Oh Yule-mas tree, Oh Yule-mas tree...

The Yule tree is my favourite part of the holiday season. There's something inherently magical about gathering the family and going off into the field in search of the perfect tree to bring into your home. I've always had a soft spot for blue spruce and the stereotypical holiday tree, the douglas fir.

When my love and I moved in together and were about to celebrate our first holidays together, our adventure in tree finding involved hitting several stores to find a mid range tree in life-like plastic. At first, the fact that we didn't have a real tree bothered me, but when I pulled the tree out of the closet for it's third holiday this year I felt a sort of sentimental joy at seeing it again.

My lovely and I spent an evening putting it up, hanging lights around the living room and putting the ornaments on. Each ornament we unwrapped was a memory, I can tell you where each unique ornament came from. The round baubles have less of a story, I bought them all at Lowe's. ;)

My dears, let me introduce you to my Yule tree:

For a closer look at some of the ornaments...


I spy with my little eye, the King of the Island of Misfit Toys, Batman and a familiar friend, Kitty Katan.


Hiding amongst the baubles and candy canes is the ornament we picked up while we were on our anniversary in Hershey, PA.


The left side of the tree is home to the Bumble, The Misfit jack-in-the-box, A Jolly Elf I picked up at Macy's when we visited Santa a little over a week ago, an ornament from Disney, NYC that I picked up in 2008 during my first outing to the Rockefeller tree. In the way back you may notice that these ornies are neighbors to my good friend, Jack Splat the Pumpkin Brat.


I searched high, searched low, gave up hope... but when I found them today, onto my tree the Wild Things did go!


The top of the tree houses the star of the show, although it doesn't outshine a vintage Santa that was sent to me from Ireland or Santa Cthulhu who is the first ornament I made for our tree way back in 2007.

There are many more ornaments; this is just a small sampling. I hope you enjoyed your visit with our Yule tree.

Yuletide Ornament Blow Out!

Starting today, all ornaments are on sale! Buy one ornament and get the second one for 50% off! Savings will be refunded via paypal after purchase. If you were thinking about getting something a little different for your Yule tree this year, this is the perfect time to get it! :)

Etsy Buy Handmade thewhimsicalcottage

Herb Infused Dough Ornaments

Did you ever make salt dough ornaments as a kid? These are basically the same thing, with a little bit of an extra kick!

Recipe:

4 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup of salt
1 cup of water

Herbs to pull what you want to fill your home with during the holiday season right to you.

This recipe will make approximately 30 ornaments. You can halve or double as needed.

Step 1:

Mix the flour and salt in a big bowl. Once they are thoroughly mixed slowly begin to add the water, mix as you add. Some people like to use a big wooden spoon, I use my hands and mix and knead the dough as if I were making bread. You want your dough to have a smooth texture... too crumbly or too sticky just won't work! If your dough is a bit on the crumbly side, go ahead and add a wee bit more water.

Step 2:

Once your dough is mixed it's time to pull put your herbs. I picked lavender for love and harmony, sage for patience and wisdom and cinnamon for prosperity. You can use more or less, I just decided to use three.

Separate your dough into equal portions that reflect the number of herbs you want to use. In this case, I have three herbs, so I split my dough into three balls.

Step 3:

Poke a hole into the center of your dough and fill it with the herb you are using in that batch. In this case I'm using the lavender. Fold the herb in and knead vigorously to spread it throughout the dough.

Step 4:

Once you've infused the dough with the herb, roll your ball of dough out to about 1/2" thickness on a sheet of waxed paper.

Step 5:

Grab your cookie cutters and get cutting! I chose to make my lavender dough into stars, but you can use any shapes you want. If you like your things to have a rougher feel, you can cut your shapes out free hand with a small pairing knife, just make sure you don't gouge your table! :)

Step 6:

Once you've cut your ornaments out, it's time to bake them. As you place each ornament onto an ungreased cookie sheet, poke a big hole near the top with a toothpick. Make sure it's slightly larger than you want it to be in the end as the ornaments tend to expand a wee bit while cooking.

