Month: December 2012

Some thoughts + Holiday houses

Although I am still very emotional and am feeling awkward about putting forth these lighthearted posts in the wake of the tragedy and sorrows of last Friday, I also very much want to highlight the goodness in the every day. I want to reflect on ways to celebrate the small things, to immerse myself in creative ventures, to invest time and love into my family, friends and community. I’m doing my best to stay true to that.

With that in mind, I remembered how a couple of weeks ago, I had some friends and their children over to our house and had a wonderful time making gingerbread houses.

This one is K’s. Martha Stewart would weep, but I used this kit from Trader Joe’s. I have to say, I really like it. It’s kind of quirky (it’s called a “Hexen Haus” which translate’s to witch’s house) and the kids had so so much fun putting it together. They each got their own house, and the mamas helped with the icing. The candy factor is a little sparse and I included vinegar in the icing to make it a glue-like substance so that was a little gross, but otherwise, I deemed it a successful DIY party. We have it on our living room credenza and it makes me smile every time I see it.

I’m seeing so many great house-related crafts online and wanted to share a few of my favorites that I fully intend on trying out with K. A snow globe with an edible gingerbread house. Cute tags. Mermag‘s always awesome DIYs. Lit-up houses – so much inspiration….

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Mer-girl

This week, I am hunkering down to get the last of my Christmas gifts done and want to make headway on some art projects. I’m getting close.

Above is one of my all-time favorite illustrations I did in watercolor many moons ago. I love that the mer-girl is riding a seahorse, exploring through the depths of the sea. One day I want to wander through the world on a trusty steed too, seeking out adventures.

Alright, back to hunkering down…

Shortbread Cookies with Dark Chocolate Icing

Ina Garten is a goddess. I don’t think there is a single recipe of hers that I’ve tried that hasn’t come out amazing. OK, these shortbread cookies have only five ingredients (butter, flour, vanilla, salt and sugar), but still, it’s all in the proportions and these shortbread cookies are perfection. Every bite is probably irreparably clogging my arteries, but it’s so worth it.

The recipe is here, and I give you my word that these will be the best shortbread cookies you’ve ever tasted. The one thing I would advise is to keep your eye on the oven, because these got brown around the edges a lot faster than the stated 20 to 25 minutes. With my oven, they were done in 12 minutes or so.

I’ve been really into Dala/Dalecarlian horses lately. I think they’re so cheerful and festive and I think we can all use some uplifting. These are an homage to those wooden animals pervasive in Sweden.

I used this kind of chocolate for the icing that strikes just the right balance with the extraordinary buttery taste of the shortbread. K was especially excited about the cactus and turnip cookie cutters and did a good job with them. We blasted cheesy Christmas songs while we made cookies and I felt like it was all very Norman Rockwell. And it made me happy.  We delivered the snowflakes in a little mason jar to some family friends, and I hope they enjoy them.

 

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Try as I might, I have no adequate words to express my deepest sympathies — my prayers are with the families of Newtown, Connecticut. I am heartbroken for them all.

Happy Friday + Color-blocking

It’s the end of the week again, which means Christmas Eve is 10 days away…I am a teensy weensy bit overwhelmed. Anyway, Happy Friday! Have you been enjoying the color-block trend as much as I have? I recently acquired this very cool fabric, and it’s got Lycra (though mostly cotton) that gives it a sheen and stretch and almost raincoat-like feel to it. I immediately wanted to make a jacket.

This pattern from this book is actually a peter-pan collared coat, but I didn’t want to break up the clean lines of the fabric so I removed the collar. Love the pleat in the back, and the little belt detail.

I also made a gathered linen dress that is a beautiful dusty rose color. It’s remarkably close to the color of K’s room’s walls (where almost all these outfit shots are taken). It has a lot of grey tone in it, subduing the pinkness. You can see my messy zigzag seams where the dress skirt is flipped up a bit – I’ve been too lazy to operate my serger, which is cantankerous and makes me equally so.

The dress pattern is from this book, and for some reason it looked really weird when I first finished sewing it. I pluck, pluck, plucked many seams out and adjusted the fit multiple times. Even so, K says the elastic areas are itchy…hmmmmm. Need to tinker with this one a little more. It’s really cute, though.

The lighting is tough during these winter months. I haven’t been able to get many decent shots lately, and out of 300+ that I shot, these few were the only halfway presentable ones. I dream of upgrading my camera and getting some semi-professional lighting one day (I’ve heard these are good). There is a long and ridiculous story associated with how I fell into a swimming pool while holding my better and now defunct camera (RIP). I’ll tell you about it one day.

Here you can see the coat a little better:

Have a fun weekend, all! I hope you have lots of festivities planned with loved ones.

 

Holiday Crafts Roundup – Ornaments

With jingle bells in the air, I’ve got my crafting on these days, and it’s like Santa’s workshop around here. K made these beaded snowflake ornaments last year (using this) and they add great sparkle to our tree – aren’t they pretty?

In a couple of weeks winter break will start, which means loads and loads of extra time with K. I’ve been gathering a jillion craft and diy ideas and thought I would feature a few of my favorites every week – it’ll be an easy reference for me for those moments when screechings of “I’m bored!!” begin. Some of these may be a bit advanced for very little ones, but would be fun ideas for a crafty party with grown-up friends.

For this week, I’ve scoured the net for handmade ornament inspiration!

GLASS

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I love the idea of bringing nature inside of a glass ornament and how beautiful are those ombre ones?

GLITTER + SPARKLE

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Every tree deserves some bling. I think the miniature tinsel wreaths en masse would be so darling.

FELT

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Give me a piece of felt, and I can happily craft for hours. I especially like these two – one for the kirigami-inspired style and the other for the unexpectedly cute humor.

WOOD

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These gorgeous wooden ornaments are by artist Leise Dich Abrahamsen and are so inspirational! I wouldn’t copy it exactly of course, but it would be fun to make balsa wood ornaments with movable joints. And those washi tape + toothpick stars are too sweet.

DOUGH + CLAY

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There’s something intensely satisfying about shaping ornaments by hand out of clay or dough. The added bonus of the gingerbread (1) and cinnamon/applesauce (3) cookie ornaments is that your house will smell cozy and delicious. And the clay feather! Must absolutely make.

I hope these inspire you too and I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon with the Happy Friday outfit!