cookie costume

halloween costume for N
completely inspired by and based on this post

Charming, fun and easy, even for someone with pretty rudimentary sewing skills. The chocolate chip cap was my own idea. I made it with the leftover dark brown felt and reused some dark brown ribbon from a birthday gift that someone gave me. Getting the shape and size right were the most challenging aspects of this part of the project. Toddlers have surprisingly large heads.

I even had high hopes of using the 'cookies' as pillows for N's little chairs, but she takes them off whenever I try to put them on. She's not into the idea of multi-function items yet. Ah well. I still think it's a great idea!

spumoni bombe

dessert for M
inspired entirely by this book












based mostly on this recipe

i went with the haagen dazs recipe for two reasons: 1) the better homes & garden recipe calls for food coloring & artificial flavoring, which sounded distinctly unappetizing to me; and 2) i really like their ice cream. i ended up using their chocolate and cherry vanilla flavors, but went with ben & jerry's pistachio pistachio because i couldn't find haagen dazs pistachio anywhere. that was just fine as the pistachio pistachio was very tasty indeed. i did use part of the bh&g recipe for the center section (just raspberries, whipped cream and powdered sugar) and for the piped decor (whipped cream, powdered sugar and raspberry juice instead of food coloring). next time, i'll omit the raspberry layer and either add more cherries to the cherry vanilla layer or not mix in the whipped cream as the flavor was too subtle. we still managed to stuff ourselves silly with spumoni bombe despite these minor flaws.

beehive pasta timbale

dinner for M
inspired by this book

based on this recipe

i've been fascinated by this concept of a pasta-encased dish ever since i received diane seed's the top 100 pasta sauces as a birthday gift back in the 80's and saw the illustration for bucatini alla flamande. after twenty years, i figured it was time to try it. unfortunately, i realized the recipe in the book is a little vague, so i searched online for something similar and was happy to find lex culinaria's beehive pasta timbale. sounds like the same book and recipe inspired her as well. It came out quite nicely, even though i changed the quantities to make a smaller version. i will definitely make it again because it was fun to make, looked cool and it was really delicious!

robert smith doll

created for J's christmas present
inspired by this book

based mostly on my hazy recollection of what robert smith looks like

robert's head and body are knitted, eyes and brows are embroidered, mouth is a very small piece of felt that was sewn on, hair is woven in, then ratted out. the pants and jacket are sewn from black felt with snap closure and buttons for show. i just couldn't bring myself to figure out how to make buttonholes.