A fresh new year means a fresh new look for The Sunset House!

I have been majorly MIA, but for good reason. My blog received a head-to-toe overhaul. A makeover. New threads. Spring cleaning. The works! I even redesigned my bloggie mascot–the tiny birdie favicon on your browser tab. And, despite the fact that I know next to nothing about CSS, JavaScript, or Adobe Illustrator, I’m content with the way everything turned out. Well, despite the fact that the site spacing looks all funkdafied in different versions of IE. If you use something other than Firefox, you’re only allowed to check the site through a reader!

I kid.

I’ve just had my fair share of CSS nightmares over the last few days. Semicolons were chasing me in my dreams and pounding me with angry open brackets. I’m done messing with the site for now… or at least until the perfectionist voice inside my head starts nagging me about why I picked a hard-to-read font in my design. I also noticed that this new wordpress theme throws off all the line spacing on my blog when I use happy faces. Grrr. I guess I’ll have to start spelling out all my happy faces. Colon, close parenthesis. (Hmm. Not the same effect.)

After all the Wordpress coding headaches, can I tell you how much I appreciate all you computery codey people, now? It is so stinkin’ annoying, trying to get a site to look the same in IE, Firefox, and the various other billion versions of browsers. Yes, all you code people are seriously under appreciated. Thank you for making my online shopping experiences seamless, whether I’m at my computer at work or at home.

Despite the trouble shooting, I learned a few neat tricks (like the image swap when someone does a mouse-over on the links my right sidebar). I also got to use the Wacom Bamboo tablet that Hubs gave me to draw the clothesline illustration in my header image. I looooove Adobe Illustrator. I’m no artist, but with that program, I can fake the funk. Hooray for no eraser marks!

Anyway, I hope you like the look! With the hours I spent scouring the internet for coding resources, I haven’t had much crafty time, so I don’t have many new projects to share. I still have quite a bit of blog tweaking to do too, so hopefully the construction dust will be cleaned up soon. Next week, I should be back to my regularly scheduled posting.

Happy 2009, everyone!

This card is a bit more complicated than my usual cards and it includes moving parts, so I prepared a video tutorial for you to watch.  As you can see in the two pictures below, the owl on the right slides back and forth, into the arms of the owl on the left. Cute, no?

Card Recipe (all supplies SU unless noted): Owl Together Now stamp set, cardstock and ink in baja breeze, chocolate chip, riding hood red, and whisper white, ribbon in chocolate chip, Haiku designer paper, water color pencies, aqua painter pen, stampin’ dimensionals, sewing machine & white thread.

In the video, I explain how to make the slider portion of the card. You can use this idea for all kinds of cards, like a moving animal on a baby card, a snowflake falling to the ground, etc. Interactive cards are an easy way to impress a recipient. Enjoy!

Music: Linus & Lucy, from A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack - Vince Guaraldi

After lunch, we attempted to see the brand spankin’ new California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, but tickets were completely sold out, so we visited the de Young museum of art instead. It was just ok. After Hubs and I visted the amazing museums in Europe this summer, it was hard to be impressed by our tiny museums in SF. Also, we weren’t willing to pay an extra $20 to see the special Yves Saint Laurent exhibit, although I’m sure it would’ve been interesting.

Today, I’m going to share the delicious recipe for the Earl Grey cookies that I made last week. When high quality tea is used to make these cookies, they are so fragrant, the whole kitchen smells like tea. But, when they are eaten, the tea flavor is mild and the shortbread is rich and buttery. I think these shortbread cookies are simply perfect with a cup of English breakfast tea. Just a warning: the recipe was given to me by my coworker who is a professional pastry chef, so everything is in grams. I don’t know what the conversions are, so it would be best to make these with a food scale. It’s good to have a food scale in the kitchen anyway, since I’ve found than many of the best recipes I find on the internet are all listed in grams.

First, I’ll share with you the mess that was supposed to be a batch of oatmeal cookies with dried cherries and apricots:

I baked two sad trays of these. The second tray dripped batter onto the bottom of our oven that is now charred and stuck. Now, every time I bake something, the smoke alarm goes off.

This is what a raw cookie is supposed to look like. Here are the Earl Grey shortbread cookies before they went into the oven.

Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

• 400g butter (a little less than 4 sticks), room temperature
• 160g powdered sugar, sifted
• 40g egg yolks (a little less than 2 large egg yolks)
• 10g salt
• 450g all purpose flour, sifted
• 2g Earl Grey tea, crushed
• Granulated sugar (for sprinkling)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Sift together flour, salt, and Earl Grey tea and set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar just until combined. Do not over cream or the cookies will not have a flakey, shortbread texture.
4. Slowly add in egg yolks, being careful not to over cream.
5. Add in dry ingredients, mixing lightly and only until dry ingredients have been combined. Dough should be a little sticky to the touch, but not super sticky.
6. Take the dough and flatten it between two sheets of parchment paper. This will make rolling the dough out easier. Then, chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
7. Roll out chilled dough into 1/4 inch thickness, being careful not to over handle. Cut shapes using cookie cutters and arrange on a metal sheet lined with parchment paper.
8. Bake for 8-12 minutes, or until edges just turn golden brown.
9. Remove cookies from oven and sprinkle with granulated sugar while hot. The sugar will melt a little bit and stick to the cookies. If available, vanilla infused sugar complements the cookies nicely.
10. Cool cookies on sheet for 10 minutes. Then, remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

]]> http://www.thesunsethouse.com/2008/12/29/earl-grey-shortbread/feed/ http://www.thesunsethouse.com/2008/12/26/working-the-day-after-xmas-is-not-fun/ http://www.thesunsethouse.com/2008/12/26/working-the-day-after-xmas-is-not-fun/#comments Fri, 26 Dec 2008 15:14:04 +0000 Kelly Nicole http://www.thesunsethouse.com/?p=1031 So, Hubs and I are both at work today. Yup. Each December 26th, I always ask myself why I picked a retail company to work for. While everyone else gets to relax, sleep in, and spend time with family, I’m at my desk. Shopping online. I love the post Christmas sales. I find that they are much better than black Friday.

This year’s Christmas was kind of… well, weird for Hubs and me. Hubs’ grandpa was in the hospital and he was only allowed to leave for six hours. My family wasn’t done with the remodel of their home, so they didn’t host a celebration. On Christmas day, Hubs, me, and my family went out to eat at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants. Although the meal was tasty, it didn’t feel much like Christmas this year.

Hubs and I set a $25 spending limit on gifts for each each other Christmas. For us, gifts aren’t what the holiday is about, so we like to have fun and force ourselves to be creative. Last year, I made Hubs a Blurb photo book of our entire dating history. He really liked that gift. This year, Hubs gave me a Barack Obama calendar. Very cute. But, we also both broke the $25 gift rule. I got Hubs an electric shaver because he was in desperate need of one. He has owned his old shaver he since high school. And, it was really a gift for me, since I get a clean shaven husband now. Hubs surprised me with a Wacom Bamboo, an electronic pen and tablet that replaces the use of a computer mouse. Since the tablet is pressure sensitive, the Wacom system is great for things like drawing in Illustrator or touching up pictures in Photoshop; it replicates real pen motions better than a mouse. Hubs gave me the Bamboo to encourage my designing. So sweet. I forgive him for breaking the budget.

For today’s card, it’s belated, but I still have a few holiday cards to post, even though the season is almost over. So, don’t be surprised when you see Christmas cards in February.

Card Recipe (all supplies SU unless noted): Mr Twigster, Many Merry Messages stamp sets, cardstock and ink in bashful blue, tangerine tango, kiwi kiss, whisper white, frosty day designer paper, silver elastic cord, aqua painter pen, stampin’ dimensionals

First off, I know that some people attempted to order the Love You Much promotion bundle yesterday, but received a message that said, “This product is temporarily unavailable. Please check again later.” Yesterday afternoon, I learned that Stampin’ Up ran out of the Candy Lane designer paper included in the bundle. Since the customer order system is not set up to take orders for out of stock items, the bundle was unavailable for purchase online.

As a demonstrator, I’m able to input orders for out of stock items through the demo order system. The products won’t ship until they are replenished, but the promotion prices will still apply. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to my blog at work, so I couldn’t update it to announce that I was taking orders for the bundle yesterday (although I did update my Twitter feed and some were able to get a hold of me that way). So, for future orders, if you want to purchase something, but the website says is unavailable, email me and I’ll be happy to place the order for you through the demonstrator order system.

