katyelliott.com » holiday

Welcome To 2012!

Katy Elliott — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:31:00 +0000

Happy New Year! We woke to sunshine and temperatures in the high 40′s! I hope everyone had a festive holiday and is feeling recharged and ready to take on the new year! Cheers to health, happiness and peace in 2012!

Above my New Year’s card I made at Pinhole Press. The photo is from a post about the seed stitch scarf I’m wearing.

Thank you to everyone for reading. I’m excited to share more adventures and house projects in the new year. My #1 goal is to finish the outside of the house which means: clapboarding part of the house, a new front door, painting, finishing the gardens, finishing the gutters/downspouts and hopefully a fancy cobble driveway!

Handmade Cinnamom Heart Tied Gifts

Katy Elliott — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:02:17 +0000

Remember the cinnamon applesauce heart ornaments I made earlier this week? I used them to decorate my Christmas presents too! I wrapped each box in kraft paper, added a tag, tied two hearts onto each string, and tied the two strings together into a bow. Viola! So easy and festive. I love how simple and handmade each of the packages look. And they’re going to smell super amazing under the tree! A cute idea for Christmas and Valentine’s day gifts too!

Click here for full instructions to make Cinnamon Applesauce Hearts.

Cinnamon Applesauce Heart Ornaments

Katy Elliott — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:07:19 +0000

I’ve been brainstorming handmade crafts I could make with my nieces. When I was a kid we made these simple heart ornaments. Made of cinnamon and applesauce this craft is kid-friendly and fun for all ages.

I streamlined the recipe—omitted the glue—and stuck them in the oven to shorten the drying time.

What you’ll need:
1 cup of applesauce
1 1/2 cups cinnamon (look for a big containers at $1 stores, bulk stores or amazon.)
2 T cloves optional (grind with a spice grinder)
heart cookie cutters in different sizes
string for hanging (mine is from Studio Carta)

Mix 1 cup of applesauce with 1 cup of cinnamon in a large bowl. Mix, mix, mix. This is the kinda recipe you’ll need to use your hands to really incorporate the spices. Make sure you don’t miss any wet spots. Add the additional 1/2 cup of cinnamon, cloves and continue to incorporate. If it’s too wet add more cinnamon, too dry add more applesauce. But be patient. It takes time to mix so don’t add cinnamon or applesauce till you’re absolutely sure it’s well mixed.

Scatter some cinnamon (like if you were rolling out cookies with flour) and roll out applesauce/cinnamon dough to 1/4″ thick. If the dough is too wet it will make a huge mess and stick to your rolling pin.

Use your cookie cutters to cut out the hearts. I noticed the first time around my dough was too wet and the edges were straggly. Once I add more cinnamon the edges were clean.

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Place the hearts on a cookie sheet with a silpat. The hearts can be really close together but not touching; they won’t rise in the oven. Using a skewer carefully make a hole through each heart. Stick the ornaments in the oven for an hour or more. The juice from the applesauce needs to evaporate. The range in cooking time depends on your house, humidity and climate. My house is cold so I had them in for 1.5 hours and then I turned the oven off and left them to set overnight. They should be rock hard. If they’re not, give them some more time in the oven.

The next day loop a string through each of the holes to hang on the tree, string together to make a garland or attach to a package. Enjoy!

p.s. the hearts are not edible.

Gingerbread Houses At Lee Mansion

Katy Elliott — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:46:50 +0000

Over 100 gingerbread houses created by kids and local businesses filled four rooms in the beautiful Jeremiah Lee mansion for the annual Gingerbread Festival this past weekend. The houses were quite the sight to see and smell. A $3 admission ticket included three raffle tickets for a chance to win one of these tasty creations. Proceeds benefited the Marblehead Family Fund and Marblehead Museum and Historical Society. Pretty darn cute, right?

So who’s going to help me build one for next year? Maybe a model of my house? Check out “Occupy North Pole” below, hilarious!

Jeremiah Lee Mansion
161 Washington Street
Marblehead, Massacusetts
marbleheadmuseum.org

Make A Holiday Wreath

Katy Elliott — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:00:19 +0000

The thing I like most about the holidays is making gifts and decorating. I’m not into fussy things and I try to keep it simple. I made a wreath for my front door at the Christmas Workshop at Snug Harbor Farm in Maine over the weekend.

To start we cut tree trimmings into smaller pieces. Tony showed us how to arrange the greens and tightly wrap the stems onto a round wire frame. The key to a good wreath is keeping the floral wire tight. He recommended holding the wreath in your left hand, keeping the wire spool short, wrapping the wire around the frame and then allowing the coil to drop to the table. Dropping the heavy wire spool locks the greens into place. Give the wire a little tug and then continue to layer greens as you move around the frame.

I’ve always had a problem with the sides flopping out like wings on my wreaths. Going tighter made a huge difference. I added winterberry, boxwood, and eucalyptus into my wreath. The winterberries are so happy and festive.

I hung the wreath on my front door Sunday afternoon and layered greens, winterberry and boxwood in the urn planter next to my front step. I don’t think I’ve ever had my holiday decorations up so early! Below snapshots from my day.

Barn at Snug Harbor Farm where where I took the wreath class.

Tony showing us how to create steps and negative space in a wreath.

Bundles of winter berry, boxwood and eucalyptus for our wreathes.

A snapshot my wreath in progress.

My wreath with touches of winterberry, boxwood, and eucalyptus.

Fall New England Favorites

Katy Elliott — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:01:42 +0000

Pumpkins have been popping up above front doors all over town. Greg and I were joking if the “pumpkin above the front door” idea came from homeowners tired of their pumpkins getting smashed?

