crafty fanny

my new secret weapon

Ladies, if you're of the endowed variety, have I got news for you:

The VS Body by Victoria lined full coverage bra might just change your life.  

This bra is my new favorite things and helps keep my melons where they belong: right under my chin! In the past, I've found that VS bras tend not to contain my girls. Not so, my friend. This one ROCKS!

Note: I am in no way receiving any compensation from Victoria's Secret for this post, but, hey! VS! If you send a couple of these puppies my way, I'll gladly sign for the package, if you know what I mean.

Blue Barnhouse

One of the benefits of working at a paper/stationery store is that I get to constantly check out new greeting card designs without feeling tempted to purchase all of the good ones. {ok, you're right: I'm still tempted, but hold back *most* of the time.}

I've recently found myself completely smitten with the selections from Asheville NC's Blue Barnhouse letterpress selections.

This is just a small sampling of their awesomeness:

 

The cards are beautiful but so funny that I laugh out loud whenever a customer brings one up to the register. Click on the card image to be taken to the online listing.

new year's resolution: broken

Ah, I lasted about 17 days without buying myself a new journal. But, this one is so lovely and charming, I just couldn't resist.

Now this is a journal I can keep! The One Line a Day: A Five-Year Memory Book features a page for every day of the year with space for you to write just a couple of lines every day for the next five years. It really is a brilliant concept. The book starts on January 1, so I figured I should get it while I could still remember the first half of the month!

BUT, I would like to add that I just started the decor8 e-class, Blogging your Way. In the first lesson, Holly encouraged all of us to get a new, pretty notebook to use for class notes, journaling, etc. Even with that (it was my homework!) I am using a half-used beat up notebook for the class. Filling it will get me one step closer to something shiny, new and pretty!

the etsy shop is live!

OMG! My card is on etsy -- woot woot!

Wouldn't it be such a treat to get this in the mail!?!?

You can check it out for yourself right here. I think this marks the beginning of many wonderful things! Exciting! And scary!

More soon!

PS. I have spent most of the day hanging out with Maggie and listening to NPR coverage of what's happening with the relief effort in Haiti. And what's happening is not much yet. Have you heard that you can text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross? Have you done it yet? Imagine if everyone who had a cell phone sent that one text -- just imagine what kind of difference we might be able to collectively make in the lives of these people!

knocked up?

Hi friends!

Are any of you preggers? And looking for that perfect crib for your perfect nursery?

Cause if you are, will you pretty please get one of these GOR-GE-OUS lovelies so you can hand it down to me in a few years when I'm ready for a little one of my very own and you're so done with the crib thing?

I promise to be the very best auntie ever!

Thanks and XO,
~fanny

(Photos from desire to inspire, via Urban Grace Interiors)

sneak peek

Hey sweet blog friends!

Thanks to all of you for your kind words of encouragement. The support of strangers means a lot!

Here's a little sneak peek of what's to come (hopefully later today!) at the crafty fanny etsy shop.

I'm going to be trying my hand at shortbread this afternoon. I've got two sticks of butter softening on the counter as I type. Hopefully a success story of the culinary kind will follow as well!

let's call it research

My soon-to-be etsy shop is super close to being up. That's right. I printed one card (ONE!) to list in the shop. Baby steps, people, I'm all about the baby steps.

I decided last week that it would probably be a good idea to do some "research" on how different shop owners list and package and ship their own card creations. Thus I spent a few hours the other day studying, ahem shopping.

A few of the little ditties I discovered:

Sew in Love Valentine from chewingthecud

Tiny little bird card by Freya art, via designismine

Believe card, also by Freya

All that we will ever need print, by Freya

Eat, Drink, Dance, Sing card, Freya again


Say Please and Thank You print by Louella Press, originally found via OperationNice

Crazy Love card by upup, via When I Grow Up Coach

I love you card by le papier studio

I did not purchase them all. I was tempted, but remained restrained. Sneak peeks of the card will be up soon. I'm hoping to get one photographed and listed THIS WEEK! Woot woot! 

wednesday's inspiration: julie & julia

We watched Julie & Julia on new year's eve. What an amazing film. If you haven't seen it yet, you're in for a treat. Julia Child's story was such an inspiration to me! And Meryl Streep? Superb. And Stanley Tucci? Superb! And the two of them together. OMG, superb!

The movie also made me want to run right out and pick up my own copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. At least until I remembered my new year's resolution. No new cookbooks until I use the ones I have? Crap.

Tim's father got me Nigella Lawson's How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food for Christmas, and in the spirit of Julie & Julia, I made the following deal with myself: I can buy the Julia Child book only after I made ALL the recipes in the Nigella book. Bring it.

So far I've made two recipes from the book: Linguine with Clams on NY Eve and Eggplant Involtini for a friend's birthday. Both were lovely.

Cooking clams is incredibly easy, but the dish seemed super fancy at the same time. Didn't it turn out beautifully?

2 down, 348 to go!

nutella! a whole jar!

Yes, you read that correctly. This is the post wherein I talk about baking a cake made with an entire jar of nutella. And yes, it was as good as you think it would be.

