Gum Graft Experience - Day 2 to 6

Day 2

Morning

I had my alarm clock accidentally set for 6:30am in the morning so I woke up approximately 4 hours after I had gone to bed. This was a pretty good error because I took another Tylenol 3 and went back to bed.

When I woke up around noon (oops), I was feeling pretty good. There's no bloody drool on my pillow, but I do remember accidentally touching my face last night because I remember that it hurt when I touched it. I looked in the mirror and my face has no bruise but it feels bruised and it's a little bit puffy.

Also, it was time to brush my teeth again. So I took my Tylenol with a sip of Ensure and iced my face. The icing felt good. Then I went to take a shower so that I'd have some time for the Tylenol to kick in.

How it looks

I did the same thing as the evening with the brushing and all went well. I noticed that the graft doesn't look the same today. Yesterday, right after the surgery, it was an oval white blob sewn in. Last night, it was a whitish, irregular patch that extended up to my gum line. This morning, it's a bit less obvious where the edges end and it looks bloodier around the edges, but it's not bleeding. I have no idea what the roof of my mouth looks like and I'm afraid to look :P

Irregardless, the roof of my mouth doesn't hurt. It really is a blessing to have a retainer there to prevent my tongue from touching it.

Late afternoon

I haven't taken a Tylenol since the morning and I feel just fine. I'm quite alert, watching TV, drinking soup, and my face doesn't need anything other than an occasional icing. I don't particularly need it, it just feels nice once in a while when my face gets warm.

The cookie milkshake was good enough for a round two. This time I used TWO cookies (non-peanut kind) and added just enough milk to cover the cookies. Then I microwaved the concoction until the cookies had melted down and added cold milk to cool the whole thing down. Stir and enjoy! It was pretty scrumptious.

Later afternoon

I think this is a by-product of healing, but it feels itchy on my gum graft area. I'm taking a Tylenol just in case this itching grows into something more irritating, and I think I'll brush my teeth soon after eating dinner in case the itching is caused by any kind of infection or irritation to the gums from food.

Day 3

Morning

I switched to regular extra strength Tylenol instead of the Tylenol 3 with codeine because the T3 has side effects I want to avoid. I also ate an orange, a banana, and drank some apple juice. I ripped the orange into tiny pieces that I could basically swallow, and the banana was mashed and I added water so it was easier to swallow. I've seen the complications that patients have in taking T3's long term so I am taking precautions against it.

I have a wedding in Seattle to attend so I'm heading down to the States today with my sister and her fiancée. I've packed a bottle of water to keep my mouth moist in the car, and I have a bottle of chilled Boost ready, as well as my ice pack.

On route

The ice pack lost it's iciness really fast. Thankfully, we stopped at Wendy's for a food run. I ordered a Frosty, and that worked as a really good ice pack and a yummy, cold treat. After that, I fell asleep for most of the drive down. I woke up again for the border crossing and for a Starbucks run in the States where I got a new "ice pack" in the form of a green tea frap (Yum!).

We stopped to visit a friend and he took us out for some authentic Mexican food. I ordered a chicken tortilla soup and it was super yummy. It had fresh avocado floating on the top and melted cheese inside with tiny pieces of chicken, cilantro, tomatoes, and onions. The soup was a bit tangy and I liked the tortillas in the soup too. It came with a chicken taco, but I gave that to my sister's fiancée.

We met my relatives for dinner that night at the Chinese restaurant, and that was when I began to chew food. I found that I could put very small pieces of food into the unaffected side of my mouth and carefully chew the food before swallowing. I started experimenting with softer pieces of food like prawn, and moved to pork chop last. The pork chop was the hardest to eat since it requires more chewing time so I cut the pork into much smaller pieces before putting them into my mouth. My sister was very, very sweet and she unshelled lots of crab meat for me to eat. What a nice sister!

Now that I could chew, the whole world of food was open to me again. Hurray! I had to be extra diligent with brushing and cleaning my teeth that night though.

Day 4

My sister bought a chocolate macaron, a pistachio macaron, and a black forest ham and gruyere croissant from a French bakery downstairs in the morning. The macarons were huge and the croissant was quite yummy. More points for the sister!

