Cabin in the City

Books, cats and midwestern charm.

30 Days of Thanks 2025 // Week 4

11.30.25 | Life

30 Days of Thanks 2025 // Week 3

11.21.25 | Life

30 Days of Thanks 2025 // Week 2

11.14.25 | Life
30 Days of Thanks 2025

30 Days of Thanks 2025 // Week 1

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What I Read // May 2025

06.04.25 | Books
Vinyl records

Unsolicited Advice: Make a Baby Playlist

05.20.25 | Life

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A Junk-Foodie’s Perfect Dessert: Compost Cake

Filed Under: Make Tagged With: ,

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a recipe on this blog! Mostly because I’ve been sharing my bakes over at Taste of Home. But I thought I’d share a new-to-me recipe here today.

This past December, I got to interview Christina Tosi and I totally fell in love with her new cookbook All About Cake. I whipped up her birthday sheet cake for an assignment. It was fantastic, but a lot of work. Paging through the book, I found a casual recipe that was more my speed for everyday sweets: compost cake.

What really caught my eye was the pretzels and potato chips sticking out the top. I’m big on salty-meets-sweet desserts. This one was for me. It just might be for you, too.

I will say that I altered the recipe a bit to suit my taste. I nixed the butterscotch chips (they’re not my favorite) and added some more pretzels and chips in their place. I also simplified the method a bit. Give my version a go, but also grab All About Cake for the full experience (and lots of great cake recipes!).

OK, let’s start! To make this cake you’ll need:

  • 2 cups cake flour
  • 3/4 cup + 3 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/4 cup old fashioned oats
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon ground coffee
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 7 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/3 cup buttermilk
  • 3 tablespoons grapeseed oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
  • 1/3 cup crumbled graham crackers
  • 1/4 cup pretzels, lightly crushed
  • 1/4 cup potato chips, lightly crushed
  • 1 tablespoon flour

For the topping, you’ll need:

  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons grapeseed oil
  • Handful pretzels
  • Handful potato chips

Mixing Up the Batter

I love this cake because it doesn’t require any heavy-duty equipment. Instead of breaking out the stand mixer, you can just use a spatula or a whisk. Major win for lazy me who doesn’t want to lift the ol‘ KitchenAid out of the closet.

OK, start by whisking together the cake flour, oats, brown sugar, sugar, coffee, baking powder and salt together. Then, in another dish, whisk together the melted butter, grapeseed oil, buttermilk, vanilla and eggs.

Take the wet ingredients, add them to the dry and give them a good stir until combined. Easy peasy!

Then toss the chocolate chips, graham cracker crumbles, pretzel bits and potato chips together with a tablespoon or so of flour. You want to give these ingredients a quick coat in flour to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake.

Once they’re coated, just stir them into that batter. It should be pretty darn thick. Don’t worry – it just means it’s full of the good stuff.

Baking the Compost Cake

Grease and line an 8×4″ loaf pan with parchment paper. Then add your batter. Bake this for an hour at 350ºF. It’s a long time, but it’s kind of nice not to have to babysit something for a while.

When it’s done baking, cool it on a rack for about a half hour before removing it from the pan. You’ll want it to be completely cool (or at least nearly cool) before moving onto the last bit.

Topping It All Off

What really made this cake stand out to me was the topping. Pretzels! Chips! Chocolate! And making that topping is really easy.

All you need to do is melt together a half cup of chocolate chips with a teaspoon and a half of grapeseed oil. You can do this in the microwave if you have one – we actually ditched ours more than a year ago (and you can read about it here). Otherwise, melt it with a double boiler on the stove.

All that’s left to do is dip pretzels and chips into the chocolate and stick them to the top of the bread. Use whole pretzels and chips, crunched up ones, whatever you please. When I felt like the top was pretty packed with salty snacks, I drizzled a little bit more of the chocolate on top.

You want this to set up a bit before diving right into it. If you want this cake quick, pop it into the freezer for five minutes to set it. If you’re not in a rush, you can refrigerate for a half hour or so. Just be sure to bring it back to room temp before serving.

The Eating

In the end, this compost cake is exactly the kind of dessert I love: unfussy, slightly messy and almost overstuffed.

I sliced this up and served it during our podcasting practice (March goal!), and it definitely kept us going as we rehearsed. I really like how each bit is a bit different. Plus, as an easily adaptable recipe, I like that I can crunch up whatever snacks I have on hand (or whatever bits of candy) to mix into a future batch.

