Dollar Tree Anniversary Celebration

This post has been sponsored by Dollar Tree. I was compensated for this post – however, all opinions remain my own.

I’m so excited to share about Dollar Tree’s Anniversary Celebration with you all today! It ends Saturday, October 11, so now’s the time to swoop up those sweet deals!

If you know me at all, you know that I love a good deal. And what’s so awesome about the Dollar Tree Anniversary event is that they are offering many of the same products but in larger sizes, and still just $1! What’s not to love?

I often swing by our local Dollar Tree to pick up random craft items and of course, Halloween candy in bulk. I like that they carry these awesome clear cellophane bags for just $1! I use them to package a lot of my craft items for craft fairs - so handy! They're also awesome if you want to make some party favor bags like these:

For more info, be sure to check out their website here. The celebration ends October 11!

Happy Advent + Fall in Review

Happy Advent season, everyone! It's my favorite time of year! Caryn and I finally finished our Advent calendars that we started at the beginning of the year, and now mine is happily hanging in my front hall. And Ryan has happily been eating the little candy canes that are in the pockets!

A lot has happened this Fall, hence the lack of blogging. Last weekend I turned the big 3-0. Ryan took my to Solvang (an adorable Scandinavian town in Southern California) to celebrate. It was the best! Here we are at Buttonwood Farms Winery:

And the weekend before that, my crafting partner Beth and I took the OC Lucia fair by storm! This was our first year at this fair and definitely learned a lot. We were super busy all of November just trying to get our inventory up. Overall, the fair went well and we are really looking forward to the Los Angeles Lucia fair coming up on December 15. If you live in the area you should really check it out, they do a bang up job with the program.

One of my new projects this year are these Dala Horse chalkboards! I love that I can change the sign for any season. I'm going to hang one that says God Jul for Christmas. I also just added this item to my Etsy shop!

(I know the picture isn't the best, I'll try to get a better one soon)

With work, roller derby, and crafting, this Fall has been crazy busy for me! But I am so excited that Christmas is around the corner! And before you know it the Scandinavian Christmas series will be here! Starting December 13, get ready to hear from bloggers from all over about a great Scandinavian tradition, craft, or recipe. And if you know anyone that would like to participate, I'm still looking for a couple more entries so e-mail me! 

Happy Advent! 

Midsommar crowns

Here is a quick peek of what I've been working on lately...

 

 

These Midsommar crowns are made from silk flowers and floral wire. From some readers' suggestions, I'm making some to sell at the Kingsburg Swedish Festival (in less than a month! ah!). I think my favorite ones so far are the blue and yellow ones (shown below on the right).

 



 

Pricing things is always a bit tricky for me. How much do you think I should sell the crowns for? At the Cal Luthern Swedish Festival last weekend, they had a "make your own" Midsommar crown booth with fresh flowers (carnations, greens, and baby's breath) for $3. The crowns I made cost about $3-$4 in supplies, not including time spent on putting them together. Suggestions? 

 

In other news, I think I am finally going to bite the bullet and get a "real" camera! I'm saving up! So hopefully in the semi-near future my pictures on this blog will start looking a little better. :)

 

Happy Tuesday!

Kingsburg Swedish Festival 2013

Exciting news, everyone! The annual Kingsburg Swedish Festival is only 31 days away! There will be a Dala horse trot 5K, a pancake breakfast, a parade, craft booths, and much, much, more!

 

 [photo from Kingsburg Swedish Festival Facebook page]

 

Just yesterday, I signed up to have a craft booth at the upcoming festival and I am racking my brain for ideas of things to make...any ideas?! I have a few leftover items from the Lucia Festival last Christmas, but many of the items are Christmas-realted and I'm not so sure how those will sell. I'm trying to come up with some cute, Scandinavian, spring-y/summer-y crafts...any and all ideas welcome!

 

So far I will have: Swedish ribbon headbands, stenciled-onesies (with viking hats and Dala horses...same as Lucia fair), and prepackaged sets of gift tags. I'm toying with the idea of getting some T-shirts printed. Thoughts on what it should say/look like if I do order some? What kind of stuff would you buy?

 

 

 

Beautiful fruit and other things

First and foremost, Happy Easter to all you folk out there! I hope you have had a glorious day! I am thankful I was able to spend today with my family - it's always a good time.

I've had a great weekend thus far - Ryan and I went over to Malibu Canyon yesterday for a little morning hike. It was a beautiful day and perfect for hiking. We didn't go too far or anything, but it was great just to be spending time outside. On our drive back we stopped at a little roadside fruit stand that was selling some beautiful looking strawberries. I bought a case of them with the intentions of making some strawberry jam. And strawberry jam I made.

I love jamming.

I also made some lemon curd for some poppy seed tartlettes I brought over for Easter dinner. I love homemade lemon curd. I have some leftover from the tartlettes so I will probably be eating spoonfuls of it this week.

In other news, I have been trying to brainstorm different types of fiber art classes I can take this year. I was thinking perhaps an advanced needle felting class? I know the basics...but I think it'd be fun to learn more techniques. Any ideas?

