Miscellaneous

Stuff

This post is aptly named. I have a bunch of “stuff” going on and I thought I would give you a peak into some of what’s happening around here.

MASON

He is so big you guys. I took him to the vet today just so I could weigh him out of morbid curiosity. When he was in three weeks ago, he weighed 39 lbs.

Today at 14 weeks, he weighs 50. Weird, my back could have sworn it was more than that.

I just love a big dog, but they are a puppy for only an instant. They do however make astounding messes when potty training, but that’s a whole other deal. Let me just say that my carpet cleaner is my new best friend. We spend a lot of time together.

VALENTINES DAY

My kids are as obsessed as I am, and Pia got up at 5 AM to work on her Valentines today. I’m tired. But I will share this awesome craft that we made later this week.

I am doing a Valentines Day Segment on New Day Northwest tomorrow, Wednesday the 8th at 11AM on KING 5 for all you Northwesterners. (I will put it on my blog later this week for those of you who are not.)

I have another Valentines Day Segment coming up on Monday the 13th on
Access Hollywood. Ha! Does that make you chuckle as much as it does me? I will share more details about that in the days to come, but I am SO EXCITED!!!

HGTV:

Are any of you HGTV fans? I am.

And I just spent the last week filming the first part of two different segments of their new show “I hate my contractor” out on the East coast.

It was exhausting, but it was awesome.

I am getting to design two different NEW kitchens for families who have been basically screwed over by contractors and left with the mess. Can you imagine? These poor people who shelled out a bunch of money and let people come into their home and then were left with crap-ola.

But John DeSilvia comes and saves them. For two episodes, I get to be his trusty design sidekick. Pretty Cool huh?

I will let you know when I go back and shoot the second half. Maybe that time I will be together enough to take some better pictures. All I shot with my I phone is pictures of the piles and piles of equipment.

Lame I know- but the amount of stuff is crazy!!

MY MOM and DAD

While Pete and I were gone for 6 days, my mother fixed all of my 4 year olds sleep “issues.” My dad stopped the dog from biting everything in site and I came home to perfectly adjusted children and an organized pantry. Thank You mom and dad.

The WEIRD WEATHER

Oh! Also, uh, as the weather has turned on it’s head this year. (uh, we had a blizzard two weeks ago?) and now it has been so warm and sunny that my crocuses are blooming.
??? what ???
**By the way- I had to crouch in a lawn full of dog poop to take this picture this morning. I hope you like it.

I feel an epic gardening year coming on…. Does anyone care about gardening here? Let me know….

Pin It

Please meet the newest Christo!

I would love to introduce you to a very special new family member.

Please meet Mason.

I am in love with him already.

He is an English Mastiff, and at 10 weeks old, he is already 43 pounds. He’s gonna be a big boy.

The girls are having the time of their lives.

We are busy snuggling with him and cleaning up puppy poo-poo right now- but I will be back tomorrow with cozy and delicious winter recipes!

Sunsets and Snow

After an almost unbelievably mild winter, and a very sunny week I went to bed after seeing this…

And woke up to this…

Now, just to clarify. We don’t ever have sunsets like this in Seattle.

The sunrises last week were also spectacular.

We also are not much of a snow town. Like it only really snows every couple of years.

Snowy days are my very favorite to get busy in the kitchen and it is supposed to snow all week. Hope your hungry!

Winner of Party Pretty Giveaway!

The winner of the party pretty giveaway was:

Comment #117
Marianne Simon Design
Submitted on 2011/12/01 at 9:24 am
“Yep, I follow you on Twitter, too!”

Congratulations Marianne! Please get in touch with me by the night of the 7th with your mailing address!

Shutterfly “Edible gifts” book winners!

Shutterfly “Edible gifts” book winners!
These were the five winners, randomly chosen through random.org by their comment numbers.

1) Comment 71: Gianna
Submitted on 2011/11/29 at 10:58 pm
Well, being Greek, we make koulourakia, kourambiedes (my favourites! Greek style butter cookies), and melomakarona. Every weekend my nieces and nephews come over and we bake. Everything and anything from pancakes to cupcakes, from fudge to cookies. Our motto is “nothing from a box, everything from scratch”. We like to sit and create our recipes before we get started. They, and I, would love a copy of your book.

