28 Friday Dec 2012
Posted in Inspiration
Tags
blueberry napkins, family, Fire Escape Farms, homemade gifts, Inspiration, Instagram, knit stockings, quilt, World Market
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
*Happy Weekend!
27 Thursday Dec 2012
Posted in Inspiration
Tags
Christmas Eve party, family, holidays with kids, home, quiet days, Sea Monkey, vintage decorations, vintage wrapping paper, Winter Break, winter holidays
We 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!**
21 Friday Dec 2012
Posted in Inspiration
Tags
American Ballet Theater, arts, BAM, christmas, Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, home, Inspiration, Instagram, The Nutcracker
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
19 Wednesday Dec 2012
Tags
baby cashmere, cashmere yarn, DIY knit, Etsy, hand knits, knit for baby, Sublime, The Fifth Little Sublime Hand Knit Book, vintage buttons, Vintage Duffel Coat
I 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.
18 Tuesday Dec 2012
Posted in Projects
Tags
caramel cocktail, caramel sauce, cooking, DIY Christmas gift, DIY salted caramel sauce, family, food, Inspired Taste, salted caramel sauce, salted caramel sauce recipe
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.
14 Friday Dec 2012
Tags
DIY gift, gardening with kids, gifts from kids, morning glories, seed saving, urban seed gathering, window garden
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.
13 Thursday Dec 2012
Tags
Acorn Toys, animal knits for kids, DIY Polar bear scarf, DYI knit animal scarf, HIgh Country Knitwear, Morehouse Farm Knits, Oeuf, Pat Feeley, Sweet William
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.
07 Friday Dec 2012
Posted in Projects
Tags
Charlie's Soap, diy snow globe, german glass glitter, gift for kids, glitter craft, knitted scarf, Meyer Imports Glitter, Mika glitter, recycled jar, snow globe with scarf
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!
07 Friday Dec 2012
Posted in Projects
Tags
Apple photo album, arts, DIY photo album, family pictures, famiy photo album, grandparent gift, home, Iphoto, making family albums, photography
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.
05 Wednesday Dec 2012
Posted in Projects
Tags
chocolate peanut butter, chocolate peanut butter cups, dessert, DIY gift, Echo Letterpress, food, gift wrap, homemade gifts, Natural peanut butter recipe, peanut butter cup
I always need to wrap these Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups as soon as they cool to avoid eating all of them by myself. They are simple to make and really good. We used wrappers from Ikea, boxes from Paper Source and letterpress gift tags from the charming Echo letterpress. Wax paper cut with scalloped scissors keeps oils from the peanut butter from getting on the box. To make your own Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups you will need:
*11.5 oz. Bag of Milk Chocolate Chips (We love Ghirardelli’s)
*1 Cup Chunky Natural Peanut Butter (Smooth works well too)
*1/4 -1/2 Cup Confectioners Sugar (to taste)
*Candy Cups (We made 24 of various sizes with this recipe. You will need two wrappers per cup)
*Wax Paper, Boxes, Twine for Wrapping
*Scallop or Pinking Shears (optional)
1. Mix together peanut butter and confectioners sugar. Set aside.
2. Spread out candy wrappers in a single layer on a tray. (The second wrapper will be placed over the first when the peanut butter cups are finished).
3. Using a heat-safe bowl and heavy bottom pan, make a double boiler by adding a few inches of water to the pan and floating the bowl inside. Pour chocolate chips into bowl. Stirring frequently, slowly melt chips over medium/low heat until they become liquid. (The warm water will keep chocolate soft as you work).
4. Using a small spoon carefully place a little melted chocolate into a wrapper and swirl until the sides of wrapper are coated. Repeat until all wrappers are coated.
5. Place tray of coated wrappers in freezer for 15 minutes to cool and then remove.
6. If chocolate in bowl has cooled, heat again until completely melted.
7. Using another small spoon, place a bit of peanut butter inside each chocolate-coated wrapper. Be sure not to let the peanut butter mound up above the top of the wrapper. (This makes for a neater peanut butter cup).
8. Carefully spoon a bit of melted chocolate over the peanut butter to seal it inside.
9. Return the completed cups to the freezer for 15 minutes to cool.
10. Place each peanut butter cup inside a second wrapper to hide any grease marks.
11. Wrap them up!
Happy Giving!
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