Monthly Archives: December 2012

Advent Calendar – Day Twenty

Can you believe we’re at Day Twenty on the Advent Calendar? I’m out in the office with the rain hammering on the roof in a most unseasonable fashion, while Higgins makes the most of his cosy little bed by the heater.

I’ve never known a dog who likes to be wrapped in a blanket as much as Higgins does!

Anyway, despite the gloom I’ve managed to take some photos of today’s make. (I seem to have had my camera set to the ‘Low Light’ setting for days and days). I loved the music sheets from this post so much I was determined to use it some more, so this time I’ve made a Christmas Song Bird.

It’s very simple to make and lends itself to all sorts of variations depending on the paper you use. You need something fairly sturdy, or a light card. Double sided wrapping paper would be good or you could scan or photocopy on to both sides of your sheet of paper. For children you could draw out the shape first for them to colour it in, then cut out and complete.

Because this requires a template I have made the instructions as a PDF so you can print it out. You’ll find it by clicking on Christmas Song Bird right here, then clicking again on the link which comes up. This is first time I’ve tried this so do let me know if you have problems.

So that’s the Advent Calendar for today, and I’ll be back tomorrow if we haven’t been washed downstream!

See you then…x

Advent Calendar – Day Nineteen

Today for the Advent Calendar I am responding to a special request for a bow tying tutorial from a regular reader which came about after the Day Twelve project, the tiny Christmas rings. These little bows are the ones I glue or sew on to projects, rather than for tying parcels or shoe laces.

As I started the photographs I realised that my lefthandedness might be a problem so I have flipped all the photos so it suits both left and right handed people. I’m just a slightly concerned about the reader who requested tutorial in the first place. Marigold is a goat… Does it work with hooves? I don’t think so, but hopefully she has a helpful human around to assist her!

I find it easier and more economical with the ribbon not to cut off a length but to leave it on the reel.

1. Make a loop at the end of the ribbon…

2. Bring the long end up in front and over to the back…

3. around the first loop then push a loop of the ribbon through the second loop formed by the thumb.

4. Pull through, and the bow is formed.

5. Carefully pull the loops to tighten the central knot to hold the loops then tweak and pull to make the loops your desired length, cut off from the reel and trim the tails.

I’ve seen ribbon bows for sale in packs of 10 or 12 in craft shops and they’re quite expensive. It bothered me for ages that whenever I tried to make my own I could never get two loops at the top and two tails at the bottom, they were always lopsided but now I’ve figured it out I buy my ribbon out of the remainder basket or in bulk and save some cash.

Now I hope you can too!

Good luck, Marigold, do let us know how you get on!

Advent Calendar – Day Eighteen

I’ve been pottering around in the kitchen for Day Eighteen of the Advent Calendar, making lovely Christmassy smells!

I have a little black book, a Moleskine, which has lived in my hand bag for several years and into which I write down useful stuff, lists, things to do and recipes. It’s quite interesting to delve back and see what comes to light, and disconcerting when I find things which were obviously important enough to write in the book at the time, but I have absolutely NO idea what on earth it all means now! I suppose you could take that as a philosophical view of a lot of the things we stress about today, because they’ll be irrelevant tomorrow!

Anyway, I have a recipe for Spice Biscuits which I’ve never made before but seemed just right the Advent Calendar. I’m afraid it provenance is lost in the mists of time, but having made them and tested them out on my Mum (and Higgins, but only a tiny piece) it definitely earns it’s place on the blog.

It’s a good recipe for using some of those little jars of spice which lurk in the back of the cupboard. I’ve got so many from which only half a teaspoonful has been used, and has anyone ever worked their way through a whole box of Star Anise? (Just check the sell by date, I don’t think they go off exactly but lose their flavour and go sort of dusty if they’ve been hanging around since 2005)

So here we are…

SPICE BISCUITS

250g (8oz Self Raising Flour

1/4 teaspoon each Ground Spice, Ginger, Nutmeg, Anise, Mace, Cloves, Cardamon, Cinnamon

125g (4oz) light brown sugar

60g (2oz) ground almonds

125g (4oz) unsalted butter, softened

1 egg (size 3) Beaten

1) Preheat the oven to 190 deg/375 deg F/ Gas 5, Line 3-4 baking sheets with non stock baking parchment

2) Sift flour and spices together into a bowl. (Some of the spices I used were not ground so I gave them a pounding in the pestle and mortar ind the sieving sorted out the unpalatably big bits.) Stir in sugar, ground almonds andf the butter cut into small cubes. Rub in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

3) stir in just enough egg to bind and knead into a ball.

4) Roll out and cut using cutters of your choice. Place on trays and if you want to hang them use a drinking straw to make holes.

5) Bake for 10 mins or until beginning to turn golden brown.

6) Cool for 5 mins on the tray then transfer to a cooling rack.

The biscuits are light and crisp and the spiciness is subtle and not overpowering, they went perfectly with morning coffee…and were pretty good with afternoon tea too…and there were still enough to go on the tree (Very high up, of course!)

If you don’t have all the spices mentioned here it it would be worth experimenting with mixed spice, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg, the equivelant of 2 level teaspoons.

I’ll be back tomorrow…x

Advent Calendar – Day Seventeen

It’s Day Seventeen on the Advent Calendar, and a week today it will be Christmas Eve! How are you getting on with the preparations? I spoke to someone today who said she had been into the city Christmas shopping four times since Friday!!! And on one of those day she was there from 10.30am till 4.30pm!!! I feel faint at the thought…Hooray for Handmade and online shopping I say!

