love

misha's mom candie makes christmas stockings for everyone in the family, and this year i was honored with my own stocking.  it really is special that i received one and i absolutely love it!  it is so creative and, as she said, "artsy".  it reminds me of a time early in our relationship when we were out visiting his parents.  it was snowing and a blue jay landed on a bare branch out the window, and i flipped out- i just thought it was so exciting and beautiful.  on top of that, cardinals have always been one of my favorite birds, and one of my grandmother's favorite birds.

this was our first year with a tree, and my parents bought us a bunch of awesome ornaments to get us started. i especially love the mushroom and the peace.  the last two ornaments belong to misha's parents.  they were misha's dad's parents or grandparents or something, and are hand-painted.  they are starting to chip and fade, which i think makes them even more beautiful!  we got to take a few home for our tree, and now i want to make my own hand-painted ornaments next year!

a recent freezing morning...

in october, misha's nieces and nephew turned 7, 5, and 3.  for the halloween-themed party, misha's mom candie made a mummy cake.  it was so cool, and now that i'm in the bakery at whole foods and trying to become a cake decorator, i'm even more interested in things like this.  i love how she used crushed cookies to make "dirt" for the coffin- in fact, i love the coffin- no, i love all of it!  very creative, and it turned out so well!

this is the tree in front of our apartment...the depth of the colors this fall was beautiful.  i think fall may be my favorite season...

it's been a long, long time since i posted.  10 months to be exact.  i've been a little busy- here are some of the things that have been going on:

we had an awesome garden...

candie (misha's mom) and i canned blackberry and raspberry jam...

we went canoeing at liberty reservoir and jumped out of some trees on the 4th...

misha's nephew jedi turned 3...

misha and eric grew some hops and made some amazing beer...

we went to rock the bells on one of the hottest days of the summmer...

we saw damian marley + nas at sonar and it was the best concert EVER...

we went to blue ridge summit in PA over labor day with misha's family and family friends...

i made a few new drawings...

we went to anna maria island for a week with my family...

....and not all in that order, plus a bunch more stuff.  i've missed blogging and am now trying to get back into the habit of posting.  there's plenty going on to write about and while i'm still crazy busy i now have a new studio to facilitate working, writing, and dreaming.  i will be making the effort to start posting again and hope that everyone will follow along!  

~sarah

recently the baltimore city paper's "eat me" column was all about the making of homemade cider- regular and hard.  it turns out that making hard cider is quite...easy (and cheap!).  the process of making regular cider from scratch is not so easy, but if you're ok with buying some organic pre-made cider from whole foods then bingo! hard cider.  so misha and i took a quick trip out to our local brew store, the thirsty brewer, bought some wine yeast and a plastic airlock for about five bucks, and are now impatiently waiting for our first experimental batch of hard cider to stop bubbling so we can DRINK IT! more to come....

my beautiful valentines day flowers- tulips and gerber daisies, my favorites! i heart my boyfriend :)

homemade cinnamon rolls, on snow day #2

it snowed over two feet! and we played in it, and did puzzles, and made foccacia from scratch.  snow days are amazing, especially when you're snowed in with lots of good food, alcohol, your wonderful boyfriend and his roommates!

birthday presents to myself: two beautiful new finds from avenue antiques- a vintage floral tablecloth and a carved and inlaid wooden box.

homemade birthday carrot cake, thanks to my amazing boyfriend!

new drawer pulls for my dresser from anthropologie.  one of my favorite christmas presents!

a late christmas post: homemade wrapping paper.  brown craft paper stamped with a "snowflake" stamp in gold paint, tied with raffia and glittery berries.