angry chicken

happy holidays!

Trashy magazines, cookie eating, long baths, and hopefully some dish TV at Grammie's are on the agenda for the next 2 weeks. I'm gonna lay low and relax, and try to not add anything to the list. (Edit—I am making bloomers for Sadie today, however. How can I deny that request? Be still my beating heart. Bloomers?!)

Here's a little printable gift. It's crazy gift tags saying all those things that probably should be left as an inner monologue. Now you don't have to yell embarrassing comments across the room like I do—the tag will say it for you. Enjoy!

The PDF is here. Print on white cardstock, (if printing B/W try colored cardstock) cut out, punch a hole, and tie on a gift.

See you all in 2008 and I hope your holiday season is off the chain! (I am getting a head start on my using new slang New Year's resolution.)

pretty much all set. sorta.

Okay, well the crafting stars have aligned this week. We got some baking done. These small loaves of cardamom orange coffee cake (from this month's issue of cooking light) are being given out. But, I have to keep that red one. These flippin adorable little ceramic loaf pans are on sale at Kitchen Kaboodle for you Portland folks.

Cookie bags were packed this morning. 5 kinds of cookies this year with some fudge. Some have already been mailed. I still can't believe I got these done. It was pushing it this year. Not the year for baking. It's the babe in arms + hot oven thing. Not so good. Bar cookies would have been a much better idea. But, they are done and they are tasty, so it all worked out.

And here are some small holiday gifties for our wee friends. Each year, for the holidays, I try to make something super fast, very inexpensive, and not totally lame. I love this challenge. I have dyed silk scarfs in the past, and last year I made these crackers (not the eating kind.) The year before we gave out these music wands. This year we have personalized picture hangers. Enclosed are little wooden clothespins with stars glued to them. I used these way cool transfers to spell out each child's name on the star and then added some baking twine as the line.

The girls love hanging up photos around the house, especially of their friends, so I though this would be fun for other kids, too. I included a printed photo of them (sized to look like a small Polaroid) to start the photo collection for each kid. Okay, this was the most fun I have had making a project in a long time. It took about 1/2 hour and rubbing the transfer letters on was so thrilling. It makes me feel like I am 10. The clothespins and stars are at Michaels, along with the twine.

Okay, whew! The list of things I haven't gotten to is long, but I am so over it. I am really looking forward to being on cruise control from now until the holidays and hopefully a bit after that. Grammie and I might try homemade marshmallows next week, and I might (big might) have a little sewing/paper cutting left in me, but I have back up gifts so there will be no pressure. Plan B, that's what I am about. I have a ton to wrap and a few gifts left to make/buy, but other than that we are lookin' good.

Christmas music is on heavy rotation around here and The McKenzie Brother's 12 days of Christmas song still makes me laugh. I love the old timey Christmas songs, but nothing says Christmas to me as much as stuff I heard between 4th-6th grade. Like Band-Aid's, Feed the World. Remember how bad everyone looked in that video!? Wow, Bananarama looked horrible! That was awesome.

it's like a virus

I started with an e-mail containing this link. From eggplant, where many new obsessions start and are shared. Cupcakes in a jar. Huh? I saw the link and didn't really think about it again. . . but then it crept into my brain. Slowly at first. Before I realized it, I knew I had to try and make something baked in a jar. It became an obsession. The potential for gift giving seemed endless. They are perfect. Small, portable, weird, dessert-y and mildly trashy, yet have the ability to be quite cute and elegant. A cupcake in a jar google search didn't turn up much info, but a cake in a jar search was a goldmine. There is a ton of info out there about baking in jars. What a wonderful world it is.
 

These are 1/2 pint jars of pumpkin spice cake (the recipe is from from mailorder last year.) I called eggplant the next day—she had been researching it too and we both had this bug real bad. About 5 calls and several e-mails later I told Grammie and like some sort of crafting angel she busts out with a case of these jars, brand new, she happened to have on hand and gave me 8. Awesome. I filled them in the next 12 hours. If you want to frost them you have to fill them less then I did, which was about 3/4 full. I just pressed the lid on and squished the cake down before they cooled. The result was a tender cake, almost like a pudding, because it steamed a bit. Heavenly.

If you get a jar with straight sides and don't frost it, the cakes will slide out whole. No kidding. Just oil the jars first. I didn't flour mine and they still came out fine, but eating them out of the jar with a little spoon was more fun. The girls totally freaked out, and they don't even eat cake. Well, they do now.

