Still a whiter shade of pale...

...but I'm having a good hair day!



Matt bought this head band from The Candy Thief for me for Christmas. I love it! I have worn it almost every day since Christmas day!

Another one of my gifts that has come in handy already is this great mug from my mom. Appropriate, no?



I am going to keep things brief today. I *do* want to say that I am so, so, SO thankful that my brother-in-law is out of the hospital. My sister put his x-rays up on her blog. Scary stuff! Secondly, I am also thrilled to be feeling much, much better. Aside from a bitty residual cough, and feeling a bit tired, I think that I am about 95% back to my normal self. HURRAH.

Lastly, I want to wish a very happy birthday to my dad. He is awesome, and I love him SO much. Times infinity.

Christmas 2009 - Wrapping It Up

Hello friends,

It is 6:57 AM as I type this, and I have been awake for almost five hours. The remnants of an evil cold/flu thing are keeping me awake for yet another evening this week. Since I've resigned to getting no sleep, I thought I would be productive and blog. So hello, here I am. Still ill!

It's my sorrow to report that Christmas was much more subdued than previous years, largely due to the aforementioned evil cold/flu thing. I felt so horrible on Christmas Eve Eve that I told Matt that I might have to stay home and miss my parents' annual Christmas Eve party. Those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that I am a bona fide Christmas FA-REAK, so you know that it was BAD.

I pulled myself together though...and Christmas was nice.

Here's Matt, holding all of our handmade goodies for the party.



That's the fruit of the Holiday Handmade Crusade right there!

Watching my dad interact with babies is always a highlight of every family gathering. Here he is playing with my nephew, Aaron, happy as a clam!



Here is one of the few pictures of me from the festivities. Don't I look thrilled to be alive? I love that my sickly pale skin matches the white trim of the Santa hat. Hott, I tell you.



This little guy was a great cheerer upper though. He kept putting bows in his mouth and making the funniest faces. Aaron is SUCH a ham.



Here's my mom doling out goodies to every one. I was pleasantly surprised to receive hand made gifts from both of my brothers this year! Had my sister been able to attend, (more on that later), I know that she would've had hand made prezzies too! It warmed my heart to see my whole family getting into the handmade spirit!



The evening ended with the late arrival of my niece, Cayla, aka Beaner, bringing us exciting news...



She's engaged! Bean will be marrying her long-time boyfriend Scott, a sweet guy and fellow music aficionado. Since my siblings are quite a bit older than me, I became an aunt at a very young age. Bean and I are only five years apart. She is more like a little sister to me than a niece. To see her all aglow with that ring on her finger brought a big lump to my (already sore) throat (thanks a lot Bean, HA). I'm so happy for them both! Such exciting Christmas news!

***

When we got home, I had absolutely no chance of sleeping. My sinuses were completely stopped up, and breathing was crazy difficult. I managed to get in a fitful two hours between 7:00 and 9:00 AM Christmas Day. After that, I woke up and Matt and I exchanged gifts. He gave me all sorts of wonderful things, but I will save that for another post.

***

Later in the day, I checked in with my sister, who had been absent the night before and found out the bad news that my brother in law was in the hospital with a collapsed lung! She said he is going to be fine, but last I knew, he was still in the hospital. Poor guy. On Christmas Day! I feel so terrible for them both. I've anxiously been checking Renee's blog for news of Geoff's return.

***

So that pretty much brings us up to speed. It wasn't all terrible. I am quite grateful for the time I got to share with my husband and family over the past few days, but I am not at all grateful for debilitating flu-ey illnesses and family members in the hospital. Please send some prayers and healthy vibes out into the universe for Renny and Geoff. They need it! Aaaaaand while you are at it, send a few thoughts my way as well, if you would. I'm still choking every five seconds here, so sleep is still eluding me at 7:30 AM. Lovely.

I hope to be back to my usual chipper crafty self the next time we meet! Hope all of your Christmases were lovely! XO!

Advent Day 23 :: Christmas Eve Eve

It's down to the wire folks. My family gathering is tomorrow night. Am I ready? Absolutely not.

But before I go into that, let's look at pretty things that I splurged on this year!

I cannot remember where I saw it, but I found a link to Stephanie Levy's blog, A Studio With A View, a few weeks ago. She's doing a great project this month called the Artist Advent Calendar. Each day of the month, Stephanie invited a different blogger to guest post and share their family's Christmas traditions. Lovely right?

