Xmas meal take 2!

I had another present from my secret angel at work-they were both delicious and perked up the last 2 days of the week at work.
I'll be on the look out for these.

Today I went out for dinner with my old colleagues- and current friends! we went to the needle and Awl in Rushden- it was fab- the service was ace, the food was ace and the crackers had dinosaurs in them!
So, we're now all ready to be super festive!
And to top off all the excitement, Simon came down from cornwall to see us all too!

I had an awesome time, but I'm not sure how many more christmas dinners I can eat before I will explode.

Another awesome outcome from Today was seeing Lynsey - She's going to help me put on a science fair and awards ceremony in the summer. I'll be relieved to have her to support me as I've never met anyone more organised!

I have also been super spoilt this week- Traff brought me some presents back from Spain too- A candle holder in the shape of a bicycle.
And some home-made presents from his mum- She knitted us a father christmas- he's nestled in the christmas tree- and a headband which I plan to wear to Hednas in March... and perhaps for other important events too.
But as it's light coloured and delicate I think it needs to be a head-dress for best.


I also finished my book- Death comes to pemberley by PD James- It was brilliant! I really enjoyed it- and was hugely amused by the references to other Austen Characters- Keep your eyes peeled for them.
It was an easy going read.
One you can pick up and put down and still remember what happened- which is ideal for reading when I'm not on holiday.
I am now fully prepared for boxing day and can watch the BBC dramatisation (8pm) without guilt.

Nice easy christmas craft!-Drinking straw Xmas tree stars- From Etsy

You will need:
12 plastic drinking straws
1 small zip tie
18″ piece of twine
Gold spray paint
Decorative ribbon

1. Gather 12 straws together into a zip tie. Make sure they are snug, but not tight.

2. String the twine through the center of the bunch and let it hang evenly out of both ends of the straw bundle.

3. Close the zip tie very tightly around the straws and twine.

4. Spread out the straws so that they’re evenly spaced.

5. Clip the tail off the zip tie.

6. Bring both sides of the twine together into a knot and use this to hold the ornament while painting.

7. Spray paint the ornament the color of your choice.

8. Let dry, then adorn with colorful ribbon and hang from the tree.

Ceramics and saltdough

I'll start with my painted salt though xmas tree decorations- I'd like to remind you there were cut and cooked by 8 year olds, giving a "lumpy bumpy texture".


OK, lets move swiftly on to making ceramic tealight holders:

This is Tat's handiwork:



This is Sophies:


And this is mine:


I tried really hard to put it together myself, but in the end I had to give up and find professional help!

It needs to dry for 2 weeks now before going into a kiln to be fired- then it will be glazed. The clay goes white when fired so this should hopefully look pretty cool.

:)

New books and the "christmas cake plan".

I'll just start this by saying today has been a right day! I got a letter to tell me our rent is being increased and then got incorrectly charged by Virgin media so had to spend an hour on hold to sort that out- and the binbag split when I took the bins out leaving a train of teabags like Hansel and Gretal crumbs.
Except more gross.

I comforted myself by saying bad things happen in 3s- and then the woman in waterstones was rude to me! (yes, I know, it's Christmas and she probably has had to deal with 10001 people who never go to bookshops usually and need loads of assistance and asking silly questions, and kids running riot and probably my surname being difficult to spell was the last straw, but giving me a new surname won't help).
Gah.
Or maybe I'm now due 2 more bad experiences?
Please say I'm not!

Today has been a good day too- Sarah and Dan came over and bough Alice- who's now learned to walk- she's a bit wobbly but she's so there! she can stand up more than long enough to remove all the items from the book case/magnets off the fridge/ things off the coffee table- Next time the visit we'll have to just put everything in crates and put it back out after she's super quick and agile.The coat I bought her last year  now fits (I bought it too big ready for this year!) and she looks sooooo cute in it!
We had tea and fondant fancies.


This afternoon I had set myself some missions-
I went into town to go to the pop up shop.
Loads of really god handcrafted items from local artists and everything was selling super quickly! Today was the first day it was open (It's also small business day! support the little guys!) and already most of the art has sold. There are some beautiful things and there will be some very lucky people getting awesome and individual xmas presents.

Here is the link to the event incase you wanted to visit or find out more:
https://www.facebook.com/events/231264263714857/

I also went to Waterstones to look at the Malaysia book they'd ordered in- it had 3 pages on Penang so it actually wasn't very useful.
Back to the drawing board on that front I suppose.
Randi is coming to stay the week after next so maybe she'll have some suggestions for me for good books to buy and I do have helens book on Asia in the mean time. I'm going to ry and persuade Randi to book for us to do a Malaysian cookery course whilst we're out there.

