A Busy Christmas...

I have finally come down from my little Christmas cloud where everything is busy and merry and you can eat and drink as you please.  We've had visits from friends and family over the last week or so and we have done some visiting too.  We've had a great time.

I decided this Christmas that I was not going to take photos, I was just going to live the moment and enjoy it.  I did take a couple but they are not great because I didn't charge my big camera and I am really bad at taking photos on my little one.  So here are the few I have:

Nathan, being Nathan with his hat on upside down!

We had lots of Lego action happening at our house and we still do.  The kids just love Lego.  Emma got a great stable with horses etc and Nathan got a truck to add to his collection.  He got a Harry Potter Lego game which he and Anthony had a great time playing today.

And I was a very happy camper when I got this sweet owl as a pressie.  Toni also made me a gorgeous owl calendar and I was spoilt with some Pandora charms and perfume.

Gingerbread House...

It has become a bit of a tradition over the last few years to make a gingerbread house at Christmas, they look so nice and we use it as our table centrepiece.  I have to be honest I have looked for gingerbread house cutting kits but have not found one in our budget (yet!) So I usually buy one from Aldi.  We did that this year too, I was not so impressed this year, they have changed from the ones they usually have.  Anyway I thought I would share how it came out.

I am kicking myself, I saw the cutting kits about 2 weeks ago in house for $16.95 and should have bought it but now it is gone!  I'm still looking though.

Some handmade gifts...and a market tomorrow!

I have been busy this week making the rest of my handmade goodies for Christmas, I have to say that I feel very relieved now that all my sewing is done...now I only have to sew what I feel like.  I do have my Christmas baking to do but I have plenty of time for that.

First I made my special girlfriends all a cosmetic purse along with an appliqued owl face washer and a handmade soap.  I was so happy with the result, these are going to be on my good gift list for future birthdays etc.

I made an art tote for a great boy named Tom.  It was a new pattern for me but I was happy with the end product and I think Tom was too.

 Inside I made pencil slots along one side and I filled them with colours and sketch pencils.

 On the other side I left a large pocket to hold an A4 sized sketch pad.

 I also made the lovely little Sierra a Princess and the Pea set along with storybook.  I just love these sets they are soooo cute and easy to make.

Today we made our gingerbread house and it turned out well, I have yet to take photos of it, so I will do that tomorrow. 

I have the car packed ready for markets tomorrow, so lets hope the rain stays away and I make it!!  Come by and grab any last minute gifts you need.

Giveaway...

Don't forget to leave a comment by midday tomorrow (Wed) to go into the draw to win my hand made birdie.  The more comments you leave, the more chances you have! He's hoping to go to a good home!

Rainy Days = Sewing Time

With the weather very very wet at my house this weekend and my markets cancelled I thought it was a good opportunity to get some Christmas presents sewn.  I managed to get 10 cosmetic purses made and also some other little gifts that I will share next weekend (after I have given them to their recipients).

I have to say that I am really happy with the progress I made, I feel like I am much more on track to be ready for Christmas now.

Next sewing project - my 2 secret Santa gifts for an upcoming Christmas play date.

What I've been up to...

With my Christmas shopping almost complete I need to get started on the huge list of sewing gifts I have assigned to myself.  So that is what I have been doing.  I have finished all my parent helper (from work) presents and I have made some fabric covered notebooks (for gifts and for my next market).

Have you ever wondered how you could make pencils or pens look good with a gift.  I found this idea somewhere so I used it!  You get your pencils and wrap some embroidery floss around them and tie it through a button.  I think it just makes them look that little bit special.  Then I added them to a fabric covered notebook.

This one for Nathan's teacher (along with some Gloria Jeans coffee vouchers).

And this one for Emma's prep teacher-aide.

Lastly, here are mine and Toni's thank you gifts for the parents who help us out in our classroom.  I made each parent a lavender bird...

 And Toni made each one a key fob.  We added a small box of delicious chocolates and got this little parcel.  We are hoping they like it.

I'll be back to share more later, I am busy sewing and paper crafting and luckily crossing some things off my long, long list!

Let's Get Christmas Started...

Well December 1st is now upon us so it is time to start with all things merry.  On my blog I thought I would celebrate the festive season with a little giveaway.  Here it is, a little felt lavender birdie.  You can hang it on the tree or put in in your draw or hang it in your cupboard (clothes or linen).  I have hand sewn the wing and then machine stitched the bird together after adding a little bit of lavender for a gorgeous scent.

All you have to do to go into the draw to win is leave a comment, on any post between now and December 15th (that's two weeks).  I would love to know what your favourite thing to make people is for Christmas but any comment will do.  The more comments you leave the more times I will put you in the draw. 

I hope I hear from you! 

Have a very merry Christmas season!

Super quick, easy and inexpensive Christmas Gifts

We have a few little gifts to give to people where we don't want to spend much money but we do want to let them know that they are appreciated.  People like scouts leaders, hairdressers, beauticians etc.  So while I was looking among my shelves the other day I came across some small noodle boxes and decided to put them to good use.  This is what I ended up with.

I used Christmas paper that I already had along with ribbons from my collection along with buttons, flowers and cute little Christmas bells that are left over from last year.    I then filled them with some Favourites Chocolates.  All done, and I didn't spend anything apart from having to buy the chocolates.  They also only took about 15 minutes to make the lot!

Joeys

Last night instead of attending Joey scouts Emma and her group went to the old people's home in town.  They sang the some Christmas songs and gave them Christmas decorations that they had made.  It was nice to do something like that.  So, I thought I would share a couple of photos of Emma singing her songs.

She's so cute!

I've also been working on some Christmas presents over the last week and I thought I would make one for a giveaway so stay tuned and I will have it ready to celebrate the Christmas season on December 1st!

