Happy New Year from Prague!

Happy New Year, Everyone!!! I hope that you have all had a wonderful holiday season! We had a great Christmas in New Jersey, and are now at home with our family in Prague for a little while!

Here are some pictures of our time at home so far...

Old Town Square in Prague. I think the city always looks most beautiful at Christmas time.

The Christmas tree is beautiful this year.

The Christmas market at Old Town Square has lots of little stalls with yummy traditional foods and crafts.

More of the Christmas market at Old Town Square.

Celebrating New Year's Eve downtown!

We had a fun and relaxing time celebrating Christmas at home, and I just had to tell you about a few of the Christmas gifts that I received from my husband this year!

Two of my favorite presents this year - the new book Martha's Entertaining that I really wanted, and Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking! I was so excited to get both of these!

My last present was a beautiful cherry wood jewelry box from my husband. All my jewelry is scattered between lots of different little boxes, so I really needed one to keep it all safely stored! As soon as I unwrapped it, I started opening all the little drawers. When I got to the last drawer, I saw a little blue box wrapped in white ribbon sitting inside it! My husband is the sweetest, he said I needed something to get me started with the new jewelry box, and yes, he went to Tiffany's!

I hope that you all enjoyed the holidays, and wish you and your families all the very best for the new year! A new year, a fresh start! Hope you have a great one!

These are a few of my favorite things...

Since there are only a couple more days left of 2011, I thought I would share some of my favorite projects and recipes that I shared with you this year! I have been blogging for almost a year now, and have loved sharing what I make with you, and seeing and being inspired by all the beautiful things that you all make! Here are some of my favorites!

TEN OF MY FAVORITE PROJECTS OF 2011

I made these Button Sugar Cookies back in March, and they are still one of my favorite things I've ever made! They would make very cute party favors! You can read about these cookies here!

One of my favorite materials to work with is felt, and here are some of my Felt Flower pins and hair clips that I made back in March. Here are more pictures!

Another one of my favorite projects using felt - this Donut Pin Cushion! Check it out here!

These Korker Bows are also really fun project, they are easy to make, and everyone is always surprised that you make them by BAKING the ribbon! Here is my detailed tutorial on how to make these cute hair accessories!

I got my first sewing machine in August, and these throw pillows were some of the first things I made with it!

Another favorite sewing project was my Bow Pillow that I've made in several colors. I love these Bow Pillows, they make any room look pretty and elegant!

This Chocolate Banana Loaf is one of my favorite things to bake - it's rich, moist, and the taste of dark chocolate is just delicious!

Another one of my absolute favorites that I've baked several times is the French Apple Tart from my Ten Days of Apples series.

Before we knew it, Thanksgiving was here, and this was the special "Give Thanks" table runner I made this year!

As always, I loved decorating our home for Christmas this year, and made my traditional Medovniky - Gingerbread Cookies!

Thanks for reading and following along this year, and for all your sweet comments! It's always nice to hear what other people think about the things you make, or what tips they may have for you! I hope you all have a wonderful rest of 2011!

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my sweet readers! I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and that you are spending it with those you love most, making new memories and remembering happy old ones. Thank you for reading my blog, I appreciate all my readers!

Here at our home, the table is set, the tree is lit, the food is cooked, the presents are wrapped and the Christmas music is playing. In a couple of minutes we are going to a candle light Christmas service at our church, and then it's time for our special Christmas Eve dinner!

I managed to cook everything and come out with just one - but very painful - injury. As I was frying the chicken schnitzel in a pan tonight, some of the super hot oil spat right on my wrist, which not only burned me pretty badly, but made my wrist very red - which doesn't go with my outfit for tonight!!!

Merry Christmas to you all!

"But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord."

Christmas Linzer Cookies!

