December Catch Up : Advent Calendar

 From this... 

To this...

Its only taken me two years to complete, but I finally managed to finish this advent calendar which I gave to my Sister-in-Law and her family just before the Advent season. I have another one waiting to be done for our family. Hopefully it won't be another two years before we get to use ours!

JYC Prompt 28

My favourite Christmas indulgence... baked goodies! Shop bought or home baked I don't mind which! Mind you, home baked is definitely better!

I'm still trying to catch up with all the JYC Prompts that I've missed. Its going to take some time though as I'm waaaay behind!

JYC Layouts

Sorry for having been absent the last week.. or two.. or three! You all know how it goes, Advent arrives and you swear its going to be calmer and  more organised than last year; and then before you know it you're running around like a headless chicken. Well, its happened again!

The good news is that we are now with the extended family and have been forced into a more sedate and calmer way of life. Which also means that I've been able to get some essential stuff sorted out on my laptop... things like - organising the mess of photo's I'd just dumped on my laptop for the past 8 or 9 months, and also sorting out my digi scrapping kits that I'd downloaded and then done nothing with. Anyway, they're all sorted now and actually inspired me to do some scrapping! Going along with the theme of catching up, I decided to do some layouts for Shimelle's 'Journal Your Christmas' class! So here are the two that I've completed today.. and hopefully there will be more in the next week or so, so keep checking back to see my progress!

Spiced Yummy-ness

Yummy-ness. Yup, in this household its a technical term! I'm sure it is in some other households too, although the Oxford Dictionary people would probably be turning in their gravy right now. The reason for using this technical terminology is... baking. Hmmmm.... there is much yummy-ness to be had whenever baking is being done, but especially when the festive period arrives and I get the urge to bake. It doesn't happen often tho', which is a pity! I don't really see myself as a baker. That was always my sisters forté. 


We used to go to my Gran's house whenever my parents needed to go shopping. Once there, she would sit me behind her old treadle Singer sewing machine with some fabric, thread and a big tinful of buttons. Then she would scuttle off to her small kitchenette with my little sister in tow to do some baking. My sister would have hours of fun measuring and mixing and then out of that small kitchen would come the most delicious things. I think that was when I realised that working in the kitchen could produce more than just food to fill hungry tummies. Working in her kitchen would produce the most mouth watering stuff which could only be considered as treats. Scotch pancakes (which we called crumpets), brownies, cakes, pancakes, scones, fairy cakes and biscuits. My Gran and my sister made all of those in the times we visited her. I suppose my Gran did most of the work in the early years - my sister would only have been about three at the time - but over the years my sister became more proficient in her own right. My sewing improved too in those years, and so it became that while sewing was 'my thing', baking was always the province of my younger sister. Even now, when I try to bake it doesn't always come out well. Its always a bit hit and miss. However, occasionally I find a recipe that always works well. 


The one thing I don't ever remember my Gran baking was muffins. I'm not sure if they're largely an American thing or a modern thing or just not my Gran's thing, but muffins were never on the menu. Me? I luuuuuurve muffins of all flavours! Luckily for me I found the most delicious muffin recipe... and it seems to be one of those that always works! Yay!! We had invited some people around for Saturday afternoon as a housewarming/christmas/birthday party and had decided just to invite people around for coffee and biscuits. However, I decided to do an extra little something in the form of some Spiced Cranberry Muffins and some Mulled wine too. So, on Saturday morning I did some baking and produced some lovely yummy-ness! They turned out well and everyone who had one said they were delicious! 


So, for those that visited and asked for the recipe... and for those that are sitting at home wanting some, here's the recipe!


You will need:
300g Plain white flour
2tsp baking powder
½tsp ground cinnamon
½tsp ground nutmeg
finely grated zest of 1 orange
125g demerara sugar
75g frozen cranberries, defrosted
50ml sunflower oil
225ml skimmed milk
1 egg

Preheat oven to gas mark 6/200C/Fan oven 180C. Line 12 hole muffin tray with muffin cases. Sift flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl and stir in cinnamon, nutmeg and orange zest. Add sugar and cranberries. Beat together oil, milk and egg and pour over dry ingredients.

Mix well with a wooden spoon to make a soft batter. Spoon mixture into muffin cases and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the muffins are well risen and golden.

I have made a couple of changes to this original recipe. Firstly, I used dried Cranberries as I couldn't find any frozen ones; and Secondly, I put more mixture into each muffin case so I only got 9 muffins out of the recipe rather than 12.


Don't you think these are just the epitome of yummy-ness? I do! In fact, I have a few left.... I might just go knick one now. Shhhhh! Don't tell the kids!!

And so it begins!

The Christmas madness, that is! Its slightly frustrating as I'm trying to keep the focus on the various birthdays happening in our family over the next week or so, but I know that everyone else doesn't give a fig about that and just wants to concentrate on that extremely commercialised, de-Christianised, overindulgent, who-will-be-the-number-1-pop-jingle, waiting-for-that-episode-of-Dr.-Who-and-snoring-through-the-Queen's-speech, festival. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not all "Bah! Humbug!" or anything. I just like to get the birthday's done with before I go dashing headlong into this period of madness. At least that's what I always resolve to do. The reality is usually far different! I get past my birthday on the 2nd, and my sister's birthday on the 4th, but then by the time I get to my Mom's birthday on the 8th I'm itching to get the Christmas tree up and start being festive. Come the 9th of December I'm usually running around like an overexcited child!! Then by the time the 20th arrives I've found that my whole festive period has turned into an exhausting fiasco which involves me doing my ingredients shopping at 1 in the morning at the local 24hr Tesco, posting my cards two days *after* the Royal Mail posting deadline and hoping that they get there in time, spending Christmas Eve wrapping millions of presents, eating far too much between Christmas and New Years and then collapsing in a tearful, quivering heap on the 2nd of January. At which point I write a long list of New Year's resolutions that I know I will completely fail to do anything about before January is even over! Does this sound familiar to anyone? Please tell me you do the same thing and that it's not just me?!

