apron strings

yummies part deux.

mmmmm. yeti cupcakes. they have marshmallows in the the batter, thus in the cake part of the cupcake. very wintry. although, i'll make them again at easter. because eating them is a religious experience. it is too bad that the reusable silicone cups only come in pastels.

the recipe is easy enough, but the frosting kind of stumped me. the frosting is supposed to be light, fluffy and marshmallow like. i did everything it said, i think? mine is heavy and melted marshmallow like? and messy. very, very, messy. until it dries. the icing doesn't effect the eating...and we know in that twelve cupcakes are missing. the neighbors broke in!

holy cow. i thought the peppermint ones were good. these, these...well, you're just going to have to make them* to find out. or, come over today.

 

* i haven't added the recipes because i am not sure how to and because i feel like it's not mine to share. this poor woman who worked and worked in her kitchen to make this cupcake book that is only being sold for $15.00, of which she is only getting about $3.00 a book, probably wouldn't want me to? TELL me if i'm being a little too artist friendly. i mean, if i was giving away a brittany song...i would all day. who wants to give that girl anymore $$, but a cupcake art lady is different.

because dolls, pink and pink hearts are yummy.

(post on ms.watson now mother of two is here.)

so, on black friday when suckered into shopping with mom, i, of course, went into the pottery barn outlet, and was quite excited when i saw this:

two sets of itty bitty pink chairs with a white table.

there were only two left. i scurried and got them, knowing that my new niece, and two other nieces (okay, second cousins, but that's just too much. so nieces they are. and aunt ce ce i am) needed them and cute dolls from patterns from here. and that they needed to be made in delicious fabrics like these:

 

here's a sample of the three doll's that i'll make. for ava, reagan, and ila. of course, i'll machine embroider thier names on their doll. here is the doll that i made for me. or, really my future (PRAY G_D) children. she doesn't have a face, and hasn't for some time. every time i see her i start singing "doll without a face, got no human race, we're dolls without a face." which she, of course, does not think is so funny. at first she sat at the table, and then i reminded her that dolls without a face must sit on top of the table. so now, i feel very guilty. and will at least give her eyes.

seriously people. how.cute.is.this. going to be? i promise they'll have faces and i'll take pictures.

our new room.

we love it. we both think it feels like a hotel room. i kept telling k that we should move the room around. apparently, we needed the new furniture to motivate us.

we keep sneaking up there early to watch t.v. (which i had taken out b/c i didn't want to fall asleep with the t.v. on while we're in bed.) i realized that it kept me from reading and kept me up longer than if it wasn't there. now, it's across the room and tilted away from the bed. and we don't have tivo, and i hate 99% of t.v. so, i'm still hopeful that i'll continue to read. lately, i've been doing needlework while k watches sports.

i should have changed lenses on my camera. but i didn't feel like it, so they're all a bit close. i swear we bought the full versions. and not furniture cut in half.

to show the furniture i sacrificed (i forgot to turn on my flash) the wall color. it isn't quite that yellow. very pale. although, i wish it weren't yellow at all. yellow=worst color for bedroom. but we could only pick one color (or take builder's white) for the entire house. pale yellow=groovy mellow color for the rest of the house. we'll paint it soon. i'm thinking a pale blue? very pale.

our bedroom. 

the canopy is awfully close to the ceiling. (were it in the sleeping area where it is supposed to be it would be under a vaulted ceiling) (but of course, that's now over our seating area, so who's going to complain?) but we like it. i can't wait to sew some bedding for it. (in fact, i ordered some 'wale ivory corduroy today because it was 50%...3.99/yard which is a great price).

 

our seating area.

this furniture was perfect. for the sun room in our old house. not so much for our seating area, but i do like it.

i really should take pictures with the right lens. it's awfully hard to figure out the configuration?

we'll k's home and i've got a bedroom calling.

noel. on fireplace cover.

