Monthly Archives: December 2012

Happiest New Year!

31 Monday Dec 2012

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SwingAnnHamiltonCarouselHappy New Year’s Eve!  I hope you are spending the evening in your favorite way – be that at a party or in a quiet place away from the crowds.  We are off to spend the night with friends in a few hours.  Ada is planning her outfit and I am feeling just a little thankful to not have to clean up tomorrow morning.  Our New Year’s Eve party last year was a fun way to celebrate our first year in this new house.

We are celebrating our one year anniversary here at Domestic Space!  Thank you to all of you who follow along with our lives and projects.  We love your enthusiasm and ideas and comments.  We are excited to make the next year in this space even better and we’ve have been working on lots of new ideas.  We hope you enjoy!

We spent yesterday with friends doing some things that make me love living here in New York.  If you are in the area, be sure to visit Ann Hamilton’s installation at the Park Avenue Armory.  The Armory is amazing on its own, and the addition of huge swings and billowing sheets of silk has made the space magical.  We also made our first visit to Jane’s Carousel since it survived Hurricane Sandy.  (We discovered that our friend Jen used to ride the same horses as a child when they were housed at their original location in Ohio).  We were thrilled to find the horses in almost perfect shape above ground.  (The organ is being repaired and the live music has been replaced by cd’s until March).  The carousel’s protective box is warm and sunny on a winter day.

Cheers to 2013!

Inspiration

28 Friday Dec 2012

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Instagrams from the Last Two Weeks:

*Josie’s Quilt from Gram

*Cousin Stockings from Aunt Sue (Each of the six girl cousins had these when we were little and now Aunt Sue has made them for our kids).

*Packaging at World Market

*Blueberry Napkins

*Happy Weekend!

Winter Break

27 Thursday Dec 2012

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Tree1HugGiftsJosieCakeFrenzyWe have been taking a few quiet days here to enjoy calm after the past busy weeks. (Well, mostly calm until the tragedy of spilled Sea Monkey water at lunch today). I hope you are all enjoying your holidays so far. Josie is so happy to have her big sister home for the week and new toys and art projects are keeping them busy. I always feel a little sad after the frenzy of making and wrapping and cooking for Christmas is over. But thinking about the excitement of the year to come and planning new projects always makes me feel better.

A few things from the last weeks:

*Decorated. My once vintage-only tree decorations have made way for crayon colorings and heavily decorated bottom branches.

*Cousin Hug

*Wrapped. A mix of vintage and Ikea papers and glittered tags.

*Josie, Christmas Eve Party. Methodically eating an entire piece of cake with one antenna and a grown-up fork.

*Frenzy

**Cheers to New Year’s Plans!**

Inspiration

21 Friday Dec 2012

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Instagrams from the week:

* Holiday Cards on String Across the Mantle
* Coloring on the Plane
* Alphabet Magnet Production
* Drumming at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, CO
* Waiting for The Nutcracker, at BAM
* The Bottom-Heavy Tree

DIY Knitted Duffle Coat

19 Wednesday Dec 2012

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Eme1Eme2I have been wanting to knit up this Vintage Duffle Coat by Sublime for my niece for quite some time.  The pattern is in The Fifth Little Sublime Hand Knit Book, which is full of more sweet baby knits.  I finally finished the duffle in time for our early Christmas celebration last week.  I used the called-for Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK, in Plum Pie and finished it off with vintage buttons.  (Etsy has a great selection of vintage buttons here).  Baby knits are always so satisfying and relatively quick to make up, and the chubby recipients make even the cutest sweater look even better.

DIY Salted Caramel Sauce

18 Tuesday Dec 2012

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Caramel Sauce

We are slowly trying to feel normal here after the tragedy in Connecticut last Friday. It feels a bit hollow to be celebrating and decorating in the shadow of such an inconceivable sadness. We are lucky that our girls are too young to understand what has happened, and Chris and I wipe away tears when they are not looking. Our hearts break for those who have lost the ones they love. We hug our children closer now. We find a little more appreciation for the days we have together.

We celebrated an early Christmas this past week with our new cousin and family. The kids opened stockings and presents and the adults cooked and talked and ate good food together. Here is the recipe from the Inspired Taste blog that we used to make Salted Caramel Sauce. We added a pinch of nutmeg to our sauce and it is delicious. We made another batch and added extra cream to make a cocktail base. (It is sort of a caramel Bailey’s flavor). This batch could easily be frozen into yummy ice cream.

