Oh the Cuteness!

Yup, I've done it again... Six hours of bleaching and dying at my wonderful sister's salon. It's washed up a bit from the initial color to a really lovely shade of pastel pink, which is what we were going for. I LOVE it. Johnny's warming up to it haha. It's going to be a lot of upkeep but I think it's going to stay for a while. Anyone have any really good recipes for home made conditioner? I'm going through the stuff like crazy!

I was thinking about saving this tutorial for next Christmas, but I've seen a lot of people doing something special for Valentine's day this year called the "14 Days of Valentines". I'm guessing it's a play off of the 12 days of Christmas, and I thought this might be a fun way to participate. This year I wanted to make Johnny an advent calendar since we didn't get to spend as much time together as we would have liked (he lives a little ways away from me). I used my favorite little single truffle boxes, which you saw as place cards during  Thanksgiving  , as the containers for my little gifts. I drew all the numbers on them while they were flat with a green felt-tip marker. All the objects I collected or made were something from our relationship, either actually or symbolically. It was harder than I thought it would be to find 23 little items that would fit in the boxes, but it all came together so sweetly. Now, I say 23 items because an ...

Over the summer some of my  Stitch & Bitch  girls and I decided to have a jam making get-together. Laura, the hostess, and my friend  Carolyn  had never made jam before, but Erin, Heideh, and I were old pros and wanted to teach them. So we all got together and drove out to Brentwood to go to a farm to pick strawberries which was a total blast. Then we headed back to Laura's house to get our jam on (sorry haha). We hulled the massive piles of berries, zested and juiced lemons, and picked lavender from the garden while a cute little chocolate lab named Charlie distracted us. Massive pots of boiling water, bubbling batches of jam and preserves, and trays of sterile jars were everywhere. Luckily it wasn't too hot that day but the house still got steamy. Carolyn and Laura had a great time learning a new skill, and ended up with almost a dozen jars each of some truly delicious strawberry jam. I had enough jam at home so ...

This year my birthday (back in August) happened to land on a Tuesday which is the day my Stitch & Bitch group usually meets so I decided to make a special, if somewhat outrageous, cake to share with everyone. I'd seen this malt ball cake  from Inspired by Charm on Pinterest before and I just couldn't resist. (Click the link for the full recipe and her cute tutorial for a mini bunting!)  It's a really easy recipe because it uses a boxed strawberry cake mix, which was surprisingly good. I also used this as an opportunity for trying a new method for getting the cake to rise evenly while baking. You cut pieces of thick fabric, like an old kitchen towel, into strips wide and long enough to wrap around the sides of your cake pan, then soak them in cold water, wring them out gently, and use a safety pin to keep them in pace around the outside, then bake as usual. It keeps the edges from cooking too fast and you don't have to trim a dome off the tops, which means no...

This is a little flash-back to the summer, but I really wanted to post it and spread the word about my favorite food festival, the Eat Real Fest in Oakland. It's in Jack London Square every summer and has never failed to impress me. Johnny and I went and were able to try nearly everything that sounded good, and we managed to photograph each thing too. So presented here, for your foodie pleasure, is a microsampling of the best food festival around. Pickles from Forage SF. Fermented goodness!  Chow Fun Spring Rolls from Rice Paper Scissors. Spicy and amazing! Steamed buns from Chairman Bao. Coca-Cola pork and Spicy Chicken.  Egg and bacon grilled cheese from S+S Gastropub. Nom. Beef empenadas from El Porteno. Best pastry. Yerba Mate' infused colas from Taylor's Tonics. Amazing flavors!  Gelatin flowers from Sweets Collection. That is made from Jello?! Whole roast pig from Chop Bar. Dear God yes. Grilled cheese from The Grille...

I'm happy to announce that the RAC's annual Holiday Arts Festival was a complete success! I've done this fair for 4 years now so it's quite the tradition for me, and if you'd like to see my posts for the last few years here's 2009 , 2010 , and 2011 . This year was the first time I've had a booth all to myself and I was a little nervous, but since I know lots of the other regular vendors and staff members it was just as easy-going as any other year. And this fair was extra special for a few reasons. Firstly, I decided to make tons of fascinators and center my booth around them since they sold so well last year. I was worried that with the fair being only one day this year instead of two that I wouldn't sell as many, but it was great!  Also, I was incredibly happy with how my booth display came out, and you'd never know it from the look of it, but it's made entirely out of oatmeal and baby formula containers from the local artist'...

Well, the holidays kicked my butt yet again this year but they were, as always, completely amazing. I had tons of work to do between  WSPS  and  WCM  this year, as well as getting ready for the  RAC's  holiday fair (which went REALLY well, photos to come), hence the posting drought. But, as part of my new year's resolution I'm going to focus more on my own business and crafting, as well as a huge project I've had in the works since last year, and as part of that I'm continuing to play catchup on here. Anywho, on to the holiday at hand: Thanksgiving! As some of you may know I host a Thanksgiving dinner every year and invite all my friends who can't make it home to visit their families. I started it 3 years ago when my parents decided they didn't feel like celebrating it anymore.  The original had 7 people ,  then there were 12 , and this year there were 18 in all! It was so big I couldn't host it at my place anymore, but my best frien...