Christmas baking, a family tradition

I always had fond memories of christmas baking when I was growing up. My mom used to take orders for all kinds of baked goods and the aroma of all that baking just makes it easier to bring me to a  more Christmassy mood.  This year is no exception especially now that my daughter is old enough to "help" and with this family activity. The baked goodies I chose this year have to do with convenience without sacrificing taste and presentation.  Here are some pictures of the gingerbread men I decorated. I used Anna Olsen's gingerbread cookies recipe with a few adjustments and used a lemon icing recipe for the decoration. I made 2 batches of these tasty and not so sweet cookie to allow for many "tastings" from my family. I also tried my hand on making the Italian Panetonne using a small brown paper bag as a container. This calls for very little need to decorate it and a "greener" choice for packaging. I recall making this festive bread a number of  years back and thought it it time to try it again. Now I remember why I don't do this every year. It takes a lot longer time than I would like to spend on just one item. On the other hand I made two kinds of refrigerator cookies (see my other post for pic on this) and Rice crispy square and it was almost instant gratification.

My two greatest fans (and taste testers) for my baking (and cooking) are my husband and 3 year old daughter. When my daughter says "Mmm, it's good Mommy." and my husband  "Mmmmm..." with eyes closed and just savoring every morsel, very encouraging indeed!

My Top 5 for November

November is typically a very gloomy month with not much sunshine and lots of rain. This time, at least for a week, the weather didn't seem all that bad, with a trip to sunny California. 

1. Traveled solo with my daughter for a trip to California. But having to go through airport security with a sleeping toddler in a stroller, a mommy-bag, a heavy laptop bag was a tad challenging when I was told to wake her up to be checked! Aaargh!

2. California in November ... (I certainly welcomed the days when I felt the heat of the sun). 

3. Registered my daughter to preschool. That's a milestone for me! My little girl is growing up!!!

4. Did my goals list for 2009. 

5. Being away from hubby made our reunion at the airport, so sweet! AND thanks to my loving hubby, I came home to an impeccably clean home, with a new dining light fixture installed plus a lovely poinsetta plant to boot to start off the holiday decor at home. Wonderful!

Orange Cranberry and Deep Chocolate Refrigerator Cookies

This year, I planned to steamline my christmas baking. After getting some ideas and searching the internet for a good and easy recipe for refrigerator cookies, ended up using a recipe from an old cookie cookbook as a base and changing the flavouring to whatever I have on hand. This time, instead of orange and walnut, I used orange and chopped dried cranberries. I think the little specks of orange zest and dried cranberries makes this crispy buttery cookie a very festive cookie. The chocolate version was done by adding 1/2 cup of Dutch pressed cocoa powder and adding a teaspoon of instant coffee to enhance the chocolate taste. Indeed, it is a delicious cookie that's not too sweet with a deep chocolate flavour that is not bitter. I'll work on how to package these crispy delights to give to friends.

Sunny contemplation

October whized by and truthfully I have to look at my calendar to see what activities we did. With the busy summer months behind, it seems like there was a tug-of-war between being in business and being a mom. To my daughter's delight, mom duties prevailed. It is during these times that I reflect on why I wanted to work at home... to be able to spend time with my daughter during the day, go to the aquarium on a weekday, play dates and this time of year, planned a children's birthday party for my daughter's 3rd birthday. I made a special castle cake for my little princess and it all went well.

Going into November, it more of the same routine with some freelance work and taking my daughter to her creative movement class. I reflect on how quickly my concerns disappeared, about my daughter's uncooperative behaviour earlier in class to having a much improved, focused 3 yr old at the end of the session, dancing so expressively. I'm sure there will be many more instances like these in the future.

My contemplative mood carried on to the end of November even with a trip to sunny California. My daughter was a flower girl for a wedding and almost the entire trip was like a never ending play date! We stayed at my brother's where there were other kids staying there so, needless to say, it was exhausting! We did manage to see one of our play date friends who moved to California. I would really have to rethink any more trips with just me and my daughter. I brought my laptop on this trip and it was well worth lugging it through the airport, with a mommy bag, stroller and an active 3 year old in tow! During some quiet moments at night, I managed to write down my goals for 2009. I've kept a number of years of  goals list and even just comparing my list from 2 years ago, wow, what a difference!

December is here and holiday season seem almost like an obstacle course I have to go through to get to the new year, a newer outlook in business, life, on our changing priorities, shifting gears to a different schedule now with Daisy going to preschool in January.  Surely a lot to think about but this is exactly why I write my goals in November. This way, I hope I can be in the moment in December with the holidays, christmas baking, family and all the things and people who really matter. Happy holidays!

