Author Archives: Chelsea

Unknown's avatar

About Chelsea

I am a small town girl. I came to Austin to study at The University of Texas, and a very handsome boy sat behind me in class. I love baking, sewing, watching movies, laughing, and willing my plants to grow.

festive and bright

Leave a reply

My mom, sister, and I made these for a little crafting experiment. I like the idea of a little fabric or paper banner for the wedding, so we tried out a couple tutorials we found to see what we could make. We used this tutorial for the little tissue tassels, and this tutorial for the big pom pom. I have seen some more tutorials since for the tissue tassels that might be a little better, and I have pinned them here.

I really enjoy the making and creating of things (obviously), so I am looking forward to more wedding projects to see what I like best!

tissue decorations

christmas cookie baking

Leave a reply

In my house growing up, you got “fired” from certain jobs if you weren’t doing good work. I rarely got fired from anything, but I was promoted very quickly up the cookie making ranks. The cookie baking sessions at Christmas are always some of my most favorite times of the year.

Santa brought me a couple of new (and old) cookbooks, so I am looking forward to all the kitchen adventures soon to come in the new year!

xmas cookie1 xmas cookie2 xmas cookie2 xmas cookie3 xmas cookie4 xmas cookie5 xmas cookie6

pretty presents

1 Reply

We were happily surprised by the gift of falling snow on Christmas morning. We didn’t even check the weather forecast, so we were all smiles when we looked outside.

After exploring the snow a bit, I warmed up with hot chocolate and turned my attention to under that tree. Wrapped presents are so pretty underneath the tree. I have to admire each one before I open it, so they know that I think they are pretty. But I try to imagine that they are just bursting with excitement for me to open them, because they know I will be so happy with what is inside.

snow shoessnow scenepresent1 present2 present3 present4 present5

silver and gold…. no, just gold.

Leave a reply

Who said pumpkins are just for fall?

We spray painted all the things gold. For the pumpkins, we spray painted them, cut some decorative holes, and made them into festive lanterns. We also gold-ified some squashes, pinecones, and branches. They all made lovely decorations for a very special occasion.spray paint all the things gold pumpkins gold gourdsgold pumpkin lanterns

christmas candy

Leave a reply

For our Christmas goody bags this year, we went with a selection of candy. I have only made a couple kinds of candy before, so it was fun to experiment. Secret: candy making really isn’t all that hard.

We made gingerbread caramels (on which I burned my thumb very badly…). It was so satisfying to wrap the little squares in parchment.caramel

We made gingerbread cookie ornaments (not candy, but still in our goody bags). I actually had to put a label that said the cookie was for your tree, not your mouth. But, despite the presence of a piece of ribbon going through a hole in its head, people still ate it!gingerbread man

We made sweet and spicy peanut brittle, which turned out really delicious.peanut brittle

And we made candied citrus peels, because we are engaged now, and these seem more grown-up and fancy.candied citrus

the season of christmas cookies

1 Reply

I have the best memories of baking with my ma at all times of the year, but holiday baking is always special. There is just something about a big plate of beautiful cookies at Christmas that bring out the warm fuzzies.

thumbprints

If you are in the market for some cookie recipes, check out my list of 100 cookie recipes here. Now that I am looking through the list, I might make a batch of these animal cookies to give to the little ones I babysit.

animal cookies