Joyful Abode

I’d like to say goodbye to 2007 by recognizing some of the posts which have served as anchors for Joyful Abode in its first seven months.

1. Solving the Jewelry Storage Problem: My elegant solution to storing AND displaying jewelry in a way that lets me easily add it to my daily wardrobe.
   
2. Applesauce Spice Cake: This delicious (and deliciously simple) recipe is one my mother-in-law shared with me while I was in college. It’s become an autumn staple.
   
3. Ice Cream Bread: A novel idea, but not so delicious… though it would be fun to make with kids.
   
4. Bowtie Ballet (pasta dish): A favorite among my friends from Winthrop University, and embraced by dozens more via Joyful Abode and Craftster.org. Try it. You won’t regret it!
   
5. How to Clean Nasty Drip Pans: A disgusting problem, with a simple, flammable solution.
   
6. Inspiration? Decorate (No.2): My approach to a unified living room, including custom-made artwork (by me).
   
7. Chicken Taco Nachos: A spur-of-the-moment pantry buster recipe that turned out so well we might just repeat it on purpose.
   
8. How to Make a Gorgeous Bulletin Board: Just because it’s called an office doesn’t mean it has to be drab!
   
9. How to Re-Cover an Ugly Office Chair: You know, to match your gorgeous bulletin board.
   
10. Hook Me Up! Crochet: Links to all of my free crochet patterns, from my previous life at hookmeupcrochet.com (You can find me in Stitch ‘n’ Bitch: The Happy Hooker too)
    

Did I leave out your favorite post? Let me know what your favorite was in the comments.

And have a fabulous (and SAFE) New Year celebration tonight!

After posting every day in November, I thought it would be a breeze to keep up the pace in December. It wasn’t.

Things got hectic-feeling… and I scrimped on Joyful Abode a bit.

So I’m going to take an official time-out this week. I’m traveling with my guy to South Carolina, from whence we hail, and we’ll be spending the week with our families. I am looking forward to taking a break and breathing in this:

And possibly snuggling in front of one of these:

I’ll be back in full force in 2008, so watch out! You’ll be inundated with fantastic recipes, fantastic crafts, and more. Big things are planned for next year.

There will also be more shop updates once January rolls around. I’m VERY excited about that. (If you order anything between now and the end of the month, it will be shipped January 3rd, just to let you know.)

Meg at MontessoribyHand decided to host a holiday tradition swap through her blog this year. TONS of people signed up (at least 100, but I forgot the exact number) and I got to be Meg’s lucky partner, somehow!

Everyone sent a handmade holiday ornament, at least one family holiday recipe, and a “tradition” tutorial. Most people also sent a holiday CD full of favorites.

I got Meg’s package in the mail, all the way from Mexico. She had to resist her temptation to go “all out” in the packaging to appease folks in customs, but good things come in plain packages!

The recipe for gingered carrot soup sounds really good. I’ll have to break out the blender some coldish day and try it!
And fabric yo-yos! They’re so cute!
And a cross-stitch pattern. I’m guessing this is maybe a holiday tradition, to do cross-stitch? There wasn’t an explanation…Meg?

he CD isn’t shown, because it’s in my CD player. She made a really nice jazzy compilation, which starts off with Charlie Brown. Could it be better?

These little buggers are my favorite part of the whole thing. I saw them when she posted them in her blog, but didn’t make any. I’m SO glad she sent me a pair. They’re the cutest ever.

Thank you so much, Meg! I hope you enjoy your package from me as much as I enjoyed the one you made.

In case you haven’t gotten it yet, here’s a sneak peek.

The recipe is in this post about our holiday traditions.

We used the KitchenAid mixer to mix up the dough, and rolled and cut the cookies on our brand new kitchen island.

Check out how many cookies we made… we doubled the recipe.

I made royal icing (powdered sugar, merengue powder, vanilla extract, and water) and we decorated the multitude.

We packaged the cookies, along with little bottles of our homemade vanilla extract… It’s really darkened and gotten very vanilla-y over the last 5 months or so. (And if you look in the bowl reflection, you can see me in my grey sweatshirt, bent over to take the picture, and the man’s back to the left of that, sticking addresses on tins.)

We packaged five tins to mail and will hand-deliver 3 more, plus I took a big pile to work with me today.

