Bag Envy

I have bag envy and have been wanting to create my own bags and clutches for a while now. I have finally come out with a prototype of each. I think I want my signature look to be solid colors with textures in the fabric (i.e. I used a hardy linen for the clutch and oxford for the bag) and detailing with pleats and architectural ruffles.

I used a beautiful grey oxford fabric (with a heavy interfacing) for this bag. I love the oxford, the light and dark thread in the weave add an extra depth to the bag. I still want to work on the design a little bit and make the bottom a little more triangular shaped. I also forgot to add an inside pocket, which is definitely needed in any bag! I also want to experiment a little more with closures, like magnetic snaps and such.

I used a shiny light-plum colored liner, which matches perfectly with the brooch... I'm so coordinated!

Here's my first attempt the clutch AND my first-ever zipper! Aren't you proud? I still need to practice the zipper... a lot, but I like where the asymmetrical pleats are going. I also want to experiment with adding an inside pocket on this and different closures.

Keep watching for more updates!

In the mood...

for some Christmas mood boards? I'm not quite feeling the Christmas spirit this year. I have been working on Christmas projects at work all year (sans about 3 months). I have been working on Christmas 2009 for about 4 months now, so it's hard to get into the Christmas spirit at home. Below are a couple of the looks that I am feeling this year... if I had the space for them.

This first look is inspired by natural elements; birch, pine-cones, greenery, paper whites, etc. with a sophisticated twist with great, earthy greens and small pops of cranberry. My mom loves pine-cones; every year at Christmas she gets our her special pine-cones to decorate with. She's very protective of them and doesn't like them to leave the house for fear of losing them. I would love to see her home decorated in this look.

I also really enjoy the complete opposite of the nature-inspired look with the combination of the bright red and white with pops of the radiant blue, all grounded with the charcoal. I secretly kind of wish I had this look in my home! It's so fun and cheerful. Candy cane elements seem to really becoming back with a modern flair, as shown in the Martha Stewart candy cane topiaries.

This silver-blue look is what I currently have in my apartment, mixed in with frosty violets, shiny peacock-blues, and minty greens. The photo in the top right is actually from my apartment. I would love to get a white Christmas tree to finish off the look. Snowflakes are my favorite winter icon... I love all versions of them!

mmm... flowers

As I have talked about a lot... my grandma's birthday party was the Friday after Thanksgiving. I made the purple fondant flowers for her cake about two weeks ahead of time and froze them until the party. Here's a tutorial on how I made the flowers:

I bought pre-made white fondant that you can get at any craft store, like Michael's or JoAnn's. I used about 8 oz or 1/3 of the box. After sprinkling the surface with cornstarch, the first thing you need to do is color and flavor the fondant, if desired. As you can see below I applied gel food coloring in light purple and a small amount of pink with toothpicks. I omitted the flavoring because fondant doesn't really taste that good anyway, so it's kind of like you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig...

Once you have the coloring on the fondant, I recommend using plastic food-handling gloves to distribute the coloring. Stretch the fondant as if it were salt water taffy to help ensure a nice even coloring.

Keep stretching the fondant until you have a nice even color, add additional coloring as needed.

Helpful Hint: Break off a small piece of fondant and practice coloring that piece before you change the color of the whole block. A little color goes a long way.

Once you have your desired color, roll the fondant into a ball and pat down to a flatter shape. Roll out with a rolling pin. Craft stores sell special fondant rolling pins, but I haven't had any problems with a regular rolling pin... I think it may make a difference when you're rolling out a large piece to finish a cake, but not for small flower details and other attachments.

Roll very thin, about 1/8" thick.

Using a cookie cutter, cut out the desired shape.

Helpful Hint: Fondant dries out easily, especially when thin, placing a damp paper towel over the fondant when not in use will help prevent cracking.

To help give depth to the flowers, I make them 3D by pushing the center down with a stylist.

Let the flowers dry in the open for a day or two, until pretty dry and then store in an airtight container. Fondant can be stored in the freezer for a longer period of time.

More pictures of the final cake to come shortly.

2,160+ Cookies

Sunday my roommate and I held our 2nd annual Christmas Cookie Exchange, this year we had 13 guests who each brought 12 dozen cookies of their choice... that's right, over 2,160 cookies in our 950 square foot apartment! We used my bed as our "buffet table" and had 3 cookie decorating stations set up.

Above is a picture SweetNee took at the event. More to come on this, once I have a working computer, I just couldn't resist!

A string of bad luck...

Ahhh! I haven't been able to post in a while, due to computer problems. Tonight marks my 5th visit to the Mac Store in 8 days. It all started over the Thanksgiving holiday, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I couldn't get my laptop to turn on. I took my laptop into the Mac store on Sunday, without an appointment because I couldn't access the internet... and waited for an hour to try and get a stand-by appointment. With no luck, I made an appointment for Monday. Monday the genius bar was able to get my computer turned on! Victory!

Monday night I took it home and no such luck. Failure!

Tuesday I took my computer back in and even the genius bar couldn't get it turned on. We sent it off for repair and on Saturday I got my computer back.

I lost all my files. Luckily I had backed up about a year earlier, meaning I lost everything I had worked on in a year. Freelance files. Blog files. Photos. Everything.

During the process of installing my programs, my CD drive errored and now won't read any CD/DVD I put in, after about 30 seconds it spits it back out. I took my laptop back to the Mac Store tonight for this reason, the genius who helped me was really apologetic. I will get my CD drive replaced as soon as they can get the part in. Hopefully this means only 2 more trips to the Mac store this year!

Anyway, I have so much I want to share, but need to wait a little longer until I have photos and programs and a working computer. Look forward to:

- My grandmother's 4 layer birthday cake with a fondant flower tutorial

- Thanksgiving photos

- 2nd Annual Christmas Cookie Party photos & recipes

- Christmas decorating & wrapping ideas

and more!