Free Original Christmas Music!

Download 7 free ORIGINAL Christmas songs today!! The Hipwaders, Brady Rymer, Didi Pop, Gustafer Yellowgold, Princess Katie and Racer Steve, Rock Daddy Rock, and David Tobocman all share NEW Christmas songs!!

A Tudor Feast at Christmas

A Tudor Feast at Christmas Knowledge Network - oh my. Oh my, oh my, oh my. As crazy as it sounds, this sounds like absolute heaven to me! I would give almost anything to be able to be part of a project like this. I love my kitchenaid mixer. I love my Cuisinart food processor. I love my fresh market! Still, the idea of making everything from scratch from the ORIGINAL recipes makes my skin tingle. It was made a few years ago and seems to be a bit hard to find. If you can find it on t.v. in your area, don't miss it! If you happen to be in the area of Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, you can attend a recreation!! Yes, this is where they filmed Pride and Prejudice (deep breath).

Love These Cards!

My kids got these as an early Christmas present from my parents. My parents found the cards at the Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, but I couldn't find them on their website. If you can visit the store, buy them there, otherwise they are here at the MoMA store. Or if you can VISIT the MoMA store, oh my gosh go, there! Each matching pair of cards has one complete image of the original painting and one close up shot of it. My kids love them and are learning all of these great works of art! We have our own names for a lot of them at this point - for instance The Seed of Areoi is "Naked Lady On A Rock", and The Jungle is "Moon Head Guy". But don't think for a minute that I'm not planning to teach them about each and every painting, the artist and the year they were painted as they grow up!! Think about the images from books you read as a child - these images will be part of their childhood. (Yes, my arm hurts from patting myself on the back...) We've been playing Old Master (Old Maid) and go fish all week and loving it. Usually, Girl with Ball is our Old Maid because, really, it's only fair.

If you check out the paintings above, seriously get lost on MoMA's website. YUM.

Perfect Stocking Stuffer

LOVE these mixes, too. They are just real ingredients: no trans fats, no high fructose corn syrup, no refined sugar, no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. They even have low fat, low cholesterol, and vegan mixes. Mixes are SO much easier, but I hate what they bring with them - these let go of all of the guilt and make just really, really yummy cookies and brownies and more. I chose the mudslinger brownies with a sweet mixing spoon for our Mr. H's stocking, and the snow angel sugar cookies with her own mixing spoon, too, for Miss Mae. I know they will love them!

Attic Journals for Christmas!

I just gave my kids' teachers their Christmas presents. I know some of them celebrate Christmas, I'm pretty sure some of them don't. But we do, so we get to give them presents. I adore Attic Journals. I adore Michelle and Miguel who make them. They are the most lovely vintage books, that would have otherwise been lost, turned into journals - the PERFECT gift for teachers - and everyone else. I found children's encyclopedias turned into journals and wrote personal notes in each one. Miss Mae dictated notes in a couple of them and drew pictures in all of them. I hope they inspire these awesome teacher people to take time for themselves and write their thoughts, or even give them a place to keep their to do lists. I wish I had taken a photo of my teetering stack, but the photo above is one I stole from Attic Journal's website.
I got each of my nieces and nephew one as well. A vintage vampire and werewolf for my Twihards (with photos of Jacob and Edward inside (sigh)) baseball for the little Mr., and palm trees for my California dreaming girl. They are the perfect gifts to encourage little ones, tweens and teens to write, too! Get some for everyone you know!

New Items

I've been making these little Towel Tags for my family for a while now, and finally decided to share them. With two adults showering every day and 3 little ones taking baths every night, we create a LOT of laundry. Even though we have lots of different colors of towels, it seems impossible for us to remember whose is whose.

These tags allow us to keep our towels separate and use them a couple of days in a row. We save ENERGY as in electricity AND as in MY energy doing so much laundry. We save water cutting down on all those loads. Plus we keep our germs to ourselves.

The tags are great now in all of this flu uproar, because we each have our own hand towels, and everyone knows exactly which one is theirs.

They aren't up on the website yet, but I'm working on that this weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

I sit here happily grateful for my lovely little family. How did I get so lucky? I think my feeling are best expressed by my son's Lego representation of our family. My mom should be very proud of her little hottie image and my husband is not quite as gangsta as the outfit implies, but does tend toward baseball caps on the weekends!

MOLD On My Paintbrushes?!