As I mentioned last time the Christmas tree went up yesterday. It’s alway lovely finding all the decorations which hark back over the years, a very eclectic mix. That means though that all the little extras I’ve been making fit in very well, and also this gorgeous stocking I bought at the Christmas Fair on Saturday…

Today’s make for the Advent Calendar celebrates 2012 on Planet Penny, the Year of the Mouse!

There have been quite few mice running around what with one thing and another, from the Wedding mice from this post…

…to the Rainbow Mice Clock…

What I’ve found so great about the mouse patterns is the versatility. It came into being because I wanted to use the Planet Penny Yarn, but as I wrote in this post, just changing the yarn and the hook means you can have a mouse for any occasion!!

So while the larger mouse pattern is perfect for making a squidgy soft toy made in chunky yarn with embroidered features, just right for peeking out of a stocking…

The tiny mice from the Mini Mice Fridge Magnet Pattern, made with a fine hook and embroidery thread look so sweet peeking out among the branches on the Christmas tree…

…so much kinder on the teeth than the sugar variety!

There must be many a pampered pussy cat which would love a fat mouse stuffed with dried cat mint on Christmas Morning, and the tiny ones fit on hair slides, brooches and if you’re really game for a laugh, earrings!

I must head back into the house now and try and get the rest of the Christmas cards written as tomorrow is the last day for 2nd Class post…eeek!

…but I shall be back tomorrow…x

Advent Calendar – Day Sixteen

Today’s make for the Advent Calendar comes with a puzzle. Anyone who has visited Planet Penny for Open Studios will know that we’re in a very rural location. Passing traffic tends to be dogs and their walkers, horses and their riders, tractors and assorted farm vehicles and the odd car. (Invariably being driven far too fast given the narrowness of the road!)

We have our bins near the road to save the morning panic of remembering it’s bin day and having to scurry around in a dressing gown towing it to the road. But I never imagined this would mean that someone would stop off and deposit something in the bin whilst passing by. So I was very surprised one day a few months back to go out with the recycling, open the bin and find lying on top of the cereal boxes and newspapers, two music books…

They were perfectly clean and dry and came straight in to the studio go on the shelf as ‘Something-which-will-come-in-handy-sometime’. But it continues to baffle me. They’re are not dated, but the music, the look and the prices mentioned makes me think they could be anything up to 70 years old, and I just can’t imagine the scenario of riding past on your horse or tractor, or walking past with your dog and having an urgent need to dispose of the music books you just happened to be carrying on your person!

Anyway, they have come in handy for todays piece of Christmas Crafting.

I know quite few people make beautiful things with upcycled books, but I really struggle with cutting up or dismantling them. So I made a scan of one the pages of music and printed it on each side of a sheet of paper and used my big paper punch to make a collection of paper circles…

(I like the fact it comes from ‘The Sleeping Princess’ in this Pantomime season!)

Then I just stitched them together on the sewing machiune leaving a little gap of stitches in between to make a simple paper garland…

That’s a really simple idea, but by putting three discs together, stitching through them all and fanning them out you have a really pretty and stylish tree decoration…

…and as we put our own tree up this afternoon I was able to put it straight to good effect…

A number of these hung together on a twiggy branch against a white wall would look simply stunning…

The bidding has closed on the mini Christmas Jumper Auction and the little green jumper will be wizzing off to the lovely Joan who made an extremely generous donation of £20 towards the Save the Children charity. Thank you so much, Joan, I’ll be in touch.

And I’ll be back tomorrow too…! x

Don’t forget to call over to Handmade Monday to find lots of other Christmas makes, and if you haven’t entered the Prize Draw you can find out all about it, and the fab prizes on this post…

Advent Calendar – Day Fifteen

This is not the post I planned! There have been some people who have pointed out that I must be mad to take on an Advent Calendar with so much else going on, but the thing is, when else do I do it? It some how loses something in January!

Anyway, I’ve just skidded into the office having spent the morning at the Christmas Fair, made my mum’s lunch, gone shopping (I bought mistletoe and it must be nearly Christmas ‘cos I now have my stalk of sprouts!) walked Higgins and now it’s getting dark so no photography. But never mind, I’m going to remind you of another of my favourite recipes which is particularly suited to the Christmas season, the Damp Orange Cake.

This is a lovely cake to have tucked in a tin at this time of year when there’s more chance visitors will drop by. It’s very moist so keeps well, there’s no flour involved so is suitable for those with allergies and is very, very easy to make. Not quick because you have to boil the oranges for two hours first, but they smell heavenly.

In fact I would recommend boiling oranges even if you never make the cake…

To make them even more Christmassy you could use clementines or satumas and a mixture of oranges and lemons could be nice too. Just use the equivalent weight of fruit.

This is delicious just on it’s own with a cup of tea, and makes a gorgeous pudding served with thick cream or icecream. Definitely a family favourite in our house and you’ll find the recipe here.

Don’t forget, you’ve still got a chance to bid for the little Christmas Jumpers which I wrote about in my last post. Whatever you would like to bid, every penny will go to Save the Children and I’ll make sure they are in the post to you for Christmas, Royal Mail permitting! The bidding is open until tomorrow afternoon.

I’ll be back tomorrow, so see you soon…!