When I saw these cookies on Pinterest via Dear Crissy I could not resist making them. They just looked too good not to! And they definitely are too good. Beautifully chewy and full of sugary, maple flavour, they are the perfect little treat for the festive season - especially if you have a sweet tooth. I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do.

Ingredients

COOKIES
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

ICING
1/4 cup full cream milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 tbs pure maple syrup
2 cups icing sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300F/150C.

2. In a large bowl, beat butter with a mixer on medium for about 30 seconds. Add the next six ingredients (through to salt). Beat on medium for two minutes, scraping bowl as needed. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla essence. Beat in flour until combined.

3. Shape dough into balls.* Place them seven to eight centimetres apart on a tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 12-16 minutes** or until the edges are lightly brown - the tops will still look slightly soft.

4. Cool on baking paper for two minutes. Remove and cool on wire rack. Centres will dip as cookies cool.

5. Drizzle with icing - stir together 1/4 cup full cream milk with 1/4 cup melted butter and three tablespoons of maple syrup. Whisk in two cups of icing sugar to make icing drizzling consistency.

*The size of the balls will determine how large the cookies come out and subsequently how many cookies you'll get out of one batch of dough. Just make sure that you are consistent with whatever size you decide to go with.
**The length of time in the oven will depend on your oven as well as the size of your cookies. So begin at 12 minutes and keep an eye on them.

Tip: if your cookies don't come out perfectly round or bleed into each other for whatever reason, you can always use a round cookie cutter before they harden to get them circle and photo-worthy.

1. Traditional & Cosy
This tablescape is full of Winter goodness - which doesn't really apply to Australia at this time of year - but it sure is a lovely table. It incorporates real evergreen and cedar boughs garland with contrasting red berries as well as pinecones. These adorable tea towels are used in place of napkins and candles in empty cans add warmth to the table and a vintage feel.


2. Gold & Classy
I feel like this table would really suit an all-female Christmas party - it just screams feminine and fun to me while being classy at the same time. The use of gold confetti placemats and the gold glitter gift boxes make this setting playful while the fern garland and tall candle holders keep it formal.  I love that these tall candle holders are clear and that white has also been used so that the table is not overwhelmingly gold.


3. Natural & Musical
With a beautiful grey linen tablecloth as the base, this table utilises a neutral colour palette. This is perfect for those of you who would prefer to not have an over-the-top dining table. It is wonderfully understated with natural decorations, including a birch log with cut-outs for candles. My favourite thing about this tablescape would have to be the sheet music placemats. To make it more relevant to Christmas, you could buy carols sheet music and then stain it with tea for an aged appearance.


10. White & Wintery
Another one of my favourites, this is the perfect table those of you who are going with a Winter wonderland theme this year. This tablescape is Nordic inspired - it is a very popular design trend at the moment. If you're struggling with a colour scheme, you can't go wrong with white. It's fresh and clean unless one of your guests spills their glass of red wine. The handmade paper stars offer a homely touch and the choice of greenery adds to the wintery feel. And how cute is that little house candle holder!

How I managed to get this blog post out I'll never know! Life, as per usual, has been incredibly hectic lately. Anyway, here I am with a few of my favourite pins. I thought I'd start a sort of series entailing collections of my favourite images from Pinterest. Fortunately, with my course, I get to go on Pinterest quite often to source ideas and concepts, and get inspiration. But there's always a bit of personal pinning mixed in there too. I don't know how often I'll do one of these although this one was quite fun to put together... Hope you enjoy and I would love to hear who your favourite pinners are.

1. I found this interior really beautiful, which is strange because it's not really a style I would normally go for. I adore the wall and ceiling detailing - so traditional, which I love - and I think herringbone flooring is starting to grow on me. I've never seen a sofa shaped like that so I found it interesting - it's definitely the focal point of the room and that taupe-purple-grey hue is stunning.

2. Summer is fast approaching and I just can't deal with it. There's still a month of Spring to go but the temperature is already quickly rising. This photo was just perfection for me as I find looking at images of snow actually cools me down - guess what I'll be doing on 30+ degree days...

3. Pinecones are just to pretty and perfect. I use them as decor all year round - they're certainly not just a Christmas thing although I can't wait to spray paint and glitter up a few this year. In fact, I can't wait for Christmas in general because it's my favourite day of the year, even more than my birthday. And speaking of Christmas, doesn't the last one feel like it happened just yesterday? I can't believe how fast this year has flown.

4. I'm not usually a big necklace kinda gal but I just really liked the styling of this image and the outfit in it and thought it was a cute piece of fashion inspiration.

5. Something about this quote really resonated with me when I read it. I feel another blog post coming. It's a little mysterious, like it doesn't have one meaning but can be interpreted in different ways by different people.

6. I just love how these shelves are styled. I think decor and styling them is my favourite thing about interior decoration. It's just so amazing how little things like books and plants and other bits and pieces can have such a big effect on a room.

7. These donuts look so good I wanted to grab them through my computer screen. They're one of the worst foods you can eat but goodness they're delish! And now I have a massive craving: thanks, Internet.

8. I came across this image while doing an activity for my lighting class a bit over a week ago. I thought the decorative lighting was so pretty and is a great example of creating movement in an interior because of the way it encourages your eye to travel from the front to the back of the room.

9. Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter. I'm not ashamed to say that I'm 22 years old and it is still my favourite book series. I found this graphic, which is derived from the Prisoner of Azkaban - my favourite of all the movies and most read book from the series. It was actually the first book I read from the series too, back when I was like seven years old and didn't realise there was an order to them. I'm so excited that there is an eighth story but I'm not sure how I feel about it being a stage play - I really wish it were another book.

10. My desire to travel grows stronger each day and images like these make me wish so much that the timing and financials were right to do so. I've never travelled beyond Sydney but that doesn't necessarily make me feel sad or like I'm missing out on anything. The urge to leave Australia's borders is there but I've always viewed travel as a luxury and I just have so many bigger priorities at this point in my life, such as starting my career and setting up my future.

11. I wish so badly that Halloween was more of a thing here. Not so much for the spooks or trick-or-treating but more for the decor. These gold pumpkins make my heart so happy but they are an impossibility. I'm so jealous of you if you live in the US with all the pretty Autumn/Fall and Christmas decor and decorations. This is why we can't have nice things.

12. Texture is something I have become so drawn to. And I am a bit like a magpie with glittery and shiny objects, so I was pretty much the iPhone emoji with the love heart eyes when I saw this picture. This may even be a concept for a future project. We'll just have to wait and see.