baking and making with my family of 9
6 sleeps to go…..are you ready yet? I’m not…but I have whipped this up to go with my grandma’s pressie….its a lovely cotton handtowel from the latest Mason-Dixon knitting book (which I looooove).
Took 2 nights to knit up in sugar’n’cream and feels really thick and lovely! I’m just tossing up whether I have enough to time to make another one….
I’d love to show you photos of my latest project or Keira’s kindy concert but retro daddy has taken my camera cordy thingo that plugs into the camera and computer so here I am rehashing but anyway this is on my list to make before Christmas….no its not a toddler…I am not making one of those this Christmas…
no, its the perfect present for an Aussie Christmas in the sun…its the Amy Butler Blue Sky hat and I made it last year with light weight canvas and pellon and its gorgeously soft and still going strong in its second season….
The canvas came from Spotlight and was a real find!
Santa needs a bigger sack this year now that there are 3 little good children here…but last year I whipped this up and it came in very handy carting presents around or just for keeping them under the tree and in control
I got my instructions from last years AWW Christmas issue….but its basically 2 large patchwork rectangles, 2 small rectangle sides, 2 handles and you’re done!!!! I didn’t line mine since it was overflowing!
This honestly took 20 minutes to whip up, a square of fabric (can you believe this was from Spotlight…don’t go to Belrose though as I finished the roll), 1.5 times the width of the square to create 2 back pieces (following the instructions in crafters companion) and voila…..
very festive!
ok so not technically crafty but its very Christmas plus its the 14th december and I need to get cracking if I’m going to achieve my target of 25 ideas!!! Gone are the days when I could bake a few traditional fruit cakes which each take up to 3 hours in the oven. These days its a boiled fruit cake baked in cupcake wrappers topped with rum while hot and oodles of icing sugar!
I’ve tweaked an AWW recipe and loved the results…
500g dried mixed fruit
125g butter
1/2 C water
1 C brown sugar
2 eggs
1 C self-raising flour
6 Tbsp (or a couple of good sploshes) of rum or brandy
– in a saucepan put your butter, sugar, water and fruit and cook over medium heat until butter has melted. Add a good splash of rum or brandy and leave to cool in a bowl.
– lightly beat eggs and add to fruit mixture and then add your sifted flour and pour into a cupcake tin lined with paper cases. If your mixture seems too runny then add a dash of plain flour
– bake in 150 degree oven (130 fan forced) for 40 minutes.
– while cakes are hot pour extra rum over cakes and put a nice clean tea towel over the top of the cakes in the tin and let them cool…tempting to eat now but they taste much better if you leave them.
– I sift lots and lots of icing sugar over the top which makes them sweeter and also softens the top of the cakes…..this entire batch was eaten in a day and hubby has put in an order for 2 batches for his work, I’ve got 1 batch planned for mothers group and there will be Christmas and boxing day festivities here to think of…phew I better make a batch as energy food!!!!
No matter how many times I watch this beautiful movie, I still want to watch it again, and again and yep again! Its just so well written and a beautiful story with a touch of comedy, real life, awkwardness and a social message topped off with the very moving soundtrack featuring Damien Rice…..its on ABC tonight and I also catch it on the Hallmark channel whenever its on…..
go and watch it….I’ve honestly lost track of how many times I’ve watched it…..
Its a very yummy time of the year here……a great excuse to get into the kitchen making sweet goodies and this is one of my ‘time-poor mummy’ recipes!! All you need is about 375g chocolate (I use a mixture of dark cooking and eating chocolate), 1/2 cup of slivered almonds and 2 bags of mini marshmallows. Just melt the chocolate and add to the nuts and marshmallows, spread into a lamington tin, refrigerate for 30 minutes…
then cut and eat……quality control is very important in this house and this was my lunch today with a cup of coffee! I kid you not!
Its also nice to make it look pretty and give it away…these are sweet little japanese goody bags with a little peg from Lincraft.
and while I was in the kitchen, retro daddy was attending to the pool…they really are a lot of work those husbands, oops I meant to say pools of course!!!!
