Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Cats

After being home for an early Christmas last week, we got really used to having the cats around. When I was growing up, we always had a cat (or two) and I spent so much time sketching them and watching them take naps. My parent's cats have such hilarious personalities. This is Kelly. I love how she is stoically posing on the steps.

More Gifts

It was fun to whip this little stitchery from Sarah Jane up for Alyssa's third birthday. I changed the colors to reflect Alyssa (blonde hair, etc.)...it is really a darling idea. I've been inspired to remember to keep my eyes open for other patterns in books, my own sketchbooks, wherever, to make into embroideries. (these are for individual gifts and not for resale, so no worries about copyrights and such.)

Gifts for the Kids - Aprons

the kids in our family love to help out with cooking so i made alyssa and alex their very own aprons for christmas this year. :)

101 Cookbooks

I've had 101 Cookbooks bookmarked for quite a while now and am amazed over and over again at the variety of recipes Julie Hanson provides. I discovered her when I was on a quest to learn how to make homemade yogurt. Her guide, along with numerous posts from her readers helped me greatly in making my own delicious plain yogurt.

She prepares such interesting recipes (Green Olive Gnocci? Brown Butter Tortelli? Ahh!) while providing an appetizing natural ingredients alternative to white flour and sugars. I'm a fan of her baked goods recipes, but as I'm writing this, I'm thinking of her Golden Tomato Sauce and Homemade Bouillon and want to try those too. Her Cherry Tomato Couscous has been on rotation in our household since last summer—truly, how can you go wrong with ripe cherry tomatoes, cucumber, chickpeas and couscous tossed with olive oil, lemon and lime juice? These are the times I particularly miss my lemon tree. Oh, those lemons were delicious!

Her blog is a treasure trove but I'm especially hoping I'll find one or two of her cookbooks under the Christmas tree this here. Yum.

Pinhole Press

There are many, many photo sites which print photo cards and calendars and books and such. But this one is especially pretty.

Create with the World

Here's an opportunity to be creative with the rest of the world. The Million Little Photographs website describes it as such:

A million photographs. One cross-country exhibition. A Million Little Pictures presents Photomobile. Sign up to receive a disposable camera from Art House, choose a theme that inspires you, and share your interpretation with the world.

I think YOU should sign up.

I was hoping to be part of the Sketchbook Project: 2011 but found out about it too late. This seems like a nice alternative, though. :)

Shared Secret

Keri Smith shares some of her secrets to being self employed here. Very good insight (and reminders.)

Tactile Wallpaper

three dimensional wallpaper made of silk and plastic flowers.

lovely.

Happy Birthday to My Love

This was our lunch one day on the honeymoon. We decided to eat a big dinner and make our lunch an Italian bakery + coffee one. (By the way, this is one of the many ways I know I married the right guy--he was completely for this nonsense.) So we ate and mmmed and awwwed our way through nutella heaven. It was quite nice, actually.

My aunt used to call these Templeton holidays in honor of the rat in Charlotte's Web. On these particular days, we could eat ice cream for breakfast and cookies for lunch. I wish that was a lifestyle one could subsist on, but alas.

Tonight I'm waiting on a chicken pot pie in the oven; my very first, actually. I'm so jaded and biased towards my mom's heavenly pot pie, I've never attempted to make my own. I mean, why try if you've already had the best? But I decided T's birthday was worth pulling out Jamie's Dinners and giving it a go. I took out bits here and added bits there and think it will turn out quite nicely. The smell in our house right now is pure heaven.

Well, he'll be home in a minute so I'll sign off for now.

Silk Sunsets

If you've read my blog for any amount of time, you've probably noticed an inordinate amount of sky and cloud pictures. I've been taking them since I was a little girl and can't seem to stop. I just love the glory of the sky. Today I came across a woman who has captured her photographs of the sky onto silk and made them into scarves. They are beyond lovely. Scrumptious and amazing all rolled up into one.

Go visit her over here.

Peace

This was a view outside of the inn where we stayed for our honeymoon. I like how the grey heron sat on the boat waiting for fish. Smart bird. The sand in the background is the sand spit that protects Morro Bay and makes it calm as a lake. It reaches the entire length of the bay and stops literally feet away from Morro Rock itself. On one side is sand dunes, on the other a beach with crashing waves and (for us) freezing wind.

It's been fun making little gifts here and there for the kids this year for Christmas. I'll start taking pictures and posting them soon enough. Promise.

Ah, The Honeymoon

We went to Morro Bay on the 'moon and oh, it was beautiful. Cold and windy and some days rainy but we still managed to get our fill of biking, running, hiking, shopping, and enjoying the beauty. One day we went over to Montana de Oro state park (about 20 minutes from where we stayed) and were awed as we drove into the park by the eucylyptus groves--amazing! The sand dunes and the hiking trails all had these incredible views of the cobalt blue ocean. It was so breathtaking. On our last day there, we went back at dusk and there were so many bunnies out nibbling on plants. Very sweet. And so perfect.

We're already scheming on when to go back.