Christmas Countdown #15 – Gluten Free Cake

Day Fifteen on the Christmas Countdown and it’s recipe time, and for those of you who haven’t checked out the Recipe pages on the blog I’m referring you to my favourite Damp Orange Cake.

Making this cake fills the house with warm, citrussy Christmas smells, and it’s a good alternative as a festive cake for those who don’t like the dried fruitiness of Christmas Cake and mince pies and is also excellent as a pudding with cream or ice cream.

It’s very moist and moreish, and having no flour makes it suitable for people with gluten intolerance…

Planet Penny Advent Calendar Day Fifteen

If you want to ring the changes on flourless cakes how about Nigella’s Lemon Polenta Cake…?

Nigella

and this chocolate one sounds heavenly…

The Gluten Free Home Maker

And for a festive gluten free fruit cake it’s back to Nigella again. Apricot, Pear and Ginger – sounds heavely!

Nigella

I’ll be back tomorrow…

Happy Baking!

Christmas Countdown – Day Fourteen

It’s Day Fourteen of the Christmas Countdown and I’m all behind! With spectacular bad timing I’ve come down with a stinking cold and my carefully planned run up to Christmas (lots of scribbled notes on scraps of paper) has rather fallen apart. The cards are yet to be written, and my only decorations to date are the Christmas cards which other , more organised people, have sent to us. Still, not to worry, Christmas will happen whether we are ready or not and I’m sure if I can spend enough time this weekend steaming my head, drinking hot lemon and honey and cuddling Higgins (who is an excellent hot water bottle) I’ll be fine.

Higgins in Hot Water Bottle Mode

Day Fourteen in last year’s Advent Calendar was Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day and I made these from last year’s Debbie Bliss pattern, you can read about it here. Little jumpers seem to be quite popular as Christmas tree decorations, these from Ravelry are cute…

littel jumpers - Christmas Countdown Day 14

Berroco Design Team

…and I love the embellishments on these…

little jumpers Chrismas Countdown day 14

Braybrook and Britten

This teeny tiny cardigan from Bugknits is just amazing. Follow the link by clicking on the photo to see more views. I just can’t imaging knitting something this small.

Bugknits

This little set is very sweet, but with no pattern I can track down…

However, if you would like a change from jumpers, how about these adorable mittens from my blogging friend Mrs Micawber?

Mrs Micawber

or some cute little socks from Little Cotton Rabbits…

Little Cotton Rabbits

I hope this has given you some knitting inspiration, I’ll be back tomorrow… See you soon…x

Christmas Countdown – Day Twelve

This time last year there were a lot of robins twittering around on Planet Penny so I thought I’d include them in the Christmas Countdown. I haven’t had time to make any this year, and I really miss them so this is a good excuse to have them on the blog!

Today for the Countdown I found some mini wreaths, just the right size for the Christmas Tree. I made these for our local Christmas Fair last year. Very simple and effective – hooray for the trusty glue gun!

Planet Penny Advent Calendar – Day Twelve

Oh, and here’s a another robin getting in on the act!

Planet Penny

I have a box of rather old and tatty curtain rings tucked away, this next image has given me lots of ideas for recycling them, using an assortment of pretty oddments from the ‘Bits and Bobs’ box.

curtain_ring_wreaths Christmas Countdown

This little crochet wreath is really sweet…

Planet June

This is simple and effective and made with a white rose would be perfect for a wedding…

Sew Made By Me

And here’s an great way to use up tiny scraps of fabric too pretty to throw away…

Crafty Painter

And finally, we’re back to buttons again….

Martha Stewart

I hope I’ve given you some ideas to squirrel away for Christmas crafting now and in the future,

I’ll be back with more tomorrow…x

Christmas Countdown – Day Eleven

Day Eleven of the Christmas Countdown and I’ve been looking at gift bags. Last year I used some precious wrapping paper to make the ones below, there’s more likelihood of it being treasured by someone else when the paper has been used this way and it goes that bit further too.

