White Christmas

First of all let me start by saying I've never, ever, had a fake Christmas tree before.  I've always turned my nose up at them, having been raised in a home allowing only the real deal.  However for the past three years or so, I have been longing for a fake pink Christmas tree.  I saw one in a magazine once and fell in love.  Someday it will be mine, but it's not in the budget this year.  And also, I think it might clash with my pink walls.  So I got settled on this pretty white number here. 

One of my major Christmas tree dilemmas was always to pick out ornaments that didn't blend in with the green tree.  Now I don't have to worry about that -- everything looks good on white!  I love the way the colors pop.  (p.s., like how bright and sunny it is?  Gotta love San Diego.)

Notice those owls nestled in there?  Well today I came home to a bunch of turned down branches and a missing owl.  I have sneaking suspicion as to who took it.  It's not this one below, but her sister.  She is a little mischief maker.

So, I'm not turning my nose up at fake Christmas trees anymore, but I do miss that wonderful fresh pine Christmas tree smell.  Life's tough... you can't have it all ;)

First of Fall

 Aside from being the BEST season for clothes shopping, Fall is also the best season for food! Don't you think?  I guess each season has its foods it brings with it, but I love Fall the most.  Everything is warm and toasty and spicy.  Pumpkin spice and everything nice and all that.  So when I got the Everyday Food mail with spice cake recipes it made me very happy!  I was bored and at work and therefore hungry, so I wanted a piece of every cake like right that minute.  My boss's birthday is coming up and I know she loves pumpkin too, so I sent her a couple of options in a very important email.  She chose this Pumpkin Spice Cake with Honey Frosting.  Well, I can't just make a cake for someone's birthday that I've never made before, so I tested it out on my family this weekend.  The cake was more bread-like, but it was still delicious and I think it could even stand alone as a bread, without the frosting, but the frosting was also very good.  It has gotten my stamp of approval.

On a side note, my Halloween decorations are totally lacking this year.  And last week my friend expressed her disappointment in me for not having done any Halloween crafts.  I don't know what is going on.  For some reason it crept up on me this year.  When I got down my boxes of decorations there didn't seem to be much there. In addition to the skulls that sit around my house all year long, I have a few pumpkins and spiderwebs and I guess I'm calling it a day.   Or a season. 

Happy Halloween

Despite two practice pumpkins before the final version, for the second year in a row, I lost the pumpkin carving contest at my work. It's actually pretty sad when there are only four pumpkins competing. Ha! Both years I've tried to do something different, difficult (for me), and not to mention time consuming - and I've lost. So I've learned my lesson- I was so focused on winning that I forgot to have fun. And it should be fun! So only fun pumpkin carving from now on...

On a happier note, my husband IS a winner! He won the contest at his work with his Edward Scissorhands pumpkin. He deserved to win, his pumpkin was really good.

And finally, a loser for the second time yesterday, I lost the Scariest Dessert Contest at my husband's work. I made these Ladies' Fingers from the Martha Stewart website. I thought they looked pretty gross. I didn't even want to eat one! Especially the nails, which are blanched almonds dyed with red food coloring. Ew.

Los Muertos at Disneyland

We took our last Disneyland Trip of the season yesterday because our passes expire at the end of the month. Why our passes are not blocked out on Columbus Day, I do not know... it was so crowded. But we stayed long enough to get on the essential rides. The Halloween version of Space Mountain (Ghost Galaxy) was a big disappointment, but The Nightmare Before Christmas- decorated Haunted Mansion never lets you down. Here are some pictures I took of their Dia De Los Muertos display, which I thought was pretty neat.

Shrine Time

Being that it was the first weekend in October, I was really excited to start my Halloween decorating at home. I really wanted to put up a Dia De Los Muertos shrine for my Grandma and my kitty, Miette, who died last Halloween. My shrine isn't that great, but it's a start. I'm not a very good Mexican - It definitely needs more color! I will keep working on making more paper flowers and papel picado (punched paper). Cutting the papel picado was the most time consuming, but they turned out really pretty. I also made some more felt skeletons, Halloween colored ranunculus, and black crepe paper roses to take to work. I love Halloween so much!

It's Almost Time...

