Linaloo

Graham Cracker Houses

A bunch of neighbourhood mums got together with our children this weekend and decorated these mini gingerbread houses.  I made the houses up with a friend the day before using graham crackers and icing à la Martha and then they went to town with icing and candy.  Not before I photographed them in the dusting of snow we had in the morning.  Madness, but they looked so magical!
The Christmas after we first moved into our house, a neighbour, who we barely knew and who has since unfortunately moved away,  delivered one of these on a plate with a bag of candy and a bag of home made icing to each of the children in the neighbourhood, ready to decorate.  Such a wonderful and unexpected gift that my children have never forgotten.

Simple Christmas: Less is more

This year, I'm opting for a simple Christmas in my home.  That doesn't mean I don't want to put up decorations for the house, buy gifts or make the season any less special for my family, but I just really want to focus on simple this year.

As I get older (and although you wouldn't necessarily realize it looking at the state of my house) clutter and too much "stuff" bothers me more and more.  And although I am certainly not a minimalist by any stretch, this time of year the thought of Christmas decorations everywhere makes me feel slightly overwhelmed instead of joyful.  I recently came to the realization that although we have amassed quite a few Christmas decorations over the years, many of them highly sentimental, I don't have to use all of them, every year. 

A revelation I tell you. Why did it take me so long to work that out?!!

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas....

I'm feeling in a festive mood so much earlier than usual this year. I wanted my house to smell like Christmas, so, in the spirit of Emma's Making Winter series, here's an easy recipe for a Christmas simmer pot which makes the whole house smell amazerful with just a few simple ingredients.

Mix of all the above ingredients with 2 cups of water and a cup of apple juice in a saucepan.  Gently simmer over a low heat for a few hours, making sure that the liquid doesn't evaporate. Once you're done, remove from the heat, let it cool and you can keep it in the refrigerator and re-use it again a few times. There really is no exact recipe, it's just trial and error...you could use cranberry juice, oranges, clementines,add a few sprigs of evergreen...whatever takes your fancy.

La neige!

Nothing like getting in the holiday mood with the first snowfall of the season.  I like to document its arrival every year on the blog for posterity.  The children were excited, dressed and outside playing and making snow angels at 7:30am.   I stayed inside drinking my tea while my husband shovelled and dropped them off at school.   I'm a lucky lady.

Happy birthday to my sister and her eldest daughter today!  Lots of love xoxox

Christmas Stuff

Yesterday I made my cards and gift tags in preparation for Christmas. I'll just gloss over the fact that I haven't done any shopping or making of actual gifts yet.  Since I started this blog four years ago (I can hardly believe that it's been that long), I have stuck with the same simple and classic colour scheme of red, white and linen for all things Christmassy.   I mulled the possibility of switching things up a bit for some time before cutting, stamping and gluing this year's cards.

But it wasn't to be. 

Red and white, I'm still not over you.

Happy (hot) Thanksgiving!

   
We celebrated Thanksgiving this year with friends, family and enjoyed a spectacularly warm and sunny weekend.  I'm very grateful for so many things - including guests who were kind enough not to mention the overcooked, dry turkey I served up!

Jolly good!

I've come over all patriotic and preparations are underway for a right Royal Wedding knees up here tomorrow.  I'm enjoying a bit of whimsical decorating thanks to these free printables.  And Cherry's Union Jack art idea here.  Bottoms up! 
 
 
 

Selfish knitting/last post of 2010

 
Since the beginning of my very short lived sock knitting career, I have haboured this dream that I would knit a different pair of socks for every day of the week (see here for inspiration) or even every colour of the rainbow.  Just for me though, for I am a selfish knitter.

Christmas 2010 marks the end of my selfish knitting days.  My family wanted in on the action and I finished 3 pairs of socks with a night to spare.

I’m hoping there’s a medal for this kind of achievement.

The children accepted their socks very graciously, partly because they know they’re made with love and also because they know better than to cross a mother who’s been burning the midnight oil making something for them.  I used this pattern and my son helped me pick out the yarn back in September – its Regia Softy which is, unsurprisingly, very soft.

Hubby’s are made using Regia sock yarn also from this ribbed pattern from Ravelry.  They took FOREVER.  Mainly because of the rib (K3, P1 slows me down) and the fact that they’re man socks which are obviously bigger and longer.   At a guess, I’d hazard there’s nearly 20,000 stitches in this pair alone. 

That's right.  20,000.

Selfish? Moi?

Right now we're enjoying lots of lazy pj days, eating leftovers and playing in the snow and ice. It's been nice to be offline for a while and focus on other things.  I still have 10 days left before I go back to work and am enjoying time off, pottering around at home and am looking forward to our first skiing outing of the season tomorrow!

Here's wishing you all a happy and healthy 2011.

The halls are decked!

 

Ready for the tree

 
There is a random rule in our house which means not putting up the Christmas tree or any other decorations for that matter until 2 weeks before the big day.  I'm not sure where it came from but the tree will be bought and decorated this weekend.  In anticipation, the children wanted to add to the already very eclectic mash up of decorations with some homemade ones.  We opted for cinnamon apple dough (not edible, its made with glue) which smells awesome and looks just like gingerbread dough.  They were made with cookie cutters and stamps, baked for a few hours at 200F and decorated with a white sharpie and some red ribbon.

Recipe for the dough is here.  Yep, that would be Martha again.