Gingerbread

This was my first solo attempt at making cake balls.  I wanted to make something festive and easy to enjoy on Thanksgiving, so I chose a boxed gingerbread cake mix.  You bake the cake normally and let it fully cool and then break up the cake (with your hands) and mix in about 3/4 of a container of frosting.   

All mixed up and rolled with cream cheese frosting, ready to go into the freezer for about 45 minutes to set up. 

I speared the cake balls on a wooden skewer before dipping them in melted white chocolate that I colored with green food coloring.  After they were all coated in green I popped them back in the fridge for a little bit and then topped them off with more white chocolate and red sugar!  I wasn't able to coat the cake as evenly as I would have liked, but I think the mini muffin liners complete the look.

Still here...

I know it's been quite a while since I updated you all...  October was VERY busy!  Nicks parents came for a visit the second weekend for the U of A v. Oregon State football game.  They brought 2 other couples with them too.  Unfortunately, the Wildcats lost, but I was kind of happy that the out of towners got a win.  And the game didn't disappoint either, it was back and forth the whole game and wasn't decided until the final seconds!  We had a great time visiting with everyone and had AMAZING weather too, did lots of outside activities and even took my M-I-L to a ZUMBA class.  We also made two trips up to Phoenix, once for a Lewis & Roca retreat and then for an investment club meeting.  We had to movee out of our place by the middle of October, so during our last trip to Phoenix we rented a Uhaul and picked up all of our stuff [that friends and family so graciously stored for over a year!] that was scattered in various places all over Mesa / Scottsdale.  Which included getting all of our wedding gifts!!  FINALLY!!  We even made a pit stop in Tucson and cleaned out our storage unit too!!! 

I seriously felt like it was Christmas unpacking all of the Crate & Barrel gift boxes!!  I had to stop myself at one point to make sure Nick had a chance to take part in the fun...  :)  And now I feel like we have our own Crate & Barrel store in our kitchen!  Between unpacking all of the gifts and buying new stuff to fill our home up with, I feel like the Return Queen!  I have been at the Super Target so many times first thing in the morning, I am surprised they don't know me yet!!

So now we are all unpacked and settled in our new house.  I am busy trying to get it decorated for the holidays, but that's going slowly...  We will be getting a Christmas tree [fake, much to Nicks dismay] in the coming weeks!  I can't wait!!!  It will be the first Christmas we will get to decorate for as a married couple!!  Last year in New York our studio was so teeny and we were gone in AZ for 3 weeks so the most I did was make Nick an advent calendar.  [Which I need to get working on!]

I have been busy crafting away!  My friend Brittney's brother is in the military overseas and she thought it would be nice if a bunch of us sent him and his troop Christmas cards.  Here are a few pictures of the cards I made to wish them a happy holiday!

 

I have been working on designing our Christmas cards too.  My mom gave me a great scrapbooking book that has a ton of craft projects for the holidays which has given me lots of ideas!     

My good friend Alice had a baby boy earlier this year so I made him a blanket, this was my first crocheted project!   Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of Sweet Baby James with it, but here is a picture I took while I was working on it.  It's more contemporary looking than most of the other blankets I have done in the past.  You crochet each band and then zig zag stitch it to the next strip.   

The thing I am obsessed with now is knitting cowls!  My first one was a mobious cowl which I knitted on circular needles that has a half twist in it.  And I just finished another one that is super chunky and can be worn around your neck bunched up or pulled partially over your head.  [I will post pictures soon!]

swap party

Yesterday Nate Berkus did a segment on his show about swap parties!  I love this idea!  It's green, economical, and you get the chance to get something new that a friend would otherwise throw away.  Plan a get together with your girlfriends and have each person bring 5 items that they don't want any longer and take turns auctioning off your pieces.  To get started pass out $150 of monopoly money to each person, this is what they will use to bid on items.  The first person displays their item and gives a little background on the piece they brought, then they pick a starting point to start the bidding off.  Then move on to the next person, and you get the idea, until everyone has gotten rid of their stuff.

