Adventskalender

To sweeten the single life

Coming soon...

It's been in the works for quite a while, but I'm glad to finally announce a new little business venture coming soon. "Glueckskind" was founded by my friend Sophie and me, and offers fine handcrafted jewelry using sterling silver, Swarovski Crystals and semi precious gemstones. Even though the official store-opening is not until the middle of January 2011, we thought we'd already give you a little glimpse of what you can expect.

Boo!

OCPD*

*= Obsessive Compulsive Painting Disorder. That is what I have, according to my husband.
He might be right, but seriously, didn't this just turn out fabulous?

Chunky Sweet & Spiced Apple Butter

If you want to know how fall tastes, try this. It's perfect. Perfect on toast. Perfect with roasted meat. Perfect all by itself. Just perfect. AND: Not only does it use up a good chunk of apples, it's also made in the slow cooker, which means it's super easy, fast (at least the hands-on-part) and there is no mess to clean up. You throw everything in the pot before you go to bed and when you wake up the next morning it's done and just sitting there, waiting to be eaten.
Fall doesn't get better than this. Seriously.

Chunky Sweet and Spiced Apple Butter



4 cups (about 1 ¼ pounds) peeled and chopped apples
¾ cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
¼ cup butter, divided
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground cloves
1 ½ tsp vanilla

Combine apples, sugar, vinegar, 2 tbsp butter, cinnamon, salt and cloves in slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours
Stir in remaining butter and vanilla. Cool completely.
Makes 2 cups

An apple a day

Or two. Or three. Or 35 pounds. Which is exactly how much we have standing around in our kitchen right now. Let's just say, the offer was so good, we couldn't say no. While looking at this huge box kind of scares me, it's also pretty awesome, since I finally get to try all those great apple recipes, that I've been collecting for years. So far I've already found some real gems. Like this one.



Bavarian Apple Tart




dough:
1 ½ cups flour
½ cup butter
1 egg
3 tbsp chopped parsley
Salt

filling:
3 apples, peeled and thinly sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 cup ham, sliced or cubed
1-2 cups sour cream
¼ cup white wine
2 eggs
Thyme
salt and pepper

For dough, mix together flour, butter, egg, parsley and one pinch of salt until it forms a smooth dough. Wrap in foil and chill for about 30min. In the meantime sauté apples, onions and ham until soft, about 5-10min. Season with salt and pepper. Add white wine and cook until completely evaporated, ca. 5 min. Cool and mix with sour cream, thyme and eggs. Roll out dough and press in tart pan. Top with apple-mixture and bake at 375 F for about 30 min or until top starts to turn golden brown.

Craft of the day (and night)

I found the idea for this pillow a while ago and I've wanted to make it ever since. It's actually quite simple (for instructions click here ) but, boy, was it a lot more work then I anticipated. Turns out, cutting, pressing and sewing 1 1/2 yards of felt circles does take it's time.

Getting ready for school

It's official. Ava is going to start preschool next week. Joy school, to be exact. And even though we're very excited about this at our house, it also means that there is tons of planning, organizing, preparing and of course crafting to do.
Here are some things I've made so far:


The "yet to be named" mascot


The joy school house.
There will be a picture of each child in the windows when it's finished.


We've also had the ingenious idea to paint a little chalkboard on the kitchen wall. Upper part for me, lower part for Ava. Let's just say it was a BIG hit. She is constantly drawing something. I think we've already gone through a whole package of chalk and we've only had it for about a week.



Here she is drawing some bicycles. I caught them on picture about 2 seconds
before she erased it all. Got to be fast here.



Writing her name



And a smiley face

And by the way: No, I have no clue, why she is doing it all upside down, I think it's pretty funny, though.

Party Recap

It's already been a couple of weeks since Ava's birthday party, and I'm finally getting around to post a little recap.
Even though it took some convincing at first, that a Princess party might not go down so well with her mostly male party guests, we were eventually able to settle on a theme that we could all agree on. In fact, she was so excited, that she hardly slept the night before and when she woke up in the morning, the first thing she said was: "Are the kids here yet?" I'm pretty sure, if it was up to Ava, we would have the next party right away.
Thanks for coming y'all and making it such a special day!

Fabric Frenzy

I guess I must have been sitting in front of the computer screen for way too long. Otherwise I can't think of a good explanation for my recent obsession with geometric patterns. Especially considering, that up until now, I would have described my style as everything BUT modern.
Since you never know how long a phase like that lasts, I had to get started right away.
After creating the patterns on the computer, I used my old standby freezer paper transfers-method to get it onto the fabric. Depending on the pattern, it can be crazy time intense, but it also lets you experiment freely until you find exactly what you like. Here are some of the things I made:

Meet Menu

A while ago I made little fabric dolls. If you think they're original, just wait until you see the names Ava came up with.

"MENU"
(She is from the Bronx)


"MENU'S FRIEND FROM GERMANY".
(I think you can guess where she is from)

And since this was going so well, she moved right on and decided to name some of her other dolls as well.

Like this precious Kaethe Kruse.
From now on, you can call her
"BLAZER"
(she is from Germany as well)



But I think this one is still my favorite.
May I introduce:
"BLAZER, THE MAN"
(unfortunately, her origin is still a mystery. I'd be really curious to figure this one out)

Bitter

So, why have I been feeling more like this lately:

instead of that:

Oh yeah, that's right. Because we're still in the low 60s, even though it's almost JULY!!
So where exactly is this "PERFECT CLIMATE" that everyone has been telling us about?? If that means that I'm getting cheated out of a real summer, it doesn't sound that great to me.
And don't tell me, that "this is the first time ever..." and "usually it's never like that...". Right.
I'm done with cloudy skies and chilly temperatures. I WANT MY SUMMER. NOW.

Dressy

A couple of months ago I made this dress for Ava. It's just a simple A-line dress with some fabric flowers sewn on around the neckline. For weeks it was all she wanted to wear.

What to do with Mr.P

Even though I've really tried my darndest, it turns out, buying childrens' toys based on the color scheme of your home doesn't quite work so well. Especially as soon as they try to pick everything out themselves... (Princess stuff, anyone?)
Sooner or later you end up with some pretty serious eyesores laying around the house.
Like Mr. P.
And his wife.
And kids.
And his gazillion ears, noses, eyes, arms, feet, clothes.......
Not to mention all the other small toy stuff that just mysteriously seems to accumulate over time.
Time to do a little organizing. It came out quite nicely. Who would have guessed, that Mr. P and I could ever live together so peacefully.

Freezer paper transfers on basic linen, sewn to different sized bags. Strings made from basic hemp twine.