It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Toys in ev’ry store
But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be
On your own front door.
How nice are the coloured felt balls, I bought them from Happy as Larry Designs.
Archive for November, 2011
happy countdown to Christmas everyone…
Gingerbread Christmas
A few weeks ago I put the question out there ‘what is the earliest socially acceptable date to put up my Christmas tree?’. I had a few really adamant responses and it was pretty much a fifty-fifty split. With half saying I should put it up early November to enjoy Christmas and get into the spirit for a few extra weeks. The others said, I MUST wait until December first or I will be in for a year of bad luck. Yikes. At the risk of tempting fate, this weekend the Christmas tree is out of the box and now sits in all its twinkling glory in the living room.
The best part about decorating the tree is the gingerbread cookies. They smell so, well, Christmassy! I was so determined to have the gingerbread hearts and stars on the tree right away I braved a trip to IKEA on a Saturday with baby and toddler. Let’s just say I was tempted to consume the two bottles of mulled wine I bought then and there. I barely got out with my sanity intact. But look at the results, worth it, no?
Incase you’re wondering, here is my recipe for the icing;
250g icing sugar
1 egg white
tablespoon warm water
Beat the eggwhite and sugar until well combined and then gradually add water until it it the consistency of thick whipped cream.
advent calendar activities
I made my advent calendar last month and have spent the last few weeks trying to think of 25 (toddler friendly) activities to fill it with. I finally got my list done, here it is…
1. Decorate the Christmas tree
2. Make paper snowflakes
3. Make a snowman out of playdoh
4, Bake reindeer cookies
5. Bake cupcakes for our friends
6. Have chocolate fondue with cherries and marshmallows
7. Stay up late and look at the stars
8. Have fish and chips at the beach
9. Write a letter to Santa
10. Make a felt decoration for the tree
11. Choose a toy we don’t play with anymore and give to charity
12. Take a picnic to the park
13. Make Christmas cards
14. Buy a present to put under the wishing tree
15. Decorate a gingerbread house
16. Make a paper chain
17. Watch ‘It’s a wonderful life’ and eat popcorn
18. Create a Christmas picture with our thumbprints
19. Listen to a Christmas CD
20. Colour in a Christmas picture
21. Sing Christmas carols
22. Read a Christmas story
23. Drive around to look at the houses with Christmas lights
24. Put carrots out for the reindeer
25. Unwrap our presents from Santa
If you haven’t got your advent calendar ready yet, check out this diy calendar with free printables over at the Oh Happy Day blog.
Or for something even easier, go by a packet of brown paper bags, write a number from 1 to 25 on each one and put a little something in, staple or peg them all to a long piece of ribbon and hang it somewhere. That was my first advent calendar which I managed to complete late one November 30th. Here is a lovely brown paper bag calendar.
Strawberry cheesecake
Today I made these mini strawberry cheesecakes, so festive and sweet. Looking all the more delictable in these pretty paper cups. The recipe is from Annie’s Eats. Easy as pie.
teacup pincushion
I have a very sweet little pincushion that I was given once, I think it’s an Austrian design and it’s very old, I can’t remember how I got it but I have a feeling it belonged to my Husbands grandmother. It has a quaint little design of a boy and girl in traditional dress. I love it but I always cringed a little poking the pins into this little pair. It felt a bit voodoo and mean. Also it’s getting so old the stuffing has gone hard and I can’t poke the pins in easily anymore.
So a little googling later and I had a tutorial to make a teacup pincushion. Super quick and easy and cute to boot, and I don’t feel bad stabbing polkadots.
the winner is…
Sorry for my tardiness in creating this post. A teething baby and temperamental toddler are not conducive to blogging! My sincere apologies. Now onto the winner of the Christmas mobile… bruisemouse… congratulations! I will be in touch in the next day or so.
Thank you all, for your encouraging and kind comments.
If I get to making something else I will do another giveaway, that was fun! Enjoy your weekend and I will be back full swing next week after I catch up on some sleep. Fingers crossed.
diy Christmas ornaments
I have been busy bookmarking some Christmas ornament tutorials to make and do. Though I think bookmarking them is about as far as I will get this year. I haven’t got too much downtime at the moment. I’m doing the parenting gig solo until Hubby gets back from his work stint overseas, or the Grandparents arrive from Queensland, whichever comes first! It’s nice to look and add to the to-do-list even if it doesn’t get done, don’t you think?
Don’t forget to comment on the Christmas mobile post if you want a chance to own it. You could even give it away as a Christmas present, one to tick off the list! I will draw a name on Thursday and let you know who won.
1. crochet baubles by meet me at mikes
2. felt owls by Jessica Levitt
3, clay birdy by Jessica Jane
words to live by
Just a nice little thought for your Sunday afternoon, from the book ‘INSPIRE‘ by Kikki K.
Don’t forget to leave a comment on the previous post if you want a chance to win the Christmas mobile. Odds are looking pretty good at the moment, only a couple of comments so far!
a little gift (a giveaway!)
Getting into the Christmas spirit early I have been doing a little screen printing and sewing some mobiles. I designed the bird and the circle ornaments and printed them onto a vintage linen tablecloth. I have made a few for Christmas presents and I thought it would be fun to give one away on my blog.
Just leave a comment if you want to be part of the giveaway and in a week I will randomly select a winner.
in case you missed it…
For many of my lovely followers it may seem like things have been a little quiet here. I have been adding new posts, but you may have missed them. I recently transferred my blog over to a self-hosting site, I won’t bore you with the details but it means I can do more with the design and layout and add a few nice features I didn’t have before. I thought it would be a seamless transition but I had one major oversight, which is if you are following through your own wordpress.com blog you won’t be receiving updates of my new posts. It seems I can’t take my followers with me, which is heartbreaking, I was enjoying sharing with you!
If you were enjoying my blog I hope you will continue to pop in occasionally at littlepieceofpie.com and if you would still like updates you can subscribe via email by clicking on the link to the right.
To celebrate my new blog design I am going to do a giveaway. I haven’t done one before but I thought it would be nice to share something I have been making. It’s a little bit of screen printing and sewing and beading and it’s getting me into the Christmas spirit, I will give some more details about it tomorrow.
For now I am going to go and have a cup of tea with my Hubby, as he is going away soon to work overseas until Christmas. I am going to miss him terribly and I think this picture by Freya sums it up perfectly.
x