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sweet

 

Are you ready? Aside from a couple of things (presents to wrap, more ribbon to buy, etc) I think I kinda, sorta, maybe am. I spent the whole of yesterday baking. As usual, I cracked out the Orange and Cardamon biscuits. When they were arranged on the cooling tray, they reminded me of Carly's gorgeous heart print. I also made Rocky Road, Vanilla Biscuits and Cranberry Pecan and White Chocolate Cookies from the new Nigella Christmas book. And these muffins, which I bastardized by fiddling with the spices (because we'd run out of some) and adding orange zest - because most things benefit from the addition of orange zest, don't you think? 

Cranberry Spiced Muffins
(Adapted from a recipe in Notebook Magazine, December 2008)

Makes 12
1 cup dried cranberries
2 cups self raising flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pecans, chopped roughly
2 teaspoons of mixed spice
Zest of one orange
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg, lightly whisked
1 tablespoon finely chopped pecans, extra
1 tablespoon brown sugar, extra

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Line your muffin pan.
2. Place the cranberries in a heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside to soak for 10 minutes & then drain well.
3. Combine flour, sugar, pecans, spice, zest and cranberries in a large bowl. Whisk buttermilk, oil and egg together in a jug. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined. Spoon evenly into prepared pans.
4. Combine extra pecans and sugar in a small bowl and sprinkle over the muffins.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when tested & then turn onto a wire rack to cool.

Wishing you all a very merry, happy, restful and safe christmas, friends! xo

floral tribute

 

 

We are full-tilt Christmas here this week. It's the last week of school so I'm trying to get all those one-kid-only jobs out of the way, plus there's concerts and picnics and all of that other end of year fun stuff. 

The Christmas frenzy seemed a good excuse to make one of these flower garlands (found via one of my current blog favorites, You Are My Fave). The directions call for tracing the petals using a cotton reel, but since very low time input was my main criteria for this I traced the petals for mine from a ribbon reel (about 8cm diameter) so I could make fewer, larger flowers instead of lots of miniature ones. It still worked, and they are now festooned over the door to our kitchen. Please excuse the very classy blue masking tape on the half-painted door, it was impossible to get a half-decent photo of the garland in action.

Also, there's a few words about me & my toys over at the lovely Progressive Pioneer blog this week. Thanks Amy!

advent-o-rama

 
It's the first day of December! And yes, I am posting another picture of the calendar I made three years ago. (Is there a statute of limitations on this? I hope not - sorry!) This year we're filling the stockings with a fairly even share of small treats (hair clips, bubble bath, matchbox cars), miniature chocolate santas and fun christmassy activities. At least, that's the plan - I am still gathering activity ideas, particularly for when the school holidays hit. I found myself madly bookmarking ideas over the last couple of days and thought I might post them here just in case any of you are in the same boat:

- Lots of great activity ideas here. And here! Also, here.

- Kids Craft Weekly has two wonderful issues about advent calendars and activites.

- An online advent calendar with suggestions for crafts and things to do each day!

- The very talented Meg has made an advent colouring book to download.

- A lovely advent calendar how-to here, and more advent calendar inspiration at at the Crafty Crow and Whip Up. 

taking stock(ings)

 

 

We put away the christmas decorations today and it occurred to me that I hadn't written a post about the stockings that almost never got made. I started gathering supplies for these months ago, and they sat on my desk ignored until a week before Christmas (when everything else is happening)  when I decided they absolutely HAD to be finished by the 25th. The family needs matching stockings! So here they are, made from strings of wool felt beads, grey wool flannel found by my Mum at the back of her sewing cupboard (no one in Adelaide sells wool flannel at this time of year!), with wool flannel from my stash used to applique our first initial onto each. They were a rush job and may need some tweaking next year. But, seriously, that's probably not going to happen. So I hope we enjoy them in all their handmade charm wonkiness for christmases to come.

merry, merry

No matter how organised I think I am, the lead up to Christmas often feels like a race in these last few days. To make things interesting, I have a wonky internet connection and a cold, but the cookies are baked, presents all taken care of and the mince mixture for the pies is busily soaking away in the kitchen as I type. I hope your preparations are on track too. Thanks so much for visiting here during this past year, thanks for the encouraging comments and the friendship. Wishing you all a very merry, very relaxing and very safe Christmas. xo

wip

Yesterday's mail was very nice! In it, these felt beads from this etsy seller. I have a big new-craft-supplies crush on them. They are earmarked for a christmas project I can't wait to get stuck into.

happy christmas!