It was a little hard to eat the pastries by ripping off small pieces and carefully chewing them on one side, but I really enjoyed my breakfast and didn't mind the mess I was making.

Throughout the day all of the usual foods were managed the same way. The only food I couldn't eat was bruschetta because it was too hard and crispy. I also found carrots to be a challenge and only ate the softest parts of a cooked carrot. Oh, and I had to avoid alcohol because I was taking Tylenol. I got a few sips of champagne in with the wedding cake, but then I felt nauseous.

As for swelling, my cheek remained slightly puffy.

Day 5

I took a picture this morning of the wounds, and it looks super gross. I'm not sure if you want to see it or not. Don't scroll down if you don't want to see it.

The top wound is a perfect dark red rectangle. I wonder if she used some kind of shaver to extract the donor gums? It doesn't bleed and I rarely feel that injured area. The wound must be quite shallow.

I didn't want to pull the lower lip area too much so I just got an angle shot of the gum graft on the bottom. It doesn't actually look too bad. The edges aren't bloody looking anymore and the colour of the graft is getting less white. Also, the shape of the graft is irregular, which is good since that will help it to blend in more later on.

The swelling is much reduced today on my face, and I didn't need an ice pack at all. I am continuing to take the regular extra strength Tylenol though as needed whenever I get a headache (about 3 pills per day). Sometimes I get a dull ache in the gum graft area, but that is less common. The swelling tends to decrease after I use the Periogard mouthwash.

Day 6

The swelling on my face is almost all gone now. I still take Tylenol for the headache, but otherwise I'm just fine. As you can see from the picture, the gum graft is starting to blend in a little bit more, but you can see the stitches criss-crossing over the gum graft and around the edges. Thank goodness they are see-through. I still think the gum graft looks gross :)

Gum Graft Experience Posts

Read about Day 1

Read about Day 2-6

Read One Week Later

Read about Day 11

Read about Two Weeks Later

Gum Graft Experience - Day 1

I've been dreading this all week and it's finally over. Here's a running update of how it went on the first day:

Before the gum graft

1. Research

I read up on how different people's gum grafting experiences went and thoroughly scared myself. I even watched a Youtube video of an entire gum graft surgery.

My recommendation? Don't watch the video. You'll scare yourself silly and you might throw up a little. The read-up on experiences was helpful, but ignore the horror stories. Most of them are outdated so the bad news won't apply to you. Look for the positive reports. Most people don't write about the smooth operations, but they are the more likely scenario.

2. Preparation

I bought some cans of soup in preparation, and some bottles of Ensure/Boost meal replacement. I figured I'd avoid solid foods for the first few days afterwards to avoid chewing and to avoid too much gunk building up on my teeth since I won't be allowed to brush the teeth around the wound site.

I wore comfortable clothing on the day-of, had a small, soft ice pack ready in the fridge (the kind that will easily mold around your face), and I put two beanie toys/stress balls in my purse. I also took a "before" picture so that I can show you a comparison later :)

I made sure to eat ahead of time so that I can avoid eating afterwards for a bit. I ate my vitamins and calcium too so that I have all the vitamins I'll need to heal fast.

My orthodontist recommended that I bring my retainers so I washed those and put them into my purse too. She said that I would appreciate having something prevent my tongue from being able to touch the roof of my mouth, and I think that was very good advice. I should mention that I made sure to wear the retainers for three straight days before the surgery so that the retainers fit very well. I wanted an easy fit, instead of the snug fit I get if I forget to wear the retainers for a few days.

Now I was ready for the gum graft surgery.

3. At the Periodontist's office

Prescriptions

I was pretty scared, but the receptionists reassured me that it would all go well. I got the periodontist to give my boyfriend the prescriptions so that he could run and get the prescriptions filled while I was getting the surgery done. She prescribed Tylenol 3 with codeine and a special mouth rinse called PerioGard by Colgate.