Place the ornaments in the oven and bake for approximately 20 - 30 minutes at 350F. The ornaments will be hard to the touch once done. You can also stick a sewing pin in them to test doneness, if it comes out clean, they're done!

Step 7:
After they've cooled use a ribbon or thread to hang them. You can also paint them with acrylic paints, add glitter to them, or jazz them up however you'd like. Have fun with them and enjoy your herbal ornaments!

Keepsake Matchbox Shrine Tutorial

I hope you'll find my tutorial enjoyable and will give making your own keepsake matchbox a try. They're great gifts for others as well as yourself. Also, merry meet to those of you visiting from the Domestic Witch's Homemade Holidays!

Keepsake Matchbox Shrine

Supplies you will need:

* Matchbox
* Glues (stick and thick liquid)
* Craft Knife
* Cutting mat
* Ruler
* Scrapbooking or other papers
* Focal Picture
* Embellishments

Step 1

Cut out a piece of scrapbooking paper 2x the size of your matchbox's back side.

Glue the box into the center of the paper and trim the excess to create paper flaps to cover the walls of the box.

Step 2:

Fold flaps in and glue in place using your tacky glue.

Step 3:

Cut your photo down to fit inside your box.

Step 4:

Once trimmed, glue the photo inside with glue stick and set aside to dry.

Step 5:

While your interior dries, cover the outer matchbox in paper. Measure the box and trim the paper accordingly, then glue into place with your glue stick.

Set aside to dry completely, as you don't want the paper to shift and wrinkle while you work.

Step 6:

While the outer box is drying, take the embellishments for your interior box and glue them in place with your tacky glue.

For mine I used a foreign coil to symbolize my DH's love of travel and learning, a Seahorse charm to represent my love of the sea (and that my favourite element is water) and a lego to symbolize a combined interest.

Step 7:

Lastly, embellish the outside. I used a leaf, a wax seal of our initial, and a celtic love knot.

Once both boxes have dried, slip the inner box inside of the outer box and viola! You have matchbox keepsake. :)

A New York City Christmas

This season has always been a rough one for me to get excited about. I stopped believing in Santa at the ripe age of 7 when I woke up late Christmas Eve night and found my presents doing 'elf duty.' My parents filed for divorce on Christmas 10 years after that, so the warm fuzzies haven't exactly come easily for me for a long time. In attempts to get me jazzed up about the holidays, my husband and best friend (also known as the two greatest guys I could ever ask for) have gone above and beyond the call of duty to make the yuletide season fun for me the past few years. They even let me get greedy and have two holidays, since I celebrate Yule and they celebrate Christmas. You know their efforts have taken hold when I was cleaning the Thanksgiving table and pulling out the tree at the same time this year.

When we departed the train station yesterday, there were big fluffy snowflakes falling around us. Joe (the hubs), Michael (the best friend) and I were on our way into New York City to see Santa, the Rockefeller Tree, and gawk at all the lights and window displays as we walked up 5th Ave to FAO Schwartz in search of candy and merriment. Joe had taken me into the city to see the tree for the very first time and walk the circuit last year and we decided to repeat it and invite Michael to come with us this time.

The train ride into the city was uneventful, an hour and a half of me reading a book and the guys playing Nintendo DS and giggling together. When the train arrived we disembarked into freezing rain and hail, a far cry from the heralds of Yule magic that we left back in New Jersey. We headed directly for Macy's where we took in the Miracle on 34th street window displays before entering the store and taking the escalators to the topmost floor where we were sure Santa would be.:

Alas, the Jolly Man was not on the 9th floor, but Christmas Lane with all of it's glittery trees and shiny ornaments were. We wandered mesmerized for a bit and ended up buying some goodies:

We were informed by our cashier that Santa was on the 8th floor and so we headed back down the escalator and entered Santa Land, where we were greeted by many animatronic creatures, tall trees, and the biggest village set up I've ever seen.

This tree man made my pagan heart exquisitely happy.