Here is another one of my Christmas baking traditions - Linzer Cookies! There are those tastes and smells that instantly bring back memories, and for me, that's what these cookies do! They just smell like Christmas at home. Ever since I was little, we baked these cookies for Christmas every year, using homemade jelly, which just added to how good they were! I didn't have any homemade jelly today... but they are still pretty good! My favorite kind to use is currant jelly, and so that's what I always use. I just love the combination of the sweet, sugary cookie with the tart sharpness of the currant jelly. Here are some pictures of my cookies this year!

CHRISTMAS LINZER COOKIES

I love these adorable Christmas plates that are embellished with Christmas trees and penguins. They were a gift from my mom a couple of years ago, and I love using them! These cookies are especially good with currant jelly, although seedless raspberry or strawberry would also be good! They are usually sprinkled with powdered sugar too, but I prefer them without the sugar, so that's why mine aren't sprinkled!

I can't believe that Christmas is this week already! Here in New Jersey, it really doesn't look like it outside! For the past two years that we've lived here, we've had blizzards and tons of snow before Christmas every year, and now it's raining and the temperatures are in the 60's. We are flying back home to Prague, Czech Republic the day after Christmas, so I guess that it's good that there isn't any snow, as last year our flights kept getting cancelled for two days because of the blizzard! I hope you are all having a wonderful week anticipating Christmas and remembering the Christmas story!

Merry Christmas!

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A Little Christmas Tour of Our Home!

Hi Everybody! As promised, here are some more pictures of some of my Christmas decorations!

Our Christmas Tree! This was the first time I wrapped ribbon around the tree - it was so much harder than it looks! First of all, it was hard to evenly space our the ribbon, AND I only got two spools of ribbon thinking it would definitely be enough, only to run out halfway through the tree. It was late at night and I couldn't go out to get more... very frustrating! But I like the way it came out at the end!

One of our traditions - my Gingerbread Medovniky Cookies that I recently wrote about.

My Advent Wreath that I made a couple of years ago.

Some of my Christmas treasures - a couple of very old ornaments that my grandmother gave me, they were her's when she was a little girl.

And here are some of my favorite ornaments...

Cinderella's Glass Slipper - given to me by my mother-in-law

I love this Acorn ornament!

One of my beautiful Czech ornaments from Prague

A snowman ornament from Prague

I have a Venice ornament, because my husband and I went to Venice on our honeymoon! I love this ornament, it was given to me by my husband's aunt.

One of my new additions this year - I love this Santa ornament!

And last, as a lover of all things cupcakes, can't have a Christmas tree without a Cupcake ornament! I love this cute one!

And here is the tree lit up at night... home is never as cosy as it is at Christmas time!

Merry Christmas, Everybody!

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Mary Poppins on Broadway!

I can't believe that there is only one week left until Christmas! I hope you are all having a great Christmas-is-almost-here weekend, whether you are decorating, cooking, baking or finishing up (or maybe just starting!) your shopping! You know those "best weekend ever-s"? This was definitely one of them - my husband and I went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway! It was absolutely amazing! Between all the singing, dancing, beautifully colorful and detailed sets that were constantly changing, the beautiful New Amsterdam Theater and the fact that Bert tap danced ACROSS THE CEILING and the show ended with Mary Poppins FLYING AWAY OVER THE AUDIENCE, it was UNBELIEVABLE!!! A magical experience for sure, and a Christmas memory I'll never forget!!!! I hope you're all making lots of those special memories with people you love this holiday season!

Mary Poppins on Broadway

One of my favorite scenes from the musical.

Here are some pictures of our day...

Going to see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Plaza

This is the only reason I ever wish I could skate...

One of the Toy Soldiers by the Christmas Tree

The tree looks so pretty at night!

The city all decorated for Christmas

So excited to be seeing Mary Poppins!!!

Always looking for crafting inspiration, right??? I saw these adorable Christmas trees hanging in a shop window and had to take a picture to remember them for later! So cute!

I hope you are all enjoying the preparations for Christmas, not getting too stressed out with all that you have to get done, and making lots of wonderful memories that you'll remember every Christmas to come!