ARCHIVES: JANUARY 2009
Wednesday January 21
You may not know that January is the best time of year to work on Christmas ornaments. Think about it ---- 1.) Your head is swimming with images and inspirations of the season. 2.) You are filled with all of the regrets of the holiday that just flew by you. 3.) You have time - no Christmas gatherings or shopping to do.
The tiny ornaments I am working on will be for gifts but also, some will be for my little 1 foot tree (pictured below) - my ultimate goal is to fill my tree with all handmade ornaments! My stepmother gave me this tree about 14 years ago and it was my first tree as an adult. I already have a few handmade items on there - the candy canes are twisted pipe cleaner and I tied the little white bows. The red jewelish balls are actually beads (those may or may not count as handmade.) Since the tree is small and I like to make tiny things, I think it's all going to work out.
[ if you're drooling over the 24 piece Martha Stewart glitter set then I will tell you that I bought it at Michael's but I first saw it at Wal-Mart. I couldn't resist it! It's a little ridiculous. Why did I buy it? Well, I can tell you that I used one of those 40% off coupons for Michael's otherwise I could have never justified buying it ]
Monday January 19
Two years ago, Adam and I were bewitched by this dish (above) in San Diego. The name of the item was vague and we asked the waitress to tell us more about it and she described it as, "some spices and some cheese."
Ever since that day, we have revisited this dish in our dreams, wondering if the mystery would ever be solved.....
About 2 weeks ago, we were at our favorite middle eastern grocery store and saw some heavily spiced pitas by the register and there it was! Those were the spices on the pita!!! Luckily for you, I will tell you that it is called za'atar.
We recreated the materpeice for ourselves using greek yogurt. (pictured below) It was every bit as delicious as we remembered.
Saturday January 17
My stepmother gave me a potholder kit for christmas, which I had requested after hearing my 7-year old neice was getting one. I couldn't have been more thrilled to get it and the next 48-hours brought hours of looming only to be halted by an eventual lack of loops. The 2 on the right are from this first batch.
I tried to use that bright blue one to remove a rack from a hot oven and it melted blue paint onto the rack. I guess.... I guess I wasn't expecting that. Which means that my plan to give some away is diminished by having to add to tags to them that says ("Don't let this potholder touch anything too hot.").
The refill pack of loops that I bought looked like strips of dirty sweatpants and 95% of them were TOO SMALL for my loom. I managed to find enough to make this homely-shabby-Anthropologie-looking potholder. (pictured front)
I'm not sure what my next move is. Try to find more bright ones that melt? Find more sweatshirt ones that will fit my loom? Walk away and be happy with a few mismatched potholders?
I don't know yet. That's where this story ends.
Tuesday January 13
We are kicking off the new year with Project Waterfall Storage. The idea with PWS is simple to understand and only slightly less easy to implement. Simplify your life in just a few easy steps by consolidating and condensing!
First, identify the room in your house that is the most ideal to store the most items. Maximize the space! Install shelves in that room. Then put items on shelves and move items from OTHER rooms onto those shelves.
Seeeeeeeeeeeee????????
I can see that you get it. It's all about shelves and rooms. Once you put enough shelves in enough rooms, you will end up with less clutter in some of your most favorite rooms!
Thursday January 8
Christmas Day, Lamy NM, walking back up to the house
(i feel like i should have some introspective thoughts to share with this picture, but, er, I don't.)
Watched THEM! the other night - giant mutant ants! Not a bad film, I think. They don't skimp on the ant shots. Worth watching. Great title screen. I need to watch more mutant animal films in 2009.
On the ant topic, Adam shared this clip with me where scientists poured concrete into an ant farm and then excavated it to reveal its impressive structure.
Link (It's 6 minutes - the ultra exciting part happens at minute 4)(try not to think about the dead ants)
Monday January 5
Yes! We're back from Christmas in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I have updated the image I posted at the end of December, indicating true and false and adding in a couple of items that were not to be missed.
A few thoughts:
1. Less cactus that I thought
2. Great mexican food everywhere - heaven. Heaven. It's either green or red chiles and I am green. Did you know that green chile and red come from the same amazing plant?
3. Had a margarita on christmas eve.
4. There was about a foot of snow on the ground when we got there! and we had to return our rental car because we could NOT drive up to the house we rented otherwise. Had to get a ride from the owner and then drive back to Albuquerque the next day and managed to score a Hummer (though we had nothing to do with that.) Santa?
5. DID see some horses in the snow.
6. Fireplaces.
7. I have never seen so many galleries in such a small area.
It was lovely being snowed in at home with a cracking fire on Christmas day. I probably would have been about as happy if we had never left the hoouse for any sightseeing and at that, we spent little time in downtown Santa Fe. The house was just outside of town, on 5 acres and the views were memorable.
Pictures to come.
Saturday January 3
Happy New Year!
Before I dive into the results of our Christmas trip, I want to backtrack on a few things.
I baked up some cookies to give out to a few neighbors and came up with a quick bag idea to deliver them in. I put the bags in some clear treat bags and then a few of those went into each lunch bag.
As I was contemplating the label, Adam insisted we could run the bags right through our printer and I told him that would never work and then he printed out all of the bags. For such a fast and small project, I love how they turned out.
Go forth and print on bags!
Secondly, my friend Robin knitted these for me for Christmas and I think they are right about the most perfect gift. Ever!
I love the practical color that will go with anything and I love that I can have warm gloves on and still.... type on the computer at the cold office, pick my nose, file my nails, eat french fries, put lip gloss on and all of the things I am busy with when I am living my life. Thank you Robin - I will cherish these forever.
December - the last month of 2008 - I remember it well.
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