A Christmas Favourite...

Today I thought I would share a favourite Christmas recipe that I have made for years now and it is absolutely delicious.  It is also great for presents and I use the Christmas trees cookie set (that I just purchased today) from Kmart to make the trees (actually last year and years passed I only had 3 cookie start cutters so this year I upgraded to 5 star sizes) The cookie cutter set is in Kmart right now for $5. 

So here it is.  I know this is from a magazine but I have no idea which one so I can't help you there. 

Pistachio Shortbread trees

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter, softened

1 cup pure icing sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

2 cups plain flour
½ cup cornflour
80g packet of pistachios, finely chopped
Extra flour, for kneading
Extra 125g unsalted butter, softened
Extra ½ cup pure icing sugar, sifted
Finely grated rind of 1 lime and 2tsp juice
Extra pure icing sugar, sifted for dusting
Edible silver dust


Method
Preheat oven to 160 C. Line 3 baking trays with baking paper. Beat Butter, icing sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and creamy. Using a wooden spoon, mix in the flours and pistachio.


Gently knead dough on lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide the dough in half and pat into 2 discs. Put 1 disc between 2 sheets of baking paper and then roll out until 5mm thick. Repeat for other disc. Use small, med and large start shaped cutters to cut out 16 of each size. Put stars on prepared trays, one size per tray and bake for 10-15 min or until biscuits are golden. Stand trays on a wire rack for 5 min then transfer biscuits to a wire rack to cool.


Put extra butter, extra icing sugar, lime rind and juice in the bowl of the electric mixer and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Put 1 tablespoon of butter mixture in a small bowl and reserve.


Spread a little of the butter cream on 1 side of 8 small, 8 medium and 8 large start biscuits. Top each star with a matching biscuit and press gently together. TO make the trees, put a large joined biscuit on a flat surface, put ½ tsp of the reserved butter cream onto the centre of the star, top with a med joined biscuit. Put a little of the butter cream on the top and then add a small star biscuit. Dust each tree with icing sugar and a little edible sliver dust.

Easy to make, super yummy to eat and a really nice handmade present for anyone!

Enjoy...

Starting to think about Christmas

Christmas is always celebrated in a big way in our house.  We love all the things that surround the Christmas season.  We always have an advent calendar and over the years the calendars have changed and so have the surprises you find in the pockets.  Last year I made a new advent calendar (you can read about it here) and we will use it again this year, in fact I hope for many years.

We also change the way we do our advent calendar last year, in years past we have just had treats like lollies or chocolates but now we have activities etc.  I loved it last year and so did the kids.  I have started thinking about this years activities etc (some take a bit of organisation) so I thought I would share what I have come up with so far. 

Here is the list (in no particular order)

• write Christmas cards
• a Christmas chocolate treat
• do Christmas puzzles (like word finds, colour by number etc)
• put up the Christmas tree and decorate the house
• write our letters to Santa
• a trip to Brisbane on the train to look at the Myer Christmas window and ride on Santa's train
• make gingerbread men
• wrap teacher presents
• visit the Christmas lights
• read a new Christmas story
• a trip to Australia zoo
• go to the movies and see a Christmas flick
• play date with friends
• make reindeer food
• make Christmas crackers
• Christmas cooking (shortbread trees, rocky road etc)
• watch a Christmas DVD with popcorn
• prepare Santa's plate
• track Santa on the web
• make a gingerbread house
• sew some Christmas decorations
• go the the Christmas parade/carols by candlelight

Some of these things happen more than once and when I do up the final list some might get scrapped but this is my draft.  What do you think?  If you have any other cool ideas I would love to hear them.

My next Christmas job - the Christmas gift list...this needs some serious consideration and action before I end up in a mad pre-Christmas panic!

Christmas is coming

Last year I really wanted to participate in Operation Christmas Child run by Samaritan's Purse but  because it is due in October I just wasn't organised in time.  This year I had forgotten about it to be honest until I saw it on Mel Goodsell's blog.  That got me remembering and this year I was determined to have it done in time.  AND I did!  Yeah for me!! I thought I would share what I did.

You need to fill a shoe box with goodies which fall under certain categories.  This is what our shoe boxes looked like all ready to send.

We chose to do 2 boxes, 1 for a girl Emma's age and 1 for a boy Nathan's age (they both actually fall into the same category of 5-9years).

This is what our girl box looked like inside.

This is what we included (under the categories they give you )

• Something to love - a Dr Seuss book, an owl softie
• Something to wear - 2 pairs socks, a pair of thongs
• Something for school - pencil case, coloured pens, stickers
• Something to play with - balloons, tennis ball, skipping rope, slinky
• Something for personal hygiene - soap, toothbrush
• Something special - hair clips, little coin purse

And this is what our boy box looked like

Unfortunately our boy box was not as overflowing as our girl box, although I think there was enough in it.

• Something to love - dog softie
• Something to wear - thongs
• Something for school - pencil case, coloured pens, small stationery set
• Something for personal hygiene - soap, toothbrush
• Something to play with - tennis ball, 2 Slinky's, balloons
• Something special - Dr Seuss book

When I packed both the boxes I really had to force the lid on to them, they were very full! 

I found boys things harder to get on short notice at the price I wanted to pay.  This time I am going to keep my eye out for little things like this on clearance etc and put them away for next year.  That will save me money but will also help me be more organised. 

I also thought it was important for the kids to play a role in this so we went shopping together to find things and they packed to boxes etc.  They also drew some special pictures inside the box lid for the kids when they open it.

It is something that is definitely worth doing.  Now that I have paid the $9 fee per box to cover postage costs etc, I have an ID number and I can track my box on its journey.