happy new year

Wishing you a year full of sparkles & plaid.

label freak

Remember how excited I was when I got those "made by christine" labels a long time ago? Well this is way better.

...

I was going to just leave the post at that and play on the whole Brevity is Charming and Quirky thing, but I just can't. I have so much more to say. Maybe in 2010 I'll experiment with shorter posts but for now, eff it. I'd been on a hunt for official labels since I opened up shop over a year ago. Just couldn't find what I was looking for though. Eventually I saw someone using double sided loop labels that you sew into the seam and was like, "Pow, that's it. Them's the ones."

But I couldn't find a label company that didn't require an eleventy thousand minimum order. UNTIL. Until. Until I wised up and searched Etsy (duh) and within 15 minutes found myself a great little label maker and picked out the exact labels I'd been dreaming of and went ahead and had them priority shipped to me. They came and I was like, "Oh sweet they look great."
But then I sewed one into a neck cozy and nearly freaked the freak out. I looked at it (and silently commented on the absolute perfect placement of it on the neck cozy so that you can't even see it when you are all buttoned up because I hate when brand-names are plastered all over things) and then proceeded to dance around the apartment like Liz Lemon. For reals. No exaggeration. Not just saying so for a cheap laugh.

I've got some retro-fitting to do on current inventory and once that is complete, all future goodies will proudly declare themselves as brainchildren of unspeakable visions. And no joke, if you somehow make it worth my while, I'll even retro-fit a label into previously purchased items. Cash, chocolate & turkey chili would all make it worth my while.

this year's card

I commissioned the boy to draw this funny little reindeer for our Christmas cards (the snowflake for the back was a bonus). Isn't he the most hysterical thing? I love his expression. I was going to carve it into a rubber block stamp but the boy did that part too (so his vision wouldn't get lost, you know) and I stamped 'em up and wrote 'em out. Consider this your formal holiday card if I wasn't able to find a current address for you. Wishing you all a great and cheery holiday season.

christmas baking extravaganza

Loot from our Monday Night Christmas Baking Extravaganza. PB cookies with hershey kisses (gluten free!). Molasses cookies, pre-frosting. Cranberry muffins (not pictured). Chocolate dipped pretzels inspired by Marta.

Add in some pierogies, wine & Christmas music and I'd say the extravaganza was pretty successful.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays! After a nice little sleepover down in P-Town, I'm getting ready for a Berkshire-style Christmas Eve, then some in-town festivities tomorrow.

halloween, meet christmas

Look familiar?

Yup, it's a Christmas Wreath made from the 94 (well we only used 80 or so) felt leaves that I cut out by hand for our Halloween Tree Costume. If there is some way to reuse these leaves for New Years, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Flag Day, 4th of July and/or Labor Day... I'll do it. When you spend a full day cutting out felt oak leaves by hand, you find ways to maximize your return.

cozy holiday

Thick sweaters, winter boots, tights & candlelight. I want a Little House on the Prairie sort of Christmas. Well, maybe not quite so rustic. Actually maybe I just want a cozy Christmas. With electricity. And running water. Etc.

(1. Anna Wolf, via wikstenmade; 2. Toast; 3. Toast; 4. Anthropologie; 5. Chrissie White via Design*Sponge; 6. Branch and Twig Chandelier via jessdirk; 7. holiday scarves via wikstenmade; 8. Montpelier, I Love Thee; 9. holiday collection via ellybeth; 10. J. Crew)

catch up & more hats

Some catching up to do after our mini-getaway earlier this week...

Thanks to everyone that managed to find their way to the basement of Trinity Church for Winter WonderLark last Saturday. If nothing else, it was rad to have a table next to Mom and hang out. Changed the display around just a tad, click here for a photo.

Also here are few more of the new winter hats.
And there are so many new neck cozies but I haven't taken pictures of them yet because I was having a bad hair day when I finished them. Poor Etsy, I've been neglecting you. How's this sound?: After tomorrow's market I don't have another one until late January so I'll throw up a few more neck cozies and a few snuggly winter hats for the New Year. Promise.

thanks, you're sweet

A quick gracias to All Over Albany for the little shout-out on their Albany Etsy Holiday Gift Guide!

more felt leaves

(photo via designsponge)

I was going to just throw it up on tumblr, but this must be shared with a wider audience. Does this homemade felted sweater wreath not SCREAM: "Christine, Use Those Felt Leaves From Your Halloween Costume To Make A Christmas Wreath!"

