This makes me smile

My little boy and his found leaf on a freezing winter morning. The maple leaf now sits merrily on our Christmas tree.

Getting ready for the festive season

The year-end festive season is always my favorite, and it's always my busiest. Two birthdays, a wedding anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, house-guests, cards to make, gifts to shop for, a home to decorate... with lots of eating and merriment in-between. Here's a glimpse of what I've been up to the last few weeks.

Two-Event Countdown Calendar


We had back-to-back house-guests since Thanksgiving, so I made a versatile countdown calendar for my boys to keep track of our guests' arrival as well as the impending holidays. I made two pockets out of page protectors, sized them so they each fit an index card. So all my boys do is write an event title on an index card for which they're counting down to, and easily switch it out when that event passes. I used House of 3's two week countdown kit but edited some of the cards as well as created another 17 day cards to add to the pack, making it a 31-day countdown calendar, a request from my 5-year-old son.

Christmas Tags


Inspired by several scenes from Pottery Barn's catalog, I went and created a stack of Christmas-themed tags to hang on our Noble Fir tree this year. I used photoshop brushes from House of 3 as well as other free brushes that I found online. I'm so happy with how the tags turned out!



Wall of Art


I've always admired walls decorated with photo frames like this and these. So this season I decided to use our dining room wall to hang my collection of prints and photos. I happily expect the white wall space to diminish as I add to my collection next year. By the way, I'm so thankful to have learned about the Command line of hanging strips and hooks this season (I know, where have I been, right?), thanks to a segment on Martha Stewart's show! It's because of their products that I'm able to hang these frames and plaques and move them around freely without the hassle of nails and hammers!

Pinecone-filled Crates


I bought this set of lovely nesting herb crates this Summer and have only hung them up just before Thanksgiving. I had thought hard about what to fill them with, and then had a lightbulb moment when I took out my collection of pinecones. So here they are today filled with pinecones! I love how charming they look!

Bottles and Yarn



I have a small collection of glass bottles and decided to use a couple of them on my mantel this year. To dress them up, I wound wool yarn around each bottle. I love how the bottles instantly came alive with texture and color.

So there 'ya go, just a couple of projects that have kept me busy the last month or so. I'll post photos of our Christmas tree soon!

Tree decorating the preschooler way

I couldn't resist sharing this. Those of you who have little kids can probably relate *chuckle*. Here's the aftermath of giving my 5- and 2-year-old sons full reign of decorating the tree. Notice the ball ornaments are hung closely together and at the bottom half of the tree where my littlest one can reach, ha ha ha! Of course when they were in school the next day, this momma re-hauled the tree decorating.

This makes me smile: Marshmallow Pilgrim Hat cookies

I made these for my kindergartener's class Thanksgiving party today. Yummy and so cute! I saw these last year at Bunny Cakes blog and was so taken by them. From the reactions of my little boys, it looks like these will have to be an annual Thanksgiving treat now!

Chocolate mint hazelnut bark

A quick and simple treat for the family. Sprinkle chopped hazelnuts onto melty, swirly dark chocolate and mint morsels, then refrigerate for an hour. Break into pieces and serve. Decadent!

P/S: I'm going to add dried cranberries to my next batch!

Tuesday's inspiration

I stopped in my tracks when I saw these adoable felt buns and steam basket! Made me hungry for some dim sum for sure. See more of Swiedebie's felt creations at her etsy store.

Good reading

Cloudy skies,
chilly morning,
kids happily in school;
chunky slice of chocolate cake,
a mug of warm Milo,
not a stir in the house.
Northhanger Abbey awaits me at last.

Tuesday's inspiration

Today I am smitten with Lisa DeJohn's beautiful Gingerbread City, aren't you? Love. Love. Love!

Tuesday's inspiration ...3 days later

Nothing like a Pottery Barn catalog to get me into the Christmas mood. Their December issue arrived yesterday and my head is spinning excitedly with ideas for our Christmas tree this year. Allow me to share my 2009 tree 'n mantel inspiration board.

1. 2. 5. Pottery Barn, 3. Country Living, 4. Ormolu, 6. unknown

Skeleton Boy and Heat Blast

Halloween came; Halloween went. Boy, did my two little munchkins had fun! My 2.5-year-old was very into Halloween this year, he caught on to trick'o'treating really quickly. He was up there, excited at ringing door bells, and yelling (really yelling) "Trick or treat!" as the doors open, so cute! Hope you had a fun Halloween too!

Little dudes playing with glow sticks

Today's breakfast...

...fresh Genovese basil tossed with organic strawberries in a bowl of Silk chocolate soy milk and Post Selects Great Grains Raisins, Dates, & Pecans cereal. Instant perk-me-up!

