gift guide: BFF edition

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I love shopping for my BFF! Well, really I love shopping for all of my friends. They're easy because they don't ask for anything and there's nothing they really need, so I can just get them fun stuff I know they'll love. The key to shopping for your BFF is to give her something that makes her feel special, but that she probably wouldn't buy for herself. Like these luxurious Hanky Panky boyshorts (the best boyshorts in the history of boyshorts)... they're awesome, but I have a hard time spending $30 a pop on underwear. Or the Capri Blue candle from Anthro... the best candle in the history of candles (noticing a theme here?) but again, I have a hard time spending $30 on a candle. Okay, maybe I'm just cheap. All I know is that any of these would make a great gift for the gal who knows all your dirty secrets and loves you anyway.

Stay tuned for the final gift guide next week... gifts for (almost) anyone!

gift guide 2012: husband edition

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I don't know about you, but the man in my life is rather hard to shop for. He buys classic things that last and don't need replacing very often, which over time means that the list of things he "needs" gets pretty slim. And what's worse, he already has most of the things on this list (1-3) so my own gift guide doesn't help me much, but hopefully it will help you!

I can't recommend the Red Wing boots enough… they're classic, and of impeccable quality. And the lip balm is one of the few products I can get Jared to use on a regular basis. Now let's chat about #5, since I know this one is probably a little controversial… but there isn't a man alive that wouldn't want photos like this of his wife! The trick is to find a really high quality photographer who specializes in this type of photography. I haven't done a boudoir shoot, but I think I would someday… I think it would be fun to get my hair and makeup all done up and pretend I'm a Victorias Secret model for an afternoon. You know, a VS model who has barely worked out since she had a baby and shows only the teensiest bit of skin. Hot! But seriously, you should go for it. I've heard from several women who said it was a huge ego boost. And I'm guessing it would be your husband's favorite gift ever. :)

Stay tuned for next week's gift guide for your BFF!

Emma's Christmas Dress

I decided not long after Emma was born that if I get no other sewing done this year, I have to at least make her a Christmas dress. My mom made Christmas dresses for me and my sister when we were little and I was determined to carry on the tradition. And with a week or so to spare, I actually managed to get it done.

I used the Oliver + S Bubble Dress pattern, and added a layer of sheer white fabric to the skirt, and a fabric flower to the bodice (using this tutorial).

The absolute best thing about baby clothes (aside from how stinking cute they are) is that they're usually very easy and quick to make. This was my first experience with an Oliver + S pattern and I found it super easy to follow. Emma's 6 months, almost 18 lbs, and very tall for her age, and the 6-12 month size fit her great, with room to grow.

 My mother in law was sweet enough to get me Little Things to Sew for Christmas, so I'm hoping to get a few more kiddo projects done this year. (Okay, I'm really hoping to get one done, plus this year's Christmas dress. I figure if I set my expectations low enough I won't end up disappointing myself. Right? Right!)

link love - 12.02.11

Holy moly, it's December! December is without a doubt one of my favorite months of the year... chock full of good food, family, and traditions. What's not to love? Well, unfortunately, things like the Black Friday insanity I read about in the news last week. What the heck is wrong with people?? I understand wanting to save a little money, especially in these rough economic times, but come on. There's no need to get all violent on your fellow shoppers when you could be saving tons of money by sitting in the comfort of your own home, DIYing up some lovely handmade gifts. It's time to put down the pepper spray and pick up the Mod Podge! Here are a few easy projects to inspire you...

• Limoncello on Restored Style - I first had limoncello when I went to Italy in high school (not a lot, mom... just a taste. When in Rome! Or Sorrento, in my case) and it is so delicious. So I was delighted when fellow Portland blogger Kristen posted a fantastic little tutorial for making homemade limoncello, complete with these fantastic free downloadable gift tags.

• Salted Caramels on Barefoot Contessa - There are few things in life better than salted caramels. It's one of the world's most perfect flavor combinations. I've never tried to make them myself, but I fully intend to this month, and give the 75% I don't shovel into my mouth away as Christmas gifts, wrapped up in cute little tins.

