finally finished!

No thanks to Christmas, but I finally finished the kimono sweater, started in Alaska last September when I visited my newborn nephew. At long last, the sweater is complete.


torso close up

and the back...

Princess Tea Party

What do you take to a Princess Tea Party? Gluten-free cupcakes decorated with pink and purple (the princesses' signature colors) frosting (using the decorating tips I got from the in-laws in my cupcake extravaganza birthday present).

Were they a hit with the princesses? Yes...though mostly they licked off the frosting and put the dark hunks of cake onto a designated plate, much like the bowl the waiter brings out when you order steamers...to put the cast-off shells. I guess you've already figured out, even at the innocent age of three, that cupcakes are merely just a vehicle for transporting frosting to your tongue.

Christmas presents...part one

card stock printed with our logo...hanging to dry

So the big secret goes like this...joe and I are now screen printers! We set up a glorious DIY shop (complete with guest bathroom cum dark room) and six Homer's buckets (that would be the huge orange buckets available for sale at Home Depot--thus the color and name) for a dyeing station.

We dyed and dyed and printed and printed and EVERYONE got handmade Christmas presents. It sure felt good to not have to go to the mall and brave the crowds and chaos. It also felt good to have a hands-on, down and dirty, collaborative project with the husband.

completed hand dyed, hand printed, hand wrapped napkin and placemat sets.

first printing of the men's t-shirts

final display of women's t-shirts

...more later

brontosaurus pies

You know what's great?

When the freezers break at the PCC and your neighbor happens to be there for the mass dispersal of all tubs of ice cream and bags of frozen fruit. When that happens, your neighbor invites you over for ice cream (cuz he has 5 containers full of it), and you end up leaving his house full of creamy goodness AND with two enormous bags in hand--one filled with raspberries and one filled with sliced peaches. You promise to use the frozen fruit for good (not evil) and make pies for the neighborhood. (Okay, one pie for the neighbors and one for you.)
Then you do. And because the pie crust recipe is for a 10 inch pie plate and you make two double crust recipes, you have LOTS of all butter dough left and you can cut out as many brontosaurus shapes as you want and put them on top of the pies and make bronto-cookies too. The all-butter pie crust dough puffs up and gets flaky just like a real biscuit and it all tastes so good.