New nativity!!

I've wanted for a very long time to make an advent calendar for the run up to Christmas, but was always reluctant to start because i could never decide on what type to make!

 

This year I finally bit the bullet and went for the nativity and pockets design!

Each day has a pocket with a sweet and a character inside.

  

Look at them all poking out! lol!  

 So each day you have to add another character to populate the nativity scene.  I made the little charcters from felt and put poppers on the labelled spaces in the stable...because it wouldn't be mine if i couldn't be in complete control! lol!

I layered on the numbers and freehand embroidered the numbers, before cutting away the red fabric to make the shapes. 

And of course I made Mary and Joseph match! Lol!

blouse for the babysitter

So my fabulous mamma is now baby-sitter in chief down at grandma's nursery and is working so heard that she's wearing out her favourite outfits!  She gave me one such pathetic article which had actually got holes in it, but she was still wearing it, it was so comfortable!  So, like a phoenix from the flames I chopped it up and used the pattern to make a brand new one of the same size and shape.  I even used the interfacing from the old blouse in the new one, just to pass on a little of the soul of the shirt she loved so much!! Lol!!

Happy Christmas Mamma!

mmmm..mince pies!

So these posts are waaaay late...my apologies.  I can'y get blogger to work properly for me since they "modernised" everything...it's a nightmare to upload anything, and then the pics disappear...and it's about then that I give up and go and play with Rocco instead.

But i've decided in view of the fact that I'm now running around after the bambino that I'm going to downsize to 5 posts per month with the new year.  I'll still be crafting away. but I'll be doing other stuff too, so 5 crafts per month seems more doable, still keeping it fun.  It doesn't help that a large proportion of the stuff I make never makes it onto the blog because i am hopeless at remembering to take photos of it!!!

So yeah...it was christmas, and christmas means mince pies!  Millions of them!  This year meant 6 batches!!!  Eeeek! When you see the amount of butter that goes into make the all-butter-pastry it makes me cringe to think how many i've eaten!!

I always use different shapes on the top, to let me know which batch they are from when i put them in the freezer.  But of course i only took photos of one batch!!  I never learn.

So yeah, Happy Christmas and I hope you had a great one!

Squash substitute

So very unfortunately, we had to have the Halloween party a couple of days after Halloween this year...so what you say...well it seems that there is not a pumpkin to be found after 12 midnight on the 31 October....obviously they all turn into something else.  

So basically i was panicking and had to come up with a compromise!  It's actually not such a good compromise as you might think....butternut squash is ROCK SOLID and extremely hard to carve, I was sure I was going to lose a finger or two.  

 But at least the "pumpkin" brownies were able to be made...and they actually tasted no different!  YUM as always.  And it looks scary enough, if perhaps a little rigid.  It is really hard to carve curves into solid marble...or indeed butternut squash.

Carved Capsicums?

Sorry about the awful title!

So I had a bit of an issue with the decorations as you'll see in the next post, and had to resort to using odd vegetables as my decorations!! I didn't get great pics of these, so i apologise but the little orange peppers actually looked really cool as mini pumpkins!!

 

I wish i'd got a photo with their hats on!!

  

They were the perfect size for tealights too!!  Might even do these next year!

 

Halloween Cupcakes

So i didn't think that orange and black cake would look particularly appetising so I decided to stick to colouring the icing for the Halloween party cupcakes. SuperD had recently bought me a fab pressie of some icing cutters in the shape of little flowers etc so I got a chance to use them!  

I always think the modern cupcakes are a little heavy on the icing, making them too sweet...but that could just be me....anyway, i decided to stick with just the flowers rather than placing them on buttercream or icing or anything, and they were perfectly balanced - in my opinion anyway!

Toffee Cake Pops

So this was a new thing, Toffee Cake Pops, as an alternative to Toffee Apples......because, who really wants to eat an apple at a party???   Like...Come on!! The recipe I got from the website Home of Fabulous Cakes, the woman whose company made the royal wedding cake this year.  They're lovely....but, piece of advice - perhaps don't make them if you'll be in the vicinity of any diabetics...THEY ARE SWEEEEEEEEEET!!  (shudder from the sugar-high...or "shiver-high" as we call it in Ireland)

Get your 80s on!

So i'm loving the italian films from the 70s and 80s at the minute, we watch a new one every night over dinner and a glass of wine... the style is fabulous!  One of my favourite actors is Jerry Cala', for the awkward situations that he gets himself into and his hilarious catchphrases.  Reminded me of a while ago when i made one of his catchphrases into a tshirt for my gorgeous nephew...so i decided Rocket needed one too!

It translates roughly as "cool, double cool, cool with bows on!" - umm...it loses something in the translation i think...lol!!

Catherine wheel cookies

So i has to rustle up some new-ish Halloween goodies for the party, you know something that i hadn't made before...so this might be stretching it but i went for Catherine Wheel Cookies....ok so theyre not very firework-y looking....but they're Halloween coloured!!!

 Made with a basic butter shortbread recipe.  

6oz plain flour

4oz butter

2oz sugar

15mins @180 deg C

Split dough in two, add orange to one (or red and yellow, which is what i did) and black colouring to the other.  Then roll out into rectangle shape and lay own on the other...then roll up into a sausage and slice to form your cookies!

Love it Loud!

So I think Rocket really must be a fan of italian rap music, the reason being that he lives by the motto of one particular song ....so in the spirit of Articolo 31...

...i give you piu' volume!!!