Creole Wisdom

why I stopped scrapbooking

My week-in-the-life album I made in May 2009. My parent's porch gets the best light in the summer.

The last scrapbooking project I completed was in early April last year. That means I haven't put pictures to paper in a few short months of a year.

It was trickling to a slow before then, too. I've chalked it up to a few reasons:

I got kind of busy and was focused on getting a job in my industry.

I didn't have the space.

I started to really dislike the industry. Tremendously.

My blog replaced it to some degree.

I hate my printer.

It felt kind of narcissistic to scrapbook photo after photo of me, my friends, my boyfriends, my, my, my...

But isn't that the purpose of memory keeping? This isn't about other people, it's about me and my story.

I started to think about how much joy it gave me. I loved doing it. I might start up again. We shall see.

I kind of want to, especially after seeing all the great product from CHA.

dresses for a baby

As you know my friend Lindsay is having a baby girl. So far, all of my friends have had little boys. For this little baby, due to arrive in a few short weeks I made these onesie dresses. I give all credit to this excellent tutorial from Stephanie of Barefoot in the Kitchen.

For fabric I was kind of stumped. I had a vision of what I wanted and I don't like much of the fabric in stores right now. I didn't want to order something expensive online and wait, so I decided to go vintage. I found these beautiful, durable and awesome (to me) pillowcases at the best thrift store around. After a wash in really hot water they were ready.

What makes pillowcases perfect for this project besides the ideal size, is that they have awesome prints and sometimes beautiful, finished edges. Thank you Montgomery Ward for making such pretty pillowcases in the 1970s. I appreciate it.

Because of the excellent tutorial, these dresses are pretty easy to make. That leaves room for creativity. I might of added a flower like Stephanie did, but decided to keep these dresses pretty simple this go round. I loved adding pleated ruffles for the hems.

I can't get enough of the tiny details. If you know of someone expecting a baby girl make some of these. They are so easy! Go make some, really.

welcome to my shop

I'm very excited, I've been keeping a secret from all of you for a while. About a year ago my mom started encouraging me to sell prints of my photography, people will like them she told me, they'll want to hang them in their kitchen. It's taken me quite a while to decide how I want to start this and I'm going to begin small. I'm hoping to add flat cards and journals in the near future though, and I do take custom orders. I am 100% still new at all of this, but I'm excited to offer prints of my work! Right now the majority of it will be food or domestic related but that could change. If you're wanting to add something bright to your kitchen, home or even office come and visit my shop. 

me + 13

How perfect that today's challenge is: yourself and 13 things. We know it's Friday 1/13! Wow, stuff like that amazes me. There are no coincidences you know, this is just God offering me a little fun on this freezing Friday. And before you say, "I'm sure the challenge is designed this way," to that I say "not necessarily it's not month specific!"

So, without much more speak I give you me and my 13 things. I shall explain their significance below.

1-One of grandpa's photo albums. I love that font!

2-The best, musky scented candle

3-My little bathroom clock

4-A red recipe box

5-Hair product

6-My plant, it's not doing well :/

7-Fancy plastic goblet

8-I found this carefully carved magazine holder in my ally on garbage day. No ideas for it yet.

9-Uncle Ben's rice. Yum!

10-Miss Cleo

11-Miss Creole

12-A storage box

13-The vintage fan I'm giving to a friend

and me... in the red hunters.

brown kraft paper + baker's twine

I think half the fun of Christmas presents is the wrapping! I always use kraft paper and this year added simple red and white baker's twine. I could of made custom tags like I usually do but I decided to be an underachiever and just do cards from paper source. I've just let it all fall apart, haha!

