New Year's Dinner

Before I start with the Orlando posts, I wanted to take a minute to do a quick post related to New Year's Day. I meant to post about this before I left, but I'm sorta one of those people who like to do things last minute...or maybe not so much one who likes to do things last minute but ends up doing things last minute, so last Friday I had the choice to pack or do this post. I chose packing, which I think was a pretty good decision, eh?

But back to the New Year's thing I was curious to see if anyone else out there has a New Year's tradition as far as foods go. Since I grew up in the south, I've been raised to eat collard greens and black eyed peas on New Year's for good luck and fortune.

Does anyone else out there eat collard greens and black eyed peas or maybe some other traditional food? We had our greens and peas with some sauteed chicken and some nice hearty wheat bread. Looking back on it, I think cornbread is more traditionally served with the greens and peas, but I forgot. Oopsie! Maybe I'll remember next year?

You Like Me...You Really Like Me!

We went back to my SO's hometown this past weekend to see his sister as we had to work the day after Christmas and she wasn't coming to town till later in the week. I, of course, wanted to be there to see her open the quilt I made for her daughter. All during last week I built myself up for the worst case scenario. Not everyone likes, wants, or appreciates handmade stuff quite like the many talented people on the craft blog scene. I tried to prepare myself prior to the weekend that they may just open the box and say, "Hey, it's a blanket. Thanks." (note there's not exclamation in that quote). I did keep hope that they would love it...especially since my SO's sister is such a sweet & caring person overall. All my worries disappeared the moment they opened the quilt. As you can tell from this photo, she liked it! Phew!


See how it's all laid out on the ground like that? She did it all by her wee-little self. She opened the box with her mom, took the quilt, and carefully spread it out on the ground, bit by bit. Then, she sat right in the middle of the quilt and touched the various fabric pieces. So cute!



Then, she laid down on it and rolled around. Thank goodness she liked it! I usually like to keep the "first" of things I make (first quilt, first crocheted scarf, etc), but sometimes the better event is when you can give something so special of yours to someone else special and hope they can appreciate it as much as you would. I think we're good to go here, folks!

Christmas-ing Around the South

It was Christmas-ing around the south for us this year as we visited both my parents and my SO's family for the holidays. We spent the weekend before Christmas with my family. My mom is a neonatal intensive care nurse, so she only gets every other Christmas off. I guess it works out well now that my SO and I are sharing the holidays between both our families. Only problem is, with so few days, you don't feel like you really get to spend good quality time with either family. Don't get me wrong, a couple days with each is precious time, but I love my long, lazy days hanging out with family and doing nothing but eating, resting, and whatever else I feel like. Maybe next year? Anywho, my parents loved their gifts - my mom loved the scarf I knit up for her! Yay!


At my family's house, we had a traditional turkey dinner, but with non-traditional table decor. Doesn't matter one bit to me...turquoise is my favorite color anyways!



Oh yea! Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, steamed veggies...yummy! We even had pumpkin pie and a delicious chocolate cake...mmm...



Last week, I was recounting all the Christmas presents I had hoped to make and came to the awful realization that I didn't have time to get them all done. EEK! I only had time to get a couple done. That was...I thought I had time to get a couple done, and then, the orders for D Celestine started pouring in out of no where! I had some online orders and even had a few custom orders to make with some local friends, which is always a blast, but no time for my homemade Christmas gifts. Luckily, I packed up my knitting supplies and all the yarns I had intended to use in my gifts and knitted up a storm all weekend, and Christmas Eve, and even Christmas Day to complete two (yes, two) more of those butterfly scarves. I finished the second one about an hour before we were supposed to head over to my SO's aunt's house for dinner. Did I mention I had offered to prepare a panettone bread pudding before we left? Phew! What a busy day Christmas was!? Everything came together in the end. The panettone bread pudding was very much enjoyed, and I gave the two butterfly scarves to my SO's two aunts and they LOVED them. Phew! My first major, handmade Christmas gifts were a hit! I've got to come up with something good for next year now!

Christmas, Ornaments, and Running Late

Christmas is a funny time of the year, isn't it? You can be running late and be completely early, all at the same time! For example, I was reading a magazine the other day, I think Ideal Home's Christmas edition, and it said that you were supposed to bring the Christmas tree in on Dec. 15th (hey, that's today!). Of course, I brought my tree in nearly a week ago. See? Early! But then, on the other hand, I don't really have any Christmas gifts ready yet, and I've been planning on making all of mine, though, I do need to head to the mall for my SO's gifts (can't make his), and I really don't want to deal with all the traffic. Between going to the mall and not having made all the presents I'm planning to make, I think I can safely say that I'm running late. Boo. Hey, at least the tree is looking good.


