Homemade Eclairs

First things first: James, eat your heart out!

I've been looking all over Beaverton for eclairs to rival Bill Leslie's from Leslie's Bakery in Salt Lake, but all to no avail. Beaverton Bakery has pretty good ones, but they're way expensive ($2 each!) and not as good as the ones I remember.

Imagine my happiness, then, when the Oregonian ran a whole two page spread with recipes for making your own eclairs! I made a batch for a Christmas party at the Harts' house last night, and they were great, if I do say so myself! They weren't difficult to make, though they were time consuming and made a terrific mess as I tried to pipe the filling into the pastry shells. Lots of finger-licking -- oh, darn!

Advent Calendar

I've meant to put this post up for the longest time but hadn't managed to get the pictures I needed taken till just recently. I guess that's appropriate, though, since the project itself took me two years to finish. :) Presenting, the Mauery family advent calendar!

It was a Bucilla felt applique kit and had lots of hand embroidery, sequining, and beading to do, which is why it took so long to put together. There is the calendar itself, pockets for each day, and one small figure for each pocket.

They didn't have anything great to do with the items when you took them out each day (just a pocket at the bottom of the calendar to stash them in), so I came up with something else. I embroidered a number on the back of each piece so they'd stay in the right order and added strings to make them into ornaments.

Now, each day the kids take turns getting an ornament from a pocket and hanging it on our Christmas tree. And yes, there have already been arguments about whose day it is to hang the ornament, which pieces are the cool ones, and how many we get to put up each day. (Maybe if we put up more than one, Christmas will come sooner?? Maybe? Please???) It's a tradition in the making.