Darling Clandestine

My very talented friend Evonne has at long last opened a shop on Etsy:  Darling Clandestine.  There, she features hand-made, one-of-a-kind earrings, pendants and stickpins.  I'm in love with so many of her pieces, and I know you will be, too. 

Take a look:

Here's a description of Evonne's process: 

"My pieces are formed completely by hand, not just strung or glued together. I make them from scratch with high-quality wire—copper, silver and brass. I add natural gemstone, fine glass or crystal beads. And pretty little found things, like watch gears, for extra Cadillac. ;) You’ll see I’m crazy about curved lines and curls. I use commercial ear hooks for safety, but I don’t use headpins or pre-made filigree pieces or clasps—it’s more satisfying to make them myself."

I have a feeling that lots of shopping for Mother's Day, birthday, and Christmas will be done at Darling Clandestine.  By both myself (for the women in my life) and by the Big Guy (for his main woman--HINT HINT!).  Happy shopping!

Martha Monday--sugar cookies

Recently, I made Martha's Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies from the recipe in her Cookies book, but you can find the same recipe online here.  Here's what Martha's cookies look like:

Mine didn't turn out this way.  In fact, this is one of Martha's recipes that leaves me scratching my head.  In the Cookies book, the old-fashioned sugar cookie recipe is in the "Soft and Chewy" section.  But in following the recipe, the cookies turned out much more crisp than I would have liked.

The recipe calls for 15 minutes of baking time, with a sheet rotation halfway through.  My disclaimer: I don't rotate cookie sheets during baking, mostly because I'm busy cleaning up the mess I just made by making cookies and I don't think it really makes that much of a difference when baking.  So I must admit that that could be part of the problem, but I just don't think that's what led to my crispy (not chewy) cookies.  I think the baking time is too long.

NOTE:  THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE!

I decreased the baking time to 12 minutes (still no cookie sheet rotation) and they started turning out much, much better. 

I'd also like to point out that in the Cookies book, the instructions state that each batch will make 1 1/2 dozen cookies.  Online, the recipe says it will make 20 cookies.  In my kitchen, the recipe made over 2 dozen large cookies. 

My second personal note to Martha (see the first one here):

Once again, Martha, it is time for a new proofreader.  Employ this Martha-in-training as your field editor, or a new baker for your test kitchen.  Mistakes in baking time and recipe yield are a serious matter, and it's something we here at The Martha Initiative (and by we, I mean just me!) take very seriously. 

That is all. 

Basement shelves

Like many households, our unfinished basement had become a dumping ground ever since moving in.  I had blamed this on a serious lack of shelving--where was I to put all those totes and boxes?  Little Big Brother Freddy stepped in by spending two days building shelves with the Big Guy.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves....

Freddy and I designed the shelves, taking into account the different sizes of totes and what all needed to be stored.  So far, the Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving and winter decorations are safely tucked away on the shelves.  In the coming months, my goal is to fill up the rest of the shelves and get everything off the basement floor. 

Handy Freddy

Martha has people. People who know how to do things.  Skilled people, who know how to build, landscape, garden, plumb, wire and all kinds of other handy things. 

Here at TMI, I'm fortunate to know many handy people, too.  But there's only one I can count on to drive across state lines, stay for days, and literally ask for projects to work on.  It's my Little Big Brother, Freddy.  He stayed with us for a long weekend back in November, and tackled a number of household projects for us. 

Freddy hung curtains.  In several rooms.  He repaired closet doors.  He helped the Big Guy rearrange the living room. 

He repaired the bathroom sink. This particular project took quite a while.  But Freddy stuck with it, and got the job done.

Freddy's most magical quality, however, is his ability to entertain the Little Guy.  The Little Guy is just fascinated with Uncle Freddy. 

You just can't beat that for handy, you know?

Martha Monday--How she does it

Way back in December of 2008 when I started this blog, I compared my life to Martha's.  She is a domestic diva, a smart and powerful business woman and just all-around fabulous.  I am a disheveled woman trying to balance work in the city with  family in the suburbs with the hope of one day starting my own business.  In writing, I sadly realized that Martha's actual domestic divatude and my domestic diva aspirations are very far apart.  Even our morning routines are nothing alike!

Fortunately, some smart TMI readers quickly reminded me that Martha has a staff, both at home and in her office, to help her get things done.  Or in many cases, just do them for her.  For example, Martha's farm staff include her housekeeper, landscapers, maintenance guys, stable managers, a farrier (blacksmith--I had to look it up) and more.  I'm betting she has a staff of 15-25 just to manage her farm.  (See evidence of this at her Christmas party)  And that's only one of her houses!  Of course, this doesn't include the daily visits from her trainer, her hair/make-up artist....well, you get the idea.

Naturally, I, along with everyone else on this planet, could get a lot more done each day if I had a staff of my own.  But I don't.  However, I do occasionally have a lot of help and that makes things a lot easier for me.  Once the baby arrives and our family goes from 3+ dog to 4+ dog, you'll be meeting the people who are helping me get by.  For this week though, I'd like to focus on my #1 maintenance guy, my Big Little Brother Freddy.

You met him a few weeks ago when I shared with you the shell of a dresser he turned into a bookcase for us.  This week, I'll share with you some more projects that Freddy did for the TMI household.  Freddy--he's a good thing!