15th December: Christmas Card Making

This year I set myself the challenge of making Christmas cards as opposed to buying them. I still had a few lying around from last year that I bought and so I've used them to save me having to make quite so many cards. I don't send all that many out anyway and hopefully family and friends will appreciate that I sat up until late last night gluing, cutting, measuring and cursing to make their festive cards!

I'm trying to use up old supplies of Christmas craft stuff that I've collected over the years; I used to have just one plastic under-bed box full of craft materials, which has become two, three, four, maybe five boxes! My friend used to work at a craft design company and so got the chance to buy lots of old stock which she'd then share with me too as I love crafting. I did however buy a paper craft pack recently called 'Folk Christmas' and I love the different papers and tags in there. Next year I'm going to have a go at making my own gift tags too (this year I've been using up old tags, ones I make from cutting up old Christmas cards and from ones I've bought in the January sales).

Here's a few photos of my favourite handmade cards, I love the folk and vintage style patterns! I seem to be finding lots of the little squares that come off the back of the foam squares used for decoupage, they fly everywhere!

 

 

 

 

Em x

1st December: Lots To Do

The crazy month has arrived where there's lots to do, cook, make, wrap and most importantly EAT! You can keep all the sweet things, pass me the pickled onions and sausage rolls any day!

I've been busy making lists, I love list making and not a day goes by that I don't make yet another list. This time it's planning what I need to get done every day in the run up to Christmas, what Christmas presents I have left to buy, who I need to make Christmas card and tags for etc. etc.

I sent a little goody box to my brother and his girlfriend yesterday with an array of Christmas-themed items including tree decorations, chocolates, a winter-scented candle and cosy socks! It's their first Christmas living together which I think is very special, it certainly was for Jack and I a few years ago (just as they continue to be!) :-)

 

I need to put my creative 'knickers' on and get making because...

 

 

My wreath rings have arrived ready for me to have a go at some wreath making...

 

 

I need to make some more crochet Christmas trees to finish making my little garland...

My bargain card craft pack arrived - it's 'Folk Christmas' themed and I just loved all the colours. I've got no excuse but to get making more Christmas cards and tags!

 

Finally, I made a start on wrapping a few presents that will need to be posted to our friends in the coming weeks. My favourite part of Christmas is wrapping presents and I love using lots of tissue paper, wrapping paper, ribbons, bows and anything else to make them look pretty! Jack gets very frustrated when opening presents from me as he says they're an extra challenge - he especially likes it when I put Christmas confetti in his card hehehe! I think I'll have to give the confetti a miss this year; I can just imagine it exploding onto the floor from Jack's Christmas card and Barry gobbling them all up; Barry says "if it falls on the floor, it's mine". He shared a clementine with me last night!

 

 

 

We also had a very excited puppy (actually, I think I was more excited than Barry) this morning when we opened his advent calendar for him.

 

 

 

How are your Christmas plans going?

 

I'm very excited as our new sofa and armchair are being delivered tomorrow! This is our first ever sofa purchase, which we had to reluctantly made as the sofa we were kindly gifted by Jack's parents is falling apart. It's a very old sofa that's been in their family since Jack was small and it's very worn out now! I think it will stay with us for a while longer until we get around to taking it to the tip. I may do some more patchwork to it to see if I can jazz it up but the legs are falling off, springs have gone so it really is beyond much repair. Hopefully I'll have photos for you tomorrow of our new living room seating. The issue then is whether we let Barry join us on said new sofa for cuddles... it's going to be a tough decision..!

 

Em x

Homemade Mincemeat

I've had my first ever attempt at making my own mincemeat ready for mince pie making next month. I don't like mince pies, but I do love making them and always just buy jars of mincemeat. However, after some pestering from Jack, I've made my own following a very easy recipe in the latest issue of BBC Good Food magazine.

Ingredients Needed:
1 Orange
1 Lemon
2 Bramley Apples
Candied Peel
Dried Mixed Fruit (Sultanas, Currants, Raisins etc.)
Ground Mixed Spice
Ground Cinnamon
Ground Nutmeg
Brandy or Cognac
Dark Brown Muscovado Sugar
Beef Suet (or vegetable suet)
Empty jars!


