"subtley Chinese" (or could she use any more hyphens?)

I've been inspired by my pretty-much-bff-if-we-were-14-again friend, Sara, to bring a little more creativity into everyday life. She makes her own deodorant. I know, deodorant doesn't sound very creative, but she's taking simple, natural products and making something she uses every day.

And, I've also been inspired in a, "wow, I am very unaccomplished way" (but a positive sense, lol), by my friend/former co-worker/fellow church member, Monica, to record my creative endeavors more.

So, here are some recordings:

1) Scones. I'm in a book club with about a dozen friends and while books are a staple, written into our founding e-mail...so are scones. So, I've tried my hand at making them and have discovered they're not super difficult and they are very rewarding. Great recipe at Simmer Till Done. I couldn't find the candied ginger, so I made them with fresh and powder and they tasted pretty good, a little dry. Result below.

I made them again w/o cocoa powder and with candied ginger and they were: SCRUMPTIOUS even had a frenchman telling a professional pastry chef they were amazing. That made me a little nervous, I had to clarify before I was out of my waters. Haha.

2) Wall hanging. For Christmas, my sister said she wanted me to make her a fabric wall hanging of a nativity scene with the Star of Bethlehem in the bright colors of the bag she gave me last fall. Those were pretty much all my instructions, which also made me nervous, because I know that my sister is super creative and has definite ideas of what she likes. I knew she wouldn't want anything overly kitschy (i.e. no patchwork) and that she would probably appreciate something somewhat contextualized to her surroundings, but not overly done. So, I started sewing some of my friend Katie's scraps of green together to create an abstract grass/earth background (though there is a nod to a river, can you find it?), using some quilting techniques I've seen my old roommate Laura use to create texture and then made a sky and some mountains...and appliqued a nativity scene on top of it. I knew I wanted something fairly simple that was "subtley Chinese". So, I looked up pictures of Chinese mothers and their babies, found this, was inspired and ended up with what you see below. What you can't tell from the picture is that the top border is actually doubled over and open on both ends so it can be hung easily from a dowel- my stroke of practical genius. :) And my sister just got it. Just in time for Easter.

My apologies for the horrific use of commas in this post.