The weekend, briefly

The freakishly nice weather continues on here. 70 and sunny all weekend, so I threw the windows and doors open and enjoyed it.

A few different sewing projects. One for the home ...

{pinned}

And some for other people ...

{ruffle piles}

A trip to the fabric store yielded some fun silk twill. I don't know what I'll do with it yet, but it was on an amazing sale ($5 a yard instead of $20!) and it drapes like you wouldn't believe.

{new fabrics}

I spent some time admiring my favorite tea cups.

{tea cups, stacked}

And eagerly tracked the progress of my little mandarin-quat tree. I can hardly wait for them to ripen.

{mandarin-quat}

Style resolutions, updated

Curious to see how well I did with my style resolutions from last year? Hop over to Tea for Joy to find out.

Friday flowers

My flowers from New Year's Eve are still hanging on, barely. I don't have any new pictures of them, sorry. People frequently ask how I make the flowers last and I don't have any genius tips. I do try to remember to dump out the old water and add new every other day. Keeps them from getting gross.

{another angle}

I'm all awhirl because we're considering a big change - upgrading to a two bedroom apartment!

We had initially thought this might be the year that we purchased a small home, but it definitely isn't. I didn't even post about the house hunt because it was generally depressing (we looked at one place that had safety posts in the front yard because it was so close to a freeway offramp that there was a serious risk of drivers crashing right through the living room - and it was still slightly out of our price range).

I love our little one bedroom apartment, and I love the concept of small space living, but with both of us doing quite a bit of work from home (and work that involves piles of drawings and stacks of sewing) it has become very difficult to keep the crazy out. I think if we have just one extra room that will function as an office/guest room we'll be good to go for many more years.

The price is good - we got into our apartment during a rental boom and right now we're in a rental recession, so upgrading won't be a huge difference financially. It's the moving that scares me. My heart starts to thump (in a not good way) just thinking about it. My mind starts spinning thinking of the time it will take, the boxes I will need, the weeks of re-organization and re-painting. I think Dustin would move every year without any qualms. I, on the other hand, would like to stay in one place for the next couple decades, just to minimize the hassle.

There will be quite a bit of discussion this weekend. Stay tuned.

Almond crescents

I didn't get around to doing much baking this year. At 2 pm the day before Christmas Eve I had a brief panic when I realized I hadn't started and I needed supplies. I took a deep breath, went to Trader Joe's and bought several boxes of cookies and then came home a took a long nap. It wasn't the same as homemade, but I enjoyed the feeling of being fully rested and sane.

{almond crescents}

But I couldn't let the season slip by without any kitchen time, so I made D's favorite Christmas cookies for New Year's Eve. This is a family recipe and we call them almond crescents but they are very similar to Mexican wedding cookies. They are not terribly sweet and they have a wonderful, crumbly texture. I think you are supposed to add almond extract, but I have a violent opposition to it and I don't see why it's necessary when the dough is largely composed of actual almonds.

The dough is a cinch, but shaping the crescents is a bit time consuming, so make sure you have some music on before you start working. These also freeze beautifully (after being baked), so you can make them ahead of time and then just let them defrost when you want them.

{almond crescents}

Almond Crescents

Beat until soft:
1 cup unsalted butter

Add gradually until light and fluffy:
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Beat in:
2 egg yolks

Add:
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 - 1/2 lb ground almonds (I buy the almond meal from TJs to save time)

Roll into crescents by hand and place on greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 until the bottoms are just golden brown.

Cool slightly, then roll in powdered sugar (per the original recipe) or superfine bakers sugar (our modern preference).

To freeze, let them cool completely and then seal tightly in freezer bags, pressing out as much excess air as possible. Remove cookies from the bag and place them on a plate to defrost before serving.

{almond crescents}

Ribbon, organized

I always get the itch to clean out and organize right before the new year. An ill timed episode of Hoarders* shifted me into high gear last Monday. I tore everything out of our storage spaces around the apartment and dumped it on the floor. Then I sat in the middle of the mess and started sorting and boxing. Several large mugs of tea and a couple of TV breaks later, we were in much better shape. I only cried once.

And I thought of a new way to store my burgeoning ribbon supply! Which involved a trip to Ikea that was less than pleasant because apparently everyone else was on the hunt for organizational supplies as well. But we survived. We did not break up and we are still speaking to each other and we managed to only buy the items on our list and we got 50 cent hot dogs for lunch to celebrate. That's basically the definition of Ikea success.

{ribbons, organized}

I purchased one curtain rod set ($6.99) plus one extra set of hardware for double curtains ($3). D cut the metal curtain rod into two pieces with his Dremel. The regular curtain rod hardware is perfect for my wide but squat spools, while the one designed for double curtains gives me just enough extra space for my larger spools of skinny ribbon.

{ribbons, organized}

I order my ribbon from the manufacturer in bulk, so the spools are enormous and a bit difficult to accommodate. If you just have normal size spools, you could use a paper towel rod rather than a curtain rod, which should eliminate the need to use the Dremel.

*I have now officially been banned from watching Hoarders, ever again. I think I'm equal parts sad and relieved.

Extra holiday bits

We started our family Christmas with a toast in our antique sherry glasses that belonged to my step-grandmother. We had sparkling cider for those who don't drink and champagne cocktails for those who do.

{christmas toast}

Normally I would just dish out champagne plain, but it turns out when you make orangettes you are left with the most fabulous orange flavored simple syrup. Throwing it out would be a sin. So we poured it in a jar and kept it in the fridge and stirred a spoonful into our champagne. Heavenly. I tried to get fancy and decorate the rims of the glasses with orange peel, but I gave up and just chucked it in the bottom of the glass, along with a couple cranberries. Works for me.

The night before New Year's Eve we decided to host at our apartment. It was a completely non-fancy dinner, but I couldn't resist dressing up the table.

{new year's eve table}

After I dug up all three of the candle holders we own I realized that they weren't going to cut it. So I dug around a bit more and pulled out some of the glass jars that have been taking up space in our cupboard because we have a hard time just throwing them out.

{new year's eve table}

I picked out a variety of sizes (which turned out to be easy - I didn't realize how out of control our jar collection has gotten) and popped a votive in each one. We also gave everyone a champagne glass, a squat wine glass and a tall water glass, to add to the overabundance of glassware.

{new year's eve table}

We missed the New Year by one minute (distracted) but we toasted anyways.

The holidays, briefly

So ... "sporadic posting" became a complete blog fast and as much as I missed everyone, it was a nice little break.

And it was so incredibly busy.

There was Christmas...

{reindeer candelabra}


{orange, silver}


{holiday bounty}

Followed by a week of relaxation and recuperation (and quite a bit of obsessive organization) ...

{the day after}


{paper punch, tags}


{organizing}

A festive New Year's Eve at home ...

{New Year's Eve table}

And a lovely lie in, followed by a late breakfast, the next day.

{New Year's breakfast}

It's back to work and back to normal for us. D and I had a (scheduled) strategy session yesterday afternoon, to revise the budget and think about goals for the upcoming year. Yep, we're dorky.