On day 11, these posts caused me to happen upon Samantha Hirst's shop Inklore, at which I indulged in a rare moment of insta-purchasing and bought myself the following:

Three gingerbread ornaments



Gingerbread tea towel



In other news, I am still fantastically ill. Projects have had to be modified, or put on hold all together. My dad is getting toasted pumpkin seeds, instead of pumpkin seed brittle. I just now have the meager strength to whip up pizza dough for my brothers. Neighbors will likely not be getting cookies, and I have nothing for my little niece Isabelle. Don't even get me started on Matt's family, their gifts are all up in the air, but I won't be seeing them tomorrow! Honestly though, I'm not all that stressed about all of that. I am really just hoping that I can breath through my nose tomorrow, and have the ability to speak in a normal tone, so that I can socialize with my family!!!

Okay, I have to keep building my mountain of wadded snotty tissues. Important stuff, dontcha know?

Subtext: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SOMEBODY KILL ME AND RIP OUT MY SINUSES AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Advent Day 22 :: Apparently I Do An Awesome Chevy Chase Impersonation

Ah me,

For some reason the limitations of my Christmas cheer are being tested over and over again this year! My sister told me the other day that I was cursed, but we'll get to that in a moment. My Advent posts have been slim, because I have been trying my darndest to perfect my Chevy Chase impersonation...specifically imitating the iconic role of Clark Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Every Christmas project I touch this year seems to turn into or involve some sort of disaster.

Chevy Chase Case Study #1 :: The Christmas Cookies

Friday night, I gleefully decided that I was going to bake a family standard, Nova Scotia Shortbread Cookies. I have done this many, many times. The very first step is to soften the butter, and beat in the various dry ingredients. My butter came right out of the fridge, so I decided that it needed to go into the microwave for a bit...so I chopped up an entire pound of butter and popped it into one of my many Pyrex mixing bowls...specifically one of the brown ones pictured here in the back left of this photo:



Can anyone predict what I'm about to write next?

I'll give you a hint. Note the gold motif on the mixing bowl...which I stuck into the microwave.

Well, one would've thought it was Fourth of July in December with all of the sparks that were generated in the mere three seconds before I pulled the microwaves plug and started hyperventilating.

The irony is this: I buy butter wrapped in foil wrappers. Two seconds before all of this went down, I thought to myself, "Oh, good thing I'm unwrapping these sticks to soften them, that would be hilarious!" as I proceeded to throw butter chunks into the bowl with a metal motif on it. Good job!

Luckily, no cookies were harmed, and my apartment did not burn down. Microwave: 1 Sarah: 2, YEAH take that microwave!





***

On Saturday, I went to my family's Christmas party, which was great fun, so much so I forgot to take photos! Every year we do a Yankee Swap, where horrible gifts abound. I opened a box with a large hour glass in it, and announced to the room "Like sands through the hour glass...so are the days of our lives..." much to the bemusement of every soap fan in the room. Luckily I made a power play for a Barnes and Noble gift certificate which I managed to hold on to until the end of the game. Score!

***

Chevy Chase Case Study #2 :: The Gingerbread House

Sunday I went to my sister Renee's house, where I watched her make a gingerbread house for eight hours.



The house was intended for me, but my only contribution was worried looks over Renee's shoulder, and placing the candy to make stained glass windows.



The windows came out beautifully, but sadly the house was a FAIL! This brings us to the point where my sister told me that I was cursed. No matter though, we had a really great time hanging out together all day, and both Matt and I got in some serious puppy cuddle time.



So disasters aside, it was a great weekend. However Monday morning brought a severe case of the sickies my way. I've been sniffling and hacking and rolled into a blanket burrito on my couch for 48 hours. There are gifts to finish, baking to be done, THINGS TO DO, and I am SPENT. I am really hoping to feel better by Christmas Eve, for my family's dinner and gift exchange, because I would hate to be a damper on the evening!!! Send me some healthy vibes peeps!

Advent Day 16 :: Crazy? Or crazy awesome?

I have been wanting to take a picture of this house for weeks, and oh, I am so glad that I did...



Best viewed in all of its glory large here.

The walk to this house tonight afforded me a new level of appreciation for house decorating. Not only is this house using enough electricity to power a small country, but IT PLAYS MUSIC TOO. I especially enjoy the lights programmed to blink in rhythm with said music. The Virgin Mary flashing in turn with the Tasmanian Devil dressed as Santa Claus to a plinky plonky rendition of 'Winter Wonderland' was the real kicker.

I took my pictures like a sly paparazzi photographer and giggled all the way home.

What do you think? Crazy? Or crazy awesome? I'm leaning towards the former!