I also looked for a copy of"death comes to pemberly" by PD James. They had an awesome looking copy of Crime and Punishment- Which is my all time favourite book. My copy is so well read the pages have started to fall out- I can't say I wasn't tempted to treat myself.

They didn't have a copy so I've ordered it through their website (I know, they were rude and didn't deserve my custom but I can't remember my amazon password and I tried ALL the charity shops on my way home for a copy too).

I have never read anything by PD James before- but as you know I adore Jane Austen's work and I'm curious to see what this sequel is like- I know it's quite tongue in cheek.
And, I have to read it before Boxing day as the book has been turned into a TV Drama and will be showing- at the same time as Downton Abbey (which I haven't watched any of so theres no competition there even if you'd like there to be Daily Mail!)

Heaving bosoms, haughty put-downs, a smattering of suspicion and a huge dollop of deceit... 

Add dazzling period costumes and a mysterious murder and the battle lines are drawn for the clash of the TV period dramas this Christmas.

Downton Abbey’s two-hour festive special is sure to attract millions of viewers to ITV. But not to be cowed, the BBC has responded by reviving one of literature’s greatest heroines – and one of its biggest audience hits – with an imaginative sequel to Pride And Prejudice.

As the dramas prepare to square up, The Mail on Sunday has been given exclusive access to both to predict which might come out on top. But don’t worry, we won’t ruin the endings.

More...

• Your Xmas telly starts here! From a dashing new Mr Darcy to the return of Open All Hours, JAN MOIR, snuggles up on the sofa for a cracking Christmas on the box
• Beautiful pictures of cathedral’s candlelit procession to mark the start of Advent as the countdown to church’s Christmas celebration begins

Jane Austen’s best-known characters, Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy,  are returning to our screens thanks to a three-part adaptation of PD James’s best-selling novel Death Comes To Pemberley, with Matthew Rhys taking the romantic role of Darcy that catapulted the wet-shirted Colin Firth to stardom.

The sequel picks up the story when Darcy and Lizzie have been married for six years. 

Now parents to two young sons, they are preparing for the annual ball at their palatial Pemberley home when the unannounced arrival of Lydia Wickham, Elizabeth’s wayward sister, brings an shocking halt to proceedings.  

Shrieking loudly, Lydia stumbles out of her carriage yelling that her husband George, the caddish soldier with whom she eloped in Austen’s novel, has been murdered. 

Darcy quickly sends out a search party and a bloody corpse is discovered. But is the victim Wickham, or his friend Captain Denny?

Meanwhile at Downton Abbey the Crawleys, too, are preparing for a party.  The flighty Lady Rose is ‘coming out’ at her debutante’s ball where she will be presented to King George V, so the family have decamped to London.  

And for widowed Lady Mary, the continued attentions of two adoring suitors – Lord Gillingham and Charles Blake – leads to an agonising quandary...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2516159/Downton-Darcy-Let-battle-begin-Cool-Mary-faces-prim-Lizzie-clash-Christmas-TV-titans.html#ixzz2moeHsflN
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

My cake plan-
On Christmas day My parents and Traff will be here- Which will be awesome! I've got the london game to play in the evening and dinner is at 3:30 at the Carvery so that fits with Traff's work times- so everything was going smoothly- until my mum asked about christmas cake "to go with supper"(Which I also had forgotten about and must remember to buy english muffins and cheese).

1) I hate fruit cake. Theres just something odd about it. Cherries = fine. Everything else = Gross. Maybe it's just dried fruits I don't like in cake. I like them on their own!
2) It's too late to start one now as it has to sit for ages.
3) I did think about making one but I don't have anywhere to sit it and let it "rest".
4) The cookery teacher at work offered to teach the staff how to make their cakes but I forgot to go to the lesson and didn't feel brave enough or inclined (see 1) to bother to make one at home.

So, I require an alternative plan- this was handed to me on a plate (no pun intended) Today when Heather at Sprinkle bakes posted her most recent creation- Black forest cake.

I'm going to steal her alternative to cream- As there is no way we can fir a cake in the fridge! and her instructions for making the cherry filling (Whole cherries sounds difficult to cut) and for her frosting as it sounds interesting. The advantage of not using cream is that I can make the cake the day before, and keep the fillings in the fridge, assemble it xmas morning and then leave it out.
No melty/sour cream disaster.