Morning Glory Gifts

14 Friday Dec 2012

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We grow morning glories in pots every year and harvest the seeds in the fall to save for the next spring. (Ada called them Morning Glorias when she was little). This year we noticed a proliferation of dried seeds on vines around our neighborhood and gathered some on one of our walks. We mixed the seeds together and had so many that we decided to package some up for gifts. Ada cut morning glory shapes from blue and purple scraps and decorated the recycled tins that once housed photo corners. We can’t wait to see what new colors come out of the harvest this year.

DIY Polar Bear Scarf

13 Thursday Dec 2012

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I need to use tricks to get Ada to wear winter clothes.  These tricks usually involve the color pink, but she loves this scarf and will wear it without a fuss.  I mentioned this pattern briefly last winter, but it is that time of year again.  The Polar Bear Scarf is such an easy project that there is still time to make one up before Christmas morning.  I used this scarf pattern pattern by Pat Feeley for High Country Knitwear, available for download for $1.  I modified the pattern slightly and used a cashmere blend yarn to make it super soft.

Here are some more super-cute kids’ knits:

*Abbey from Aesthetic Outburst posted about these adorable hedgehog mittens, available as a kit from from Morehouse Farm Knits.  Morehouse Farms has more Critter Knits here.

*Elephant Scarf Elephant Scarf at Acorn Toys is soft and friendly.

*Sweet William has a sweet and warm alpaca pullover by Oeuf with bunny ears here.

DIY Dressed-for-the-Snow Snow Globe (Baby It’s Cold in There)

07 Friday Dec 2012

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I always wondered why no one inside the blizzard of a snow globe seemed to be wearing appropriate clothing.  (And how am I supposed to get my four-year-old to wear a hat with all of those bad examples?)  So I decided to make our own version and knit up a scarf for the occupant.  To make your own Blizzard-Ready Snow Globe you will need:

*Recycled Jar

*Small Knitting Needles (We used a US 3 pair)

*Scrap Yarn

*Plastic Figurine (With a neck that will hold a scarf)

*Baby Oil

*White and Silver Glitter (We used a combination of regular, Mica, and a bit of Silver German Glass for sparkle.  Meyer Imports is a great glitter resource)

*Epoxy

*Fabric Scrap (Optional, to cover jar lid)

*Scissors

*Craft Glue

1. Knit up your scarf: Cast on 2 sts.  Work in Stockinette for desired length and cast off.  Trim ends to about 1/4 inch and unravel to make fringe.

2. Wash and dry jar.  Soaking in hot soapy water will help remove label glue.  We also used Charlie’s Soap to get off particularly stubborn glue.

3. Place a dab of epoxy on the neck of figurine and attach scarf.  Tie scarf after dry.

4. Epoxy plastic feet to inside of the jar lid.  Allow to dry.

5. Cut out fabric circle to fit outside bottom of jar lid and glue in place with craft glue.  (This will cover any writing on the jar top).

6. Place glitter inside jar.

7. Carefully squirt baby oil inside jar, leaving just enough space for your figurine to fit.  The baby oil will make the glitter snow fall more slowly than it would if you filled globe with water.

8. Place figurine upside down inside jar.  If there is still room for more baby oil, hold the figurine back up above jar and slowly squirt in more oil.  (I don’t like seeing a big air bubble at the top of a snow globe).  Wipe off any excess oil from rim of jar.

9. Squirt a bit of craft glue around the threads of the jar and screw down tight.  The glue will help keep the jar sealed.

10. Turn over the jar and let it snow!

 

 

Family Photo Album Gift

07 Friday Dec 2012

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Our Photo Albums just arrived in the mail!  Every year we look through all the photos of the girls and have our favorites made into a book for the grandparents.  I love the process of editing and looking over the images from the past year.  Ada and Josie like to pull their chairs up to the computer and look through the pictures with me.  They grow and change so much in a year!  There are lots of online sites to create photo books, but we have always used IPhoto and Apple and love the results.  The editing and page options in Iphoto make it really easy to transfer photos into a book layout and the finished albums are beautiful.  The whole process of putting together a book feels very satisfying.  It makes us feel thankful for the past year and excited for the year ahead.  (And opening the books at Christmas time always seems make the grandparents smile).

*You still have time to make your own if you need a gift idea.  Our books always arrive in under two weeks.