Early Christmas spirit

Today was probably the most productive day I've had in, well, like ever. My mom came over for the day and we ended up going to the grocery store, building nine (yes nine) terrariums, making a yule log cake and then going to a Christmas party. Pretty productive, if I say so myself.

The recipe for the yule log was pretty simple. You can really use any sort of box recipe (if you're really short on time, Bob's Red Mill makes amazing cake mixes), or you can pull together a nice standard family cake recipe. I made a lovely gluten free white cake. The most important thing involves having a cake sheet pan, some good wax paper and some shortening. Then you just need to make sure the cake has ample time to cool, some delicious filling and yummy topping (I used homemade whip cream and pudding for my topping and filling). It also helps to have someone helping you that knows what they are doing if it is your first roll cake experience. Luckily this wasn't my mom's first time. I hope your experience turns out as delightful as mine. Enjoy!

Norwegian Christmas

Again I cannot stop talking about this area of the globe, but its just so gorgeous and so simple. I just adore how understated clean pieces of nature are inspiration, in many cases, the material for making a home and with plenty of breathing space! I recently stumbled across Kjerstis Lykke. I love this blog, especially how it shows a home during Christmas. The lack of red and green is so refreshing and so relaxing. Did you notice the advent calendar!?! *gasp*. Gorgeous and so simple it makes me sick.

Susanna Bauer

If you took two of my favorites, that being: 1) natural items such as stones, twigs, leaves and 2) warm fuzzy, crocheted and knitted things and put them together you'd have Susanna Bauer's work. I feel akin to the pieces I've seen so far, and it touches me on a very personal level by using such elemental objects as an exercise in the process of construction. And lets face it, these are just lovely and interesting to look at.