Santa Is Coming To Town Cookies

These cute cookies are the best way to spread Christmas cheer.

TOTAL TIME: 4:00 COOK: 2:45 LEVEL: EASY YIELD: 12 COOKIES (6 BEARDS AND 6 HATS)  

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3/4 c. granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  • Santa hat and beard templates (see below)
  • 1 batch royal icing
  • Red sanding sugar, finely shredded coconut, white nonpareils and sprinkles, for decorating

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
  2. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar…

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Home Value Appreciation: Buyers v. Renters

Both current homeowners and renters agree that home values are going to continue to appreciate. However, the effect of home value appreciation on the confidence of current homeowners in the housing market is quite different when compared with the confidence of renters.

Home values are near or past their pre-crisis peak in about a quarter of U.S. metros, which indicates recovery for these markets—but at the same time, a gap has been forming between renter and homeowner sentiment toward the housing market.

According to Zillow’s latest Housing Confidence Index, released on Thursday, existing homeowners are becoming increasingly confident that now is a good time to sell—in fact, they are generally more…

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What is lean construction & why you should care

Similar to Just-in-Time (JIT) and Total Quality (TQ), Lean Design and related construction principles represent a way of doing business that has, through repeated best practices, proven to be a way of doing construction with more efficiency, savings, less waste, and greater value. Clearly, these sound like wonderful buzzwords, but the approach is geared to maximize the most out of each resource used and reduce slack time, loss, over-expending and shrinkage as much as possible, all of which contribute to the cost of a construction project over time. 

Lean Design definitely involves rethinking and reconsidering how a construction project and related project delivery is approached. For decades many have…

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August 2016 mortgage rate forecast (purchase & refinance)


Mortgage Rates Forecast For August 2016

Eight months into 2016, and mortgage rates are making a monkey out of Wall Street predictions.

According to Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage rate survey, 30-year mortgage rates are holding low, closing last month at 3.48%, on average, nationwide.

30-year mortgage rates are down more than 50 basis points (0.50%) since the start of the year. 15-year mortgage rates are down by a similar amount.

If you purchased a home within the last year, or if your mortgage is more than a few years old, you could possibly benefit from a refinance.

More than 7 million U.S. homeowners are potentially eligible to refinance. And, if you're buying a home, it's a good…

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Rising Consumer Expectations Could Bode Well for Housing

Encouraging news about consumer earnings could lead to more home sales in an already healthy growth market, even if the labor market is less certain.

On Monday, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York(New York Fed) released its latest Survey of Consumer Expectations, which showed that consumers’ earnings and income growth expectations rebounded while medium-term inflation expectations rose in June. Median expected household income growth rebounded from May’s sudden decline, increasing from 2.4 percent to 2.8 percent, the survey reported. Barring the blip in May, income growth expectations have been trending upward since January.

Likewise, median household spending growth expectations remained…

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Encore residents and guests can now fully enjoy this fabulous private amenity center.

We invite you to come in and take a look around, meet the wonderful lobby desk staff and our knowledgeable concierges. They are ready to assist with a variety of needs: transportation, which is complimentary inside Encore and to most theme parks, theme park tickets, ideas for exciting things to do in and around Orlando, and many other additional services you might desire.

Go upstairs to get a taste of Finn’s, our fast casual restaurant with its fabulous views from the terrace; or stop by for a drink at the Shark Lounge. If you are on the go, check out the Grab & Go market for pre-packaged snacks and beverages. The children will enjoy the Hang Ten Hideaway with…

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