New places

Why hello there. The last time I wrote in this blog it was the turn of the year. Much has changed and happened over the past few months. After many internal debates about the future of this here blog, it just sat. And sat. And sat.

I simply wanted to share the excitement, in case you were in the dark wondering whether my absence here meant that I was living a life on the streets, sleeping on sidewalks and trying to hustle my way through life with the trickery of three card monte. That is not the case, you needn't worry. I'm doing okay.

I've started a new endeavor fully focused on baking, based on the cookbook Tartine, which is written by the chefs from the Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. I'm baking every single thing from the cookbook in a year. So, please read along as I awkwardly stumble through this adventure: Tar-Tryin'

If you are on Tumblr, please follow me. Include me in your blog roll. Bookmark that page. Lie to your friends if you have to, and tell them how exciting my blog is. Actually, I hope it is exciting, so maybe you won't have to lie.

hello again, old friend

Well, it's 2011 now. I am not so sure how I will get used to this. For the past million years I've either been in school where the new year was drilled into you the first week back to school in January when you'd write the wrong date on your paper then laugh and erase it, or I was the one writing the date on the board every morning as a bold reminder of the new year. I've already referred to this year as 2010 many times. I imagine I will be stuck back in 2010 forever. It was a good year for me, so out of all the years to be stuck in I guess that's a good one. But I'm not a fan of being stuck anywhere, so I guess I'll have to wake up and recite the date a few times like some obsessed compulsive person until it gets into my brain that this is indeed the year 2011.

I've been absent from my little blog, and I opened an Etsy store and immediately took an unintentional hiatus from it. Bad timing on my part, I suppose. Eh, that's life. I'm not one to make resolutions in concrete that will be devoutly followed, then feel like a bum when I trail off the path in March. I recently read an article in Vogue's January issue, an interview with Natalie Portman. I'm going to go ahead and use a quote now from Ms. Portman.

"I'm tough on myself in terms of the standards I want to live up to, but that's also part of my pleasure: knowing you are being your fullest self. Being your fullest self is a lot of work."

This resonated with me. I think I am too hard on myself for all the wrong reasons. I feel like I'm at a point where I want to know exactly what my fullest self entails. I know it involves being the mother/wife/sister/daughter/friend I desire to be, making things, baking, cooking, relying on spell check because I apparently just tried to spell "involves" with an 'e', reading, writing, (no, not 'rithmetic too), keeping in shape, and an infinite ______________ for the rest of list because I'm still figuring it all out. That alone is a long list, and will indeed take a lot of work.

So here's to being our fullest selves, being hard on ourselves for the right reasons, and learning about ourselves and the world more and more every day.

Try-cough-ski

When I was in 6th grade, I was sure I was going to be playing the clarinet for the Boston Philharmonic when I was an adult. I actually have this written in a notebook that is tucked away in a closet in my parents' house. At this point I had been playing a year, so the aspiration was clearly attainable. Clearly. I would borrow my dad's CD's, and stack them up next to my fancy CD player. I would listen to Beethoven (pronounced BEET- Hovin'), Chopin (CHOPPIN'), and Tchaikovsky (TRY-COUGH-SKI) for hours. My dad gave me a CD of my own for Easter, since I had fallen in love with Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. In my mind it was a completely normal thing for any 6th grader to be listening to classical music in her bedroom, perusing the CD jacket of "Mad About Tchaikovsky" like it was Tiger Beat magazine or something. Yeah, I was cool.

Exhibit A: Very cool, indeed.


I haven't thought about any of my dashed symphonic dreams for quite some time. That is, until this past weekend when my sis and I took in an evening show of Black Swan. All I can say is, Whoa! Listening to the music brought me back to a very optimistic, I-am-going-to-be-an-orchestra-star, warm place. Pair that with the albeit amazing, and very creepy, and very scary plot and boom - confused paranoid feelings ensue while watching. I do like the movie, and I recommend it. I could talk a lot about it, but reviewing it would be time consuming. Just wanted to share what a crazy viewing experience I had while watching it.

Oh, and I found these posters for it on some weird Internet movie poster competition site, by La Boca. I think they're nice.



This one is very nice!


And the real poster, captures the creepiness and beauty of the film quite nicely.

knock it off

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, right? I've been a busy bee trying to replicate some wonderful things I've seen here on the good ol' internet. I love a good tutorial!

I saw this wreath on the cover of Readymade (and featured here on Design*Sponge) and have wanted to make one myself for such a long time! I didn't have rope, or buttons without holes in them, or those zigzag scissors...but I think it turned out alright. It's growing on me.


I saw some tiny elves that I fell in love with over at My Paper Crane (a blog/shop by Heidi Kenney - I've mentioned her before). Who knew tall pointy hats were so difficult to make?! Maybe I was just tired, which at that point I should have set them aside and finished them later. But I was so excited! Painting fine detail when you're tired is troublesome. They turned out cute, but they could have been much cuter! I think I am going to make another batch to redeem myself!


And finally, I saw the most amazing eyeglasses case in an embroidery Flickr pool that I am a part of. Aren't these completely awesome?! What a super fun gift to make! The case isn't completed in the picture below, but you get the idea!


There are still a few more projects I'm planning on trying very soon - I'm so excited to make these fake sugar cookie ornaments tonight! And these head wraps will not only keep my ears warm, but are very cute ways to hide the awkward phase I'm currently going through with growing out my hair!

plans for the winter

In my dreams the plans for my winter look something like this:


In reality, they're more like this:


We had so much fun in the snow today! Manuevering about in snowpants, a thick jacket, new boots, a hat tied around his chin, and mittens was quite an obstacle to tackle for him. Now, the obstacle for me was getting all of that on him! I just may lose 10 lbs and gain some gray hair by the end of winter from all the sweat and stress I undergo getting that kid bundled up! Still juggling so much this holiday season - new little projects and stuff for my etsy shop coming soon!

Dear Santa

This would be a lovely addition to my closet.



And I even included a link for you, Santa!

snowflake garlands!

Waking up yesterday to the month of December and a little blanket of snow was the catalyst I needed to get into Christmas decorating mode! I am constantly inspired by all the decorations that fill up the house of Heidi Kenney (from My Paper Crane) every holiday. My collection is growing, but I really need to hit up some thrift stores for some vintage decorations!

I did stumble on these die-cut felt snowflakes at Target last night - $1 for three of them. I got some red, white and green ones...


I cut off the loops they were on and strung them together with a needle and some crochet thread. I was affirmed in the success of my snowflake garland when Jack woke up this morning, pointed at it as we came down the stairs, and exclaimed, "Woo-hoo!" We're off to a very fun holiday season here in the Kastner house. I think I'm going to go back and get more snowflakes!