Give it a go (and get that cookbook, too!).

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KonMari Part 2: This Is Too Easy

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Let’s be real, part one of the KonMari method was rough. Really rough. After that, step two seemed easy. I could certainly thin my book collection.

First of All

Once the internet got wind of this step and how Marie Kondo only keeps about 30 books, things got pretty intense. Book-lovers were up in arms over this.

To this I say, hold your damn horses. If you think that the KonMari method is about throwing away books, you’re not listening. If your books spark joy, great – keep them and enjoy them. If they don’t, donate or sell them and don’t feel any guilt. That’s the method.

Also this tweet:


Don’t @ me on that one. You are not meant to keep every book you’ve ever read like some trophy.

Our Book Situation

OK, enough with my BS explanation of this books controversy (I have lots of opinions that you probably don’t care about). Let’s move on.

At home, we’ve got three dedicated book areas. This is, I realize, pretty scattered and kind of a lot. Running the width of our living room and dining area is a shelf. It’s home to my cookbooks, a few household resources (like my sewing bible) and plenty of knick-nacks. The rest of my books live in a cheap bookshelf in our bedroom.

Michael’s books are an entirely different story. He’s got three shelves full in his office that he’s not touching (yet). He’s a teacher with lots of textbooks and resources to manage plus a decently sized personal book collection. I’ll give him a pass for now. His book shelves are kind of the least of our clutter problems.

Overall, I think I have a fair amount of books. More than a lot of folks, but probably not as many as a lot of regular readers. I credit this to the library and a self-imposed limit. I never want more books than I can fit on my shelves – though, how they fit on that shelf is sometimes questionable.

To me, decluttering my collection isn’t high priority in terms of my clutter issues, but if Marie Kondo says books go next, well, books go next.

The Main Event

Now that you know my book sitch, let’s get to the main event, shall we?

I wanted to follow the method to the letter, so I started by pulling all my books off my bedroom shelf. It was hideously dusty because I’m a slob. I thought to myself even if I didn’t get rid of that much, at least I’d be rid of a mountain a few dust bunnies.

Taking the books out didn’t take long – maybe 10 minutes – but it was enough lifting to make me rethink grabbing all the cookbooks from the living room shelf. Getting a stepladder to reach them all and then carrying them across the house seemed like too much. Too much considering that I use most of those books regularly. As much as I wanted to follow Marie Kondo to the letter, I let the cookbooks stay. I’ll deal with the karmic consequences of that another day I’m sure.

Looking at my stacks of books, I was kind of underwhelmed by the amount. After being overwhelmed by Clothes Mountain last time, this was a good feeling. Before keeping and discarding, I tapped each stack to wake the books up energetically as Marie instructs. Does it do anything? Who knows! But it was kind of a happy way to start things off.

I worked my way through the piles fairly easily. My favorites were quick to spot and spark joy. I’m talking books by Lauren Groff, Louise Erdrich and Zadie Smith, my collection of scary stories and some reads I picked up on vacation this past year (and have yet to get to– oops). Also, you can pry my complete Calvin and Hobbes collection from my cold, dead hands.

As for the non-joyful books, I put them into two piles: one to sell now and another to pass along to my mom who called me asking for some books. I’ll be honest, having that “for Mom” pile was kind of a nice way for some books to get one last hurrah.

What Books Went?

After all this sorting, I’d estimate that I rid myself of 10 to maybe 15 percent of my books. That’s nothing to sneeze at, in my opinion.

So what books did I say sayonara to? Well, those fell into a few categories.

  • Books that have served their purpose: Books I needed for school, books that I read and thought were OK (looking at you, airport reads).
  • Books that had no purpose: The best of intentions here! I bought plenty of books thinking I’d get into a certain hobby or become a fan of an author only to realize that I wasn’t that interested at all.
  • Books that I’m over: Jack Kerouac? Overrated. I don’t need a physical reminder of the time I wasted on every twenty-something-year-old bro’s favorite author. Same goes for an excessive amount of cupcake cookbooks. 2006 called – it wants its food trend back.

Putting It All Back: Book Edition

Unlike clothing, Marie Kondo doesn’t really specify a way to organize books post-tidying. That’s fine by me. I generally organize by theme.