Please Make It Look Pretty

I sat in the dentist chair and pulled out the two beanie dolls/stress balls. They put a protective bib on me and the hygienist/assistant gave me the run down of what was going to happen and what I needed to know. She asked me if I wanted a blanket and if I had any questions. I asked her if I could go to my cousin's wedding in three days and she said that would be fine, but to bring the mouthwash and to avoid strenuous activities. I asked if the periodontist could make the free gingival gum graft (that's the kind I'm getting) look pretty and not like a "chunk of meat" sitting on top. The hygienist assured me that they would do their best, and that most of the gum grafts turned out quite nicely.

In case the hygienist forgot to mention it, I asked the periodontist to please make it look pretty too, and she assured me that she would try. She even comforted me on my fears that the graft would look way paler than the rest of the gums around it. She said that sometimes the graft is the same colour as the gums around it.

I like the idea that there is a chance that the gum graft will blend in. My gum graft is off to the side so no one will likely ever see it, but I'm still self-conscious about a blob of gums sitting around in the middle of nowhere in my mouth. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will look somewhat decent when it's finished healing.

Freezing Time

The periodontist took two big Q-tips and swabbed the areas that she was going to work on with numbing agent. She left the lower Q-tip in place for a bit, which was great because I didn't feel the first few freezing needles going in at all. When I'm at the dentist office, I usually still feel the needle going in even if there is no pain, but her magic freezing agent worked like a charm. I was still freaked out about getting a needle, but it's nice to feel nothing.

I didn't feel the needle for the upper part either. I'm not even sure if I got one there. In fact, I think she went in and cut the gum part that she needed at that point, but I'm not sure. I was wondering instead why the needle made a whirring noise, but I tried not to think about it. Whatever the numbing agent was, it worked.

4. During the procedure

Distractions

I had a TV above my head so I watched the news and the Regis and Kelly show (I didn't have a remote control). The periodontist and the hygienist kept a conversation about random topics going so I let that and the TV sort of tune out what was going on in my mouth. I hummed too, which at first was worrisome to the hygienist because she thought I was saying something or in pain, but when she realized I was just humming she was relieved. I found their talking to be comforting. I didn't pay much attention to it, but it was nice to have something distracting and unrelated going on around me.

No Blood

I vaguely noticed instruments going to and from my mouth, and I noted that there was no blood on anything. That was a good sign. I didn't even notice any bloody gauzes coming from my mouth. They were all pale coloured (I was only noting darkness on anything, not looking too closely out of the corner of my eye since I didn't really want to see anything). The only fluid I saw was drool/saliva and I'm okay with that.

No Pain

I didn't feel anything during the procedure. Other than instruments and gauzes going back and forth, I didn't feel a thing. The only time I could feel something was if it touched the corners of my mouth or the other side of my mouth. That would not be painful, just contact.

My favourite sensation during the procedure was a moist, cool gauze that the periodontist used when she held the corner of my mouth open. It was a nice, soft cushion (very thoughtful) and it was a pleasant feeling.

Sewing

I was surprised when I saw a thread being pulled from my mouth. I didn't realize that the procedure was almost done and she was already sewing the gum graft into place. I found the long, light yellow thread to be fascinating. It is the dissolving kind so I won't need to go back for the stitches to be removed.

She sewed for what seemed like a long time (probably because I was half-paying attention now and I asked her to make it pretty) and I tried not to look too closely at the sewing either, but it kept being pulled out so I glazed over it once in a while. I think I vaguely saw some staining on her gloves so there might have been blood on the thread, which I guess makes sense. Anyhow, I didn't look closely, and I didn't notice it on her fingertips for very long. They really kept the whole procedure quite clean.

Retainers

When they were all done, they put my retainers in. The retainers slid into place easily (thank goodness!). The periodontist gave me a mirror to show me where the retainers were close to the gum graft so that I would remember to be careful when I removed the retainers.

Sooo, I got to SEE the gum graft. It looked like a white, oval blob stitched to my gums. Ewww, but also kind of interesting. I was all done.

Time to go home

The periodontist gave me an information sheet that told me all the different things to do and avoid after the surgery. It also had contact information on it. I also got a little bag of gauze to use in case there was any bleeding.