A couple of guidelines:
1.  If you are re-gifting something, make sure that the person who gave it to you first will NOT be attending the party.
2.  Themed swap parties, kids stuff, books, ex gifts, etc...
3.  For a clothing swap, try to invite similarly sized people. 
4.  Make sure that all items are gently used and clean before they are brought.

I love, LOVE, LOVE this idea!!!  I think I will be organizing one of these for the Christmas holiday!  Friends beware!!

Here is a link to Real Simple's article on how - to organize your own swap party!!

sneak peak

Here is a little preview of what I have been working on the past few days to sell in my shop on Etsy or elsewhere...  I built myself a little light box to improve the quality of the photographs, but I still have a lot to learn.  I have been brainstorming trying to come up with a creative name, but am not excited about anything I have come up with just yet.  So if you have any ideas about what you see here or my design aesthetic please feel free to share!!

clothes pin decorated with handmade paper flower

handmade paper flower with rhinestone center

thank you card with clothes pin attached

paisley card with flowers and clothes pin attached

clothes pins with handmade flowers

handmade flowers and clothespins

miss you card

I have many more cards "stockpiled" to put up for sale as soon as I figure out a business name.  And a new blog to follow too focusing on all my crafting projects!

Summer 2010

Ok folks, I know it's been a while since I have updated this here blog!  We are enjoying our new home in Tucson.  Nick has settled in to his job at Lewis & Roca and is LOVING it.  There are quite a few people that Nick attended law school with at U of A that are still in Tucson, so it's been great getting to see them again and that has made the transition easier. 

Since it's been a while, I decided that I would catch up with one entry with all that we've been up to!

At the beginning of June we had the pleasure of attending our friends Ed & Sacha's wedding at Tlaquepaque (where we were married last year!).  It was so nice to be up there and enjoy the setting and all that Tlaquepaque has to offer and not have all of the stress from our wedding, but it definitely brought back so many wonderful memories!!  Our friends Shane & Karyn were at the wedding too and it was great to be able to hang out with them, we had a couple of late nights catching up and a day trip to Slide Rock. 

Rachel and her friend Mandi have an annual clam bake over the 4th of July which they started last year.  We were so bummed that we were unable to go last year because of all the things going on (bar exam, wedding preparations, etc...), but we were able to make it out this year!  I was so excited to see the girls and baby Caleb again.  Rachel and Brian bought a giant flat screen tv and PS3 right before the holiday so Nick and Brian pretty much spent the weekend vegging out on the couch playing video games, they were in heaven!!!  On the 4th, we woke up early and went over to Mandi's house to meet everyone and walk over to the Huntington Beach parade.  Mandi is an interior designer too and makes invitations, needless to say her house is super cute and she always has everything planned down to the tiniest detail.  She made a basket of muffins to take to the parade for us to devour while we waited for the parade to start.  After the parade we went back to Mandi's house and were joined by some other families for the clam bake!  They had pools, slip & slides, and games all set up for the kids!  We ate outside and basked in the crisp California air and munch on great food all day!  In the evening we made s'mores and camped out on the front yard ready to see the fireworks!!!  Such a great holiday, but our time always seems to go TOO quick when we are with the Keranens!  

 

On August 8th we celebrated our first wedding anniversary!  The night before we went out to dinner at Janos at La Paloma in the foothills nearby.  We both opted to do the taste of San Francisco that the chef was featuring which included a tapas offering with 10 bite size entrees / appetizers to sample!!  Kind of funny, the other two couples sitting in our section were celebrating anniversaries too, 3 & 30 years!!  Then the next day we barbecued burgers with a creamy blue cheese sauce, wine from our wedding, and our wedding cake!  I was nervous about eating the year old cake, but it was yummy and we didn't get sick!  :)

     

The second weekend of August we went to Denver, Colorado for one of Nicks law school buddies weddings.  I had never been to Denver and was pleasantly surprised!!!  The downtown area has been revitalized and kept up very well.  There is a free shuttle that runs down 16th street that makes it easy to get around.  I loved walking around and looking at all of the architecture!!  Most of the law school clan made it out for the wedding, so thankful to have the wedding to unite everyone after a year!  And maybe we will get to do it again sometime next year as another couple got engaged that weekend!!  Our last day there we went to a local bar and had lunch on the patio and then walked around by the Rockies stadium and sat on a bench to people watch while the game let out and then we went to a rooftop bar. 

