Rocket Ship

A friend of mine is doing her son’s room in a rocket ship theme.  I haven’t broken out the paints since my art school days (mainly because I’m still reliving the obnoxious condescension from my art critiques), but I had some canvases hanging around and thought ‘what the heck’?  I think they turned out okay, no?

Baby Shadow Boxes

 

I wanted to give the parents some sort of footprint/handprint memento for Christmas, but I found that a lot of those kits you can buy at Michael’s are only for kids aged 6 months and up.   Someone recommended using Crayola’s Model Magic, which is what we ended up using. 

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure I recommend it as a mould making product.  TC and I had to wrestle the kid (who at the time was squirming like a wet cat) and still couldn’t manage to get a nice handprint.  The footprint required a lot of force, and the process ended up warping the edges (I really wanted clean edges).  

In the end though, I think the shadow boxes turned out okay.

(photos were printed at London Drugs directly on to foam core for easy mounting)

Christmas Cards 2011

I wanted to do something simple and easy this year because I was running short on time.  Normally I start making christmas cards in January (not because I’m a keener, but because we’ve been selling them to raise funds for TC’s Ride to Conquer Cancer).

These cards look labour intensive, but they’re really not.

All you have to do is rip canvas to your desired size (I had a stack of 4.5x6 cardstock that I had kicking around, so that was the size I went with).  Stamp canvas with a holiday stamp of your choosing.  Layer on top of cardstock, run it through the sewing machine, and voila!  The hard part for me was running the darn thing through a sewing machine.  It turns out that not sewing since grade 8 home-ec makes me a terrible seamstress.  The card looks great from here.  Just don’t flip it over.

We included a family letter in ours (yes, we’re THOSE people), and a picture of the kid that I took in front of the tree once we had it up (I needed an excuse to buy a pair of ruffled diaper covers)

Here’s my invitation writing station all set up:

And, if you’d like to make these your cards next year, I’ve put up a pdf of the wrap around labels:

Download PDF

Worldlabel.com feature

It’s always exciting to see pictures of the stuff you do in action.  Recently, Worldlabel.com featured my spice labels on their website.  Check it out:

http://blog.worldlabel.com/2011/spice-jar-labels-and-template-to-print.html

Gingham Holiday Printables

Here’s a set of Christmas printables I did up that would be perfect for a low key holiday party.  Would look great with some canvas or raffia accents.

The North Pole tags can be used as cupcake or drink embellishments.  If using them for drinks, make sure you use plastic straws.  I used paper candy sticks, and they dissolved in my hot chocolate.  Somehow paper chunks don’t have the same effect as marshmallows. :P

Download pdf here.

Vegetarian Lasagne

A lot of veggie lasagne recipes call for zucchini and eggplant as the meat substitute, which is fine if you like zucchini…or eggplant, but neither of us are keen on either.  (This is a real annoyance when dining out, as most chefs will use both in what few vegetarian options they offer on a menu).  Perhaps I should have mentioned that the irony of writing a blog mostly about food is that we’re ridiculously picky eaters?

Anyway, this is an eggplant-free, zucchini-free, vegetarian version of the LoonySpoon’s recipe a friend sent me a while back when I was making lasagne for friends who were expecting their first child (recipe can be found here).  I’ve doubled the recipe here since they freeze well and make great gifts.  It’s always good to have lasagne on hand for those nights you just don’t feel like cooking. 

Ingredients:

Sauce:
10 sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed)
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 cups diced onions
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 cups chopped mushrooms
1 pkg extra firm tofu, diced or chopped in a food processor
1 jar (700 mL) tomato sauce (we use the Classico Spinach and Cheese)
1 large can (19 oz/540 mL) diced tomatoes with Italian herbs, undrained
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp brown sugar
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup minced fresh basil leaves

Filling:
2 cups light ricotta cheese
2 300g pkgs soft tofu
1/2 cup shredded parmesan
2 package frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed dry and chopped
2 eggs
2 boxes of oven ready lasagna noodles (I like having extra on hand)
2-3 pkgs shredded 4-cheese blend (we like ours extra cheesy)

Directions:

Sauce:

1. Pour 1/2 cup of boiling water over sun-dried tomatoes and let soak while you prepare the sauce.
2. To make sauce, heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pot. Add onions and garlic. Cook and stir until onions have softened, about 4 minutes.
3. Add mushrooms and heat until cooked.
4. Add all remaining sauce ingredients, except fresh basil. When sun-dried tomatoes are soft enough, drain and chop them (fine) and add to sauce. Bring sauce to a boil.
5. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Stir in basil, remove from heat and let cool.

Assembling the lasagnes:

1. Combine all filling ingredients except the 4 cheese blend in a medium bowl and mix well.  Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 375ºF (skip this step if making freezer lasagnes).
   Spoon some of sauce over bottom of dish.
3. Arrange noodles over sauce and layer as follows: sauce, noodles, cheese filling, 4 cheese blend, noodles, sauce, cheese filling, 4 cheese blend, noodles, sauce, 4 cheese blend.
4. If making a freezer batch, as I often do, cover with tinfoil and place in the freezer.
5. If you’re cooking it right away, cover lasagne loosely with tinfoil  and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 more minutes or until cheese is browned. Let lasagne stand for 10 minutes before serving.

I buy 2 of the 3 packs of 8x8” aluminum pans for this.  Store flat in the freezer until frozen, and then stack. 

Makes 6 8x8” lasagnes.

Hallowe’en Printables

For those still looking for a way to spruce up their hallowe’en party, I’ve designed a set of hallowe’en printables for you.  Included is a set of letters for a holiday banner, treat labels, place cards and cupcake wraps.

enjoy. :)

Download PDF Here.