We had hazelnuts in our fridge that were leftover from a Thanksgiving stuffing recipe and a jar of nutella burning a hole in my cabinet (we buy it at Costco), so in the spirit of not buying new groceries until I use what we have, I decided to whip up Nigella Lawson's Torta Alla Gianduia (Chocolate Torte with Hazelnuts), from her book How to Be a Domestic Goddess.

Yu-um, what a treat!

Photo from recipezaar. I forgot to take a picture. Bad blogger!

If you're looking to make a cake that will impress folks, this is the one. It's lovely, even when it doesn't completely puff up and looks a bit sunken like mine did.

A few things to note if you're going to make it:

• Be sure to use softened butter, not melted butter. I forgot to take mine out of the freezer in time and I think the meltedness of the butter definitely contributed to the un-puffiness of the cake.
• This is a flourless cake (great for gluten allergies!) that uses a ground hazelnut meal in lieu of flour. I think that the hazelnuts should have been peeled before grinding, a step that I did not do but will next time. That might have also weighed it down.
• I did, however, peel the hazelnuts used on top of the cake. After a short internet search, I found that Julia Child's (!) method of peeling hazelnuts to be the best:
  

  Add 3 tablespoons of baking soda to 2 cups boiling water. Add the nuts and boil for about 3 minutes. Slip a test nut into a bowl of ice water. If the skin doesn’t come off easily, boil the nuts a little longer. When a test skin rubs right off, add the rest of the nuts to the ice water and peel with incredible ease. Dry the nuts or let them dry on their own and toast them in the oven. (HA! "dry the nuts" teehee)
  

And, my final tip: I had a difficult time getting the frosting to thicken up. Next time, I might try whipping the cream slightly before folding in the melted chocolate. Or I might just try to beat it in my KitchenAid instead of by hand.

Tim had no complaints about the extra, somewhat-runny frosting.

Viola, Nigella Lawson's Torta alla Gianduia:

for the cake:

• 6 large eggs, separated
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup soft unsalted butter
• 14 ounces nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)
• 1 tablespoon Frangelico or rum or water (I used water)
• 1/2 cup ground hazelnuts, scant
• 4 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate, melted

for the icing:

• 4 ounces hazelnuts
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon Frangelico or rum or water (I used water)
• 4 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

Prepare a 9-inch springform pan: grease and line with parchment.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff but not dry. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and nutella, then add Frangelico (or water), egg yolks, and ground hazelnuts. Fold in the cooled, melted chocolate, then lighten the mixture with a dollop of egg white before gently folding in the rest of the egg whites a third at a time. Pour into the prepared pan and cook for 40 minutes or until the sides come away from the pan and then cool on the rack.

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry pan until the aroma wafts up and they begin to brown. Transfer to a plate and let cool (V. Important!).

In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan, add the cream, liquer or water, and chopped chocolate and heat gently. Once the chocolate is melted, take the pan off the heat and whisk until it reaches the right consistency for icing just the top of the cake.

Ice the top of the cake and then dot heavily with roasted hazelnuts.

(Recipe from recipezaar, taken from How to Be a Domestic Goddess.)

resolutions and such

Happy 2010 everyone! 2010. Crazy. I definitely thought we'd have flying cars by now! Maybe by 2020?

I've never been one to make a ton of new year's resolutions. They've always seemed to me things that people do to make themselves feel good about the indulgences of the holiday season (eating, drinking, spending) but by February, everyone is back to their old tricks again. When I used to wait tables, it would be impossible to sell a cocktail or dessert during the month of January, but come Valentine's Day, it was always a whole different story!

I don't want to sound too debbie downer though, because I do think that a new year, just like a birthday, is an ideal time to take stock of what you've accomplished and what your goals are for the coming months. I've really been enjoying reading what all of you have in store for the coming year and the changes you'd like to see in 2010.

This year, I approached my resolution looking for something that would help me live my life better, something doable, something that could realistically be accomplished.

For 2010, I resolve not to buy any more journals until I've written in the ones I already have.

Simple? Yes. Are you thinking, "well, of course, silly. Why would you spend your hard-earned money on a new journal for yourself when you already have a ton of perfectly good journals?" Right. Because that's what I do. I shop. And I think, "oh, if I buy this super cute journal, I'll actually write in it. I'll actually keep a journal. If I buy this awesome pocket-sized Moleskine, I'll actually be creative with it, pulling it out whenever inspiration strikes."

It's always about having more, needing something else to actually take action. And that changes now.

This resolution also translates into other areas of my life:

• I resolve not to buy anymore books until I read the ones I have.
• I resolve not to go shopping for food until we eat what we have in the fridge.
• I resolve not to buy any more crafting supplies until I start using the ones that are currently collecting dust on my shelves.

Essentially, I resolve to finish what I've started. And to be content with what I have.

Because what I have is a lot. 

PS. Here are my resolutions from last year. I think I did a pretty good job of everything, although I definitely got better at not getting sick as the year progressed. 

PPS. Are you guys good at keeping resolutions? Did you make any good ones this year?