December 25, 2015 · 6:16 pm
Cookies for Santa and raw veggies for the reindeer.
There comes a time for a lot people when they decide to stay put for the holidays instead of heading to see their families or traveling to familiar places, whether it’s because of money, work or having kids of their own. For all three of those reasons, this was our first year spending the holidays in Los Angeles instead of North Carolina with our families, so holding onto the traditions that I love so much was even more important to me. Continue reading →
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December 23, 2015 · 12:42 pm
I can’t count how many times someone asked me where they can find a good ugly Christmas sweater this year. Um… Hello?! Get a hot glue gun and make one or better yet, make something just as tacky that’s actually original! Take for instance this crown I made for my Christmas party…equal parts delightful and hideous. I cut antler shapes out of heavy chipboard and coated them liberally in 24k gold glass glitter (and then prayed it didn’t blind me half way through the party). I hot glued them with some jingle bells, shiny balls, and plastic glitter pine needles (all from Michael’s) to sparkly gold elastic. When I put it on the first the time, there were gaps between the stuff where the elastic stretched…so I just hot glued more stuff to the other stuff to fill it in! Boom. Done. But for Pete’s sake, if you do go with a store-bought ugly sweater, don’t buy the sexy fitted one…it really defeats the point and kills the whole funny thing.
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Tagged as antlers, bells, Christmas, craft, crown, DIY, easy, funny, glitter, gold, handmade, headband, hot glue, party, pastel, reindeer, silver, simple, tacky
December 21, 2015 · 12:30 pm
It’s pretty rare that I get to bake elaborate and ridiculously fun things in the kitchen, so when Christmas comes, I like to go big…really big. I had some leftover trees and a skiing Santa from the year’s snow-globe wreaths, so for our annual Christmas party, I made a ginormous ski slope cake bordered with a gingerbread cityscape and little candy house cupcakes! I spread the baking out over a week to make it less stressful and it came out just how I had envisioned it…equal parts kitschy, homey and magical. Continue reading →
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Tagged as baking, cake, candy, chocolate, chocolate buttercream, Christmas, city, cupcakes, food, gingerbread, houses, party, recipe, salted caramel buttercream, Santa, skiing, vanilla buttercream, whimsical
December 19, 2015 · 12:30 pm
I love beautifully wrapped gifts…so much so that my family brings their gifts over to me to wrap for them! I’m not a traditionalist at all when it comes to wrapping and I definitely don’t think that every piece of clothing needs a box, but I do love adding a little flair to each one. This year, since my son learned his letters, I thought labeling each gift and the stockings with a monogrammed letter would be a great learning experience as well. That way he can find a “G” on all his gifts and hand out everyone else’s gifts. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Christmas, DIY, gifts, ideas, letter tags, paper, photos, pipe cleaners, Santa, stockings, toppers, wrapping
December 15, 2015 · 12:02 pm
Okay, I’m not gonna lie. Speculaas cookies are a total b#*@h to make…but you can’t deny it, they are so lovely. I tend to shy away from things that take a lot of time, but I’ve had my speculaas molds for about 6 years and they were still brand new. Not anymore! I did it. I spent 12 hours pressing, cutting and baking these puppies to ship out to friends. Now my molds can go back into the cookie cutter drawer for another 6 years until I conveniently forget how tedious they were to make and then I’ll try again! I know I’m not really selling this to you as a cookie recipe, but what good is winter if not to zen out a whole day and make something completely beautiful in the kitchen? Continue reading →
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Tagged as Christmas, cookies, food, homemade, molds, photography, photos, pressed, recipe, speculaas, spice, winter
December 13, 2015 · 10:56 pm
I ordered cube molds and bamboo spoons on Amazon for a few bucks to make them a consistent size.
I’ve been trolling the hot cocoa sticks recipe on Pinterest for years now, so I figured it was finally time to try her out. I used the King Arthur recipe but altered it a bit to make a fragrant and slightly spicy Mexican hot chocolate and I made a bunch to ship out to our friends and family on the east coast. It was a teeny tiny bit tedious the way I did it, but I have to say…it’s makes pretty freaking delicious hot cocoa! Continue reading →
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Tagged as bamboo spoons, bulk, Christmas, favors, food, gifts, homemade, hot chocolate sticks, hot cocoa, mexican hot chocolate, recipe, winter
December 11, 2015 · 12:30 pm
Our gorgeous tree!
I love weird, quirky and vintage holiday decorations the best, but honestly, I can get behind pretty much anything Christmas-y. The first thing most people notice about my tree is how many ornaments are on it…as if they expected me to be tastefully spare! HA! While all of mine have a lot of meaning and sentimental value, I also believe there can never be “too many ornaments”. It’s Christmas! It’s supposed to be just a little tacky in my humble opinion. After the jump, see how my friend made a gorgeous wreath out of paper around their apartment and check out the ornaments I made for my store this year! Continue reading →
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Tagged as chalkboard wall, Christmas, decorations, design, DIY, handmade, home, ideas, interior, modern, ornaments, paper wreath, photos, Santa, stockings, tree, vintage
December 9, 2015 · 12:00 pm
I’ve never used my mom’s ceramic cookie stamps and I’ve been dying to for years. I decided to make sugar cookies for my son’s therapy school teachers and thought the stamps would be perfect for banging out a large quantity of simple but gorgeous cookies. At the last second, I thought it might be pretty to dry brush some gel food coloring over the larger designs and they turned out great! These only took about 2 hours total to make, so they are perfect for a last-minute gift or for making in large quantities. Continue reading →
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Tagged as cheap, Christmas, cookies, easy, food, gel food color, gift, large batch, painted cookies, photography, recipe, simple, stamps, sugar cookies
December 7, 2015 · 5:49 pm
Is there anything more wonderful than bread smeared with butter straight out of the oven? No. Not really. This nutty and fruity cinnamon swirl bread is my favorite bread to make around the holidays. It combines everything delicious into one loaf; cinnamon, sugar, nuts and dried berries swirled into a soft, squishy and ever so slightly chewy white bread. Don’t be scared of baking bread! I know it can be daunting, so I’ve broken it down with photos to help make it fool-proof. Continue reading →
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Tagged as baking, bread, breakfast, Christmas, cinnamon swirl, dried fruit, food, Holidays, nuts, photography, recipe, winter
December 5, 2015 · 12:00 pm
Don’t you just love getting holiday cards in the mail? I know people are always scrambling to get them out every year, but they are much appreciated…so keep it up or start a new tradition! Tiny Prints has gorgeous designs that are super easy to use online, so there’s no excuse, really. Every year, Jeff and I come up with a fake Christmas album as our holiday card and while I think some of our family members might be a little confused by them, we know how much they all look forward to seeing what we come up each year. If I leave nothing else behind in this world, I love thinking that these weird cards could be floating around out there for many years to come! Continue reading →
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