Author: Paulette Erato

I’m a big fan of cheese—the kind that comes from animals. Vegan cheese? Ugh. Not so much. What even is that??? But I try to be open minded. So I looked into it. I didn’t realize there are so many different varieties. It piqued my interest. Because this is, after …

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: there’s no such thing as a “right” 2021 word of the year for EVERYONE. That said, there’s probably a right word FOR YOU. But we don’t all have to have the same word. Though it’s fine if your word is …

What is Mexican hot chocolate (champurrado) and how is it different from regular hot chocolate? How do you even pronounce champurrado? Fret not, dear reader. You’re about to go on a magical ride. A chocolate-flavored magic ride! This is champurrado: And you can thank the ancient Aztecs and Mayans for …

At first the idea of celebrating the holidays without family made me very sad. But then I got myself right and realized that creating new holiday traditions was its own gift! It’s no secret that this pandemic has been tough for me. I’m going to guess it has been for …

Some variation of mulled wine, a spiced warm drink, is popular in countries around the world. While some may use different base liquids or a slightly different ratios of spices, the similarities are very close. From Scandinavia to India, here are 20 of the best mulled wine recipes for a …

I’ve never had mulled wine, so when I was reading through the delicious sounding recipes for my mulled wine roundup post, I got intrigued. One of the recipes was for a non-alcoholic mulled wine and that got me thinking. They used a bunch of juice, but also mentioned hibiscus tea—which …

There will be some familiar names and looks in my list of top 5 sewing patterns of 2020. Because what I found comfort in during the collectively weirdest year of all was returning to some old favorites. I love these #SewingTop5 lists. I focus on my wins, which is another …

Fabric storage shouldn’t be controversial, right? It’s fabric for crying out loud! But I like a little bit of harmless controversy. So let’s do this. Pinterest is littered with beautiful rainbows of posts like these: Well I contend that storing your fabric all pretty and visible like that is terrible …

If you Google the title of this post (and my new book) “benchmarks are bullshit,” you won’t find many people arguing against this fact. Yet at some point in our lives, we all seem to forget this simple idea. It leads to unhealthy behaviors like getting stuck “in the rat …

Updated 11/27 @ 3:13 pm PST. Here’s your one-stop shop for the Black Friday 2020 deals that excite makers. This post will be updated as new deals come in. Also not all of them are live yet! Check back regularly! Sewing: Black Friday 2020 5 out of 4 Patterns: 30% …