I'm so excited for my parents to open the gifts I carefully selected for them. I love that kraft paper makes really good kindling for fires when it's been ripped off your gifts. I cannot believe Christmas is two days away!

merry + bright

This is my first Christmas in my own little place. I am loving this holiday season. It took me a good while to get into the Christmas spirit, I'm not going to kid you, but I'm feeling it now and I just wish we had snow. Although I'll spend the main event with family I'm happy to add some sparkle to my place. I put my tree up Black Friday and have been mostly decorated since then. Let's take a peak around :)

I have a small space, but the kitchen and dining room is where I spend most of my time. I found these Santa mugs at an antique store in Hastings. I got them for a song and love, love, love them. At my cookie party people were requesting to drink cider out of them, men were asking to do this, how cute is that?

My paper whites are just about to pop. I'm so excited that I grew these guys and they actually survived, I usually am awful with plants! For cards I strung some baker's twine and made use of my darling mini clothes pins :) That gold stuff over my rules frame is Martha Stewart and I wore those antlers to my cookie party.

I have a great collection of 1950s-1960s ornaments... I love them. I think they are perfect for me and my home decor style. I love that even new ornaments blend in well with the old since that aestetic is popular now. I found those green stars 75% off the day after Christmas at Macy's last year, I love them in glass. That lone bulb has a busted top so on the self it stays.

Every year it seems that I have a favorite ornament, this year it's this crazy beach ball, I mean how can you not love that? It is so festive and vintage-y.

I'm grateful that I could get into the Christmas spirit. I've got quite a few gifts to wrap. I hope you're having a good season as well. Thanks for taking a peak at my decor.

christmas cards 2011

I had no idea when I started designing my cards a few days before Thanksgiving what an ordeal this would be. I've made cards for a few years now, taking a break last year being my only hiatus. I've had my Epson printer for a couple of Christmas seasons and have expected it to work properly for all the projects I dream up. Is that too much to ask?

Well, apparently it is. Warning, beginning of a rant:

First: was the ink dilemma. Usually ink lasts quite long, but recently I've noticed it seems to be sucking more and more ink. So, enter three separate trips to Office Depot to pay $$$ for more cartridges.

Then: was the paper issue. The printer and my macbook were having communication issues and my colors were coming out all wrong. I'm not sending out cards with orange text and a photo that looks too dark. So I threw out about 7-8 full pages of printed cards that were all printed on expensive paper. I had to use trial and error to find a weird setting that would result in correct color, and I've never had to do this before.

The last straw: I wanted to print an extra two cards. After I had purchased more ink, figured out the settings trick I got all set up and low and behold... my paper comes out blank and then the printer insists that one of my cartridges is "foreign." So, sorry Patsy cousins and Aunt Trudy, no cards for you :(

I'm so disappointed in Epson that I tweeted a complaint, which I've never done before. I think it's a shame to sell a product that doesn't stand up// rant over.

Despite the set backs I am happy with my cards. Life and Christmas, will go on! I sent out thirty total to everywhere from Alabama to Utah. If you get one, I hope you enjoy it :) If you didn't, I'm sorry and blame Epson. For the rest of you dear, lovely readers Merry Christmas from my humble city apartment to yours.

Does anyone have a fantastic printer/scanner that they could recommend? One that isn't too huge and whose ink doesn't make you want to consider selling your eggs? Fill me in :)

Also, how am I supposed to survive to Christmas with these kind of problems in my life?! I'm kinda ready for 2012 to start so my life can get back to "perfect!"

(Yes, I am being totally dramatic and realize a trifling printer is totally a first world problem. I know, things could be so much worse.)

in the spirit of autumn

I don't appreciate the jump to Christmas come November 1st. I have been known to put up my tree earlier than usual and I'll tune into the Christmas radio stations before Thanksgiving, but I'm just not ready yet. After all, we have almost an entire month left of autumn and please let me enjoy it!

One of the best things about autumn are the flavors (am I right?) I baked these recently and they turned out sinfully good. Too bad my baking cups sucked, I'm going to write Reynolds an e-mail :)

Here's the deal: pumpkin muffin batter, crumble topping and then stuffed with cream cheese. How can you go wrong with that? I am so grateful that I had to babysit and then Anne came and visited me so I could give the majority of these away. It's not like I'd eat them all like a crazy person, but they'd just sit there and spoil. Don't worry, dairy products are my weakness and I keep very few of them in my house because I am that crazy person with cheese, ice cream and other yummy items.