This makes me smile: My bedroom style board

A little wish list I put together this past weekend for our master bedroom makeover. My hub and I are loving the soothing gray and white palette; now to turn cc points into West Elm giftcards! Oh, and the wall decals are on their way, yeah!

1. Bloom wall decals, Gray, 2. Chalkstripe and Pinstripe Pillowcases, 3. Cubby Organizer, 4. Grid Tufted Headboard, Charcoal Mélange, 5. Pin-Tuck Duvet Cover, Sea Spray, 6. Home Bed Skirt, Molten Lead, 7. Jondal Mirror, 8. Velvet Grommet Drape, Stone, 9. Alve Corner Workstation

Tuesday's inspiration

Look at these cute rag quilts by etsy store The Trunk Show! I love the fun colors and especially their soft frayed edges, makes me want to reach out and snuggle with them.

This makes me smile

Nothing like squeaky-clean white dishes dripping wet and drying on the rack at 7 in the morning.

Turkey taco pot pie

I was hankering for some cosy comfort food last night and was flipping through the Fall '09 edition of Kraft Foods Food & Family magazine when I came upon the recipes for chicken pot pie and taco sloppy joe. Light bulb moment! What if I kinda sorta combined the two! And so I did. The recipe follows:

* 1 small onion, chopped
* 1 lb ground turkey
* 1 can corn, drained
* 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
* frozen peas and carrots
* 1 jar mild peach-pineapple salsa (Safeway Select)
* 2 cups shredded Mexican style four cheese
* 1 can (8oz) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls, big and flaky variety

I browned the onion and ground turkey (seasoned with salt, pepper, and some dried Italian herbs) in a skillet, drained and added it to the bottom of a baking dish. In the same skillet, I added corn, black beans, frozen peas and carrots, and a three-quarter jar of mild peach-pineapple salsa. The salsa barely had any heat to it hence a favorite with my two little boys. After the contents in the skillet were heated through, I mixed in about 2 cups of cheese. Next, I poured the contents over the ground turkey in the baking dish and spread it out evenly. The final step - I unrolled the dough and placed it over the pot pie mixture, making sure the perforations were sealed. This was baked for 20 minutes in a 375'F oven.

Look at the golden flaky crust! Love, love, love!
This was a hit with the family and is easily one of my favorite dishes. I love being able to taste the salsa and I'm glad I skipped the taco seasoning mix or it would've overpowered the dish. It is definitely an easy-and-quick-to-make dish and suitable for young children. My 2-year-old and 5-year-old boys ate this so quickly, I was just grinning from ear to ear! Oh, this makes great leftovers too.

Tuesday's inspiration

It's the simple gather of pleats held together by a strip of linen that I'm drawn to and inspired by. See this and other beautiful pillows and burlap buckets at etsy store designs maya*made.

Snuggling with sweater weather oatmeal cookies

It's finally looking like Fall weather here in the San Francisco Bay Area, after oh what, only a steamy 95'F weekend! Tuesday was wonderful, it was blustery and cosy! I'm so ready for the cool season. And cool weather brings out the baker in moi.

Yesterday I baked some aptly named Sweater Weather Cookies, recipe by the one and only Oatmeal Cookie Guy. I loved biting into the cookie and being enveloped by the orange scent, the orange taste. My boys couldn't help themselves either, downing 3 and 4 at a go, and mind you these were jumbo sized cookies (I used a 2-inch scoop).

To quote my favorite Oatmeal Cookie Guy, "Orangey, spicy, bright, slightly smokey, and autumnal" ...all so very true! I'm definitely baking more of these orange gems this season.

Tuesday's inspiration

ute drop cap, isn't it! Ha, for some reason it reminds me of my favorite Halloween candy, Reese's peanut butter cup! Check out Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische for new illustrative initial every day. Beautiful designs!

Tuesday's inspiration

How cute is this ruler print fabric from etsy store Chalinn*s! Love, love, love!

Crafty sneak peek ~ Happiness layout

Here's a layout that I had completed on Sunday. I remember these moments at La Jolla Cove back in 1996 vividly; happy to be at the cliffs and coves by the ocean, but especially happy to share it with my husband ~ boyfriend at the time ~ *smile*.

One of my favorite elements on this layout is the white fuzzy rub-ons (Heidi Swapp) on the stripey ribbon; I love the texture on texture look!


The tags are another element that I love. I had a lot of fun stamping them; first I stamped some doily images, then inked the dots using Heidi Swapp's dots mask, and finally aged the tags with Distress Inks using the blending technique.

For more texture, I added red leather flowers (Making Memories) and glued metal embellishments onto them. And to finish it off, I tucked in short strips of antique trim here and there. I must say I really like the end result!