happy new year!

gifts- el día de los muertos

My mom loves all things latin, and for some reason I have been on a tea-gift kick. (I think it was the blooming tea in marie antionette which was the theme for two other presents) Actually after years of being pissed off at tea because it wasn't coffee, tea and I have finally made peace. Anyway I decided to make sugar skull sugar cubes and go with a día de los muertos theme for my mom. I have also been using sugar in my artwork so it was easy to whip up. I then paired the skulls with some yerba matte tea from Trader Joe's, a book about food, a handmade mexican tea cup and pressed tin rooster from that mexican store on the avenue whose name is escaping me right now. I especially lov the little rooster ornament- tied everything back to christmas.













pressed sugar skulls

Decorating with royal icing would be more traditional, but kind of gross to have bits of icing floating in your tea, so I went with the edible markers instead.

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp. meringue powder
• 1 tsp. water
• skull mold (I got mine on ebay)
• food safe markers

Mix sugar and meringue powder in a bowl. Add water and mix with you hands until sugar is evenly moist. (it should be the texture of wet sand) Press into skull molds and invert onto cardboard to air dry for about eight hours. Decorate with markers.

gifts- wine flight

Everyone has a wino friend (Denene...) and I saw this wine flight in a catalogue that I thought would be an awesome Christmas gift for her, but it was expensive and I had resolved to make as many of my gifts as possible this year. Shortly thereafter I came across this awesome orange barnwood (matches her kitchen) and decided to make my own.













barnwood wine flight

• scrap wood- long enough to hold three wine glasses
• 3 wine glasses (I got mine at ikea)
• holesaw an 1/8 bigger than the bottem of your glasses
• wood chisel & hammer
• 3 felt cut into circles the size as your hole saw

Measure out your hole equally spaced along the board. (Add more room on the ends if you prefer) Cut about half way down with the hole saw- I like to mark it to make things easier. Chisel out the center of the hole and smooth the bottem as much as possible. Place felt circles in the hole and top with wine glasses. I made one for red and one for white. I also plan to make a version for myself with tealights instead of glasses. Cute.