Little Love Letters

For some silly, self-imposed reason I feel a little obligated to hand make the school valentines we give out. If I'm being completely honest, this is not really my thing. Last year we did get pretty into it making mustaches and lips on sticks, but usually I go for a paper heart with some glitter and call it a day. Valentines kind of stump me...having boys makes it even harder, because they don't want anything too cute(pink is cute, love is cute). So for this year I'm going a little artsy, making a school of fish with heart shaped tail fins. I totally swiped the "school of fish" concept from a snack valentine I saw on Pinterest. My valentines are so easy to make I think they hardly warrant a formal tutorial.  All you need to do is make a template of a fish body, use the template to make the bodies from red card stock, cut out hearts from tissue paper (this pretty design is from Target), and print out or write the "our school is cool" tagline on the back. Dust your hands off, you are done, my friend. xo.

Festoons

The tree is down. I put it next to our fireplace this year, and totally dried it out.  While I'm a little sad to see Christmas go, I was tiring of the endless versions of little drummer boy I've heard over the last month. Fortunately I have next week's NYE party to look forward to. I'm making my first photo booth for the occasion, and I've been working on some festoons for the party guests. While packing away our Christmas haul, I discovered a box of this net-like craft paper padding, and I thought it might look pretty nifty spray painted gold, fashioned into a paper crown. I also painted feather tips with school glue, then dredged them in old fashioned glitter.  To make both, all you'll need is some cheap-o plastic headbands,  hot glue, masking tape (or washi) and gold metallic spray paint. See photo tutorial below...

Flourless Double Chocolate Cookies

T'is the night before Christmas, and when Santa makes his way to the house tonight we will wow him with the most delicious cookies in the world.  They are toasty, chewy, and gooey. They are sooo chocolately. And amazingly, they are gluten and dairy free, made with just 6 ingredients that you probably have in your pantry right now. You should go make some...

 

Double Chocolate Cookies

3 cups powdered sugar

1 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-3 egg whites

1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Whisk together the sugar, cocoa and salt. Add vanilla and egg whites, 2 first, adding a third if needed. The consistency should be very dense, but moist. Stir in the chocolate chips. 

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and lightly coat with non-stick spray (a silicone mat is not advised).  Portion cookies in tablespoon sized dollops, bake for 13 minutes, until the top cracks, and the cookie is soft, but set.  Allow to cool on a rack on the paper.  

They've been really riled up over the past few days. I was so happy to catch this sweet moment.

I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and relaxing winter break, even if it's just for a few days.  I've been spending a lot of time with my family just enjoying the holidays, taking a little time away. After the new year I'll be back full steam.  Until then...xo, Heather

Mason Jar Globes

I haven't exactly dropped off the face of the earth, but I am finishing up the semester (finals) and my internship with Anthropologie comes to a close this Friday, which explains why the blog isn't being updated as often lately. I'm a little preoccupied with not knowing what comes next... We have been making things here and there, little after-school projects like these mason jar snow globes, but I've decided to just enjoy my downtime, rather than try to document everything. A few weeks ago I led a children's holiday crafting event at Anthro where we ate cookies and worked on a mason jar globe project. It's an easy to do, elementary school inspired craft, and the kids really loved it, so back at home I made a few more with Jasper. We used some plastic foliage from the craft store to fill the jars. They have a bit of an underwater forest look- totally weird, but rather pretty in the sunlight. Here's the tutorial:

Materials:

Assorted mason jars
Plastic/coated ornaments, or faux flowers and garland
Old fashioned glitter or snow confetti
Hot glue
Liquid glycerin 
Distilled water

Glue the ornamentation to the inside of the jar lid. Hold securely in place until the glue sets.

Add 2-3 pinches of glitter or snow to the jar, then fill the jar with water, leaving a 1 1/2" space at the top for displacement. Add 2-3 tablespoons of glycerin- found in cake supply aisle at craft stores, and insert the lid decor into the jar, sealing with the ring band.  Shake up and you've got yourself a snow globe.