I tried to apply the ice pack on the way home, but the car moves too much. I recommend using the ice pack when you get home.

5. After the surgery

Swallowing

I'm home now and I'm avoiding talking, even though I can. The grossest thing about the whole procedure was the first swallow afterwards. I kept imagining blood in my saliva so it was gross to swallow. So close your mouth right away after the surgery so that you can avoid collecting saliva in the bottom. When your mouth is closed, teeth almost together and all, then you kind of swallow without thinking about it.

Tylenol 3 and Cold Pack

I took a T3 right away after I got home because the periodontist told me to take one before the freezing wore off. It was easy to swallow it with a little water.

I took the cold pack out of the fridge and gently leaned it against the general area. I couldn't really feel the cold pack, so I put a cloth in between the cold pack and my face so that I wouldn't make it too cold on my face.

Two Hours Later

When the freezing started to wear off about 1-2 hours later, my chin in the front started to ache. This is weird because the gum graft is off to the side. I have no idea why my chin aches. Anyways, I was still icing the area on and off so I just tied the ice pack to my head under my chin (so my hands are free to type).

My ice pack is cool. I got it from the oral surgeon when I had my wisdom teeth removed and it came in a cloth sleeve. The sleeve protects you from cold burning your face, but it's also long enough to tie around your head! I showed it to my brother and I got a good laugh out of the expression on his face when he saw me with a cold pack tied to my head. Be careful not to move your mouth too much if you laugh after a gum graft surgery :)

Three Hours Later

I drank some water and I'm starting to feel hungry. My chin has stopped aching so the ice pack is back in the fridge. I put two bottles of Ensure in the fridge so I'll pull one of those out now.

Four Hours Later

The Ensure (Vanilla flavour with extra protein) was tasty and I felt pretty good so I went outside to look at the plants in the garden. I don't feel any achiness or pain now (unless I touch that area) so I'm just going to take it easy and put some ice pack on it again for a bit.

Five Hours Later

A dull ache is coming back. I realize that the original Tylenol 3 I took is probably wearing off now since they only last 4-6 hours. I'm going to take another one now.

Seven Hours Later

Hungry again. Had another Ensure. It's not very satisfying though when you're used to eating sweet potatoes, cookies, and other yummy foods. I can't wait to be able to eat real food again.

Ten Hours Later

Had another T3 and had some of that new Campbell's Butternut Squash Gardennay soup in a carton. I heated it in a glass cup in the microwave and found it too thick to drink so I added some cold water to cool it down and then I drank it like a shake from the cup. Worked pretty well. Then I washed it down with some water so that I wouldn't be keeping any of the soup in my mouth for long. I figure it's smart to keep all the wounds clear of food as much as possible.

I really want to eat a cookie. I wonder if I can mash one up in a cup of milk and drink it? I could heat up the cookie in the milk in the microwave so that the chocolate will melt so that I can eat a chocolate chip cookie...

Eleven Hours Later

Muahahaha! I tried the cookie in milk experiment. It doesn't look awesome, but it didn't taste so bad. The only problem was that I used a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie and there were bits of peanut. I had to scoop out the peanut bits so that I could drink it like a shake. Next time, I'll choose a cookie without insoluble hard bits in it.

Nighttime

I have to brush my teeth, but I'm kind of skittish about it. I'm worried about seeing blood, feeling pain, taking out the retainers, etc. I took a Tylenol 3 half hour in advance so that I won't be feeling much pain, and then I gathered my supplies.

I had a cut/crack at the corner of my mouth so I applied chapstick liberally to my lips to avoid any more cracking. Then I rinsed very gently with some water, was relieved to see no blood, and took out the bottom retainer very carefully. I decided that toothpaste was too much of a mess to rinse out so I opted to use my Oral B mouthwash as toothpaste instead. I dipped the toothbrush into some mouthwash in a cup, shook it out, and carefully began to gently brush any areas away from the gum graft site. I rinsed my toothbrush every once in a while and reloaded it with fresh mouthwash. I didn't want to use any excess mouthwash because I was worried that it would contact the wound site and sting.

