Day 81 - Christmas Yule log

Merry Christmas everybody! Here is the fruit of my Christmas eve labour, I'm pretty chuffed and there is still a bit of decorating to do tomorrow. If you want the recipe it is Paul Hollywood's and it is lovely...but intense. We adapted it a little with figs rather than berries.
The great thing about this recipe is, it has no flour, so mum can partake with little guilt.

Day 80 - Hot spiced Apple Brandy

I've always liked the idea of mulled wine and cider more than the actual drink itself, I've even tried to make it myself, but I find the flavours a  bit acrid. So this year I decided to try something different, and well, this will be my Christmas drink of choice from now on. It was so yummy I failed to take a picture after it was ready.
This is a very simple recipe, you will need, Apple Juice, Brandy, a dash of Golden Syrup, an orange, star anise, cloves, fresh nutmeg and a cinnamon stick.
Pour your apple juice into a pan, I made enough for three good sized mugs. Add in your spices, I wet for 1 Star Anise, crushed, a grating of fresh nutmeg, about an inch of cinnamon stick (again crushed) and two segments of orange. I think it's a good idea to play with the spices to suit your taste, once the apple juice beginning to simmer add a few shots of brandy and a very small amount of golden syrup. Bring to the boil and then STRAIN! You don't want to be drinking mouthfuls of star anise so the straining is very important, but you will probably end up with some tiny particles of nutmeg and cinnamon.
So much better than mulled wine or cider, this drink simply tastes of Christmas!

Day 79 - DIY christmas jumper

If I had known how simple this was I would have made one for all my family. Oh well, next year. I spent days thinking about what I would do on my Christmas jumper, I didn't want anything to christmassy, or tacky, but I did want it to be cute. Even when I found the red jumper I wasn't sure what to do. It was only while tidying away some of my present making that I settled on a white beard. A little twist on the moustache jumpers I have been seeing (and coveting!) Simply made with white felt and a bit of stitching.

Day 75 - Festive flapjack

This is the best flapjack, better than the last recipe. For a festive treat I added in figs and pecans and made a monster batch. The recipe is so simple, these weights can be halved for a smaller batch easily enough.
640g Oats
350g Butter
2 1/2 Heaped tbsp Peanut butter
340g golden syrup
200g Figs
250g Pecans
Melt the butter add syrup and stir until silky smooth, add peanut butter and stir in till melted. Weight up your other ingredients, I crush the nuts and chopped the figs (make sure to remove the stalk). Mix everything together until its evenly coated and put in a tin lined with greaseproof paper, don't worry too much about covering the whole pan as the butter will do the work. Use a piece of greaseproof paper to press the mixture into the tin evenly.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 180 degrees. Take it out before it looks ready, it will still be soft and kind of pale, most often the problem with flapjack is the dryness from overcooking! Leave it to cool and enjoy :)

Day 72 - Home is where the Christmas Chaos is...

So this is where I see all of the things I have made over the last few days. The Man got excited and put hats on all the Game of Thrones people, which is pretty fun and the Cat is rediscovering his love for shiny Christmas trees...

 

Day 71 - Snowflakes

I think the hardest part of snowflake making is folding the paper into sixths, I had fun making these, even the man stepped up to have a try. These will probably go in the window for decoration.
Annoyingly I think I might have RSI in my left thumb from a few weeks of sewing, cutting and whatever else I like to do. So things may be a little sporadic over the next few days while I rest my hand. It's pretty much my worst fear, losing movement or dexterity in my hands, just hope it gets better soon!

Day 68 - DIY homemade wreath

I've had a lot of fun working on this the last few days, I started the base on Tuesday evening, made simply of lollipop sticks. I covered the base with plaited string to give it depth and something I could sew onto. Then I ruffled strips of green tule and wrapped it around the centre of my star focusing on one quarter to build it up more. I stitched it in place in a few places adding some gold bells as I went. I cut the leaves from some scrap pleather donated from Natalie :) (Thanks Nat) and stitched them on too. After that it was a matter of foraging for pine cones, tying bows and adding a few fimo candy canes found in my studio, oh and some more bells :)

I've never actually had a wreath before so this is my first and I totally love it. Can't wait to see what Taz makes with hers.