Birch Log Fire Light

While doing display work for Anthropologie, my favorite projects involve chopping and drilling wood, which I seem to be doing quite often for holiday installations. I'm really getting into using power tools- you can do so much with just a few pieces of equipment. Motivated to try it at home, I designed this birch log candle project for my Thanksgiving table. You can find birch logs in packs of 3 at Michael's for about $20. Clustered on a table they create beautiful, ambient fire light, especially perfect for winter time...

Materials:

Birch logs
Tea lights
Power drill with 1 1/2" bit
Ruler
Pencil
Tape (for marking the bit)

Find the best, natural position for the log to rest, and mark evenly spaced 1 1/2" slots for the candles. Mark the bit to the depth of the candle.  Holding the log steady with one hand, bore holes with the drill keeping constant, firm pressure, until the bit reaches the line of tape. Reverse twist, brush off the dust and insert tea lights. 

Be Well

Leading up to every major family gathering, someone in our immediate family gets wicked sick. It's a fact. There was the great summer flu of 2010, where we wiped out the entire family while on vacation in Pajaro Dunes. We had already established ourselves as Typhoid Mary the Thanksgiving prior when my nephew Luke was born, and we promptly dismantled the family including the new baby with a preschool acquired tummy bug.  Last year when we hosted Christmas, my husband and I passed a doozy of a stomach flu onto the family, sidelining my sister-in-law Stacey from New Years festivities.  For a family that rarely gets sick, we sure choose to do so at the worst times.  So this last week we were not all that surprised when Wylie spiked a fever and evacuated from every orifice the day before Thanksgiving, the dinner we were to be hosting. The whole family decided to come anyway, and we're still waiting to find out who we've knocked down. Jasper came down with it on Saturday, and is just now feeling better. 

I think it's time to cleanse. Wylie and I worked on a magic potion together today and we think it's just what's needed to make us well. We named it Christmas Juice after it's pretty holiday ingredients. It's made with cranberries, astringent and excellent for cleansing the kidneys and liver, sweet ripe pears rich in fiber and Vitamin C, Antioxidant powerhouse kale and tummy-soothing ginger. The juice was delicious, our little Typhoid Mary drank his entire 4oz serving in a matter of seconds.  He even tried a few raw cranberries on their own (so tart!) and liked them. Here's to our health!

Christmas Juice
3-4 4oz servings

1 cup cranberries
2 ripe pears
2 tbsp fresh ginger
1/2 bunch kale

Here's the juicer we love...

Christmas Tree Basket Stand

I suspect that many of us will be rushing to get our Christmas trees this weekend or next, because December just sort of snuck up right after Thanksgiving.  We ventured out to Moon Mountain in Sonoma for our annual tree hunt, where we snagged a 14' Norway Pine, which we had cut in half, creating a slender tree for our living room, and a big bushy fella with old fashioned lights for outside our back cottage. I wired it's upper branches to shape it into a Christmas tree. For our indoor tree I wanted to keep things more delicate. I've always admired the clean lines of the Scandinavian style potted live tree- I think it looks so much more buttoned up than a skirted stand, but a 7ft cut tree needs a substantial base to keep it upright, so until this year I made do with creative tree skirts like last year's cut paper version. For this year, I designed a basket stand using an abaca woven storage bin and a standard issue metal tree stand. In just a few steps, you will have a sturdy, understated base to surround with pretty packages! 

Materials:

1 large, flat bottomed storage basket (20-24")
1 metal tree stand
Pruning sheers

Mark the location for clipping using a piece of masking tape.  Snip 2" across to make a slot for base legs.  Insert legs, and build stand from inside basket.  The bowl should touch the bottom of the basket and the legs should rest on the floor.

Insert tree into stand, positioning with screws, we used stick for shims as our Norway Pine has a thin trunk. Fill base with water and adorn!

Just a reminder, Monday is the last day to used code "poppyhaus" to get one third off luxe holiday cards with Pinhole Press.

Pinhole Press Holiday Cards- Reader Discount!

So here it is, the official 2013 Jennings Family holiday card.  When they arrived in the mail last week I tore open the package and did a little fist pump. Yes, my dudes look very handsome, and the design of the card is my kind of understated, but the best part about these cards is the way they feel. They delight the part of my brain that appreciates high quality paper. When Pinhole Press contacted me to see if I'd be interested in using their site to create my holiday cards I knew I had to get the ultra-thick stock. Look closer...

