this year I will be GRAND

I am not one for making resolutions, unless they are kind of generically broad, like “I will do more good, I will be more sweet to myself & others, I will slow myself and enjoy the moment”. I don’t like to feel guilty, disappointed or promote self-loathing, so pushing self-awareness and enlightenment work for me. I’m imperfect & that is perfect.

Just one more thing with regards to 2012, this year I will be GRAND, lets all do that, ok?!

Going through some of my vintage pattern books, I stumbled across an old favorite, Lily book No.59, Potholders & Oven mitts. I love this little house so much! When I first got this booklet it was one of the first thing I made.

Looking back at my Ravelry project page for it, I noticed that I made it almost exactly 1 year ago (1/2/11) I never got a chance to share it then, but I want to now, because it’s just too sweet and if you don’t happen to have the old stinky booklet, no worries it’s available for free right here! (P.S I linked it up on the Ravelry pattern page too :)

Notes: Clever roof construction, you work double roofs & houses and only face the front with the appliqué elements, the little chimney is slipped between when sewing the front and back roofs together, pattern calls for a hidden bone ring in the back, but I worked a chain hang-loop…so kitschy , little gnome hobbit house, the pattern calls for worsted wt for the roof & house and 6 strand floss for the windows and such.

Be good to yourself. Be GRAND in 2012!

secret things

I am always super excited at least a month before the holidays, but once they are over, I AM DONE! I seriously need to tear down this Christmas House & put back up Regular Old House.

But first a few secret things I had been working on as Christmas presents…

A petite shawl for my petite Grandma, just a little hug when ever she needs it. It’s a Japanese pattern from this lovely book & can be found on Ravelry too.

 And for my Sister I stitched up a jewelry frame, she is a collector of vintage jewelry and I thought what a lovely way for her to display her favorite pieces. I loosely based it off this Lion Brand frame. I went with a different stitch and their assembly was a bit bulky for my frame, I didn’t use batting, cardstock or double-sided tape, I just stretched and stapled the crocheted lace over the back & using spray adhesive attached a piece of fabric to the wood backboard. Then pressed it into the frame, it was a really old wood frame covered with a plaster resin so it didn’t have any sort of sensible way to attach the backing board so I just nailed it on.

 I also made her a creepy sweet cicada brooch.

Every fall when we clear out the garden, we notice we’ve lost a few of my handmade markers and every spring we find some of the lost buried deep in the ground, swallowed up with love.

Also for my sis a set of spoon garden markers, I have a deep love for old silverware, I have accumulated such a collection of it and finally have a way to put it to good use. I just love the beauty of the rustic tarnished silver so elegantly detailed, I smashed each flat and then embossed them with blocky type.

EDIT: I would put up a tutorial on how I did these, but there are plenty of great ones already online, like here and here!

May the new year kiss you softly & bring peace everywhere in 2012.

pile it on

Lots of merry making has been going on around here, holiday postcards are whizzing their way across the globe, gifts are getting wrapped, lists are being checked, the house atmosphere is set. The Vince Guaraldi Trio plays in the background & most importantly scrumptious sweets were made, eaten & shared.

When it comes to decorating, well, we just pile it on.

Christmas Tree complete with holiday hamburger, Kermit & somewhere in there is the Christmas Pickle.

I love to decorate the piano top. None of us can play, wait, we CAN play, but Jason (my husband) is the only one who has ever actually taken formal lessons & that was when he was a little guy, so we all TRY to play! Notice Evel Knievel peering out from behind all the Christmas business.

When it comes to food, again, we just pile it on.

I really wanted to only make sweets & treats that we could all enjoy, so that meant converting all of my classic cookies & candies to vegan versions. Here are some of the treats we made.

Homemade butterfingers, wow these were a pain in the butt, but tasted amazing. My “dipping” chocolate was not cooperating, it was a tad on the fudgy side so I decided to dip the bottoms, let it set, then dip the tops, notice the candy bar swirl!

Chocolate pecan rum balls, made with myers dark rum, so spicy, warms you right up. These are Jason’s favorite, I can maybe eat half of one before I want to barf.

I am a macaroon connoisseur, not so much on the egg white kind, but the sweet milk kind .mmm.

 My requirements for a top shelf macaroon/bon bon:
1: The middles needs to be pink.
2: Almond flavored.
3: They need to be super moist.
4: Dipped in chocolate (white or dark doesn’t matter).
5: If I am craving almond joys, I’ll stab an almond in the top.

For these yummies I ended up having to make a homemade sweetened condensed milk so it could be soy based. Best of all, they tasted just like always.

Ginger molasses cookies, so soft & chewy. We knew these would be somewhat flat with no eggs added, but they are really flat! So for a interesting top texture we took our “not getting much use these days” meat tenderizing mallet and poked the tops, cute right!?!

(I think I might stack 4 on top of each other and eat it as one thick cookie, my family thinks I am joking. )

Shortbread cookies are one of my all time favorites, they don’t contain eggs, yippy! But they do contain a whole load of butter & a real butter free house means no classic shortbread, so we went with a shortbread like thumbprint cookie made with vegan buttery sticks and filled the dimples with our homemade blueberry rhubarb jam. While not anything like my beloved shortbread, these were still very tasty. We scribbled icing over the tops & lovingly called them poptart cookies, because that’s what they tasted like!