Oh the Cuteness!

Hi everyone! Well, once again the holiday season has thoroughly kicked my butt, but this year I kicked some right back! I know I haven't updated the blog in a good while except to advertise sales and such (Although if you follow my instagram  @ohthecuteness then you've seen what I've been up to!), but I have some fun new tutorials and crochet patterns coming up in the new year! Also all of the craft fairs I did this year went so well that I didn't have much left over to list online, which totally blew me away! As soon as Halloween rolled around Johnny and I were so consumed by decorating that I didn't get to post anything, and as soon as Halloween came down Christmas went up, and by then I was consumed with making things for the holiday fairs as well as family functions. I've really been enjoying the lull for the past week and found time to take some nice photos of the house all decked out for Christmas. I think I might keep the photos of Halloween till next yea...

A couple weeks ago my craft room unveiling got noticed by the folks over at Craftaholics Anonymous , a totally awesome and very large craft site! I took more pictures for the post detailing my organizational ideas used in the space, so go check it out and be sure to leave a comment letting them know you liked it!

Over my many years of blogging I've noticed something about myself: I'm pretty bad at posting photos of little individual finished craft projects, especially if they're gifts for people. Big projects or large batches of things sure, but tiny things seem to fall through the cracks. I can think of at least a dozen really cute things I've given as gifts that I never snapped a photo of, plus all my old collages I sold never got photographed. But I've found a tool to help me! Good old Instagram, you may be the solution I've been needing for years. I find that now I snap a quick pic and post it every time I finish something small which is awesome! I'd like to start posting them here with more descriptions than I include on Instagram. If you prefer seeing them without the longer post, you can either follow my Tumblr , or of course my Instagram (@ohthecuteness), which includes all my non-crafty photos as well. Anywho, on to the first bunch of goodies: Two sw...

The Plaid Barn, a really cool closeout craft supply daily deal company, is giving away a Fuji Instax with 5 rolls of film! I entered, so wish me luck, and if you want to enter too here's the link:  http://www.theplaidbarn.com/giveaway/ The giveaway ends August 10th so do it soon!

I've been reading quite a few articles and/or watching video documentaries on the importance of physical play for adults. Dennis made a quip about it, saying all he does in his free time is play. But I'm not talking about video or board games. I'm talking about going outside and running, jumping, being goofy, and using your imagination. A couple posts ago I mentioned I was feeling a little blah because of my more sedentary lifestyle these days. That weekend Dennis suggested we go out of town and enjoy the beautiful weather, which was so sweet, and we ended up driving out to Bodega Bay and had such a wonderful time. The beach gets tons of driftwood washed ashore and people build it up into little forts and such, so we decided to finish one that was half-built in the sand dunes. We were playing foxtail but it was too windy, so I started rolling a giant awkward tree with a big stump still attached toward the unfinished fort. You can see how big it is in the...

Up in the hills above Berkeley there's a myriad of family attractions to go see, including a giant old-fashioned carousel hidden in the woods, a natural history and conservation museum, and great hiking trails, not to mention the beautiful views you get to see on the way up. I'd never taken the trek up the long, windy, wooded roads before, but last week a dear friend asked me to go. Unfortunately the carousel and museum are closed during the week, but we got to take in the view of the bay and the sunshine and fresh air, and we got to roam the Little Farm. It's exactly what the name says - a sweet little farm tucked away in the woods, and it's a great place to take your kids to learn about good farming practices or just enjoy feeding and petting them.  When I was a child I wanted to be a farmer. For real. And it was a long time before the dream died when I learned about big agriculture destroying the family farm. But the new local- and slow-food movements have...

Okay, I know this is just a gratuitous kitty post, but can you blame me? Look at how effing adorable these two are: At times, I kind of hate living with cats, what with the puke, the claws, the hair. But this is not one of those times. I kind of want to re-create these pictures with me and Dennis doing the same poses, which could be kind of hilarious. Buddy (the white cat) is Precious' (the back cat's) son. They usually keep away from eachother or little squabbles break out. But they snuggled on the couch together with me literally all day, and magically did not bolt when I picked up the camera as most cats will do when you try to capture the cuteness. Mission accomplished. Please feel free to leave gratuitous squees and d'aawwws in the comments. You're welcome.

This post was supposed to be written quite a while ago when the whole "Occupy Oakland" thing was still going on, but as I have siad I was going through a transitional phase and didn't get time to post it. I just had a really cool day and finally remembered to bring my camera along for the ride, and I got some neat pictures! You ever have one of those days when everything just kinda feels right and works out? This day was one of those days. It was a Saturday and I got up nice and early, did my usual morning routine except for the fact that my hair turned out unusually nice for a change. Must have been because it was dry and warm out (my hair goes all poofy when it's wet outside), and it probably helped that I was relatively awake when I did it. I was feeling pretty good so I decided to try my hand at putting on some makeup, including eyeliner, which usually makes me look like a retarded raccoon. But today was a good day! So I took pictures to document the fa...

So now that you have seen my awesome kitchen I can show off some of the stuff I have made in it! I have been baking a lot of pies lately as I tend to do every time the seasons start changing form summer to fall. I had to take a picture of this bad boy because it turned out so pretty and so delicious! Oh yeah, om nom nom. I will give you my quick-and-easy apple pie recipe at the bottom of the post. Also, I don't know if I mentioned this but Dennis has been on the low-carb diet for a few months now and is doing great! He has lost a lot of weight and it is really fun having him be more involved in the kitchen, seeking out new recipes for us to try, etc. He found this low-carb pumpkin cheesecake recipe and it turned out fantastically! We changed it a bit and used pumpkin pie spice instead of the blend of spices they give. The almond-meal crust was an ingenious substitute for graham cracker too! And lastly, for my birthday I made yet another apple pie: ...