domestic dilettante, humorless feminist shrew

Maura has become very opinionated about her clothing of late. She hates wearing pants–unless they’re worn under a skirt–and is about to devote her life to the fine art of accessorizing. It’s awful. She’s alarmingly pretty. I hate children.

What you can’t see in that second picture is that she’s wearing an awesome Threadless tee (this one, actually), a black and white houndstooth skirt, black lace-trimmed leggings, white sneakers, a pink tote bag, and, obviously, a tiara and some Mardi Gras beads. I have never in my life put as much thought into what I’m wearing as this kid does, guys. And she works it, too. You know what I can work? Sweatervests. That’s about it.

…Actually, as it goes, I’d probably prefer to rock the sweatervest than I would the tiara, anyhow. Nevermind.

In other annoyingly cute news, this is my dog:

That blue thing? That’s his new best friend. It’s a Giant Microbe, specifically the common cold. He loves it so much. It’s pretty hilarious. He likes to sleep with it tucked under his chest, where he knows it’ll be safe.

In news that is unrelated to the annoyingly cute child and animals, I’ve started testing out holiday gifts. Much like–well, like everyone else in this economy, the idea of spending hundreds–or even tens, really–of dollars on gifts is freaking me out. So everyone is getting food, basically. The upside to this is that I can make everything, which I actually like doing, and it’s fairly inexpensive. The downside, of course, is that I have to make lots of things and package them appropriately, and then sometimes go to the post office and mail things.

Fun facts about me: I hate going to the post office almost more than anywhere else. On the list of places I hate going, post office and dentist are possibly the top two. I also hate going anywhere that thinks business hours are from, say, nine to four thirty. (Thankfully, my bank stays open until six, plus they give me money, so I don’t too much mind going there.)

Anyhow, with making everything, I feel like we should try to start early, or at least test the recipes ahead of time. Which, really, is funny all by itself, because it implies that I have things like recipes and plans as opposed to having things like guesswork and sheer dumb luck and internet on my phone so I can check the internet if I get too confused.

Regardless, this weekend, Amanda is going to come over to help us make truffles. I have chai-spiced ganache, rum and caramel ganache, pumpkin ganache, and–possibly my personal favorite–cola ganache. Those will get dipped in chocolate, and then we’ll make some coffee-flavored molded chocolates, and also, at some point, salted caramels. It’s entirely possible that the list will grow, too, as I find things in the cupboard that look like they would be good with chocolate. So far, I do not feel that this is at all overly ambitious of me, but check back in a few weeks.