That's all for now!! 

I have been working on making some cards to put in my new etsy shop, stay tuned for more information on that...  :)

Goodbye New York

• Our last few weeks in New York were very busy.  Between Nick having finals, saying our goodbyes, and trying to fit in the last minute things we wanted to do & see before we left there wasn't much time!!!  
• Lindsay came in for one last visit.
• Kim got tickets to a Yankee game.
• We saw Denzel Washington in Fences on Broadway.  (On a side note, before the performance we saw Kevin Sorbo and after the performance we saw Zach Braff - well I saw them, Nick was too busy admiring their modelesque dates!)  :)  
• We went to the rooftop bar 230 5th Ave to sip champagne and celebrate Nicks graduation.  Notice the Empire State Building behind us lit up in NYU's colors to honor all of the graduates!  Nick had to get a picture with the cheesy stuffed cheetah in the lobby!  :)
• Had to take a picture of all of the books Nick has accumulated in the last 9 months, and I don't even think this was all of them!
• Went to the top of the Empire State Bldg. on our last night in the city after we saw Promises Promises!

 

Could not think of a better way to start our first year of marriage!  We will miss the city terribly but are very thankful for all of the wonderful memories we have!!

Babs' Trip to NYC

At the end of April my mom came to visit us in NYC.  She has been wanting to visit the Big Apple for decades and with Nick and I living there it was the perfect opportunity for her! 

She arrived at Newark airport one evening and Nick and I took the train out to NJ to pick her up.  Although flying into Newark is typically cheaper, it requires taking many modes of transportation to get to and from, you ride the subway to Penn Station and then take a train out to the airport.  On the way back from picking up my mom we ended up taking the train, subway and finally a taxi to get to her hotel in Tribeca! 

Our first day out we decided to take a Greyline Bus tour so she could see the sights of the city and get a comprehensive overview of the layout.  We got a package that had 4 different bus loops and included tickets on the water taxi to Liberty & Ellis Islands, the Empire State Building, and tickets to the South Street Seaport Museum.  We only made it on 2 bus loops, the Uptown & Downtown trips, but it was well worth it.  I would definitely recommend these to anyone visiting, you get the local flavor of the area from your guide and each person has different stories to tell.

The second day we did a lot of walking and went to 2 different yarn shops that were close by.  One was the Lionbrand studio by Union Square & the other was Purl that has a bunch of specialty yarn.  Lionbrand has a weekly newsletter that goes out that my mom and I subscribe to so it was fun for her being able to see the actual studio space that she hears about so often!  Their yarn is mass produced and sold in stores all over the country (and is very economically priced!).  Purl on the other hand is more of a specialty shop that has more exclusive brands that are for the most part more expensive.  We also stopped by Filene's Basement at Union Square and did some shopping!!!  I had never been in this store, but have heard about it for a long time.

The next couple of days were rainy so we stuck close to the hotel.  We did venture out to have brunch with an old friend from California, my best friends oldest sister, Gwen.  We met up in the Meatpacking district at a restaurant called Pastis (which is owned by the same people who do Balthazar). It was so yummy!!!  We got this amazing bread basket that was filled with pastries & bread!!  That fed us breakfast for days!

We had to take in a Broadway show too!  So on Saturday night we did it up right, we all got dressed up, had dinner at a seafood restaurant in the theatre district and went to see the Lion King.  The costumes were amazing and the kids who played Simba and Nala were incredible!!!  Can't believe how inventive the costume designers were at making people look like all of the animals!!! 