Isn't this tree skirt pretty? It's one of the Martha Stewart items I got from Kmart last weekend. It's a bit bunched up, but we couldn't chop off the bottom branches of the tree, since it's so short, so the skirt doesn't quite fit.



As for running late, perhaps I should have spent less time making ornaments and more time making gifts? Although, I have to say, I think my ornaments are looking mighty fine in the tree. Yea baby!

Chicken Vesuvio and Tree Trimming

Thanks to the wonderful Sarah of Misadventures of Mama and Jack, I decided to take a trip to Kmart to check out the Martha Stewart holiday decoration collection. You have to understand, going to Kmart isn't a simple 10 minute drive down the street, it's more like a 30 minute drive to the other side of town...and it's near a mall, which is always "fun" this time of year. Martha is usually so dependable for chic decorations, but you never know just what a store will be sold out of or not carry. The whole way over, I was keeping my fingers crossed that my trip would not be a lost cause. I have to say, the Kmart was not the most organized place I'd ever been. I couldn't figure out where the holiday decorations were and couldn't find anyone working there to help me. I just walked in circles in complete confusion. Can you tell I don't frequent the Kmart much? Nothing wrong w/ Kmart...I'm just too lazy and too busy to go so far for stuff I can get closer to home. I finally had to ask someone at the checkout (while they're were checking someone else out) where the holiday decorations were. Turns out they were in the Garden section...no wonder I didn't see them when I was circling the store. Anywho, by the time I finally made it to the decorations, I was slightly irritated, but that all just melted away when I took one look at the beautiful Martha Stewart ornaments and trim. Every doubt I'd had when I was driving over, fighting the mall traffic, and feeling completely lost in Kmart instantly disappeared as I started oohing and ahing over all the lovely decorations. I found way too many things I liked and bought far too many ornaments for my tree. By the time I got back from my shopping spree, it was nearly time for dinner. I made one of my favorite Everyday Italian recipes - Chicken Vesuvio


This is a super yummy dish with a light yet tasty flavor. The dish contains chicken, potatoes, artichoke hearts and the sauce is made with white wine, chicken broth, and butter



I've made this dish a couple times and must offer up that I usually only make this with two bone-in chicken breasts, though I keep the liquid ingrediants the same. Also, be sure to watch this dish as it's cooking because the high heat usually burns my chicken and 10 minutes for both the chicken and potato cooking times is too long.



Anywho, I had a lovely evening of enjoying delicious food, sipping wine, and trimming my tree. I think these new ormanents will go great with my sparkly snowomen



And look! My Christmas present came early this year and already unwrapped!

Oh Where, Oh Where Can My Ornaments Be?

I am so disappointed with ornament options...why are there no light turquoise ornaments anywhere? WHY? I don't want light blue, I don't want bright turquoise...I want a light turquoise, almost "robin's egg blue" color ornament, in a simple, glass ball. Is that so much to ask for? Apparently, it is...because I haven't seen any anywhere! I guess I will continue to make my own in the meantime...they're super fun to create and craft, but would be much more enjoyable if there were only more hours in the day. I enjoy making my ornaments either way, but it would be so much more enjoyable to work on them without worrying about what I should work on...ah well...such is life, no?

Here are, I think, my fave ornaments so far - they are sparkly snowmen...although, perhaps the little flowers make them snow-women. snowomen? sno-women? I think you catch my drift (get it? drift? snow drift? yea...it's a knee slapper)


I actually came up with the idea to put the "carrot" nose on the pins...cute, no? I figured they would stay on better if I could attach them to the styrofoam bases with pins. I made the flowers and leaves with craft store felt.



Hey ladies! Ready to pretty up my tree?

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Although I don't have a house yet (though I desperately want one), I am so thankful to have my own little apartment and the money to be able to get my own Christmas tree. I got a tree a couple years ago, but I feel like I'm in this transition phase of life, between living and home and living on my own, where my home is where my parents live, but it's also where I live. It's kinda tough spreading out like this and being unsure about what is what, but what I do know is that both places are my home, so I should be happy to have them both! Anywho, there's this weird period of time between graduating high school and getting a few years into your career (maybe it's just me) where you are so extremely broke, you're living in whatever is cheapest and eating whatever is cheapest and you don't have the time, space or money to worry about things like Christmas trees because you can barely take care of yourself and furnish your tiny space. Now, a few years into my career, I think I'm worrying too much about my Christmas tree...but I suppose that is just the way of the perfectionist.

My SO and I went Christmas tree shopping Tuesday night...after much bugging on my end. I think I asked for nearly a straight week, every night, to go Christmas tree shopping, but see! It worked!


