Challenge: One letter a day for the month of February

Dear Shayne,

A bit last minute on this one, but if you can squeeze one out today, there's still time to join this challenge -- write (and send!) one piece of mail every day the Post Office is open in February.

This idea brought to you by Mary Robinette Kowal, who has created a site where participants can sign up and interact with one another.

That's only 24 days. You in? Go!

love,
kelly

Mitt-y Christmas!

Dear Shayne,

Thanks for clearing out the cobwebs around here! Can't believe we have not posted since November -- wow. There's been crafty stuff going on, but I just have not made time to post. So here's a start!

For Christmas (only a month late -- who's counting?) I made... well, hardly anything at all! With our upcoming move looming, I just don't have as much time as I'd like for making stuff.

But you, my dear, are one of the few lucky recipients of a Kelly Handmade Gift this past year... your mitts:

(Wish I had gotten a hand model for those -- they look weird.)

Hope you like 'em -- they're cotton and not super thick, so I don't know how warm they are, but the colors are gorgeous! (Good job on buying that yarn...)

My other handmade gift? More mitts! My BFF Jenny has been freezing in her new office, so she got a thick warm pair made in super-soft Cashmerino Chunky. It's like buttah! (If you're not allergic to wool, that is...)


They're a little more blue-greeny in person, but my camera would not co-operate the day I took this and I wanted to get them out the door.

Here's to a crafty (and post-y) 2012!

love,
kelly

Car Modifications

Dear Kelly,

Scott's car died last week and he made a quick decision to buy a used Suburu Outback (he's in two bands, so having space to haul equipment was a must-have). Because we are very immature, we made a few modifications to the back.

Outback before:

Outback after:

AllWheelDrive before:

AllWheelDrive after:

Assumably, you read Sam's Christmas story which provides a bit of context for "Lawdy." I can't wait to show him tomorrow. (And for you readers, I'll post a link to Sam's story soon -- just don't read it if you're easily offended.)

So, yes, my boyfriend is driving around in a station wagon that says "Butback" and "Lawdy."

Love,

Shayne

Makin' Thanksgiving dinner

Dear Shayne,

Every year, Bill and I make a complete Thanksgiving dinner just for the two of us. Then we eat leftovers for a week -- it's fantastic! This year, I snapped photos of the food we made all day. Want to see? I knew you would.

For appetizers, we had...

Deviled Eggs:

This is the only way I eat eggs. And it has got to be my grandmother's recipe. It's spicy and delicious: mayo, creamy horseradish, dry mustard, onions, salt, and white pepper. Sprinkle with paprika. Fabulous.

Crab dip:

This recipe is so easy, I once worked with a woman who said, "I make it in the car on the way to the party!" I wouldn't go quite that far, but it really is easy:

Mix together 1 package of cream cheese + 1 can of drained crab meat and form it into a brick or a ball or a square or however you want to display it. Slather it with cocktail sauce, put some Triscuits on the tray, and then move out of the way because a stampede of party-goers will mow you down for it. (Thanks to my mom for this recipe!)

Meatballs:

This one is a tradition from Bill's family. Nice at a party because you can keep 'em hot in the crockpot. The recipe is straight out of the 60s and still tastes great.

The sauce is, improbably, 1 jar of grape jelly + 1 jar of chili sauce. Sounds horrible, but tastes amazing and makes the house smell fantastic.

While eating appetizers, Bill put the bird on the grill:


Bill brines the bird using this recipe, and then bastes the heck out of it with chicken stock, butter, and white white while it's grilling. It's out there for a few hours and comes in moist and delicious!

While the turkey's a'grillin, we make the sides...

Garlic carrots:

This recipe from my grandma and is as delicious as it is easy: steam the carrots, then sauté chopped garlic (the original recipe calls for butter, but I use olive oil -- just as good and better for you!)

Then combine the garlic and the carrots and mmmm! (Added bonus: no vampires.)

Green bean casserole:

This stuff grosses me out, but Bill loves it, so here it is. The recipe is straight off the back of the can of fried onions... I suspect that this one dish is single-handedly keeping that item in production. What else are they used for?

Stuffing:

I am not really a stuffing eater, so I usually just make Stove Top for Bill. But I saw this recipe last week and thought, "If ever there was a stuffing I will like, it's this one!" So I made it. It seemed really promising: pumpkin bread, corn bread, cranberries, sausage. Mmm!

But I still wasn't wild about it. I think... I am just not a stuffing eater. And Bill didn't love it, either, so we're back to Stove Top next year (as it's also about 1000x easier!) I think that recipe would be fantastic for anyone who likes stuffing. I just... don't.

Hrm... did not get a photo of my mashed potatoes. Guess I was too busy stuffing my face!

I also missed the photo opportunity of the perfect bird coming in from the grill. By the time I turned around to take it, Bill was already this far along:



The house smelled so good, I think we were just anxious to EAT!

Here is my plate on the table:

(Note to self: Get a couple of plain white plates for food photos... every photo I take of my food has a giant tomato in the middle!)

And, finally...

Pumpkin Pie:


Which, as you can see, is really just a vehicle for whipped cream...

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

love,
kelly

New quilt for Kaesea

Dear Shayne,

A couple of years ago, I made this quilt for Kaesea. It's been great -- it stays on the foot of our bed, on top of a heating pad (bonus!) and makes a great gushy-food placemat (rather than having that all over the duvet cover). Also, it looks nice with our mostly-blue duvet covers.

Recently, we got a new duvet cover that didn't quite match the old quilt. You know I don't need much of an excuse to make a quilt, so I took this opportunity to whip one up.

The new duvet cover has beiges, browns, and greys, so it's a neutral roundup. I like stripes, so this was my first design:


Once I saw that together, I decided I wanted something a bit more harmonious, so I cut more strips and laid them out in a sort of a tonal gradient. I laid them out on the couch so that I could re-visit them and verify the order.

When I returned, I found this:


Note:

1. Kaesea pre-approves his quilt.
2. The new quilt perfectly matches Kaesea's fur. As I have mentioned before on his blog, his back is becoming light brown in his old age (he used to be dark grey, and still is on his head). As you can see, Kaesea has actually arranged himself to match the stripes on his quilt here. Hilarious.

So I decided to make it two-sided -- one side is the original random stripes and the other side is the tonal gradient. It's nice to be able to mix it up!



And here's a shot of it on the bed, showing how nicely it matches the duvet cover:


And, most importantly, here is Kaesea, enjoying his new quilt:


Love that cat.

love,
kelly