• Tile Coasters on The Cottage Home - I love this idea! I have more than enough scrap fabric to make tile coasters for everyone in Portland, but considering we've been rocking the same ugly Ikea coasters for the past 6 years, I think the person who needs these most is me. :-)

Not the DIY type? There are tons of amazing handmade presents for everyone on your list over at Etsy. Happy making and/or shopping!

{Christmas 2010} food

Christmas food for us is all about tradition.  Well, sort of.  For the past few years we always had our fancy Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve.  It started out that way because we had to travel the day after Christmas and didn't want to deal with dishes and leftovers.  But since we weren't traveling this year, we decided to switch things up a bit.  Our fancy dinner (white bean tuscan soup followed by beef wellington) got moved to Christmas day, making room for a new tradition on Christmas Eve: Santa-boli!

Santa-boli is our usual stromboli with a couple dough cut-outs in holiday shapes.  (We discovered that cookie cutters are an excellent way to make a favorite meal into a holiday meal.)

For dessert, we had Christmas cookies:

Corn Flake Holly "Wreaths" (These will be getting a post all their own tomorrow)

Roll-out cookies with piped royal icing

I tried something a bit ambitious for the roll-out cookies this year... piping and flooding with royal icing.  They turned out great, but I don't know if I'd do it again next year because, holy moly, was it a pain in the rear.  I started with homemade white royal icing, then colored it in batches of green, red, and blue.  I thought I'd save myself a lot of hassle rinsing out the piping bag by using little squeeze bottles, but actually getting the icing into the bottles took forever.  There was also a lot of planning involved because I had to do all the piping first, then dilute the icing with a tiny bit of water to do the flooding.  If I wanted to pipe on top of flooding I had to make sure I hadn't already diluted that color.  Despite all this, I was still pretty excited about how each one looked as it was finished.  Very fancy and professional.  Not to mention delicious.  But I'm guessing next year with a 6 month old baby I'll be lucky to slap on some buttercream and sprinkles. :)

{Christmas 2010} decor

It's hard to believe that Christmas is already over!  So sad.  Overall, it was the best Christmas yet... the first in our new house, and the last we'd spend just the two of us.  (Well, the two of us and one very excited dog.)  Here's a recap of how we decorated this year:

The first step was to decorate the outside of the house.  We might have been a little excited.  We might have been thinking about how we'd decorate for the past year.  We might have driven through our neighborhood last year before we moved in to check out the competition.  Shhhhh.

The next step was to decorate the inside of the house.  This year, my approach was to try to make things look really festive, but to not spend a lot of money doing it.  So I loaded up on ornaments and ribbon and went room to room adding little touches of red, green, silver, and white...

After putting up the tree (we're traditionalists and go real every year, and probably always will) the last step was to find a nice way to display the many wonderful Christmas cards sent to us from family and friends.  After outgrowing a couple different locations, we finally settled on displaying them on the buffet in our dining room.

Up next... the food!

ho-ho-homemade buttercream frosting!

Oh cupcakes... is there anything better? No, especially if we're talking holiday cupcakes. Earlier today I decided to whip up some cupcakes for a holiday party we were going to this afternoon and after a quick Flickr search, decided to put my own spin on these.   I used Betty Crocker Devil's Food cake mix, and instead of store frosting I experimented with making my own buttercream frosting.  The first recipe I used was too sweet and almost glaze-like (which the reviews would have told me had I bothered to read them), so Jared and I hustled to the co-op down the street to get more butter and I tried for round 2, this time using a slightly different, much more positively reviewed recipe.  It tasted SO good, and with a bit of green food coloring the frosting was done.  (By the way, I had never previously looked into what was involved in making your own frosting, but it's surprisingly super easy.  If you can make cupcakes from a mix, you can definitely make your own frosting.)

Instead of using my standard knife to cupcake approach, I loaded the frosting into a Ziploc bag, snipped off a small corner, and tried my hand at piping the frosting onto the cupcakes.  It probably would have been easier to use a pastry bag and piping tip, but in a pinch I think the Ziploc baggy worked pretty well.  To finish off the cupcakes I sprinkled them with crushed candy canes and stuck each one with a mini candy cane.