XOXO—Carina, Josh, Siri, and Felicity

fauk  tail

And yes, I threw my made-up-name party this last weekend. Good friends, sugary drinks, and lots of food…it makes a girl happy! We tried to invite folks that we have been friends with in different walks of life—friends from Minnesota who had also relocated to Utah, roommates from our undergraduate days at BYU, and people we work with. It was a wonderful group and it made me pretty happy to see friends that I haven’t seen for over 5 years!

It was a great way to kick off the holidays and I find myself wanting to throw another one!

If you want to throw a non-alcoholic but adult-like event, here are my biased rules for getting it done—1. Don’t have your cabinets laquered a day before the party (your house will be very cold from airing it out); 2. Buy all your food and flowers from Costco (It’s one trip and all the appetizers are easy to make); 3. Spend most of your time shopping for cute glasses (the part I enjoyed the most!); 4. Designate someone to take pictures (what you are seeing here is about all I got!); and 5. Once the first couple walks in, let it all go (as in I hadn’t finished cleaning my daughters’ bedroom and I knew people were going to walk through it. I got over it.).

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Want to throw your own fauktail party? Here are my recipes…but be warned, I made these up and the quantities are simply estimates of how I made them. They are all super (may I add dooper?) delicious. Feel free to add or subtract from these faux-mock-cocktails. Most make about 3/4ths of a pitcher (about 4-6 glasses depending on the size of the glass).

TROPICAL FIZZ (inspired by Planter’s Punch)

2 1/2 cups orange juice

2 1/2 cups sprite (or ginger ale)

1 1/2 cups pineapple juice

2 cups of orange sherbet (you can also substitute pineapple sherbet)

1/2 cup of sweetened lime juice

garnish with 2-3 cubes of fresh pineapple on a skewer

Blend all the ingredients together and garnish with the pineapple skewer.

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TOMMY COLLINS SLUSHIE (inspired by Tom Collins)

1 package of slightly melted Edy’s Lemonade Fruit Bars (Use all 6 Popsicles in the box)

4 cups of Minute Maid Lemonade

2 1/2 cups of Ginger Ale

1/2 cup of Wildberry Martini Mixer

Raspberries (dropped at the bottom of the glass)

Blend all the ingredients together. Drop a few raspberries at the bottom of a glass. Pour in the blended drinks.

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3 cups of Martinelli

3 cups of Ginger Ale

1/4 to 1/2 cup of Sweetened Lime Juice

Granny Apple wedge

Stir together the ingredients and garnish with a Granny Apple wedge on a martini glass.

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CARINA’S SHIRLY TEMPLE (obviously, my take on this recipe..because I didn’t feel like mixing sprite and gingerale:)

4 to 5 cups of sprite

1/2 cup of Maraschino cherry syrup

2 Maraschino cherries on a pick or 1 Maraschino cherry with it’s stem dropped in the bottom.

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My fifth drink was just a number of different bubblies from Costco and the supermarket that was garnished simply with a strawberry on the rim of a wine glass. That gave guests another option and freed me up to make more of the other drinks.

At the end of the day, “fancying up” a fauktail is all about the garnish or some salt/sugar to the rim of a party glass. Messing around with recipes just made it alot more fun for this hostess.

Hope you get to make a fauxtail for yourself soon!

Cheers! Carina

On the giveaway table today is a full fat quarter set of Pinfeathers Peacock Blue fabrics (9 fabrics in all) and Sweet Water Frame’s 3×3 Rasley Ornament in Green apple (shown below). All you have to do is leave a comment on this thread to be entered to win BOTH of these.

I believe I have talked about Sweetwater Frames here before. Last week I finally ordered our family pictures for the custom 24″ x 36″ frame I purchased from them. It looks amazing over my antique piano (See my frame below). I purchased the Powell in antique white, but I’m so in love with the black frames, I can see myself coming back for more!

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That green apple is ADORABLE isn’t it? And my frame isn’t bad either:). Btw, because I know you are going to ask, the family portrait was taken by my lovely assistant Susan.

So leave a comment to get the green frame and some Pinfeathers!

XOXO-Carina

PS. This giveaway ends on Sunday, December 18th!

Last year, we did a thankful tree on Thanksgiving day. This year, the girls have a jar of leaves that they can write or draw on whenever they want to add to this banner in our kitchen.

I’m hoping it’s a great way for them to see what their parents are grateful for and encourages them to remember to be thankful too.

This is the simplest banner to make, and it changes as you add more leaves or birds! I hope ours is squished to the brim when the month is over.

I threw on a little glitter mist because it was lying around (so it’s completely optional). I liked the Forever Red Perfect Pearls Mist for the brown and orange leaves and the Tattered Angels Glitter Mist in Sweet Clover for the olive green leaves.

If you aren’t into the Glitter Mist, just let your little ones scribble away to add their “thanks.” Get bigger kids to help you cut out the leaves (or sit in front of your favorite show as you cut them out).

