3D Paper Stars

I did this post for the lovely Laura Beth at A Step in the Journey earlier this week.  My first guest post!  Laura Beth is super creative and posts lots of great ideas, so take a minute and check out her blog.

I did a stint in the dorms in college (go Huskies!) and while it was a pretty good experience, the rooms were sterile and straight out of the 1970's, you know, dormish.  My mom did her best to help spruce up the place (twinkle lights! closet organizer! upholstered study bench!), but my favorite thing was when she brought me stars to hang from the ceiling.  Talk about instant ambiance.

Here are those same stars, but in a classier arrangement.  They would be great to hang in a window or from a chandelier or from branches like I have here.  Have you seen people using branches in their decor this year all over the blogsphere and Pinterest?  It's because it looks awesome; just make sure you don't skip the bug-check step before you bring them inside.

Gather your supplies:

heavy paper (I use watercolor paper, but scrapbook paper would work, too)
pencil
scrap paper (for template)
ruler
bone folder (or butter knife)
scoring board (optional, but useful if you have one)
glue gun
fishing line

Here's the thing: making the stars is dead simple.  The hardest thing is making a template that you're happy with.  Once you get some stars traced and cut out, you just score lines.  The other tricky part is making sure you score adjacent lines on opposite sides.  Or, score from center to the points on one side and the center to the corners on the other side.  You can't have lines next to each other scored on the same side or you'll just end up with a kind of dome-shaped star.  Not as cool.  Fold on the scored lines, then add a fishing line loop with hot glue and you're good to go.

To make a four-point star, follow along with these pictures.  Score from corner to corner of the paper to form an "X" and then score down the middle both ways on the opposite side of the paper to form another "X".  Cut from on middle score mark down to a point about a third of the way from the center point on the next score over (a diagonally scored line).  Cut from the next middle score mark to meet up with your previous cut on the diagonally scored line.  Repeat around to form the other three points.

Okay, time to fess up.  I originally told LB at A Step in the Journey that I was making "3D Glitter Stars" and I'm sure you can see there is no glitter here.  This is because I am terrible with glitter.  I ruined tried it on some and my husband told me it looked like a Kindergarten project (it's true).  Cute when Kindergarteners do it, not so much here.   If you have adult-level glitter skills, some well-applied glitter could look really great.  Or, some metallic paint pen around the edges.  I prefer the clean simplicity of plain white, so that's what I went with.

The beauty of the stars is that, while they go great with Christmas, they are great with any decor, year-round.  Think how cool a vase of these would look with that barn star on your wall or hanging from your patio umbrella for a summer S'mores 'n Stargazing party.

My question to you: are you more likely to bring real branches inside, or buy fake ones?

Merry Christmas To You and Yours

I love Christmas music and I know I've said this before.  I love the Michael Buble album, the Elf soundtrack, Charlie Brown Christmas, the Bing Crosby album, I could go on and on . . . but my very, very favorite of all is Handel's Messiah.  The music is just beautiful and lyrics inspiring (thank you, Isaiah).

With that in mind, my hope is that you encounter the Son given to us.  Oh, what a gift!  Merry Christmas to you and your family and friends.

My question to you: what is the first Christmas album you listen to every year?

That Olive Garden Soup

You know what I'm talking about, the yummy soup that has sausage, kale, potatoes and a "one star" spicy broth.  I have been known to go to OG, order the soup, salad and bread sticks and eat multiple bowls of the Toscano soup and not even touch the salad or the bread sticks.  It's just so good.

Frango Tart

Being that we are smack in the middle of the holiday season, it is prime time for buying and giving (and eating!) Frangos.  Have you had them?  I think pretty much everyone has had a Frango at some point, but if you haven't, head straight to your local Macy's and pick up a hexagonal box of deliciousness.  What's a Frango?  Basically it's just flavored chocolate ganache covered in more chocolate, so how could this be bad?

Here in the PNW, we have a special connection to the Frango.  They were invented in 1927 in the candy kitchen at Frederick & Nelson's department store located at Sixth and Pine in downtown Seattle.  There is currently an upper-scale mall on that site with a Tiffany & Co. and Barneys New York.  Frederick & Nelson is special to my family because my grandma used to sell party favors there.

Starting in 1949, my grandma took special orders from customers at Frederick & Nelson and would make all manner of favors for bridal and baby showers, weddings, and birthdays.  She made about a gazillion (my estimate) rose petal and baby bassinet nut cups, floral centerpieces, rice bags for weddings (back when that was still legal) and all manner of other crepe paper goods.  She would deliver the orders to the store and submit her bill, then shop in anticipation of the upcoming check.  When the check came, she would go shopping again.  She says that my grandpa understood and never said anything about it and I think that is a perfect arrangement!

