Festive Makes and Festive Bakes

Hello everyone, well am I enjoying these delightful "in-between" days of the Holidays - these are some of my favourite days of the whole year. 

I thought I would share what I have been up to over the last few weeks with crafting. 

First off, we have my what has become a traditional (and expected!) gift from me, lavender scented hearts...

Each one is slightly different...

I love the wintry fabric I chose for the hearts...

A different fabric, loved this too (the fabric shop had some great selections this year, it was hard to choose which ones to purchase!)

Then there were potholders in festive colours...

Here is everything together...

Now on to edible treats... mincepies with homemade mincemeat...

 

Truffles...

Boxed and wrapped ready to go...together with bags of caramel nuts and peanut butter fudge...

The house smelled like I imagine the shop in Chocolat smelled like!!

I get such a lot of joy from making these simple things for my loved ones, and judging by the response folks enjoy receiving them too.  Yes, it would be easier (and sometimes cheaper!) to buy things from the shops but I do get such a lot of enjoyment making them.

Did you make or receive any handmade gifts this year?

Helenxx

Christmas and Snow

Hello everyone - I hope you had a great Christmas Day, and that you are continuing to enjoy the festive season.

We had a lovely time at my Darling Mum's house on the Big Day, 8 of us all together, laughing, eating good food, opening presents...

Santa had been very busy!

The drinks are alcohol free as we don't drink alcohol (we are quite lively enough without it LOL!!).  The day was judged to be "one of the best Christmasses ever".

The tree lights shone brightly...

And we were treated to a wintry sunset...

We went home in the evening, all tired but happy, and just sat and watched some films on TV.

Yesterday though I got up with a nasty pain in my shoulder (I have no idea how I managed to get it) and so had a fairly easy day at home.  I finished reading Little Women and re-read a book of Christmas stories by Dickens.  I made a big crock pot of veggie stew.  Dozed a bit in the armchair (painkillers probably helped with this!) only to be woken up by a commotion - it had started to snow...

  
The flakes became bigger and bigger...

and quite a large amount fell for this part of the UK.  The kids (even those in their twenties) got very excited about it! 

This morning, the sun is out and the sky is blue...

snow covers the garden...

little footprints adorn the fresh-fallen snow...

and my back feels much better so hopefully we will get out for a walk later on once everyone is up and about.

I hope you all have a lovely Saturday, whatever it is you are doing.

Helenxx

May Your Days Be Merry and Bright!

Good morning!  Well, after all the preparations the Holidays are finally with us!

I hope you have a wonderful time with all those nearest and dearest to you.  I hope that you also manage to have a bit of time just for you, to relax and re-charge those batteries!

I am doing just that, a cuppa and just enjoying a scented candle or two before the proceedings get into full swing - we are off to Darling Mum's for the day, including Christmas Dinner. 

I am prepping the roast potatoes (they are par-boiling at the moment, so I can pop them onto baking trays, brush with olive oil then take them down to her house - luckily it is only a very short car journey away).

Have a lovely day, wherever you are and however you choose to spend it!

Helenxx

In-between days

Hello everyone, hope you are continuing to enjoy the festive period.  I love these in-between days,  relaxing, doing what-I-like-when-I-like-how-I-like!! Not too many of those opportunities present themselves to me during the year, but the time between Christmas and New Year is a time to make the most of winding down, reflecting, spending time with loved ones, and of course some crafting usually comes into it as well.

So just a few random photos captured during this period.

Merry and Bright:

Further baking reinforcements:

Sunshine and shadow:

During these in-between days we celebrated the birthday of my Darling Mum who turned 88 years young.  This cake was served in her honour:

Do you like my lovely new spotty tablecloth?  Darling Mum included this in one of my presents.  It really cheers up my dining room table!  We rounded off the evening by watching the Italian Job on TV (the original) which she loved, especially the car chases.  And of course she thought
Mr. Caine was a good bit of eye candy in his younger years!  Although she has never driven a car, she loves watching motor sport, especially Formula 1, the whole family loves this sport, even DH has been converted to it (having originally said it was boring).  At this point I should mention that we are all hoping that Mr. Schumacher makes a speedy and full recovery from his ski accident.

I have had time for some crafting during these in-between days, I always seem to turn to cross stitch when I have some serious relaxing time.  I will share the results soon as I have nearly finished my little project, just a few last bits to do.

Well, must away as sadly I have to pop into town to run a few errands, nothing too much though. Have a great day, whatever it is you get up to!

Helenxx

Festive bakes!

Following on from my "Festive Makes" post yesterday I thought I would follow this up to show you my "Festive Bakes".  Each Christmas I make a variety of chocolates, biscuits and treats to give to my loved ones.  This usually entails about 9 hours in the kitchen, but I like to think that the results are worth the effort!

Here are some of the things I made this year:

Rich chocolate truffles, dusted in dark cocoa powder and iced with white chocolate - my trusty tasting team (DH, DS x3 and DD) and declared these as delicious.

Peanut brittle, probably my favourite of all the treats I make, I have to admit that I made a few extra for me to eat...

Vegetarian-friendly Rocky Road, I replaced the marshmallows with glace cherries and candied peel.

Here is everything boxed and bagged ready to go into gift bags. 

At this point I must add my personal thanks to the afore-mentioned intrepid taste testing team, who selflessly give of themselves to quality assure the goods before they are dispatched.  Truly heroic effort from them as usual this year ;)

Did you make any gifts this festive season?  Would love to hear about them!

Helenxx

Festive makes

Hello everyone, hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday, and that today you are taking it nice and easy, as I am!

We had a lovely day yesterday, spent at my Darling Mum's house.  My brother had certainly gone to town with all festive decorating, hope to share some photos of all that later on this week.  I helped to cook the dinner, and DH served it all up in a very organised fashion.  Lots of wonderful presents for everyone, lots of laughter, not least when my Darling Mum opened a present from one of my cousins - it was a bottle of Ultra Sexy shower gel - why the laughter?  Darling Mum is looking forward to celebrating her 88th birthday on Saturday :)  of course we sang a jolly chorus of "I'm Sexy and I Know It", she didn't stop laughing for about 10 minutes!

In the lead up to the Big Day I had been making gifts for my loved ones, and now everything has been received I can reveal some of the results.  As usual I was busy with the wool felt and patchwork fabric, and made a batch of lavender scented hearts:

Usually the background of the hearts is made with red felt, but went for green this year by way of a change...

I always use wool felt, it is marginally more expensive, but it is so much nicer to work with and I like to think it gives neater results...

I loved using ric-rac braid for the hanging loops - have fallen in love with the look of it, so might well be using it in other projects!  Here are the hearts grouped together before being wrapped and sent to my friends and family:

Feedback so far from the recipients has been positive - it is a bit of a tradition now for me to make a variant of scented hearts for Christmas gifts, I started out doing this 4 years ago and everyone seems to like them.  They do take quite a while to make, but I love the process and like to think that the time spent on them is appreciated by those I gift them to.  I also include batches of home made edible treats, will post about this year's batch tomorrow.

Have a lovely Boxing Day, whether you are at home cosy by the fire, whizzing around the Sales, or taking a walk out in the fresh air!

Helenxx