seasons greetings

and the happiest of holidays to you!
xo 

eastering

 

 

 

 

 

I love holidays.  And as I was thinking of ways to make Harvey's first Easter extra special (because he totally cares, right?!), I thought:  CARROT CAKE!  Can you believe I've never made one before?  I know.  Shame on me.

We spent Saturday celebrating the arrival of spring by hiking with our little moss baby in the moss covered mountains. Sunday was spent eating Easter appropriate food (pasta primavera, carrot cake, and Harvey's easter candy {burp}), a blossom sniffing walk, and an afternoon of church with a super reverent baby (oh thank goodness).

Carrot Cake

from allrecipes.com (with added notes from me)

cake:

4 eggs

1 1/4 c. canola oil

2 c. sugar (I did one cup each of brown and white)

2 t. vanilla (I did 3 t.)

2 c. flour

2 t. baking soda

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

2 t. cinnamon (I did 3 t.)

3 c. grated carrots

pecans (I didn't add any because somebody in our house doesn't appreciate nuts in baked goods)

(I added 1/4 t. nutmeg and a couple of big spoonfuls of crushed pineapple (maybe 8 oz.?)

frosting:
1/2 c. butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
4 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

(I used two 9" round pans and reduced baking time to 35 minutes)

Verdict:  super delicious!  I will definitely be making this cake again next year.

Hope you had a wonderful Easter!
  

merry christmas!

wishing you all things merry and bright!
xoxo

boxwood wreathing

(this is a boxwood wreath)

I am normally not a very patient maker/crafter, but this project forced me to follow steps and really take my time.  I started it a month ago and just finished hanging my last wreath this afternoon!  That kind of patience is really unheard of around here, so I'm thinking it was good practice?  Patience practice?  Sure.

While I was researching for this project, I had a hard time finding a thorough tutorial--most sites just sort of glazed over the steps and made it seem like no big deal.  And I mean, it wasn't a really big deal, but I like to have pictures and clear instructions.  So I made sure to take lots of pictures for you.  You're welcome!

Step one: trim your boxwood bush with your garden shears.  Optional: puppy supervision.

Step two: using a hammer, smash the ends of your branches.  This helps the vegetable glycerin absorb with greater ease.  

Step three: patiently wait while your bottle of vegetable glycerin arrives from amazon and mix up one part glycerin to two parts water in a bucket.

Step four: Add some green food coloring to the glycerin mixture so the leaves will keep their shiny green luster.

Step five:  submerge branches in bucket and wait 2.5 weeks for your branch pieces to soak in the glycerin/color (this step prevents the branches from drying out and turning brown).

 

 Step six:  channel your inner martha stewart and lay pieces of boxwood on your wreath while securing them with floral wire.   I made one large wreath and seven smaller wreaths and my fingers are still kind of mad at me.  But it was worth it!

I hung them in all of our big windows downstairs and I'd like to think they are so festive they make up for our lack of christmas lights (Evan has some unresolved issues with christmas lights....).

I'm not a fan of artificial wreaths and fresh wreaths can be kind of an expensive habit (they need to be replaced every year), so I'm hoping these little wreaths will last for a few years to come (they should?  I'll keep you posted.).

giving thanks

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

My brother Nick and his wife Camilla came up for Thanksgiving this year.  We are still feeling very grateful for such fun visitors and delicious food.  We decided to focus on the Native American side of thanksgiving this year--it just made sense because of the two vegetarian lady chefs who were not about to cook a turkey!  We made Navajo tacos (soo authentic! haha), autumn succotash, pueblo rice, pomegranate walnut salad, and creamy pumpkin pie bars for dessert.  We fit in lots of outside time (I'm actually still tired!), and I even made everyone do a craft project (spaghetti box feathers).

Oh my stars, there is so much to be thankful for this year.
Hope you had a nice thanksgiving!

this is halloween

  

 

Details of note:
:: Gesso is finally mature enough to wear his top hat
::  I'm dressed up as a pregnant lady
::  This is Evan's tough-guy face (also his bunny face? also, I made him shave his bushy mustache last night--he looked like a pervert.)
::  It's been so foggy outside today I feel like I'm living in a cloud

 I just came back from the store because I had to emergency buy some more candy (somebody ate too many pieces.....burp).

Happy Halloween!

birthday bunting

It's no secret that I love bunting/banners/garlands.  I think they are so happy and fun.  

Making some bunting to amp up our birthday festivities was long overdue.

This project was nice and simple.  I started by cutting 28 triangles out of some gender-neutral fabric.

I used a freezer paper stencil to get the lettering just right, and used squeezable silk screen paint to fill in the stencil. 

After sewing the triangles together, I connected them with some bias tape.  I just stuck the pieces inside the fold and zig-zag-stitched the whole thing together.

We just passed Evan's big day, and my Birthday isn't until the end of summer (and I'm pretty sure I'll have to remind Evan to hang it up for me), but I'm glad I finally got it done (I've only had the supplies to make it for a year...), and love how it turned out!
Happy Birthday indeed!

cookie love

I waited as long as I could to make these cookies again.  They are so soft and good!

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies     

from deliacreates


1 c. shortening {you can use butter, but shortening produces a softer, chewier cookie}
2 c. granulated sugar
1 c. sour cream
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

5 c. all purpose flour, plus 1-2 c. more for rolling cookies out
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat your oven to 375 and prepare your cookie sheets with a light mist of spray oil.  Beat your wet ingredients together.  Stir or whisk your dry ingredients together.

Mix your dry and wet mixes together to get a nice thick dough

Flour your counter and rolling pin.  Don't be shy with the flour.  This dough is quite sticky.  But also be careful not to add too much flour or the cookies will taste floury and they will crack easily.

Take a big chunk of dough and roll it out to about 1/4 of an inch thick.

Cut and place on the baking sheets.
Bake for 10-15 minutes...until the top starts to look baked and oh so slightly browned.

Then let the frosting begin!
This cookie frosting/glaze is from the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook:

3 TBSP. whole milk {I used half and half}

1 TBSP. softened cream cheese

1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

Mix 2 TBSP. milk and cream cheese together until smooth. Add sugar. Add remaining milk as needed.

Wishing you a lovely Valentine's day!!

birthday wishes

Evan had a Birthday this weekend.  We celebrated by hiking to the top of a frigid mountain (I'm sorry if the picture makes you feel cold!), and then the next day we ate a small mountain of cake (don't worry, we had help).  I meant to take a picture of it before we dug in, but ya know.  Whatev.  The filling was cookies and cream, and if I do say so, was fantastic.

winter wonderland

 

I feel bad for January.  Christmas has come and gone.  February means Valentines candy and hearts.  And January means...new year?  Cold outside?  Gloomy?  Diet?  This year I decided that I would celebrate January.  Because if you have the right attitude, January can be quite the winter wonderland!  So I hung some bedazzled snowflakes in front of the windows.   And then I whipped up a simple garland that reminds me of snow.

I found the sparkly snowflakes at an after Christmas sale (they are actually ornaments) and for the garland I cut up bits of natural quilt batting and fed them into the sewing machine (watch your fingers!).  Evan thinks it looks like a potato chip garland (men!).

Happy January to you! :)

postcards from christmas

We stayed home for Christmas this year, and to keep all things merry and bright (and not so lonely), we were sure to fill the break with lots of our favorite things--good food and pretty scenery :)