Advent Day 11 :: Flurry of Activity

My the past few days have been a flurry of activity! The holidays always do seem to take a life of their own the closer that we get to Christmas day...

Last night Matt and I had the real pleasure to attend BB's Nutcracker. I had never seen their production before, since I was always busy dancing in other productions elsewhere. I was really blown away. This is a Nutcracker not to be missed! Aside from the world class dancing the sets, costumes and lighting were so beautiful. My favorite moment was during the snow scene: Massive painted pine trees began to glow with twinkling lights as the "snow" began to fall down. I had a lump in my throat!

BB's website premiered a great little video the other day profiling one of this year's Claras. It's just over three minutes. I urge you to take a peek, and be schooled about the fabulous company.

The last few days were also a flurry of embroidery, as I rushed to finish up my Holiday Ornament Swap packages (late, as per usual). I embroidered eleven snowflakes total, ten to swap and one to keep. I love that they all turned out differently, just like real snowflakes! I must admit, these were a little difficult to send away, I love how they turned out!



Hope that all of you are enjoying the holiday season as much as I am! If you have anything special to share, please do in the comments!

Cheers, Sarah

Advent Day 7 :: A Sweet Gift

Yesterday our friends Jess and Alan gave us a sweet gift.



Holiday muffin mix and a huge container of mixed nuts coated in some sort of homemade caramel concoction. So delicious! In fact, a little too delicious...I ate a few too many of the mixed nuts and now I have a little caramel induced belly ache, whoops! That's what I get for being greedy!

I love little packaged up gifts like this. Do any of you have any fun little Christmas packages you like to put together for friends and family?

Advent Day 6 :: Christmas Card Writing Party

Here's the winter wonderland that I was talking about last night...



I took three pictures during my party today. I got the idea to do so from the fabulous book, 52 Projects by Jeffrey Yamaguchi.

Before



During



After



Most of us went to Bazaar Bizarre afterwards, and it was fabulous fun. I managed to buy lots of goodies for Matt, and a great book for my nephew. I'll share that soon, maybe tomorrow. For now, I'm exhausted, phew! Goodnight!

Advent Day 5 :: Christmas Snow and a Memory

I was cleaning up for my party tomorrow morning when lo and behold, just as my speakers were blaring Annie Lennox singing Winter Wonderland, I looked out my window, and there it was:



Christmas snow!

I have always loved snow. Some...okay, many... New Englanders get jaded about the fluffy stuff since it is with us for so much of our year. I guess I haven't reached that point yet. I hope that I never do!



When I was growing up, my bedroom window overlooked our street. When I was having trouble sleeping, I would get out of bed and watch the snow fly around by the light of the street lamp. I would kneel in front of that window, arms folded on the sill, chin resting on top and be hypnotized by the snow. Sometimes I would open the window to feel the icy air on my face and breath in a big whiff of "snow smell." I always used to tell my dad that I knew that it was going to snow because I could smell it. I figured out many years later that what I was smelling was our neighbors' chimneys. I guess our neighbors knew that it was coming too...the cold must have tipped them off!

Tonight I stood in my living room, held my broom, listened to Annie Lennox, stared past the tree, looked out the window and watched the snow fly around by the light of the street lamp. I was hypnotized. Still.

Advent Day 4 :: New Holiday Mix and Recipe

I recently completed the Holiday Mix CD and Recipe Swap over on Swap-bot. I was super pleased with what my partner Alyson sent to me. The mix is a perfect combination of classics, and new to me songs that I now love. I thought I would share the playlist and recipe that I received here:

Alyson's Holiday Mix

1. Boogie Woogie Santa Claus - Preacher Lee
2. Cha-Cha All the Way - Capitol Studio
3. Deck the Halls - Cuba L.A.
4. Feliz Navidad - Bobby Rodriguez
5. All I Want For... - Spike Jones
6. Indian Giver - Squirrel Nut Zippers
7. Winter Weather - Squirrel Nut Zippers (This is one of my new favorite songs!)
8. Baby It's Cold Outside - Brian Setzer
9. Sleigh Ride - Harry Connick
10. Merry Christmas Family - Dixie Chicks
11. Winter Wonderland - Eurythmics
12. Make Me a Present - Dinah Washington (Another new favorite)
13. Marshmellow World - Brenda Lee
14. Lasso Santa Claus - Brenda Lee
15. Santa's Messin' with the Kid - Eddie Campbell
16. Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
17. Blues for Christmas - John Lee Hooker
18. Swing Them Jingle Bells - Fats Waller
19. White Christmas - Louis Armstrong
20. Jingle Bells - Bing Crosby
21. Sleigh Ride - Glenn Miller Orchestra
22. Hands - Jewel
23. Silent Night - Stevie Nicks

