Seems it's the time of year to bake. Every holiday season, I usually make 5 to 6 different kinds of cookies and put together boxes for neighbors, friends and co-workers. It's one of my favorite things to do and is usually accompanied by a good mix of holiday music. It turns out that I'm not the only one at Smudge Ink who enjoys this ritual. Both Sarah and Erin also love to bake, and we discovered our shared weakness for collecting cookie cutters.
Perhaps this doesn't appeal to all, but to the three of us, a morning of baking every cookie in our combined cutter collections sounded like fun. And it was! I personally have cookie cutters that I've never actually used, so it was especially gratifying to break in some previously unused ones. (We all have our things.)
It took two large batches of dough, but we succeeded in baking and decorating around 100 cookies, if not more (I did not count). We had the regular suspects: stars, hearts, flowers, snowflakes. We had some "randoms": a strong man, a tooth, a chili pepper. We had a full array of Star Wars cutters thanks to Erin (Yoda is my favorite!).
But our fullest collection came in the form of animals including a lion and a bear (reminder: must find tiger cookie cutter!). There were also cats, dogs, a hedgehog, a whale, an alligator, a buffalo, a pony, a lobster, an owl, a cardinal, a mouse, a rooster, a moose, a loon, a chicken, a fox, and an elephant. Sarah even found MORE cookie cutters back home that she had forgotten about after our bake off.
We had a great time kicking off the holiday cookie season together. Plus, it provided about a week's worth of baked treats at the studio. May the sweet and buttery force be with you this holiday season!
This playlist is for the non-traditionalist. It's got synth, electric bells and guitars, wrapping, randomness, jokes, heavy bass, and drum solos that might just inspire the little drummer boy to throw down a beat with flare. This is not easy listening, but rather jingle balls of rollicking fun! So make like Rooney and T-Swift and shake up and shake off that holiday hustle and bustle! 
My eldest daughter, Abigail, recently turned 8 years old. Sometime early in September, I asked her if she wanted to have a party (yes), and what she might like the theme to be (don't know). So we brainstormed, brainstormed some more, and then took a break for a couple of weeks. Later that month, we visited the 
I figured the folks at the shelter had done this before but as usual I wanted to include some sort of DIY craft project (which I found online 
With craft time over, a volunteer at the shelter named Holly quizzed the kids on animal trivia, educated them a bit about the shelter and animal adoption, and then gave them a tour. The "loud" dog room was not loved by all, but they all got to see some really cute puppies along the way. The majority of the available cats and kittens had been adopted, so while there weren't many felines to be seen, it also meant those animals had found a home, which is the point after all!
After some hand washing, dinner, and kitty cat cupcakes (made in the image of our recently adopted kitten), Holly brought a few heart-meltingly adorable puppies in for all the kids to play with. Turns out we didn't have trouble filling the afternoon l like I had thought we would; the party went a half hour late.
One of my favorite parts of the party was that we requested no gifts. Instead kids could bring a donation to the shelter (if they chose), such as old towels, pet food, waste bags, etc. I was pretty psyched and proud that my daughter was completely on board with a "no gifts" party ... and in the end, it was a win-win for her, as her cousins and other family friends ignored the request. 
It's the most wonderful time of the year, and if you're like a lot of Christmas music enthusiasts, you've probably been cranking that dial to Yuletide stations no later than post Thanksgiving. Most of us have already listened to Mariah a bazillion times at this point (though I continue to) and it's almost too soon to blare "Carol of the Bells" (I feel like that's a Christmas Eve type of song; maybe I've just seen Home Alone too many times). And speaking of home, as a northern Californian, there's nothing that makes me feel more at home than some country music and a scenic back road. So even if twang is a bit out of your comfort zone, give it a try. You may find yourself humming along to some good ole country Christmas anthems. And if not, we've got a few other Christmas playlists to follow soon!
1) In our family, we travel a lot to visit family and friends. Sometimes we drive and sometimes we fly, but we always have a good time. I love that my boys are interested in visiting new places, and we're hoping to get a subscription to