I just pulled out my kids' paintbrushes that we haven't used in quite a while, only to discover the source of the SMELL that has been coming from my paint basket! Our paint brushes had MOLDED. Who knew that was possible? They are mostly painted wood handles with a couple of those disposable sponge "brushes" with wood handles. The sponge ones were definitely the worst. After using them, I wash them, let them dry and put them back in the plastic Ziploc bag, and back in their basket. Obviously, I wasn't letting them dry enough. The mold was a sort of coppery colored powder that looked like tiny cauliflowers bursting all over it. I didn't take any pictures because I just THREW them all away! Even the plastic handled paint brushes had the mold all over the bristles. Very gross. I've been looking all over the internet to see if this has happened to anyone else, and am not finding anything, but still:

Tip of the day: STORE YOUR PAINTBRUSHES UPRIGHT IN A JAR!!

A Little Halloween Inspiration....

Still need an outfit for tonight?? Here is some Mr. H. inspiration.

We have Cleopatra, King Tut, and the most adorable mummy you've ever seen in our house. Watch for photos later.

And The Winner Is.....

GroverFamily!!

Thank you all so much for entering, it was REALLY fun for me (even though I don't get any glasses... JUST kidding. (no i'm not.))

allmodern.com / CSN will send them off to GroverFamily.

Thank you www.allmodern.com!!

(randomized list generated Oct 31 2009 at 9:9:34 by www.psychicscience.org)

iittala Giveaway

W.O.W.!!! Thanks for all of the entries! I have to say I'm more than a little jealous, I love the glasses, too!!

I'll keep the entries open until 12 midnight tonight - Pacific time since we are out west. After we check all of the posts, I'll use the random generator, and contact the winner first thing in the morning!

Remember you can get extra entries for becoming a Facebook fan, blogging about this giveaway, and tweeting!

Thanks again, and good luck!

Iittala "Put Your Feet Up" Giveaway with CSN!!

With all of the craziness leading up to holiday shows and the HOLIDAYS and costume making and school responsibilities, I seriously need a break. Do YOU need a break? How about taking a few minutes for yourself with a glass of wine - or maybe something a little stronger?

While I was studying architecture in Denmark, we took a 'field trip' around Scandinavia - yeah, I know: DREAMY! What I wouldn't give to be able to visit HALF those places NOW. One of my very favorite stops was iittala Glass Works. Or iiiiiiiiitala as our guide called it in a very Transylvanian sounding accent.

Thanks to the nice folks over at csn.com you can take a breather with the most beautiful glass! They are http://www.allmodern.com/ and carry everything modern and everything perfect for your home. They carry everyone from Saarinen to the Eames, to Philippe Starck!! Check out their cooking site, too, with gorgeous cookware including Le Creuset and Rachel Ray Cookware! I would like to simply move in. We'll supply the gorgeous glasses, you fill them with your favorite beverage it will seriously taste better sipping from these.

Choose from two of these gorgeous iittala Essence red wine glasses ,
or, if you like a little something stronger when you take a minute out of your mad day, choose two of these Aarna 2 oz. cocktail glasses.

To enter, just leave a post here and you'll get an entry. Blog or tweet about this giveaway and you'll get another entry. Become a facebook fan at the new Cat in an Apron facebook page, and you'll get ANOTHER entry! We'll choose one at random on Friday, October 30th.

Cheers!

Where The Wild Things Are?

Anyone else conflicted on this one? It looks SO uplifting and SO exciting, and my little adventurer is sure to recognize a kindred spirit, but will those wild things come back when they are alone in their room, in the dark, at night? If you've seen it with your kids, will you tell me what they think?

Too Stinking Cute!

I saw these at ourbestbites yesterday, and have been thinking about them ever since! I must get tiny little jars and make these personal pies! The idea of holding a warm little pie in my cold hands after being outside is lovely! And the savory ones just might get my son eating chicken pot pie. What a great site - they have SO many good recipes. check them out!

World Cuisine Organic Baby Food!

Organic, full of flavors of the world, and made right here in the Northwest! If ONLY baby O. was still eating baby food! This looks so fantastic. Two doctors, husband and wife, created these new flavors inspired by tastes from around the world. No bland strained peas or pureed sweet potatoes!!

This is Borscht! It is about that time of year that I make a giant batch (like the good Ukrainian girl that I am) and stock my freezer - Baby O. will be eating my borscht, but now your baby can too! WithOUT the hours of peeling beets and stained hands.

You can find it here in Portland at Whole Foods, but there are more stores in Washington, and you can order online.