angry chicken

happy holidays and have a wonderful new year!

painting by delia, 8

We got some some snow! Very exciting. We are gearing up for the nutcracker performances and winter solstice and holiday celebrations and then hopefully a whole lot of nothing but rest—with some knitting, reading, and walk-taking.

Recently, I've been putting on albums and just listening while lying on the rug, like I used to when I was 7-14, back when actually listening to an album was an activity, you know? Not something I did while doing one or two other things. The girls love it. I used to put barbies on the records and would watch them spin while they played. I haven't told them that.

I'm trying to finish up gift wrapping and I have been finding some real gems on pinterest for gift tags to print and use. I just have to limit how much time I take looking, dang it. I can't believe what's out there.

Thank you all for reading, commenting, and just being out there—I hope you all have a mellow and wonderful holiday and see you in 2013.

custom wrapping paper

This is sort of spoiler for my brother, but I'm not sure how often he reads my blog so I'm showing it. Last night I was doing some wrapping and remembered all the science fiction book covers I spotted on flickr a bit back (long story) and as an life-ling science fiction fan, I knew he'd dig this custom paper. I printed out some images onto plain printer paper and there you go. The gifts I wrapped are small enough that one sheet fit perfect—I sure wasn't going to make a trip to the copy shop for over-sized sheets, but if I muster up the energy to do that one day, that would look cool, too. I love wrapping paper from photographs.

Life has been full of hard stuff lately, culminated by this horrible shooting back east and this awful local shooting at a mall here in town. Our family has been dealing with some very challenging health issues (not me) around here and there's a long road ahead—I'm just very sad and tired. Baking cookies has really helped. And wrapping gifts. And talking to friends. I also made this butterkuchen from the December Martha and it is really really good. And for all the sadness out there, this tonglen meditation I link to in this post really helps me, for others' pain and my own.

gift factory—seasoned salts

Making flavored salts has been on my list since I got some matcha salt from mariko years ago. I love it to death. It's so good on eggs, I almost cry a little every time I eat it.

So, I had these jars (a lot of them, for a possible new skincare product, long story) and wanted to use a few of them for gift containers so I can be less self-conscious about how many I have in the garage. This became a thing—trying to figure out what to put in the jars for holiday gift-giving. I didn't want to give sugar scrub this year so the seasoned salts won. I made 4 different kinds, combos that were quick and easy to make that didn't involve drying lemon rind or roasted garlic. They are also tasty and versatile. I used fine sea salt. I was going to use flake sea salt, but wasn't sure if everyone would like the chunkier salt texture. The flavors I made:

• Chipotle & Cinnamon salt
• Coriander Salt
• Cumin Salt
• Matcha Salt

For the cumin and coriander salt I toasted whole seeds and ground them. For the other two, I just mixed it in with the salt as is. I used 1 cup salt and about 8 teaspoons total spice/tea, which seems to work great, but I think this ratio is pretty forgiving. I have been using them all on soups, stews, tofu, toast, pasta, rice, fish and eggs. The chiptole & cinnamon would be great in a chocolate bark. Look out!

Here are some reference links I used-

• very pretty jars of seasoned salt in Country Living with recipes
• clear and simple seasoned salt recipes from She Knows
• how to make matcha salt (thanks for this markio!)

I like to stamp, too.

I was trying to save this brilliant gift for the girls for solstice, but it came out early. It's perfect for them to share—It's I Like To Stamp, which is a prompting-type art activity kit with sheets of half-drawn artwork, with a few words and ideas for completing with stamping, drawing and coloring. The sheets are loose and come in a lovely brown stiff folder, the whole presentation is very pleasing. It comes from the mighty creative genius, The Small Object. (Or, Aunt Sarah, as she is known in this house.)

It's really been a wonderful activity for them and for me. You can see what some of the sheets look like before they are stamped, drawn on, and loved, on her site. Any stamps work with these, but of course she has them, too, which we adore.

gift factory—hot cocoa mix in a jar

The girls wanted to make their own gifts for friends and family this year all by themselves, so we have been having little gift factory parties. I try to do this with just one child at a time, so they get some one-on-one time and we can more easily thwart disaster.

The middle child wanted to give "something in a jar" and she got hot cocoa mix last year that had both mini-chocolate chips and mini-marshmallows and hasn't stopped talking about it since, so the answer was obvious. She made a master batch of hot cocoa mix:

• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

scooped it into each jar, about half-full, and then topped it off with mini-chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. I tried to get her to add cinnamon or peppermint oil, but she is a purist. To make the actual hot cocoa, I think it's easier to add the whole amount in the jar to almost boiling milk and stir like crazy. The amount above makes 8 cups, but depending how big your jars are, it can vary. I think these jars would make 2 cups of hot cocoa, depending on how sweet you want it.

The circle punch I happen to have fit the lids perfect. Crafty-stars aligned.

I love making things in jars. For more inspiration/ideas I searched "in a jar" in pinterest. It's almost too much. Sometimes I don't even go to pinterest just because I feel too excited/overwhelmed. Like a cat with catnip, minus the napping schedule.

We are now approaching the time of year when I am making gifts I can't show lest I spoil the surprise, and when I am sewing costumes for the Nutcracker the girls are in, so I am fitting this in with everything else, which always seems ill-advised. This year it's a party girl dress. I have already told them it's not ours to keep, so I'm sure I will be sewing a keeper soon.