One more Moore

All is calm...

This is Henry's little Christmas tree which sits on his nightstand next to his bed. The ornaments are a collection of thrifted ones  that are all wooden and folksy. Grandma gave him these and they are my fav's:
You can't go wrong with mushroom ornaments, right??
The paper-whites are blooming and I'm in heaven. I've been sniffing them like I'm some sort of coke addict or something. I just love how they smell. They take me right back to our little home in Boston. I eeked out Henry's gumdrop/gingerbread garland just in time:

It's draped on his headboard and I guess could double as food storage or a midnight snack should the occasion arise. My in-laws are in town and I've just about finished their stockings:
Hmm,...what else?There will most definitely be lots of nog:

The Bing Crosby and Johnny Mathis records are in full rotation and one of our big traditions is to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" which will be starting soon (while Papa and Grandpa set up the train table.) Christmas breakfast will be quiche and of course, Aebleskiver's (which are a big tradition 'round these parts, too)

Henry opened up his first present tonight which was an electric train from Grandma and Grandpa that pretty much sent him into cardiac arrest. He's donning his new dropseat jammies and currently decorating gingerbread houses with Grandma (sure it's 9 pm but we don't care.) We are so happy and grateful for these simple joys, and so happy they have come to spend Christmas with us.

Merry Christmas! May all your New Year Dreams come true!

I'll be back on the blog after the new year.

xoxo

Glittery Trees & Gingerbread Scenes

I had to make an executive decision last night to fore-go  cleaning up Henry's trains or folding laundry or digging out the enormous 'mallow that somehow wedged itself in Henry's sleeve when I was taking his shirt off.  Oh yes. That was all gonna wait. I rolled out the dough that I made last week, ignoring the 'do not refrigerate for longer than 2 days' recommendation on the recipe and started cutting out little snowmen and reindeer and trees (don't be fooled- they were a royal pain in the backside to assemble and try to get to stand up). While those were chilling/baking I finally got around to finishing the glittery papery trees.
Only the red & white leaves had been cut and properly dipped in mod podge and then glitter, it was the other two that needed to be started from the beginning.
So I sat, and traced leaves and caught up on about 4 days worth of TiVo. Then there was dipping and glittering and drying. And then the realization there were not enough leaves to finish, so back  to the couch and to my fresca and TiVo and tracing and cutting and later glittering and drying and applying. I really liked the  repetitiveness of it all. Mindless. It wasn't something that took too much thought or attention. I'm so happy with how they turned out.

This morning a pair of reindeer legs mysteriously broke in half (too close on the counter for inquisitive little hands) so we have 3 reindeer instead of 4- which is fine by me. Henry wanted to eat all of them, so we decided to make some gingerbread boys of our own. It started out so innocently:
A little gingerbread here, a little flour there. And then he asked for his Christmas train.
And then it started snowing. Snowing flour. Everywhere. Until things eventually ended up like this:

We had a fun, fun morning together. It kept us busy for at least a good hour. I highly recommend letting it 'snow flour' at your house this holiday season. Everybody's doing it.

xoxo

It's a ...

Wow. We are so totally beyond thrilled! Henry kept saying that he wanted to have a 'baby Nora' just like Richard & Betsey's brand new baby, and now well, it looks like we are going to. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

So umm, rumor around town is that some of you just might be interested in the ancient Chinese secret of the 'mallows?? First, know this: It isn't ancient nor Chinese, but I'll share it with you anyway (I just keep giving until it hurts.) First off, there are a ton of recipes out there. About a month or two ago, I saw the Barefoot Contessa making some toasted coconut ones (which I am going to have to try next)  and  I've found that a lot of the recipes online are pretty much the same, with ingredient amounts varying depending on how many each recipe will make. A good one that I like can be found here for basic vanilla marshmallows. The great thing is that she's formatted the recipe into a .pdf (which is found at the top of her entry just click the link.) So instead of adding vanilla, just add peppermint but wait until the 'mallows are almost done mixing so you can taste it to see if the flavors are right. Her recipe also calls for rice flour- which we skipped completely- just make sure you have lot's of confectioners sugar- it does the trick magically! And the swirly-swirls?  It's as simple as adding drops of red food coloring to the top of the 'mallows once you've put them in the pan. I think I ended up putting 8-12 drops in (less if you want it more pink) and since we had no toothpicks on hand, I used a chopstick to make it all swirly and it worked wonders. Happy Mallow making. I have to go now. My heart hurts from all this giving. 

All red & white and pepperminty!

Mallows? Check. Finished them up last night, but I see another 2 batches in my near future. If you've never made  homemade mallows before, you really should give them a try. They only take about 1/2 hour to prepare and then just need to sit at room temperature for a good 10-12 hours before you cut into them.

