Pretty Mat or Frame

We were up very early to take our older son to the airport for his flight back to San Francisco.  The time went by so quickly - particularly since we lost two days of his visit when his original flight was canceled due to the snowstorm.

I had planned to work on some projects and start reorganizing my craft room today but I was so exhausted from the past few days that I spent most of the day reading and napping!  Tonight I finally did some test cuts of files I haven't had a chance to try yet.  I often sit and "doodle" on the computer creating files and I have a huge backlog of uncut designs to test cut.

Here is a frame or mat that I created.  I will do a full post with all of the details tomorrow.  If you look closely you will see some tiny hearts - the Valentine crafting season has started!

I really need to try to get myself back on a "normal" sleep schedule so I am making just a quick post tonight.  I will leave you with a question - can you tell which cartridge or cartridges I use to create this design?   The first person to post a comment with the correct answer will get a little surprise from me!

Boxing Day (and money boxes)

Today was Boxing Day - not a holiday here in the States, but celebrated in many countries around the world. Here is a LINK to the Wikipedia entry about Boxing Day if you are not familiar with this holiday.

It was a very busy day for me. Tomorrow my mother and father in-law will celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary.  We usually have all of the family here on their anniversary, but this year we needed to do it a day early since our older son is leaving (already!) to go back to San Francisco early tomorrow morning.

Just so you won't think that I have totally abandoned my Cricut during the holidays, I thought I would quickly show you the "money holders" I used for some of the teen to young adult Christmas gifts.  They are tricky to buy for and we tend to end up giving the gift that always fits...

Instead of making a flat money holder, I used this pillow box from the wedding cartridge.  There are two swirls that reminded me of winter storms.

By using Design Studio, I could quickly determine the largest size that I could use and still cut four boxes from a sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock.  I used the five inch size and cut the boxes exactly as they appear on the cartridge.

I normally do not care for the "tick marks" or score lines and eliminate them using "hide selected contour," however, in the case of pillow boxes, they do make the folding of the ends much quicker and easier.  I used a heavy textured Bazzill cardstock for the boxes.  It is important to use a strong adhesive for the flap that connects the long side of the box.  I use Scor-Tape for most boxes - it is very strong and quite a bit more economical than the red liner tape.  Here is a LINK to the Scor-Pal site page for Scor-Tape.

I measured the opening and cut squares of a coordinating patterned paper to adhere inside the boxes.  To give the boxes a bit more pizazz I added a snowflake punched from glitter cardstock.

 On the way home yesterday we enjoyed all of the Christmas lights - this house is not far from us and always has an "over-the-top" display.

 Most of today was taken up with preparing food and enjoying time with family - over 2 dozen people!  We had lots of yummy food.  My husband and sons found a recipe for a root vegetable salad and did an enormous amount of peeling, chopping, blanching and roasting to make a triple batch.

Here is a closer view of the root veggies - they were absolutely delicious!

We had quite an assortment of desserts.  Fortunately, I was able to send lots of the leftovers home with various people so I will avoid some of the temptation - there are still dark chocolate peanut M and Ms left in the house so I'd better start walking with my friends again!

If you are interested, here is the recipe for the root vegetable salad:

Marinade ingredients:
2/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 cups olive oil
2 1/4 teaspoons chopped garlic
3/4 teaspoon fresh basil - chopped
3/4 teaspoon fresh parsley - chopped
salt and black pepper to taste

Salad ingredients:
Butternut squash - 1/2 inch cubes, 8 ounces
Rutabaga - 1/2 inch cubes, 8 ounces
Carrots - 1/2 inch cubes, 8 ounces
Golden beets - 1/2 inch cubes, 8 ounces
Red beets - 1/2 inch cubes, 8 ounces
Celeriac - 1/2 inch cubes, 8 ounces
Fennel - Julienne, 8 ounces
Shallots - Julienne, 4 ounces
Balsamic vinegar, 1/2 cup
Olive oil, 1 cup
Mesclun greens, 8 ounces

Prepare marinade by combining all ingredients
Blanch squash, rutabaga, carrots, beets and celeriac in boiling water, drain well, shock in ice water to cool quickly.
Combine blanched vegetables, fennel and shallots in a bowl.  Toss with marinade.  Transfer to a sheet pan in a single layer.  Roast in a 350 degree oven until tender (but not soft) and lightly browned.
Toss with balsamic vinegar and olive oil to taste
Arrange on mesclun greens.

Peace on Earth

We had a lovely day with lots of family in Wellesley and tomorrow we will do it all over again with a couple of dozen relatives at our house!  I hope that everyone who celebrates Christmas enjoyed the holiday.  Have fun shopping the sales tomorrow if that is your tradition - I will be cooking!  With luck I'll get a bit of "crafty" time too.


(I designed this card last year - it is one of my favorites.  I can't send a card to all of the people who read my blog so here is my "virtual" Christmas card to you.)

