Blackberry daifuku

Before


After

My semi-failed experiment. I originally intended to attempt to make ichigo daifuku or strawberry rice cake (strawberry surrounded by an (sweet red bean paste) covered with sweetened mochi (rice cake)) but when I went to the supermarket blackberries were on sale--strawberry, blackberry, same same. Riiiiiiiiiight. Anyhoo, it was a very messy process thanks to the an and the sticky mochi. I didn't post pictures of the an covered blackberry balls because they were just too ugly (rhymes with loo). By the time I finished wrapping all the blackberries in the sticky mochi I ended up with only about three presentable ones. Awesome. We tasted tested them--survey says: sour. And I'm not a fan of the hard little blackberry seeds. Oh well. Maybe I should have tried the blueberries that were also on sale.

Look at the super fantastic stamps that are on sale at the Post Office! I'm not very familiar with Maisy and Olivia but the others--favorites! And I thought the Muppet* stamps were the bee's knees.

*Side note--old news but looks like there's a Dark Crystal sequel in the works. I think the original is a frickin' scary movie for little kids but maybe that's just me (it still creeps me out).

Midseason Hiatus

Super belated holiday greetings! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season--we're still enjoying it with our undying tinsel Christmas tree (which oddly sheds its "needles"). On a side note, why do manufacturers make the top branch of a fake tree so disproportionately long? Weird.

The only crafting I've done this season are two sweater ornaments from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Initially I'd hoped to make a bunch of sweaters as little gifts but I started them too late (I finished these two after Christmas) and almost killed my left ring finger in the process. Something about the way I hold the needles, thought the numbness in my finger would never go away.

As a present to myself I "accidentally" bought this piece of art right before Christmas. I got caught up in the excitement of the Amy Ruppel sale and I ended up getting Collision. This isn't the first time I got caught up in a money spending frenzy (the last time involved a tipsy me, ebay, and some pretty turquoise stones). But I'm so glad I bought it, it makes me happy even though it's tucked away until I can find it a proper home. Such a sweet chubby little bird.