Finished!

I managed to finish the last 7 unfinished layouts over the last 2 days!!








I spent a couple of hours shopping for new scrap goodies with Cathie & Amanda yesterday morning. I'm looking forward to arranging a scrap date with the girls so I can have a play with the goodies :)

More completed layouts

I'm working my way though the pile of unfinished layouts - I managed to get another 5 finished yesterday :)

Unfinished layouts

I'm a tad embarassed to admit it, but I have a pile of unfinished LO sitting on my scrap desk. While I'm on holidays, I am on a mission to get them finished before I start creating any new LO. Yesterday I set up my scrap table in the loungeroom (where the air-con is) and managed to get 5 LO completed!!






In between scrapping I've also managed to grab some bargains in the post - Christmas sales. Who can say no to 50-75% discount on Christmas stock?!?1 LOL I've brought some new decorations and wrapping paper, ready for next Christmas :)

Homemade Christmas gift

I didn't do my usual home baked goodie baskets or homemade gifts for everyone this year - I just didn't have the time or honestly, the motivation. I did whip up one quick gift though - a mug sleeve. I found a few patterns online, but decided to mix and match a few and created this one :)




This was a very quick and easy project and I have already been asked to make one for another friend :)

Christmas Day 2011

We had a wonderful and busy Christmas Day! We were up and at my Mum's house by 6.30am to open presents. Cohan had to be woken up to open the presents so he was cranky - oops! After waking up properly he was a one kid, present unwrapping tornado - there was paper and presents going everywhere LOL


We brought Cohan this drum set - he loved it and got on and started drumming away :)


I got some lovely gifts - my favourites were an iPad and a camera :) After opening all the presents Kate, James and Cohan headed off to the in-laws for the morning, and we stayed at Mum's and had breakfast.

Craig's family lunch was at our house this year. As tradition, my MIL prepared & cooked the meal (roast pork, roast turkey and vegetables). Lots of catching up with everyone, a delicous meal and watching the kids open more presents :)




All the boys and kids had fun playing with Craig's new shooting game :)


After a clean up and a few hours rest, we headed back to my Mum's house for dinner and a few cocktails - what a great end to a wonderful day :)

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas day filled with family & friends, fun, presents and delicious food!

Decorations

I brought a few new decorations this year - I enjoy looking around the stores and adding bits & pieces to my ever growing Christmas collection :) I



I've seen the vase/ bauble idea around and loved it - so decided to make my own table centrepiece this year :)


Over the last few years I have found myself buying metal decorations - I love the look of them :) I was excited to find these 2 cute ornaments on sale at one of the dollar shops!! They are pretty big (about 20cm high) compared to my other ornaments, but I couldn't resist them :)



I also decided to have a few outside / garden decorations this year.

Play date

Yesterday we got to spend the morning with Cohan :) We had a very busy, fun filled time! We gave Cohan his birthday present (dinosaurs), so played with that for a while. He did want to open some of the presents under the Christmas tree too LOL Then we headed to the park - lots of running, swinging and playing, then stopped for ice cream on the way home. Can you tell how much Cohan loved his ice cream?!?! He he


Cohan still had lots of energy so I set up the pool on the back patio where he splashed about. Halfway through the 'swim' I added bubble bath - lots of fun!! We ended up having a water fight (that aunty won - yay!!) LOL After some lunch, we snuggled on the couch to watch a movie and Cohan started to get sleepy. Mum picked him up shortly after and they didn't even get to the end of the street before he crashed out LOL


That afternoon I had a Christmas catch up with Donna, Cassie, Joan and the kidlets :) We were going to have a swim at Elliott Heads, but when we got there it was too windy and rough, so we headed back into town to buy fish & chips then have a swim at Joan's. It's been wonderful to have Christmas catch ups with friends this week!!

Christmas Brunch

Kylie, Mick and I (Craig was working) went to Cathie & Andrew's on Sunday for a pancake brunch (our annual Christmas get together). Mitchell was very excited when we arrived - he ran up and said "Happy birthday Shandell!" LOL He's still getting used to the Merry Christmas greeting :) It was a lovely relaxed morning - yummy pancakes with different toppings (my fave was banana, maple syrup and fresh cream - divine!!), exchanging gifts and lots of chatting (nothing unusual there LOL).

Mitchell opening his present from Kylie :)


Mitchell got very involved with the whole opening presents idea and went inside and came back with a present from under the tree - oops! LOL

My present from Kylie - a sweet bird cross stitch (to add to my growing bird collection) and a Babushka doll (soooo in love with this modern design!!).


My present from Cathie - I love Women's Weekly cookbooks (perfect gift for me!!) - there was lots of looking through the book and discussions on what to bake :)

Reading

I've managed to finish 2 more books :) This is the first book in a 2 part series - I really enjoyed the story and I"m looking forward to reading the 2nd book.


I've also finished reading book 5 in the Vampire Academy series - loving these books!! I've started reading book 6 already :)

Cards

In between work, socialising and Christmas activities - I managed to spend a couple of hours making some cards :) I made 2 of each design - 3 for my card stash and 3 to pop in mum's card stash for Christmas.


I brought some horse stamps recently - having 5 horse crazy people in the family means they will get a lot of use :)




I CASEd the layout for this card from a card in the current Stampin' Up IB&C.

Busy

As usual - the closer it gets to Christmas, the busier we seem to be :) Saturday night we went out to dinner with friends. It was a great night - lots of chatting and yummy Thai!

Tuesday night Craig and I drove around looking at the Christmas lights - one of my favourite traditions :)


I've been working on a couple of crochet projects.



I picked up this great magazine recently - lots of great crochet gift ideas!!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 12

Today's my last posting for 12 Days of Christmas - I hope I have inpsired my blog visitors to do some Christmas crafting :) I'm sharing my favourite Christmas recipe - Rum & Raisin fudge (it's more like a gourmet chocolate than fudge - delicious!!!). I haven't made my batches yet - that's my plan for this weekend :)



Ingredients
60ml (1/4 cup) rum
95g (1/2 cup) raisins
400g dark chocolate,
coarsely chopped
1 x 395g can sweetened
condensed milk
50g unsalted butter

Method
1. Line a 20cm (base measurement) square cake pan with non-stick baking paper. Combine the rum and raisins in a small bowl. Set aside for 1 hour to macerate.
2. Place the chocolate, condensed milk and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan half-filled with simmering water (make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water). Stir with a metal spoon until chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth.
3. Stir in the raisin mixture. Spoon into the lined pan and use the back of a spoon to smooth the surface. Set aside to cool. Place in the fridge overnight to set. Cut into squares.

Tips -
*If you want more of a chocolate flavour make sure you only soak the raisins for an hour. For a more rum flavour let the raisins soak overnight.
*After you add the raisins / rum mixture keep stirring the fudge over the heat till it goes thick again this will ensure it sets.