24 Days of Christmas: Day 10. Colorfarm Playsilk

AKA the most incredible tie dye you've ever seen. This is from The Color Farm, and it's just stunning. There really aren't any more words than that!



And BIG. After Christmas I'm going to see if I can put it up as a sort of canopy in DD's room. For Christmas, I'm going to 'wrap' the dollhouse in it on Christmas morning.

24 Days of Christmas: Day 9. Glass straws review

These were kind of an early Christmas gift to myself, so I'm including them here even though I bought them, I didn't make them or trade for them. Shut up, it's my blog, I can break my own rules if I want. Although I guess technically I didn't make any rules. So there. At any rate, today, glass straws! These were purchased from Glass Dharma. They are handmade in the USA. Shipping was quite fast - I actually ordered twice, and both times my order arrived within 5 business days.

I would claim that i bought these for environmental reasons, since kid #1 insists on only drinking through a straw and goes through plastic straws at an alarming rate, and that's part of it, but mostly I just think they are really, really pretty.


I bought two sizes. The short size is perfect for the kiddo to use in those ubiquitous IKEA kid's drinking cups. The larger size works great for me! Although admittedly if the kid decides she wants an orange dot, well, then, by gum she'll use the big straw. Choosing a straw colour is rapidly becoming a key part of every meal.

I like the coloured dots. Because, you know, pretty! And these straws are very sturdy - they are made of something very similar to pyrex, and while I wouldn't take them and go drumming out a merry tune on your cast iron frying pan, I think they should stand up to normally use (and occasionally being dropped, which, yes, has happened a few times already) with no breakage. The company will replace them if you break them during the course of normal use.

Cleaning is straightforward; since they are glass you can easily tell if they are dirty. I give them a quick rinse after use, then put them in the dishwasher. Easy as pie. When you buy a set of four you also get a small cleaning brush, which if anything ever gets dried on to the inside would be useful, although I haven't had to use it.

What really surprised me is that I swear water actually tastes better when drunk through one of these straws. Something about the cool glass of the straw? I don't know, but I know I'm drinking a lot more water since they arrived!

24 Days of Christmas: Day 8. Shape Sorter.

HOW COOL IS THIS??? I love it so much, and I can't wait to give it to the baby for Christmas! It's a fabric shape sorter. Kind of similar to the cube, but with 100% more awesome. I volunteered to test the pattern that this etsy seller designed, and it's really, really great. She doesn't have the pattern listed yet, but I'm sure it will be available soon! Now available!



Other side. More shapes.



And you take the shapes out! And then put them back in! And take them out! And put them back in! Seriously, it's so neat.



Interior shot.


The shapes. I actually made two sets of shapes. These are the smaller set, included in the pattern, which can be tossed in through the top or shoved through the sides. Because I stuffed the sorter VERY full, the shapes in the sides of the sorter body wound up a bit larger than intended (the original version is loosely stuffed), so I also made a larger set of shapes to fit into the holes:

These are the ones that go in and make it into a box! I basically added about a 1/2" all the way around each shape pattern. Super easy.

Fabrics used are blue minky, blue cat pattern flannel, and fuschia corduroy, so there's lots of textural interest as well (LOVE the minky, it's so soft).

It was very fun to make, too, even if it did involve evil interior seaming like the cube. Of course, now I'm getting pretty good at it!

24 Days of Christmas: Day 7. Dress up capes

Finally, I'm getting some Christmas presents done! Same pattern as my nephew's cape, these are for my older daughter and my niece. I skipped the applique this time, just couldn't face that headache, so they are plain. Sparkly pink on one side (the pictures really don't capture just HOW sparkly), plain on the other.



Fit for a couple of super hero princesses. They look great when worn, but since my only model can't see hers until Christmas, you'll just have to believe me.

24 Days of Christmas: Day 6. Pencil Crayon Rolls

These were made by custom request for an Etsy customer. I love this coloured cord for the exterior.



They are bigger than the ones I usually make, with a pocket for a small artist's sketch pad. The extra, wide spot next to the white pencil crayon is meant for a pencil sharpener. I love it!

I'm not going to accept any more pre-Christmas custom orders via the shop (although I will of course continue to sell and ship anything that's currently listed!), since I have a ton of sewing for Christmas presents to get done. I had been planning to start on that a week ago, but one of my pencil crayon rolls got featured in an Etsy Gift Guide (YAY!) and I got a whole bunch of orders. Which is fabulous, dollar wise, but I'm looking forward to sewing something else for a while!

After Christmas I'm going to make more of these, and also write a pattern for them.

Now, on to the Christmas sewing! First up, the capes for my niece and my daughter. Hopefully I can get those done tonight, they're a nice easy warm up project before I get into the more complicated stuff I have planned.

24 Days of Christmas: Day 5. Knitted frog stocking stuffers

Aren't these just the sweetest things? I love them. I got these in a craft swap from this amazing knitter, and it took a LOT of willpower to put them away for Christmas rather than giving them to the kids right away! Alas her Etsy shop doesn't appear to be active right now. I'll be using these as stocking stuffers.