I can't believe how quickly this weekend flew by...it's already Sunday night?! My how time flies. 

Here's to a new week!

We're in!

Great news! Beth and I are officially accepted to the 2012 Los Angeles Swedish Christmas Fair (aka Lucia festival)! Woooooo!  We are so stoked and have been frantically creating and brainstorming things to make.  

My mom sent me some awesome supplies to get me started (thanks, mom!), including the adorable fabric you see below (direct from the motherland) and that cute ribbon too.

And she has the really cool cookie stamps in different Scandinavian shapes that I used to make ornaments with.  Below is one of St. Lucia.

She also sent stamps of a Dala horse, snowflake, advent candle, and heart.  I used them to stamp into a preservable dough (tutorial to come later), then cut them out with an antique biscuit cutter Ryan and I found at an antique shop in Paso Robles a month back.  I will get better pictures of them later to show you all.  After the fair, I will put some up in my Etsy shop too, so stay tuned!

And I also made these little guys from some cinnamon dough.  I used my IKEA cookie cutters and poked holes with a straw.  They smell amazing!

I've made a few other things too, but haven't had time to take photos yet.  More to come!

And speaking of Scandinavian Christmas things, I still have a few slots open for guest bloggers for the Scandinavian Christmas series this year if you'd like to join! Or, if you know of someone who would like to, please have them email me.  

Happy Friday!

Nut-butter trio

I have to admit, ever since I made that jazzy almond butter, I can't stop making nut-butters...I'm just so addicted!  I figure there are worse things to be addicted to so I'm going to go ahead and keep cranking out the jars of delicious PB, almond and sunflower butters until I am OD'd on nut-butters.

And to be honest, the sunflower butter isn't my favorite, but it's pretty good with a drizzle of honey on toast.  The spiced almond butter is definitely my favorite.  And the PB was more a novelty to make myself.  Definitely less sweet than your store-bought counterpart, naturally.  

I think I will continue to make the PB and spiced almond butter but perhaps forego another batch of sunbutter.  Even the color looks kinda gross in the photos. Haha.

Unrelated but just as fun, Ryan and I had a blast over at my sister and bro-in-laws' place over this past Easter weekend grilling, eating, gaming, and hanging out with the cutest nephew ever.

He just cracks me up, he's one funny kiddo.

Happy Monday?

Norwegian Easter Cookies

I stayed up making some Norwegian Easter cookies last night and am I ever glad I did, they're pretty darn tasty! Pam over at Gingerbread Snowflakes has been doing a ton of Easter posts, and these were one of them.

The ingredients are pretty much like a shortbread but brushed with egg and topped with sugar. Unfortunately, I did not have any pearl sugar on hand so I just used some plain sugar and a little colored sugar too.

Yuuuummmm!

Norwegian Easter Cookies

from Epicurious

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

4 cups flour

3 sticks butter

1 teaspoon baking powder

pearl sugar to top (or colored sugar)

Mix together sugar and butter, add 1 egg (only 1 of the 2!). Sift the flour and baking powder together and slowly add to the mixture. You're supposed to refrigerate them...but I didn't. Shape dough into little balls and make indentations with your thumbs. Brush with the 2nd beaten egg and sprinkle sugar on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 - 15 minutes.

Happy Easter everyone!

Happy Fat Tuesday!

If you haven't indulged in a few semlor yet, nows the time! When I was searching for some semlor pictures I came across this Swedish bar and grill in London called Fika. That is their lovely photo of a semla bun. If you live in London you should probably go there and try their herring, cream cheese and cucumber breakfast waffle - it sounds delish.

Back to semlor. If you don't know what semlor are they are a cardamom flavored bun with almond paste and whipped cream inside and on top. Some Swedes eat their semlor bun in a bowl of milk. I've never tried that but I'm sure it's delicious. They're sooo good.

This is one of those days were I especially wish my apartment had an oven so I could whip up a batch. Alas, I can't. But maybe you can, so here's a recipe!

Semlor Recipe

adapted from Scandinavian Kitchen

25 grams fresh yeast

75 grams butter

200 ml milk

2 eggs

1 tsp salg

1 tsp ground cardamom (I usually use more than in the recipe)

500 ml sugar

700 ml flour

2 tsps baking powder

Filling:

marizipan

approx 500 ml whipping cream

powdered sugar for dusting

Melt butter and add the milk. Activate the yeast and once mixture is cool enough add the yeast to the milk and butter. Add the salt, cardamom, 1 egg, sugar and 600 ml of the flour. Knead until mixture is worked into a smooth dough. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

Mix the baking powder and remaining flour together and knead into the dough. Cut dough into 12 pieces and roll into buns. Place buns on a cookie sheet and let them rise for 35-45 minutes. Beat the remaining egg and brush the tops.

Heat oven to 400 F and bake for 10 minutes, remove and cover with a cloth and let cool. Once cool cut out a small hole in each bun. Put some marzipan in the hole and then add whipped cream. Replace the "top" to the bun and dust with powdered sugar.