Looking at the keepers, I wasn’t too daunted by putting it all back. I feel like I’ve reorganized this bookshelf a lot (but apparently not lately because of all that dust). Since the bookshelf is broken up into nine sections, I started to group books to fit into each cubby.

I’ve got a few compartments dedicated to fiction. My favorite contemporary authors share a shelf. Classics and older books go together. I’ve got another section dedicated to spooky, supernatural and otherworldly topics. That’s the most fun one to me.

I had expected some gaps after putting everything back but had none. Kind of a letdown, but I realized I shelved some books that had been sitting in a stack next to the shelf, plus I gave my old yearbooks a home there. Overall, though, it’s organized and dust-free, so that’s not so bad.

How Does It Feel?

Honestly, this didn’t feel like the triumph of KonMari part one. That being said, it wasn’t nearly as difficult and didn’t require nearly as much time or effort. I’m not disappointed.

Like last time, I think I could have been a bit more ruthless, but I’m still happy with the progress I made. In all, I got rid of 28 books. And I made $10 at Half Price Books. It’s tempting to scoff at offers like that, but the way I see it, it’s $10. That’s more than if I dumped them off at Goodwill and it took infinitely less effort than me trying to shop around to sell them.

I’m still appreciating the slowness of this process. It is so so tempting for me to just rush through things and organize hastily for a short-term fix, but knowing that I’ll get to craft supplies and kitchen gadgets in their own time is a good thing for me.

The next step is paperwork. I’m not so sure if that needs documenting, but maybe I’ll run into some juicy stuff!

• • •

Like last time, you can see how I faired in real-time on my Instagram stories. There were some good finds!

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Small Goals // March 2019

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My overarching goal for February was to get my life (more) organized. Let’s see if that’s even possible!

  1. Go on a spending freeze(ish). I did this and I started making a grocery budget. Look at me!
  2. Tackle KonMari parts two and three. I did step two. I’m still committed to this project. I just need to regroup.
  3. Reopen my Etsy shop. Done! I even made a new logo (here it is ICYMI) and took new photos. 2019, I’m ready (finally)!
  4. Finish those books! I read The Nightingale and loved it! I also finished up The Au Pair and found it to be so lame.
  5. Plan a trip. Nope. This is very much in flux right now, but I’m scheming (as always).

3/5. Goals this month were hit and miss. But I’m not that disappointed because I went above and beyond on two of my goals. Considering it’s February, peak winter gloomies season, I’m really not too mad.

This March, I’m going to continue to tackle a lot of home and home-based projects with what I’m sure will be middling success! This being said, my social calendar is pretty packed for the month, so I’m crossing my fingers on getting much of anything done. We’ll see!

  1. Create a game plan for the rest of the KonMari steps (and do part three). I started with so👏much👏enthusiasm👏. I need to get back on track because I totally believe in Marie Kondo’s methods.
  2. Rearrange the living room? We have a pretty large living room, but I have a hard time arranging the furniture inside due to our home’s unique features (features that I love but are hard for me to work around). I’ve got an appointment with a designer at West Elm to tell me if it’s a lost cause or not!
  3. Record a podcast. As if I didn’t have enough interests and side projects! My boss/friend and I are going to try our hand at podcasting. Let’s see how we do!
  4. Stitch up 15 hoops. I really wanted to say 30. I thought about it again and thought 20. But I have to get real with myself. 10 is probably realistic, but you know how I love working myself too hard for nothing. Let’s go with 15!
  5. Find a killer birthday dress. I turn 30 the first week of April. You bet your behind I’ll have to have a dress to match the milestone.

Let me know what your goals are this month! I’m crossing my fingers that I tackle all mine!

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A New Look for Kaminski Handicraft

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Here she is! The new logo for Kaminski Handicraft!

I had tabled branding for my shop for a long time in favor of developing new designs. But a few weeks ago, I got the bug to give my shop a little facelift. While it’s not perfect and not too original, it’s a big improvement – and I’m learning more and more that done is better than perfect.

With a new logo under my belt, I decided to freshen up my product photography, too. It’s certainly nothing groundbreaking, but it’s an improvement and the style is manageable to me.

And I’m using my camera instead of my phone which makes an insane amount of difference!

My hope is that this small refresh gives my Etsy shop and business a bit more polish and makes people maybe slow down to take a peek.

You can check it all out my shop here for the full effect!

