.Recipe Monday.

Sharing the recipes I used to make our Christmas treats this year...there is still time to do some Christmas cooking if you haven't already!!

Oreo Truffles
I shared this recipe a couple of weeks ago - see it here

Peppermint Balls
This recipe came from One Crafty Mama's blog. She makes hers in a log shape, but I had a go at rolling the mixture into balls and they turned out really well.

3/4 tin condensed milk
1 packet chocolate ripple biscuits
1 large bag of peppermints (the hard, powdery kind of ones - XXX, oddfellows, etc...I used homebrand!)
1 Tbs cocoa
Coconut

Crush the biscuits with a rolling pin or in a food processor.
Crush the peppermints into little pieces. (I tried doing this in the food processor but they were too hard and wouldn't break into pieces so ended up wrapping them in a tea towel and going outside and banging them with a hammer on the concrete like Melissa suggests - such a good idea!!)
Mix condensed milk, crushed biscuits, crushed peppermints and cocoa together.
Wet your hands slightly and roll the mixture into balls, then roll in coconut and place in the fridge to firm.

No Bake Apricot Balls
This recipe also came from One Crafty Mama. We used to make similar balls growing up, but without the biscuits so they were very sweet. The biscuits were a nice addition and helped them to set better too.

1 tin condensed milk
1 cup finely chopped dried apricots
1 packet milk arrowroot biscuits, crushed
Cococnut

Mix condensed milk, apricots and biscuits together.
Roll into small balls then roll in coconut.
Place in the fridge to firm.

Homemade Marshmallow
Don't be scared to try making these...they are super easy and delicious!

1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2/3 cup hot water
2 Tbs gelatine
2/3 cup cold water
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups coconut

Grease and line a large slice tin.
Place sugar and hot water in saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves and syrup is clear.
Place gelatine in a bowl and our over cold water. Use a hand whisk to combine. Pour gelatine mixture into hot sugar syrup and cook, stirring constantly, until the gelatine has dissolved and mixture is clear. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Pour cooled mixture into a large bowl and use electric beaters on high to beat for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture is very thick. Add the vanilla and beat to combine.
Pour into prepared pan and leave in a cool place to set. Once set (about 1 hour) use a wet knife to cut into squares.
To toast coconut, heat a clean, dry frying pan over medium-high heat. Add coconut and cook, stirring constantly until coconut is golden.
Place toasted coconut in a bowl and add toss squares of marshmallow through the coconut to coat.

.Countdown to Christmas #20.

Tonight was our traditional "Gingerbread House" making night. We like the cheats version...using Milk Coffee biscuits. Not as tasty as gingerbread but much easier for me to prepare and the kids don't like gingerbread so I would be annoyed at all of the wastage if we were to make traditional houses! These are good too because they are mini so it means that everyone can make (and eat!!) their own.

I'm excited about this...I was reading this blog earlier in the week about their experience making gingerbread houses out of biscuits and discovered an AWESOME tip... if you have made these houses before you will know that it is a bit of a tedious task getting the biscuits to stand in proper formation using only icing. Walls falling down and roofs caving in are not fun when you have anxious children waiting to get into decorating! So, this year I made up a little bit of toffee mix and while it was still bubbling hot and runny (be careful!) dipped the sides of each biscuit into the syrup before joining them together. PERFECT! I told Carli about it and she did the same thing yesterday and was just as excited about the results. I highly recommend it. We used royal icing to decorate but once the houses are all stuck together with toffee you could use melted chocolate or regular icing. To make the toffee mixture I placed 1 cup of water and 2 cups of sugar in a saucepan and let it boil for about 10 minutes. Test a little bit of syrup by dropping it on the stainless steel sink or a plate or something else that is cool and if it sets then you are ready to roll!
Of course the lollies are the highlight for the kids! I like to control the amount of lollies they have and give them each an assortment to use rather than just open all of the bags and let them go crazy. (Mean Mum!)And Jaron couldn't follow the crowd this year, check out his award-winning architectural masterpiece! There was lot of precise biscuit measuring and cutting for this one...and the toffee was a breeze to help it stick together easily!

.Christmas Sewing: Giddy-Up!.

I said before that I have been doing lots of sewing lately, ready for Christmas. All of the other gifts are going to have to wait until after the 25th to be shared, but I can show you what I have just finished for Oscar and Lil...

A "Giddy-Up" horse each using a new Melly & Me pattern! You know how you see a pattern and know that you just have to make one? It was like that with this pattern. I thought it would be a long shot trying to get two of them finished the week before Christmas but they were pretty straight forward to put together. I think they took me three nights of sewing after the kids had gone to bed.