2) Comment 17: Tama
Submitted on 2011/11/27 at 8:03 pm
“Fudge made with marshmallow creme – the easy way! Everyone loves it here.”

3) Comment 90: JoAnn Xydis
Submitted on 2011/12/01 at 10:35 pm
“i’m already signed up for your subscriptions :)”

4) 33: Meredith
Submitted on 2011/11/28 at 5:22 am
“Heather, I would LOVE to win one of your books! I go online every morning to see if you have posted another beautiful photo and recipe to inspire me for the day! (I have even called your agent to see if you have any books for purchase yet!) I already subscribe to your posts. However, my favorite holiday cookie is a fruit drop cookie that my mother makes every year. They are loaded with fruit and nuts and even people who say they don’t like fruitcake love this recipe. Although I am in my 50′s, when I eat one of these cookies, I feel like I am reliving my childhood. I have made the recipe myself, but somehow, my mother’s batches always taste best!”

5) Comment 85: Cynthia Sasaki
Submitted on 2011/12/01 at 9:34 am
“Snowballs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 Tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
2 sticks of unsalted butter or 1/2 pound at room temperature
Powdered Sugar for rolling after baking
Preheat oven 325°F
Use your hands or a wooden spoon to mix the flour, nuts, butter, vanilla, sugar, salt in a large bowl.
Work the dough to combine ingredients until it forms a ball of dough, but do not overwork.
Make nuggets and roll into balls.
Arrange on nonstick baking sheet or parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from baking sheet and roll gently in 2 cups of powdered sugar. Place on rack to cool.
When cool, dredge again in the powdered sugar.
To store airtight, wrap in mini-muffin cup paper liners or waxed paper.
You can make these larger in 2 Tablespoon portions for 18 cookies.
I hope I win :^)”

Please email me at heatherchristo@gmail.com with your mailing address by Sunday morning to claim your prize. If your info is not received by 9am PT Sunday, your prize will be re-drawn.

Getting Party Pretty… a giveaway!

Hi guys. Welcome to my new section called “stuff.” Stuff pretty much sums it up. It’s just stuff I like, stuff I wanted to show you that it isn’t food and isn’t about entertaining.

Like today. Today I thought I would share something with you that I adore. Pretty makeup. Pretty makeup that is beautiful on all skin colors and happen to be my favorite lineup of colors right now.

(By the way- sorry to any gentleman reading this right now. However you want to get in good with your wife/mother/daughter/sister/girlfriend right now- keep reading.)

I use these products regularly when I hit the town:

Nars Blush in “orga*m” (pretty, pretty peachy pink color)
MAC “Ruby Woo” red matte lipstick
MAC eye liner in “graphic black”
MAC eye shadows in “tempting” and “honey lust”
OPI red nail polish in “even red gives me the blues”

This is a “My Favorite Holiday Makeup!” giveaway.

And because I love you all so much, and want you to feel fabulous over the holidays, I am giving away this entire beauty kit to one of you lucky glamazons! (or your wife/ mother/ daughter/ sister/ girlfriend.)

If you would like to enter to win all this gorgeous makeup, you can do the following: **And EACH one will get you a different chance to win! (so be sure to tell me in different comments to get your individual chances!)

1) Tell me your favorite go-to beauty item! (I am a product junkie who needs to know!)
2) Subscribe to HeatherChristo.com here
3) like “Heather Christo” on facebook
4) like this post on facebook
5) follow me on twitter @heatherchristo

This is over at 11:59 on December 4th (Sunday!) So I can mail it out to you in Monday, so you can get gorgeous by Friday! PLEASE make sure you leave a valid email address so I can email you that you won! If you don’t respond in 48 hours, I will pick a new winner!

Also! There is still another giveaway going on here!!!

*Obviously neither Nars, MAC nore OPI have any idea who I am, I just like their products and am giving them away because I like you!