Ok, onto the project. Today, I’m sharing the cookie packages that I worked on Monday night. These boxes were created by cutting out four envelopes with my Sizzix scalloped envelope die and adhering them together with adhesive. The decorative folded paper on the outside is what was once the flap of the envelope. I also cut some patterned paper with the same die to decorate the flaps. This was a super easy box to make! I just ran the paper through my Sizzix machine, folded and taped them.

Each box held six stacked Earl Grey shortbread cookies tied up a translucent baggie. I decorated all the boxes with a little embellishment that I made out of a scalloped circle punch, two nested circle punches, and a stamp from the Deer Friends hostess set.

Supplies: Kiwi kiss, bashful blue, tangarine tango card stock, chocolate chip ribbon & ink, frosty day designer paper.

Supplies: Baja breeze, real red card stock and ink, ski slope designer paper, scrap ribbon from a gift

Supplies: Riding hood red & kiwi kiss card stock, ski slope designer paper, kiwi kiss ribbon & ink

Supplies: Kiwi kiss, bashful blue, close to cocoa card stock & ink, frosty day designer paper

This last baggie was special. I was too tired to make another box at 3am, so I folded a square of paper in half, used a scallop edge punch to decorate the bottom, and stapled the bag closed. I added an extra cookie for good measure, since I felt guilty for not boxing this one.

Next up: Earl Grey shortbread cookies - the recipe!

Happy holidays, everyone! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas eve.

Hubs and I also had a cookie accident that set off the fire alarm. Oops. You see, my coworker generously converted one of her culinary school recipes (apricot oatmeal cookies) from a huge, mass production batch, into a smaller, home sized batch just for me. However, I think there was a typo during the conversion process, because when I made the oatmeal cookies last night, the recipe called for a mountain of sugar, a full cup of honey, 1/2 cup of vanilla extract, yet only 1/3 cup of flour. After I mixed everything together, I thought it looked a little grainy from all the excess sugar, but I shrugged and scooped the batter onto my Silpat anyway. Once stuck the tray in the oven, the honey and sugar melted and burnt the cookies to a crisp. Smoke filled the ceiling and our fire alarm started shrieking. Hubs rushed to fan the air around the alarm, while I focused on cleaning the blackened mess that was our oven. The kitchen and oven survived, but the cookies, sadly, did not. Our house still smells like burnt honey. Bleah. At least the shortbread recipe came out perfect.

Today, I’m sharing another card that I made with the Love You Much bundle (the designer paper, stamp, and heart shaped punch are all from the bundle). I even hooked up my 1970’s Sears Kenmore sewing machine that my parents handed down to me and I sewed a little border around the card. I’m really into the sewn paper look right now. It’s too bad I only know how to sew paper and not clothes.

Two more days until Christmas, yeah! I only get six holidays off per year, and Christmas is one of them, so I’m excited.

Card Recipe (all supplies SU unless noted): Love You Much stamp set, cardstock in kraft, riding hood red, pixie pink, very vanilla, ink in chocolate chip, riding hood red, pixie pink, heart punch from Love You Much bundle, Candy Lane designer paper (also included in bundle), sewing machine, stampin’ dimensionals

On an happy note, I was pulled into my director’s office last week and he told me that he was giving me a promotion. What a surprise! I didn’t expect or deserve this promotion. Nevertheless, I was extremely grateful. Last week I shared that Hubs didn’t get into the MBA program of his choice. I spent a few good days wrestling with this. In all honesty, I didn’t trust that we were being provided for.

I suppose it could’ve been a coincidence that I was granted a promotion a few days after Hubs got rejected from school… Or, it could’ve been God reassuring me that we are being taken care of. It’s difficult to remember that just because our plans don’t turn out the way that I expect, it doesn’t mean that He isn’t working in our lives. Hubs has a great job at one of the few companies that’s actually expecting growth during this recession, and I was granted an unexpected increase. I really couldn’t ask for much more.

Card Recipe (all supplies SU unless noted): Love You Much stamp set, cardstock in kraft, whisper white, ink in chocolate chip, watercolor pencils, blender pen, chocolate chip ribbon, scallop edge punch, flower layer Sizzix die, sewing machine, stampin’ dimensionals