We’re all very excited that Advent has started in our house. Advent calendars have been opened, Advent candles lit, and our Elf on the Shelf has taken up his position in our house. We’ll be opening the first book in our book advent today too. This year I also made a little advent garland, each one features a small activity to keep us busy during this festive month. I used brown paper bags (which I bought from Lakeland) and folded each one roughly into four equal parts, then cut them apart, turning over two corners on one side to make…
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You can probably guess from the title of my blog that I love gingerbread houses! This year we made a kit from John Lewis over a couple of days. The toddler was really excited about it as he loves his “gin-gin” men! First of all he helped daddy put the kit together, then we left it to dry overnight. The next day we got out all our sweetie supplies which included icing pens, liquorice wheels, Necco wafers for roof tiles and gumdrops for the fence. We got to work, the toddler mainly ate the sweets whilst I iced and strategically…
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Do you make your own Christmas cards or do you prefer shop-bought ones? There’s so much choice out there but I love sending personalised cards to family and friends. This year we chose a photo of the children playing (happily for once!) in the park and everyone seems to love it. I’m feeling so organised that I thought I would make a Christmas card for my husband. Christmas Card Craft Off My card combines my favourite things – gingerbread houses and washi tape bunting! I really enjoyed making it and I thought I’d show you how. You will need: red…
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Have you spotted many gingerbread houses around this year? Everywhere I look (or shop) there seems to be one but I’ve tried to be good and only bought ones I know we’ll have time to make. So far we’ve had fun trying the following pre-made kits: Create A Treat House Gingerbread Kit from John Lewis (£15) Create A Treat Village Gingerbread Kit from John Lewis (£15) Gingerbread house kit from Tiger We’ve also eaten a fair few gingerbread biscuits (all in the name of research): Make Your Own Gingerbread Decorating Kit from John Lewis (£4.50) Morrison’s Jolly Gingerbread…
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It’s been a while since I participated in Handmade Monday so I thought I would tell you about my latest pin cushion. I used a lovely pattern from Stitch at Home by Mandy Shaw, which is a great book full of inspiring patterns. I love cutwork (we have a great piece of art by Rob Ryan hanging in our bedroom) so it was obvious that I would make the adorable cutwork pin cushion. It’s a lovely little project for using up scraps and I have plenty of pieces of felt and vintage blankets! The pincushion only took an evening to…
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Not sure what to do with that lovingly created gingerbread house? Why not make it into a tasty gingerbread and butter pudding? My romantic Valentine-themed gingerbread house needed to make room for my Easter-themed gingerbread house but I didn’t want to throw it away. The gingerbread was quite thin so I thought it might make a delicious gingerbread and butter pudding. Here’s what I did. You need: a gingerbread house, deconstructed a couple of slices of bread, buttered 1/2 pint of skimmed milk 100ml double cream 2 eggs 1 spoonful of granulated sugar Method: deconstruct your gingerbread house, removing any…
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Last year it was all about the felt, this year it’s all about the edible gingerbread house! I had an Ikea Pepparkaka Hus which I had bought to make over Christmas and never got round to building so it seemed like a good time to make it and decorate it for Valentine’s Day. The kit contains ready baked and stamped house pieces – front and back, two sides, two roof pieces, four small pieces to make a chimney and printed instructions. It doesn’t contain any icing or sweets to decorate but the instructions helpfully contain a recipe for icing. The…
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On the 19 September 2010 I started a Day Zero list: a place to record your goals, discover new challenges, and gain motivation to achieve them. I have a list of 100 things I want to do over 1001 days. The list is due to be competed by 16 June 2013. This has been a rubbish month for me personally. I think I underestimated how much time I would have with a toddler and new baby to look after so I haven’t managed to complete a single action on my Day Zero list. Aside from changing lots of nappies and…
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I must admit that I seriously underestimated how much time I would have for our Christmas preparations with two little ones keeping me busy. Fortunately I was sent a Gingerbread House Kit from Bespoke Foods to try. The kit is fantastic for busy mum’s as it contains everything needed to build and decorate a lovely gingerbread house. The house pieces are already cut and the kit includes three bags of icing, sweets to decorate, a gingerbread tree and Father Christmas figure. The packaging also contains step-by-step picture instructions – perfect for older children to follow. The kit was simple to…