I will however be using a normal chocolate cake recipe (Sprinkle bakes recipe uses buttermilk and I don't even know what that is!)- and it's doubtful mine will be as perfect as hers!  *cake envy*

Boiled whipped vanilla filling
1/4 cup/32g flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups/460g whole milk
2 cups/1 lb unsalted butter, softened
2 cups/400g granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together flour and 1/2 cup of milk until smooth. Set over medium heat and let cook for 3 minutes, or until slightly hot. Whisk in remaining milk and salt. Whisk constantly until the mixture is thick and paste-like (almost like pudding). Remove from heat and pour into a separate bowl. Place in the refrigerator until cool. When cool, mixture will be thick like set custard.
2. In a large bowl (or bowl of a stand mixer, if you have one) beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add vanilla and mix well. Beat in cooled flour mixture one tablespoon at a time on medium-high speed. When all the flour mixture is added, beat on high speed until light and fluffy, about 6 minutes. Rub a little frosting between your fingers, if sugar granules remain, beat for 4 more minutes, or until granules cannot be detected with fingers. Set aside (do not refrigerate) and prepare cherries and syrup.

Cherry filling and syrup
24 oz. jar morello cherries in light syrup
3 tablespoons kirschwasser liqueur
1/4 cup/50g granulated sugar
6 oz. black cherry jam or jelly

1. Drain cherries and reserve 3/4 cup of cherry juice. Chop cherries (I used a food processor) and press through a sieve to remove additional juice created during chopping. Stir cherries together with black cherry jam or jelly. Set aside.
2. Combine 3/4 cup cherry juice and 1/4 cup sugar in a small saucepan. Set over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove and stir in kirsch liqueur.

Dark chocolate frosting
1/2 cup/46g unsweet cocoa powder
1/2 cup/115g freshly brewed hot coffee
1/4 cup/50g granulated sugar
2 cups/1 lb. unsalted butter, softened
3 1/2 cups/ 1 1/2 lbs. semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

1. Combine cocoa and hot coffee in a small bowl; whisk until smooth and set aside to cool. Beat sugar and butter together in a large bowl using an electric mixer (or stand mixer with whip attachment, preferred). Gradually beat in cooled chocolate; scrape down bowl and beat again. With the mixer on medium-low speed, gradually add cocoa/coffee mixture. Beat until smooth. If frosting is too lax to frost cake, place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes, or until just firm enough to spread.

If you think you're kitchen capable enough here is the link- but I know my kitchen limitations and even the frosting surpasses them!
http://www.sprinklebakes.com/2013/12/black-forest-dome-cake.html

Dinosaur Xmas tree decorations

This was posted as a comment under an article on domestic sluttery- I WILL go to pound land and look for dinosaurs, Glitter, Hooks and glue to do this with at the weekend. Although, they'll have to be pink or silver for the tree this year!

These are just awesome! Any excuse for dinosaurs! I have a set of dino stampers which Hayley sent me for my birthday last year- I use them at work as often as I possibly can! I also now have a T-rex necklace. :) 

I will feel very bad screwing hooks into the dinosaurs though :(

If you don't know by now, I really love dinosaurs

Source: modcloth.com via idle on Pinterest

I knew I had to make some myself.

The hardest part of this whole project was finding the dinosaurs. I knew I'd seen them at the dollar store at some point in time, so every time I visited a store this year, I made a conscious effort to look for them. I'm not kidding when I say I found the packages about five days before our vacation. Of the bags of plastic toys in the dollar store, the dinosaurs definitely go first. I must've lucked out and been there on a "just stocked" morning.

Next, gather some glitters and some eye screws, cheap paint brushes and mod podge.

Screw the eye hooks into the dinosaurs first. I used a piece of string wrapped around their bellies to figure out where they balanced so I could screw the hook in at that point. You want to make sure that once you attach a thread through the hook, they'll be weighted correctly and won't hang awkwardly face down or tail up. I thought I'd need a pair of pliers to hold the screw while screwing it in. I thought I'd even need to use a hammer to get it started. But this step was the easiest step in the whole project. Just screw it in with your bare fingers.

All that you have left to do is decorate them to your little heart's desire. Paint on a thin layer of mod podge (plain white glue might work, too), dust it with glitter and knock the dino over a sheet of paper to get the excess glitter off.

Naturally, I remembered a better way to glitter when I was about finished this project (because glitter's kind of the pain-in-the-ass of the crafting world). What you should do is get as many little bowls and spoons as you have glitter colours, fill each bowl with a different colour, then use a spoon to sprinkle the glitter on your dinosaur letting the excess fall back into the bowl. Don't sprinkle the glitter out of the container, over the dinosaur onto a sheet of paper, then use the paper to redistributed the sparkles on spots you missed. It works, but you'll end up with a very glittery mess (like me! You know it's been a good glitter craft when you find a collection of assorted glitter colours under your wedding ring, all over your pants, all over the table, and all over the floor).