Alyson's Nutmeg Cookies

Cookies:

1 cup soft butter
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp rum (or rum flavoring)
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3 cups flour
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

Frosting:

1/3 cup butter
2 tsp cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp rum
2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

For cookies: Mix wet ingredients in a large bowl. Mix dry ingredients in a smaller bowl. Add/mix dry into wet a bit at a time until well combined. Roll dough into cylinders about 1" in diameter and chop into cookies. Bake at 350 F approximately 12-15 minutes. Dough also works well with cookie cutters. Frost and sprinkle with nutmeg while fresh!

***

Sounds tasty, huh? I can't wait to try this recipe out!

Cheers, Sarah

P.S. I have to add a note: Today I am SUPER THANKFUL that my friend Gemma has found a job! I'm over the moon thankful for this! Hurray!

Advent Day 3 :: Holiday Handmade Crusade December Theme

The Holiday Handmade Crusade theme for December is: Shake and Bake!: Our last theme for the year is 'Shake and Bake.' I think that food is ultimate last minute gift. Edible gifts take just a little bit of time to make, and I have yet to find a person that does not appreciate tasty treats. Whip up something tasty for someone you love, and if you do, post a picture of the goods online, and link to it in the comments.

* Also - if you are crazy with last minute crafting, certainly link to those projects too! *

SPECIAL DECEMBER BONUS ENTRY OPPORTUNITY: I want the Crusade to carry on in 2010, and I am opening the floor to suggestions for monthly themes. This month you will receive one raffle entry for each monthly theme you suggest. I would love to hear your ideas!

Entries to be eligible for the raffle are due on December 24th by midnight EST

Want to join in the year-long crafty goodness and have the chance to win fabulous prizes? Read all about the Holiday Handmade Crusade here.

Be crafty and prosper,

<3 Your Craftastic Christmas Crusader

Advent Day 2 :: Time to Get the Christmas Tree

It's so...



EXCITING!



Weeeee! Driving to New Hampshire!



Objective achieved - tree obtained!



Crouching Sarah, Hidden by Tree



Time to bask in the glow!



The end.

:: inspired ::

I saw a tutorial online the other day and had one of those "I MUST MAKE THIS NOW!" moments. Following Resurrection Fern's Snowflake Pendant Tutorial, I started in on a little ornament. At first I followed Margie's snowflake sketch as closely as I could. By the time I started my second one, I had decided that all snowflakes are different, and these ornaments should be too! My third ornament, in progress doesn't look like the first at all! Love how that happens...



I'm thinking of making these my Holiday Ornament Swap ornaments. Which means I need to make ten. Plus I always make an extra for myself, which makes eleven. Then I'm participating in another swap, which I will tell you about soon, and I may include an ornament as an extra. That makes twelve. Plus I still have Christmas gifts to work on. Am I crazy? Just a little bit...We'll see if I can get all of this done!

Have you seen any tutorials online lately that you are just burning to do? I'd love to hear about it :)

Like New

Feeling much better today - it's amazing what a good night's sleep can do for the soul.

When we made our big move south, my beloved Christmas wreath was pretty much destroyed. Note to self : things with a styrofoam base need crazy amounts of protection in storage.

I couldn't bring myself to throw it away...so I hung on to it hoping for a solution to come to me. And what do you know, one did! I simply wound up the hanging pieces of yarn, taped the broken pieces together with packing tape, and wound new yarn over the packing tape to hide the fix.

It looked so great - I couldn't resist putting it up with my new garland. A little early, but it can double as fall-ish too, right?

Crafting with Technology

Whew! I finally finished formatting family photos for two Christmas gifts that I'm working on. I am making a memory game following directions from Alicia Paulson's book, Stitched in Time. Here is an example of a finished set from the Stitched in Time Flickr Group. My nieces and nephews on Matt's side of the family all live very far away from us. We only see each other about once a year, twice if we're lucky. So, I thought it would be nice for two of the little ones in the family to have a memory game set with all of the Cost family members in it, so that our faces remain familiar, even though we do not see each other too often. I typed our names into each photo too, since they are each probably learning to read.

Once the photos were edited, I had to put all of them into one document, with specific spacing to create a border. Not gonna lie, it made my brain hurt a bit. Formatting is not my friend! But thank goodness the hard part is over and done with! Now I just have to buy a new ink cartridge so that I can actually print the photos out!

What are you working on these days?

