It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas...

On Sunday I realized that Christmas is just over a week away - eeek! At that point, the only Christmas preparation I had done was to put up a tree. I only did that because K had been begging me to since early November when the Christmas decorations are out at the shops (remember we don't have Thanksgiving here, so anytime after Halloween is fair game). I made him wait until the 9th of December and then we finally set it up. That was it though - I had yet to do any baking.

On Sunday I set out to make Christmas cookies. I started with a Ginger Crinkle cookie that I saw in my inbox from the Food Network's Twelve Days of Cookies. I love a little Christmas spice, so thought it would be a great cookie to get me into the Christmas spirit.

The cookie was simple enough, though it called for a heap of spices, as well as molasses. The only thing I did not have on hand was ground cloves - I substituted a bit more allspice in instead and hoped for the best.

Once all of the dry bits are mixed together, you have to mix the butter and sugar, and then add in the molasses. Yum, I LOVE molasses.

Finally slowly add in the dry ingredients, roll into balls and rolls the balls in turbinando sugar and bake.

Out of the oven pops beautiful, soft, chewy Christmas spice cookies.

They are delicious and as a bonus, the whole house smelled of Christmas.

K has fallen in love with these cookies, so unfortunately they are nearly gone. I am halfway debating on making up a second batch because they are just that good.

Congratulations Graduates!

On Sunday my little brother, Alejandro (T), and his girlfriend, Bhakti, graduated from Purdue University with engineering degrees. I'm so proud of my little brother and what he did during his four years of uni. While I had a great time during college, looking back on it, I wish I would have been more involved in some ways. Jandro was very involved in his fraternity and different organizations, got great grades (which led him to landing a great job!), and yet still has great stories of friendships and parties. He's a star!!

To help these two and another good friend of theirs, Hermes, through finals, I sent a package of cookies and other snackies to them. A while back, Bhakti had said something to the effect of, "I like sugar cookies, but for the same amount of calories, give me some chocolate." So I did. I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip sugar cookies for the kiddies.

I'd found the recipe ages ago on a cookie blog I find amazing. It sounded like a good idea, so I gave it a go. The dough worked up quickly, but then I had to add the chocolate chips. As I've mentioned before, we don't have chocolate chips readily available and if you can find them, they are crazy expensive. Usually when a recipe calls for chocolate chips, I just break up a few bars and call it a day. Since these cookies were going to be rolled out and then cut, however, I knew the chunks would have to be small. I started by putting them in my food processor.

This did not work.

I dumped them out and started chopping away. This was way faster than I'd imagined and worked surprisingly well.

The dough is a bit darker than on the original blog, but I imagine it's because some of my chips turned into slivers and got mixed in really well.

Regardless, the dough rolled out and cut super well. I was actually a bit surprised.

K had helped me make the dough, roll it out and cut it. He was so excited to be making cookies to send to T and Bhakti - he ADORES them! His favorite part was pulling the scraps away and using the spatula to put the cookie on the tray. A few got a tad wonky, but he was having such fun I just decided to go with it.

The next morning after I'd cooled and frosted them, I thought he'd have fun decorating with me. I was wrong. I had to beg him to do a few. You would have thought I'd asked him to clean up his toys the way he was dragging his feet. He gave up after about three of them.

I took the liberty of drawing the rest of them. I did one with his fraternity letters (is that what you call those?) on it.

A few with inspirational sayings.

And because he's coming to visit us in a few weeks, one to show how excited I am!

I packed the cookies into boxes as per usual, but unfortunately some of them broke on the way there. I'm not sure if it's because of the shapes (stars and hearts seemed to be the most likely to break) or because of the cookie dough itself, but I don't think I've ever had cookies break when sending using my regular sugar cookie recipe. My brother said it was kind of fun, as it was like a bunch of mini puzzles, so at least there's that.

 

Congratulations to the two of you and to all the other recent graduates out there! Way to go!!

Sweetest Package to Date - Part 5

The past few days have brought you cookies, burp cloths, a cape, a hat and scarf, and a pair of boots. What else could a girl need? More shoes!! All girls can always use more shoes.