This one is Oscar's....
And this one for Lil...
Pretty cute, huh? I'm really pleased with how they turned out - now the problem will be trying to work out how to wrap them...
SUPPLIES
Oscar's horse:
Head - Amy Butler Midwest Modern, Garden Maze in Mustard
Pole/Ears - Heather Ross Lightning Bugs, Polka Dots in Orange/Brown
Reins - Prints Charming, Starburst in Aqua
Mane - As Above + Amy Butler Midwest Modern 2, Honeycomb in Forest
Lil's horse:
Head - Amy Butler Love, Sunspots in Tangerine
Pole/Ears - Amy Butler Midwest Modern 2, Garden Maze in Red
Reins - Heather Bailey Bijoux, Tiled Primrose in Yellow
Mane - As Above + Sandi Henderson Farmers Market, Henna Garden in Pink + Amy Butler Daisy Chain, Daisy Bouquet in Turquoise

.Countdown to Christmas #16 & #17.

Wednesday and Thursday found us baking up a Christmas Storm! There were a couple of people that I wanted to give treats to for Christmas and the kids are giving these to their teachers at church also. We were supposed to deliver them this week...but it didn't happen so will give them out this weekend.

I am in love with bakers twine at the moment. Such cool stuff and a great way to jazz up a plain brown paper wrapped present. The red and white is perfect for Christmas...I want to invest in some other colours too.

We made four treats and wrapped a few of each in clear cellophane. There are some strong flavours in the treats and I didn't want them to mix. Then we put all four individually wrapped treats in each present.

All ready for delivery...SUPPLIES:
Brown paper from supermarket
Home made gift tags
Bakers Twine from here
(Will share recipes on Monday...)

.Go here for a giveaway.

Go to my sister's blog...she is hosting a giveaway at the moment and has been super crafty making cards, gift tags, magnets and more. (And tell her you want her to open comments always, its more fun like that.)

Also, she sent me some fabric a few weeks ago to make her a Versatile Wrap. Here it is laying on the sand at the beach...
Take a look at photos of her wearing it. Super cute baby #4 expanding belly...

LOTS and LOTS of Christmas crafting and sewing going on behind the scenes here lately. The problem with making Christmas gifts is that they have to stay under wraps until the big day! Although, tomorrow I can show you these little beauties I have just finished for Oscar and Lil...they don't read my blog so I can share something at least!

SUPPLIES
Amy Butler Love, Memento in Midnight
Amy Butler Love, Sunspots in Wine

.Countdown to Christmas #12.

Finally getting around to uploading photos from the weekend...

Our advent activity on Saturday was to go to the Cherry Shed for a milkshake. Unfortunately the cherries aren't quite ready yet (my favourite part - will be buying a big box as soon as they are ripe!) but we did have a drink and little lunch together. The kids love going out for lunch, which is a good thing because so do Jaron and I!
(Oscar and Lil can't stop laughing at this photo of Tommy!)And we managed to take some pics of the kids and I together - although would have been better if Jaron jumped in too! Next time...
Today's advent activity is Christmas cooking...

.Is he always this happy?.

With his wide smile and bright eyes, I get asked this about Tommy everywhere I go.

The answer is, yes! He is always really happy. So nice to have a cruisy little guy in the house. After a bit of a rocky start, he has made up for it by being so easy going now.

He turned 6 months this week...that means food. The novelty of feeding solids to a baby definitely wears off with each child! We've fed him a few times, much to his disgust. He still prefers me, oh joy!
Tommy had been sleeping in our bedroom since he was born. It isn't a very good location as it is right off the lounge room so always pretty noisy. Night times were okay until about 1 month ago and he started waking up at 1am, 2am, 3am, 4am, 5am...you get the picture. Not much fun and impossible to leave him to settle himself back to sleep when he was right next to me. Our only option was putting him into the sewing room to sleep. I was reluctant to do this because night time is when I get the majority of my sewing work done...but after weighing up sleep or sewing...sleep won! We will be moving in a couple of months so he will have his own room then anyway. I was expecting the first few nights to be really difficult, but he slept for 11 hours! And has done the same ever since.

Oh, and he has TWO teeth! Tommy is always pretty drooly, and people would always say, "he'll be getting teeth soon" to which I would tell them that my children don't get teeth until they are almost 12 months (that is what O & L did anyway) then last week two little teeth sprouted through his bottom gums! So cute, but not so when he bites me...
I really can't believe he has already been here for 6 months. Before we know it he will start sitting, crawling, walking, talking. Tommy - you are a joy!