Hang the banner in a place that you’ll see often (ours is in the doorway between our living room and kitchen) so that you’ll see it often and remember to add to it.

I’m hoping ours is an opportunity to really remember what this month is about (rather than a jump start on Christmas). If it’s successful, we may just change up the colors for Christmasand use it place holder for “good deeds done” during December to encourage friendship and giving.

Here’s the full tutorial plus pattern for you to download! Hope you have fun and are able to give thanks at the same time!

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It’s November, and I’ve told myself that this year the holidays are going to be a little different. Instead of the rush, rush, rush, I’m hoping to really live in the present this holiday season and remember to be grateful for what I have. I’ve cleared out my schedule of any “hard” deadlines and while I certainly will be working, I hope to work at a more relaxed pace.

So maybe it’s a change in attitude about the holidays?

Either way, I have been thinking alot about being grateful and generously giving. And as always, my thoughts have turned to this blog and how I can share with you—make your life a little more pleasant or a little more beautiful.

…and that’s when I decided that I wanted to spend the next couple of months sharing with you more craft ideas and more “stuff” on this blog.

So there you have it—it’s officially the season of “giving” here on my blog. And to kick it off, I have 6 fat quarter packs of Baby Safari that I am giving away! Four packs (there are 6 fabrics in a pack) will be given away to comments on this blog post and two packs will be given away on the Facebook thread that links this post. Tell me what you are doing this holiday season. Maybe it’s a tradition or something new. Maybe it’s a scrumptious holiday recipe or the time you plan on cuddling with grandbabies. Whatever it is, share it! Winners will be announced on Sunday evening on both the blog and facebook page.

More fat quarter packs to come, announcements of new sewing patterns, more holiday craft tutorials, and lots of eye candy!

Hoping you also find a lot of joy this holiday season! -Carina

We’ve had such a tremendous response to the hybrid section of the Quarterly Newsletter that I have decided to open it up to anyone who would like to submit projects they have done using my fabric, digital, or paper. This is very exciting for me since I love seeing everyone’s creativity!

Our first deadline is for Issue No. 6 Dec 2011-Jan 2012, which we expect to release mid-January. Submission Forms are due by December 15, 2011. Please download the form and look over the project guidelines. You can also check out previous hybrid projects done by the Creative Team in Issue No. 5.

Deadlines for future issues will be published on the Newsletter Page (as well as the download forms).

We’d love to publish your fabulous fabric, paper, and digital work so submit!

Hugs! Carina

Halloween Banner

Halloween Countdown Calendar

Batty Wreath

Fast forward to yesterday (aka 4 months later). I picked up Amanda’s red polka dot laminate at Riley Blake’s warehouse. I was so excited that I stayed up late into the night to pound grommets into the curtains (much harder than I anticipated). I’m hoping the laminate holds up okay outside. I’ll probably pull the curtains down before winter and bring them inside for a good washing.

I might have given in and decided it was time to just buy a drill (instead of borrowing the neighbor’s) to install the curtain rods. Maybe I was tired of digging in someone else’s garage. Or maybe I decided that a girl just needs a drill of her own. The three of us headed to Home Depot this afternoon to get some hardware for installing the Tacksam Curtain rod sets from Ikea ($3.99 a rod).

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Now Siri can sell in her “shop” better than ever. Although she has informed me that they will still be making potions down there (but now they can close the curtains so that the non-witches will not steal the recipes).

Siri made her Valentine’s Day box with Aunt Baily this year and used my Love Nest glitter paper and fabric, beads, ribbon, and silk flowers. I was a pretty proud mama. She was also excited to wear her ” Valentine’s Day shirt” from Love Nest. She was pretty cute modeling it for me. Ya, ya, I know. Proud mama again.

Tomorrow I’m heading into Siri’s first grade class to help the kids make a quilt to donate for their class project for their Arts Night Fundraiser. I’ll tell you how it goes…

This photo didn’t make it into the Dec- Jan newsletter, but I was looking through my hard drive to see what photos I had wisely put on it before my computer crashed a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully, I’m really only missing 6 months of photos. Unfortunately, (you know what I’m going to say scrappers!) I lost 6 months of photos. Ah well.

Enough of that sad tale, I dropped into my blog to say I haven’t forgotten about you…I’ve just got so many lovely things happening that are very secret right now and I have to keep myself from spilling! Some things you already know: an Illustrator class coming out in a month (images of the projects should be up in a couple of weeks), Love Nest™ has been slowly arriving at my house waiting to be quilted (4 bolts and counting!), and a new quilt freshly drawn up (I’ll have it up for download during the month of January-think flags!). Oh, and so many other wonderful things…

In the meantime, I am trying to get into the Christmas spirit (give me a couple more days when all the present shopping is completely finished), drink a little hot chocolate, and cuddle with my girls in front the “The Grinch.” Just hoping I can keep from becoming one myself this year.

Happy Holidays! Carina

(Advent calendar made from Santa’s Sleigh digital kits).