The last meal of 2009, I say, why not go out with a bang! It was also my brother-in-law’s last dinner with us (he’s been camped out in the guest room for a couple of months now) and well, I’ll make up any excuse to play resturant.

Major Disclosure- I CAN’T SPELL, spellchecker is my savior, don’t hate me for it.

I made the Fuji Apple Crisp a day ahead, as well as the Caesar Salad prep (croutons, dressing…etc…), and left the new stuff for the day of, I even went home a little early to prep! The Spanakopita recipe is from The New Moosewood Cookbook and was AMAZING and the Polenta recipe from my favorate Christmas Present Book The New Vegetarian Epicure, which was the inspiration for the meal…. I’ve been reading, and reading, and re-reading that cookbook. I just love it! The Crisp is from The New Vegetarian Epicure too(FYI: epicure is a fancy word for foodie) and was also AMAZING.

Alas, I didn’t get any pictures of this feast, the spanakopita, even has a 10 made out of filo dough on it to ring in the new year!

Wishing you a big Happy New Year’s! We celebrated New York Style (at 9:00pm PST) with some  bubbly drinks and a very sleep baby (who is now asleep :).

I made Etta a sweet little set of baby blocks (which work well as baby throwing balls, or juggling balls), when I first got this book Sweet Booties. So when thinking of  a holiday present for one of my dear baby friends, I decided to make him a set of matching baby blocks in oranges & blues! The pattern is pretty simple, you cut out 6 4 inch blocks of assorted fabrics, pin together, in standard box shape (so they look like a cross) & sew, stuff and Wala!

Baby Blocks!

Of course, on  my first batch, I didn’t realize how important accuracy is on the squares! They are a bit lopsided, but his turned out Super Duper as you can see!

Every year our very small family is blessed with back to back Christmas Celebrations. Christmas Eve we spend with Colton’s family celebrating into the night & exchanging gifts (I asked Colton why this started? And he thinks it’s because when they were growing up they lived on a farm, and you HAVE to do the chores during the day even on Christmas, so they always celebrated on Christmas Eve). Then dark and early Christmas morning we leave our little tree, and cookies for Santa, and drive 5.5 hours to California to celebrate with my extended family! After several days of fun & merriment, we journey home, visiting Colton’s extended family in Davis, and waving hello to all our friends along the I-5 corridor that we don’t have time to visit (sorry Sara).

So, today is the 28th of December, and we’re home! We came home to a clean house, still full of Christmas Cheer, brothers, a dog and a cat!

Now we get to play with our loot! Cause, as you can imagine, two Christmas’ mean’s lots of LOOT! :) Some exciting craftiness of note, knitting needles!!! Three sizes!!! And a sweet Aunt who patiently walked me through knitting! This is the scarf I got started on our drive home yesterday.

Books, books, books!

Now, the baby is asleep so I’m going to start reading!

Oh, wait, and did I forget to mention a PRINTING PRESS (it’s still in the car, but I think I see printmaking once again in my future!
Happy Holidays!

It’s a dear little friends birthday today (as her mama call’s her on her blog L) .

She’s turning 1!

I made her a cute little Oliver & S dress to match Etta’s, in Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern Pink Dahlia line, in Mustard & Gray (her mama’s favorites!)

Etta modeled it for us, before we packaged it off & mailed it to Canada earlier this month!

Happy Birthday Little  L!

We Love you!

On a little downtown stroll two weeks before Christmas, I stopped at my favorite fabric store Fabric of Vision. After a bit of browsing the owner asked me if I wanted a quick fun demo for a last minute gift. Did I!?! I hadn’t even started my crafty Christmas projects  yet. Sixty seconds later I was hooked and ready to go home and make some colorful pinwheel fabric coasters! I purchased two little packages of 5 inch square cut out’s (42 per package) and booked it home to start crafting! Thankfully the little one fell asleep on the car ride home, too! It was fate!

Here is what they look like all done!

Step 1) Cut out 5 fabric squares 5×5, or purchase from your favorite craft store.

Step 2) Fold & Iron 4 of the squares in half, with right sides facing out.

Step 3) Place the square that has not been folded, face up. Carefully arrange the four other squares on top of the face up square, like the lid of a box folded.

Step 4) Pin & sew around all the edges, trying to keep the square shape intact. Below is the front view of the coaster, with all edges sewn up.

Step 5) Trim edges and then turn inside out, and iron flat.

Step 6) Enjoy your work, below is the backside view of my bright set! My sister in-law and I cranked out about 14 in a hour! It’s a really quick fun and easy project!

It’s the eve of the night before Christmas, close enough for me to say “It’s Christmas Time!”

Woo Hoo!

Tonight we celebrated the holiday season with SwiftSure Timberworks crew and their family, it was a fabulous party with lots of tasty food (cooked by mwa),  good drink, and best of all great friends.

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (oh, and yes, those are ninja salt & pepper shakers… :).

Cheers!

With 6 days to go till Christmas, there has been a flurry of craftivity in our house.  The ironing board & iron have become permanent residents to the kitchen. The dining room table has been taken over with paper crafts, rotary cutting mat, and piles of fabric. And needless to say my “craft room” a.k.a. the garage, looks like a small explosion went off! My goal is to use this weekend to get some wrapping DONE, and finish up my fabric projects…. leaving the crocheting for next week!

It’s become my own holiday tradition to make small gifts (most often earrings) for all my co-workers. Since nursing is a predominantly female profession, jewelry works quite well! Last year’s theme were button earrings (I was on a serious button kick at the time). This year, the theme is stones & pearls, I prepped little origami boxes out of a 2003 Sierra Club Engagement Calendar, punched out some little labels, and tied them all up with some red yarn.

I played Santa Clause and mailed (to my Portland friends), and ho ho ho’d my way across campus delivering the small parcels. Everyone (including myself) enjoyed their little gifts!

Only 9 days to go!!!! Last night as we watched the Fox & the Hound, I made little boxes, little labels, and cut out some little strands of string to keep them all together! Of course the little boxes were filled with little gifts for my co-workers and friends! You’ll have to wait till after Christmas to see the loot!

Speaking of after Christmas, I have a whole bunch of posts that will be going up after the holidays (don’t want anyone to see their crafty little gifts beforehand!).

So stay tuned!

Are you ready???

The other night we enjoyed a festive holiday party at one of my co-worker’s homes. Let’s just say she had 11 Decorated Christmas Trees! Yes, there was even one in her sewing room, jealousy was dripping off me. I managed to capture a few images, between the baby chasing, eating & pinata hitting!

We each got to take home one of these adorable elf’s, as our party treat!

I’m a sucker for gnomes.

The owl & fairy tree, this was one of my favorate trees! Covered in fairy, elves, birds and other flying creatures.

No holiday party is complete without a 13 month old Mrs. Santa Clause running a muck! Etta was dressed to impress in this GoodWill find for .99 cents! She even had on a pair of glittery Dorathy Shoes which I had been saving for a special occasion.