You might remember during the year I created this little cute collection of fabric hoops for my little keira
it dawned on me last night that a Christmas collection would be super cute and inviting at our front entrance…..I ran out of smaller hoops so have a great excuse to go to Spotlight tomorrow for a few more hoops…
now if you can cut fabric and put it in a hoop then you can do this…I trim my fabric at the back using my pinking shears a bit like you trim pastry in a pie tin….and I just use blu tack to attach them to the wall!
however you spell it these are the fastest little things to knit and are so cute and functional keeping your coffee cup warm and your hands not too warm…I made this up earlier in the year and plan to whip up a few before Christmas is here
if you’re still stuck for a present how about an ipod or mobile cozy…I’ve found oodles of free cozy patterns here….and I mean oodles!
I made a few of these last year and they are so cute and easy and take no time to whip up. They also make a great gift for friends and family…
all you need is a bamboo hoop (about $2 from Spotlight or Lincraft) or you could use one of your own embroidery hoops to be extra thrifty. Just cut some fabric in festive colours into strips and tie around the hoop. Finish it off with a pretty bow and hang it up for all to see….too easy
Keira goes to her ‘kindy’ once a week and they are having a little concert where she needs to be dressed in red and green…..I decided a little tiered skirt and appliqued tee were the way to go and an afternoon of sewing produced this little christmas outfit which she just adores….
although it does look like she’s knocking herself out with her fairy wand in this pic…..you can also see that my little miss has ditched the reindeer headband in favour of going fairy…
I just used the same measurements for her skirt as an old one but you can find the fabulous pattern here….be careful though as these skirts are highly addictive and keira’s collection is about six skirts now…
Well this is my first bunting and its cute, cheery and pretty quick to whip up….all you need is fabric, a triangle template (I used my template plastic which I am loving…long story below), bias binding ( I cheated and used some cheap stuff I had lying around but the wider binding was a bit less fiddly) and I used pinking shears to make one-sided triangles…if you don’t have 4 month old twins you could probably do double sided triangles but that was looking like taking too long plus I needed an excuse to spend $50 on pinking shears!!!!!
I didn’t follow a particular pattern so your first attempt may look better than mine if you do follow a pattern….but enjoy!
long story on template plastic…I’d been looking for a few weeks and couldn’t find it anywhere at my local spotlight…on a trip when I’d practically given up on the stuff I was looking at knitting patterns and there underneath the patterns were a few piles of template plastic….it didn’t matter that the quilting section is on the very other side of the store and template plastic had nothing to do with the knitting section but there they were and I was happy!!!!
I’ve had these special little pieces of fabric hiding amongst my fabrics for a while and decided it was time to cut into them and its the perfect time of year to give a little bit of luxury. I used some on yo -yo’s…I’m getting much better at these little guys…
and how about button hair elastics….man they are a piece of cake…I used some plastic birch self cover buttons but don’t be a blonde like me…the back of the button pops off and you put it back on the other way…don’t be like me pressing with all your might on the back THE WRONG WAY because they’ll just end up in the bin! Some covered buttons would also make a cute present for a knitter or crafter…..
so go on…you know you want to cut into it and using a teeny tiny piece won’t hurt
wow has it really been 4 months since these little ones arrived???? I still have a little tummy as a reminder of their former home but I just can’t believe how quickly they are growing into such funny little people. Tillie is ever the drama queen having a cry when she wiggles off her mat or is hungry but loves to laugh and smile at anyone and everyone.
Finn is also a super happy baby and just takes it all in his stride letting Tillie do most of the crying and just goes with the flow….
and they are both chick magnets….mostly the older variety who stop us whenever we are out to peer in the pram, ask 20 questions and just smile at them…at first I found it annoying and a bit of a time waster (we get stopped over 10 times in any outing if the pram isn’t covered and that is no exaggeration) but now I just take it all in, smile sweetly and remind myself they won’t be this little forever.
and although they love each other very much they are also prone to kicking each other at any opportunity and I have to run over quickly to break it up!
and no matter how busy my days are, I always take a moment to remind myself how lucky I am to have this beautiful growing family and be doing the best job in the world….
I happened to find out today that Dan Zanes is coming to Sydney (sorry to the rest of Australia) and has a few concerts during the Sydney Festival …..
and now I’m definitely more excited than Keira that we’ll be going to the concert….there will be a lot of dancing going on and it won’t be just Keira shaking it…
oh and if you haven’t heard of Dan Zanes then you better go here to watch his videos and have a little dance!