Obviously, you can add as much or as little glitter as you want. My favourite dinos are the ones that had multiple layers of colours already on them, so I just followed those lines when applying the glitter. If you want multiple colours, too, just add the glue where you want one colour, add the glitter, let it dry and THEN do the next colour.

My inspiration dinos also had little tinsel collars which would be really easy to apply by gluing on tiny garland pieces. I also had the initial idea of cutting out tiny scarves from scraps of felt to glue around their necks, but once I glittered them, I just really loved the simplicity of the glitter so that's where I stopped. But feel free to go crazy mad with decorating power!

The final step is to apply another thin coat of mod podge to seal the glitter and keep it from infecting the rest of your ornaments (and your fingers) for years to come. It might be helpful to set something up for drying (especially if some of your dinos don't stand on their own like mine). Here's my rig, an indoor clothes drying rack, a paint brush (or skewer) through the eye hook, and hang up to dry.

Finally, thread a string or ribbon through the eye hook, and hang or use as part of a gift tag on a wrapped present.

Paint by numbers pillow case! I wish I'd found this before now! GENIUS!

I've never done a paint by numbers but I really REALLY want to!
This is such a brilliant idea!

It'd make a cool present- and it'd be even better if you drew out the paint by numbers onto a cushion cover or pillow case- so then it can be given as a gift and completed by the recipient! GENIUS! this would even work with a scarf perhaps? 

I'll try this before the new year and let you know how I get on.

I found an easy colour by numbers website for kids:
http://coloritbynumbers.com/online

And some more complicated and grown up versions:
http://www.segmation.com/

And obviously you could go oldschool and buy a proper paint by numbers from The words for about £4 and just photocopy the canvas.. Or make your own? That sounds super complicated!

Supplies Needed: 1. Paintbrushes 2. Fabric marker/pen 3. Paint pot strips 4. Masking tape. 5. Paint-by-number guide 6. Martha Stewart's Multi-Surface Craft Paint (or fabric paint) 7. Heavy weight cotton for pillow back 8. Plain, light colored utility fabric for pillow front 9. Poly-fil 10. Scissors 11. Coordinating thread 12. Hand sewing needle

1. Download and print out the paint-by-number guide. 

Line up the two sheets and tape the back together. NOTE: When you print, make sure the print settings are set to no scaling (or if asked for scaling, set to none). When you tape it together, depending how your printer prints it, there may be slight gaps between the picture, if so, just connect the lines with a pen.

2. Lay paint-by-number guide on top of your front fabric and cut out to exact size. 

3. Tape paint-by-number guide on a bright window. NOTE: The more light the better, so that you can see the lines when tracing onto your fabric. 4. Tape the utility front fabric on top of the guide. 5. Using your fabric marker/pen, trace the picture onto the fabric. NOTE: Don't mark the numbers, while tracing on the window, save that for the next step. 6. Using the guide, mark the numbers in its corresponding area. NOTE: I found it easier to write the numbers in at this step just looking at the guide, rather than try to find it while tracing on the window.

7. Designate your paints to its corresponding number by putting them into little containers and number them. 

8. Start painting your picture. To get the look of the pillow pictured, the key is in the blending. Keep in mind, this will become your work of art and no two will be the same, so this will make it even more special! Feel free to play around with colors while painting. If you like, you can keep the colors more separate instead of blending or blend to your heart's content.

9. Allow at least four hours to let your painting dry completely. 

10. Place your painting on top of the heavy weight fabric for the pillow back and cut to exact measurement of painting, so that both pieces are exactly the same. 11. Place right sides together and pin in place. 12. Stitch using a 1/2'' seam allowance, making sure to leave a 3.5'' opening so you can turn the fabric right side out. Trim corners at a 45 degree angle to reduce the bulk. Make sure you don't clip your stitching. 13. Turn your fabric right side out.

14. Fill your pillow with poly-fil and hand sew opening close.Place your pretty scenic pillow somewhere it can be enjoyed! The paint does make the fabric a bit more stiff, so I don't think you will be using this to lay your head on at night, nevertheless, it is a pretty pillow and a real work of art! When choosing your fabric for the back, I suggest something simple, but with a little bit of punch. The front of the pillow is the show stealer, but you will want something to really compliment it. I thought black and white stripes where a good way to make the back of this funky, decorative pillow bold and classic. If you ever get tired of the front, but I don't think you will, flip it over and showcase the back! This pillow is spot clean only.