.Countdown to Christmas #9 & #10.

Yesterday's advent activity was to make Snickers Rocky Road. I had good intentions of Oscar and Lil making it with me but they were really trying my patience yesterday. You know how some days they are constantly under your feet, arguing, tantruming, turning your day upside down? It was one of those days.

So this is how I did it.

Waited for that blessed moment of the day when Lil and Tommy are asleep at the same time. Asked Oscar if he wanted to watch a DVD and have a piece of Rocky Road when it was finished. He was cool with that, so I made it by myself! They enjoyed having a taste afterward. I know the purpose of the advent was to do stuff as a family, but trust me, it wasn't going to be very enjoyable yesterday! (They topped the day off by tipping a jar of nail polish over the bathroom floor after dinner.)

Anyway, back to the Rocky Road - so so so yum! I first saw the recipe on this blog - cool blog by the way, and a fellow Tasmanian! (Here is a link to the recipe.)

Snickers Rocky Road
4 x 60g Snickers bars (or fun pack of Snickers)
1 cup rice bubbles
1 cup roughly chopped marshmallows
1 cup roughly chopped unsalted peanuts
400g block Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate
20g copha

Mix first four ingredients together in a bowl.
Melt chocolate and copha together.
Add chocolate to bowl and mix well. Spread into a baking paper-lined slice tin. Set in fridge.

(I added extra marshmallows and rice bubbles instead of the peanuts because I forgot to buy them and had none at home)
Today we made paper chain decorations. They were fun. I think I had more fun than the kids did - although they were pretty excited to be allowed to use the paper cutter! I forgot how cool paper chains can look. Think this one would look awesome to decorate for a birthday party...will have to remember for next time! It was quick and achievable and looked cute strung up in front of the windows but only lasted for 10 minutes and then fell down. Will have to work out a better way to secure to the wall tomorrow!

.Countdown to Christmas #8.

The tree went up yesterday. It feels more like Christmas now.

Oscar is loving opening an envelope each morning. The hard part is waiting until later in the day until we can do the activity!

Today we made Christmas cards to post to his friends. He chose 7 friends he wanted to send cards to.I had everything pre-cut and ready to stick on to save time and make the activity quick as I knew he would loose interest otherwise.A little Christmas greeting and signing of his name...stuffed in an envelope with a chocolate treat and they will go out in the mail tomorrow. Lil was asleep...craft + Lil = disaster zone at the moment. She is going through a mega moody stage and throws about 300 tantrums a day. I saved some supplies for her to make a couple of cards for her friends when I need a distraction for her.
Tommy (6 months old today - what the heck?!!) watching from the sidelines...I've been gently reminded that I haven't posted many pics of the kids lately. Reason for this? I've been a slack photo taker. They are still alive - barely, after tipping nail polish over the bathroom floor tonight...good thing it wasn't carpet. I'll do my best to take more photos again.

.Recipe Monday.

Strawberry Cheesecake

Base
200g biscuit crumbs
1/4 cup brown sugar
70g butter, melted
Filling
500g cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 large lemon, rind finely grated, juiced
3 tsp powdered gelatine
300ml cream, lightly whipped
375g small strawberries, hulled
1/2 cup strawberry jam

Grease and line the base and sides of a springform cake pan.
Mix biscuit crumbs, brown sugar and melted butter together. Press into base of pan and place in the fridge.
Heat lemon juice and gelatine in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring with a for until dissolved. Set aside to cool (this mixture needs to be the same temperature as the cream cheese mixture before combining.)
Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, sugar and lemon rind until smooth.
Beat gelatine into cream cheese mixture. Fold in cream, mixing until combined.
Spoon filling over base and smooth surface. Refrigerate cheesecake for at least 4 hours or overnight until set.
Arrange strawberries, pointed end up, over cheesecake. Warm jam in a heatproof, microwave-safe bowl for 45-60 seconds. Drizzle warm jam over strawberries. Chill for 30 minutes or until jam sets.

Another version of the same cheesecake...this time using buttersnap biscuits as the base. I put them in patty pan trays and into the oven for 5 minutes to soften. As soon as they come out of the oven and are still hot and soft, press the biscuits in the pan with the back of a soup spoon to make them turn into a little cup shape. They will cool in this shape. I used half the filing mix above and it made enough to fill almost 2 packets buttersnap biscuits.

.Countdown to Christmas.