These actually seal when you close them up hot. Some sites say you can keep them, sealed, up to 6 months on a shelf. Of course boil the lids and all that—and no frosting, of course. I am keeping them in the freezer, they can thaw in a day, ready to be given out with holiday fanfare. My mind is racing now. . .cakes on picnics, in the mail (but they are heavy, that shipping would be expensive) and in lunch sacks, or you could keep one in your jacket pocket! And then Mariko and I discussed different jar contents; brownies, pound cakes, gingerbread, oh good lord. I am thinking some sort of pie type thing now, a graham cracker crust layer with fruit on top, or a creme pie. I mean, if I freeze them, I can fill them with whatever, right?

We are both on a crazy cake in a jar train going in different directions. Mariko is going the light cake and frosting route, she dropped off a pint size which was an amazing chocolate cake with an espresso frosting. I am more about the dense cake, without frosting, and exploring packaging potential. We both agree the 1/2 pint size, which is so easy to accidentally overfill, is definitely the way to go for the cute factor.

We both used our normal recipes, watched the baking time, (bake these on a rimmed sheet for easy removal) and then just winged it from there. 1/2 of a cake recipe easily filed 8 1/2 pint jars (about 8 oz) with some left over.

I have calmed down, sort of. But really, there will be more of these. Baking in a jar. . . pure genius.

candy cones (or, burning the midnight oil.)

Last week I was able to get some craft out. It was late at night and I snuck this project in between about 6 different nursing wake-ups. No teeth on this baby yet, but she sure is uncomfortable. It was actually a good thing because it forced me to stop and think about each step before diving in—so these came together painlessly, which wouldn't have been the case otherwise, I can tell.

There are 3 candy/treat cones here, one for each girl. The cone shape is made stable with iron-on interfacing and the retro girl circles are stuck on with heat n' bond. A velvet ribbon and bias tape give it some holiday cheer and vintage buttons cover the bias hanger ends. I plan to give these filled with goodies on winter solstice, although they are very un-solstice-y to me. . . but oh well. My goal was to make something in one evening using what I had on hand and didn't even know what I was making until I was done. And they use 3 types of glue. Wow. I find this creepy and impressive. Actually, turned upside down with just the bias trim they made lovely trees. . . but candy cones they became. They are quite sturdy (with all the glue and fabric) but very light and flexible, so they will last. (She said while trying to figure out how to hide them away after the holidays.)

Specifications:

-The red fabric is from god knows where.
-Cute girl fabric is this one. . . wait. . . okay, this fabric is 3 years old. I know some of you remember this one. It's by Robert Kaufman and called "days gone by" but there are several fabrics in this series, I have a feeling it's not available anymore. My blog categories are shockingly incomplete and lame. Must work on this after the holidays.
-the striped bias trim is vintage
-the wood snowflake tags are from here
-the snowman is from here (I know it's there, but couldn't immediately find it, sorry, I'm a bad blogger. I bought the 4-pack last year.)
-killer red ornament from the Martha Kmart line but I can't find it right now (Okay, this list sucks!)
-glitter bottle brush tree is from somewhere. . . I'm not sure where
-I used light iron-on interfacing to make the cone shape (sewed a seam up the back) and heat n' bond to get the cute girl fabric on, and glue gun (gasp!) for the bias trim and it worked like a charm. I would have sewn it, but the mouth of the cone was too narrow for the machine and the glue worked great. I have made it clear how I feel about iron-on interfacing in my book, but for some projects it's just perfect.

It felt so good to make these. I was craving a non (almost non) sewing project and I love all this cute retro business. After seeing all Sarah's holiday cheer, I was feeling very very passionate about getting some crafty fun into my life that was more of the knick-knack variety.

love shacks

Hey, thanks to you all for the awesome comments on my mommy freak out "I have no time to craft" post. It made feel feel so much better and so not alone. Which is wonderful. So, thank you. A whole lot.

We made these up at Grandma's this week. She went out and got the candy with the girls while the houses were drying and what a perfect selection she brought back! Red hots are the best. We made them using the holiday cinnamon graham crackers and this fabulously disgusting product. (Mine was a bigger size than shown, BTW) There was no way I was going to make royal icing, shove it in a bag, and get it all over myself and someone else's kitchen. Not with one hand. So, this glue (I mean frosting) worked great. Because these are not going to get eaten, I can't recommend it enough. I got my supplies at Target.