I know, I know... Halloween already?? It's still two months away, but you have to enjoy it while you can. Well actually, I still have a few Halloween decorations up from last year. Only the super classy ones, of course. Skulls are always in season. Halloween is my favorite holiday as far as home decor goes. So this weekend when I walked into the craft store and saw them putting up Halloween decorations, I got excited whereas most people would just roll their eyes.

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And, of course, you have to get a jump start on any crafts because there are so many. My mother-in-law found these cute guys in a magazine called Cloth, Paper, Scissors. It was a contest winner, so there were no instructions, but we winged it and they came out cute. Mine is above and my mother-in-law's artistic broken-hearted skeleton is below.

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We also tried this Martha Stewart craft, paper-covered switch plates. Only we had to stop after a few switch plates because I couldn't decide which paper I liked best.

And finally, I also made the new pillowcases for our living room pillows. Unlike our last covers that I just sewed right on the pillows, I made these cases with zippers, so I can throw them in the wash when they get dirty. I get smarter every day...

I'll say it was a productive weekend.

Cookie Party!

Here are some photos from Taline's cookie party last weekend. I have to admit I was a little skeptical as to how five women would get into one kitchen and make five different cookies, but it was so fun and we made so many yummy cookies - EVERYONE's cookies turned out good, can you believe it? Mine were probably the worst. Whatever...

Amelia's pretty Russian Tea Cakes. But I say they are Mexican Wedding Cookies - seriously I think every culture must claim a cookie just like this... I think these were my favorites.

Taline's Sugar Cookies. We all helped decorate - aren't they breathtaking?

My Milk Chocolate Cookies, Sara's Snickerdoodles, and Nandita's Ginger Cookies. All very yummy! Aaron was partial to the Snickerdoodles. Snickerdoodle is a funny word, don't you think?

Turkey (Cupcake) Day

So here's my second attempt at cupcakes from the Hello Cupcake cookbook.  They look super cute, but it's a little disappointing when they start to fall apart a few hours later... hmmm. 

Paper Christmas Trees

These paper christmas trees were easy to make after we got the folding technique down. Martha's "evergreens" were all green, of course, with gold balls at the top, but gold's not allowed in my house, so I spiced it up!

Halloween + Dia de los Muertos

I was excited for halloween this year. I got to make lots of scary goodies for my work's halloween party and I carved TWO Martha Stewart pumpkins! My first one was better, but afer having an already terrible day, I set it down at the top of the stairs and having declared itself a loser for not winning the pumpkin carving contest, my pumpkin hurled itself all the way down and cracked in half at the bottom. Total bummer. Above, is my lesser detailed second attempt.

I was particularly excited about making brain cupcakes! The merengue buttercream frosting was a chore, but they turned out so cute and everyone knew they were brains!

A few weekends ago, my mother-in-law and I started a paper mache project for halloween. We were supposed to make these really cute little pumpkins, but it turned out to be more difficult than we thought. So, no, a first grader didn't make these, I did! It was my first time doing paper mache! Even though they didn't turn out the way we expected and they are pretty bad, they are still kinda cute, so here they are:

And lastly, the actual day of Halloween was a sad one for us. It was our dia de los muertos. Our first ever and best kitty, Miette, got very sick due to fatty liver disease. While we thought we cured her and she had two good weeks, in the end it recured and we knew it was her time to go. My heart aches when I think I will never see her again. And I know it will make me sad every time I see this posting, I can't help it. I love looking at her! She had so much personality and her absence will leave a huge void in my life.

Gameday + Grandparents' Day

Today was the first game of the regular season for the Chargers. I hosted this special event for my family. I'm sill getting over the fact that they lost in the last two seconds...TWO SECONDS. Seriously? Ugh. But in the end, the cupcakes were good. A word of advice: don't make vanilla cupcakes OR the Almost Homemade Buttercream Frosting out of the Hello Cupcake cookbook! The cake was dry and the frosting was, due to the fact that it was made with marshmallow fluff, was suuuuper sticky and held no shape, just as I suspected. Weeeell anyways, I made it work, as Tim Gunn would say.

It was also Grandparents' Day. I made cupcakes of my Grandpa! Aaron and I spent forever on the glasses, but they turned out super cute!