Ginabread Cookies.

[Hello gentlemen!]

Ginabread! Er... gingerbread cookies! Icing is hard. Luckily I gots a steady hand. Martha Stewart has a good gingerbread cookie recipe. Here's a helpful tip: Make sure baking time correlates to the size of your cookies (big cookies = bake longer, small cookies = bake shorter).

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies.

[Peanut butter cup cookies via Glorious Treats]

As part of a holiday cookie medley I've been trying to put together, I found this recipe for peanut butter cup cookies. I knew I'd be baking lots of cookies so I tried to find things that were fairly easy and fun to make. I used Alton Brown's sugar cookie recipe. 

[Sorry OCD people!]

Chocolate+Caramel+Pecan+Pretzel

[I like this kind of math!]

Isn't this candy tin SO CUTE? JoAnns Fabrics had a 70% off clearance sale on their holiday items. This was the perfect size for chocolate caramel pecan pretzel bites. They are super duper easy to make. Put mini pretzels onto a cookie sheet. Place a caramel Hershey Kiss on top of each and bake for 5 minutes at 250 degrees in the oven. Then smush a pecan on top. Let cool or refrigerate. You got an easy treat in just a few minutes.

Banana Bread.

 [Banana Bread in Holiday Loaf Pan]

I like to handmake my holiday gifts when I can. My favorite banana bread recipe is by Emeril Legasse. A.C. Moore had these cute ceramic holiday loaf pans on sale for a dollar! Three were enough to use up all the batter in the recipe. I reduced the sugar down to 1/2 cup and added chocolate chips to balance the sweetness. I noticed if baked in smaller loaf pans for 40 minutes, the bread comes out lighter and fluffier.

I also bought fat quarter fabrics with holiday prints for a dollar each as well. I hemmed the edges to wrap the banana bread. Makes perfect gift on a budget!

Christmas Stocking.

 

I sewed Christmas stockings for my family. They've never had a real Christmas tree so I bought one this year. Figured I may as well go all out and make them stockings too.

 

Here's a couple I made for myself and my possible future dog, Lucy. I drew a pattern onto an empty cereal box and used cotton flannel. The monogram tiles were bought from Anthropologie and the little dolls were from Crate & Barrel.

origami star ornament.

 

I made another type of ornament! What can I say? Am pretty excited about the holidays! My boss gave away some origami star kits. This was a great way to use them. 

 

I used this entire packet and filled a clear plastic ornament I bought from Michael's for 99 cents. So cheap! 

 

Tie a sparkly ribbon and sprinkle in some powdered glitter. Voilà! Pretty origami star ornaments for holiday wishes!

Sock Snowman Christmas Ornaments.

I'm so very glad to have a personal holiday tradition. For this year's holiday ornament swap, I made little sock snowmen. I keep thinking I'll run out of ideas for baby sock ornaments. I'm glad I haven't run out just yet.

[The gentlemen are ready to party.]

Graham Cracker Teddy Bear Cake for Dad.

Thanksgiving means two things in my family's house: turkey and my dad's birthday. This year for my dad's birthday, I tried out a new cake pan I received as a a gift. Laura gave me a three tier cake pan last year. My dad's favorite ice cream flavor is butter pecan so I used a butter pecan cake mix to bake his cake. I found a really easy vanilla butter cream frosting recipe for decoration. I was concerned I'd need a mixer but I was able to use the shear force of my puny muscles to mix it up with a plain old whisk without a problem. I also used a box of Teddy Grahams to decorate each tier. I had ordered a small dark wood cake stand via Etsy last month. It arrived just in time for Thanksgiving. It was the perfect size for this mini three tiered cake!

Sailor Moon Costume for Amelie

"Moooooooon prismmmmmm powerrrrrrr~!!!!!"

A few months ago, I asked my cousin, Amelie, what she wanted to be for Halloween this year.
"Girls Generation!" she answered.
"No," I said.
"Draculaura!"
"Try again."
I preferred if she wasn't something so mainstream when there's opportunity to be original and creative. Making costumes is much more inexpensive than buying one from the store. I convinced Amelie to dress up as Sailor Moon. After shopping for some inexpensive supplies, I got crackin' while Amelie did some research by watching episodes of Sailor Moon on her iTouch. I'm pretty proud of the results!

chocolate ice cream for me.

When I was vacationing in California, I ate ice cream every day.

I've decided this is a good thing to continue after my vacation... so I made chocolate ice cream.

cookies 'n cream for me.

OMG IT'S SO HOT!

So I made cookies 'n cream ice cream.

 

I already ate like, two cones :p

Bridal garter for Angy.

My cousin, Angy, is getting married soon so I thought I'd make her a special bridal accessory for her bridal shower. I followed a simple tutorial from this blog and made a bridal garter out of some satin ribbon and lace. I also added some Swarovski crystal trim for some fancy bling. 

Postcard from the Bay Area.

I flew to California...

 

I love California! Hope to see you again soon!

Jun & Eric's Wedding Cake Topper

Last month, I worked on my third commissioned wedding project. I was asked to create a wedding cake topper for a couple of lovely gentlemen. While I would have liked to have come up with some more interesting ideas, time was of the essence. I ended up designing a similar cake topper to my cousin Sonia's which the couple, having seen my previous wedding cake topper, were quite enthusiastic over:

The challenge here was to sew not one but two teeny suits on my clothespin men in a short period of time. Initially, I tried to use whatever I had laying around. The closest material to match the navy of their suits was felt. This made them look like they were wearing lounge smokers jackets a la Hugh Hefner. This wouldn't do. I managed to find some navy cotton which worked out perfectly.

The glasses on one of the grooms kept popping off. There was no time to drill holes on the side of his head to secure the wire spectacles so I had to add little ears for the glasses to rest onto. This turned out to be one of my favorite details.

How dapper!

quilt for jonathan.

One of my cousins is expecting a baby boy next month. I made one the same way I made Shiho's quilted blanket. This time I added hand stitched detail as a finish when sewing the binding. I love the Lisette fabrics sold at Jo Ann's Fabric and used the one called Poplin in blue.

decoupage jar lid.

It's nice when you can spiff up something that's ordinary.

Ve's coffee apron.

Tonight, I made an apron for fellow cookie maker and ukulele player, Ve. She's really into coffee so I bought this fun illustrated coffee print from Spoonflower:

I also bought some brown cotton linen and webbing from JoAnn's Fabrics:

And then got crackin':

Not too shabby for first apron project! :)

My produce bags.

Here are some produce bags I made for myself. I enjoyed making Susan's so I ordered this fabric from Spoonflower and whipped some up for me.

The cashiers at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods find them funny whenever I use them to bag my produce.