Above and below a selection of fall-themed posts from my past four years in Marblehead—I can’t believe it. A few places I love to visit and recipes to warm your bellies. Click on each link for more info and photos. Enjoy!

Old Burial Hill is one of my favorite places in Marblehead. Beautiful gravestones and a gorgeous view of the sea.

Decorate your mantel with gourds, bittersweet and a fresh leaf wreath.

Make pumpkin cookies with brown butter icing for your Halloween bash.

Have you ever tried to making homemade doughnuts? I made an Apple Cider version and they were pretty darn delicious!

Head up to Ipswich for a walk in the golden seagrass. It’s absolutely stunning in late October.

Recipe: Grapefruit and Meyer Lemon Marmalade

Katy Elliott — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:36:44 +0000

Happy Valentine’s Day! Yesterday afternoon Greg and I made Grapefruit and Meyer Lemon Marmalade to go with blueberry sconces for v-day breakfast. I’ve been dying to making meyer lemon anything for years but I always seem to miss my the small window of opportunity—they’re only available in the winter. The recipe comes via an oldie but goodie New York Times interview with June Taylor. She makes delicious organic jams without pectin using heirloom plants and vegetables. You can purchase all her jams including this one on her website: junetaylorjams.com.

I love this marmalade it’s bright, tart from the grapefruit and citrusy—definitely perfect for this long New England winter we are experiencing. It’s yummy with blueberry sconces but I’m imagining it might be nice with fish, pork or between a nice fluffy yellow cake! Below the recipe and photos.

Adapted from June Taylor

Grapefruit and Meyer Lemon Marmalade
5 pounds grapefruit, rinsed (I used 6 grapefruits)
5 Meyer lemons or small regular lemons, rinsed (I used Meyer lemons)
1/2 cup lemon juice (from 2 to 3 additional lemons)
2 1/2 pounds sugar

Remove the grapefruit skin with a vegetable peeler. Cut the peel into 1/8-inch slivers; stop when you have 3/4 cup. Discard the rest. Slice off the ends of the grapefruit and the remaining grapefruit peel and pith. (I cut in half and removed the segments like I was going to eat it for breakfast—I found this to be much easier to get the fruit away from the membrane) Remove grapefruit segments, reserving membrane. Stop when you have 5 cups of segments.

Cut the ends off the Meyer lemons, deep enough so you can see the flesh. Leaving the peel on, remove the segments of lemon and reserve the membrane. Cut the segments crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces. (I removed most of the flesh and reserved about 3/4 of cup for the jam.)Put membranes from the grapefruit and Meyer lemons in a jelly bag (I had to look this up. Means: wrap membranes in cheesecloth) and tie closed.

In a wide and deep pot, combine the grapefruit segments, grapefruit peel, lemon pieces and jelly bag. Add lemon juice and 2 1/2 cups water. Simmer until the grapefruit peel is tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool.

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. (I used a canner and did a regular water bath) Working over a bowl in your sink, squeeze the liquid from the jelly bag; keep squeezing and wringing it out until you extract 1/3 to 1/2 cup of pectin. Add pectin and sugar to the pot. Place over high heat and boil, stirring now and then, until marmalade is between 222 and 225 degrees and passes the plate test. (Spoon a little onto a plate and put in the fridge for 3 minutes. If it thickens like jam, it is done.)

Meanwhile, put 6 sterilized 8-ounce canning jars and lids on a baking sheet and place in the oven. When jam is done, remove jars from the oven. Ladle jam into the jars, filling them as high as possible. Wipe the rims. Fasten the lid tightly. Let cool. If you don’t get a vacuum seal, refrigerate the jam. Makes 6 8-ounce jars of marmalade.

Spots of Holiday

Katy Elliott — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:15:22 +0000

I tried to transform my second floor living space from 2 x 4 storage space into an actual dining and living room for the holidays. I set up a tree, made a homemade wreath for my kitchen and decorated my mantels with extra tree trimmings. It was nice to clean up the house and do some fun crafty projects. Above and below shots from around the house. Merry Christmas!

Working On Macaroni Snowflakes

Katy Elliott — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:13:47 +0000

Over the weekend I worked on making some macaroni snowflakes. Crafty Stephanie from even*cleveland shared the diy last December on my blog. I didn’t use as much white paint on my snowflakes as Stephanie did. I kinda like the natural macaroni color showing through. The second photos shows me applying some glitter. Click here to find the full how to instructions.

Diy: Birch Bark Hearts

Katy Elliott — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:59:55 +0000

I have a few more holiday diys to share. My wonderful crafty college friend Betsy was inspired by these woven paper hearts she spotted on Once Wed. She recreated the hearts using birch bark. Below her how to instructions. Thanks Betsy for sharing!

My mom and I used to make these when I was growing up in Maine. I am excited to now be making them with my son! The design is really simple, but using birch bark makes them special.

We collect the bark from already cut logs, or if it as already peeled off the trunk, so as not to hurt the living tree. Once we get the bark home we peel it into thinner layers. If the bark is dry and brittle and seems like it might break in the folding, then we soak it in a shallow pan of water until it softens up. We do the same thing with the innermost layers of bark which are sometimes stiffer and harder to fold. While that bark soaks we use our patterns to cut up the rest of our bark.

It is fun to match the two pieces—sometimes we make one side “inside out” for contrast. For the pieces that we soaked- we cut the pieces out of the wet bark, assemble the basket, and then press them under books (protecting the books from the damp bark with a dishtowel). Finally, we add handles so we can hang them from the tree. Usually the handle is just a thin strip of birch bark glued on the inside of the basket, but we sometimes use ribbon if we run out of bark.