We hit up a local Christmas tree vendor who has been selling at this same spot for nearly 50 years!



They were so prepared, with tons of wreaths and bows and even Christmas tree stands (thank goodness b/c we tried Tar-jay first and they were sold out!)



See! I told you they had tons of wreaths and bows



A nice man (possibly the owner, but we didn't ask) helped us pick out our tree. He walked us around to a few of the many spots of their setup with the mini trees (we don't have space for much else), and he helped pull out this tree for us to check out. We decided it would be ours and asked him to help take the temp wooden stand off the bottom, which is what he's doing in this photo. He was really so kind and helpful...I love supporting these types of businesses - local (I think they're local) businesses comprised of hard-working every day people with genuine hearts. I only met this man for 15ish minutes, but sometimes people have a look in their face and a way that lets you know...you know? I hope we can visit them again next year...hopefully for a tree for a house!

Glittering Bailey

I've had quite the glitter production going on on my dining room table lately. Good thing we don't usually eat on it! I've been creating all kinds of sparkly creations to hang on our Christmas tree, but I swear, it's like I'm not working hard enough or something. I feel like I've been crafting ornaments for hours and hours and I only have a few creations to show for it. Oh well, at least I've been having fun and I'll have custom-made ornaments when I'm done! Yay! But, seriously, I think Christmas just snuck up on me this year. It was like, one minute, it's spring and the next minute...it's Christmas! What the hay!? Anywhosier, here's my next batch of ready-to-hang ornaments, straight from the craft room dining room table:


I paired Martha Stewart glitter with red ribbon and added a little metal hoop on top



As you can imagine, with this much glittering going on, I've basically got glitter everywhere! Even on Bailey! Poor little guy. I accidentally sprinkled some on him when I was walking past him with some ornaments. Oopsie! Mommy will try to be more careful!

I'm Dreaming of a Sparkly Christmas

I've always loved sparkly things. I remember a kid's movie I fell in love with a looooong time ago, called, "The Secret of Nimh" (the book was waaaay better, and if I remember correctly, pretty deep for a kids' book). The movie had a goofy crow character who always said, "Oooh...a sparkly!" I say that sometimes when I see sparkly stuff...yea...it's silly, but I can't help it. I think my love for things that glitter helped influence me to start my jewelry business. At least, it helps influence the materials I select and the ones I put in my designs. I always like to add a little sparkle to each design. Anywho, with Christmas coming up and my nesting kicking in (and me finally having more space for decorations), it was a no-brainer that there would be a lot of glittering going on in my home. I've got quite a few things in the works, but glitters and glues and paints can take some time to dry, so here's the first set that's ready:

They're little embroidery hoops - I sparkled the edges in red (Garnet, if you want to get technical) Martha Stewart glitter and added some light turquoise fabric stretched across the hoops. Not quite the right fabric color, but it's really hard to find the kinds of Christmas colors I'm looking for. Oh well...I'll wait to see how they look in the tree with my other ornaments. I can switch the fabric out pretty easily later. Now, back to sparkling!

Don't forget to enter into the contest!

Gift Tag Giveaway

I've really been getting into making the smaller things in life extra-special, especially now that the holidays are here. I remember in college, if I had time to gift wrap (because I was an over-achieving workaholic with little time), I was usually throwing something in a decorative bag with tissue paper or throwing whatever holiday gift wrap was closest to me on any boxes I needed to wrap. Not that simple gift wrap doesn't say special...it just wasn't saying "special" for me. I've been getting into adding little details to my gift wrap and thinking through my gift wrap color themes and stuff, and one of the things I've been wanting to add to my packages are decorative gift tags. My family has always gotten those cutesy sticker tags with images of snowmen or Santa, but I've really been having fun creating gift tags for some recent swaps and want to make some for myself.

I made these gift tags yesterday with the traditional Christmas color scheme, but I'm not going for "traditional" with my Christmas color scheme. I'm going for traditional with a twist. Anywho, that means that I need to give these babies away. One set will be for a swap (those aren't pictured), one set will be for a Christmas gift, and one set will be given away to one of my dear readers (or guests).


I am giving away this set, with the glittery gift tags including: red rectangle on holiday print, red swirly circle on green striped print, a hand-drawn holly berry bit, off white rectangle on green print, hand drawn/glittered swirl on red swirl print with off white paper print, poinsettia on cream/red rectangles on holiday print



This set (with the Santa gift tag) will be showing up in someone's Christmas gift (only the first set pictured will be given away)

CONTEST INFO

Two Ways to Enter (and you can do both if you want to enter twice!):
1. Leave a comment on this post (only one comment per person, unless you do #2, too) and say which tag is your fave
2. Do a post about the contest on your blog and leave a comment with a link to your post (if you do a post about the contest, you may use the first image of the gift tags in your contest post)

All entries must be received by Friday night (12/7/07), as the winner will be selected Saturday morning.

