Happy new year! I’ll spare you the year in review (for now) & I would like to leave you with a recipe for my favorite thing that I’ve enjoyed this holiday season: Egg Nog. This is the virgin stuff & WAAAAAY better than the junk you buy at the grocery store. It’s cheaper & incredibly easy to make.
I have so many fond memories of my mom making delicious holiday foods (the nog being one of them). I can’t help but get a little nostalgic whenever I take a swig. I also need to point something out, you’ll be swigging this, definitely not sipping. So yum!
I’m a little annoyed with how this picture turned out, I haven’t put up curtains in our new place (for diffusing natural light) and I’m taking this on top of our plastic folding table. Next year’s resolution is to resolve our furniture. Get a new table, fix up the chairs (or get new ones) and stay organized.
• N O G •
makes about 9+ cups of nog
6 eggs
1 package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
8 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
In a blender, beat eggs, cream and pudding until smooth. Add sugar and spices & blend until incorporated. Measure 8 cups milk in a milk jug & pour the pudding/egg mixture in with the milk. Shake generously & chill for 30 minutes before serving. Keep refrigerated for up to 2 days. Serve hot or cold.
This December has been a whirlwind. If I haven’t been at a party, I’ve been prepping for one. I just thought I’d do a little recap of what’s gone on this month. This post is mostly to remind my future self that no matter how busy the holidays get, I can survive. Even if it’s just by a little.
• P A R T I E S •
I had a fantastic time at a food tasting with fellow bloggers at Station 22. Oh. My. GOSH. Their food is amazing. Their meat was cooked to perfection & they served us the most delicious acorn squash I’ve had in my life. The consistency & flavor was akin to crème brûlée.
Next, I participated in a little gift exchange with the lovely Creative Collaborative folks. I was thrilled with what I came home with! I got an original painting by Brittany Scott (a fellow painter from college). It’s gorgeous. I want to frame it before I share it with you. My Christmas was complete from the moment that painting filled my hands.
Creative Collaborative is one of the reasons why I’m excited to have moved. We’re now a hop skip & a jump away from CC meetings, I look forward to going every month!
The 2nd Annual Alice Lane party was too much fun. I spent the night eating delicious treats & drooling over their gorgeous furniture. They sent us home with fresh-baked buscuits & strawberry-basil jam. The biscuits were inhaled, as was the jam. I’m going to need that jam recipe.
It, too, was a gift exchange & I scored the most delicious batch of peanut butter cookies to ever tickle my tastebuds. It’s nothing short of a Christmas miracle that I can zip up my pants today.
I baked 6 (YES, SIX!) dozen Lemon Crinkle cookies for a cookie exchange party, hosted by Bri of Collected. The above cookie was my absolute favorite. We all went home practically comatose from sugar overdose & bursting at the sides from all the delicious cookies.
The party was gorgeously decorated & designed, too. Next time, I’m dipping my lemon crinkle cookies in chocolate. I’m also adding a lot more lemon.
After all of the friend parties were the family gatherings. They were fun, but SO stressful. Felix has been teething (his wish is to get his two front teeth by the new year) & Penelope was really naughty. At the first Christmas party, Penelope & her cousin found their way into my parents’ bathroom & proceeded to make a fantastic mess with their shaving cream, soap, mouthwash and baby powder. I don’t think I got any pictures of the chaos, but I’m sure my sister did. The next night (at another family party) Penelope & her cousin went into the play room & proceeded to take out every single board game & mix up every single piece to every single game. Penelope was sure to leave her signature string spiderweb all over the room, too. Her nickname “Penelope the Destroyer” is back in full force.
I’m thinking something about driving 100+ miles every day for family gatherings for 4 days straight might have gotten to her. Perhaps.
• G I F T S •
My sister-in-law dropped the not-so-subtle hint that they wanted personalized mugs for Christmas. Before the hint, I had no idea what to do for them. I bought some 14 oz. mugs from Shopko, personalized them with ceramic paint pens & cured the mugs in the oven. DONE. I’d love to do this for our family.
My sister wanted to surprise my parents with family photos, but her plan was completely foiled when my parents suggested we get together for family photos. In keeping with the same theme, we pooled our photos together & created a family photobook & calendar for them. Since they live on the other side of the country, we thought it would be a sweet to document our year for them. My mom is an avid scrapbooker, so I knew she’d love it.
Paper Coterie provided me with a gift card, so I was thrilled to use that. I was incredibly impressed with their photobook system, ordering, paper & print quality, customer service & packaging. A+ all around. Just FYI: I was not asked to do a review, but I was just so impressed with the process & end product I thought I’d mention it here.
