Cabin in the City

Books, cats and midwestern charm.

Christmas

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Jingle Like a Kringle // My Favorite Christmas Albums

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When it comes to playing the best Christmas jams, I consider myself an expert. I’m all in on nostalgic songs like “White Christmas,” but I also know a good new calol when I hear one, like Sia’s latest “Santa’s Coming for Us” (which I love). New or old, I think I have the best Christmas playlist around. Here are some of my favorite albums.

Christmas Party by She & Him

A DIY blogger who wishes she looked good with bangs is a She & Him fan? Shocking. The duo’s second Christmas album is an absolute must for the holidays (I could take or leave their first holiday effort) whether you watch New Girl or not. This LP is packed with fun and less common Christmas tracks. “Must Be Santa” is probably my favorite for it’s polka style, but “The Coldest Night of the Year” makes me want to curl up by the fire. Overall, it’s heartwarming and fun like the holiday itself.

It’s a Holiday Soul Party by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

I have a feeling that this album will one day be considered a classic. It’s filled with holiday soul as the name implies and I love the arrangements on some of the traditional Christmas tunes like “Funky Little Drummer Boy.” It’s just such a good, good album, though it saddens me that Jones isn’t around to spread a little more cheer and funky vibes.

A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector by The Crystals, The Ronettes, Darlene Love and more

Phil Spector aside, this is the best Christmas album you can get your hands on. The tracks are quintessential Christmas. I mean, who doesn’t love Darlene Love’s “Baby, Please Come Home?” I’m going to say it: “Baby, Please Come Home” is the best Christmas song. Yes, better than Mariah’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

The Beach Boys Christmas Album by The Beach Boys

My husband is likely the biggest Beach Boys fans around, so it stands to reason that this album gets it’s fair share of air time at our house. It’s filled with hits like “Little Saint Nick,” but also a few moody tracks like “Blue Christmas” and “We Three Kings.” I’m partial to the latter – it’s probably the spookiest Christmas song out there.

Honorable Mention: It’s My Favorite Time of Year by Phase II

Back in 1997, Boston Store (and it’s sister store Carson Pirie Scott) sold Christmas CDs at their registers. I know what you’re thinking: those generic store-branded albums are trash. And you’d be right, except for this one. My mom impulse bought this CD 20 years ago and it’s been on a regular holiday rotation since. I don’t know what it is about this CD, but it feels like home.

• • •

If you have any Christmas music recommendations, I’d love to hear them! I love expanding this part of my music collection.

 

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Holiday Burnout Strikes Early // How to Make It Through

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I was about to write a post all about balance during the holiday season and how I was getting so much better at juggling all the cheer along with the stress, and how you too could follow my simple strategies to become head elf. But then I made it a whopping six days into December and had a Christmastime meltdown. So I’m obviously no expert.

Instead of giving you tips on how to plan your month, I’m going to give you one piece of advice that I should have been heeding this whole time: check in with yourself.

Check in with how you’re feeling about the month ahead, the plans you’d like to make and what you’ve got to accomplish. And, most importantly, keep checking in with yourself to make sure that you’re not on the fast track to holiday burnout just so you can complete your Christmas bucket list.

And that’s where I was on December 6, having a serious bout of anxiety over a can of poppy seed pie filling. My moment of near-tears was not about poppy seeds, of course, but just my holiday stress coming to a head. I was behind on my stitching goals, I had a kitchen to clean and I had to make and photograph potica for work – a recipe that I’ve made before, but was incredibly nervous about sharing. It was just a lot.

So when I came home, I asked myself what I needed to bring myself back. It wasn’t stopping at another grocery store for poppy seeds. It wasn’t sitting down and stitching. Instead, I gave myself permission to just have a lazy night. I put on some pajamas, wrapped a few presents and watched some Food Network. And that’s what I needed – just a short break so I could regroup and come back refreshed the next morning.