In an effort to reclaim my Christmas sanity this year I have decided to take part in Shimelle's 'Journal Your Christmas' class. I signed up for it 2 years ago, and then again last year - but ended up not doing anything at all and letting my Christmas simply degenerate into the fiasco as usual. However, this year I am determined to remain calm and serene and to enjoy it to the full with Shimelle's help. Obviously being a crafting sort of person, Shimelle tries to encourage us to produce a wonderful album full of beautifully scrapbooked memories of this season. However, I am going to keep this simple. I intend to blog about it most days, and will occasionally produce a layout when I have the time. I am not going to end up running around like a demented person. I am going to enjoy my Christmas. I hereby give everyone notice that I am reclaiming the festive spirit, and all the serenity that is *supposed* to go with it!

So, here is my declaration of intent:

"Starting today, December first, I will keep a Christmas journal. In it, I will write something every day to reflect on the holidays of my past, enjoy the holidays of the present and dream about the holidays of the future. To some, this would be a stack of papers and trivial scribbles, but not to me. I am taking back my Christmas, I am letting it be something I relish and most importantly I am giving at least fifteen minutes to myself, every day, no matter how crazy this season becomes. This Christmas I will make something with my own hands, my own words and my own memories."

Later, I might add a picture or a finished layout to this post. But right now I'm going to go finish making my Christmas cards so that I can actually post them early this year! Well, earlier than normal anyway. May everyone have a very Merry Christmas, a relaxing festive season and many happy memories. As for me, I'm looking forward to my birthday tomorrow!!

Christmas Tidings!

Well, the day has been and gone. We've unwrapped all the presents, eaten the turkey, drunk far too much alchohol and we're *still* eating the Christmas cake - and probably will be for another 3 weeks! The presents were fab. I got a lovely hooded jumper, some toe socks , rapidough (the game), a lovely kenwood chef and a fair bit of money - some of which I used to buy myself a yummy PINK Garmin SatNav. It's been invaluable already! Gone are the days of getting lost in the middle of Leeds and having to stop somewhere to haul the A-Z out. Herself also rather likes it it seems as she sits in her seat in the back of the car and imitates it.

I got Himself a Garmin Satnav too. It's not pink, and definitely not basic (like mine is)... however, it seems that it only wants to talk to us in an American accent; which might end up winding him up something cronic! However all the other features its got will more than make up for it I hope! So we're all gadgeted up to the eyeballs now and we have enough of the Christmas money left over to buy the camping fridge that we wanted too. So in the spring we shall be ableto go camping and have nicely refrigerated food.

I shall have to post pictures of Christmas day later when we've gone home and had time to upload them to our PC. Until then I hope you're all having a good Festive season and that you're all happily playing with your gadgets too! Drop me a line and tell me what you got! ... and if I don't see you again before the New Year.... HAPPY NEW YEAR! May all God's blessings be given to you in the New Year. 

It's a losing battle...

But I'm rather happy about it! I've lost my first half stone and am dead chuffed! I have been anticipating this moment for a while and so went and bought my next dolly bead in preparation. Unfortunately I've been banned from wearing it until I reached the milestone properly... which I did this morning. So I have now added 'Tanith' to my bracelet! Isn't 'she' beautiful??

My next goal now is going to be to try not to put any weight on over the Christmas break! It's going to be tough, but I'm hoping that if I control my portion sizes, severely limit the puddings and chocolate and stay away from cheese completely that I should be able to do it. I might just treat myself on Christmas Day tho'... afterall, I can't be a stick in the mud all the time can I?

The other battle I've been fighting has not been so pleasant. Herself has now recovered from the 'water' infection but has then come down with croup, which has now turned into a nasty cold. And then to top it all off perfectly she started complaining about her ear being sore... one visit to the doctor's later she now officially has a double ear infection!! Just what I needed. Anyway, hopefully this next set of antibiotics will kick in quickly and she'll be fit in time for Christmas.  Speaking of Christmas, it's her nursery's nativity play this afternoon. Her first one! I'm sooo looking forward to it and will definitely be taking photos and possibly a video too.

I suppose I'd better dash off and go check that the various camera's are fully charged up and have enough film/memory!

Christmas Creativity

Now that all the Christmas rush is over I thought I'd let you have a look at the pressie I made for my Mum.  It was an exploding box.  I can hear all you non-Scrapbooking people saying "a what box?".  Well, its a box that opens out to reveal sections that you can put photo's on. I made one that accomodated 12 photo's and put in one photo for each month of her first year.  I wasn't planning on making an exploding box - although I did think it was a great idea when I saw it on UKScrappers - however, when I got some lovely scrapbooking papers, fibres and stickers from my favourite online shop I couldn't help myself. The papers were just so yummy and I had some cardstock in my stash that suited the papers.... so I found myself cutting and sticking.  Soon I had the completed box and decided it would make a good present for my Mum.  Needless to say, she was thrilled. Pictures are below.... enjoy!