After looking through the Two Girls Patterns shop, I settled on bunny slippers and ballet flats.

I fell in love with these slippers. I think they are the sweetest things ever. When I was little, I had a special affinity for bunnies and my friend certainly knows this. That is definitely one of the reasons I picked these bunny slippers - I hope they remind my friend of us as kiddies when she puts these on her daughter.

They started off with a tiny yellow and pink sole.

Then I moved on to the pink body.

Next came the ears.

Then that sweet little face.

And finally two giant bows.

I think these are the cutest! The only thing that makes them cuter are baby feet wearing them.

The other pair is a simple ballet flat with a ruffle on top. I could have sworn I took more photos of making these; maybe K was playing around and deleted some? He's been known to do such things.

Anyway, I started with a bright blue sole the size of my palm. Gaaaa!! They are teeny!

Then I moved on to the shoe bit. Lastly was the ruffle on top with a white bow holding it all together.

I love these as well, but nothing compares to those bunnies!!

I'm not sure if the baby has other booties or shoes yet, but these are at least her first three pairs from Auntie Anna.

Looking at the whole package (minus a store-bought outfit, a Hello Kitty pillow, a Hello Kitty Christmas doll, and the cookies), I think it's all so sweet.

I had so much fun planning and making everything. I hope J had fun opening it.

Sweetest Package to Date - Part 4

Going along with Parts 2 and 3 of the package I sent to my friend for her baby girl are a pair of boots. With a cape to keep her body warm and a hat and scarf to keep her head and neck warm, she certainly needed something to keep those tiny toes warm.

These boots were actually the last thing for me to make (although the final post about the package will be tomorrow featuring two other tiny creations) because honestly, while I thought they were adorable, I also thought they were going to be a huge pain to make. I always save the most complicated for last. Because they were the last things to make and I was rushing so I could send off the package, I forgot to take photos along the way. You'll just have to trust that I actually did make these ;)

I found the pattern through Etsy at a shop called Two Girls Patterns. They have some of the cutest crochet patterns I think I have ever seen. If you are looking for some patterns for cute booties or slippers (adult sizes too!!), definitely check this shop out.

For as much of a pain as I envisioned these booties being, they really weren't that bad, although it did take me a while to work out the loopy stitch situation. I also found it a bit of a challenge at the beginning to make the loops even. The second boot definitely came out better than the first.

I thought a black sole would looke quite cute and more like an actual shoe than doing the whole thing in light blue, so I started there and then worked my way up the boot. The final bit is to add the buttons up the outside. After I got about halfway through the second shoe, I realized that the button area was not perfectly symmetrical. One is a bit closer to the toe than the other. I was a bit bummed, but there was no way I was going to start all over. That sounded like hell. Also, I wasn't super confident that I would get it right the second time around, so I just sent them off as is. Not perfect, but still cute.

Sweetest Package to Date - Part 3

Yesterday I started blogging about the fun things that I sent to my best friend for her daughter. As you may recall, yesterday's post was about a tiny baby cape that I made. When I was first planning the cape, I was thinking that I might put a hood on it. The more I thought about it, however, the more I decided it would be a bad idea. When K was a baby, I remember hoods being difficult. If they didn't fit properly, they were just a waste and created extra fabric behind his little neck and back. It seemed uncomfortable when he laid down on it. What was the point?

That being said, I didn't want her little head getting cold, so I crocheted her the tiny butterfly hat that I've made about a million times now. Even though I've made this hat a few times, I still absolutely love it. I think it is so sweet and feminine.

It looks so cute paired with the cape, as well.

Once the hat was done, I decided that the little pumpkin needs a scarf. Although I assume her neck is pretty non-existant (as per all babies), everyone looks cute snuggled in a scarf.

I started off with a basic double crochet rectangle with a slit towards one end so that the scarf can slip through instead of having it constantly come upwrapped.

That looked pretty boring, however, so I added a V-stitch trim all the way around.

That made it look better, but still not girly enough. I finished it off with a picot edging that I think made it.