I bought the gynormous box of gelatin, because well, you know it's cheaper that way and now 28 extra packets of gelatin are just sitting there. Staring at me. What am I supposed to do with gelatin besides make mallows?  Each recipe calls for 4 packets per batch, so then I reckon I could make 8 more batches. However, each batch makes a ton.  48 'mallows to be exact. That's 384 'mallows!! WOW. I guess if we are giving each family  4 or 5, that's a whole batch right there! Decisions, decisions!!
I know the bag of 'mallows  look like they are about to topple over (because they were), but the second I got outside to take some pictures, my elderly neighbor Joyce magically appeared (that seems to happen more than you'd guess) and was so curious about what I had  and what I was doing.  Although she didn't say it, I just know she was thinking, "Why are you outside, photographing marshmallows you weirdo??" Because my apartment is dark. all. the. time. I am forced to take my little creations outside to photograph for all to stand and stare and mock. So the bag was about to topple, but I didn't want to get all fussy about it- I was just trying to be cool and all nonchalant about it. 'Oh you know, I'm just taking  photo's. Ahem. It's really not a big deal. Everyone I know takes pictures of their marshmallows. You like marshmallows? Great. We'll be sure to bring some up to you.'  

I'm all sorts of into red & white for the holidays. I've got a felt tree skirt for Henry's tree in the works and my red & white polka-dotted paper tree (I'm hoping) will be done tonight. I decided to forgo doing aprons for the shop. It was just weighing me down, and I just wanted to make 'mallows and crafts anyway. So look for some in January, because I just know that after Christmas, people are just itching to buy more stuff.

For the holidays, Trader Joe's is carrying "Candy Cane Joe-Joe's" which would be so good made into Oreo Pops. Give 'em a try and let me know if they turn out delish!

On tonights agenda: cocoa mixes to be assembled and Henry's itching to make some gingerbread cookies. I can't wait!

xoxo

p.s. On Sat. we get to find out if this baby's a boy or girl!

Warm, fuzzy, slipper-y goodness

    
When we moved into our new place, we gave up carpet (mostly) for some great hardwood floors. We love them, but it's not always so comfy on ye olde feet. The more and more I thought about it- the more I realized slippers are just what we need this holiday season.  I LOVED these from Hanna Andersson and first saw them in the catalog. I wanted them so badly for Henry, but they were sold out in nearly every size.  Boo on that. So in my google search for "nordic slipper socks" I found these cutie patooties from Urban Outfitters (and just for the record, my legs look just. like. that.) And they have those bad boys in black. And are those polkies I see pokin' out of the back? Why yes, yes they are. They must be mine. I scored a pair of each.  Merry Christmas to me.  Fa la la la la...la la la la. They also had some other cute Mary Jane styles. Go treat yourself- they are a screaming deal. Heck- get one in every color.

I've just completed part #1 of our Christmas friend gifts (homemade peppermint 'mallows) and am starting part #2 (homemade cocoa) tomorrow. I'll post more about that then.

Happy slipper shopping! Keep those tootsies warm!

xoxo

Looking for some holiday gift idea's?

Hop on over to Sew, Mama, Sew they are featuring my tutorial for this ruffled apron and have got lot's of great gift-making idea's. They even have some free downloadable gift tags (which are so so adorable!)

Happy Thursday!

xoxo

'Tis the Season

Have you guys seen all the great advent calendars that people are making out there??  It occurred to me, oh on about November 30th, that a homemade advent calendar just wasn't gonna happen this year. Again. We picked up this German one at Cost Plus and it seems to be doing the job just fine. Henry gets so excited to open up a window every night before he goes to bed. A couple of years ago, I saw the most dreamy stocking garland kit in the Magic Cabin catalog, and every year I tell myself I'm going to make my own. I simply adore Amanda's - and kick myself every time I see how lovely hers turned out. There's always next year. And the year after that. And the year after that.
We ran out of ornament hangers with about 40 ornaments left, so we've still go to put those up. I found these awesome  over-sized polka-dot jingle bell ornaments at Michael's and picked up a few red & green ones. I love how limey the green is. The tree is the most random hodge-podge of ornaments, it's quite hilarious actually. We have gorgeous ones that we picked up on a vacation to Paris in 2002, ones from Boston & New York, ones from our families, etc.,. I let Henry pick out his own ornament at the store last night, which was a long stringy snowman with striped legs (which both fell off by the time we got home...where is the glue gun packed???)
Speaking of glue guns... (they are on my brain since I happened upon mine while  packing up our garage for the move and now- well everything in our life is in desperate need of said glue gun: the wooden wheels of Henry's Christmas train came off,  the leg-less snowman, etc.,.) Anyway what has happened to glue guns anyway?? Does anyone even use them anymore?  I'm stoked to get mine out and go crazy with it and these foam cones.
There is a new magazine that has just launched called "Living Crafts" and it's wonderful. I'm digging these crochet crowns (not that I know how to crochet or anything fancy like that), but you should check it out. They do 4 issues per year and have really good stuff in there. Speaking of good stuff (I amaze myself with how good I am at transitioning to new subjects) I saw this and nearly had a heart-attack. Totally adorable and if Henry's Christmas present wasn't already purchased... (all he wanted was that train table, sheesh!) Maybe next year if this baby ends up being a girl.

Tonight is a long overdue girls night with one of my old-time gal-pals and I'm so excited.

xoxo