I don't usually buy food magazines as it's much easier and cheaper just to browse blogs and websites for tasty inspiring recipes. I do however always buy the Christmas issue of the Good Food magazine because 1) it comes with a free calendar with tasty recipes on, 2) I just like drooling over the food photos! The mincemeat recipe was in their "make ahead" article and I was pleased at just how easy it was. The mincemeat smells amazing and was really fun to make. All you do is chop the apple down nice and small, add all of the other ingredients to it except the suet and give it a good mix. Cover it for a few hours, or overnight if possible, then add the suet. Mix again and then spoon into jars - simple! It's been so fun in fact that I've raided the cupboards to find more ingredients to add and make some more - I made three jars worth following the recipe. Next year I intend on being far more organised to make the mincemeat earlier so it has much longer to mature.

Chopping the apples into tiny pieces was probably about as difficult as this recipe got and tripping over Barry too - he sat at my feet in the hope I'd drop some apple (he's a fruit and veg fan).

Adding the brandy and muscovado sugar turned the mincemeat a lovely colour and the smells were sweet and spicy; the recipe just said to add ground mixed spice but I also added further ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg as these are my favourite spices when making fruit cakes and they always taste so good.

I then had to leave it overnight before adding the suet. I added beef suet as the recipe suggested but vegetable suet can be used too (beef suet is just what's always in our cupboard). I sterilised the jars using the hot soapy water and dry in the oven method - thanks to many of the lovely blogs I follow for the useful tips on sterilising jars.

Here they are all filled and ready to mature in the cupboard for a while. The recipe says they'll last up to a year but I should think just past that won't kill you - I hope so anyway as I still have pickled onions I made last October that I'm saving for Christmas and they taste just fine (again, recipe said keep for a year). I used my nice jars for the mincemeat, I'm keeping my old jars for the pickled onions I'm intending to make, when I get around to it..

Tonight's plan is to make more mincemeat so I can give some to my mum, then I need to get on with making Christmas cards; I've got so much craft stuff that I set myself the challenge of making Christmas cards this year as opposed to buying any. I've made two so far, I'm aiming to make around 30 if I can.

Crafting Weekend

Morning All,

Hope everyone is ok on this dreary Monday morning, looks like there's a lot of rain on the way over the next couple of days but at least the sun shone for us on Saturday.

Jack headed back to Cambridge this weekend with his friend, so that they could go and play rugby. It had been a while since Jack had played (he's only played a couple of times since fracturing his ankle last season!) but they had fun (no injuries, hurrah) and won 56-0, a lot LOT better than England managed on Saturday night. I am gutted that England are out of the world cup, especially as we're off to watch them play Uruguay in Manchester this coming weekend, but fingers crossed they'll still play a good game and give a good fight. Go England! :-)

My friend stayed for the weekend and we enjoyed a girly weekend that mostly consisted of a lot of nattering, some crafting and diving into a box of Milk Tray while watching Strictly and the Rugby(without the boys there to steal the chocs!). Rosie brought bags full of craft supplies and along with mine we were a little overrun on our small dining table. I just upgraded my phone and the new one is so slippery, so my first crafting project of the weekend was to crochet a simple sleeve for said slippery phone. It fits nice and snugly and it was good for me to practice trying to keep much better tension when crocheting (something I've not been very good at). I'm happy with it anyway and it does the job, especially when my phone is rattling around next to keys in my handbag. The new phone is brilliant too, the camera is amazing which is what I tend to be after in a phone these days because I can't lug my SLR camera everywhere. I was due an upgrade and managed to get a fantastic deal through my network (proves that you should always cancel first and they'll come begging for your custom) and so upgraded to the iPhone 6S. I used to hate iPhones and swear I wouldn't jump on the bandwagon but eventually did and I have to admit they are fantastic phones and so easy to use. Dad's happy as I'm giving him my old iPhone!