When I was done with the bottom, I rinsed gently with water and replaced the bottom retainer. Then I took out the top retainer and did the same thing, being careful to avoid the wound area on the top. Rinse, replace retainer.

Now it was time for the special PerioGard mouthwash. I rinsed 15 ml for 30 seconds, spit it out, then avoided drinking or swallowing for about 2 hours (I just spit it all out). Then I rinsed with water and went to bed.

Sleeping

I slept on my back because I had heard about people waking up with bloody drool on their pillow, and I kept the T3 and a glass of water nearby in case I woke up with pain in the morning.

End of first day.

Gum Graft Experience Posts

Read about Day 1

Read about Day 2-6

Read One Week Later

Read about Day 11

Read about Two Weeks Later

Advertise on this blog!

My Trip To San Francisco

I just came back from a trip to San Francisco! If you're planning a trip there too, here are some things you can look forward to.

Upon landing at the airport, if you're lucky, you'll have sun and blue skies!

If you're not so lucky (our case), you'll be wearing these rain ponchos and looking like colourful garbage bags.

We joined the City Sightseeing Tours so we got free red ponchos so that we could sit on the top of the buses and get a better view without getting *too* soaked. Honestly, it was still pretty miserable, but it was also fun. The tours are informative and we hit all the main tourist stops easily with their hop on-hop off option.

We picked up a blue set of these rain ponchos in Fisherman's Wharf's Cable Car Souvenir Store for $1.99 so that we could stay dry there. On Alcatraz, you can buy a clear poncho for something retarded like $6-$9 or more. We were aiming for the free or cheap ones only, but we saw a lot of the expensive ones floating around on the tourists, poor ripped-off things...

But we made up for the bad weather with extra tasty treats - like this old fashioned chocolate milkshake. We were staying at Hotel Abri in Union Square and Lori's Diner was just up the street. The diner is 50's style decorated and the food is not bad. I really liked the milkshake so now I'm wishing we had Lori's Diner around these parts.

It must be a chain restaurant since they are all over San Francisco, but we only liked this particular restaurant near our hotel. We tried out the one near Ghirardelli Square and I hated it. It was smaller, less decorated, the service was poor, and they didn't even serve the same foods!

It's okay though, a Pistachio macaron from Miette in the Ferry Building more than made up for that error. These macarons are actually just as tasty as I imagined them to be. I think I heard this bakery mentioned on a blog once and I've always wanted to try them out. They are crisp on the outside, chewy in the center, and the filling is smooth, rich, and creamy. They're also not too sweet. I quite enjoyed it. If the Farmer's Market is on, go have some Kettle Korn. Ours was fresh-made, fun to watch being made, and kept us happy along our journey. I also liked to look at all the onions and garlics with their shoots still fresh and attached at the Farmer's Market. I don't see that very often in the supermarkets here.

So back to the tour itself, the architecture in San Franciso is amazing. I love the old Victorian-style houses.

Some of them are quite colourful!

And the gazillion churches around town are all so beautiful.

You know what's also beautiful? The nature. I loved the pink wild flowers along the highway.

There were cool twisted bushes in Golden Gate Park.

And check out the amazing greenery on Alcatraz Island! Can you imagine this beauty at a prison? I was shocked by how lovely this particular stairway was. Below it was a very, very old geranium. I didn't know geraniums could become bushes with woody stems since they are annuals in my area. There are also eucalyptus trees on Alcatraz Island, giving off lovely aromatic, herb-like scents.

Speaking of nature, here are the sea lions on Pier 39 on Fisherman's Wharf. There are lots of little kids that chant, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" whenever the sea lions fight over who has rights to a particular spot to nap.

Of course, no trip to San Francisco would be complete without seeing the famed Golden Gate Bridge.

Ever notice how the gate looks like Lego from underneath?

We also purchased a day pass for the Muni transit system so that we could ride around on the cable cars all day. It costs $5 one way to ride the cable cars, but you can pay $13 for a day pass and use any of the cable cars, trolley buses, regular buses, etc.