???!!1

That is what I hear. Now if you'll excuse me, I have two Tree Costumes that need cutting up.

hot cocoa, sugar plums & a holiday market

Need to finish up some holiday shopping? Stroll on over to Winter WonderLark this weekend!

Saturday, December 12

12:30-5pm
Trinity Church
235 Lark Street
Albany, NY

Same rockin' good time as last year.

Feel free to step out at 2pm to run the 4th Annual Santa Speedo Sprint, which by the looks of things is always a good time (.5K sprint around my neighborhood in speedos & holiday flair... yes you heard correctly, a POINT 5K sprint... so like a block or something.)

---
And check out this recent article from The New York Times: Holiday Gifts With a Story to Tell.

“And I think what makes gifts in particular special is knowing there’s a person who made it and a story behind it. I think people want to buy things that tell stories, especially in an age when so few store-bought items tell stories.”

a homespun holiday

This year (much like last), I'm hoping to cut down on holiday shopping stress and overboard spending on junk. Instead of frantically trying to find something that's "eh...good enough I guess" for the people on my list, I'm aiming to create a homespun holiday*, filled with thoughtful & simple homemade goods. Cutting down on clutter, meaningless spending, crowded malls & guilt sounds perfect to me. Plus I love me a good ol' craft/movie/drinky drink hoedown.

So I made up a planner to help me along with creating a homespun holiday. Feel free to download and print out as many pages as you need to help organize your ideas & inspirations and to stay on track for a peaceful holiday season.

Click on the images below to download a PDF of each page, or click right here to download the entire planner.

And of course, there is always the "nice + naughty" holiday gift planner from last year. Click on the link to download that one.

(If you link to this, please link to the post and not directly to the PDFs... it will help keep the PDF link working!)

*I think I stole this phrase from Mom.

oh my,

...I'm so rude. Did everyone else have a nice Thanksgiving?!

Apart from the Fiesta, I turkey trotted, shared a huge & delicious meal with family, watched movies on the couch, met up with the high school gang, spent some important time with my rocks and celebrated turning 25 in typical fashion-- by watching a teen vampire romance movie and then walking to a favorite Mexican restaurant where the kind waitress gave me some birthday flan. Not too shabby.

turkey turkey tacos

A few days before actual Thanksgiving, we hosted a little Thanksgiving Fiesta.

On the menu:

Pulled Turkey Tacos with Cranberry Salsa
Chips with Guacamole, Salsa & Queso
Crispy Sweet Potato Fries
Cheddar & Jalapeno Biscuits
Stuffin' Muffins
Assorted Pies
and
Homemade Sangria

We supplied the tacos with cranberry salsa, stuffing and homemade sangria. Our guests brought the rest. To avoid a very public photo frenzy, I snapped a few shots of the set-up prior to guest arrival... our spread increased three-fold once the party actually started, but here is how it looked while I was still in my apron.

This was a risk for us. Two turkey breasts on the bone with skin (which I refused to touch, obvi), seasoned with Fiesta-y flavors and shoved in a crockpot with a cup or two of turkey stock. Cooked on low for 8 hours. Let it cool a bit and then shredded it all up and threw it back in the slow cooker with some extra seasoning. Perfection! There was no backup plan.

Jalapeno & Pumpkin centerpiece.

Our improvised sangria station. We made a sizeable cooler of red wine sangria and served it from half gallon glass jugs (growlers) we've collected from various breweries. Bright bendy straws in a gorgeous hand-thrown vase & our usual mason jars completed the bar setting. (For those of you nervous about the Turntable-As-Bar, fear not... we didn't really do much pouring on it.)

Wine-soaked fruit kebab garnishes for the sangria.

Cranberry Salsa. Throw a bag or so of fresh cranberries and two chopped apples into your food processor and pulse until fine. Then we added in 2-3 finely chopped jalapenos, chopped bell pepper, cilantro, a squeeze of lime juice and dash of salt. Totally forgot onions, which would have been nice. This definitely got better with age, so make a day ahead of time and cover.

Thanksgiving Fiesta Taco Bar.

I only wish that we had a bigger place so we could have invited more people. We almost need to plan our soirees in shifts to accomodate all the peeps we'd like to hang out with... Fiesta #1, Fiesta #2.... Fondue Night A and Fondue Night B, etc. Maybe one day we'll just say Screw It and pack our place so tightly that friends are eating Warm Goat Cheese Toasts with Rosemary, Walnuts & Honey in our closets, bathroom and under our bed. It would be a challenge, at least.