Happy Contesting!

Happy Handmade Holidays

I know I mentioned wanted to make all my presents this year, but I've been getting into making my decorations, too. I've really been working on brainstorming the perfect color scheme and found some great inspiration in my Martha Stewart books...only problem is...where does she find all those amazing colors for such regular items as gift wrap, ribbon, etc. Thank goodness she opened her own aisle in Michael's so I can finally access some of her pretty colors in scrapbook paper and tissue paper colors! I think my fave color of her collection is her "Feldspar" - it's like a pale blue-green...not quite "robin's egg blue" - I think "Feldspar" has a bit more green to it...but any-hoosier.

I found these cute and cheap ornaments at Michael's the other day when I "went in for one thing." I'm sure you guys know how that goes. Anywho, I figured they'd be a simple project to paint up and sparkle up...and they were! The little crevices were a bit difficult, and you can see I painted the light turquoise color on the snowflakes a tad, but I figured they'd be covered with glitter. There were also a few black marks on some of the ornaments, but again, I figured they'd be covered with glitter, so who'd ever know...except you guys now.


Painting the background light turquoise



All done! The tops were painted white to accent the snowflakes and I added Martha's White Gold glitter to the tops.

Now I just need a tree!

Worms? No Thanks...I'm a Vegetarian.

I hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had a wonderful one and for everyone else, I hope you had a lovely weekend. I spent Thanksgiving with my fiance's family this year...one of several beautiful family get-togethers I've been fortunate enough to participate in. Don't get me wrong...I love my quiet, simple dinners with my immediate family, but with my mom from the Philippines and my dad from the north, we don't have a lot of "other family" near-by. We used to celebrate with some cousins of ours but haven't been able to connect as of late, but hopefully, we'll all get together soon. Anywho, every once in awhile, (maybe it's just me) but, I look forward to one of those big family celebrations with lots of friends and family everywhere. Very holiday-esque, no? My family has always celebrated traditional American holidays, but the older I get, the more I want to celebrate the holidays. The more I want to decorate, to bake, to cook, to gift wrap. I can't wait till my SO and I get a house so I can really get started decorating and maybe even host a holiday dinner. I'm taking notes from my Martha Stewart library...just in case.


We celebrated a traditional Thanksgiving with Turkey, dressing, gravy, dry dressing (a secret family recipe), macaroni & cheese, green been casserole, mashed potatoes, salad, rolls...am I forgetting anything? I mean, obviously, we had dessert (my fave part of any meal): pumpkin gooey-butter cake, brownies, ice cream, and apple pie. If you can't tell from the photo, I celebrated Thanksgiving with quite a few of my SO's family - his aunt & uncle (the hosts) and their two sons, his mom, his brother & his son, his sister & her husband & their son & daughter.

I had a funny conversation with one of my SO's nephews, Alex, while he was playing with this fish toy that had a worm on a pully that when you pulled made the fish's tail swim while the worm moved closer towards the fish's mouth. The conversation went something like this:

Me: What's that in the fish's mouth?
Alex: A worm.
Me: What's the fish doing with the worm?
Alex: He's eating it.
Me: Do you eat worms?
Alex: NOOOO! I'm a veg-e-TAR-ian! I don't eat meat!

It wasn't the answer I was expecting, but it was really too cute.



The weather was a bit chilly, but beautiful. The fire-colored leaves looked so brilliant against the blue-blue sky.



Bailey is really loving all the leaves. He loves to eat them...or pick them up in his mouth at least...



...even leaves waaaay bigger than his head, which is pretty cute.



Oh yea...and he likes sticks, too.



When we got back home from visiting my SO's family, we had a simple soup...gotta eat healthy after chowing down on all that turkey, right? This is the Chicken Provencal "Stoup" by Rachael Ray (click here for recipe). I thought the recipe was pretty good, but if you try it, be sure to get the olive tapenade. I was hesitant to buy it because I don't like olives, but a teaspoon-full stirred into my soup added a lot of flavor, and it didn't really make the soup taste too much like olives. It just added depth to the flavor overall.

Oh, and did I mention that we also got to celebrate my SO's mom's b-day? Happy birthday, you-know-who!

Pumpkin Picking in the Patch

A little late, but pumpkins are still in till Thanksgiving, right?



We actually went to this pumpkin patch a week or so ago.