If you're having a bad day just go make some muffins like these, you'll be happier and then give them away to friends.

halloween 2011

I have a new philosophy on Halloween: homemade is best and more points for getting creative. I truly appreciate the time, work and let's face it, money that people put into making authentic, beautiful, funny and cool costumes. I am in awe. I sometimes feel like I'm all alone in my creative mind but Halloween really shows you how many people out there also love to create. This year, I was impressed.

For a few months I had thought about what to dress up as and decided on being the Statue of Liberty. I carefully crafted a crown, torch, book (complete with real roman numerals) and shoes. I turned a Target table cloth into a dress. I used copious amounts of glitter and went wild with make up. It was just too fun.

A few hours before heading out to a festive costume party Emma called me. She was having a glue dilemma when it came to creating her Velma Kelly headband.

I don't know how to stick these two pieces of trim together. do you have any glue?! I could hear the desperation in her voice.

Yes. Come over right now. I've got several different kinds including super glue so we'll figure it out. I love being "that" friend. If ya need adhesive, I'm your girl :)

So I answer the door ten minutes later and Emma is decked out in sweats with GIGANTIC curlers all over her head. I can't stop laughing and smiling. She's laughing and smiling at me laughing and smiling. It was perhaps one of the happiest friend moments of my life.

Forty-five minutes later Becky and Ashley arrived all suited up for the evening. Becky had the reddest lipstick I'd ever seen, her Betty Crocker costume was spot on. Then she digs into her bag and says oh yes, here's my wooden spoon.

I just don't have the words to describe Ashley, her dad let her know he'd need all his hunting gear back. When she pulled out her bird call I just about died.

        Ashley grew up in LeSeur/Henderson area so we had to get a shot of her with area icon, Jolly the Green Giant.

These people make me so happy it's just outrageous.

The parties we attended were, in short, perfection. I'm not sure how you can fit over sixty people in a duplex without it feeling too crowded but it happened. As we walked up to the steps two pumpkins were carved with "party here." Is that a great idea or what?

We saw it all: raggedy andy, royal wedding guests, Bob Ross, a loofa, top gun fighter pilots, care bears, the new old spice guy with octopus head piece, Lady Gaga...

I can't lie, what truly took the cake was on Saturday night Emma morphed from Velma Kelly into Rosie the Riveter. Have you seen a better Rosie ever? She's the Queen of Halloween, that one! We loved being the most patriotic, strong women costumes of the evening.

Well, it was fun while it lasted (I type this as I have candy handing out duty tonight at Brittany's... haha!) Maybe I should teach a tutorial on how to make a dress out of a table cloth. These are marketable skills folks :) Hope you and yours had a splendid, spellbound and treat-filled Halloween.

autumn dinner party

Who doesn't love a good dinner party? Some friends and I've started hosting these and this week it was my turn. I love hosting parties, it literally makes me feel like all is well with the world. Since it's nearly Halloween and I don't have enough chairs for everyone I opted for an appetizer party. Here's what I served:

butternut squash soup with pistachios

caprese salad skewers with balsamic vinegar

garlic steamed artichokes

warm french bread and artisan dipping oil

pepper jam atop cream cheese with crackers

granny smith apples and caramel dip

This was my very first time using my jadeite teacup collection and they worked out perfectly for serving the soup. I love to use vintage or antique serving dishes because they are so fun, but I do think I need a few giant, simple white platters from Target, too.

I have to say, it's much easier preparing several appetizers than I thought it would be. Maybe I'll do this from now on. I think I was worried people would be hungry because there wasn't a main dish. In hindsight I should of thrown some more protein in there, maybe mini chicken pot pies will be on the menu next :) What is it about little things in succession that make them so fun? I loved all those soups lined up. I think my guests were happy, too.

What about you, have you ever thrown an appetizer party? Were your guests hungry? Maybe this only works for girls.