oh dear, how the time has passed

i had such good intentions with this blog...and I am not a quitter!

I have made quite a few crafting accomplishments over the past year, and I may go back and document a few of them, but mostly I'll move forward from here to establish what I'm currently doing.

Mostly, in the past few months, I've been getting acclimated to my new home - Albuquerque, NM. But in my new job I've been able to do some fun stuff:

This is a tablescape I did for an event at work on Halloween. I had so much fun with it.

I've also been cooking and baking up a storm. I was inspired by Alton Brown in one of the many food network holiday shows in December and cooked up these little devils:

Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies. Absolutely decadent.

I'm in full force preparations for the annual SCA Estrella war. This means, a few new outfits, some fixing of old outfits, and a new banner for ME this time! We moved into a new place in downtown Albuquerque 2 days before Christmas, and the day we moved in I got my letter from the Atenveldt heralds that my device was passed - after over two years of trials, tribulations, and resubmissions. This is quite a relief! and I LOVE my device. I am truly pleased with the outcome.

So, I'm working on a silk painted banner that will only be approximately 22 inches wide by 34 inches tall. not huge, but big enough. The big difference is that I've ordered a few different shades of dye-na-flow colors from Dharma to really make it nice and give it more layers and depth of color. I'm VERY EXCITED. Today I spent quite a few hours perfecting the central design - a koi fish. And then decided on turning an SCA blazon of a "wavy bordure" into something more appropriate to my Chinese persona by utilizing the beauty of the Qing and Manchurian water/wave patterns as my border. It's going to be SO AWESOME.

it's not easy being green

last night I got home and prepared lovely little treats for Angie & Penny for our tea party during our sewing session today. I was asked to bring scones, and while I'm sure store bought scones would have been fine - the "martha" in me couldn't do it.

I decided on making 2 different varieties:

• lemon cream
• cranberry orange

the lemon cream included teh zest of 3 fresh lemons, a good dose of heavy cream, and some cream painted accross the top with a layer of sugar for a nice coating. The cranberry orange included almost a full cup of buttermilk - absolutely decadent!

the lemon cream made me realize that my oven runs pretty hot. and even though I took them out 15 minutes earlier than the recipe said, they were still just a tad darker and drier than I would have liked. The cranberry orange, having been baked 2nd, came out much better. But Penny had some fresh lemon curd & cream to spread accross the scones, so both were quite delicious in the end.

In today's sewing excitement I got the kirtle for my 16th century flemish working woman's dress complete. I am really excited about this outfit. It will include a white chemise, olive green kirtle and peach open fronted overdress. really beautiful. tomorrow i'll have to make the overdress & chemise for it to be wearable, but can also make beautiful parlets & pin-on sleeves down the line for it to be really period.