                                                                                                               

(the colors in the pictures are a bit off. i was in an awful mood when i edited the photos and it shows. blame k.)   

furnishing the abode.

we decided to go pick up our new furniture instead of waiting for the delivery guy to deliver "sometime on monday or tuesday, hopefully, i'll have to let you know when we're near your neighborhood."

the furniture is.so.nice. the bed is much darker than i thought, so it definitely matches, but doesn't look like a bedroom set.

we've also rearranged our room. it's not the way it is supposed to be, but it is more functional. our room is really a bedroom en suite (i'm not trying to be fancy, i just hate the origin of "master bedroom") with a sitting area. but the way the bed is supposed to go takes up half of the room. so the bed is now in the sitting room and the sitting room is where the bed should be. it's a bit awkward, but it privleges the seating area, which is more imporatnt to us. plus, i hated that the ceiling fan was right over our bed, because when we had it on it did nothing but stir up a lot of dust and  push it into our sinuses while we slept. now, we'll be able to use it. now our seating area looks out onto our wooded backyard. i so plan on sitting on the couch with cocoa and knitting during the upcoming winter nights.

i LOVE the canopy. it is very much not the unicorn type of canopy. i'm already planning the bedding. i think i'll sew up a duvet and pillows out of a creamy corduroy and embroider the sheets and the bedding with a few little snow flakes using the same color of thread. i am also going to sew together a big piece of corduroy with ties to drape over the top of the canopy. because our bed is sort of wedged into the old seating area, i think it will be cool to feel like we're in a tent surrounded on all sides.(although only the top will be covered with fabric) i really like to sleep in confined spaces. in fact, when i was single i used to sleep in my closet all the time. i don't know that i've ever slept as good as when i did then. i know, funny.

i also picked up some new knobs that are less dressy than the ones that came on the furniture. (which of course confounded k. "but the furniture came with knobs?)(oh, the ever cheap west texas/scot.)

it feels tori amos-esque to talk so much about our new furniture. self-indulgent. but that's what you get on day 26.

take care, good people.

the joy of shopping.

i don't usually go shopping on black friday. however, this year i had spent the previous forty-eight pre-thanksgiving hours alone. sewing and cooking. i needed human interaction and to not sew for a minute. and k had to work.

so, when mom asked me to go shopping with her, i was happy to tag along. (dear walgreens,  my dear mother got to your store at 5:30 a.m. to get one of those stupid little pre-lit trees for $5. off...and your stupid little associate wouldn't sell it to her until 6:00a.m. she.is.very.upset. and is staging her own boycott.)

we went to the outlets (i got up at 5:00 a.m.!) and got there right around when they opened. i wanted to go to the outlets because they have a store with the two things i wanted to get k. and they were 70% off.

i really don't like to shop. i hate crowds, i loathe trying on clothes, parking in crowds, etc. but i just kind of felt like hanging out with my mom, and wanted to get my shopping done.

because i don't like to shop, when i do, i get a lot of things. in fact, i haven't been to the outlets in over a year, and the last time i went it was to hang out with my 4'11 little person mom.

so, yeah i got a lot of things. k's presents. a new purse. with matching wallet. and scarf.all at the coach store. it was sooo (relatively)cheap! we waited in line to get in (shame!) i don't really like the COACH purses with the C's all over them, but i do like the leather ones that aren't so branded. plus, they invented the tote. i've had another coach purse since college and it still looks nice. so, you get what you pay for. although, this time at the coach store i got a lot more. my mom kept looking at this one really nice purse and i kept trying to get her to get it. she kept saying no that she was going to target on the way home and that she would just pick something up there. she kept looking at it and when she walked out to wait outside, of course i picked it up for her and bought it. my mom is the cheapest person on the planet. she will not spend money on anything. well, except for her children. i've bought her little stuff, but i never want to embarrass her or flaunt the fact that we (because we both make more than her meager salary) make more than she does. lately it's occurred to me, if you can't spoil your mom, then she needs to get better at accepting gifts. so i bought and she kept refusing to take it, but before long she was showing the waitress the "beautiful purse her lawyer daughter got her." funny, huh?

i'm glad i made her accept it. i know she likes it. and likes the fact that her daughter bought it for her.

