Thirtysomething

/
Thirtysomething

I'm in the middle of two projects right now, one that I'm working on for Apartment Therapy's Holiday DIY Gift Guide, the other a new iteration of the paper lantern project that involves collecting hundreds of leaves.  I hope to bring you at least one of those by next week.  In the meantime, here's what we were snacking on this week.  I followed my usual peanut butter cookie recipe, and added a couple of ingredients to the mix to give them a little something more, one being baking cocoa, the other cracked sea salt. The result is a soft at center, crispy at the edges cookie with a peanut butter cup flavor. Here are some glamour shots of cookie eating and the recipe.  Have a great weekend!

Read More

Being Julia

/
Being Julia

As I can't imagine I will ever have a film crew in my home again, unless I win Publisher's Clearing House, if that's still a thing, I'm sharing some pictures from the day that Blurb came to Petaluma and taped an interview and cooking segment with me. It was a real life Julia Child moment. The video is part of a marketing piece for their recent Food Fair in San Francisco to promote their cookbook authors. I snapped a few photos in between filming...

Read More

How I'm Slowly Growing My Blog

/
How I'm Slowly Growing My Blog

My strategy: Create and share unique, original content.

A little over two years ago I kind of stumbled.  I found myself living my days at home, with my very young children, and I began to feel the walls closing in on me. I couldn't really contribute much of my time to anything but childcare and house maintenance, something that I did because I really wanted to be home with my boys, but not because I felt all that satisfied by it; I think it's okay to admit that. I started writing this blog during nap time. Originally called "Make-Do", it was my creative outlet. I snapped warm, fuzzy pictures with Hipstamatic and wrote about my life, using projects and recipes as the take-away. It gave me something more to focus on, and a few of my friends read it, so I felt like I was connecting with the outside world a little more. I didn't have a plan for where it would go, because I didn't need one.

Read More

Luxe Pumpkin Luminarias

/
Luxe Pumpkin Luminarias

I've had a couple of craft store pumpkins sitting in my work space (aka my dining room table) for several weeks just collecting dust while I worked on other things. I finally got to them, now that you've been totally inundated with Halloween decor ideas, so just know that I'm planning on rocking them on the Thanksgiving table as well. These are "transitional" pumpkins. That's right, I said transitional. Also, they light up, so they are magic. I'm planning on making several more, because we are hosting this year and if the weather cooperates we'll be eating at an extra-long table extending out into our backyard. This project is easy enough for a mid-sized kid to work on, so I'm enlisting an enthusiastic Jasper to help me poke all the holes. I love my sweet artsy boy. Here's the tutorial and materials list...

Read More

Party Snack

/
Party Snack

I'm still here! I've been buried under a pile of schoolwork, and random blog-related events, the latest being the Blurb Food Fair which I'll be sharing next week. I'm pretty beat, but I'm so ready to get back to Poppy Haus. Today's recipe is a is my go-to snack for feeding the masses over the holidays: stove top popcorn.  I love popcorn, because I can make it at a moments notice, and  when I do it somehow seems a little more special than a bag of chips- not to mention it's a lot better for you. There are so many ways to season popcorn beyond the old standby of butter and salt - here are my favorite fall versions using white or yellow corn kernels. 

Read More