food bouquets

Here’s a chic tip I’d like to share with you.  At your next party (and there’s a likelihood you will be hosting a fête or two this busy month of December), save money on decor and adorn the table with delightful skewered food arrangements.  If you’re pressed for time, pinwheels are always a timeless and easy party staple.

Make sure your vases are squeaky clean and dry, then fill with rice.  The rice anchors the skewers, as well as creates a wonderful aesthetic to your bouquets.  And it’s never going to be wasted because it can still be cooked and eaten.

Some ideas for pinwheels include my favorites shown above: salmon and dill; spinach and artichoke; and honey ham and Swiss.

Of course, you can skewer anything, which is the fun of it.  If you have your hands full, there are always pre-made appetizers available, like spring rolls, sausage rolls, coconut shrimp, sliders, etc.

These wonderful arrangements can be either savory or sweet.  I’ve hosted several parties in the past using this concept for desserts.  I’ve even skewered profiteroles.  One day I’d like to try mini cupcakes, 1″ cake slices, colorful French macarons, the works!

Your guests will be impressed.  Memorable as this is, it is one party idea that sticks!

christmas stocking cards

Yesterday’s darling no knit mini stockings may seem a wee bit without purpose considering they can be filled with no more than a Hershey Kiss or two.  However, I think they are the perfect messenger for your most noteworthy greetings this holiday season.

What I have for you today are several Christmas card ideas using the mini stockings from yesterday’s no-knit tutorial.

Fill the stockings with cheer:

 

Fill the stockings with love:

 

And best yet, a card filled with a whole lotta giving (now, who doesn’t want some of that?):

no knit mini stockings

I am a “crafter” who does not knit or crochet.  For this, I am ever so profoundly apologetic.  At some point in my life, at the able age of 10, my mom acquainted me with knitting and crocheting needles and, as I vaguely recollect, a cross-stitch kit.  The introductions were short and my kinship with those crafts simply didn’t last.  At the age of 10, I was mainly too absorbed constructing boxes out of cardboard and drafting my dream mansion’s floor plans on graph paper  — curiosities inherited from my dad, as were my X-Acto knife, mechanical pencil, and ruler.  Those were my tools.  By the age of 16, I was working at a hardware store and started my collection of power tools using my employee discount.  I bought my own scroll saw which was followed, over time, by a cordless drill, a rotary tool, a jig saw, then my dad gifted me his table saw.

It was only 4 years ago, when I started designing wedding invitations with sewn silk and satin sashes, that I bought myself a sewing machine.  For someone so comfortable running heavy sheets of MDF through a 10″ lethal blade circling at over 3,000 revolutions per minute, I still get so much anxiety using a sewing machine.

That, in a nutshell, is the history of my skill set.  And it explains the extreme lopsidedness of my crafting skills.  Not entirely secure with the term crafter, I prefer to consider myself a builder of things and a perpetrator of ideas.  Even my approach to food has a little element of my need to construct.

Of late, I have developed a profound longing to create things that are knitted, crocheted, or sewn.  I have a long way and a steep learning curve ahead of me if I want to be able to knit and crochet and sew just as creatively as I create things out of paper.  I want to do it well and soon.

Attempting to negate my lack of skills in those departments, this project of making miniature Christmas stockings dawned on me, in most ways like a solution.   Instead of challenging myself to knit, I solved my way out of knitting.

Here’s a cute little project for all of you non-knitters, like me.  One day, I hope to present projects that I’ve actually knitted.  For now, I offer what I offer best: a construction.

To construct these miniature Christmas stockings, you will need red gloves, white gloves, a pair of scissors, a needle, and red thread.  Cut the fingers of the red glove and cut the bottom third in a 45-degree angle.  Cut three fingers of the white glove, and cut into smaller 1/2″ segments.  Turn the pieces inside out and sew together, by hand, as shown.  Either reusing old gloves or spending $1 on a brand new pair, this project is definitely a cheap cheat.