Day 67 - DIY wreath, part 1

I began the wreath creation by making a star base out of lollipop sticks. I used woodglue to stick it together and pegs to hold the sections together while they dried. Later I will collect some wintery foliage and other things to decorate my wreath. I think lollipops have so many uses, and have a lot of potential for unique decorations. It doesn't look like much at the moment but I have a plan in my brain. The man really wants me to make a mario star, but...no.

Day 66 - Felt garland in Christmas colours

Using the offcuts of felt from the previous projects this week I made a number of felt circles and strung them together with beads for spacing. It's pretty cute I might make a few and put them in the windows...it's going to be pretty christmassy up in this house! :)

Day 65 - Christmas Photo props

Photo props are great fun, I made some for a wedding earlier this year, they were pretty fun. These christmassy ones are pretty cute. I cut two shapes from felt and glued them together with fabric glue with a bamboo stick sandwiched in between. I'm not sure how sturdy these will be as the glue will take a few days to dry.

Day 63 - Christmas tree decoration, hearts

I've been stitching these for days, I actually cut them at the same time as the trees which is almost a week ago. It's been a busy week making presents, decorations, working and school but I think I've finally caught up with myself. Which means I have a bit of time to catch up on a few missed days recently...hopefully. Anyway, to go with my mini trees I've made these hearts too, they still need a ribbon for hanging but I'm waiting for it to arrive.

Day 62 - DIY winter nails

The elves are working hard to sort out presents and decorations for Christmas, but I thought I'd take some time out and do something...less productive. I used a base coat of metallic blue, which is very pale and sparkly, I drew white snowdrops with a fine brush and waited for it to dry. The snowman is a series of dots using white, black and orange, very simple but actually quite effective. I'm sure there will be more festive nails but for now I'm happy with this (though it is only on one hand.)

Day 60 - DIY Christmas tree decorations

I'm making a lot of these today, very simple tree with lace ribbon and button detail.

Day 58 - Quilled Christmas decorations

I had lots of strips of card leftover from card making last weekend, so I decided to make a quilled decoration for the top of the tree this year. I made shapes by coiling and folding the card, and stuck them together to build a shape I liked. then used glitter glue to make it shiny. I think I like quilling...

It's drying now, when it's done I'll add loops to the back to slip over the tree top and see if there are any places that need strengthening.

Day 57 - DIY baubles complete

I've had the same old red and gold baubles for the last two years, so it is definitely time to do something different. First I painted them all with white acrylic, I used a genius system of bamboo skewers and a polystyrene head to hang them all to dry, even so I got a few painty run aways leaving white smears wherever they went. For the detail I used a black and a red uniball pen, which worked much better than I had expected, so long as you leave it to dry and don't smudge it. I went with stars and snowflakes for my patterns, and did everything in sets, black and red isn't a traditional combination of colours, but once it is on the tree with everything around it I think they will be quite striking. For an extra christmassy touch I went over the detail with a gold glitter glue pen and added highlights, which when dry I will do again to make them even more glitzy.

Day 56 - upcycled bauble

 The plan for today (and probably tomorrow) is to repaint my old baubles, so here is the beginnings of something...

Day 54 - handmade Christmas cards

I've made a few of these now, I always like to have a few designs but I liked how simple and effective this design is so there are a few adaptations but essentially they are all the same. Today I added a cut out window, I played with the idea of pasting a picture on the inside, but decided I liked the bare cut out more. I am going to add a few finishing touches before I send them out, but that is for an element of surprise in case they read this blog.

Day 53 - Christmas Card prototype

I have always been particularly useless at cards, I remember writing them out to all my school friends and leaving them at home, only to find them and bin them in the new year. Hopefully this year will be better.
Anyway it's a pretty simple design with quilled pieces of card and a christmas stamp, I have more ideas to fill up the empty space so hopefully I'll be able to show you a finished design this evening.

Day 50 - the epic Christmas list...Part 1a i

So as winter has arrived it's time to start totting up the family and friends and creating unique and personal gifts for them all. Today I began the truly epic mission of presents for all the children, all 8 of them between me and the Man. This is the first stage of many, embroidering names onto felt. It only took 3 episodes of the Big Bang, one episode of New Girl, a film, The Croods...make that two films! The Hangover 3, which is actually pretty entertaining... All in all not a bad day off, productive and relaxing, ready for school and work tomorrow.