My finished phone sleeve

 

We next moved onto making some Christmas cards (sorry for mentioning that word but I'm secretly excited and trying to be organised) and I had fun with some glitter too. I've got lots more cards to try and make and I'm determined not to buy any this year to try and use some of my craft supplies up - I've banned myself from buying anymore at the moment (how long will that last...?). I also want to make some gift tags when I get a chance.

 

Christmas card making

A couple of cards I made

 

It was a lovely weekend anyway and flew past (how is it Monday already?). Jack arrived back from his Parents' Sunday afternoon and got straight into shed building, weather and light is now against him so he needs to get it built fast.

 

 

I did some gardening late afternoon on Sunday to tidy up plants that have almost finished flowering and give the beds a bit of a weed. I harvested the rest of our potatoes - not brilliant but hopefully they'll taste ok. I picked lots of sage leaves too and I'm going to try drying them in the airing cupboard; has anyone tried this? I hear it works well, but advice is welcome!

 

Sage is my favourite herb :-)

 

I also took some cuttings from my Rosemary plant. Hopefully they'll root, I've taken plenty just in case and read in one of my new books that it takes about two months for them to root.

 

Decorating plant labels just because I think they look nice in the ground!

 

It was so chilly last night as the wind picked up and brought this rain over us. Barry is a fantastic hot water bottle though and I took him upstairs with me while I watched Downton (he fell straight asleep so he's obviously not a fan!). Jack came to hook him out of our bed a couple of hours later though and took him back downstairs to his own bed much to Barry's dismay! He'd love to stay upstairs with us but he also loves his bed downstairs and is usually found sprawled out in a tangled mess of blanket and little Jack Russell legs with a toy close by!

 

 

Weekend Activities & Barry Update

The weather was kind to us all weekend after the torrential downpours during Wednesday and Thursday and it was nice to see my water butt full once more in the garden (I must must invest in another water butt, I'm sure I can fit another one somewhere in the garden). We enjoyed sitting out in the garden in the sunshine admiring the hard work we've done in the garden so far. Jack has been busy clearing a space where he's going to construct his shed and he's also been busy building the outdoor tortoise run (photos coming soon). He wasn't the only one doing manual labour; I weeded the beds (Barry ran off with said weeds, scattering soil everywhere) and I painted the trellis - well half of it anyway as almost all of the top half is covered in a very happy and healthy Montana Clematis.

More Dahlias flowering in the garden

 

The combine was humming in the background nearly all weekend as it harvested the wheat in the distant fields, only a matter of days now I should think before they cut the wheat in the field directly behind our garden. As much as I love watching the Combine, Tractor and farmers working hard, the day they cut the wheat I will ensure I'm not home because the dust will do my Hayfever no favours (it's been behaving for the most part so I don't want to trigger it off again with lots still to do in the garden).

 

We fetched lots of bricks for the purpose of providing a base for the tortoise run (wood fencing on top, but the bricks buried into the soil around the perimeter will hopefully deter Squirt and Lola from trying to dig their way out) and so Jack's car was rather red and dusty inside by the time I'd finished. I was kind though and gave it a hoover and also washed it too while the weather was nice - good excuse for exercise and definitely just as energetic as a gym session!

 

Barry helped me wash the car

 

I took Barry to the Vets this morning for his check-up. They're pleased with how well the wounds are healing and his leg is looking nice and straight. We can increase his walks again now and gradually get him back to normal, so he's a very happy puppy. The Vets and Nurses at Donnington Grove Veterinary Surgery have been amazing, but I do hope we're not at the Vets any time soon other than for something very routine!

 

Sleepy Barry keeping me company on Saturday night while Jack was at Twickenham cheering on England in the World Cup warm-up - excuse the state of our sofa, I've patch-worked and fixed it so many times, we will eventually get a new one!

 

I also managed to get around to a little craft time at the weekend and made a simple Birthday card for my brother's partner, I do hope she likes all things floral and colourful!

 

 

Wishing you all a good week! :-)