This one is my favourite. If I had an office, I'd so keep this one for my myself and perch him on top of a pile or books or a computer monitor or something.

24 Days of Christmas: Day 4. SO MUCH BAKING.

So this was the scene in my kitchen yesterday. 18 dozen bars, packed up and ready to go. I couldn't go to the actual cookie exchange, so I dropped my cookies off and then this morning I picked up the goodies:

Note small child who REALLy wants to just dive on in there head first. She's rather in awe of the whole thing.

So what did I get? Cookies and baked goods galore! I have to get on repacking them into sets to give away, lest my ass wind up with its own zip code.

SO CUTE.


Yum.

I don't know what this is (since I missed the actual exchange), but I'm betting it's yummy!


The kid immediately ran off with this snowman. And then wanted to know when we could make some snowmen. Like we don't have enough cookies already!



I need to open these packages to get a better look! Pretty sure the white ones are lemon fudge, which I'm very excited about trying.

The kiddo also made off with a cupcake. I admit I ate one too!


Yeah, I don't think I'll be losing weight any time soon...

24 Days of Christmas: Day 3. Lemon Bars

Today is the cookie exchange I'm in - 10 dozen each of two different recipes. That was a lot of baking! Recipe number one was, of course, yesterday's Chocolate Glazed Toffee Bars. Recipe number two is a classic: Lemon bars. Sweet shortbread, tangy lemon topping, what's not to love?



There's about a zillion recipes for lemon bars out there. This is the one I used for the exchange - normally I like my lemon bars to have more filling, but then they tend to be a bit goopy, which wouldn't be as good for a cookie swap. These are a little more subtle.

3/4 cup ( 1 1/2 sticks) cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 3 tablespoons
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp confectioner's sugar
2 large lemons )
3 large eggs (room temperature)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 13 by 9 pan with foil, and grease the foil lightly.

Mix together 1 1/2 cups flour and 1/2 sugar icing sugar. Add butter, and using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Press mixture into bottom of foil lined pan, spreading evenly. Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

While the crust is baking, zest one lemon and squeeze 1/2 cup of juice. Beat the eggs and granulated sugar together for 3 minutes. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, baking powder, remaining 3 tablespoons of flour, and salt, and beat until combined. Pour filling mixture over warm crust, and bake until filling is set and the top is golden brown around the edges, about 15 minutes. Dust the top with remaining tablespoon of icing sugar. Set on a rack to cool. Cut into bars.

24 Days of Christmas: Day 2, Chocolate Glazed Toffee Bars

Can't. Stop. Eating. These.

And they are super easy to make, too. Very very dangerous. Recipe from the Joy of Cooking, with a few modifications (the original calls for pecans; I decided to leave them out).

Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8 by 8 pan with tinfoil (the easiest way to do this is turn the pan upside down, mold your tinfoil around the back of the pan, then take the tinfoil off, turn the pan over, and set the tinfoil inside). Grease the foil.

Whisk together 2/3 cup of flour, 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, and 1/8 tsp salt.

Add 4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces, and using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. Press the flour mixture into the foil-lined pan. Bake for 10 minutes, set aside to cool slightly.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat, melt 5 tablespoons of butter with 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 2 tablespoons honey or corn syrup, 1/8 tsp salt, and 1 tablespoon of milk. Bring to a boil and boil uncovered for exactly 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 1 tsp of vanilla. Pour sugar mixture over crust.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until sugar mixture starts to turn dark around the edges. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of milk chocolate chips over the top, and let sit until the chocolate chips have melted (4-5 minutes). Use a knife to spread the melted chocolate across the top of the bars.

Allow the chocolate to cool until thickened but still slightly soft (I generally wait about 10 or 15 minutes or so), then cut into bars. Cool completely before removing the bars.

24 Days of Christmas: Day 1. Vanilla Sugar

I am going to attempt to post something handmade every day leading up to Christmas. We'll see how well this goes! I'll probably have to cheat and post other people's handmade stuff a few times, I have a whole pile of things I got via trades I haven't blogged yet.

Today's post is a very simple but lovely gift that is easy to make. Take a nice jar. Fill halfway with sugar. Add a vanilla bean. Fill the rest of the way with sugar. Let sit for at least 2 weeks. Bam, you have vanilla sugar.

The really nice thing is if you use fresh vanilla beans, they will continue to flavour the sugar for up to year, you just add more sugar as you use it. The smell when you take off the lid is just amazing - great for adding a bit of vanilla flavour to coffee or tea. Or in a recipe that calls for vanilla extract, replace 3 tablespoons of regular sugar with vanilla sugar to replace 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

You can buy bulk vanilla beans on eBay (really!), and if you happen to have a collection of empty mason jars, this is an inexpensive gift. I'm going to print information about vanilla sugar and how to use it on cardstock and use these for a few people on my Christmas gift list.