It has been CRAZY. I think of blogging at least once a day but I never get around to it. I've been neglecting a lot of my favorite (and not so favorite) past times due to the happy little homemaker alter ego I'm fostering. Right around thanksgiving something was in the air that rustled up my creative juices. I had a supply list a mile long of thing I needed for projects I wanted to tackle. Among them were yarn ball Christmas wreaths, recycles sweater scarflettes, Anthro inspired scarfs, and nursery wall art, just to name a few. I went into craft overdrive and came out with some cool scarves, a front door Christmas wreath and a gift for my friend's new baby's room...and more to come!
The wreath was a quick project involving yarn and dollar store ball ornaments. Timing in everything on this projects because it keeps the cost of supplies low. The most expensive part of it was the yarn. The pretty gold yarn was perfect, not too bulky but the cost of the red and green was more in line with my budget. All in all, I covered my foam balls in yarn and got to hot gluing and ta-da!
The scarf, I was really excited about it was my kind of project. Minimal complication and the potential for a very cute outcome. This project introduced me to the world of sewing with elastic thread. Oh my. So many cool tricks! My first stab at the scarf was a success (IMO) and i knew I had found my pillow case project of 2010. (Last year, in my excitement to learn how to make pillow cases everyone received a pillow case from me for Christmas- What can I say? I was excited.) I turned out only 2 scarves so far, but I'm going back to the fabric store tomorrow for more. Here is my prototype. The key was to find just the right material that
was light weight and had some fluff but also warmth. I'm still looking, but the one in the picture was the best of the two.
The nursery wall decor turned out well. No pictures of that yet, since its a gift, I don't want to show it off until its been gifted. I'm happy with it and it was a project that could literally be done in any theme or colors.
And then the failure: the recycled sweater scarflette. Ahh, not so much. Everything about it was easy in theory, but I made a bad selection in sweater to recycle and it was all down hill from there. I'd try it again, but since I had such luck with my full size scarf, the scarflette just seemed silly!
I had good luck in the kitchen too. The last few Thanksgivings, I had been floundering, looking for a signature dish that would be as popular as my mom's sweet potato casserole or as much of a staple as my aunt's broccoli cheese casserole. I dabbled in risotto last year which was a total bomb (thanks for nothing Giada!) and for some reason my FRESH green bean casserole was persona non grata when it came down to fresh vs canned...so this year I looked and looked and found it: THE most mouth-watering butternut squash recipe EVER. I was all to delighted to see it get gobbled down. People cautiously or maybe politely took a serving of it...but to their surprise it was good!! I brought it for our pot luck dinner at work and again, it was a hit. Part of me wants to keep the recipe to myself, would that be wrong?
My annual bake-a-thon starts this coming week. I've identified the recipes I'm going to make 3 new and 2 old. Good looking sweet recipes were harder to come by this year for some reason. So I'm going to go with what I know works and do the shortbread again and of course the thumb prints (because it would not be Christmas without them), and chocolate biscotti. The new confections will be unveiled at a later date, and maybe even with some pictures!
As much ad the holidays inspire the heck out of me I still can't wait until they pass and the stress level decreases and my bank account recovers. I keep telling myself that after the holidays I'm going to do something for ME, and I will...but only in between the showers, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, vacations, new babies, and work. It doesn't leave me a lot of time, does it?
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