I love how the three pieces look together and hope that this little baby is just as warm and snuggly in them as I am imagining.

Sweetest Package to Date - Part 2

Yesterday I started telling you all about the package that I sent to my friend for her new baby girl. Yesterday's cookies and burp cloths have nothing on today's baby cape!

To be honest, I never would have thought to make a cape for a baby. I'd asked my friend if there was anything in particular she'd want me to make for her daughter and she requested a cape.

I'd looked online to find a pattern, but most of them were for one year olds and up. I finally came across this tutorial and using some old kimono-style shirts of K's I drafted a pattern.

I figured it was going to be big, but better big than small. Also, since she is just a baby, I thought it would act more as a blanket to wrap around her for this winter and work as an actual cape for next year.

I knew I wanted the cape to be girly, but I didn't want it over the top. I also wanted it to seem a but sophisticated - it was, after all, going to be a cape.

I had a super soft, light cotton that I really loved, yet didn't have much of a use for as of yet. I love the paisley and the colors. I thought it would be perfect for the lining - soft yet classy. I went to the fabric store and found this powder blue polka dotted thin wale corduroy. OMG, did I fall in love with it. It is girly, but not crazy. I wanted a little bit more though to add a bit of excitement, so I bought this lace pompon to add all around as a trim.

Once my pattern was drawn and cut, I cut out all of my pieces.

The first real step was to quilt the lining. I drew the lines in fabric in and sewed around. The lining kept shifting - now I know to cut the lining a bit bigger and then trim at the end.

Once that was done, I assembled the lining and then the outside, then put them together.

Next I attached the trim.

And I finished with the button closure at the front. I sewed buttonholes onto each side, but only one is functional. (I have no idea why, but I forgot to take a second photo of the finished cape, so you will have to look back up at the top to see the button bit - I think it'd be weird to have the same photo in the same post twice. Sorry!)

If I didn't have to quilt the lining, this whole project would have been extremely fast to do. If I do it again, I think I'd try to buy pre-quilted fabric because with that it would likely take just an hour of so to complete.

That being said, I love how this turned out! I love the lining and outside corduroy together, as well as the pompons that add that bit of girly whimsy to the item.

Sweetest Package to Date - Part 1

As I mentioned last week, my very first friend in this whole world recently had a baby girl. I whipped up a whole bunch of adorable things for the little cutie, but it is way too much to put into one post.

Today's post will focus on the most boring aspects of the package: cookies and burp cloths. Don't get me wrong, I love cookies and I love the burp cloths that I made, it's just that neither of these things compare with the rest of the contents in the box.

I wanted to make some sort of pink cookie and at first I thought I'd settle on sugar cookies. But, I'll hopefully get around to making some Christmas sugar cookies at some point, so decided I'd go with something else. I settled on thumbprint cookies with pink ombré frosting.

I started with a Martha Stewart recipe and followed it exactly. The only problem I had was in chopping the pecans fine enough. First I tried my food processor, but it didn't really work. Then I put them in a bag and smashed with a rolling pin. Finally I busted out a knife and got to chopping. At some point, I just gave up knowing that there were still some (slightly big) pecan chunks in there. Oh well.

After they were cooled, I made the frosting up and put in the tiniest drop of pink food coloring.

I filled a few of the cookies, added some more coloring, filled some more, added some more, filled some more a few times.

I think they ended up quite cute. I don't know how much of an ombré effect there was when they were all just put into a box, but pink cookies are always a winner in my book. The cookie itself was hardly sweet at all, so the frosting gave it a much needed punch of sugar.

If you saw my post about burp cloths weeks back, you may remember that I made six of them, but only gave away two. This new mom's house is where the other four were sent off too.

As I was packing the box, these were some of the last things to go in. I figured if they didn't fit, I could always keep two for myself. They all fit.

Probably for the best. I have a whole stack of towels to choose from at this point and I can always make up a few more!!

That's it for today's post. As above, I know these aren't the most exciting items. I promise the rest of my posts this week will be much cuter.