I kept things pretty simple with packaging & wrapping. When I ran out of my favorite Ikea wrapping paper, I used this lovely chevron paper designed by my friends Bri & Melanie (almost too nice to use). The bows are from American Crafts. I love how they look together. So simple.
These are two of the goodies I got from the various gift exchanges I participated in. Felix LOVES his little monkey & Penelope loves her little purse. Penelope kept asking Chris & I (and Santa) for a marshmallow dinosaur for Christmas. I thought it was funny, but Chris was picking up what she was putting down! He made her a marshmallow dino! It’s the sweetest labor of love, ever. Penelope loved her little Christmas surprise.
Santa put down arrows around the house leading Penelope & Felix to various little toys. It ended with the marshmallow dino & a few wrapped gifts. I love her reaction in the video. Total cuteness overload.
Popout
Last year Chris & I exchanged love letters. It was the best Christmas we’d done for each other, ever. I knew it’d would be hard to even come close this year. I totally failed. What did Chris get from me for Christmas? Squat. EPIC fail. Maybe now that the bar is at the very bottom, I’ll be able to do something great next year. I feel like an awful wife.
Speaking of gifts from spouses, I wrote this out for Bri, as commissioned by her husband. I believe he put it in a cookbook. Brilliant! If only I could think of clever/thoughtful/sweet things like this for Chris.
It’s been some time since I’ve done a Thrifty & Chic feature, no? As you know, I’m not a big Christmas (or any holiday) decorator. Next year will be so different, I tell myself. I’m going to go all out.
Like I’ve mentioned before, It’s so hard to invest in Christmas decorations when you don’t know where you’ll be in the next year or you have little room for storage. Despite that, I found this adorable Martha Stewart table cloth at the thrift store a couple years ago for something like $2. I like that it’s not your typical red & green decor and it seems to go with the other two Christmas decorations we own, too.
Also, I just had to mention that I planted the above succulent arrangement a few months ago & never got around to posting about it. I had the base on hand for some time & got all of the succulents from Ikea. I LOVE IKEA. My mom would be so proud that this thing has survived not only four months, but four months & a move. Chris boxed up all of our plants a week before our actual move and a few of our plants haven’t quite recovered.
How are the holidays done around your house? Have you scored any vintage/thrifted Christmas details for your home? Share links in the comments! I’d love to see!
These last couple of weeks have been chock full of gift swaps & holiday parties! I also participated in a snail mail Holiday Gift Swap (hosted by Kersey & Susan). With all of these festivities I needed to make a thoughtful gift (10 of them, actually) that expressed what I like to do, but didn’t take a million years to make. When I found out that I had an unexpected connection to a laser cutter, it somehow just dawned on me that I needed to make a patterned leather bracelet. Not just any old bracelet, though. A double-wrapped one. Those are far more fun, anyway.
I didn’t get around to laser cutting the bracelets before my first gift exchange, so I cut 5 of them by hand. I did 5 in under 2 hours (while watching TV). So you can tell that these things are easy to make! There are only 4 days left until Christmas, but that’s more than enough time to head to your local leather shop & make matching leather bracelets for all of your girlfriends (and their pets).
Print & cut out and assemble the pattern (see the download button below).
Lay pattern flat on a piece of leather or felt. Tape pattern down with packing tape or equivalent. Punch holes, THEN cut out outline.
Thread the flat end through the buckle. Insert the oblong hole through the filange of the buckle. Sew the end onto the buckle with your needle & thread, tying a square knot to secure ends.
Wrap around your wrist twice & buckle!
If you’re a pet owner or have a friend who is, these bracelets could double as a cat/dog collar. Just add a D-ring & a doggie tag! Also, if you’d like to win one of the lasered bracelets, click here.
Wasn’t that easy? Click the download button below to download a printable version of the instructions, supplies & the pattern.
This tutorial/freebie is free for personal use and should not be distributed/republished without my consent. Altering the file NOT ALLOWED. If you would like to use this tutorial for commercial purposes, please email me. Thanks!
The new year is approaching & I have so many ideas on how to make this site worlds better, but I’d love to have your input! Would you please take a moment to fill out this survey? Pretty please?
Fill out the survey & comment on this post saying that you did & you’ll automatically be entered to win the lovely bracelet pictured above (made by yours truly!). Deal? Deal! Fill out survey & comment by Dec. 23, 2011. International entries welcome! Comment on THIS POST. A winner will be chosen Christmas Eve.
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Thread the flat end through the buckle. Insert the oblong hole through the filange of the buckle. Sew the end onto the buckle with your needle & thread, tying a square knot to secure ends.