I barely remember Frederick & Nelson from growing up, but I definitely remember the original dark green Frango boxes.  My mom brought this glazed chocolate tart to Thanksgiving and it is almost exactly the texture of a Frango.  Here is my slightly tweaked version of the original recipe from Gourmet September 2008.

A note on flavors: yes, I really like chocolate and orange together.  It reminds me of the "whack-and-unwrap" chocolate oranges I used to get in my stocking that I LOVED.  If you are not a fan, just substitute the orange zest with vanilla or peppermint or raspberry extract or Irish creme, you get the idea.

Here is the recipe card; you can click on the image to download and have your very own copy.

My question to you: what is your favorite flavor of Frango?

Candy Cane Centerpiece

I love candy canes.  I love how they taste and how they look and how they remind me of Christmas.

These days, Christmas music gets played in October and the stores start putting out decorations and candy with Back to School supplies.  This summer our local drive-through espresso stand had egg nog.  In August!  But it seems that you really don't start seeing candy canes until after Thanksgiving.  That, or I'm not very observant.

Luscious Truffles

I pinned a recipe just today from Not Without Salt for a fresh mint ganache to add to hot milk to make a yummy cocoa.  A huge lover of all things mint, the Mister has added this to my to-do list. My mom brought a ganache tart to Thanksgiving (who needs pumpkin pie when you can have chocolate?) and the December 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living has a whole section of ganache tips and recipes.  Ganache is everywhere I'm looking these days.

Tiered Ribbon Trees

Probably like many of your cities and towns, our town has a pre-holiday festival that serves as a kick-off to the season and promotes our small town's businesses.  Spurred on by the promise candy canes, the Mister and I loaded the boys into the car and headed to the festival.  Each store has appetizers and as the boys and I were walking in and out of various shops, overwhelmingly we kept hearing that we just had to stop in at the flower shop because they had the best snacks.  By the time we got down the street, the flower shop was packed as testament to their appetizers' popularity.  I left the boys on the street with the fire department making s'mores (how fun is that?!) and went in to find the appetizer table cleaned out, but also to find these adorable trees.

Handmade Gift Exchange Update: my gift from Angela

I went out to the mailbox yesterday expecting to find a couple Christmas cards (which I did, yay!) but was surprised and delighted to find a gift from my Handmade Gift Exchange partner Angela.   Not sure what I'm talking about?  Refer here to get the back story.

Angela is a super crocheter and she did not disappoint with the gift she sent.  I told her that I like bright colors and she made this floral kitchen set with that in mind.  I got a Wash Blossom (the lime green dishcloth), a ChrysanthePad (the magenta trivet/potholder), and a Scrub Bud (the bright blue pot scrubber).  It's hard to see the detail in the picture, but she did a great job.  This definitely adds a bright spot to my kitchen!

All is Calm, All is Bright!

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the music.  Ask the Mister, I start playing Christmas music periodically in October.  (And let me note here, I do not decorate until after Thanksgiving.)  This is, of course, after the week of music I play during the summer--if stores have Christmas in July sales, I can certainly play the music, right?

In fact, one of the most exciting things for me this Halloween was the release of the Michael Buble Christmas album.  So.  Exciting.  Mine even has a personal Christmas message from Michael JUST FOR ME.  Clearly, he didn't know which copy I was going to buy, so recorded it on all the albums, lucky for the rest of you.

Yoga Bag for Handmade Gift Exchange

I participated the Handmade Gift Exchange hosted by Craftaholics Anonymous and I want to tell you about it and show you what I made.  The Handmade Gift Exchange is basically crafty pen pals: you sign up, get paired with another person, make gifts and mail them to each other.  Super easy and really fun!

I got paired with Angela from Texas, you can check out her blog and learning about crocheting and the fun of living in an RV.  Angela does yoga, so I thought I would make her a yoga bag using Amy Butler's Nigella Yoga Bag pattern that I have used before to make a bag for myself.  If you have sewed an Amy Butler pattern before, you know she designs functional and trendy accessories and does a good job explaining how to get to the end result.

Paint Chip Christmas Banner

Have you seen those Pantone ornament balls on Pinterest?  I want them very badly for my Christmas tree this year.  Also, I want very badly for Santa to trim my tree with some decorations bought at Tiffany.  I think both will not be happening.  This year.

Since I do not own the complete library of Pantone chips, the next best thing for me is to head down to Home Depot and peruse the paint chip section there.  I have passed this love of little pieces of color to my offspring, for better or for worse.  After every successful (read: fight-free) trip to the home improvement store, the boys get to pick out one Mickey Mouse-shaped paint swatch as a treat.  I may not own the Pantone library, but I do own the Disney paint library.

The best part is, you can make things out of (free!) paint chips!  Like this pennant banner hanging in my window.  I know that just by reading the title of this post, you know exactly how to make one of your very own, but I am going to show you anyway.  I have picked up a few tricks to do this quicker and easier, as I have done this many times.