For the last few years I have been wanting to make a cool advent calendar with fun activities or events for us to do every day leading up to Christmas. I just haven't got it together in time though. The 1st December rolls around and I curse myself for leaving it too late and promise that I will have one made by the next Christmas. Still didn't happen this year.

At 9:30pm on Friday night I was thinking again about how I really wanted to have an advent calendar and decided that I would make one THAT night! It had to be finished before I went to bed so that I could work out the activities over the weekend and be ready to start on Monday morning.

So, I am a week late, but we still have three fun weeks to take part in the family Christmas Countdown!!

It was actually good that I challenged myself to get it finished in the evening because it meant that I didn't spend any money on extra supplies and had to use what I had on hand already around the house. The scrapbook paper box was dusted off and I found quick and easy instructions online to make little envelopes out of a square of paper and used bits and pieces from my scrapbooking stash to number each envelope. I really, really like the look of this advent calendar, but didn't have the time to go to that much effort or detail. I LOVE the wooden frame and all of the funky bits and pieces (how cool is the crocheted number 3?) - maybe next year ;) Then I had to decide how to hang it all together...I thought about attaching some string to the walls with blutac but had visions of the kids pulling it down, or it falling down all the time. Then Mum suggested attaching them to a canvas - cool! Instead of buying a new canvas I grabbed a painting from the garage and covered it in fabric. (Nothing permanent, just used sticky tape on the back!) Some wool strung across the canvas and attached to the sides with drawing pins and then I used paper clips to hang the envelopes off the wool! DONE!!!
Today I took a look at my diary and worked out what activities we are going to do each day, wrote them down on slips of paper and stuck on in each envelope. The good thing about this is that I wanted to do a lot of the activities already but now I am sharing them with the kids and helping them to feel the Christmas spirit and hype! I'll try and blog about some of the activities as we go along...for now, this is the list (the other good thing is that the kids don't know what is coming up next so I can change it the night before if I need to!)

Day 7: Tree up and decorated
Day 8: Make and post Christmas cards to friends
Day 9: Make snickers rocky road
Day 10: Make paper chain decorations
Day 11: Hang candy canes on tree
Day 12: Go to the Cherry Shed for a milkshake
Day 13: Go for a walk along the beach
Day 14: Dance to Christmas songs and read Christmas stories under the tree before bed
Day 15: Family games night
Day 16: Bake Christmas treats
Day 17: Wrap and deliver Christmas treats to teachers
Day 18: Have breakfast for dinner (pancakes) and make Reindeer food
Day 19: Go to church Christmas party
Day 20: Make gingerbread houses
Day 21: Watch a Christmas movie with popcorn
Day 22: Make mini lolly wreaths
Day 23: Go to the Hawley Beach Shop after dinner for an icecream
Day 24: Open one present each early (Mum and Dad choose which one)
Day 25: Christmas!!! Have a FUN day!

SUPPLIES:
Envelope instructions from here
Envelopes made from various scrapbook papers (mostly Basic Grey) cut into 6" squares
Envelopes decorated with various scrapbook supplies from "the stash"
Canvas covered with Prints Charming fabric - Starburst in Charatruese
Scrap wool, draw pins and paperclips

.Fabric Scrap Card TUTORIAL.

My scrap box is getting WAY too big. Trouble is, I have a really hard time throwing scraps away...but I need to start doing something with them!

Fabric Scrap Cards! They are all over the internet, but I haven't been able to find instructions or a tutorial that is really quick and simple (i.e. NOT using fusible webbing, that's a bit too much fuss for a card!) - so, I had a play around and this is how I do it...would be fun to make Christmas cards or gift tags to go on your presents this time of the year!

.SWEEEET.

A selection of Sandi Henderson's new range "Meadow Sweet" arrived on my doorstep this morning (actually it was shoved in my meter box as we weren't home...the posty and I have an arrangement...) It is DIVINE! A bit of a retro/vintage feel mixed up with happy prints and rich colours. What to sew...

.Lego World.

He is getting too big.
Not so long ago it was all trains and train tracks. Now we are building, building, building.
It is mostly just him, but sometimes I get conned into studying the thick instruction booklets and hundreds of little blocks to make cars and trucks for him. It is HARD and frustrating, but once I start I have to admit I get a little bit hooked! Today I spent 1 1/2 hours making a cool red racing car and launcher (from Lego Tecnhic - that is tricky stuff...used to belong to my brothers). After about half an hour of playing with it, Oscar decided to make some modifications - everything "transforms" at the moment. I was horrified! After all that hard work!!! I keep reminding myself that he is learning and being creative and all of that other important stuff!