We finally reached the 'Santa Forest' where we were directed to one of many tiny huts where multiple Santas lived. I'm sad to say we didn't get to visit with the real Santa Claus (the one that comes to town during the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade) but this Santa was good natured about us getting our photo taken with him:

Bff, Santa, Me and Hubs.

Before leaving the store I dropped off a letter I had written to Santa with my Yule wish on it and dropped it into his mailbox:

We walked the 17 blocks to Rockefeller center and were able to see the tree, but unable to get terribly close to it. Soggy, but happy we took quite a few photos:

Joe and myself.

Michael and Myself.

The Boys.

View of Rockefeller Plaza from the exit ramp.

We continued our journey up 5th ave to 58th street, where FAO Shwartz is located. Once inside we dried off a bit while gawking at all sorts of toys and their giant candy stash:

Hubs loves looking like he's having a terrible time when I take his photo...

After we had gotten our fill, we walked back down 5th ave with a stop at Bergdorf Goodman so I could drool over the window displays. This year they were all Alice in Wonderland inspired and were amazing. Had it been a drier night I would have spent at least half an hour staring at each minute detail:

The Lion and the Unicorn.

When I had satisfied my urge for eyecandy we headed down to Penn Station to catch the train home. We waited an hour for the train and when it came time to go I got up and had forgotten my purse on the chair. I turned around and sprinted back to get it, all in the course of less than 5 minutes, and unsurprisingly it was gone. Luckily the purse snatcher only got my debit and credit card, which I canceled as soon as I boarded the train, and my driver's license which I am going to go to the DMV and replace and report stolen tomorrow morning. My cell phone, MP3 player, Camera and cash were all on my person hidden within my coat to keep dry during our walk through the rain.

Despite the fact that very little was taken and I'm taking preventative measures to make sure my money and identity remain my own, it was still a terrible way to end an otherwise great day. If anyone has any advice to offer me as far as counter measures are concerned, I'm all ears.

Black Friday Sale!

To get into the spirit of the holidays, I'm hosting a Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend sale, just for my blog followers and friends!

Etsy Buy Handmade thewhimsicalcottage

Today through Monday you can snag 10% off any item in my shop. Convo me with the item you would like to purchase and let me know you came over from the blog. I'll adjust the price of the item and put 'reserved for (your name)' as the title. Once I've done that go ahead and purchase the item as usual. Also, there is free first class shipping anywhere within the United States on all items!

I'll also be adding things to the shop throughout the weekend, so keep checking back for new items.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is my second year making Thanksgiving dinner at home, and my first time making an actual turkey! Last year I made a ham and a small turkey breast. Right off the bat, I had to call my mom and ask what to do with the thing once I opened the package. I washed and stuffed the bird and popped it in the oven about an hour ago and the smell coming from my kitchen has me optimistic that dinner will turn out just fine.

Soon, I'll start work on the rest of dinner which will consist of rolls, cheeses, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, and mashed white yams. I've never made mashed yams before and certainly not white ones, but a co-worker suggested it as a happy medium for my husband and I since I wanted mashed potatoes and he wanted candied yams. Here's how you make it:

Get enough white yams to serve the number of people you are feeding. In my case there are only the two of us, so I'm using 4 yams. Peel and boil the yams until they are soft. Mash the yams with a bit of butter until creamy. Add maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar to taste.

To appease my husband, I also have marshmallows that he can add to his serving to candy the yams.

This is also the second year that we've decided not to make the rounds to everyone's houses (since my parents are split up, we have 3 sets of parents we are expected to visit and spend a considerable amount of time with), but the first year I'm not feeling the least bit guilty about my decision. I love our family, but I hate the stress and lack of fun that comes along with having to hit the road early and then constantly checking our watches to make sure we can see everyone. Today however, we started our day by watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade and plan to end it snuggled on the couch watching a movie. I'm thankful that our parents are being understanding of my need to just relax and spend the holiday cooking with the husband. I will most likely resume the position of weary traveler next year, since I cannot possibly cook for, or fit, 60 people in my apartment.

Time to end my rambling and get back to cooking. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!