Lord of the Rings

Sartorial Saturday–Ethereal Evenstar

Today I’m taking a look at something pretty different for me…a velvet bell-sleeved dress in the most beautiful bluish-purple shade from Her Universe inspired by my favorite costume worn by Arwen in The Lord of the Rings!

I have had my eye on this dress FOREVER, but even when it went on sale, I wasn’t going to buy it Ladybug was ordering a different bell-sleeved dress inspired by Arwen however, and encouraged me to get this so we could each have a dress inspired by our current favorite movie series. It’s such a beautiful dress, I didn’t take much convincing!

For my first wearing of the dress, Bunny chose my accessories, including a floral crown and necklace (which is actually hers) from Rare Dirndl, and also a pair of twisted metal hoop earrings that came from her collection. She said they were the perfect accessories for an Elf!

She also added my ankle boots from Lane Bryant:

I love the drama of a bell sleeve!

The attention to detail is outstanding…I love the Evenstar embroidery on the sleeve, and the silver embroidery around the layered neckline.

Honestly, the only thing I would change about this dress is the skirt…I wish it was a few inches longer, and just a bit fuller, but I like the look so much I don’t really even mind that it’s lacking those details!

I hope Her Universe makes more pieces inspired by Arwen, because she has some of the most amazing costuming in Hollywood, even after all these years!

Tasty Tuesday–Festive Feasts and Holiday Baking

Time for a last look back at the festive feasting season!

We started Thanksgiving week by baking…Christmas Funfetti cupcakes? There’s never a bad time for Funfetti!

Of course, the main attraction Thanksgiving week was the turkey dinner:

And seven pies!

We celebrated Nikolaustag with chicken Döner Kebab and gingerbread tiramisu:

The next special dinner was a week later, for Santa Lucia Day, featuring potato pancakes and kielbasa, with cranberry fluff for dessert…and let’s not forget the lussekattes for breakfast!

We had a gingerbread layer cake filled with gingerbread mousse and frosted with molasses cream cheese frosting on Christmas Eve:

And our favorite cherry coffee cake for breakfast on Christmas Day:

But the best meal of the year is the Christmas Day pick-out dinner!

For our “fancy” Christmas dinner, we had bolognese, breaded artichokes, and fresh baked Italian bread:

In keeping with the Italian theme, we had cannoli for dessert:

On New Year’s Eve, we had black bean soup and corn bread:

And our traditional hot chocolate bar, of course!

Our New Year’s Day dinner was enjoyed a day late…I made pork medallions and spaetzle:

And we had a Glühwein-Kuchen for dessert:

We also had a special “Lord of the Rings Day” celebration (on Tolkien’s birthday!), featuring one of the fanciest chicken recipes I make, and “Westfarthing Fairings” from the Recipes from the World of Tolkien cookbook:

For the last feast of the season, Ryan’s birthday dinner, (which also happens to be Epiphany), we had fry bread and chili:

And Boston Cream Pie for dessert:

We did lots of other baking along the way, including a pair of Italian Christmas cookies for Christmas school:

And all of our favorite fancy Christmas cookies…chocolate crinkles, linzer augen, chocolate peppermint, raspberry almond thumbprints, peppermint meltaways, and fig thumbprints:

With the addition of a few of the pudding cookies Bunny made, they created a beautiful Bunter Teller!

For our New Year’s Eve hot chocolate bar, we baked two kinds of hot chocolate cookies:

In addition to the Christmas cracker candy I usually make, we also tried a new recipe that had sliced almonds on top:

And on the last day of Christmas, we baked and decorated sugar and gingerbread cookies:

I made a couple of bonus pies along the way, too:

And a bevy of festive drinks, including standards like egg nog and wassail, and some frappe kits from Aldi:

And just as we made a special dessert at the beginning of Thanksgiving week, we ended Epiphany week with a carrot cake:

I think that’s it for festive feasts and holiday baking…I’m ready to close the Markel bakery for a bit!