This is a regular trolley bus ticket. It's a blast from the past because it reminds me of the old bus tickets we had in Vancouver when I was little. The tickets in San Francisco last three hours though. In BC, bus passes only last 1.5 hours! We get ripped off :)So back to the topic of food, if you ever go to San Francisco, you should drop by Dotties True Blue Cafe for breakfast. There's always a line up, and it's in a scuzzy part of town, but the food is really good. I got the Whiskey Fennel Sausage, Baby Spinach, and Mushroom Scramble and it came with home potatoes (soft-cooked, large chunk potatoes) and a thick slice of toasted jalapeño cornbread. I ate the cornbread with the raspberry jam/syrup provided at the table and it was soooooo yummy!

My hunny got the breakfast special with french toast and bacon. The bacon is seriously the thickness of three regular slices of bacon that I'm used to. I dunno if that's good or not since it's more like bacon jerky at that thickness, but my hunny seemed to enjoy it. The french toast is very thick, has the consistency of cornbread cake, and reminded me of the famous mini cinnamon sugar donuts at the PNE.

I thought it was pretty yummy, but I was too addicted to the raspberry jam on the jalepeno cornbread to really care. I have a mild addiction to raspberry jam as is. Add it to spicy cornbread and I'm in heaven.

After three rainy days in San Francisco, we boarded a cruise ship back to Vancouver, Canada. The weather was sunny and the ship, Coral Princess, was pretty nice. If you're wondering about cruise ship comparisons, here's a comparison for you:

Rooms: roomier and nicer than Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, but the shower is tiny with a nasty curtain and poor drainage.

Hallways: around the rooms, it smells like a really bad fart, mildew, or a sewage leak - take your pick of what it might actually be. The main areas smell fine, but near the rooms it was kinda of nauseating. I have no idea whether this was normal for this boat or if there was some kind of leak/problem/guests with stomach problems.

Food: the food is not as good as on Royal Caribbean. The buffet is so-so, and the restaurant food is only good on chef specialty nights. On chef specialty nights, it's better than Celebrity, but on the other nights it's not as good as Celebrity's dinners. I also found that "anytime" dining sucks compared to set-time, reserved dining because the service is not very good for anytime dining and you don't get to sit with the same people each night. I liked making friends at the dinner table and seeing them each day to see how their day went.

Snack foods: The Princess cruise line is also less-awesome on things like ice cream bars and pizza parlors. The Princess pizza sucks (too thin), doesn't have different flavours each day (only cheese, pepperoni, and another one), and the ice cream bar only has two flavours - chocolate and vanilla, LAME. The other cruise lines have a gazillion flavours, all the toppings you could possibly imagine, and there are new flavours each day, including sorbets.

Shows: The shows on Princess cruises is better than Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. They were like Vegas productions! I was really impressed. However, they don't serve awesome drinks like on Royal Carribbean or Celebrity. The Princess drinks are only so-so. I was really hoping for a drink like a Mudslide, but nothing like that was available. The closest I found was a chocolate-banana-coconut version and it was sour for some odd reason.

All in all, I wouldn't go on a Princess cruise again unless there was a really awesome deal. The hallways are too stinky and the food is not great. The shows are great, but I don't know if that's enough for me to go back to the stinky hallways.

Anways, this was a pretty cool trip to San Francisco. I liked this city and it's quaintness.

That being said, I was happy to return to Vancouver. I had heard so much about the food in San Francisco but, really, the food in Vancouver is better! The seafood here is so much more fresh, the Chinese food is better, and of course sushi is awesome here since we've got the fresher seafood. The first thing I did when I came home was go for Dim Sum. Oh, and our fish and chip joints offer more options. I was hard-pressed to find anything other than cod at the fish and chip joints (I'm allergic to cod). Over here, we usually have salmon, cod, and halibut as fish options - thanks Pajos!

Soooooo, come to Vancouver!!!

Ah, but I feel mean to say that. I did like the breakfast foods in San Francisco and the milkshake at Lori's was pretty darn good. A lady from San Francisco on my cruise ship said that I had only done "Tier One" of the San Francisco touring. She said that I might have a different experience when I go back for "Tier Two" to check out the different neighborhoods in more detail. I'll have to head back to San Francisco for a new experience next time.