So, take it from me, the girl crying in a Piggly Wiggly, that taking some time to figure out what you need personally (not just what you need to accomplish), is absolutely necessary for making it through the holidays. Whether it’s more plans with friends or more cozy days in, be sure to to take the kind of time you need to feel your merriest and brightest.

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A Christmas Miracle

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The 90s are back. We all know this. Chokers and combat boots abound. But these are all small bananas compared to my dream 90s comeback trend: velvet.

YES PLEASE. I recall being a child and thinking velvet was the epitome of glamour (it is) and loving every velvet Christmas dress I owned (which was at least three). So early on, the idea of velvet at Christmastime was cemented in my mind. If you want to look fabulous and holiday-ready, you need a velvet dress. Plain and simple.

Except not.

Last year I ordered a plum velvet dress from ModCloth. It was a bust. As was the gold one I tried on at Boston Store. I was disappointed, but I vowed to search again in 2016. I did. I found a beautiful velvet burnout dress – but the keyhole neck was too droopy with the weight of the fabric. But then I saw a blue velvet option from Nordstrom for $58. Oh yes, this would be it! The quest was complete and shipping in two days! But lo! The cutouts looked so stupid on me! My hopes for singing “Blue Velvet” to myself were dashed. So I lurched back to Nordstrom to return another contender. I thought again, next year. I believed that the world did not want me to find a decent velvet dress.

Until I was walking out. There she was: a beautiful long sleeve velvet dress with a skater skirt and flower pattern. Only one in my size left! It was fate. I fell in love quickly. I made plans for this dress: a holiday party! Dinner! Christmas Day!

And we’ve been happily together ever since. A Christmas miracle.

• • •

P.S. I’m not a fashion blogger and my husband is not a fashion photographer, so this is the best we do.

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Life in Plastic [Canvas] is Fantastic

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I briefly mentioned in my holiday tradition post that I picked up a new holiday hobby: making little plastic canvas do-dads.

I fully realize that unlike other crafts of yore – macramé, cross stitching and the like – plastic canvas is not cool. I’m drawn to it nonetheless – maybe it’s my inner grandma, maybe it’s my 90s nostalgia.

Whatever the case may be, I’m digging it. Making these little houses from the Needlecraft classic “Hometown Villages” is sort of a weird hybrid of needlepoint and putz house making. So when you think about it that way, it makes 100% sense why I can’t stop working away at these.

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O Pioneers [Molasses Cookies]!

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When it comes to Christmas cookies, I don’t mess around. In fact, every year I take a whole day off from work just to get some baking done. It’s just so much more enjoyable when you have the whole day to make eight batches of award-winning cream cheese pillows.

This year, I started my Christmas bake-athon with the old timiest recipe I have and one of my family’s most loved cookies: pioneer molasses cookies. These cookies are simple – no fanciness or flourish here – just a good, hard working cookie that makes the holidays complete.

Now, why are these the old timiest? Well, the original recipe – a favorite of my grandma’s – calls for melted lard. Lard. So that tells you something about the era. But this 1930s original also just isn’t really like recipes of today, mostly because the original calls for a whopping six cups of flour, and also because it has no sugar (outside of the molasses). None. But it’s still a good cookie and a solid option for when you want to make something simple and not too sweet – and also something that makes you feel homesick for another time.

Here’s what you’ll need to make these old fashioned faves:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 10 tbsp. butter, softened
  • ½ cup molasses
  • ½ cup boiling water
  • ½ tsp. baking soda
  • ½ tsp. salt

And for the frosting:

  • 2⅔ cups powdered sugar
  • 3-4 tbsp. water
  • 1½ tsp. vanilla extract
  • Red and green food color

To make these, start by creaming the butter and molasses. Then alternate adding dry ingredients with the hot water. This should form a good, albeit sticky, dough pretty readily. Once it’s mixed, chill for at least an hour.

When you’re ready, flour your chilled dough lightly and roll out to ¼” thick. You can use cookie cutters here, though I prefer just to slice these into rectangles with a pizza cutter. Like I said, these cookies are pretty simple and rustic, so I think a simple shape works well. Bake for 12 minutes at 375°F. Cool on a wire rack or brown paper.

