Happy Everything

Happy 2011 everyone! And Happy Birthday to my little Emily Alice who isn't quite so little as she turned SIX at the end of the year. We couldn't do much as our area is still somewhat snowbound but she got to pick her birthday meal (japanese food) and cake, which was red velvet cupcakes, no frosting:






That "6" there is a cool sparkler we bought in Toronto, since sparklers are illegal here in NY (I understand fireworks, but sparklers? come on!) We've been buying these for a few years now and she loves them. Here it is in action:






And here's another birthday tradition, our Birthday King candle from Haba. He sits in front of the birthday person's plate at dinner -- they actually make a ton of special birthday candles (wow, more than I knew about!) but most of them are for kids only (they go up to 6 or 8), and the Birthday King can be used for anyone.






She had a great birthday -- I hope our whole year (and yours) will be just as fun!

Xmas Cake!

This year's cake:



I think this year's decorations were especially cute. Some years Santa is a little creepy looking. But this year he was adorable:



It even came with 3 "fancy candles", which of course we used. And it was as delicious as always! There's even a little bit left to finish off tonight. But right now it's time to batten down the hatches for this blizzard that is supposed to be here any moment. Stay warm!

Happy Holidays!

Hope you're all having a wonderful solstice/Xmas/Krismas/Hannukah/Christmas/Kwanzaa/whatever and New Year's this year! Our decorations are (almost) all up, our stockings are stuffed, our presents are wrapped (well, except that one that Evan hid so well I have no idea where it is!) and we will soon be off to pick up our annual yummy Xmas Cake. Holiday tunes are downloaded to the car, featuring our house's favorite holiday single of 2010:



From us to all of you --
Happy holidays!

dala horse cakes!

Like a lot of people I know, I bought those IKEA dala horse DRÖMMAR pans when they came out a while back, but I never actually used them. Yesterday, I saw this adorable stocking design on the allsorts blog, and thought "aha! I'll decorate the cakes like that! And make the red and white with red velvet cake batter and powdered sugar!" And voila, red velvet dala horses:


That's the little one, the big one is here. He's not as cute because he baked longer and isn't so red. But still, cute xmas dala cake!
The pans really are non-stick, I was impressed. I may have to get more bakeware from IKEA in the future. The design I made by cutting a stencil from typing paper based on the allsorts dala horse, putting it right on the cake (not reusable, obviously!) and sprinkling the sugar over it. Emily looooves them, and I think they will be reappearing all this month.
I only wish they had a set of little pans to make lots of individual horses!

a brief fall...

We interrupt this early winter for a brief interlude of actual Fall:



We got a bonus couple days of Fall-like weather this week, so Emily and I rushed out to hit a park for a little bit. She scooted around and we watched the geese practicing their take-off formations. We also got pelted by the squirrels that were infesting this lovely tree:



Acorns ahoy! Hope you're having a lovely fall/winter/whatever you're getting.

Happy Halloween!

This year after much thought, Emily decided to be a witch again this year. But not just any witch, it had to be a witch like the ones in her Johnny Gruelle books. (which are my old ones!) I love these witches too! Here are a few:








The Raggedy Ann witch disguise was the one we were mainly going for. To get the cool border and the Cats On Hat, we went with the previously seen Spoonflower fabric, which was attached to the bottom of the skirt fabric and sewn as part of it. Then I needed to find patterns that would approximate the style of the outfit. I was worried about the lace-up portion of the bodice, but then I realized that a vintage Butterick pattern (8283) I had sitting out was perfect -- it's for a vintage jumper with an inverted box pleat at the center front of the skirt. All I had to do was extend the box pleat into the bodice, then add grommets to the pleat edges and lace it closed. The Spoonflower panel was incorporated into the skirt at the bottom. Ta-da!

The underdress was a pettiblouse made from another vintage pattern (Advance 6936, which I've made the dress from several times). While I wanted the overdress to be close to the original, I didn't want to make an underdress similar to the one in the illustration -- I wanted something less costume-y, since I know from experience that this outfit will be worn regularly for the next year or two. I wanted a much more basic girl's blouse and petticoat look, and the vintage Advance pattern was perfect. I did add some little cat buttons to go with the theme though!

Here's the finished outfit, hanging up:



And finally...the hat. I had hoped to find a hat I could buy and just decorate, but I found nothing I could use. I ended up making the hat myself. It was not fun, but I didn't have much choice. I took poplin, fused a very heavy home deco interacing onto the back, made a cone and a "ring" and sewed them together. Before attaching them, I added a band of orange and fused a row of cats into place with some steam-a-seam. Finally, I added bias tape at the edge and ran a wire pulled out of a cheap ($2) witch hat I bought somewhere. I really didn't think it was going to work, but it came out pretty well!

The final result?

Ready...


Set...


Jump!!


Happy Halloween!!

tomato bread

I had more of the windfall tomatoes than I could use fresh, so I pureed the remainder and made tomato bread!



How pretty is that? All I did was substitute the puree for the water my regular recipe calls for. (I subbed 12 oz of puree for 9 oz of water -- it was a lucky guess!) Emily hated it though...and it wasn't good for morning toast with jam. But it made fantastic sandwiches:



It wasn't quite that bright in person. But it was really good. Definitely something I want to experiment with more, but I might not inflict it on Emily's regular loaf next time!