Tuesday, November 27, 2007

feeling cozy



Here I am at thanksgiving. This year my family went to Berryville, Virginia, where my cousin lives and we spent the day on the farm. I normally hate photos of myself, because I am the least photogenic person I know. However this one turned out alright, aren't those horses amazing with the sun setting, it was beautiful. In these next two weeks school will wind down for me, which I must admit I am ready for. The winter season seems to be upon us and I am feeling how cozy my apartment is, the warmth of my living room, the productivity that my studio holds, the calmness of my bedroom, I am so excited to be able to spend more time here making over my break. I want to get some things made to post onto etsy and of course I have some christmas presents to make, oh yes and some cards too! I just found out that my family is going to the carribian for christmas, so it looks like a Davy Jones christmas this year!



"Home the inescapable place, the place to which the heart's compass turns" -Joanne Harris, Coastliners

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

nests and nesting











It seems that this semester has finally calmed down, most of my work is finished, and now it is just getting myself to go to class. The PRAXIS was a bit nerve-wrecking but hopefully my score is high enough to let me move on in school. So with the calmness that comes with having the greasest portion of my work finished, and my life calming down a bit, I feel more relaxed. When the weather gets cooler and the leaves are bright I start to feel more and more compelled to nest in my home. The outings that I have in the summer are gone and the urge to be home, making, reading, playing, relaxing comes back. I am really looking forward to making, during my winter break. I have been making all semester, but mostly demonstration models. Aside from those all I have been working on is my quilt, and a few other small things. Today I got the Amy Butler "stiches" book, and I am in love with the layout of it. Such a beautiful guide with intersting projects in it, I really want to make the pajama pants first! (Considering I have had the fabric to make some for over three years, I better!)
Last night I got the urge to put out a few winter/christmas decorations, as you can see from the photos I stay away from traditional decorating, and go into a modern/vintage twist. I want to add a few more things, like vintage christmas cards, and such but that will wait til after thanksgiving. I hope that everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving. I am thankful for so much this year, things seem to be in place for me at the moment, and for that I am most thankful.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Hot chocolate



I was sitting here peeking at some of my favorite websites, avoiding my paper of course, and stumbled upon this recipee on Joann Harris' website. As you can tell, from previous posts I am a huge admirer of Harris and her work, and am currently reading chocolat, which I put off for a long time because I love the movie so much. However the book is marvelous and one of my favorite parts in the movie, and book is the hot chocolate. Well here it is Vianne's hot coco recipe:

1 2/3 cups milk 1/2 vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise 1/2 cinnamon stick 1 hot red chile, halved and seeded 3 1/2 ounces bittersweet (70 percent) chocolate Brown sugar to taste (optional)
Whipped cream, chocolate curls, cognac, or Amaretto, to serve

Place the milk in a saucepan, add the vanilla bean, cinnamon stick, and chile, and gently bring it to a shivering simmer for 1 minute. Grate the chocolate and whisk it in until it melts. If you must, then add brown sugar, but do try without it. Take off the heat and allow it to infuse for 10 minutes, then remove the vanilla, cinnamon, and chile. Return to the heat and bring gently back to a simmer. Serve in mugs topped with whipped cream, chocolate curls, or a dash of cognac or Amaretto.

Thank you Joanne for this recipee!

time

This week time seems to be slipping through my fingers. I had the loveliest of weekends, I had to work for a few hours but other than that I had some un-structured fun with P. My mind was needing a weekend off, to forget all the things I need to get done. It was good for me. So this weekend to come, I have to take the PRAXIS exam, eeek! It is a test that is a little like the SAT and it is so that I can move on with the teaching classes at school. This is a one shot deal for me, most people take it more than once, but since I am taking level one and two of the teaching classes together I do not have time to mess around with taking it again. I am a little nervous, standarized exams are not my thing, but I am determined to get a passing score! I may not be posting til after all this is over, but I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall trees and colors. I can not believe thanksgiving is next week-wow time has flown this fall. I will be back online writing after I get to the bottom of the barrel of my homewrk.

Monday, November 5, 2007

sixteen candels

My little sister was born on my 8th birthday. Yes, thats is correct we have the same birthday. It is unusual and it has taken me a long time to get used to sharing my birthday. When I was younger I really dis-liked it, and it always ended with her taking my cake or one of us being upset. Of course now we are older, and wiser, and have become a little better at sharing... This weekend my mom and I threw her a huge sweet sixteen birthday party, it was lovely. (Our real birthday is on wednesday the 7th). Below are some photos of the card I made her using an old needle case, I thought it came out well.









Here are some clips of the party we had on saturday night. It has been a few years since I have had a real cake with all the cadles on it for my birthday, 24 almost caught my hair on fire...