Three-Layer Peppermint Crunch Bark

This past Monday I finally got around to making something I've been meaning to make for years.  What is it, you might ask? Well, delicious peppermint bark, of course!  When we took down our (sad, dried up) Christmas tree this past Sunday I was left with a handful of uneaten candy canes.  What better way to put them to use than by making peppermint bark.

My true interest in this minty confection was piqued after reading Molly Wizenburg's write up on her blog, Orangette.  I followed Molly's recipe, which is actually her sister's, who is famous and loved for the peppermint bark that she adapted from a recipe published in the December 1998 issue of Bon Appétit. Whew!  I think a book of recipe family trees would be quite interesting, don't you?

Oliver + S: Birthday Party Dress

One lazy, rainy Saturday afternoon way back in September, I grew stark raving bored because I had nothing to work on.  I had been admiring the Oliver + S patterns and decided to give one a whirl, even though I have no children of my own to sew for.  I do, however, have a friend with a wee little girl who I knew would appreciate a handmade garment.  So, off to the fabric shop we went where I picked up my pattern- the Birthday Party Dress by Oliver + S and my fabrics and notions.  As soon as I got home I got straight to work, confident that I would have a dress completed by the end of the weekend.  Silly me, I was a bit over ambitious as I did not finish the dress that weekend. Nor the next.  Or the next after that.  Life got in the way- that lazy weekend in September was a thing of the past- we adopted our little Heidi, Halloween arrived, and then Thanksgiving, and finally Christmas and New Year's.  Each weekend busier than the next.  I did not finish the dress until last week- approximately 3 months later.  Life does that to you sometimes.  

It was well worth the wait and the time spent because I am so proud of the finished piece.  I don't mean to lead you in to believing that this dress took me 3 months to sew- I just spanned it out that long.  It probably would have taken me a week to work on if I stuck with it every night.  (I am a very slow and cautious sewist- often staring at the pattern and searching online for examples before I make the plunge into the next step.)