golden days

There's not a thing more dreamy to me than old photos:

Find more of these family photos here.

These portraits call to mind one of my favorite photographer friends. Some recent works:


Now go write a story or song, cause I know you're inspired!

I've tried my hand at polaroid picture-taking, with a 600 I got for pennies at a flea market. Here's a sample from this year:






And my most favorite, always, the boy:

a fancy office

Here's where I'm working this week:


No one is here today, so I decided to case the joint with my camera. I feel like I'm sitting in a design magazine...

I'm absolutely in exposed-brick-and-browny-orange LOVE with this office.


(I won't say who owns it, but you would know his wild works!)

Yours truly, staring at the internet machine, bouncing christmas music off the walls and counting down the minutes until my holiday starts:

I simply remember:

and then, I don't feel so bad!

oh what fun it is!

Fancy a yule log?


Looks like a fresh snow flurry fell on your dessert!

I followed these fantastic rules, with a christmasy cognac variation for the filling.



Oh, did I mention that I love the holiday season?

o christmas tree, o christmas tree!

Long we wait for the winter holidays... after summer ends the daylight shrinks away... but the cold makes the end of the year seem so long.

Then suddenly it's Thanksgiving and the days between then and Christmas rushbylikeablizzard! There's not enough time for all the holiday parties and present shopping and decoration... let alone jobs and chores and normal life. I wish everyday lately had at least 6 more hours for me to bask in my Christmas lights, wrap presents, or just sleep.

Amid the lovely bustling, I was invited to partake in the Phelan family tradition of making homemade ornaments for their tree.


It's a simple recipe for the dough:
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water
(although Lucas just went off of a "dream of a memory": follow your dreams kids, it works!)

While your hands are still nice and clean, turn the oven to 300 degrees.
Mix the flour and salt, then mix in the water a little bit at a time.
Knead it like you need it, which might take a bit.


Roll out the dough with flour all over your surface and roller.

Then comes the fun part: mold the dough according to your personal fancy!



Tips:
-You really can't have enough flour on your hands.
-To make bonds, rub water on the seam.
-Don't make your ornament too heavy! You'll be sad when it breaks.
-Make sure there's flour underneath your ornament while you assemble it. If it gets stuck to the surface, just use a spatula to ease it off.
-Use toothpicks to add detail.
-Poke a hole somewhere in your ornament so you can hang it!

Put all your gorgeous doughnaments on a baking tray.

At this point, your creations are going to look a lot like cookie dough. I promise you-- unless you crave the taste of damp paste-- you won't want to eat this dough.

Instead, press some beads or buttons down (hard) into the dough to decorate!

Now put them in the oven for an hour or more, until they are crackly and dry.

Take them out and let them cool. When they've cooled, it's time to paint!
You can use acrylic paint if you're superfancy, but we just used food coloring and water, which made us feel like little kids, and that's a very good feeling.

Here's how we did:


One last step: trim the tree!

sparkle motion

Centerpieces to make any fall/winter dinner party fancy!



Thanks to Martha Stewart, the queen of craft with the cheery face of a little girl, these are the easiest/prettiest/most glittertastic decorations to make. Just get a winter squash or pumpkin, some glue, a paintbrush, and some of this superfine MStew glitter. (google search a Michael's coupon before you go!! fancy can be frugal too.)

You can probably guess how to make these gems, but here are some tips for you:
-brush the glue on in stages.. it dries fast, and the glitter takes a while to shake all over it
-unless you want sparkles around for weeks, cover your work surface with some newspaper. (me, I let sparkles fly! ..and they turn up just everywhere, weeks later)
-if you paint on a paper plate, lift your sparkly creation off the plate periodically whilst drying, so the paper doesn't stick.



(photos from our Thanksgiving table in Los Angeles, 2009.)

the light is taking me to pieces!

I adore the holiday season. Not only is Christmas Day my half birthday, it's also a time for fancy things like Christmas trees and lights, spritz cookies, finding presents, candy canes, sweaters, and unabashed sentimentality, my favorite.

This little tree belongs to Lucas and Sarah. My camera did some fanciful things with the light, a pretty simple trick to try at home: just move your camera ever so slightly while you press the trigger. Then slap your favorite photo on your computer's wallpaper for some joy while you work (or present shop online)!