To complete these, I recommend a simple frosting. Simply mix the ingredients above – bear in mind you may have to add a little more water or sugar to get the right spreading consistency. Once you’re satisfied with this basic frosting, split the batch in two and color with red and green. Then frost your cooled cookies.

They aren’t the most Pinterest-ready cookies out there, but the sight of these red and green squares always brings me a lot of joy this time of year.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

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K.I.S.S. Holiday Traditions

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Anyone that knows me well can tell you that I’m a sucker for traditions. What can I say? I like the routine, the nostalgia and the fuzzy feelings.

But in the past few years, I’ve realized that maintaining every single tradition while simultaneously adding new ones is not realistic. The FOMO of the holidays quickly turns into yuletide burnout, and it’s not fun. So last year I took a new approach: K.I.S.S. Keep it simple, stupid. It’s not the greatest mantra for the holidays, but I like it because it makes me think of this:

Image result for keep it simple stupid the office

Anyways, keeping it simple last year turned out to be exactly what I needed. After running out of gas pretty early in the season, I let myself coast on the traditions that made me feel good while skipping out on others. It was a valuable lesson for me. I learned that focusing on a few things that made me really happy was infinitely more satisfying than maintaining every tradition at the expense of my semi-valuable free time and sanity. And I also learned that foregoing certain traditions to make room for new family is a good thing! And it gives you all sorts of new, positive feels.

In light of this K.I.S.S. revelation, I wanted to share with you a few traditions, both old and new, I’m happy to keep.

THE OLD

Wrapping Gifts

Since I’ve been in high school, I’ve had the tradition that I cannot wrap any presents until December 1. This, I realize, sounds like no big deal. But as someone that really enjoys wrapping and checking things of my list, it’s a big deal and exceptionally satisfying. And when I think of the holidays from that time until now, a lot has changed – living at home, living in dorms, college apartments, a commune (yes, really) – but wrapping gifts December 1 and onward has been a Christmas constant that makes me happy.

Cookies

My mom makes the best Christmas cookies. Period. Since I’ve been a kid, she’s maintained a semi-regular lineup of cookies and candies – spritz, cream cheese pillows, raspberry meringue kisses, ting-a-lings and way more. Many of these recipes come from vintage Wisconsin Electric cookbooks and have been filling Kaminski and Michalek bellies for generations. Making (and eating) this regular roster of treats is a tradition I intend on keeping up with for life.

Crafts

The holidays sort of kick my crafty spirit into high gear. The excitement of the season and the long cozy nights make me feel like sitting down and making something silly – not something useful or essential but just plain fun. It’s not often that you get to add extra glitter to everything, after all. Every year the level of craftiness and the number of projects change, but I always try to make time for a little something. Last year I spent an obscene amount of time on Etsy looking at vintage Christmas plastic canvas books. I never got around to making these little Christmas villages, but this year I’m going full boar into this weird, 80s craft. Plastic canvas is the next big thing, folks. You heard it here first!

THE NEW

The Tree

Growing up, my family always had real trees. I fully anticipated myself having a real tree as an adult because I thought fake ones looked, well, fake. But then I realized there’s a big difference between a fake balsam fir and a fake white, iridescent unicorn tree. When I found mine, I pretty much fell in love with the kitschiness of it all (and the fact I can leave it out until February). Since moving into our home, Michael and I put up the tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving so we get to enjoy it for weeks and weeks.

Crafter Hours

Years ago my friend Kat showed me the putz house DIYs on Retro Renovation’s website, and I immediately called for a crafting party. We’ve created two or three houses each during these post-work, snack-filled get-togethers, and I just loved it. Crafter hours are a good way to catch up with pals while also making some headway on holiday crafts. When you add the snacks, these parties are a win-win-win.

Wrapping Gifts Pt. 2

For the past few years, I’ve volunteered to wrap gifts at a nearby Barnes & Noble. All the proceeds go to the Wisconsin Humane Society. Like I said, I love to wrap gifts, and if I get to do it for a cause I love – all the better.