Know of any really good food places in San Francisco? Let me know!!!

Have a very happy day :)

Fun Things in the Shop!

I'm excited to show you some of the new things that have shown up in my shop lately!

First up, downloadable birthday ninja mini cards! This cake master is nothing is joke about! He's here to wish you a happy birthday and you'd better take the cake OR ELSE! Actually, he's incredibly cute. It's hard not to love him despite his choice of occupation.

You'll find them as PDF files in my shop. You just print them out, cut out the cards, fold, and ta da! Awesome ninja cards any time you want!
If you're not keen on the print-yer-own kind of cards, check out the super cute handmade ninja cake masters here! They fold open into large butterfly shapes, but also look equally unique as folded mini cards!
You'll find them in green shades and peachy shades in my shop!
And then there's the new PDF for a sewing pattern! My beloved pleated pouch design is now available as a downloadable PDF file full of photos and easy-to-follow instructions. It also comes with the template for the pleated pouch.

You can also buy it here with this secure link to Paypal:
And now for my fun little origami friends! Check out all the cool new origami elephant colours!
They are perfectly adorable and would make great decorations for your home and your parties. They'd also be a sweet treat for a friend.
Ah, and the butterflies! These Alexander Swallowtail origami butterflies look amazing! Add them to your home and party decor today!

Need a custom order or different colours? Just ask!

Have a great day!

Ultimate Peanut Butter Cookies

I was in the mood to bake cookies today and the end result was very yummy!

I wanted to share this peanut butter cookie recipe with you so that you can enjoy it too.

The original link is here.

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Cream together butter and sugars until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat in egg and vanilla.
4. Stir in peanut butter.
5. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add to peanut butter mixture and blend in.
6. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet and crisscross mark them with a floured fork.
7. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until cookies just start to colour around the edges.

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Notes:

• The quality of the baking sheet can make a difference. I had two kinds of cookie sheets. The air insulated ones allow the cookies to cook for longer before the edges turn brown. This results in a crisper cookie. The normal, thin cookie sheet will result in chewier cookies because it required only about 5 minutes before the edges turned brown. I took them out earlier to avoid burnt bases.
• I made one massive cookie, about 5 inches wide at least. It required more time to bake and it would benefit from the insulated cookie sheet so that it can bake for longer before getting brown around the edges. I had it on the thin cookie sheet so I compensated by opening the oven door a lot to check on it. I think that the side effect of that is a lower temperature. Also, I turned the oven off once the edges began to brown and just let it bake in there for a little longer as the oven cooled. I still kept checking on it because I hate burnt cookies. The end result was a very large cookie with crunchy edges and a softer, chewier center. My sweetheart was very pleased with it.
• My sweetheart suggests adding peanut butter chips to this cookie to push it to the next level of awesomeness :)
• October 2011 - I tried this recipe with natural peanut butter and the cookies turned out great!  They are slightly less sweet, which I like.  I cut up some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and added one piece to the middle of some of these cookies and everyone loved this.  

Enjoy!

Easter Bunny Hunt Idea

My sweetheart is quite the creative genius and he stashed these little fellas all around my room for me for Easter. They are goofy-looking rabbit drawings with speech bubbles that say, "Can you find my other friends?" Each rabbit has a package of Cadbury chocolate bunnies attached at the base so that they can stand up.

The first rabbit that I found was on top of my shelf tucked behind Unloved. I've pulled him out to the front so that you can see him :)

The second one was stashed here on another shelf trying to blend in with my collection of various knick knacks.

The third was under my bed. He was in the shadows so I didn't see him until I looked carefully.

The fourth was in this tube of white paper behind my door. I would *never* have thought to look here so I needed help to find this guy. My sweetie actually rolled him up a little so that he could be dropped down into the tube. "Rabbits like holes," he gave me as a hint, and I really didn't get it until he closed the door so I could spy the tube.

What great fun! Thanks, hunny!