Pumpkins, pumpkins, everywhere!



They even had a couple big containers of water so you could wash the dirt off before putting the pumpkin in your car.



All picked out and ready to go home!

Halloween Dinner Party

As I mentioned when I made my pumpkin favors, I decided to have my first official "dinner party" with a Halloween theme - primarily themed with the color black. Although it was lots of work and took up most of my weekend, I really enjoyed putting this together. Here are some shots from the evening:



I decided to make a nice, cold-weather comfort food, with a nice red tomato-juice-based sauce to resemble blood (just a bit...nothing realistic). It's the Brisket with Carrots & Onions by Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa. I also served it with spinach dip (from The Fresh Market) and roasted potatoes:

Roasted Potatoes Recipe
1-3 lbs small, red-skinned potatoes
4 garlic cloves
1 TBSP Italian seasoning (or other dried herb of choice)
2 TSP salt
1 TSP pepper
4-5 TBSP olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit. Peel rough parts of skin and eyes from potatoes (I like a little skin left on, but feel free to peel the whole thing). Slice potatoes into 1/2-1" chunks (the smaller the chunks, the faster they'll cook). Put potatoes in baking dish. Top with garlic, spices, salt, pepper, and drizzle olive oil on top. Toss potatoes to cover and distribute seasoning and oil. Potatoes should be lightly covered. Bake for 40-60 minutes until to desired tenderness.



I went with an all black table setting...well, except for the plates. A black, sparkly table cloth from target, 3 black candles, & the black flowers/vases I crafted earlier



A closer look



An armoire in the living area got a scary makeover with these Michael's skull luminaries, red/black candies, and black web-covered branch



I wanted to do a themed dessert since the dinner wasn't too scary looking, so I chose the spider "creep-cakes" from the Martha Stewart mag and re-created them without the fangs.



Unfortunately, one snuck away and we haven't seen him since.



We even had some "Witches Brew" complete with spooky dry ice effects. The dry ice didn't last long though...I'll have to get a bigger piece for next year. Anywho, if you check out the recipe, I subbed Kool-Aid for the soda packets, and I opted for the dry ice effects over the "frozen hand"...I'm sure either is scary. The spiders seemed to enjoy the special effects, watching carefully with their beady, red eyes.



This rustic, hearty dinner was served on a candle-lit table.



I even had time to make little name cards for each place setting.



After dinner was over, the spiders were served up. Unfortunately, the black sugar on top turned everyone's mouths black (lips, teeth, tongue), but them seemed to think it was pretty funny, even reaching for a second spider snack. Hey, it could be a good prank if you want to get one of your friends.



All in all, I'd say it was a successful dinner thanks to special help from my honey. Thanks babe. Hope everyone enjoyed.

Pre-Etsy Show

Crafters out there will understand how not-such-a-good-idea it was that my SO wanted me to help him make these the day before my big show.

Silly boys!

A Martha Stewart Halloween

I really like to celebrate holidays, but I feel like I just haven't been able to get in the spirit of the season (any season) no matter how much I want to. It seems like every year, we say that we're going to do this and that, but I'm tired of talking. Actions truly do speak louder than words, and I've been ready to get my Martha Stewart on for awhile now! On Monday, I decided to take some time to try a couple of the Martha Stewart crafts from her Good Things and Bad Things collective Halloween magazine. I hit up Michael's to stock up on the necessary supplies and had lots of fun! It's been awhile since I've been able to just craft and not worry about making jewelry. I think I earned some fun time when I spent nearly the whole weekend making jewelry non-stop.

First I had to get everything prepped. I wasn't sure how exactly to spray paint the glass vases I got from Michaels for roughly $1, but I figured out that an empty toilet paper roll can be squeezed in to perfectly prop them up. Per the mag, I was supposed to use Mint Julep cups, but I wasn't sure what those were and didn't see anything that looked like the photo in the store. These will have to do for me.


Turns out the toilet paper roll idea worked out pretty well - I easily got a nice coat all over the vase - no sticking to the paper or waiting for it to dry.


Then, it was on to the flowers. I bought the cheapest roses I could find at about $1.25 per stem (one rose per stem) and got 6 so I could put 3 in each jar. The flowers were kinda fun to paint, but if you decide to try this, know that it's kinda hard to get a full coat on and it looks kinda cool with part of the color sticking out from underneath, so definitely go with red roses for that scary look


Don't the roses look scary all black!?


There, all set up in the black vases.


Looks pretty creepy, but a little sparse to me.


There, that's better!


Now I just need to make some creatures to fill up the branch...


Hopefully, there will be lots more crafting in my near future - I have creatures to make and more crafty ideas to bring to life!