On the last full day my mom and I took the boat out to Liberty & Ellis Island.  My grandfather had been carrying around this code to trace back our family that had arrived in the US through Ellis Island so we were hoping to get some more information.  Unfortunately the code is not valid or at least that's what they told us, so we were a little disappointed.  This has however spiked my curiosity and I have been researching like crazy trying to get some more information on my ancestors.  :)

We were sad to see my mom leave, but knew that we would be seeing her soon when we got back to AZ.  So thankful she was able to come out and see NY while we were there!!!

lights, camera, ACTION

A few weeks ago my friend Briana & I went to see a  Regis & Kelly taping.  Having tried this once before with my old roommate Michele, I knew we had to be up early to get in the stand by line (we didn’t have tickets)!  So we got up at 5A!! and met up for breakfast before heading over to the ABC studios.  Upon arriving at the studio a little before 7a we could see a large line had already formed.  Not knowing exactly where to go we got in the first line we saw and I noticed that the people ahead of us had tickets printed out, so I asked them if they had tickets or if they were in the standby line.  Turns out they had tickets already!  BOO!!!  So we repositioned ourselves with all of the other non-ticket holders in the standby line.  :(  While we were waiting in our line, a street vendor that had been working this corner for years came over to greet the line and tell us where to look for the arriving guests & Regis as we were waiting.  He also mentioned that the studio was small, so if we didn’t have tickets we might not get in & he said if that was the case, we should have over to Martha Stewarts studio because it was bigger and they often pull guests from the standby line.  So Briana and I were thinking either way we would get to see a taping that day.  As soon as we got to the front of our line, a couple to our left(who had tickets) told us they were a party of 2 and had 2 extra tickets and asked if we would like to join them?  SCORE!!!  Their names were Richard & Mary (I think!) and they had come into the city for the day on a bus from Pennsylvania.  We had chatted with them in line and passed the 2 hour time frame nicely while waiting to be escorted onto the set. 

The guests for the day were Chris Rock & the latest cast offs from Dancing with the Stars, Edyta & Aiden.  During the commercials Regis & Kelly interacted with the audience & posed for pictures.  Needless to say Kelly was as cute & put together as ever and Regis was charming in a grandfatherly kind of way.  At the end of the show the dancers were teaching Regis & Kelly some moves and Regis had to explain to Edeyta that he couldn’t do a particular combo because of his hip.  :)  I was a little bit surprised at how pompous Michael Gelman (producer) acted, but I guess that’s what showbiz does to some people.  That day they were also taping another segment with Nathan Lane co-hosting with Tracy Morgan as the guest.  Nathan Lane was hilarious!  And so was Tracy Morgan, but I was disappointed to hear (from Briana) that Tracy’s stand up routine was not as funny.  BOO!!

Briana & I with our adopted parents for the day.  :)

The set, much smaller than I was anticipating.

Briana & I

Chris Rock

 

Tracy Morgan

 

After the Regis & Kelly taping we decided we should extend our star filled cheap day so we headed over to Chelsea to check out the Martha Stewart situation.  It turns out the guy at Regis & Kelly had the times mixed up and we were a little early for the afternoon taping, so we went and got pedicures before grabbing some food and returning the studio.  On our way back to the studio we noticed two familiar faces standing in the standby line (our adopted parents had had the same plan as we did!).  We sat on the studio’s stoop and noshed on our sandwiches as we waited to hear if we would be allowed into the taping.  We got lucky and made it into this taping too!

Once in the studio you are escorted into a “holding” room where the producer preps you all and talks about what will be going on in the show that day.  We were fortunate enough to get: to taste some YUMMY coconut cookies that Martha made with her guest Maury Rubin (owner of the Birdbath Bakery here in NYC), a gift card to a clothing line called “skin” (although I am not sure how much the $50 will actually buy!), and should be getting in the mail any day now a pair of pearl earrings!!!  The show is set to air this Friday, so set your DVR’s!!!  I was shocked at how much bigger Martha’s set was compared to Regis & Kelly’s.  The audience rows were very generous leaving enough room for guests to walk between the rows with ease!  LOVED all of the plates on display in the kitchen, it was all white and coordinated perfectly!!!  I can only hope to be so organized one day…  I DO realize that that’s what all of the production staff is there for, to make it all look pretty and effortless.