Holiday Handmade Crusade :: November Theme!

Warm and Toasty!

Alright Holiday Crusaders, we are getting down to the line, and for many of us two things are becoming a precious commodity: TIME and WARMTH! Use this month to whip up some warmth inspiring gifts for those on your list. Think scarves, hats, mittens, blankets. All of these projects are quick and easy and will keep your friends and family warm and toasty!

Live in a warm climate? No worries...take some of these ideas and translate them into lighter, cooler fare. For example, instead of a wool knit scarf, make a silk dyed scarf.

And remember, my themes are just here for inspiration. Want to enter something else? Be my guest :)

Entries to be eligible for a raffle prize are due on November 30th by midnight EST

***

This month I'm ahead of the game with a little hat I whipped up for my nephew. My favorite teddy bear, Pookie, was kind enough to model for me...

Tassels


Earflaps


Pom-pom!


Hat!


I can't *WAIT* to slip this on Aaron's cute head! I've never put a pom-pom on anything, and I think I might be in love with the cuteness!

Just for fun, how would you interpret the theme 'warm and toasty'?

Gloom and Doom (and Garlands and Knitting)

It has happened...first cold of the year, and it's a doozy! The aches and croaky voice started in on me yesterday at work and by this morning I had a fever, headache and a nose running like a faucet. Yippee!

To make today extra enjoyable it is gloomy and rainy here in Boston. Later in the afternoon, the already icky weather morphed into this:



SNOW! I couldn't believe it! Normally I would be the first to cheer for a first snow but a) It's October and b) It's crappy wet snow, not fluffy Christmas happiness inducing tra-la-la snow!

GRR, so that's my gloom and doom report for the day. Let's lighten things up a bit shall we?

After seeing many, many examples on blogs and Flickr, earlier this week I made a scrap paper garland for myself.



It's pretty cute, if I do say so myself! Bettie Page is hiding up there too!



I'm also back on the Holiday Handmade Crusade bandwagon. I'm ashamed to say that I've been a very lazy Craftastic Christmas Crusader in the past few months. Late with themes, late with prizes, but it's October people and it's time for me to get movin'! My October theme is Hearth and Home. Let me explain:

During autumn and harvest time, I get decidedly nest-y. I think something about my personality makes me want to prepare our little home and make it as comfortable as possible as we transition to spending more time indoors. So, therefore, I declare October's theme Hearth and Home. Make something that will spruce up someone on your gift list's home. This time of year is great for finding wreath making materials, or perhaps you could sew a pillow or create a beautiful piece of art. Anything to make a home more cozy! The sky is the the limit!

I've been working on multiple wash cloths for this very theme:



I'm going to purchase locally made bars of soap, wrap them in the wash cloths and tie them up with some scrap fabric. These will go to some of the ladies in my family. Hopefully they will appreciate a little hand made goodness to brighten up their bathrooms. I have three out of five done and luckily these knit up fast.

Have any of you been doing some holiday crafting in advance? I'd love to hear about it :)

Alright folks, back to guzzling tea, blowing my nose and sleeping. REPEAT.

**ANOTHER PREZZY SPOILER FOR RENEE - NO PEEKING!**

NO PEEKS, AGAIN, RENNY - DO NOT READ BELOW!



Okay, now that Ren is hopefully not reading anymore, this post is going to be re-titled

CRAFTY FAIL...INTO CRAFTY 'HELL YEAH'!

Ren's birthday is shortly after Christmas, so I thought I would include her birthday gift in my Holiday Handmade Crusade. Of course I wouldn't want her to know that her birthday present was very nearly a crafty fail.

My second attempt at copper enameling was a complete FAIL!



FAIL!!! This pendant was supposed to be pink in the center, with a halo of light green around the edges. The green enamel completely disappeared. Those polka dots, which look questionably like period stains, (sorry for the gross imagery, but that's all I could think of when I saw this come out of the kiln), were clear pieces of sparkly glass. My husband, who taught copper enameling at the Bay for five summers straight, and was sitting next to me watching me do this, neglected to tell me that clear glass reacts unpredictably during the enameling process. I blame him, HA!

However, I had to pay for this piece of crap that I created, so I needed to figure out a crafty way to salvage the situation.

Origami paper to the rescue!



There ain't nothin' that Mod Podge can't fix!

I cut out a myriad of teeny-tiny flowers from washi paper, before deciding on this combination. I am so in love with this necklace, I almost considered keeping it. I'll be good though, and give it away! I hope Ren likes it!

And she'll never know it looked like a period stain!

:D