THE LIKE NEW

Day After Christmas Party

Every year, my great-aunt Mary threw a post-Christmas party at her house (now my home!). I have really fond memories of these shindigs. There’d be pizza or Chinese food, a few games and relatives I hadn’t seen since the prior year. These parties were never elaborate, but they were always a highlight of the Christmas season. Once I moved into our home, I knew I had to keep the tradition alive. So now every December 26, Michael and I host a Mary-inspired soiree with PBR, hot toddies and more cookies than you can fathom. It’s probably my favorite tradition of all.

• • •

To give you an idea of the traditions I’ve forgone, here’s a short list: making handmade watercolor Christmas cards (tedious), crafting every gift for EVERYONE (please stop), spending all day baking a bouche noel (huge time suck) and sewing Christmas outfits (frustration of frustrations).

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Merry + Bright Christmas Ornament Wreath

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Are you all ready to hit it with Christmas crafts? I 100% am. This past weekend alone, I made headway on three different Christmas-y DIYs. I got so excited I couldn’t choose just one. Sure, that means I couldn’t finish all three, but I made decent headway on two and completed a sort of spur-of-the-moment DIY: a very sparkly and festive ornament wreath.

I ended up loving the result! How often does that happen? In the ven diagram of crafting, easy, fun, quick and affordable rarely intersect, but this wreath ends up in that impossibly small area.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Straw or styrofoam wreath – mine was 12″
  • Garland – I had 12′ and it was just enough for my wreath (I recommend about a foot of garland for every inch of wreath)
  • Shatter-proof ornaments –  I used about 40 2″-diameter ornaments (various sizes work but I’d try not to go larger than 2″ for a wreath this size)
  • Miscellaneous filler – I found bags of small glittery balls and jingle bells that you might use to fill a vase or something (they were perfect)
  • Hot glue
  • Wire or ribbon for hanging

This is so easy and satisfying and I think it looks like a million bucks. Here’s how it goes:

  1. Wrap the garland around your wreath, making sure it’s evenly spaced and that you can’t see the wreath. Then glue in place every few inches or so on the back side. Make sure the ends are secure and the garland is fairly taught.
  2. Start to glue your ornaments! Start with your larger ones and fill in with smaller ornaments. Don’t be afraid of using a good amount of glue. You really want those suckers to stick good to the wreath (and not just the garland).
  3. Fill in with your smaller do-dads. Jingle bells, random glitter balls, tiny ornaments, etc. are the perfect finishing touch. Once I got these fitted in place, the wreath looked complete.
  4. Glue or tie a ribbon (or wire) to the back and hang!

I seriously love this so so much. Like I said, it was easy, pretty affordable (I think it all cost me about $20) and it packs a serious punch! What I also like about this project is that it’s so customizable. You can easily change up the colors, the types of ornaments or even add lights or a bow.

Happy holidays and happy crafting!

 

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St. Nick’s Day

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It came to my attention some years ago when talking to a friend that not everyone knows about or celebrates St. Nick’s Day. I remember being in the Boston Store offices, mouth agape saying “You don’t know what St. Nick’s Day is?” in the most incredulous tone I could muster. Turns out this little tradition is a bit more Wisconsin than I thought.

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For you newbies, St. Nicholas Day is December 6. If you went to Catholic school like I did, you learned about St. Nick himself and how he’d leave coins in shoes for the needy. Something like that. It’s been a while. But either way, this story translated into old timey children leaving their shoes out and having them be filled with fruits and candies every December 6. And that translated into stockings which got filled with treats for kids like me in the Midwest.

