Let’s face it, babies at bathtime are already adorable.  How about wrapping up with a fun hooded towel to top it off?

I often make these for baby shower gifts, and this time it was for twins!  These plush towels are larger and fluffier than the typical store-bought hooded towel.  Everyone seems to love them, plus, I’ve heard friends say their children use them for years.

I used striped towels for a little zing.  Recently, I’ve started adding hang-tags to them.  Previously, I have sewn a length of wide grosgrain ribbon along the back where the hood joins the towel, covering the seam, and left a little space un-sewn for the hang-tag.  For these, I thought I’d experiment and put the tag on the top in an accent color.  Spunky!  I wonder if my friends appreciate me experimenting on them.. hmm.

My husband says I should sell these on Etsy.  Thinking about it…

Creativity Question:  Do you ever use creativity as an escape or a means of comfort?

For me, it can be both, at times.  I remember writing poetry when I was younger - to encapsulate emotions I couldn’t contain.  And, I certainly prefer doing something creative over cleaning my house, so in that way it’s an escape.  But, I have also found painting, drawing, etc - immersing myself in something creative for a while helps to heal, comf0rt and console.

Ok, so I’m a bit late posting this, and I didn’t take a lot of photos of Thanksgiving - this is it, really. It’s difficult to play hostess and photographer simultaneously. Anyway, I did, at least have a little fun with the food. See?

Cherry pie - not with canned pie filling, mind you. I used frozen cherries. It was really tasty - I’d probably try a little less sugar next time, for that extra zip of tart.  I cut the swirly shapes with a knife, the leaves with a mini-cookie cutter.

Homemade cranberry sauce. I don’t know why I keep making it. It never gets devoured like everything else. I like it, though. Maybe I should just reduce the recipe next time. It has fresh cranberries, orange juice and zest, and sugar. It simmers together until the cranberries burst and it coagulates a bit. Yum. Way better than the canned stuff, in my opinion. I like to put it on my rolls instead of jelly.

No photos of these, but I was quite domestic this Thanksgiving. I also cooked a huge turkey. The roaster oven made it easy, and boy, did it cook quickly! Only two hours for the nearly 19 pound bird - I was astounded. Also: real mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, stuffing, homemade rolls, honey butter, broccoli slaw, sweet potatoes, the cranberry sauce, the cherry pie, two pumpkin pies, a pecan pie, a french silk chocolate pie, which Hana decorated, but I neglected to take a photo of (grr), and non-dairy brown-rice pudding. Some of the guests brought a few other things, but those are what I made.

Whew! It was a lot of work, but it turned out so nicely, and everyone enjoyed themselves. Even me. And so, it’s worth it.

Creativity Question: Have you any creative Thanksgiving traditions? Meaning, something you make or create either yourself or as a family? Or something you did this year, if it’s not a tradition?

I didn’t do any crafts, and I don’t decorate for Thanksgiving, aside from the table and serving areas - my decor consisted of wired ribbon (I, the ribbon addict, already had it) in a deep burgundy color with gold accents, a few pine cones, some of them gold, and some other little earthy things I had in my stash - oh, and the 6 ears of Indian corn for 50 cents. It doesn’t take much to make it look nice. In the center, iron scroll-work with a white serving dish filled with rolls. The tablecloth was way too big, so I bunched up the parts that fell to the floor and billowed them a bit and pinned them around the four legs, then tied with ribbon. I was going for “I meant to do that” rather than “oops, the tablecloth is too long and I don’t want you to trip”. I think it worked. I suppose for Thanksgiving, my creativity tradition is homemade foods and inexpensive but nice table decor which I usually throw together last minute. BTW- eating on real plates was sooo nice! 

So tell me YOUR traditions - probably much more interesting than mine.

Sorry this is such a blah post… been busy, but not as creative as I’d like.  Hmm.. maybe I need to find some creative ways to sneak in more creative time… in just the every day things.

I wanted to post *something*, so here’s something…

I finally settled on a design for my business cards (for the time being).  I have a terrible time designing for myself for some reason - it’s easier when I do it for other people.  Anyway, so I did that and ordered the cards, and they came this week.  I’m quite happy with them.  The color is a little different than I expected, but that’s good to know.   I had them printed on a paper with a matte silk laminate - they are awfully smooth and buttery (irresistable).  I also had a spot UV - basically, part of the design printed in clear gloss on top of the matte…. so, the white lines on the funky globs is also in shiny.  On the back, I had spot UV of the globs (filled, not just the outlines) printed over the stripes.  It looks good, but I still view it as a learning experience, and am excited for the next time to see what I can do.

I also threw in Rich’s business card, which I had done several months ago.  Very simple and to the point.  Just what he needs to help him visualize himself as a writer/author.

I’m including a photo of Kael’s birthday cake - yes, I recycled the candles from Hana’s - but they’re so fun!! (and I needed to offset the white frosting).  The cake is homemade, but it didn’t make as much as I thought (only one round pan), so it’s small.  He didn’t mind.  The important thing is the frosting - Kael can’t eat any frosting with traditional powdered sugar - it makes him sick.  Last time, I made a 7-minute frosting which used sugar instead.  But, this time, I used *homemade* powdered sugar.  I ground up some natural sugar with my grain mill, and then I added a little tapioca starch flour in place of the corn starch that typical powdered sugar contains.   It came out pretty good.  It tastes fine, and the consistency was good, in that it got stiff like regular powdered sugar, BUT, my grinder doesn’t do super fine grinding, so it was slightly grainy.  No one seemed to mind (except maybe me).  But, at least we have another option for frosting.  Yay!

Creativity Question:  Do you pile up a lot of “tomorrow’s”?  Prof. Harrold Hill (The Music Man), tells Marian (the Librarian), “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays.”

This is something I do too often, and I’m trying to get better at NOT piling up the tomorrows… any suggestions, stories, etc?  A little inspiration goes a long way for me (until I put it off until tomorrow).