angry chicken

heart attack

So, I did end up almost feeling sick about these. Jen Corace does have toys, and not paper dolls, but dang close. Hillary tipped me to these fairy doll vinyl stickers she had blogged about a bit back (me and my ADD) designed by Jen Corace and then I found a few other toys by her. Oh gads. This stationary set. . .

horse vinyl sticker set

This is from the fairy vinyl sticker set. . .

Block puzzle. Yup. Done and done.

I searched and found this code for 15% off from this shop so that covered shipping. (The code is ZZZD and is good for first time orders only, BTW.) Sorry you guys. I know I'm not helping your wallet here.

crazy cooky factory

This is the 3rd year I have made assorted cookies to give as gifts. I have baked cookies as gifts in the past, but not on the scale I do now. I really try to make these cookie gifts special, and then be done with it. No extra buying/making/stressing about gifts for friends and neighbors. I am really into giving consumables for holiday gifts because we all like to eat, right? And who needs more stuff? Also, I feel really comfortable making cookies and it's not stressful. Usually. Update, a double batch of anything in the cuisinart is a bad idea.

So, I have 3 double batches down and about 4 to go. I freeze the dough and then bake them at some point, (usually after the 15th of December) and then freeze the cookies again after they are baked. Then we bag them (fun family time activity, so they sort of look all crazy, but who cares) and give them/mail them— sometimes still a bit frozen. No one seems to mind, they thaw in about 4 hours.

I have my cookie recipe books out here--everyday food is a great go to for cookies I think, but that Cooky Book lurking back there is my favorite. It's been a little dicey this year making the dough with the 3rd baby, but we will prevail.

In other exciting news, this week I am going to a cookie eating exchange at Mariko's. We are not supposed to make a ton for this, just a batch to share and actually eat at the party. Brilliant! I made sinful apricot crumbles with a stupid amount of butter. Just dumb. But they are pure heaven. I add extra ginger when I make these. I have made them more often than I care to admit, with different jams and when we were discussing what I should bring Mariko mentioned these cookies about 10 times, so I took the hint.

holiday dresses

3 girls. 3 dresses. These are for the holiday events were are going to in the next few weeks. They have already been out of the house and christened with chocolate stains and a button replacement. I made them from a pattern in this book. The cranberry red and yellow are in a mini corduroy and the slate blue is in a brushed sueded corduroy type fabric, all from fabric depot here in Portland.

Detail of back closure.

Miss Liddy gets hers in yellow and it stays on for about 5 minutes. Have I not heard of an iron?

So, while I was making these Sadie and I had a little talk-

Sadie: Are these our Christmas dresses?

Me: Yes, do you like them?

Sadie: Yes, but they need more ribbon. All over. (Motioning a lot) And they need to be more beautiful. With more ribbon. Like a fairy. Like a fairy Christmas dress. Actually, I want to be a Christmas fairy. (Actually is her favorite word)

Me: Um. . . okay. Well, maybe Santa can bring you a fairy dress and this can be a holiday dress, you know? It doesn't have to be both.

Sadie: Yes! And these holiday dresses need more beautiful beautiful ribbon. Like this ribbon (She pulls a woven ribbon out of my box and flips it to the wrong side with all the crazy threads showing) Like this ribbon, but I want this side out, the side that looks like a rainbow.

Me: Mmmmm.

Okay, so I didn't use that woven ribbon, I didn't have enough and I wasn't going to use the backside, regardless, but I had a lot of this lovely velvet ribbon on hand. I finished the dresses as they are now and then just had them lying around for a few days, trying to decide how to make them more beautiful and also hoping they were fine as they were. And they are. They girls love them and wear them all the time, like just about everyday. Delia has mentioned she wishes hers was bigger and more fancy (pantomiming a huge wide skirt) and just this morning she told me her baby doll needs a matching dress with easter eggs and flowers on it. For Christmas.

I do feel a little guilty pushing my minimal medieval/folksy design aesthetic on my girls who would prefer these to be much more flashy, but they seem happy with them and can always wear their fairy skirts over the dresses. To make them more beautiful.