Prudence pouts

Raspberry and rose souffle

What we've been up to the past week:

Listening to Christmas music (Frank, Dean, Bing, Doris, et al) and watching favorite Christmas films: Elf, Miracle on 34th Street and a new favorite since last year - Peter and the Wolf.  The second two are streaming on Netflix. 

 

On Thanksgiving the kids and Dave and I made:

Scalloped Yukon Gold and Sweet Potatoes

Orange Cinnamon Sweet Rolls

Green Salad with cherries, walnuts and apples

Lemon Cream Pasta

Sage Stuffing

Hutterite Turkey with homemade gravy

and Pumpkin Creme Brulee! 

So good.

We've also been working on Christmas decorations and handmade wrapping and gifts.  We started some paper mache puppets based on these:

which you can find instructions for here

There is a Santa, an elf, a reindeer and a deer girl in the works so far.

And baking sugar cookies.

And last night Madeline and I made Raspberry rose souffles - oh my god - so so amazing.  We made them with two pints of fresh raspberries, which were pureed and put through a fine sieve to remove the seeds - the prettiest bright pink, no food coloring required.

 
 

But after making souffles (10 egg whites) we had a bunch of yolks leftover...  So tonight M and I are making eggnog custards!

A new favorite

blog:

Rifle Paper Co.

And a new favorite artist:

Diane Sudyka

The Last Farm

Dave and I watched this a couple nights ago.  Really beautiful, and sad. 

 

I love this

find it on etsy!

Winter

Just a little inspiration searching for my Halloween costume.  I'm going to be Winter this year.  I had been debating the Snow Queen (Hans Christian Andersen), Drusilla (from Buffy), some kind of deer girl, Margot (The Royal Tenenbaums), or even the Butcher Bunny (Mark Ryden) - but I think I've settled on being Winter. 

So here is the start of my inspiration board - going to go all out this year.

The next few are Sarah's beautiful dolls - which I'm using as hair and make-up inspiration.

The trees and squirrels will watch for you

Some things that I love right now:

Huckleberry tarts

It's huckleberry picking season here!  This was our dinner a few nights ago. 

 

Gigi's little poppy garden

Another new doll in the works

And a new Artful Agenda planner with one of my linoleum cuts on the cover.  This planner is my favorite.  If you haven't picked one up yet - they're really great - you can find them here.

Papier mache magazine

My new favorite little online magazine.  So many great ideas in here for clothes I'd like to make the kids - and ways I'd love to decorate the house.  I'm totally inspired to sew something really cute now! - today! 

Oh, and I want this little girl's hair.  I was actually just talking last night about cutting mine shoulder length so I can have a bit more fun with color and curls. 

Recycled fashion show

Turned out pretty awesome!  Definitely rocked Jerry's Saloon last night.  Lots of fun.  Lots of friends.  Lots of gorgeous women!  And I had a lot of fun making the recycled treats for our skit.  (My daughter made all the cute ice cream cones.)  Have spent the whole day recovering, lounging about reading Her Fearful Symmetry  by Audrey Niffenegger.  (I read The Time Traveler's Wife a couple years back, and unlike many people actually love this newest novel so much more!)  Drinking too much orange juice and enjoying a relatively clean and quiet home. 

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

 I love this band and I love this little video.  I'm so addicted to animated music videos right now.