Christmas 2009

Just a few pictures to share...

George's beautiful prime rib roast.

With wild snapper

My favorite new baby.

Guinness for the chef!

Our little band of misfits.

Hoot! Hoot!

I saw a tutorial on felt owls and was inspired to make one for myself, which I promptly gifted to my friend at a White Elephant exchange. The hooter was a hit! I rarely ever use patterns to make anything, I just guess-timate and whatever happens happens. For this one, I used a combination of felt, a knit sweater scrap, thread and buttons and I even embroidered a little message on the back. More birdies to come, I have the rest of the week off from work!

My New Calendar

Our fabulous friend and neighbor Katrin gifted us this lovely Hammerpress calendar for Xmas! I've been admiring their calendars for some time now. How did you know, Kat???

Holiday Card

A fun fantasy-reality mash up from Our Labor of Love. Click on image for a closer view.

Winter Scene

Merry Christmas everyone! I've been terrible about posting lately, but you know how life gets away from you! Pictures from Christmas morning. Enjoy!

Car Crash in Donegal

Our last trip to Ireland included this gem of a day. Look how close we came when we slid by the other car.

Vintage Cocktails

We spotted this  book at Anthropologie the other day. The typography is gorgeous and the photos make me drool. Picking it up today for a special friend who loves the craft of the cocktail.

Recipe Card

This project will require some thoughtful planning and time, but the result will be a memorable and unique recipe card.

{+} First things first. You should probably make the recipe you plan to share, unless you already have the ingredients in your pantry.

{+} Group your items to be photographed and remember to vary object heights for composition and use similar materials and colors.

{+} Upload photo onto your computer and use Photoshop or Illustrator to "write" down ingredients. If you don't have these programs or anything similar, print out the picture, glue on some handwritten labels or write on the photo directly, then scan it back in.

{+} Once the photo has been printed, add your recipe to the back. Voilà, let them be impressed!

See the recipe for Wassail Punch, ingredients in the photograph above at design*sponge

Get Crafty

Check out all these fun DIY projects (and loads more) over at Scissor Variations.

{+} Felt Shingle Tree

{+} Sequin Styrofoam Balls

{+} Totschke Magnets

Casual Chic

"An American in London" - casual and completely at ease.
via The Sartorialist 

Snake Print for Linh

From now until.....hmmm....April, I will post things that would make perfect gifts for me. And if you happen to like them for yourself too, well then it's all good. Along the way, I will of course, will be revealing intimate facts about myself through blatant materialism.

For Linh Series #1: I was born in the Chinese calendar year of the snake. Below: Midwestern Can Snake by Dan Furderburgh for The Working Proof. Fifteen percent of the gross sale of this print goes to benefit "Transportation Alternatives," advocates for bicycling, walking and public transit. {$40, edition of 75, as of today, 68 remaining} via design*sponge 

Service Industry Alert

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I don't work in a restaurant and I don't get this deal, but all you servers, chefs, bussers and hostesses with the mostesses, hit up Extra Virgin on Wednesday nights (6 pm - close). Everyone in the service industry gets HALF OFF their entire bill, including drinks. Wowza! Hey, service industry buddies, you know who you are, call me, take me out, get me that discount. Thaaaaaaanks.

Giving

illustration by Oso Azul Design via flickr 

Is this going to be a shout out to friends week? Absolutely, because we are surrounded by freakin' amazing people. Our friend Matt F. rides his bike to and from work almost everyday. He lives by where I work and works by where I live. It takes me 20 minutes to DRIVE each way and what does Matt do to make me look bad? He puts the petal to the metal, saves gas, saves money and saves the planet.

Recently, Matt got his bike stolen while he was at work. Outrage ensued. How could someone steal a bike from a guy like Matt? Secretly, his co-workers passed around an envelope to collect money so he could get new wheels. They collected over $400 and surprised him with their generosity. And today I read on facebook.....da, da dum.....Matt's already been saving money for a new bike.

Instead of keeping the cash, spoiling his children, or blowing it at the bar, he's finding a way to donate the money so a few under-privileged kiddies wake up Christmas morning to shiny new bikes under their trees. What a guy. Big hug to you Matt and all your friends and co-workers (including my own hubby). You are so very lucky to have each other.

Props

...to our friend Charity who got PUBLISHED in Reader's Digest for her absolutely fabulous and funny writing. Charity blogs weekly on frothygirlz.com as "CJ" and she's In the Weeds. Her insightful and hilarious take on the restaurant world have given us fits of laughter, but it's also gotten her fired from one very cushy serving job. Read all about it here. Start with "Inside the Server's Studio" to catch her from the beginning and for Pete's sake, use the link. The site is a little, how do you say, ALL OVER THE PLACE.