i kept telling her, and it's true, that it was much more fun to give it to her than it was for her to receive it.

i feel like i am making  big deal about this? it's not the purse or what it cost, it's that i have never really bought my mom anything that expensive, because she wouldn't have accepted it before now. it's not the gift, it's the giving and accepting that's the big deal.

i would never tell her, and i didn't realize the significance of it until i was an adult...but i remember her pulling over in the mcdonald's parking lot when my brother and i were 6 and 4 looking for change in the bottom of her purse. she would find some and pull out a crumpled dollar bill or two to buy my brother and i happy meals. we would, after about two bites of our hamburgers, ask her "why she didn't get a hamburger?" she'd always say that "she just wasn't hungry." then, i didn't think about it. had i, i would have known that that didn't make sense. that she certainly was hungry. but that there was only so much change in the bottom of her purse. 

***

she would be mortified if she thought i remembered that and/or had figured it out. 

anywho, onto a much more shallow story. k and i do not have bedroom furniture. well, not real furniture. we have the furniture that i bought, in college(10 years ago!) at a yard sale for $60.00. it's awful. were i not so tired, i'd take a picture of it. here's what I got at the restoration hardware out and pottery barn outlet.   for 70% off of the outlet prices.

do you think it matters that the woods aren't the same color? i don't want a 'bedroom set. ' i think i'll be able to pull this off? i got the $400 mirror that is the length of the dresser. (for $100!). i'll get new pulls for the nightstand and dresser. the bed is actually a little darker than that. exciting huh? i can't believe how cheap it was! of course i'll make bedding. i am not going to put up a canopy. unless i put up a unicorn. ;  ) so this post is long.and.rambling. take care.

at home. cooking. sewing. drinking wine.

the goods.

 

 

the menu.

rosemary/garlic turkey(k's creation)

gingersnap sweet potatoes (mine)

fresh cranberries cooked with orange and cinnamon (moi)

oyster dressing. (blech! compliments of my dear mother)

cranberry tart (me, as if)

spicy pecan carrot cake with candied pecans (really, i am this talented)

with the MOST important toasty drink: toasted coconut nog with fresh whipped cream and rum. (as if you don't who the heathen is in this family).

happy cooking and eating my sweet people.

it took forever to make them, but i'm glad they're here.

thanks for all the suggestions for the design, color, fabric for my dining room curtains. i used them all.

i made them out of this matte satiny fabric with an interlining and a lining. they are very heavy. which is what i wanted. our dining room table is black and oak. and so are the chairs. so there are a lot of straight lines. and a too harsh of a tone.

(who doesn't love a double blind hem?)

plus, last thanksgiving our dinner was.insanely.loud. the thickness of the fabrics i used will absorb a lot of the noise. and we added a rug.

the curtains are a muted brown with a deep purple/maroon fabric for facings.

 

they are 80x90 inches of loveliness.

   

let the christmas crafting begin.

so saturday was a glorious day. k at work. me and the pup crafting all day while listening to christmas cd's with smells of baking in the background. the fabric is really leftover interlining from my dining room curtains. i used it because i like it's warm fuzziness and earthy non-color color.

this is my favorite production. these are to go on my christmas mantel piece. once i've sewn their backs on, i will string them together with ribbon and hang them on top of the mantel piece.

i LOVE my embroidery machine. professional results that look great and you can cut out patterns while it's going.

cute, n'est pas?

i'd rather be sewing.

i have to post everyday, but i've been soooo busy sewing, that, i haven't had all that much time. what i have created so far:

a nifty christmas mantel cover for the fireplace.

little pieces of fabric with N_O_E_L embroidered on them. (which are amazing and made me love my sewing/embroidery machine even more, which i didn't even think was possible.)

lots of fabric wrapping paper and gift bags. (i am attempting to have a disposable-free christmas). I laughed yesterday when i realized that the reason that sewing the gift and wrapping paper seemed so simple was because i have never sewn with easy-to-work-with-fabric. because i am always going over the top with my fabric selections. note to self.