If you click on the photo it will take you to the link from last year…

Planet Penny Advent Calendar 2012 Day 11

Planet Penny Advent Calendar – Day Eleven

Meanwhile, here are just few other ideas which might give you wrapping inspiration…

Creature Comforts

This is a jolly use for a plain brown paper bag…

…and this would be a lovely way to dress up a present for the ‘Domestic Goddess’ in the family…

Gift bags Christmas Countdown Planet Penny

Celebrate Creativity

There’s a tutorial for this little felt gift bag over on MilkyMug…

MilkyMug

And although I can’t track down exactly where the post is for the photo below on Rosebuds Cottage, it’s still inspiring if you fancy a little bit of Christmas sparkle!

Giftbags -Planet Penny Christmas Countdown

Rosebuds Cottage

I’m looking forward to being back tomorrow for Day Twelve…

See you then…x

Christmas Countdown – Day Ten

Here we are at Day Ten of the Christmas Countdown and now I can really relish the Pompom obsession!

Last year on the Advent Calendar I featured my Pompom Makers which take a lot of the hassle out of making them, you can find out more from the link below.

Planet Penny Advent Calendar 2012 – Day Ten

I’ve just tracked the source of my love affair with Pompoms. I was in my second year of my Visual Studies Degree, and I had just received issue 3 of Selvedge Magazine – December 2004 (I have every one from the beginning!) and this was the cover…

Selvedge on Pinterest

I fell in love with the camel from the feature inside…

I made quite a lot of pompoms at the time, but never found a camel to decorate!

However, it’s obviously becoming more and more apparent I need a stag’s head for the wall…

fetepress.com

The image below is one of my very first ‘pins’ when I joined Pinterest, Wouldn’t it look fabulous garlanded round a Christmas tree?

pompom garland Christmas Countdown day 10

birchandbird.com

If you decide to make your pompoms in bulk the following tutorial is very useful…

making pompomsin bulk Christmas Countdown day 10

flaxandtwine.com

I was interested to find this image which shows the beginnings of a pompom wreath. the maker pointed out she had only got this far and had used up 30 odd pompoms already so I think you’ll need to start now for Christmas 2014!

pompom wreath Christmas Countdown Day 10

Black Cotton Candy

More inspiration with no source but Pinterest, alas…

pompom garland Day 210 Christmas Countdown

This would look wonderful as a whole twiggy pompom tree…

I’m now itching to go and dig out my pompom makers and I’ve got far too many other things to do!

I’ll be back tomorrow, have fun….x

Christmas Countdown – Day Nine

By the time you read this I will be on a train, heading to London.

I’m off to my daughter’s graduation ceremony! I’n very proud and excited as you can imagine. She’s graduating from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama at the Royal Festival Hall which all sounds terribly grand. I can’t wait to see her in gown, hood and cap….there will be lots of photos!

So today’s post for the Christmas Countdown is a little present.

Last year I was pleased to have a limited amount of Planet Penny Cotton in white, Snowdrop. I made it up into little kits…

…with a patten for the Crochet Christmas Bunting, a snowflake garland and little hearts.

They proved very popular, and I know lots of people were keen to add the White to their collection of Planet Penny colours because it works so well with the Rainbow shades as a background.

But then I was unable to repeat the order with a white as bright as the original one. I tried, but it just wasn’t right, (You can find out more in this post complete with very silly photo of Higgins if you’ve been missing him!) and I’ve had to wait till now to be able to order the right white.

It’s too late, alas, to repeat the Christmas Kits this year but now the patterns are available to download so you can use it with your own white yarn. Just match your hook with whatever is recommended for your yarn, rather than the pattern. Just click on the link below…

Planet Penny Crochet Collection

Let me know if you are interested in the Snowdrop yarn. I will have it available in the Etsy shop as soon as possible.

I hope you are enjoying the Christmas Countdown so far. I’ll be back tomorrow…x