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KonMari: Step 1 (AKA Why Do I Feel Like Crying?)

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After a few episodes of Tidying Up, I decided I was going to KonMari my life. I was 100% on board. I bought the book. I told everyone I knew about the life-changing magic of Marie Kondo. I picked a day to kick the project off. I was in it.

Kicking Off KonMari

I was so jazzed about the first step of tidying up (going through clothing), that I started two days early. Snowed in on a Saturday morning, I took all the clothing out of my closet and the coat closet and heaped it on my bed. I was already embarrassed for myself and I hadn’t even emptied out my two dressers yet (yes, two – totally shameful).

I knew I had to commit, though, so I pulled everything out. It was pretty horrifying. But I decided to jump in and ask myself if each item brought me joy. My Jessica Lange-esque witch dress? Absolutely. All joy. My new winter coat from my sister? So much joy. The skirt I wore as Bonnie Parker last Halloween? Not really. Thanks for helping me make a costume. Bye.

Hitting a Roadblock

After 90 minutes of sorting (that’s on top of about an hour of just pulling stuff out of storage), I was having a hard time. Did a pair of sweats bring me joy? I mean, they were cozy. Is coziness joy? What about a skirt I made (but hadn’t worn in years)? It made me feel proud. But was that joy? Or satisfaction masquerading as joy?

I had to take a break. After an episode of Gilmore Girls, I came back refreshed. I plowed through the rest in another 45 minutes. But I kept tripping up on the same things: my makes (though they didn’t still fit).

Originally, I tossed a few dresses and skirts into the bag. If they didn’t fit, they weren’t really joyful, right? After all, I felt a lot of relief getting rid of other clothes that didn’t fit me well. But seeing pieces that I worked really hard on tossed in a bag with old band tees and too-tight skirts felt wrong. Or at least it made me feel really sad. More so than when I released some other old favorites.

Right about this time, Michael came home. I have to give him so much credit, first and foremost because he came home to our bedroom turned upside down and didn’t bat an eye. But he deserves even more credit because I had a meltdown (why do I have so many of these?) about saying goodbye to my handmade clothes. And he just said, “Why don’t you keep them? Even if they’re just examples for yourself?”

That’s when I pulled my favorites out of the bag – two skirts and two dresses. I folded them neatly, KonMari-style, and placed them in a basket in the basement. No, it’s not a perfect solution, but I’m happy with it for the time being.

With those items in a new home, going through the rest of my odds and ends was easy. In the end, I had four garbage bags packed full and ready for Goodwill (not to mention a half garbage bag of unrepairable and worn garments to toss).

Putting It All Back Again

Even though looking at four bags of donations was satisfying, looking at the keep pile was still overwhelming. Time for another Gilmore Girls break. If you are tacking this project, I highly recommend decompressing occasionally. Lighthearted TV, an easy read or a walk would all be welcome.

Returning once again to Clothes Mountain, I developed a bit of a game plan. First, I’d hang up what needed hanging. Then I’d deal with the folding – first basics like shirts and sweaters and then moving onto less regular things like tights.

Hanging clothes was fairly simple. Marie writes in her book that her preference is to fold clothes, but some clothes are happier on hangers – dresses, skirts, things that are light and airy. She also specifies that clothes should be hung rising left to right – meaning the longest dresses on the left and short top on the right.

I followed Marie’s directions as best as my closet would allow. In the end, it looked much nicer visually (to me at least). I was hoping that I’d have a wardrobe with some healthy gaps in it to really show me how much I improved. I didn’t quite get that. Instead I got a closet that was mostly full, though, most importantly, not overstuffed. I’d take it.

The Folding Method That Didn’t Make Me Hate Folding

After a low-key win in the closet, I turned my attention to everything remaining. I’d have to KonMari fold it all? I saw how long it took people to do it on Tidying Up. I figured I’d be there all night.

But after watching a quick YouTube video, I think I got the method down alright. After 90 minutes, everything was folded and put away. I even ended up with one empty drawer! And the rest looked near-picture perfect.

After all that work, being able to pull open a drawer and see everything was a huge reward. No longer would I be surprised by that sweater in the bottom of the drawer. My pajama drawer wouldn’t be overstuffed. All my pants could live in one spot! Getting dressed was easy!

What About Shoes and Bags?

I like my shoes and I like my bags, but I don’t have an outrageous collection of either. Thank goodness because I could not handle another tidying session like the one I did with clothing.

