Kimberly Michelle

ornament exchange time – bee style

kimberly michelle — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Once again, the Weddingbee community came together and had a holiday “character exchange” for December. This year, my secret Bee was Miss Snow… who would probably be the easiest Bee to find an ornament for among everyone! We had a $15 limit on our spending… so I just decided to go the old fashioned way and craft a felt ornament of her avatar character on my own.
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How do you think I did? The ornament is 2-sided (the back side is blank except for the scarf/hat) and unstuffed, but I think it turned out mighty cute. I do have to thank the hard work of my trusty freezer paper and scissors though, and the cheering section provided by Mr. M. Just a note that bunny owners should keep all things sewing away from rabbit teeth… as one little inquisitive bite might set your stitches to ruin. I’m just saying…
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dsfAnd here is the lovely Lemon ornament that I got from Miss Frozen Yogurt! She doesn’t even realize how absolutely perfect it is for our entrance room tree! And the extra lemon drops were a delightful surprise!
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Here are some of the other ornaments that have been shared so far: Bee Ornament Exchange (Part I), Bee Ornament Exchange (Part II)

for the girl who has it all (and has no room for it)

kimberly michelle — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:00:00 +0000

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The idea is so simple, but the concept goes a long way in a crowded closet. The Simply Sarah Handy Hold All™ ($30) holds all of those extra purses, scarves, hats, etc. all in one neat little place… all while looking uber cute and stylish. I first saw these in Sarah’s apartment about 6 years ago and am so happy that they’re still around and popular today!
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If you still need a holiday gift for the girl who has it all, but needs a bit more space in their closet, all items on SimplySarahShaw.com are 50% off today! Just use the code 50HS until midnight tonight!
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burning chocolate wicks

kimberly michelle — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:30:00 +0000

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In an evil plot to make people crave their chocolate-y goodness for extended periods of time, Godiva is now making scented candles. I have a feeling my will power would collapse if this Peppermint Bark (fine dark and white chocolate characteristics married together with Madagascar bourbon vanilla and the essence of crushed peppermint) candle was burning in our holiday home!
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why Santa doesn’t use FedEx

kimberly michelle — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 22:30:00 +0000

It’s pretty hard to keep the spirit of Santa alive these days… but maybe explaining Santa’s “magic” in a 20th century way doesn’t work in the 21st century???
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That’s where this lovely book comes in: The Truth about Santa: Wormholes, Robots, and What Really Happens on Christmas Eve.
According to the author, Gregory Mone, Santa has tools at his disposal, “that are hundreds of years beyond what we have.” Like how his red suit is really a super space suit, and that the reindeer may not help Santa fly as well as his current warp drive on the sleigh? The book has tons of examples of how modern day science and future science impacts Christmas as we know it today… all provided by amazing present-day scientists who are leaders in their field.

I’m thinking this is the perfect book for young budding scientists, or those older scientists who need a bit of decor on their holiday coffee table.
And as for the reason that Santa doesn’t use FedEx to deliver his packages? It’s the carbon silly!

font of the week: Krystal

kimberly michelle — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:00:00 +0000

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Krystal font (free to download)
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a-z with cute

kimberly michelle — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:30:00 +0000

Jenn Ski’s A-Z prints are just too cute for words… and are only $14 each for the original 4×6 artwork.

She also has really cute prints that work in all other rooms of the house… even the kitchen!

a window of sanity

kimberly michelle — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:30:00 +0000

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Today, I got to move into our new building and into a new office.
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It has a window. A window to the outside world.
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It’s not an interior equipment room in a building housed for science with strange artificial light. It’s a normal room with fancy carpet and beautiful hardwood plank arched ceilings.
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It’s a happy Wednesday.
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the great floor debacle of 2009

kimberly michelle — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:00:00 +0000

