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Category: baking

December Daily Days 10-14

This chunk of my album is dedicated to the time we spent visiting our family and friends in Richmond, Virginia. It was a very busy trip, but it was wonderful to get to spend time with people who are so special to us. We even got to have several different “Christmases” with various family groupings, which Henry was particularly excited about.

In my last post, I created a complete list of the products and kits I used for my album, so if you are interested in that, you can check it out here.

Day 10 was our first full day in Richmond, and we mostly spent it with Tom’s Dad and step-mom. For this layout I paired three 3×4 photos with one 3×4 card embellished with a cardinal on a pop dot. We were in Virginia after all. I also used another one of the large shipping tags from Ali Edwards’ main kit to hold my journaling. I used ribbon to attach two acetate ornaments to the top, and the number fit perfectly into the top ornament. I like how they move freely as the tag turns in the album.

Day 11 was a quiet day at home, for the most part. My best friend, Eva, came over with her youngest little girl to play for the day. Laura and Marcello also joined us. The weather was beautiful, so we spent most of the time outside. I used the back of the large shipping tag to hold a photo, which paired nicely with a 3×4 pocket page. I like the continuity of having the large shipping tags through out the album.

Day 12 was a combination two things we did that day, mostly because I wanted to include that sweet picture of Henry at dinner, and it’s my album, so I make the rules! The main story of the day, however, was how Mom treated Laura and I to a cooking class as one of our Christmas presents. We learned how to make French macarons, which were really quite tricky.

I was so excited to use the 3×4 card featuring baked goods from Feed Your Craft for this layout, and I was happy that the fabric circle matched the colors on the card. For the 6×8 full page layout, I used pattern paper Crate Paper’s Snowflake kit along with a stripe of gold washi to back a 5×7 photo of Henry doing “cheers” with Mom and Charles. I was so thrilled that January’s kit from Ali Edwards included the perfect stamp!

Day 13 is one of my favorite spreads in the album, because I love all the color! The whole family went to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens to see the lights, which were absolutely magnificent. For the full page 6×8 layout, I used the same gold washi from the previous layout for continuity, and used stickers and stamps to create an effect of ornaments hanging down from the top of the page. The ornaments are from Feed Your Craft’s Of the Season kit. This was the first time I have used stamps that layer on top of one another, (the “filling” of the ornament is a different stamp from the outside). It was super nerve wracking to cut these out by hand, but I am really happy with the end result. Again, I used a large shipping tag to hold the journaling, and used ribbon to attach different acetate ribbons to the front and a small poinsettia tag to the back.

Day 14 is all about our visit with Dad, Sharon, Laura, and James. We went to breakfast together in the morning, and exchanged gifts later that day. I love how the alpha from Feed Your Craft perfectly matches the diner “aesthetic.” of Waffle House. I really love the full page 6×8 photo of Henry watching Santa climb up the ladder, and I didn’t want to detract from it, so I added a simple transparency and piece of chipboard for a simple embellishment.

In retrospect, I kind of wish that I had done a small traveler’s notebook for our trip to DC and VA so that I could include more detailed stories than fit in my December Daily album. I am thrilled to have these stories in my album, though, and maybe I’ll try something different another time. Have you tried using a traveler’s notebook as part of your December Daily? How did you like it?

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Happy Birthday Tom!

On August 11th, Tom turned 30!!  Since we’ve both had a very busy summer, he decided to take the day off so we could enjoy it together.  We started the morning with a cupcake party!  The previous day, SIL Suz came over, and we proceeded to make 30 cupcakes, in three different flavors, (ten of each flavor).  It was chaos, with two stand mixers going, and flour flying, but we got them finished, iced and hidden before Tom came home.  The next morning, I set the cupcakes up in the number 30 followed by a !, and surrounded with Reese’s Cups, his favorite candy.  It was so cool. 

 

Cupcakes were followed by presents.  He got lots of pretty cool presents this year, including some handmade pillows from his mom, a Lego headlamp from his sister, a GPS from my mom and Charles, and finally a Lego Star Wars set set,  one of our pictures if Mt Baker printed on canvas, and tickets to see The Waifs from me. 

 

 

After present time, we went for a hike!  We wanted to do a hike which wasn’t too far from home, as we had to get back in time for the concert that evening.  We decided on Snow Lake, which is a short, fun, flower-filled hike on the I-90 corridor not too far from the house.  We had great weather that day, lots of sunshine.  Even though it was the middle of the week, there were still a fair number of folks on the trail, but it’s a popular route, so we weren’t too surprised.  We had a yummy lunch, (complete with cupcakes!), at the lake, took a quick dip, and headed back.

 

 

After cleaning up from the hike, we headed into Seattle.  The concert was at The Triple Door, which is this neat venue that shares the building, (and the kitchen), with one of Seattle’s ymmiest restaurants, Wild Ginger.  The deal with this venue is, you arrive early, eat dinner and have some drinks, then the musicians come on stage.  It’s like dinner theatre, except with music instead of theatre.  The band, The Waifs, is a folk/rock band from Australia that we both like.  The show was excellent!

 

  

Tom’s birthday was a very fun, long day, that he seemed to love.  Happy Birthday Tom!  Here’s to many more!

Little did he know, there was still more fun waiting from him that weekend…

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What’s Cookin’? Spring and Early Summer

We’ve been doing a lot of cooking around here recently.  I’ve been relying on old standards such as The Pioneer Woman, Joy the BakerSmitten Kitchen,  Williams Sonoma, and, of course, Martha.  Tom’s been doing some cooking too!  Well, he mostly just cooks one thing.  Pizza. But man, does he cook pizza!  Seriously folks, I’m spoiled for life because of this man.  Here’s a peek at some of the delicious things that have been coming out of our kitchen…

 

In order from left to right, Chocolate Dipped Macaroons, (which I whipped too much and they turned out like meringues, which was NOT a bad thing), Blueberry Crumb Bars, and Two Chocolate Endpaper Tart, (ah, Martha). 

 

 

Fresh Veggie Soft Tacos, (with greens from our garden), pizza makings, (we LOVE prosciutto), Caramelized Onion Red Pepper Prosciutto Pizza, and Caramelized Onion Prosciutto Pizza.  Oh my, if you like pizza, you need  to make that last one.  Did I mention that we like pizza?   And cured meat products apparently, (sorry vegan friends). 

Since it is now summer time, and our garden and farmer’s markets are in full swing, expect more food posts to involve local food!  Yay!

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Lemon-Drenched Lemon Cake

Ok, so I confess that I LOVE to read food blogs. I have several that I read on a regular basis, one of which is Joy the Baker, http://www.joythebaker.com/. Today, I noticed that she had posted about her favorite quick breads, something which I really enjoy baking because you don’t have all the waiting around for yeasts to do their thing like regular bread making requires. I’m not the world’s most patient person, and I also have a husband who bounces, thus making somewhat temperamental “rising” recipes difficult in this house.

I’ve been feeling under the weather recently, and can’t really taste anything due to a blocked nose, so I wanted to bake something that really had some uumph behind it. Enter the Lemon-Drenched Lemon Cake. Ahhh lemon, how I love thee. We seriously love lemon around here, and this cake lived up to the yumminess expectations.

Simple ingredients, (There’s a sinful amount of butter in this cake. Deal.):

Combined (I love my stand mixer. If you bake, you must buy one. It’s better than a TV in your kitchen.):

To make lemony heaven. Oh yum.


If you’re not vegan, make this now. I promise you’ll be glad you did.
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