Lovely Luminaries

Christmas Eve - a very special time.  In our neighborhood we have a tradition  of lighting luminaries along the entire street on Christmas Eve.  It has become quite an attraction and many people drive through on their way to or from evening church services.  The candles we use stay lit from about 4:30 p.m. (dusk) until the wee hours of the morning (one year I finshed wrapping after 2 a.m. and they were still going strong).

The first step is the folding of the bags.  I am very particular about this - the tops must be folded under twice and creased to stay away from the candles.  I sat in this rocking chair and folded 70 bags this afternoon (if only the Cricut could do that for me!).

Next, my husband adds a couple of scoops of sand and the candle to the bag.  We were lucky this year - the weather is cold but no rain and not windy - perfect conditions for the luminaries.  If it rains too hard we have to move the date and it just isn't the same....

Then the bags are carried out to the street and spaced as evenly as possible by our sons.  We usually do them for our neighbors across the street since they go away at Christmas but don't want there to be a "gap" in the coverage.

The snow takes care of any unintentional mini-bonfires - fortunately that doesn't happen very often (usually only if it is windy).

Here is the view down the street - I had to wait for a chance to take a photo when no cars were driving through.  The effect is really magical and it is fun to have a few minutes to catch up with neighbors as we all get our luminaries set up and then wander along the street enjoying the lights and the candles.

We'll be off to the late church service soon.  One more tradition that has to happen on Christmas Eve is the opening of the handmade ornaments from Grandma Felicia.  She has been making dated ornaments for all of the grandchildren and great nieces and nephews for many years now and each of our sons has a nice collection of special ornaments.

I hope you all are having a relaxing and cozy time with family and friends. Merry Christmas!

Crystal and Cookies

Just one more day and so much to do!  Today we finally got the dining room tree decorated.  Our town was very busy as we did lots of errands and picked up a few last minute gifts.  Tonight was filled with cookie making, so this is definitely a "holiday" post and not a "crafting" post.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that we lived overseas for eight years - first in Germany and then in England.  Our younger son remembered the "lebkuchen" cookies we had in Germany and decided to try making some with his girlfriend.  They do a lot of cooking and baking.  Our older son has a radio show about chefs, music and food.   I am not sure where the "foodie" genes came from but it keeps things interesting around here!

The recipe was a bit complicated and involved boiling molasses and honey together.  They found the recipe online - here is a LINK to the site.

The dough turned out to be a bit sticky but they used plenty of flour and managed to cut out lots of little cookies.

The tiny hearts were really cute and very tasty too - we recommend trying this recipe if you like lebkuchen.

When we lived in Germany I used to go on two shopping trips a year with my "English Morning Tea" group.  This was a group that met every Wednesday morning.  It was organized through the community education in our small town and was for Germans who had taken all of the English language classes and wanted to keep up with their language skills and ex-pats who were struggling to communicate in German and appreciated a chance to have some native speakers help them out.  We took an overnight trip to the area where a lot of crystal and china were manufactured and shopped at the factories.  We had a lot of fun!

Each time we went on these trips, I would buy a few more crystal ornaments.  The company that made them also makes the crystal sold as Gorham in the US.  I have some of the boxes with their German labels and every year I have a little "refresher course" in German when I have to put them away (of course - I have to get them in the right boxes or it would bother me all year!).  These two are for a reindeer and cat.

The Tree in the dining room is actually meant to be an outdoor tree.  It is white wire with downswept branches.  A few years ago, I was in CVS and they had marked down the remaining trees to 90% off so it was inevitable that I would go home with it!  This tree only has crystal and silver ornaments but this year I added a few blue glass balls as well.


























My favorite thing about this tree is the way it is reflected in the mirror on the opposite side of the room.  The effect is so pretty when you walk into the room from the hall.

Here are a few more close ups of some of the crystal figures.  I wish I could really capture the magical sparkle of this tree in a photo.  The outdoor tree has worked out just fine inside - it is a little unexpected but visitors nearly always comment on how nice it looks in the room.

There is so much to do tomorrow - good luck to all of you with your last minute preparations!

I realized that I didn't give a time zone when I said that 11:59 p.m. today was the deadline to comment for the DVD giveaway so, to be fair, I will end the eligibility at 11:59 Pacific time which is 2:59 a.m. for me.  I am a night owl, but I do need to get some sleep, so I will do the drawing as soon as I can tomorrow morning and post the name of the person who will be receiving a free copy of Megan's Above Rubies Studio Cricut A-Z DVD.


The Winner has been chosen - Congratulations to Molly Martin!

Molly said...

Diane,

I would like to echo what Lisa Sturgill said...even when I think I know what I am doing, watching you navigate through CDS helps me to do something easier and/or learn something new.

I also enjoy your posts relating to using a Cricut element or cart for something other than what is was designed for...(i.e. using Zooballoo for Christmas).

Finally, I really appreciate your reviews of new carts AND all the time involved in taking/editing/posting pics of the handbooks.

So, THANK YOU!

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Molly Martin

December 21, 2009 10:47 AM