I really can’t begin to count the number of times that Mr. M and I have visited flooring stores in 2009… thought we knew what we wanted… and then completely changed our minds and stalled on the whole process. We’d love to replace all of the flooring downstairs somehow, but each time we thought in big numbers, our pocketbooks would shy away from commitment and we’d conveniently forget about the whole ordeal for the time being. That is… until the urge popped back in our brains… and we’d head out to yet another store in search of the perfect answer.
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All of our hemming and hawing came to an end when we got moving on transforming our “extra room” (aka. the den or downstairs room w/o a door), as it will soon be the office so that the office can become the nursery. The previous residents of the home had let their large dog enjoy that room a bit too much… and the need to tear out and replace the carpet has always been on the fix-it agenda. We decided that the room would be the perfect spot to test out the flooring we liked in a large sample setting, without much agony about doing it all at once. Back again we went to the stores, but this time, when we saw the price tag broken down for our little 164 sq. ft. room, we ran away from our handscraped hardwood for good. No matter what kind of deal we were getting on it, it would be a long long time before we plopped down enough to finish downstairs, and it just seemed silly to spend so much so close to baby time.
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So, ladies and gents, we went with the not-so-hip-nor-HGTV-esque option: Pergo. I was shocked myself, to find something that was in the colors we wanted, a texture that we liked, and that lacked the super laminate look, but we did! And the fact that I won’t have to be scared to death of scratching it or messing it up… well that is just the bonus. Now we can’t brag about investing in hardwood, but that’s pretty much the only thing that we lost by putting it in. We ordered our boxes of “Olivewood” online, shipped them to the store for free, and picked them up for Saturday of lots and lots of fun…
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And the install job, it turns out, is quite easy as well! First step was to strip the room of carpet and tack strips, carefully remove the baseboards and repaint the walls as needed. Mr. M took care of all of that… and sealed up the tack holes with cement as well! Then it was time to lay down the padding directly over the cement…

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Once the padding was all down and sealed, it was time to start laying down the floor boards. We got down two rows before Mr. M decided to switch saws (from his table saw to his miter saw), so we got a little bit of a break in the action while we set-up the saw and got it ready for action.
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Once the saw was up and running, we were back into installation mania! It only took about 2 hours to install the rest of the floor, with Mr. M making all of the awesome end cuts and me sliding up and down the floor on my kneepads clicking everything into place. And you know what, we’re both really really happy with the end result! I’ll post some more finished photos when the baseboards are in and the office begins to move downstairs… but for now just know that the great floor debacle of 2009 is finally over… just in time for 2010 to begin!

an early present from Santa

kimberly michelle — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:00:00 +0000

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On Monday morning, we’re expecting a little bit of snow to be on the ground. Now, for most of the country, this is not a strange occurrence. But this would be the first time in 33 years that any snow stuck on the ground here at sea level. Wow.
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It may be too much to hope for on a normal Monday, but it would make things a bit exciting. I will admit I’m not at all excited to drive on the roadways, and I can only hope that our valley friends have taken traction control lessons up the road on a visit to Tahoe.
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It’s only 42 degrees right now (at 10pm), so I’m not sure if it’ll get down to 25 like they had predicted… but we’ll see!
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the perfect gingerbread for all cookies!

kimberly michelle — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:00:00 +0000

When trying to find a good gingerbread cookie recipe, it’s often hard to navigate the scene to find the EXACT recipe that you need. Sweet, spicy, soft, crispy, etc… everyone has their favorite way around it. Whenever I make rolled dough cookies though, I seem to gravitate towards recipes that allow me to make “different” cookies but all with the same batch of dough. It saves the cookie jar from the monotony of 1 type of cookie… and it makes the whole baking process a bit more fun as well!

I came across the perfect recipe that really takes care of all of my needs thanks to this month’s Sunset Magazine – and I can verify that it is yummy to boot!

Gingersnaps
makes: 100 cookies

1 cup butter (room temperature)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup unsulphured molasses
1 large egg
3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. each ground cloves, nutmeg, and freshly ground black pepper

1. Beat butter and brown sugar together in a bowl with a mixer on medium speed until well blended. Mix in molasses, then egg, until blended, scraping bowl as needed.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices; add to butter mixture on low speed, mixing until combined.
3. Divide dough in half. Shape each into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill until firm (about 3 hours).
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap dough. On a generously floured surface, roll out each disk 1/8 in. thick. Using round or square 2 1/2-3″ cookie cutters, cut out dough and arrange circles 1″ apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper (use a small spatula to transfer). Reroll scraps as needed.
5. Bake cookies until dry-looking and just starting to brown on edges, about 8 minutes. Let cookies cool in pans on racks.

Twists on the recipe:

Gingersnap ice cream sandwiches:

Prepare gingersnaps (as above). Scoop about 2 tbsp. of caramel or vanilla ice cream onto the flat side of 1 cookie and sandwich with another cookie. Freeze airtight until firm.

(photo above shows sugar and spice cookies mixed with normal gingersnap stars)
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Sugar and spice dusted cookies:

Prepare gingersnaps (as above) through step 3. In a bowl, mix 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and 1/4 cup granualted sugar. Pull off dough in 1 tbsp. portions from disk, roll each into a ball, and drop into sugar mixture. Swirl to coat in batches of 3 to 4, then transfer to baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake as directed.