on the 7th day of Christmas

These are the gifts that the kids gave their teachers this year.  Rumballs or White Rocky Road (recipe courtesy of Retro Mummy) in cello bags with handmade photo ornaments.  The little Christmas trees looked so sweet with glitter and sequins but I am still finding bits of glitter EVERYWHERE all over the house (even in Maddie's nappy LOL!)

This is one of our Christmas corners with lots of Christmas kitsch that has been collected over the years.
The two big kids and I are off to the Lobethal Live Nativity tonight.  My little angel and shepherd love this tradition.  I am hoping we will get to check out the Christmas Tree festival and some of the Lobethal Lights too.

On the 6th Day of Christmas...

I have been busily making up these sweet little gift bags from http://www.modabakeshop.com/  I am trying to reduce the amount of wrapping paper we use this year so these are perfect for my nieces' presents. They have appliqued t-shirts and I have used some of the same fabric from the appliques so they can use the gift bags as an accesory. The girls have also got sweet little hair accesories from a local crafty mum who has a business called "Unicorns and Fairies" on facebook.

Made up in Christmas fabric these bags are perfect for a little bit of Christmas baking - and I'm thinking they could be easily "themed" into a gardener's bag (with seeds and a trowel), a writer's bag (with nice stationery and stamps), a crafter's bag (now what sort of goodies could be put in there!?) ooh, the ideas are endless; maybe I need to make a few more of them?

White Christmas - on the 5th day of Christmas

This is one of our favourite Christmas treats - not least because it is perfect to cook with kids, requires no special ingredients and is so quick and easy!

Mix together:
2 cups of rice bubbles
1 cup mixed fruit
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 cup coconut
1cup powdered milk

Melt 250g of copha and throw it in the dry ingredients and stir.  Pour into a lamington/slice tray and cut into squares when set.

On the fourth day of Christmas....

I'm dreaming of  a white Christmas....my little niece and nephew live in the UK and it is snowing there at the moment so this was the Christmas gift I sent back with their Daddy this week:

"Heath" (so named for my nephew) - beautiful roving hand-dyed by kathysfibres.com and spun and knitted by me.

Ruby's hat and mittens are in Kathy's "Happy" colourway.  This is the first time I have knitted mittens.  Thankfully Kathryn from our Spinners Group found an easy pattern for me. 

I like this colourway so much that I am imagining a little winter dress for Maddie in the same yarn.

Expect to be totally swamped by Christmas posts over the next few days as I am way behind on Nic's 12 Days of Crafty Christmas challenge and we leave for Qld later this week!

Kitchen Chemistry and Mental Health Day

On Monday Maddie and I left the washing, the cleaning, the crumbs and the chaos and went to our friend Nic's house for a spot of crafting!  It was exactly what I needed!  My teaching mentor used to call these kind of days "mental health days" and despite feeling a little guilty about the state of the house it was just so good to be in the company of my crafty friend.

First up was the soap making (you have to make the lye first and then leave it to cool)  As a kid I always wanted a chemistry set for Christmas (but I never got one because my Mum was worried my sister would use it to blow the house up LOL!)  Soap-making is kitchen chemistry at its best.  If you look at all the disparate ingredients you would never imagine that mixing them would make soap!

While we waited for the lye to cool we did a spot of crafting.  Nic worked on some beautiful journal covers and I hemmed hubby's work pants (the guilt factor - I figured 3 trouser alterations gave me a few hours of non-suzie-homemaker time!) and then got cracking on my nephew's quilt.  It is a bit too mustard coloured for my liking but you have gotta love the fact that the only material I bought for it was the backing and the binding (and that was from The Patchwork Apple's $10 rack)

The girls were so good while we were sewing.  I wish I had taken a photo.  Jazz had her own ironing board set up and contentedly "sewed" with some fabric scraps and a small pair of scissors (all the while chattering away to Maddie!)

After lunch we added goat's milk, coconut oil and olive oil to the lye and mixed....and mixed.... and mixed...

Then we added some honey, and poured into silicon moulds.  Nic turned the soaps out and trimmed them a few days later and now we just have to wait about 6 weeks for them to cure.  I found the whole process quite fascinating and I am thinking that the soaps would be a lovely gift with a nice hand-knitted cotton/bamboo face washer.  I'm also thinking that we could play with the recipe to use some of the lavender from my garden (mmm...lavender and honey!)

Thanks Nic for a wonderful day (hoping we have plenty more like it in the new year!)

12 Days of Christmas day 3 - Decorating the tree

My little Christmas elf has been itching to put the tree up but I wanted to wait until after Maddie's birthday.  On the first of December out came the decorations and up went the tree.  Hannah is very much of the stand-back-and-chuck school of decorating so our tree would never feature in a magazine anywhere but the kids had a ball and even Maddie joined in the fun (and surprisingly has "touched" but not destroyed the lower branches!)  One thing I do love about our tree is the memories that are evoked every year - plastic cup bells from a preschooler who is now a big grade 7 girl; a salt dough baby jesus that weighs so much the branch tips to one side, countless paper angels and stars from playgroup and kindy; and all of the treasured ornaments from friends and students collected over the years.  Every year I treat myself to a porcelain photo ornament of my cherubs too so decorating the tree is a reminder of how our family has grown and changed each year.  It might never win a decorating award but this tree is special for the lovely memories and the many small acts of kindness hanging from every branch.

12 Days of Christmas day 2...

The problem with Creative Memories Storybook software is that it is so easy to use that I just couldn't stop at one Christmas card design!
So which one do you like best?

I have to say that I am really very impressed that this was accomplished with a single photo shoot with 3 tired children after school about 10 minutes before it poured with rain!

I have lots of ideas for more Christmas posts (and a few other things to share - like a wonderful crafty day at Nic's yesterday, and photos of Missy Moo's first birthday but alas they have to wait!)
happy tuesday!
Keep smiling,
Nell