Because the first part of tidying was so exhausting, I admittedly half-assed the bag and shoe part. Or maybe it just felt that way because it didn’t take very long. Going through both took 10 minutes. I filled up an entire bag.

An Unexpected Stumbling Block

Along the way, though, I ran into sentimental items. A lot of them. My closet’s top shelf is apparently prime real estate for mementos of all kinds. High school yearbooks? There up there. Ticket stubs from all the concerts Michael and I saw while dating? They’re old and curled now, but yes, they call the top shelf home. Letters my great-grandma and great-aunt wrote? They’ve got their own shoebox there.

This felt like a pretty big stumbling block to me. Part because I was tempted just to deal with those items right there and then. Part because putting them back on the shelf felt like I wasn’t tidying right but leaving them out as clutter didn’t feel right either. I put them back – just for the time being.

How Does It Feel?

I couldn’t feel better about my drawer situation. It looks so darn good. My closet didn’t provide me with a dramatic transformation, but I’m thinking that’s fine for now.

In general, though, I’m really trying to learn. Pinpointing what sparks joy for me comes and goes, but Marie writes about how you develop this sense more as you go. I’m hoping that comes in subsequent steps.

My biggest takeaway so far, though, is to work methodically and not to rush. Yes, she describes the process as quick, but she clarifies that means about six months. As someone who is more a hare than a tortoise, this is a big lesson. So I’m trying my best to go by the book, to work one section at a time and resist the urge to tidy things before their time.

For me, this is very big since I love working on a handful of projects at once. But I think it’s time I try something new (like slowing down).

• • •

P.S. If you want to see how I really felt in real time, check out my Instagram stories. I was a disaster.

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Small Goals // February 2019

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January is over, which means post-holiday recover is over, too. Let’s see how the month went!

  1. Make it to the gym eight times. Done! I was hoping it’d feel better. Getting back into the swing of things is hard.
  2. Organize, declutter and repair my kitchen cupboards. Done! We donated two boxes of kitchen gear. We also started watching Marie Kondo’s new show (and then read her book) so we’re inspired to tidy up.
  3. Read two books (maybe even three!). I started three different books, but I’m not done with a single one!
  4. Try a new bake. I made the Baller Birthday Sheet Cake from Christina Tosi’s All About Cake. It was phenomenal.
  5. Get rid of my oldest assignments at work. Done. I got rid of some of the oldest items in my queue and am working on finishing the last ones up. Here’s one about Dolly Parton’s signature chicken and dumplings.

4/5. Sure, five out of five is always nice, but four feels good after the holidays. Outside of these goals, I spent most of the month enjoying slow nights making dinner, sipping wine, doing puzzles and watching Gilmore Girls. I regret nothing. I did have a good friend stay with us for a few nights. We ate cheese, shopped around and got matching lights for our homes. It was real good.

For February, I want to move from post-holiday recovery to progress at home.

  1. Go on a spending freeze(ish). I went a bit overboard with Christmas this year (and I felt that this January). I want to get my spending back on track. That means this month, money is for bills and food only – no clothes, no books, no impulse purchases at Target.
  2. Tackle KonMari parts two and three. Kondo-ing my closet was really freeing. While I don’t think I’ll be able to KonMari my home perfectly, I think I can do an OK job on the next two steps: books and papers.
  3. Reopen my Etsy shop. OK, OK. It was never closed, but I deactivated a lot of listings over the holidays. Honestly, a month-long break was exactly what I needed.
  4. Finish those books! I started three different books. Maybe I can finish them all? I’m trying to spend a bit more time reading this winter (and a little less time with Netflix).
  5. Plan a trip. About this time last year, Michael and I booked our trip to Bayfield. It did a lot to boost our moods. I’m hoping to do this same this February.

Let me know your February goals! I love reading them (and getting ideas for future months).

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The Life-Changing Magic of Getting Your Stuff Together

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Like most everyone, I got sucked into Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up on Netflix. After a single episode, Michael went through his closet. I cleaned up our kitchen. After the second episode, I bought her book.

I’m still working my way through the process, but the one principle that really help guide my way is visualizing the destination, which Marie writes a lot about.

Before you start getting rid of things, take the time to think this through carefully. This means visualizing the ideal lifestyle you dream of… The whole point in both discarding and keeping things is to be happy.

– Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

What Is Our Dream Lifestyle?

Hoping to get Michael fully on board, I asked him what his picture-perfect version of our home would be so I could combine my vision with his.

His answer: I want our home to be cozy.

I agree with that 100 percent. And I think it’s very achieveable. After all, our home is, at its best, very cozy. Probably the coziest. Physically, our house is comfortable and small. Our sofa is layered with the softest blankets (and, consequently, cats). The light is soft, the living space is open and ready for visitors, though it feels full with just us. And most nooks and crannies are full of mementos that make us nostalgic and happy.

Of course, this cozy vibe is often harshed by clutter – I’m talking mail, laundry, craft supplies. So it’s not always the picture of comfort and warmth. But we try. Maybe after going through the full KonMari method, we could be consistently cozy (or mostly). I feel like coziness, as a goal, is definitely within our grasp.

My Ideal Vision of Our Home

When I asked myself what my ideal lifestyle in my home would be, though, I paused. Yes, absolutely, I want a cozy, comfortable and welcoming home. But what else? A creative space? I mean, sure. A place to entertain? Yes, we like to host parties and get-togethers. A retreat from stress? Yeah, that’d be pretty good. But these didn’t really fit.

But then it hit me. What I really wanted on a practical level was for those things – creating, baking, entertaining – to be easier because – clutter or not – I’m going to do those things. But as it stands now, working on projects and entertaining aren’t really effortless (or at least as easy as they could be).

Baking means having to clean off the counter, dragging the heavy KitchenAid from the closet. Crafting means pushing aside all the coats and digging through drawers. Certainly, those things aren’t that hard, but they weren’t really that easy, not for something fun, at least. It was like my old light table. Sure, it worked fine, but the process of using it made the project – something I should love – a chore.

So this is my goal: To make my hobbies and everyday chores easier and more joyful. This means reconfiguring my home to be more functional. Does that mean that where I store my food and where I keep my cooking gear should swap? Maybe! Does that mean that I have to reorganize the coat/craft closet. Oh, it sure does. Does it mean that I need to sort through everything I own so I can identify what’s really important? Most likely.

And that really doesn’t bother me too much. I’m looking forward to a life where baking is a joy, not a pain in the butt. A life where I manage to keep my craft supplies organized because putting them away is simple and not some outsize task that requires me to rearrange the whole closet.

And with all that stuff working for me on a functional level, maybe I’ll be able to reduce the clutter so I can be ready to entertain or just stay in and be cozy at any time.

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Small Goals // January 2019

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December is done and, I must say, I jingled and mingled to my heart’s content. Let’s check out how I did on those goals!

  1. Finish my custom orders ASAP. I finished them! They might not have been done as quickly as I’d like, but they’re finished.
  2. Meet up with my friends to celebrate the holidays. Done! I managed to do a really good job at this! It was super nice (plus, I found a new great restaurant in the process – try Don’s Diner, local folks).
  3. Go on a holiday date. Flop on this one! I’m OK with it, though. We squeezed in a lot of holiday cheer regardless.
  4. Watch 3+ Christmas movies. Done! I watched three corny ones on Netflix plus Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. It was a good year for holiday movies.
  5. Do some good! Done! My dad and I wrapped gifts again this year to raise money for the Wisconsin Humane Society. Plus, I gathered a few donations at my craft fairs this season.
  6. BONUS GOAL: Find the blue velvet dress of my dreams. I DID IT! Thanks, Nordstrom!

5/6. I’ll say that’s not too shabby considering how busy December was. As always, I learned some lessons about holiday stress and hope to do better next year.

When it comes to January, I plan on slowing down big time. December was non-stop crafting, entertaining and visiting – those aren’t bad things, but they are time-consuming. For January, I want to get back to a normal pace at home and maybe reestablish some good habits. As for New Year’s resolutions, I’m going to say no thanks. I find these small goals are much more useful to me than any resolution.

  1. Make it to the gym eight times. Classic New Year’s promise right here.
  2. Organize, declutter and repair my kitchen cupboards. This is a goal I’m not excited about, but it’s necessary.
  3. Read two books (maybe even three!). Over Christmas break, I read more than usual. It felt good! Let’s see if I can get through a few titles, including Michelle Obama’s memoir, this month.
  4. Try a new bake. I got two Christina Tosi books for Christmas that I need to break in! Also, I’ve got a craving for soft pretzels. We’ll see which one I tackle. Maybe this can be the start of a year of new-to-me bakes.
  5. Get rid of my oldest assignments at work. I don’t normally like to incorporate work goals into these posts – the work always seems to get done. But I’m tired of looking at 2018’s assignments in 2019. Time to clear the queue!

