Whirlwind week! FIRSTFriday is December 5th!

I was so full of myself on Saturday because I uploaded three sets of photos onto the blog draft thinking I was ahead of the game for blog entries. Well, not so much in the writing department... Lots in the sewing department though! Most of the items I have been working on are Christmas gifts so I can't post photos of them yet (assuming their recipients are loyal readers!) but here are two of my hand fashioned Santas that are now gracing the front window at Stifel & Capra. I designed both of them from head to toe. I am especially pleased with Santa #1's "puffy shirt". It's a little Seinfeld-ish but it fits really well! I use to sew all of my own clothes in my younger days but this was the first time I fitted something without a pattern. He looks rather dashing don' t you think?

Tomorrow is the FIRSTFriday of the month and that means lots of happenings in Falls Church. We are doing tasting menus at the shop. On the savory side - cheese from Cabot Creamery and on the sweet side signature pie- Buttermilk Coconut Chocolate pie , brownies and blondies from King Arthur Confectioners in Annandale. This is Julie Fiorino's first event here so come try the pie and give her a thumb's up!

We will have more food and libations, sales and specials and I will be sporting my Santa hat; (mostly because I don't have time to do my roots), so come play!

food, food, and more food!

I stepped on the scale this morning and I was raw-ther impressed that I haven't SEEMED to have gained any weight since Thanksgiving Eve. I was going to start this calvacade of food shots with the dashboard snack tray we had in the Explorer as we were driving south. We were going SO slow that the grapes didn't roll off the cheese plate. Apparently my tech skills aren't good enought to transfer Bob's cel phone shot to the blog so you will have to imagine.

I am not imagining things when I tell you that Cousin Terry makes the world's best turkey and that Pat's pumpkin pie truly is scrumptious. Oh and Bob's mile high Bourbon apple pie and cranberry cherry pie were not exactly inedible.... I must say that we DID have lots of veggies along with our turkey and wine counts as a fruit, right?

As if that wasn't enough I waddled into the shop Friday and set up our 2nd annual Champagne Brunch to celebrate the 1st un-official Christmas shopping day. We had more than one person that came in for a break after being at Macy's or Best Buy since pre-dawn hours. They had more fun with us of course!

The fun doesn't end this weekend until tomorrow. Stifel & Capra is open 12 to 4pm. Stop in if you can!

Happy Thanksgiving (and Happy Cranberry!)

In one of those family "acquired taste" traditions we had our annual grinding of the cranberry relish fest last night. It's a simple recipe: one bag of fresh cranberries, one orange and one apple plus sugar to taste are the proportions. After you core the apples, you start crankin'! The kids are young enough to still fight over who gets to turn the manual crank. It tastes better than it looks on film! The relish freezes well and ROCKS on cold turkey sandwiches.

I have spent the afternoon cursing the intricacies of frame relay error messages and wondering if I will get the news out to my mailing list about Friday's Black Friday Champagne brunch. We are having mimosas and goodies to kick off the holiday shopping season so tell and friend and stop in. I'd love to see you!