8 days till Christmas, just can't be

So the best and I have been super busy getting ready for the holidays. I got to swing by a new place downtown to try their bubble tea. It wasn't as good as the bubble tea I used to get in Boston, but it was still yummy...
Ok, so one of the first projects we've completed was making coasters. We took a strip of industrial rubber wall base and cut the lip off. Then we cut it into sqares. We printed off pictures of our friends and modge podged them on. I love making modge podge a verb.

We put a couple layers on top of the pictures. This is the stage where I was freaking out, being a modge podge newbie, I panicked that it goes on so foggy. But no fear, it dries nice and clear!

Oh, how we heart modge podge!!

Nate and I FINALLY got our tree. I was crying about it so much, Nate brought home a tree for me, and we spent an evening decorating it. Ain't it puurrrdy?


Lastly, our vanilla was ready to be bottled! We strained it through coffee filters to get any vanilla chunks out.
This ended up taking for-ev-er, so we strained it through a tea steaper.

Then we poured the strained vanilla extract into the little bottles we got. Kate got this funnel at Home Depot on sale for like a dollar....oil...vanilla extract....close enough...

Kate made these cute little bottle labels, you can't tell but they have pink ribbons on them.

In a moment of boredom I decided to make Harley a sticker head...she clearly wasn't happy with me...So I called her more names. "Hey, don't call me a sticker head!"

Oh the simple pleasures...

peace out,

Crafty Christmas, well under way!

Ok, I'm so behind on blogging this, but the best and I have gotten well under way with our Crafty Christmas! Firstly, we are baking up a storm. Every week we are each baking a huge batch of cookie dough then throwing it in my big chest freezer. Then the week of Christmas, we're going to spend a day baking and making Christmas cookie platters for friends, neighbors, and parties.

We didn't take pictures last week, but we made Eggnog Cookies and Chocolate Crinkles. The Crinkles were to die for. period. end of story, so freaking good. The Eggnog cookies were a little weird. Kate and I both liked them, but my hunnie Nate who's reaping the benefits of our cooking sprees, didn't like it all it. It kind of has that weird spiciness to it. The recipe calls to sprinkle them with nutmeg, but it was a little too much. When we make the big batch we're going to sprinkle with cinnamon instead.

This week we cooked up Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Cookies and All-in-One Cookies, since honestly I lost my recipes and forgot to pick up any ingredients, and I already had everything needed for this recipe. Well it's been going really well...

We mix up huge batches of cookie dough...

Put them in the freezer to harden before putting them in gallon size zip lock bags.

There's a little bit of bowl licking...

And of course we have to test our creations....we decided to try the All-in-One dough as a thumbprint cookie with jam.....putting the jam on the cookie before cooking it...bad idea....

This is the face of failure. It's looking at you.


Spoiler Alert: if you are related to me, stop reading this.




Ok, so on to some of the gifts were making. Kate found a "recipe" for vanilla extract, basically vodka and vanilla beans, and found a site for these cute little bottles:

It's going to take right up until Christmas for this stuff to be ready. In the meantime I'll be designing and label for the bottles.

We've also made ornaments. Here's mine:


Kind of dark and hard to see, but we found some glittery floral stuff and pretty ribbons with glittered monogram letter stickers. Kate's are much more funky:

You can't really tell but that red ribbon is zebra print, and it's awesome! She also made these fun fish crayons! Cool huh?


Until next time,

Picking up Momentum

So I can finally breathe again! It’s crazy just how busy life can get, but now that the show at St. Dom’s is over and I have finally started to settle into my new (part time) job life is feeling a little more grounded. This past Memorial Day weekend Nate and I went upta camp. We had a great time, it’s always nice to spend time with family and Rob and Diane, and it was making me even more excited for our wedding! The weather was so beautiful; it was easy to visualize us standing there at pride rock saying “I do”. So besides Harley getting a hold of a chicken bone and ralfing all over the couch in the middle of the night, it was a great weekend.

I wanted to share some of the projects Nate and I have going on. Nate’s getting back into building his hallway mirrors. Ain’t it purdy?


He's making these to sell, so if you want one let me know!! :) We are also making them with chalkboards instead of a mirror and a variety of colors and finishes.
I don't think you read my blog, but if your name begins with a K and ends with aylee, stop right here!


My old friend Kaylee has a baby shower coming up so I've been working on some things for her. When we were in middle school she Kate and I would watch Monty Python and The Holy Grail and thought it was just the funniest movie of all time. So Kate and I are making her a little MP&THG gag gifts along with a "real" one. Here's the first gag onsie....


And some burp cloths I've been busting out. The pink and brown ones are for Kaylee and she's making Riley's nursery all pink and brown, so cute! The others I'm thinking of putting on Etsy. Would you buy a cute homemade burp cloth?
Lastly, our upta camp finds! We took the four wheelers down the road to go look at the old school house that had collapsed this winter. A couple years ago, Kate, Jason, Rob, Diane, Nate and I had taken a little trip down the school house to investigate. At that time it was still standing. We took some old bottles, but inside there was the most beautiful old cast iron cook top wood stove. I wanted it so bad, but it probably weighed a ton. Well, the room collapsed on the building this winter, which is just so sad, and the wood stove was a casualty. (Yes, you can break cast iron, with enough force it cracks). But we did steal these old windows!

Not sure what to do with them, but something will come to me!


We also found this little side table in the attic of the garage upta camp. There's also a beautiful old rocker up there I want to steal. :)


And, Nate found this "tool box" and I immediately said I bet I could make something out of that! lol not sure what, I'm thinking a planter, but we'll see.

Problem is, I am so sick today!! Uhhg!! I went to bed with a sore throat and a pounding headache and it only was worse when I woke up. So besides going to work I'm going to take it easy today, these projects will just have to wait....

Keep on Keepin' on,

Twall, Holes, and Cooking

Just dropping by to say hello...

It's been a pretty quiet weekend. I had Nelda, a friend of Ann's, come over and help me set up my sewing machine yesterday and get me started. I am so excited! We started a pair of pajama pants and totally screwed them up, ha ha, so I spent much of my afternoon ripping my messed up seams. I did, however, manage to pull this little beauty off:

It's a cover so the pillow slips in the back and it can come off to be washed :) I wanted to make two but I messed up try #1, so there wasn't enought fabric for a second, oh well!! I just have to say, I really love Twall. I have a funny story as to how I remember that Twall is called Twall but it is completely inappropriate for this blog ha ha ask me in person some time...

Friday was the Variety Show, and the kids did a good job, it was cute. Here's my brother, Jake's act. (He's in the green) He and his friends Guy and Joe did the song "Diggin' Holes" from the movie "Holes". Goofballs:

And on a completely random note, I got my Pioneer Woman Cookbook in the mail!!! AAAhhhh!! I am so excited!! If you don't know about the Pioneer Woman you need to go check her out. She's funny, and always fun to read, and she has the best recipes! None of this cooking light BS, she cooks good, down home, comfort food! She's the bees knees :)

That's all for now. Have a wonderful Sunday, and enjoy this weather if you are here in Maine, we don't see days like this too often!!