And growing up, St. Nick’s was a big deal. Like really big. My mom imposed a fairly strict no gifts after Thansgiving policy growing up – meaning if I saw a Puppy in My Pocket in the checkout line, I couldn’t get it, and no matter how much I begged, I wouldn’t be seeing that new Littlest Pet Shop until December (I was really into small toy animals). When the Advent calendar went up on December 1 (the same calendar I have today #traditions), it seemed like an eternity to December 6 and some sort of new trinket. But when St. Nick’s Day finally came it was a day to rejoice. Extra bubblegum (every year, even though my mom hates gum)! Reese’s peanut butter cups in a candy cane! Marshmallow Santas! A Looney Toons nightshirt! YES!

This tradition is something I still celebrate today even though I’m 27-years-old. Michael and the cats all get a stocking and we open them up in the morning. It’s great! So many treats! So many surprises! This year was a particularly good year – Michael got the Beach Boys Christmas album and I got an ice cream sandwich ornament. Big wins.

And before you even ask, no, Christmas Eve/Christmas Day stockings are not a thing. Why would you get extra presents in a giant sock when you already have gifts under a tree? Consolidate or get a jump and put that stuff out 19 days earlier. Geez.

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Mullet Month

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I check my horoscope on Refinery 29 at the beginning of each month. Does it mean anything? Meh. Does it help me procrastinate an extra five minutes at work? Definitely. Typically I read the post and immediately forget everything it says. But this month, good ol’ R29’s horoscope said that for Miss Pisces, December is going to be a mullet month: business in the front, party in the back. Reading that I decided that if it wasn’t written in the stars, I was still going to make that happen.

Which is why I’ve been sparse around these parts. The first week of this month I spent doing all the shopping I could. Last week I tore up the house getting it ready for new counter tops (which look amazing!), and this week I’m trying to put it all back together so when the weekend hits I’m ready to party. Cue up that Kristen Wiig gif.

Since I’ve been working away like head elf and never took the time to photograph step-by-step anything, I figured I’d just share some random snapshots of Christmas cheer. Why not? Who doesn’t like looking at cookies and teeny Tina Belcher ornaments?

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I’ve still got a few loose ends to tie up for my post-Christmas extravaganza (AKA family day after Christmas party), but I’m going to shift into party mode anyway – and you should too! Happy holidays, everyone! Hope they’re merry and bright.

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K.I.S.S.

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You know: keep it simple, stupid. I’ve decided that it’s is my holiday motto this year.

Typically I am your holiday overachiever. I’ve painted, drawn or scrapped together holiday cards. I’ve always had wrapping paper schemes complete with the perfect bows, ribbons and tags. One year I couldn’t find any labels to match my paper so I painstakingly hand painted every tag with gold paint and glitter like a crazy person. Most years I also make at least one gift for everyone on my list. In years gone by I’ve literally made every gift, again, like a crazy person.

Grinch

But this year unlike days of yore, I’ve decided to cool it a bit. I ordered cards online. I have a gift wrap scheme of sorts but no bows and certainly no customized tags. I made only one gift – a small trinket for a pal and coworker. And you know what? It’s helped me to relax and enjoy the season. Instead of killing myself over origami ornaments, I get to sit by my tree and watch Christmas episodes of Bob’s Burgers. Rather than spending nights up to my elbows in glitter, I get to listen to Christmas albums on the hi-fi while stirring up kolaczki.

I recognized that the activities that once made me feel in the holiday spirit stressed me out a bit. Don’t get me wrong – I’d love to make more gifts and craft a little more, but with a full time job and lots of entertaining (plus trying to finish up the kitchen) these festive activities felt more like chores. No one should have a meltdown over sewing a Christmas skirt (although I did).

With only a month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I say make the most of it in the ways that fulfill you. For me, this meant maximizing nights home with Michael, spending more time with family and making more cookies. It also meant scaling back shopping a bit, simplifying the wrapping and lessening my crafty workload. It doesn’t mean I was less busy, but it meant I just felt more balanced. In the future, I’m sure all these factors will shift around, but in the meantime I’m going to enjoy the last of this pre-Christmas season the best way I know how: eating cream cheese pillows, watching the cartoon Grinch and hanging out with my fam.

Happy holidays to you and yours. Now go take a break. 🙂