Slice of Pink

Me and Martha

The February issue of Martha Stewart Living, full of pink and hearts and chocolate desserts, is always my favorite issue of the year. The 2011 edition arrived last week and my inclination was to do what I do every month--flip briefly through the pages, make a joke or two about how I will not be doing any of the crafts/cooking/cleaning suggested, and then store the magazine in the giant plastic container that houses my 10-plus year collection of Martha Stewart magazines.

This issue, though, I am going to take on a new challenge. I am going to complete four items in the issue, one per week for the next four weeks, and I'll tell you all about the successes and (more likely) failures of living Martha-style. Don't get too excited--I'll probably choose the more simple items to craft and cook (I think one needs to ease into this sort of thing, although the chocolate Baked Alaska is looking pretty delicious).

If I completely fail at all four tasks, I'll face the reality that I'm never going to be Martha, cancel my subscription, and donate my collection to charity. Let's do this, Martha.

Easy as Pie Pies

My clever and crafty mom-in-law taught me how to make these adorable potpourri pies, which make sweet little hostess gifts. Mine didn't turn out nearly as well as hers do (I threw half of mine away), but I think practice makes perfect (or else you need to be slightly more patient than I am).

All you need to make one of these {inexpensive} cuties is a terracotta dish (the piece that goes under a terracotta pot), potpourri, and salt dough. Fill the dish with potpourri. Roll out the salt dough and cut into equal strips. Create a lattice pattern with the strips over the potpourri. Roll out a long snake with a hunk of dough and wrap it around the edge of the dish. Use a fork to press a design into the dough snake.

{Whoops! Thanks, Nicole, for reminding us about this very important step--brush egg whites on the dough for a shiny finish!}

Bake in the oven at 300 degrees or so until golden brown.

Once cooled, embellish the pies with raffia and cinnamon sticks. The fragrance of the potpourri will have baked out, so you should get also some fragrance oils--apple cinnamon is a good choice--and brush it on the pie with a paintbrush.

Wouldn't one of these pies be cute delivered in a pink bakery box with a bit of red and white twine?

Dressed in Scarves

Y'all have to go check out the brand new Etsy shop that my fabulous friend Mary just opened. She makes beautiful earrings and is extremely talented (you may remember that Mary brought me to a jewelry making course a few months ago).

Just look at these pretty pieces:

Click over quick because these are one-of-a-kind pieces and they are going to sell out fast. Seriously, people, I'm about to buy the pink and pewter pair any minute.

Also: you should know, Mary is a lawyer and you usually have to pay lawyers like $300 per hour for their time. At $20 a pair, you are getting an AMAZING bargain.

Reindeer Food

I happen to know exactly what Santa's reindeer like to eat! Do you? I learned the secret from my sister-in-law.

Every year we gather at Will's mom's house on Christmas Eve. We mix up an extra-large batch of reindeer food and sprinkle it all over the street outside the house. The reindeer can't resist our recipe and make a quick stop to deliver an early bag of gifts--matching pajamas for everyone!

What does it take to entice the reindeer to make a stop? Here's the recipe: one part oatmeal, one part of the sparkliest glitter you can find (red and gold are perfect!). We make at least five cups, which seems to do the trick.

My Etsy Favorites

What's more fun than studying trademark law?
Finding favorites on Etsy!

There's more here!

Flower Power

Tonight is the last night in our apartment. With the exception of a few odds and ends, everything is packed up and moved into temporary storage until our apartment in Davis becomes available. Although we are not the type of people who hoard unnecessary objects, we did find several items in the back of our cabinets that we haven't used in years.

A collection of shot glasses, for instance. When nobody around took me up on the offer for a free collection of gently used shot glasses, my sister and I came up with a plan. For 45 minutes, instead of packing boxes or helping to lift furniture, we created a dozen tiny pink shot glass bouquets which we left on the doorsteps of the neighboring apartments.

Tonight, I noticed through a window that an elderly woman had her tiny bouquet on an end table, so I know that, at the very least, the Hawaiian Island shot glass found itself a good home.

Thank you for all the great questions! I will answer them in a series of upcoming posts, perfectly timed to coincide with the dreaded period in which I will have only a dial-up connection. Feel free to post more questions, if you have any, and I will do my best to answer them all soon.

Cocktail Party Enthusiast Seeks Same

Will and I are hosting an engagement party for Anthony and Amanda next week. I made the invitations before I had a finalized guest list and I made about a dozen too many of the little things, each of which required cutting, pasting, folding, trimming, and lining by myself and my poor husband who always gets stuck with the tedious jobs like trimming paper into precisely two by two inch squares.

So, now I have a dozen little pink and brown match boxes with nowhere to go and I just can't bear to throw them out. I totally know that it is in bad form to invite people to the engagement party who aren't invited to the wedding, but screw it. Y'all want to come to a party?

Be Mine

Every year I bust out the crafting supplies and make Valentine cards. In the past they have been fancy with ribbons and bows and little details sewed on and glassine envelopes and eyelets and lots of embossing. Last year I gave Mr. SoPink the task of running the embossing gun and halfway through he melted a big patch of carpet. We do not do the embossing here any longer.

This year, due to the long nights spent trying to get a robot to throw a ball through a hoop, the Valentine cards have pretty much gone back to the basics: construction paper and paste. Honestly, I am a little embarrased.

Nevertheless, if you would like a Valentine, please send your address to sliceofpink at gmail dot com.

Cut and Paste

My cards for the Postcard Swap are stamped and ready to go! I collaged each postcard individually so they are all unique and, at the last minute, I stuck them all in envelopes, which totally defeats the purpose of postcard. But hear me out. They say it never rains in Southern California, but it does and it was last night as I was addressing the cards, so I freaked out and gave each one an envelope raincoat just in case. We aren't used to the rain in these parts.

This is my Month of Softies submission for April. The creature does not have a name because I have no idea how to "name" a stuffed animal. This is where my friends who have kids come in handy. Can one of my mom friends give this softie a name?