The cookies are baked, and gifts that haven't been given yet all ready to wrap. The Reindeer Dust has been made and is waiting in stocking no. 24 (thanks so much Tiel for that genius idea). The tree cookies above are made from the christmas decoration recipe in Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess. For the first time ever, I managed to get the icing to a manageble consistency so it didn't ooze over the edges too much. A christmas miracle! We're hosting Christmas lunch this year, thankfully with significant donations of food from relatives taking pity on my 34 week pregnant girth. So Audrey and I made the christmas crackers this afternoon. We printed out some of Camilla's lovely downloadable tags from last year and appropriated the pictures for our crackers - (thankyou Camilla!) Inside are a tiny wooden animal figurine (50c from a local toyshop - bargain), a chocolate santa and a naff joke. No idea why, but I am excited beyond proportion about these! I'm going to take a week away from blogging, but I just wanted to thank everyone who has popped by this past year. Wishing a merry and safe Christmas to those to celebrate it, and a happy festive season to all. Cheers! xo

it's beginning to look slightly like christmas

Touch wood, but after all the renovating/painting/baby preparations of the last few months, I think I'm finally starting to cross a few things off my christmas list. Today - christmas cakes, and a couple of handmade gifts (still in progress). As planned, I made Nigella's cakes and even though I'm not in a position to test them (the official tester will have to be set to work when he gets home from his proper job later), they smell wonderful. I'm loving these brown paper cupcake liners (with scalloped edges! found at The General Trader, local folk). I used the middle quantity listed here and it yielded about 25 cupcake sized cakes. They've been royally doused with sherry and I'm crossing my fingers the small size doesn't mean they'll dry out. Audrey employed her best pasting & glitter applying skills to make these gift tags. And I was reminded yet again that a small amount of glitter goes a long way (like, everywhere). For one of our advent activities the other day we used the instructions here to make a pom pom garland. This could be the lamest photo in existence, but they're festooned over our kitchen hutch which sits between two windows and is a right palaver to photograph. All that's left to do now (disregarding the rest of the wrapping, baking, making and posting) is to crank up the christmas music and inhale the sherry-infused air while it lasts. ;)

advent day eleven

This morning's stocking yielded one rainbow pencil and one picture of a rainbow alien before Audrey darted out the door to kinder. The girl has been getting right into the spirit of the advent calendar. I've been trying to include a mix of activities and small gifts (mostly of the craft supply variety... sparkly pipe cleaners tomorrow, I think we might try to make some of these - thanks for the tip Cassie!) Two days we had no time and I put in a small chocolate santa. As much as I'm pretty sure she's loving the activities and craft, I should have known what she'd prefer to find each day. This is a small exchange we had this morning: A: Mummy, do you remember sometimes the stockings have chocolate in them? Me: Er, yes. A: Do you think they could have that again? So much for wholesome family good times. At least I finished these three girls, but I think the shop update may be delayed until tomorrow night - there's someone else pushing in line to be included.

a very nigella christmas

Seeing Amy's post about christmas cookies yesterday, spurred me into action with my own festive baking. I usually bake a variety of biscuits or christmas cake for family & friends, but my current situation made me a little reluctant to dust off the cook books and read about all the sugary, carbo-filled goodness I need to stay away from this year. As soon as I opened up my copy of Nigella, though, my baking zeal returned. {A bit of an aside, but at the front of the cookie section there's a picture of a fantastic hand shaped cookie cutter that Audrey was really taken with. This afternoon, we ventured into a local baking/homewares store for some christmas cake suppiles, and lo and behold the very same hand shaped cutter was on the rack. And a foot one too. They had to come home with us.} Anyway, so I think my baking will be very Nigella-heavy this year. I've never tried her christmas cake (I usually do the Stephanie Alexander one), but will be giving it a whirl this year. We'll also be repeating her christmas decoration recipe (who else has done these? they are so good!), her rocky road, and trying the pistachio and white chocolate cookies. Last, but defintiely not least though, will be Bill Grainger's orange and cardamom biscuits. These are our christmas staple & I can't recommend them enough - they smell and taste incredible. If anyone else has a christmas baking staple, please leave a comment, I'd to love hear it. :)