Thrifty But Glam

Well this was the year that I vowed the majority of my Christmas gifts would be home-made.  To me, one of the main components of Christmas is scrummy food!  Unsurprisingly, I decided to make some baked treats to give as gifts. Chocolate Truffles After everyone on my Christmas forum was raving about giving home made truffles as gifts I decided I had to make my own.  Back in November I purchased some metallic petit four cases, with the intention of using them for truffles.  I have made ganache before for icing cakes, but never used it to make truffles.  The actual baking part is child's play, I used this recipe; http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/182606/chocolate-truffles The only adjustment I made was using German dark chocolate instead of the recommended 70% cocoa (Lindt etc) - I may be biased, but I just think that German Chocolate has a far deeper taste. The assembly was very, very messy!  It was a bit of a struggle not to l...

Back in the Summer, a friend and I developed a bit of a glass obsession.  It all started when I saw a tutorial on glass etching a beautiful trifle bowl .  Well I knew I needed one, but was loath to pay almost £40 for a similar one - especially as I was worried that I would mess up the etching process.  We decided to scour the local car boot sales in search of one.  Sadly we never found the trifle bowl (although my wonderful bestie brought me one for our wedding anniversary, I am still too scared to etch it!) but we did manage to find a tall retro glass sweetie jar. At the time I didn't really pay much attention to my purchase.  I loosely discussed etching it with cute little gingerbread motifs, but never got round to it (I will be more organised next year!).  When I was pulling out my glass jars for jam making last week, I suddenly remembered I had it.  Unfortunately it was too late to try out something elaborate with glass etching as I currentl...

Well, I had my first fete today and really enjoyed it.  Granted I made very little, but there was interest for my Family Tree Paper-Cuts and I was urged to try out some actual Craft Fairs/Fetes rather then a general one.  There were lovely Christmas carols and it was nice to chat to people about my crafts.  I even took along my knitting (desperately trying to finish a Christmas present!) and it was nice to knit and watch the children. Here are some of the photo's from my stall; The pink stand was a pot stand that I managed to get from poundland.  It was originally white, but I purchased a spray can of hot pink paint and managed to transform it.  I bought some bauble hooks too and really like all the available space it gives me to hand my wares. I may be brave and try an actual craft fair next year!

Last Tuesday, it was 19 years exactly since I sashayed down the aisle of Canford Magna Church, with my hair in angelic ringlets and sporting a beautiful princess dress.  19 years ago my cousin married her childhood sweetheart and gave me the privilege of being her bridesmaid. Lisa is extremely family orientated, she home educates her children and is like no Mother I have ever met - her offspring are very lucky.  We lived together for a large part of my childhood and she is pretty much my big sister.  She is the one I turn to when life has hit me hard, the one I celebrate with when I have caught a break and the one who is always supportive and never afraid to give me her true opinion if she believes it is for my own good. All of this means the pressure for me to show her how much she means to me is enormous!  Originally I had the soppy idea to buy them both the Now 1993 album - however this was a bit of a gamble.  They got marrie...

Not many people know this, but I am married to the Grinch.  They say that opposites attract, so I guess it only stands to reason that someone as obsessed and in love with Christmas as I would end up marrying the Bah Humbug type.  After listening to his mantra of "God, I hate Christmas" for the millionth time, I decided to get him back at his own game.  If he hates Christmas so much, then surely a statement tee was in order. With Chris at work, me fighting a cold and restless, I decided to try out the heat transfer vinyl I recently bought.  This was initially purchased to trial embellishing Children's clothes for the up-coming fete, but I decided my big Kid needed first dibs. Here are the results; The process was not exactly straight-forward, but for a first attempt I am satisfied.  Only real grumble is that my cheap ironing board has left a very light diamond pattern in a small area.  In all fairness most of Chris's shirts have this on so...