Another first: yesterday we made valentines for Nico to hand out at class and to a few other besties. He’s so car crazed right now it was kind of a no brainer. Subtle changes to my standard vehicle, a few silly sayings and a afternoon spent hitching our Lifesaver wheels with glue. Ta da.
Still, Nico’s pleased smile is sweeter then all that.
We always celebrate New Year’s here at my house. Time for reflection and dreaming of good things to come. I had a little help from our biggest dreamer, Nico. We co-designed some gifts for his friends- Dreamcatchers of sorts. He art directed.
Dreams for little girls, little boys and grown-up lady friends too.
See more about this project, here.
Printed, framed, wrapped and hilarious! The stills from Disco Christmas once again we’re a rerun hit. You may remember we did this last year after our MadMen Holiday Party? Some of you, the worlds best party people, are now beginning a collection. But you know, since you made it out in the Winter weather and showed up in all that finery- it should be proudly displayed!
This year we also hot glued some gift cards in to old jars, added glitter and delivered the “snow globes” to Nico’s daycare teachers. I read the how-to here at One Charming Party.
How do I love thee Friends? This much. Heating up the house in the dead of Winter. Thank you for your funky souls.
I have dreamt of doing this for so long. And then we decided to have Disco Christmas and well, could there really ever be a better excuse for filling the claw foot with disco balls? The bathroom has never been such a ball.
I had the pleasure and assignment of as siting John Angelo with his VIP High Ball this year. Whoot 2012! It was a big deal, 650 guests including Gordan Gee and Jeni of Jenis’ Splendid. (She makes it just so yummy!). Zen Genius did the decor and boy was it over the top. Everyone just said, “wow”. And then, just to top it, the Ely Brothers set up their photo booth magic, Awesomatic…. you can see how wonderfully Halloween it was right here on their Facebook stream. I’ll save you the time and show you how wonderfully Halloween I was below. The perfect costume for the Lady in Charge.
Wines, LLC had me throw a tasting last month at North Market’s rental space. Italian and beautiful. More to come.
It’s our first really chilly day of the Fall. I am in a sweater and boots and thinking about taking the garden down. It needs to happen soon. Seems a good day to recount one of the things that makes us hot here at my house: home grown tomatoes.
Sultry little red things.
The plants themselves sort of take me over; you’ll see what I mean.
BLTs, Savory tomato upside down cake, pasta with rustic peasant sauce, waffles with pesto and tomato topping.
This Sunday Nico baked his first cake. All by himself; really. Well almost. I turned on the oven and dealt with getting the cake from the pan and I helped a bit, but basically he was the head chef. I got the idea after reading a book I checked out from the library Bringing up Bébé, by Pamuela Druckerman . Have you heard of it? It’s about an American raising her children in Paris. She writes many interesting things about the French “ways” that I will adopt as I can. In the first few chapters she talks about how French children are often encouraged to bake, that it teaches them independence and also patience. She mentions a common French cake called French Yogurt Cake and after I read that part I did a search online. And there you go. The world wide web is amazing. I adapted it a bit for our tastes but that’s actually one of the beautiful things about this recipe; it’s loose. It acts as a base for what flavors you would like to add. And uses, you guessed it, a small yogurt container as the measurement. I leave you with this photo essay of our experience and the recipe below. There is one disclaimer, Nico freaked when I told him he was only allowed to have one slice before dinner. Bon Appetite!
French Yogurt Cake:
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees
Using a small yogurt container as your measuring device to add ingredients to a large mixing bowl:
1 small yogurt container-worth of yogurt, we used greek 2% fat. (I suppose you could also use a flavor if you like)
2 containers of sugar. Again a modification, we used half and it seemed plenty for us
1/2 of oil
3 of flour. Nico had 1 regular flour, 1 flax meal and 1 almond flour
(these next 3 ingredients are not measured by your small container)
In a separate small bowl whip 2 eggs and add to other ingredients. Mix well.
Additions you may want to make at this point would be cut fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, etc. Ours had orange water and sliced dried apricots.
Now grease a pan and bake for 50 mins.
50 minutes worked perfect for us but because the ingredients vary I would check your cake at regular intervals to make sure you have a happy ending.
Done. Piece of cake.
My crafty side had to come out sometime, and it did here. Target has these great little tutus and I know someone who’s turning 2 soon. Grabbed one on my way out and embellished later with vintage faux flowers, add buttons and viola!
Up next one for myself. Seriously.
I punched up a couch in Nico’s room by adding a funky quilt and then pillows covered with a couple backpacks my husband collected in his college traveling days. I just love the drawstring tassels, so I left them.
They wild color palette seems to work and added just the right amount of worldy to his room.
That reminds me I should share some shots of his grown-up room too.
Spotted a Freeman landscape sign this Summer in German Village. Looking good. See the identity on the Label Brand business site.
I was asked to take candids at a wedding I recently attended. Here’s a couple favorites.
See the present presentation here.
Studio 35 just got a facelift, care of Sullivan Builders. They are using those window wraps we designed for them and here’s what they’re looking like…
Trident just had a new product, the Pitzo, launch. We all were thrilled when we opened up the box of product samples to reveal that Farberware will be selling them in shades of Summer!
We just celebrated a birthday and yes there was a monkey. More to come.
6/29/12 We posted the details of this party on our Festoon Events site. See it now.
We’re a little kombucha crazed at my house this Summer. It happened in Gainesville. My Dad brought home this wonderful blueberry kombucha from the Farmer’s Market. Then we were hooked. I ordered my scoby online and now I have enough to outfit my daring friends. We’ve got Sweet Tea- a black tea kombucha with lemonade for the second ferment. We’ve also got a green tea cherry. Yummy.
Gearing up for a big birthday bash. Party favors in the making.
This project for Art Al Fresco was ages ago but this warmer weather just reminds me of it. I can’t wait to get out in it and have some fun!
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This was a wonderful trip for our one and half year old. These days as long as Nico is occupied then we are all happy. He explored every inch. He tested his sea legs. We had a ball.
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