Lord of the Rings Day

Before Christmas break started, we decided we should have a “Lord of the Rings Day” and watch all of the movies back-to-back-to-back while everyone was still home on vacation. I picked today for our marathon, but it wasn’t until after we started The Fellowship of the Ring this morning that I discovered that today is actually Tolkien’s birthday! How felicitous is that?!?

I saved the Lavender & Pine candle I bought at the Bath & Body Works semi-annual sale to burn today…something about it seems rather Elvish to me!

We saved the “Vintersaga” mulled fruit drink we found on clearance at Ikea for today, too…it has a very nice “mulled wines of Moria” vibe!

And I couldn’t let the day go by without making something from Recipes from the World of Tolkien…you’d think I’d be sick of baking cookies, but that didn’t stop me from making Westfarthing Fairings, which are flavored with cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and lemon zest…perfect for the days after Christmas!

Our dinner wasn’t inspired by the world of Tolkien, but it was one of the fancier dinners I make, and one that everyone loves…pan-fried chicken and grapes with a creamy mustard sauce served over couscous.

I can’t believe that the random day I picked for our movie marathon was actually Tolkien’s birthday…what a great way to make a fun day extra special!

Lego Rivendell

After 25 days of building Lego Rivendell throughout the season of Advent, the set is complete!

This is a really great set, and full of splendid details. There are a lot of minifigures, including the entire Fellowship, and Bunny had fun posing them around the set:

Here are a few shots from above:

And a look at the back of the set:

And here are some details that I just really like:

This was a great set for an Advent project. Even Turkey, our resident Lego expert, found some aspects of the build challenging, which is no easy feat. It split up pretty nicely, both across the 25 days of Advent, and in terms of how many bags each of the Fab Five got to build. And I still think it’s the most beautiful set Lego has ever made, and after seeing all of the tiny details and elements of building, I’m even more convinced!

Advent 2025–Day Twenty-Five

Today Bunny finished Lego Rivendell, putting together bags 48 & 49. Aragorn finally joined the Fellowship:

She also added the resting place of Narsil:

And an armory:

Plus she completed the tree Turkey started yesterday:

Stay tuned for pictures of the complete set!

Advent 2025–Day Twenty-Four

After weeks of building his home, Elrond has finally arrived to Lego Rivendell!

Turkey built bags 46 & 47, which is the setting for the Council of Elrond, plus another tree:

I love the chair details:

Just one more sleep until Christmas Eve!

Advent 2025–Day Twenty-Three

Today Moose built bags 44 & 45 of Lego Rivendell, which created the base for the big table for the Council of Elrond:

Just two more builds to go!

Advent 2025–Day Twenty-Two

Here we are at Advent IV already!

Today Chickadee added some trees to Lego Rivendell with the contents of bags 42 & 43:

Here’s a closer look at the larger one:

With only three days of Advent left, the set really is close to complete…the largest piece missing is Elrond’s table:

And only Elrond himself and Aragorn are missing from the cast of characters:

I can’t believe Christmas is this week!

Advent 2025–Day Twenty-One

Today was a very exciting day, because Ladybug got to add the penultimate member of the Fellowship, Legolas, to Lego Rivendell:

She put together bags 40 & 41, which add nice covered entrance with even more tiny square roof tiles…I believe she attached all of the roof tiles for the entire set! She also added a table with lembas bread.

Pictures don’t really show how truly immense this set is…we’re running out of room on the table to build it! I looked up the measurements of the completed set before I ordered it, but even that didn’t do it justice.

Just four more days of building to go!

Advent 2025–Day Twenty

Today Ladybug built bags 37, 37, & 39 of Lego Rivendell, and they all joined together to make one large roof panel covered with a zillion tiny little square tiles:

She really enjoys lining up them up just so, and she’s really good at it (and super patient…I would have lost it trying to get them straight!):