After we finished making the cookies, we ate dinner… at 9:00 pm. Oops!

Sew, Mama, Sew! has invited all crafty bloggers to take part in the Handicrafters’ Holidays question-and-answer. I’m going to break mine up into two sections and do the Traditions part first, and then the Gifts part later.

Meg, if you’re reading this you may want to avert your eyes for this post, because it might spoil some of the surprises that are in your Holiday Traditions Exchange package!

What is your favorite family holiday tradition?

(Picture taken in 2005)

One favorite holiday tradition is making Zeppole, which are Italian fried doughnuts. Just about every year, we try a new recipe, because we haven’t found a favorite yet… but trying different recipes is almost as much of a tradition as making the zeppole!

Have you started any new traditions with your family that you didn’t practice growing up?

Last year, my then-fiance and I made a huge batch of gingerbread cookies to share with our families. We lovingly adorned each one with frosting, sprinkles, colored sugar, and other decorations. It was so much fun! This year we’re doing it again, and I hope it becomes part of our tradition repertoire.

What do you love most about the holiday season?

I love the holiday smells (gingerbread, spiced cider, cinnamon mixed with the scent of pine…). I love watching The Snowman curled under a blanket on the couch, snuggled with my sisters. I love guiltless mug after mug of hot chocolate, and seeing the look on someone’s face when they open the perfect gift I’ve given them (though, this doesn’t always happen… it’s awesome when it does).

What do you like least about the holiday season?

The lack of cold (I grew up in South Carolina, and now live in Florida). In general, that’s ok, but I think an actual “white Christmas” would be nice. Also, most of the holiday songs don’t make much sense without the snow, except for Mele Kalikimaka. Also, having so many families and such a small window of time leads to an insanely scheduled chaotic hubbub of visiting… which can be more stressful than I’d like.

Anyone close to your heart that you’ll be missing this year?

I’ll be missing my dear friend Meagan, who will be celebrating her holidays in Virginia. But it’s okay, because she’s visiting in the Spring!

What is your favorite holiday food?

Besides zeppole and all of the various gingerbread-ish spiced baked goods, I am in love with my mother-in-law’s artichoke stuffing. It’s so delicious… if artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes appeal to you, you must try this stuffing!

Do you have a great recipe to share?

If the ones above don’t tickle your fancy, try these.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Applesauce Spice Cake

Gingerbread Biscotti

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

(Not So) Simply Shorbtread

Or for a couple of hearty recipes…

Yorkshire Pudding

Green Bean Casserole

Tons more if you browse Joyful Abode, or use the search field on the left side to search for “recipes.”

I decided to make a yummy chocolate cake for my sweet husband.

I used the same cake recipe as always. It’s such an easy, delicious, and failproof recipe that there’s no reason to try another (for regular chocolate cake, that is). But this time, I tried a new frosting recipe and it worked! It stayed fluffy and tastes yummy. Though, I’m not really a frosting person in general (except for not-too-sweet buttercreams or something, but I haven’t attempted that yet). So I eat a little bit but mostly leave the rest on the plate.

Anyway, the frosting recipe is:

3 cups of confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)

1/2 cup of shortening

little less than 1/2 cup of water

a little bit of vanilla extract (which reminds me, I REALLY need to do an update on that.) Or you can use almond, lemon, or whatever else floats your boat.

Mix it all up together and whip it for a long time, so it’s fluffy. That’s it! I also added some cocoa powder to make it chocolatey.

Happy everything, everyone! I hope you had a fantastic Hanukkah, will have a super Christmas and/or Yule, and everything else you may celebrate or observe.

Shortbread is one of the simplest cookies you can make… the “cleanest” recipes only include three ingredients. Flour, Sugar, and Butter.

I’ve made many different shortbread recipes in my day (haha… my day), but this one is the clearest winner.

The World’s Best Shortbread Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup of REAL butter. No substitutions allowed.

1/2 cup of brown sugar, packed

2+ cups of flour.

Oven = 325 degrees Fahrenheit

Cream the butter and sugar together. I generally use the back of a fork, or my fingertips (not palms, or the butter will get too soft). If my butter is too cold and I don’t have time to wait for it to soften, I use a potato masher and a lot of arm muscle.