Cavernous Apple PIe

My first homemade apple pie in ages. Honestly, the last time I remembered making an applie pie was in the year 2000, when I showed a co-worker how to make one.  I recall getting compliments on my applie pie so I told my husband that I make great apple pie. So, the other evening, he came home from the store with a big bag of apples. The baking went well as my almost 3 year old daughter watched and tried to "help".  I was so proud of my "mile high" apple pie as it came out of the oven and placed it on the kitchen counter to cool down a bit. Oh boy!  what a disappointment when we finally cut the crust. I was in denial when I tapped the golden brown crust and it sounded hollow. Hmm, this doesn't sound good but it looked soooo good.  My husband and I had a good laugh about the cavernous apple pie and still enjoyed the delicious pie. It was even better the following day.

Whew! What a September.

October certainly came quietly compared with the hectic schedule in September. I finally completed my first trade show called Mom's Night Out on September 26. At last I showed to the public my daughter's artwork which consists mostly of watercolour painting and finger painting presented in a collage. This was the culmination of a lot of work, many late nights, and at the same time doing work for my clients.

Now it is time for regrouping and reflection. Doing this trade show really expedited my launch for Dressed Art but I'm so glad it happened the way it did. Now I have more insight about what or who are my other target market but more importantly an insight about myself. Often times it is really difficult to take myself out of my comfort zone but I also recall that it is often during those times that had helped me grow-my self confidence, my ideas, my world. Change is good. I feel a great sense of accomplishment and I'm hoping that will be enough for me to make the way to the next step.

My Top 5 in September (not necessarily in this order)

1. Launched www.dressed-art.com and first trade show

2. Showed Dressed Art collage to my family and to the public.

3. My daugther's first sleepover at my sister's.

4. Bus trip to Victoria with my hubby and daughter and visiting my brother and his family and seeing their new house.

5. Home made apple pie. 

Macbook to the rescue!

After my blog about my iMac Gr going to deep sleep, I purchased a Macbook the following day. It just makes good business sense to have a backup equipment. I knew I wanted a laptop and was planning to get one later this year but it just came a little earlier than planned. Deciding which Macbook I want was easier when I wasn't looking at the real thing at the store. Seeing all the Macbooks and Macbook Pro lined up really did not help make my decision-making any quicker. Thank goodness my practical sense kicked in and I got the white Macbook (mid level). It was just the right one for my needs currently.  Here it is its unveiling, I am very happy with this purchase. My iMac is now back in good working order with a new power supply in place. I love the increased speed of the Macbook and having the newest OS for sure but I welcome the bigger screen of my iMac when doing my work.

A franken-iMac in deep sleep

This past week has been quite challenging! My main computer, a 20" iMac G5 has gone to deep sleep. I thought I was immune to having this power supply problem since it was already replaced 6 months after I got it in 2004! After searching online and finding many other who had gone through the same problems I am dealing with now makes me feel not so alone. It doesn't make it any easier on the pocket though, since Apple only covers up to 3 years from original purchase date. I was hoping that Apple would have done more to take care of their clients.

On the business side, I am hoping that I have very understanding clients who can wait a week until we can get the part and install it. My husband has been so helpful and resourceful in this whole ordeal. He opened up the iMac and reset the button manually and propped up the backless iMac back on my workstation and had a small tabletop fan at high speed cooling the inefficient power supply. This helped for a couple of days until early this morning after I did my last back up and sent the files to my clients at past 2AM, my sleek looking machine powered down as I was typing the words "power down" in an email (never to be sent).

I have learned my lesson before to always backup files, now I'll have to add to that, a backup equipment, much like the spare tire in your car. It does not have to be a full sized tire but just enough that it can bail you out in a pinch. So today we looked at the Macbooks at the store with the help of my techno-savvy "Mac guy" and good friend Luis. I may be getting my laptop sooner than I planned for.

Business is open

I thought I'll have a chance to take it easy after finishing my first big project with one of my clients but it seems like momentum is on my side. It took me a long time to finally finish my first RFP (request for proposal). Hopefully future RFPs will be a little bit easier to do. As a freelance graphic designer one might think I have the time to design my own business card, to the contrary, I have designed a number of business cards and other marketing material but not for my own business. There's something not quite right about that.

It's not all complains here, I am very appreciative of all this "business" (being busy). Two days ago I finally got a copy of the coupon book I worked on in July. I of course checked the ads I designed and my very own coupon for Dressed Art. I was thrilled to see my logo in print! Now its really sinking in that I have to get the website done, get samples done so I can approach partnering locations to display a couple of samples, design a postcard insert for the ... oh did I mention that I have an opportunity of being a vendor to the Mom's Night Out trade show!

Now I think I consider myself a business woman!

My first blog entry

I've finally made it to the "blog world"! I took me a while but now I'm glad I did it.  Another entry on my ever growing to do list, checked off. I just finished a big project for a client and I am now finally getting my web portfolio ready. Watch out for my new website called Dressed Art to be launched (hopefully) by the end of August.