Alright 2019, let’s get these goals.

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Unpacking the Holidays

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Let’s face it: We work hard for the holidays! That’s why even though they’ve passed, I want to give them a bit of recognition (then onto those January 2019 goals!).

The Craft Fairs

This was my busiest craft fair season yet! Meaning I had two fairs, but for a low-key side hustler like myself, this is a big deal! And it’s also a lot of work.

But I think it really paid off! The Black Friday Makers Market + Pub-Crawl was really a lot of fun. It started out pretty slow, but ended up being fairly steady. I sent home a lot of good hoops, including some Home Alone-inspired ones.

The peak of the craft fair season (yes, the two-show season), though, was the Cream City Creatives show. It was a 2018 goal of mine to set up shop at a show in Milwaukee and I did it! it was a lot of fun! My heart was warmed to see a lot of my friends and family come out. A sweet pal of mine, hot off the heels of a months-long trip, stopped by – and she took home my one-and-only Gilmore Girls hoop. That made me feel pretty good.

The Food

December is always a good month for food. I mean, the Christmas cookies alone. But this month was particularly good because I got to hit up a new haunt: Don’s Diner.

Inside, it’s precisely the vibe I like. A mix of old-fashioned soda fountain and Grandpa’s den. It’s really great. And the food and drinks are top-notch. I ate every single bite of the Naughty Angel burger (a brisket burger topped with beer cheese sauce) and had the best flourless chocolate cake – with fermented raspberry sauce (trust me, actually very good) – ever. I want to go back all the time.

I also baked up some classics and new recipes this year. Obviously, pioneer molasses and cream cheese pillows were on the docket. I also made this Nantucket cranberry tart (good reviews), this mint-chocolate chip cheesecake (great reviews) and this silky chocolate pie (which I really liked).

The Shopping

I like to take a day off every December to tie up loose ends. Usually, this day is a bit stressful, but thanks to a lot of shopping in advance, this one was pretty chill. In fact, it was almost like taking myself on a date. I had a blast.

First I stopped at Stone Creek Coffee for a few gifts and their hilarious and wonderful seasonal Bumble blend for Christmas morning. It was nice just to relax there for a while and pretend like I was the kind of wealthy person that happens to be out and about in the middle of the day. It’s a fun charade.

However, all that compares to visiting Studio Ric Rak in the Wauwatosa Village. This is hands down, my favorite little antique store. It’s packed to the gills (in a good way, not a cluttered way) with vintage gems all at good prices. I stopped by to pick up a great piece of Pyrex for my mom, but spent most of my time checking out these handmade putz houses. The owner of this shop is so funny and charming and she makes these all from vintage ephemera. I love them.

After stopping by, I called my mom and told her about all the cute putz houses. I got one from Santa for Christmas. How about that. From her lips to Santa’s ears, I tell ya.

The Party!

As you may know, every year Michael and I host a day after Christmas party. I want to call it Boxing Day, but it seems too much to have to explain in case folks don’t know when or what that is. I digress.

I’ll say it: This was probably one of our best parties yet. It went off without a hitch! Without a single hitch (other than the late arrival of a cheese tray)! We managed to throw a party that wasn’t overly stressful and had just the right amount of food (and by that, I mean we still had leftovers, but not enough to last us for a week). This year was pretty darn relaxing. I got to just sit and shoot the breeze with my family while shoving my face full of spinach-artichoke dip and sipping sparkling wine (a new addition to the drink menu). It was great.

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Well, that’s my silly holiday wrap-up. I hope you had a great one, too!

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Coming Soon // Cream City Creatives

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This one’s coming up fast, folks!

I’ll be at Cream City Creatives Holiday Market this Sunday from 10-3 at Turner Hall. It’s my first Milwaukee show, so I’m pretty darn excited! That was one of my goals for 2018 and I’m almost there!

You’ll find me and 50+ Midwest makers at this show. I’m personally excited to see what Renee Graef has to offer – she was an illustrator for American Girl! But there are lots of other folks, too, so you’ll find something for all those people left on your list!