Add about 2 cups of flour. Mix well.

Sprinkle your table, wax-paper, or silicone baking mat liberally with flour. Turn your dough onto the floured surface and knead.

Knead, adding flour until the dough is smooth and not sticky.

Roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness and cut. Rectangles with fork-pierced patterns are classic, but you can also do triangles or other shapes.

Bake for 20-23 minutes, until they’re done and delicious.

Now, there are so many things you can do to dress up shortbread. In the making-dough stage, you can add a bit of vanilla, almond, or lemon extract.

In the cookie-forming stage, you could choose to wrap Andes mints with the dough…

Or you could wait until after they’re baked to dress them up.

These cookies were just balls that I flattened and baked. After baking, I sandwiched an Andes mint between two cookies while they were still warm. As the mint melted, I twisted the cookies slightly to evenly-ish disperse the chocolaty mint goodness.

Or the simple route…

I made my mother some shortbread cookies for her birthday, and dressed them up another way.

Simply melt some chocolate in the microwave and stir in a tablespoon or so of shortening, so that the chocolate is really smooth. Then, when the cookies are cooled, dip one end in the chocolate and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Lay on a wax paper sheet to harden. Delicious!

Also, it’s fantastic plain.

Do you dress up your shortbread? What do you do?

Over the last two days, I uploaded all of my zipper pouches and my tree ornament set to Joyful Abode @ Etsy.

Here are just a few:

All of the zipper pouches are the perfect size for giving recipe cards or bias tape as a gift.

Check them out on my teensy tiny Christmas tree.

There is SO MUCH MORE in the shop… so be sure to check it out in time for Christmas gift-giving.

Hopefully soon, I’ll be able to get the aprons photographed so I can put them in the shop. I tried this weekend, but it was way to windy and the sunlight was much too harsh. None of the pictures turned out well. I may have to do them indoors, though that’s not my favorite.

Technorati Tags: zipper pouches, tree ornament set, recipe cards, bias tape, gift, Christmas tree, gift-giving, aprons, pictures

Wel, maybe I didn’t totally rock it…

But really, the art show was very encouraging to me. I wasn’t sure how I would do “out there” but … they like me! They really like me!

(I was SO EXCITED in this picture)

I had so much fun meeting the craft-loving people, and my booth-neighbor Kathryn was really sweet… we chatted all day in between waves of visitors.

Check out the rainbow of vintage aprons here… soon, a bunch of them will be up on Joyful Abode @ Etsy.

This is my craft show booth… the person to the left called to say he/she couldn’t come, so I got to take up a bit more space. Very nice!

Thanks to my sweet husband for helping me set up…

And for making my sweet lattice display.

Next time, I’ll definitely have to get a full-length mirror to set up in my booth. So many people tried on aprons and wanted to see what they looked like! So I ended up taking pictures of them and then showing them the picture on my camera. This is “Charlotte” (her pseudonym) and the apron she ended up taking home with her. She was so awesome! And if she lived here I’d definitely hire her as a model.

The weather was weird all day… it was drizzling slightly in the morning and SO FOGGY… my sweet guy ran to Wal-Mart to get a tent in case it rained sometime during the day.

Then, it was still foggy until past noon, and hot, and humid. Then it got sunny for a while, still hot… and then it clouded over again and got pretty chilly for a few minutes. Strange day.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Belmont Arts Center yesterday. I think you’re all fabulous! Thank you for sharing your apron stories with me, too!

Technorati Tags: art show, craft, vintage aprons, craft show booth, lattice display, full-length mirror, aprons, Belmont Arts Center, apron stories

I finished up another batch of these zipper pouches. I love the way they look all together.

My bobbin box is one of my very favorite things…

And I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I finish off another spool of thread.

Does the little pile of threads and scraps that always piles up near the machine make anyone else strangely happy? I love it! If I were the type to spin yarn, I’d save it up to make a big sewing-scrap yarn.

If you’re in the Pensacola, Florida area, you should definitely come out to Belmont’s Bizzare this Saturday, from 10am ’till 4pm. See you there!

PS Sorry for my absence the last couple of days! I guess NaBloPoMo, combined with getting ready for Belmont, kind of wore me out! I’ll be back in full force soon, I’m sure.