Here's the village. Of course it was inspired by this great spread last year in Martha's holiday issue. Ours is a bit more . . . casual. It's more like a shanty town that's been hit by a storm, but I guarantee our parties are way more fun. Oh, and two words here. Serrated knife. I glazed over this detail when I started ours and after swearing and wasting about 4 crackers remembered this important tool for cutting the gable ends. It works like a charm. It takes about an hour for these to set before little hands can press the candies on.

While working on this project I was chasing M&Ms with stick pretzels and was struck by the crazy/delicious combination it made in my mouth. And yet it was familiar . . . and then realized it tasted like this heavenly treat I posted about last year over on Kiddley. Ugh. These are so good but take you on a one way train to Sickville. I'm not sure I can go there again this year. But they sure are fun to make.

 

happy thanksgiving!!

I started early today—gingerbread for breakfast. With whipped cream. Glorious. The recipe is from here, and I split the recipe between 2 8" rounds and froze one. It's perfect and not too sweet. This somehow makes it seem good for me. So, that is what I choose to believe.

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful. —Buddha

succuming to the folk

Oh, that Martha. This is all from K-mart (You devil, Hillary.) Gads. I usually only buy after Christmas, 1/2 off, but the folksy splendor was to good this year.

I wanted this tree skirt too, but we have a nice one I made years ago and I decided to stay sane. But if it goes 1/2 off--that sucker is mine. Wait, is this even a tree skirt?? Now I don't even know. Well, I like it, whatever it is. This is what happens when I save images without naming them. It's a placemat. I am awesome!

And, speaking of holiday freak-outs, this site is making me crazy!! Talk about folksy love. I have started a holiday penny rug just to deal with my dreams about the images from this shop.

getting ready

Apple raspberry pie, all ready to be baked Thursday morning. I didn't know you could freeze fruite pies, unbaked, until last summer. . .but you can. This will make Thursday so much easier. Now I just have to wait and make my final decisions on the side dishes (Grammie is doing everything else.)

the season of the witchy

I don't remember why I was researching herbs for kids, but I was, and found this book, A Kid's Herb Book, which I just bought. I love it. It's simple and easy to read because it's meant for kids but is perfect for adults learning about using herbs and plants for the first time. It has an overview of about 15 herbs that are safe and perfect for children. Then it includes recipes (teas, baths, salves, etc.) for each of them. Over the summer, the girls loved gathering basil and thyme for cooking so I thought they would also dig learning about using herbs for medicinal purposes. I need to find a good Portland shop for herbs (any suggestions?) because I didn't grow many of these this summer, so don't have any dried herbs on hand. I think I might get some dried herbs, muslin bags, and beeswax from Mountain Rose Herbs in Eugene if I don't find a good Portland shop. (There must be one.) I love this kind of stuff and love the idea of being able to make my own non-creepy vapor rub for little colds this winter.

In a similar theme, I just got this lovely print from the Tiny Showcase by Katy Horan and it's called The Healers. Perfect! I have loved Katy's work for a bit now and was super excited to see it for sale. (It sold out.) Pete suggested that the bison (?) which looks dead, is a tad creepy and the spooky masked figures might freak out the girls. I suppose he's right, but there's bunnies there too, see? It will probably go in my art pile of "too freaky for the girls" art for a while, anyway. I actually might put a bunch of prints in an album, so we can look at them whenever instead of stashing them away. Hey, that's a good idea! okay, I am going to do that.

Katy's work is so crazy cool and witchy-pagan without being too hippie/acid-ish. Sorry. That was probably the least elegant art description I have ever written--but there you go. It's Friday and I haven't had coffee yet.

more halloween stuff

It's pretty much the same Halloween decor here as last year, but I still have to show it. This garland is from mailorder #4, the one with the earflap hat pattern, and I realized while moving around boxes last night that I have about 20 left. It's a great one, with a pumpkin spike cake recipe card and cool paper projects for Halloween. E-mail me if you would like one (they are $12 which includes shipping)

Okay-thank you! They are gone! I am 99% sure that eveyone who has e-mailed me is getting one, you will be hearing from me shortly. . .

I am getting a new camera-see that weird purple?? My girl M gave me the lovely porcelain faux bois vase lurking back there. I love it so much.

These are new. Halloween Sonny Angel Kewpie dolls to add to my collection, from the eggplant of course. So flippin cute and funny, boy parts and all.

I also am now organized enough (new print run) to sell bonnet patterns wholesale, so if you have a brick and mortar shop or an online shop and want to sell some, please send me an e-mail! Thanks!