but instead in Pinterest-Land, which is a different (crazy) beast altogether.

So today I'm sending you over to Lia Griffith for these charming herb and spice labels. There are two designs: this chalkboard style and another that looks like kraft paper. Perhaps you're using this in-between time of year to do some back-to-school, autumnal, or pre-holiday madness cleaning or organizing (and perhaps you'd like to come visit?). If so, I think these labels are a great option to not just feel more organized but to look more organized, which is sometimes really the key to these things. Sometimes I think I should really do something about my own unorganized mishmash of herbs and spices, but, well if it ain't broke and all that...

That, and we don't have a printer these days.

Happy weekend!

We are in the thick of summer and the food bounty that goes along with that. We have been eating tons and tons of fruit, and I've also dried some and turned more into various jams. I can't keep up here with what I've been making, but I wanted to share with you a) so that I remember and b) so that perhaps you'll be inspired and go create something fabulous.


I shared my small batch strawberry jam and my strawberry margarita jam, but, for the record, I've also preserved

• Apricot Jam
• Apricot Sucanat Jam (no white sugar at all)
• Strawberry Sucanat Jam (ditto)
• Blackberry Jam (with even less sugar than last year's batch)
• Blackberry Vanilla Jam (OMG it's AMAZEBALLS)

Happy weekend, friends! I am on my way to Paradise, and I'm also taking a vacation from blogging and a mostly-tech-unconnected vacation. Instagram and deleting emails occasionally will probably be about it.

So with that announcement, I leave you with some cute canning labels. Have you already started? Or perhaps these will inspire you to think about starting. All I've done is my small batch strawberry jam, though my friends with apricot trees (yay California) tell me that they are starting to be ripe. Apricot season, here we come!

download the blank template and customize!

Peach Jam labels

these cute chalkboard ones are customizable for freezing or canning

all sorts of Christmas labels for your edible gifts

I know that any saying with "joy" in it is typically a Christmas treat, but, really, who doesn't need joy the rest of the year? These cute Choose Joy free printables from Lost Bumblebee come in a few colors, and she's even made one that's the right size for your Facebook cover photo, if you're so inclined.

This week at work has been...hard, I guess, but mainly quite busy. I had to make up work/clean up the chaos from being gone for a week, and the holidays are out in full force in the retail world, so the days have been packed. I've left late every afternoon, and I never get everything crossed off my list. The good thing about being busy is that I can pretty much stay in my own little bubble and not get too annoyed by other personalities. Mostly.

So, on this Friday, I'm choosing joy. How about you?

Happy Friday! Today I'm sending you over to How About Orange for this sweet birthday card. Jessica is a designer, and I've linked to her stuff before because it's always good. Plus, it's October, which means it's my dad's birthday later this month, and he's a fan of donuts (really, who isn't?), so it seems extra appropriate.

Do you have any weekend plans? Projects to conquer? Crafting? Sleeping? Partying? Watching that awesome local sports team? I'll be at work on Saturday, but then it's officially my weekend. I'm actually not totally sure what I'm going to do with myself. It's the first weekend in a long while that we don't have a place to be or people to see. Mr Official Taster will continue to work on his fish tank situation (are vague references to fish tanks something that people would like followed up with photos? or do you not care much?), and I suspect I'll do some couching/reading and maybe start thinking about this year's birthday dessert for Mr OT.

hello, friends. It has been a crazy week (or two. or three) here at Chez Sweets- what about you? Today's short and sweet post is me pointing you towards Lost Bumblebee's black and white free printables for your kitchen (or if you're lucky and it's another room) and pantry. She's got a bunch to choose from and links to get them in fun colors if you're looking for a pop of happy.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Happy Friday! I hope you have had a good week and are looking forward to a long weekend. For those who do not get an extra day off (me included!), I hope you make the most of what you do get. I'm thinking about tackling one of our many house projects. Here's a clue! Mr Official Taster bought a saw last tonight so that he can start building a fish tank stand. Not going to lie- I'm a little nervous about how that's going to go. He's made one successfully before, but there was a lot of help from our old neighbor. Hopefully he learned all he needed to last time! I have no doubt that a lot of cursing will be involved, no matter what.

I will be back tomorrow with another installment of weekend reading, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share this free printable. I like both the quote and that you get a choice of design. I don't know about you, but after a long week, I often have to try especially to be kind.

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Happy Friday! As Jam Week comes to a close, that means a bunch of free printables I've found for you guys. I hope this week has inspired you to make some jam, or at least think about making jam. If the jam doesn't, maybe the cute labels will?

That first image above of some very nice chalkboard style freezer and canning labels are by Lia Griffith and can be found here. If the kitchen-organizing bugs hits, check out her similarly styled pantry labels and herb and spice labels.

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Guys, it's my birthday weekend! I'm psyched to eat cupcakes and have two days off from work to spend with Mr Official Taster and the puppies. In case you need a card for someone, here are a few cute ones I found via Pinterest (where else?).

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Happy Friday and happy summer! To celebrate, I'm sending you over to Toad's Treasures for some cute jam toppers. These canning labels are perfect because you can use them on anything you preserve since they're non-specific. They even come in a variety of colors. Personalize at will!

Happy Friday! Do you have any exciting weekend and/or Father's Day plans? I was inspired by this article yesterday, so last night Mr Official Taster and I bought ourselves a mini grill. We haven't had a grill at all for a couple years, and we're both looking forward to having the option to change up dinner. In addition, my parents arrive for a visit today, and I don't thing we could properly celebrate Father's Day without a grill. It just didn't seem right, somehow.

I'm not going to lie; I picked today's printable based solely on the pun. Puns are fun. In any case, if you're interested, head on over to Anything But Perfect for this fun candy bar wrapper.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday! Today has been a good day, and I hope the same is true for you. Today, I'm sending you over to Hello!Lucky for some free Father's Day printables (found via How About Orange). They're very classy looking, don't you think? There are both wine and beer lables, a couple cards, and even some snazzy sock wrappers.

Happy Friday! I can't tell you how excited I am for today. I worked nine days straight in order to free up a long weekend. I'm heading to Seattle! I'm looking forward to good friends, good food, lots of laughter, and the novelty of rain. I'll be sure to keep up my self-imposed Instagram challenge @ shortandsweets.

So in celebration of travel, I'm sending you over to Living Locurto for some free luggage tags. They are sure to help you avoid grabbing someone else's black suitcase.

What are you doing this weekend? Any fun travel plans?

Happy Friday! Do you have exciting Memorial Day plans? We get to have dinner with some Seattle friends. They are making the drive down the coast on their way to their new life and jobs in LA. It will be nice to see them, and I know they'll appreciate the sunshine!

Today I'm sending you over to Hostess With the Mostess for these fun patriotic parasols that you can either use for drinks or for cupcake toppers, or really, any other fun thing you can think of. Might I suggest these patriotic cupcakes for the weekend? or these cupcake wrappers?