Italians Do It Better - A GIVEAWAY from Shabby Apple!

 I grew up a military brat, and when I was 16-years-old, my parents decided that they wanted to road-trip it from our old station in England to our new station in Turkey. We drove down through Europe, seeing the sights, watching World Cup soccer, and generally being angsty and unappreciative of what an awesome opportunity this was for a teenager (that last one was just me, not my parents). For most of the trip, we stayed on military bases, but for the last leg of our trip, we stayed in a teeny tiny little town in Italy so that we could take a ferry across the Mediterranean to Turkey. It was the first time on our trip that we were really immersed in another culture, not surrounded by other Americans. Nobody spoke English, there was no fast food, people were passionately yelling at each other in the streets and nobody would even glance over to see what was the matter (no kidding), and there were more bikes than cars on the little rocky roads. I loved it. And even though it was half a lifetime ago, and I can barely recall the details of our one night stay, I have always wanted to go back.
When Steve and I were first married I gave him a piggy bank. Not the kind with a cork at the bottom that you can steal out of, but a real ceramic piggy bank that you have to smash open with a hammer. We had this idea that we would go to Italy on our spare change. We would rent a Vespa and scoot from the Sistine Chapel to the Trevi Fountain to the Colosseum. We'd eat real pizza that didn't have tomato sauce on it and we'd hold our noses high in the air and say sophisticated things about Art that we vaguely remembered from our state college Art History classes. And we'd conceive our first kid on the Amalfi Coast.
We filled up three or four piggy banks with this romantic goal in mind. Then we started using debit cards, and rarely use cash and therefore rarely have spare change. And then our first kid was conceived in our cold little grad-student apartment because we just couldn't wait for Italy anymore-not when the Italy Fund had to become the Laundry Fund out of necessity! I still put change in the piggy banks whenever I can, and some day when we are very old I still think we will make it there.
So! Why all this waxing nostalgic about Italy? Because I have been asked by the lovely people over at Shabby Apple Women's Dresses to host a giveaway to help promote their new Italian-inspired spring line called Roamin' Holiday. These vintage style dresses are virtually guaranteed to make you feel like a bella donna! They are generously offering one of you lucky ducks the choice of either the Spanish Steps dress or the Da Vinci dress. Detail on how to enter are below.

(And if you don't win? You can use the coupon code hideousdreadfulstinky10off to get 10% off your purchase! Expires April 28, 2011.)

Spanish Steps

Da Vinci

HOW TO ENTER

Only ONE entry per person:

Like Shabby Apple on Facebook then come back here and leave a comment letting me know you're a fan.


What?! You're not on Facebook?? That is SO SAD! How are people supposed to know what you had for lunch? Alright, I'm not completely heartless, so I'll still let you enter if you go visit Shabby Apple and leave a comment here telling me your favorite dress from their Roamin' Holiday line.


Of course, it totally rolls my cannoli when you "Like" Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! on Facebook, but that won't get you any extra entries, so only do it if you love me :)


I will select one winner from the comment pool using random.org. The winner will have a choice of either the Spanish Steps dress or the Da Vinci dress.

Make sure I have a way to contact you if you win - an email address or a username to message you via Facebook, Twitter, Etsy convo, Blogger, etc.

Giveaway is open to US residents only.

Giveaway ends Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at noon PST.

THE FINE PRINT

Giveaway closes on Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at noon PST. Comment datestamps must be recorded by that date/time to be eligible. Winner will be chosen by random drawing and will be announced on the same day the giveaway closes. The giveaway is open to US residents ONLY and must be shipped to a valid address within the US. Minors under the age of 18 must have parental/guardian permission to enter (if you are under 18, we will need to contact your parent(s)/guardian if you win and make sure they said it was okay-so ask permission before you enter). I will announce the winner on my blog and make every attempt to contact the winner. You may wish to leave your email address in your comment, or a place where I can message you via Facebook, Twitter, Etsy, etc. If the winner doesn't respond within 10 days, a new winner will be chosen. Winning item will be shipped for free directly by Shabby Apple via standard shipping according to Shabby Apple Shipping Policies. Expedited shipping may be available for purchase by the winner for an additional fee. Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! (Marigold Haske) is not responsible for loss/damage and/or disputes concerning the winning item. If there is a concern about the giveaway itself, please contact Marigold. Once a winner has been selected, all concerns will be handled between Shabby Apple and the winner. All Shabby Apple Policies apply to the winning item as if it was a purchased item from shabbyapple.com. Please familiarize yourself with shipping, returns and faqs before entering the giveaway. By entering this giveaway, you are complying to the official rules as they have been laid out here :)
Blogger's Full Diclosure: Marigold Haske dd not receive any monetary compensation or free product from Shabby Apple for this endorsement. Marigold Haske is enrolled in the Shabby Apple Affiliate Program and earns a 5% commission on qualified sales resulting from referrals/links from Hideous! Dreadful! Stinky! to Shabby Apple.

Felted Goodies Swap

I recently did a swap with Miranda from An Austin Homestead. Miranda  is a chickeneer (I have no idea what to call people who raise backyard chickens). She had admired a felted chicken I made awhile back, but I had already given that one away. So I decided to make her one that doubles as a pincushion. I based this design on one of her actual chickens, Olive.

The second thing I threw in was a bar of felted soap. I used a lovely, soft un-dyed roving and basically followed a technique I found online. When it was all dry, I wrapped the bar several times with a 100% wool yarn, which should felt into the bar as it is used. At least, that's the theory I have!

As for my package from Miranda, she send me some of her killer tomato relish, and I had to restrain myself from eating the whole jar (not because I wanted to stop, but because it seemed unbecoming of a lady to stand in her kitchen and shovel relish into her mouth. Appearances, darling, always keep up appearances!). She also threw in a jar of her "secret" seasoning salt that I slathered onto last nights slow-cooked roast. Yum! And she topped off the package with goodies from her Nude Soap line of soaps and lotions, which you should check out if you want to be soft and smell nice!

Guest Post - Caramel Macadamia Nut Cheesecake

Today I have a special treat for you! Marissa from Rae Gun Ramblings has come over to share an amazing recipe for Caramel Macadamia Nut Cheesecake. (Be warned! You might get fat just looking at the pictures!)

Hi, I'm Marissa from Rae Gun Ramblings. I blog about all things crafty, tasty, pretty and just plain life. I'm an insanely huge Harry Potter fan, cook and bake to relax, and have a new addiction to buying earrings off etsy.  I also run a handmade baby and toddler clothing shop on etsy called Rae Gun. Hopefully you'll stop by my blog and shop and see some of my latest adventures.

Last year about this time I decided that I wanted to master the cheesecake. After a little experimentation I think I've got it down. And to be honest I really don't think it's that hard any one can do it. Today I want to share my new recipe and my tried and true techniques for making caramel macadamia nut cheesecake. Hopefully soon you will join my family and friends in never again paying 8$ a slice for cheesecake at the cheesecake factory, because yes it is that good!

For the Crust
1 1/2 (about 1.5 C) packs of graham crackers (crushed)
1/3 C Margarine (melted)
1 TBS Chopped Macadamia nuts

For Cheesecake
3-8 oz pkgs Cream Cheese (room temp)
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 C Sugar
3 Eggs
3 Tbls Lemon Juice
1 Tbl Vanilla
1/4 C Sugar
1 TBS Chopped Macadamia nuts

For Topping
1/2 C. Caramel sauce
1-2 TBS Chopped Macadamia nuts

The Steps

• If you want it to be good you MUST wait for the cream cheese and eggs to come to room temp. Don't bother using light or fake cream cheese. Unless you have high quality artisan cream cheese use Philadelphia cream cheese the taste is worth the extra fat, cost, and time
• Break up the graham crackers (I like to stick them in a ziplock and mush).
• Melt the butter and mix with the graham cracker crumbs. Press them into a springform pan. 
• Sprinkle crust nuts evenly
• Beat the cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk until smooth.
• Add sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice until well combined.
• Add eggs one by one until combined. Mix as little as possible on this step, you just want the eggs fully incorporated.
• Pour half the mixture into the pan on top of the crust, sprinkle nuts and top with remaining mixture.
• Bake in at 300F with steam for 1 hour and 15 minutes (until outside is set but inside is still jiggly). Heat a dish while preheating the oven and pour hot water in the dish when you stick the cheesecake in.
• Let cool in the oven with door closed for at least 2 hours 
• Refrigerate for at least 4 hours I think overnight is best, the texture and taste are much better when it's colder 
• Right before serving top with caramel and macadamia nuts.
• Cut with a knife rinsed with hot water between each slice

Take it to a party, have everyone ooh and ahh and make new friends. Let me know if you try it out! If you catch the cheesecake bug check out my blog for other recipes including a copycat recipe of Cheesecake Factory's Wild Blueberry White Chocolate Cheesecake.

Felted Monster Bowl

Hello! Brain fart! I made this bowl weeeeeeeeeks ago, and apparently I never posted about it. So here it is! My crocheted and felted monster bowl. It's actually up for sale in my sad, sparse Etsy shop. For some reason I get so stressed out about stocking my shop! I have wonderfully grand ideas, but when it comes down to it, I hate the pressure of forcing myself to craft, and I will find any excuse to avoid it.
Back to the bowl. I'm new to crocheting. I've always wanted to learn, but was intimidated by it. But after seeing enough amigurumi on Etsy sold for super, super cheap, I figured it must not be THAT hard. And it isn't! And if you felt it, all the little flaws just disappear! I also like that I can take it with me to the park or do it in front of the TV at night instead of retreating into my little closet/sewing room and ignoring my husband all night. And, anyway, my sewing machine is on the fritz again. Poor little Hermano! He's been a good little machine, but I got him as a "starter" machine about 5 years ago and he's just getting worn down. Time to throw down the big bucks and get a grown-up machine!

Needle Felted Sheep Baby Mobile

This is a project I made for my preggo cousin Lyz. I needle felted the sheep and the stars and attached them to some chunky wool yarn. The dowel thingie they are hanging off of took some thinking to make. Originally, I was going to use a round embroidery hoop and make a sort of fabric tent that would go up in a cone, and hang the sheep off of the bottom of that. But Michael's was out of hoops when I went! I guess embroidery is just that super hot right now. So I bought a pack of dowels and some round dowel caps and drilled some holes (the boys were very impressed with my "construction worker" skillz)  and threaded yarn and tied knots and hot glued here and there until I had an acceptable baby mobile. It moves pretty well, although it took a little bit of moving sheep up and down and adding wool here and there to get the balance right. I wasn't originally concerned with the sheep being uniform sizes because I planned on using the hoop, but with the dowels, a little bit of extra weight on one side or the other affected the balance of the whole thing and the sheep would end up bunching up in one spot. A bit of hot glue in between the beads at the top helped keep it from bunching up too much but left it flexible enough for the sheep to bounce and move nicely.

Summer of No Pants Call For Guest Bloggers & Sponsors

Are you guys ready for summer yet? Last year I hosted The Summer of No Pants Skirt Sewing Challenge where myself and a handful of dedicated sewists challenged ourselves to sew one skirt a week for a period of four weeks. I declared that I would wear skirts and dresses for the whole summer-no jeans, no pants! I felt pretty and feminine all summer long, and this year I've decided to do the challenge again.
This is where YOU come in! Do you have a great tutorial related to skirts or dresses? Would you be interested in writing a guest post or presenting a round-up? I'm looking for content about skirts and dresses and related sewing tutorials (hems! pleats! ruffles! accents!) or reviews of skirt and dress patterns. Any other ideas I haven't thought of yet are also welcome, all I ask is that the content be related to skirts or dresses for women, not little girls. I will run posts in late May and early June.
I am also seeking sponsors and vendors who might like to host a giveaway during the challenge. Anything from skirts and dresses to patterns, books, fabric or any sewing supplies and notions would be welcome!

If you are interested in participating, please email me at sadsilver@gmail.com with your idea for a post and a link to your blog and/or relevant content.

The Big Winner and A Tour of Our Art Gallery

Holy Smokes, you guys! I can't believe there were so many entries for my lil' old Crayon Monster Art Tote. I'm humbled and flattered by your participation. And it totally makes me want to giveaway more of my own stuff, so keep an eye out! Our BIG WINNER is ...

Lenetta @ Nettacow!

Congratulations, Lenetta! I will be emailing you soon with details on how to claim your Fabulous Prize!

And now that I have your undivided attention, today I'd like to share with you some of the amazing art that hangs in my house. There was a long, sad time where I would dread bringing out the art supplies because it was simply too messy. Huck could sit and draw, but Milo would make an immediate and massive mess, run off to paint the cabinets, etc. Well, lately Milo seems to be phasing out of his Terrible Twos (fingers crossed!) and he is better at listening and respecting me and expressing his own wants and needs without throwing a fit. If I say, "Please don't squeeze the entire tube of glitter glue out in one spot!" and I show him how to do it properly, he actually will listen! He is SO GOOD with glitter glue! If I say, "Only paint on paper!" he will only paint on paper! I can actually walk away and, say, use the restroom, and come back to a room that is not covered in paint and glitter! An now that we have this New & Improved Milo, we all get to enjoy making art again, and my diningroom(?) (more like "diningnook") has been transformed into a place where drawing, coloring, stamping, painting, cutting and gluing happen every day, several times throughout the day. I love it. Kids' art was one of the things that excited me most about having kids, and now it is everywhere in my home, and I'd like to share some of it with you!

Color Wheel, by Huck

Huck has been really interested in which colors mix to make other colors, so we made a color wheel to help him remember. This was a favorite project that my grandma used to do with me.

 Color Wheel, by Milo

Even though he couldn't grasp the idea of filling in the wedges of the circle, he was surprisingly good at listening to my instructions and only using one color at a time (versus going nuts and mixing up all of the paint).

 Luke Skywalker and House Collage, by Huck

This angry Luke Skywalker has his arms and legs carefully cut out so he can move his limbs around freely.
The house and tree collage is a favorite theme of Huck's for his collages. I helped him with cutting out some of these shapes, but there are other collages where he does all of the cutting and gluing on his own.

 

Mario Drawing and Collage, by Milo

Milo is just starting to attempt figures. This Mario has lots of eyes. And one of his beautiful collages.

 Darth Vader, by Huck

I want to make this one into a t-shirt!

There are so many more that I find endlessly fascinating, but I also wonder how many of kids' scribbles a general audience can take, so I'll stop with those! (However, if you are so inclined, I do have Flickr set with several more "pieces" up :)

Guest Post on An Austin Homestead

I have one last guest post up for you guys over on An Austin Homestead. This time it is for my mom's Pancit recipe. Pancit is a Filipino dish of veggies and noodles and sometimes meat. There are probably thousands of regional variations on this dish, but this one is the best. If anyone wants to throw down with a Pancit Cook Off, I am willing to go head to head, because this will for sure be the winner.
(Hmm, too bad I am not in any kind of Fil-Am club, because I think a Pancit Cook off is a stroke-of-genius type of idea).
So go on over to Miranda's blog and check it out! I'll be back here tomorrow at noon to pick a winner for my Monster Tote Giveaway (OMG! You haven't entered yet?? GO! GO NOW!). And next week I have a whole bunch of good stuff to share with you. I learned how to crochet and I'm hooked! Get it? HOOKED! Crochet hook? hooked... ha ha? anyone?