Author Archives: Chelsea

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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.

window shopping

When I first heard of Fab, I thought, oh great, another one of those sites that will send me 500 emails. But I was wrong. They are awesome. I get to see all kinds of products and designers I wouldn’t normally see. And they are cool. For instance, I probably wouldn’t have seen these beautiful prints if it weren’t for Fab:

Fab Rome

Cool vintage-style world prints.

Fab Austin

Fun and simple city prints, like this one of Austin.

Fab Culinary

Sweet collection of infographic style prints, like a map of culinary tools.

the great whoopie pie experiment

I received some lovely whoopie pie pans for my birthday. I had super grand plans for some holiday whoopie pies. I wanted to make these chocolate ones, but rolled in gold sprinkles, and these gingerbread ones, with the crushed peppermints. In my head, they were going to be beautiful.

Instead, the tiny whoopie pies baked to look like tiny muffins, I had to cut the tops off to make them look right, and I got frustrated and filled them with some leftover frosting instead. Not quite what I had in my head…

whoopie pie 1 whoopie pie 2 whoopie pie 3

But after all that, its kind of hard to mess up a cookie/frosting sandwich. Tasty mistakes.

what I bought at the mall today

I volunteered to be in charge of the gift donation drive at work this year. I “adopted” some kids from a local organization, made the little angel tree with the ornaments, and waited. Pretty soon, we had mountains of presents, and a bunch of donated money to buy the rest of the gifts.

I went to the mall this morning to search for a pair of shoes, and a kind of perfume, and an iPod, and other little gifts on their lists. But I hope it wasn’t really “things” I was buying. I hope that I spent that donated money to help the kids feel like someone cares about them. That someone is on their side and thinks they deserve to be happy.

donated gifts

It makes my heart happy that some people are good, and remember what Christmas is for.

my first pecan pie

My reasons for making a pie were threefold:

  1. We just got engaged, so we can do whatever we want.
  2. My fiance’s favorite kind of pie is pecan pie, and I need to learn how to make one for him.
  3. I have been having trouble with my pie crusts, and after watching the master make turkey day pies, I really thought I could conquer the crust.

I wish I could say that it was equal part all those reasons, but I won’t lie. It was mostly because I wanted to make a perfect pie crust.

pie crust 1pie crust 2pie crust 3

I know. I could weep with joy. It turned out exactly right. The pecan part of the pie wasn’t too shabby either.pecan pie

a plaid christmas tree

Over the weekend, I started to panic when I realized that we didn’t really have any Christmas ornaments! So you know, I just whipped some up real quick like so the tree wouldn’t be naked.

I decided on a plaid Christmas tree. It says Christmas, but we could also use them as winter decorations later.

plaid christmas 1

If you want to try to make your own, just draw a shape onto the fabric. I used some cookie cutters as patterns. I sandwiched the fabric with some batting and a little ribbon or twine, and then sewed on the outline. Then I took some pinking shears and cut out the shape. Tie a little bow or knot, and you’re done.

plaid christmas 2plaid christmas 3plaid christmas 4

And because I can’t stop, won’t stop, I fashioned a plaid star for the tree topper too.plaid christmas 5

We decorated the tree at night by Christmas tree light, while drinking hot chocolate.plaid christmas 6

Our plaid tree is the perfect little tree for us!plaid christmas 8