Christmas Leftovers: Handmade Gifts
Finally blogging about a few of my Christmas projects—had to keep them quiet pre-holidays, of course. I was apparently in a sewing mood this year, so the embroidered ornaments/mini-frames are for all the ladies in my family and Colin’s, and the candied walnuts are for the guys. (Since I didn’t think they’d be too interested in the embroidery.)
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New Year’s Cookies: Patterned Blue Squirrels
Squirrels because my sister bought me these Ikea cookie cutters for Christmas in honor of Colin’s squirrel cobbler that I was too chicken to eat. Patterned because when you’ve got a box of 12 fabulous icing colors, who wants to make muddy brown cookies? Used the Kitchn’s best sugar cookie recipe and Alton Brown’s royal icing.
I have to say though, my first foray into schmancy decorated sugar cookies will likely be my last—at least for awhile. I liked them a lot, but if you’re going to do fancy piping there are muchos steps, and for a newbie like me they take muchos time: Making the dough. Chilling the dough overnight. Cutting out the cookies and baking them (no small task, I found, when you’re not exactly equipped with baking gear. No rolling pin, no pastry cloth, nor drying racks for me. Wine bottle, counter top, plate. That’s how I roll.) Making the frosting. Piping the frosting around the edges to outline. “Flooding” some watered-down frosting to coat the whole cookie while carefully spreading with a mini cheese fork (no toothpicks either, as it turns out). Waiting for that to dry. Then finally (the fun part!) piping on the designs. Yeesh.
They tasted pretty good, but let’s face it: these show ponies are really all about the decorations. Which is why I’m posting the cookie porn here. Enjoy!
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Festive Friday: Decoration Day!
It doesn’t take a lot of decorations in our tiny apartment to make it look like we’re crazy Christmas people. (This isn’t even all of them.) But we seem to accumulate some extra little something every year that we just have to put out, so I’ve decided to just embrace it. We’re festive! Sadly no big tree this year, which will set you back $70+ in Manhattan. This little guy is our $14.99 recession special. I also particularly like the goose bookend wearing his mitten/hat. And last but not least, I made Colin a moustache ornament in honor of his famous Movember ’stash.
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Type Geekery: Arial vs. Helvetica
As someone who prefers Helvetica to Arial but could never quite articulate why (well, it does look the same at first glance), I love this chart. Upon closer inspection, it would seem that I’m drawn to the symmetrical nature of Helvetica. Cool. (At least for type geeks.)
Found via swissmiss.
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Farmer’s Market Bounty
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Cooler Than a Passport
Map of the world made from a stamp from each country. Awesome!
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OMG Dance Party Wedding Entrance
So I’ve been trying not to blog about wedding stuff because I don’t want it to take over my life, but I HAD to share this completely hilarious and sweet wedding entrance. I want to be friends with these people!
via @joannagoddard (of course! she finds the best stuff).
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Piggy Bank Crush
More products to love! Today I seriously fancy this glass piggy bank from Roost at Velocity, originally spotted at Oh Joy. Isn’t he charming? The best part is that—unlike some of their much pricier goods—if I bought this guy, at $24 I’d actually have some pennies left over to put in the pig.
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I Heart Fred and His Witty Wares
I have a long-standing love of all things Fred & Friends, so I was psyched to see that they they have more new products for me to obsess about.
Currently loving the budget cuts piggy bank and matryoshka measuring cups. (Seriously, why didn’t I think of this? And just in time for the matryoshka craze, too.) Oh Fred, you’re so good.
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Paste the Rainbow
Hey I’m back! Do you ever go through those phases where you’re not feeling so inspired and the whole interwebs seems yawn? Maybe I was just a little burnt out. Anyhow, I’m mad crazy for rainbows so this print from 20×200/Jessica Eaton has brought me out of hiding! (Apropos.) She used hundreds of lens filters to make this rainbow in a window. Love it.


















