Well Hello Dolly

My paltry posting habits are due to the holiday season, I swear! I've been working away on ornaments for this ornament swap and this one (as if I don't have enough to do, but I couldn't turn down a good swap). I'll post pics a week after I send them out. Also, I am replenishing the Rose & Duke stock because I'll be selling again in a couple of weeks in the Guerro's lot on S. Congress. Please stop by and say hello if you are in town, there will be lots of handmade goodness for sale.

We enjoyed a peaceful thanksgiving at Jen and Kevin's with Jen's delightful family. You betcha that I brought some desserts. I made a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip squares (for some reason I forgot to photograph these). Everyone always goes berserk on these and they are quite easy to make. I also took a risk and went with Martha's recent recipe for pear cranberry pie with a lattice top. I used a plastic star from Harlan's shape sorter toy to cut the starts out of the crust. The pie was good but too heavy on the cranberries unfortunately.


At the last minute I decided to throw in a chocolate bourbon pecan pie, because every thanksgiving table needs a good one. I made this one from a combination of recipes and it came out more like a soft cookie on a pate brisee pastry, which may not be exactly what I was going for but still tastes a lot better than a fistful of baby corn or cuchifritos (deep fried pig ears).


I did not want to work on anything I had to do during the vacation, so instead I made a couple of doll dresses for the baby dolls at Harlan's Montessori school. When I picked him up last Tuesday a couple of the kids were playing with the dolls, and I noticed that their only outfits were totally falling apart (and were pretty crummy to begin with). It made me sad. Next I'm going to make them a couple of quilts for their wooden cradles. I can't believe I forgot to photograph the back sides of the dresses, but I did. They are totally open, with two covered buttons and red velvet ribbons on the other side to hook over the buttons. I used a combination of these two patterns. I would like to make them some sweaters so if anyone knows of any patterns for doll sweaters please let me know (knit or crochet).


P.S. I went to the City Wide Garage Sale last weekend and was basically just overwhelmed by the crowds. We only stayed a brief amount of time, but I did score three vintage aprons for $2 each. While I don't wear aprons and bought these to scrap the fabric for other projects, I feel badly cutting them up because they're just so darn cute. What can you do?