Pinhole Press is offering 33% off holiday cards to Poppy Haus readers through Cyber Monday, just use the code poppyhaus when placing your order. I also picked a customized photo Memory Game on the same paper as a stocking stuffer for Grandma Jennings, who spends a lot of time with the cousins. I think they'll love turning the pictures over to reveal Darth Wylie, and Baseball Jasper.

Gold and Light

I have a real thing for gold leaves right now. It started with the lantern, but as I was thinking ahead to the holidays I liked the idea of using gilded fall leaves with candles for this year's late Thanksgiving, which is also the second day of Hanukkah (Challah stuffing),and continuing the look through Christmas and into New Years, when I'll be hosting a fancy dress party for Adam's 40th birthday. I love the understated look of naked wood, white ceramics and gilded bits of trees. They are neutrals that play with light, and when you add a secondary color, like crimson red for Christmas or a royal blue for New Years it completely changes the mood of the design. I felt pretty validated about my obsession when I got the new Dwell Studio catalog in the mail yesterday and this was on the cover:

  
Oh Dwell, you and I are kindred spirits.  To create a look like this for the holidays, all you have to do is go outside and gather. Gather leaves, branches, pine cones, acorns...whatever appeals to you, everything looks amazing with a little gold metallic spray. Make sure your bits of nature are completely dry before applying paint, thin applications at a time to ensure even coverage. 

I have a million little white ceramic vessels, most of which I found at IKEA in the garden department, or at thrift stores.  I use them as bud vases and votive holders all over the house. I also hoard white dishes, different patterns for different courses, scraped together from Anthropologie, estate sales, some inherited, some from Target (their Threshold collection rocks).  Mixing and matching whites adds texture and interest, but keeps things simple and they work with anything.  

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!  xoxo, Heather

Warm Fuzzies

Introducing Snow Ball, our papier mache rabbit, rescued from the rubbish bin of the Anthropologie display room. I brought her home for the boys and as I suspected, they immediately made "SB" our pet. Here she is modeling for this year's first holiday decor DIY: Woolen Trees. I've been working a lot with wool yarns for my textile class, and it's becoming my new favorite material for decorations.  For this first project I wrapped wool yarn around cardboard cone bases to create a textile forest. See tutorial below!

To make Woolen Trees, you will need:

Cardboard Cones (Found at Michael's)
Knitting Wool (or acrylic), use Ivory for snow
Scotch or Masking Tape
Hot Glue

Portion out a few feet of yarn. Start at the top, layer a strand of yarn over the tip and secure with tape. Wind around in concentric layers about 1/4 way down the cone. Secure end of strand with tape, and add second color. Wind to base and dot with hot glue to secure final layer.  If the tip is popping up a bit, secure with a small dot of hot glue to reinforce. 

Party Snack

I'm still here! I've been buried under a pile of schoolwork, and random blog-related events, the latest being the Blurb Food Fair which I'll be sharing next week. I'm pretty beat, but I'm so ready to get back to Poppy Haus. Today's recipe is a is my go-to snack for feeding the masses over the holidays: stove top popcorn.  I love popcorn, because I can make it at a moments notice, and  when I do it somehow seems a little more special than a bag of chips- not to mention it's a lot better for you. There are so many ways to season popcorn beyond the old standby of butter and salt- here are my favorite fall versions using white or yellow corn kernels. 
xo, Heather 

How To Make Stove Top Popcorn:

3 tbsp canola oil or flavorless coconut oil (for popping)
1/3 cup popcorn kernels

Heat oil over a medium-high flame in a wide shallow pot (non-stick or cast iron work best). Add kernels and cover, shaking it to coat the corn. Leave lid slightly askew to allow steam to release.  Pop and shake until you here the kernel popping drop off. 2-3 servings. Add seasoning ideas below...
 

Cinnamon + Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1-2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
 

Chocolate + Nuts

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips/chunks
1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts(salted)or almonds
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Truffle-Rosemary
 
1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped
1 tbsp white truffle oil (drizzled)
1 tbsp coarse sea salt

 

Parmesan + Italian Parsley

2 tablespoons hand grated fresh Parmesan or Pecorino 
1 tablespoon olive oil (drizzled)
2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt