AfricanKelli

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Roasted Squash Dip — perfect for a holiday party or as a snack. I love sugar as much as the next person, but I find overwhelming amount of sweets at the holidays make me cranky, my stomach hurt and my pants tight. So, how about a healthy alternative to add to the potluck buffet?

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato

1 small butternut squash

1 other small squash — could be acorn, etc.

3 cloves of garlic

1 dash of olive oil

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/4 cup cheese of choice — I like mozzarella

Dash of garlic salt, pepper, cayenne if you want it spicy

Directions:

Roast squash and garlic — with a splash of olive oil — on a cookie sheet at 350 for 45 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes and then remove flesh with a fork into a large bowl. Add cheeses and spices and stir. Serve with veggies or crackers. Voila! A healthy seasonal appetizer.

Other options include adding brown sugar (not the point, really) or salsa. This is exceptionally easy, tasty and versatile.

~K

Advent begins today, some 26 days before Christmas. I don’t remember ever celebrating advent with any great fanfare as a child, but have coveted intricate and beautiful advent calendar traditions during the last few years. I am particularly fond of this calendar and this homemade version. {How amazing would it be to receive a sweet note each day?}

This season means different things to Christians. For me,  it is a great time to prepare. It provides 26 days to find reasons to be thankful, be mindful in prayer, and to get my heart and home ready for the Christmas season. Cheesy? A bit. Truthful? Definitely. I am a sentimental girl.

I didn’t participate in Black Friday this year and don’t plan on buying a thing for Cyber Monday either. The older I get, the less the stuff seems to matter. I don’t need a thing. Most in my life are equally blessed. And let’s be honest — all you need is a $.50 newspaper to be reminded the most important things in life cannot be purchased or wrapped — love, fidelity, health, sanity, peace. The very last thing I needed this weekend was to sacrifice sleep for the celebration of consumer gluttony. (If I want to celebrate gluttony, I prefer to do so in the comfort of my own home with a piece of pizza in one hand and bottle of wine in the other.)

Instead, my list of handmade items is long and my list of tiny intentional acts of beauty is longer. This year, I’m celebrating Christmas with Christ in mind — He who fed the poor, spent time with the lepers, advocated for love and peace. Needless to say, I’ve got a lot to learn.

I’ll be posting a project each day for the next 26 days. Some take considerable time, while others are conquered within minutes. I hope there will be something included that strikes your fancy. I wish you and your loved ones a holiday season abundant with the very best of life!

Adventathon: 1 Children’s Art Portfolio Tutorial

Supplies needed:

• Exterior fabric 18″ x 11″
• Interior fabric 18″ x 11″
• Interfacing 18″ x 11″
• Interior crayon/marker pocket fabric 7″ x 8″
• Two pieces of ribbon, each 10″ long
• Wax paper
• Art supplies

Directions: Iron all fabrics. Iron/sew interfacing to wrong side of exterior fabric. Set aside.

Take interior pocket material and iron under top (7″) edge, 1/4″.

Repeat, ironing same seam again under another1/4″, hiding raw edge.

Repeat with right-hand (8″) edge of pocket. Top stitch top seam.

Iron center crease on right side of interior fabric. Align the folded under right-hand edge with the center crease of the interior material:

Pin down pocket side edges and bottom. Stitch 1/4″ from edge of pocket material securing pocket to interior fabric. Do not sew down top edge you’ve already hemmed.

Now, pull out your markers, crayons, pencils, paint brushes or whatever art supply you’d like to gift in this porfolio. Measure the width of these items. We are going to create a series of pockets for each of these by running hems from the top of this pocket to the bottom, backstitching at each end.

I created 8 of these lines, measured equally across the pocket, to hold a packet of markers.

Now, measure the drawing pad you’d like to include on the other side of the interior fabric.

Find the center of the right-hand side of your interior fabric, 3-4″ from the top edge. Draw a line measuring the length of your drawing pad, adding 1/2″. This pad was nearly 5″ – so my line was 5.5″.

Very carefully, snip this line open with a pair of scissors.

Tuck the back cardboard edge of your drawing pad into this hole to make sure it fits. If it doesn’t, make the hole a bit bigger on either side.

Now hem a small zigzag stitch in a coordinating thread around the hole (buttonhole stitch) to close the raw edge.

Place the exterior fabric — with interfacing already attached — on top of the interior fabric with right sides matched.

Measure 6.5 inches from the top of the left and right hand sides of the portfolio and tuck your pieces of ribbon between the exterior and interior pieces, leaving at least .5″ outside to pin and later stitch. Sew both sides together with a 1/2″ seam. No need to leave a hole to turn right sides out. Clip the corners, trim any excess including that extra bit of ribbon and then pull the right sides through your drawing pad hole. Iron flat, pushing out the corners carefully. Top stitch in a coordinating thread.

Now, measure several pieces of wax paper to place in the center of the portfolio for stamps/stickers. Carefully run a tight zigzag stitch down the left-hand side of the wax paper to secure to the portfolio. This also creates a center binding for the portfolio because you are stitching through all three layers (make sure your bobbin thread matches your exterior fabric.) This step is entirely optional. Wax paper doesn’t hold up well and if your artist is too old for stickers, skip it.

Add a label if you’d like.

Place the drawing pad in the hole by securing the back cover.

Add your art supplies

And stickers

Voila — a children’s art portfolio.

Other variations may include thank you notes, stamps, stationery, etc.

Tomorrow: a favorite holiday recipe

~K

Candace’s Thanksgiving Apron

A few things I’m thankful for this year:

- Grandmothers who inspire me regularly to be better

- My little brother’s sense of humor

- My girlfriends. Nearby, far away, in other countries — I am blessed with great friendships. Thank you!

- My extended families who always make me feel like I’m one of their own clan

- Community work; feeling like my job has a greater purpose

- a church where I am accepted for exactly who I am

- a strengthening relationship with God

- being loved, loving, feeling the full spectrum of confusing emotions involved

- time and passion for creativity and art

- Finny and her little farm; she makes me want to be better at just about everything

- Spending Christmas with my family on the beach in Mexico in a few weeks

- Friends who do great favors, like design my book cover

- Salty Senor, for always making me giggle

- And the superficial: Dior Addict mascara, Tory Burch flats, great jeans, t-shirts, all things Target, Changing Hands Bookstore, my bike, swimming, pumpkin cookies/bars/pie, Sweet Republic Ice Cream, dark chocolate, a good glass of wine, bowling, Zappos.com, great stationery, NPR, REI, and Bumble and Bumble thickening hair spray.

Happy Thanskgiving weekend to you and your family!

With love,

Kelli

One of the things I’m most thankful for are good books. When I read a couple weeks ago about “14 Cows for America,” I knew I had to read the story for myself.

It’s about a group of Masaai warriors who decide to give cows to the United States after 9/11.

The symbolism in the book is startling. There are often exquisite drawings with two tower-like figures in the background. Giraffe necks, walking sticks, branches of acacia trees.

Interestingly, I bought this book for a young friend. Reading it to her, I realized she is young enough to have been born years after the national tragedy. While I had tears in my eyes by the end of the story, touched by the beautiful illustrations as much as the carefully selected words, she was entranced by the animals.

In a way, this is healing.

The other recent children’s book I purchased is “The Red Shoes.” Again, it’s the matching of spectacular drawings with words chosen just right that make this book art.

Plus, who doesn’t love a good story of redemption that includes amazing accessories?

Both stories are full of hope and healing with patient perseverance. They are being added to my list of favorites for children, including “The Fire Cat,” and “The Secret Garden.”

~K

Sunday I was in charge of Children’s Moment at church. The timely lesson was about giving thanks. I whipped up some Thanksgiving cards and we talked about the importance of being grateful. The kids went into the congregation and found someone to give a card to and then we worked on cards for their families in Sunday School.

I am a bit like Johnny Appleseed, but with correspondence. Johnny Stampyseed? Kelli Appleletter? Hmm… I like to spread it and make others write letters too. (My brother told me the other day he’s saved all the letters I’ve sent him since he left for college and there are more than 100. I’m a little crazy, I know.) The kids agreed — getting personal mail rocks.  They now know the secret too — to get mail, you’ve got to send some stationery love too. They were as excited as a group of little ones gets about a thinly veiled manners lesson.

I whipped up some music mixes this weekend too. Looking at this photo I just realized the Four Seasons song is a Vivaldi and it is Violin not Violent. Ha! Violin autmun, not violent autumn.

I think these might be my two very favorite things to receive:  handwritten notes and mixes of la musica.

Hope your Thanksgiving week is off to a great start!

~K