Wonderful Weekend Recap

We had another busy but fun weekend! In order to play catch up I'm just going to do a quick recap with a few photos.  I took close to 200 photos this weekend! Whew.

Saturday was Olivia's birthday party. The princess turned one! Her party was at MyGym.
Side note: My sister asked me to take pictures...taking pictures of running babies in low light without flash (because I despise the harsh light from flash) is not easy! I'm now looking in to a new lens!  
Untitled-2

She was so tired by the time she ate her cake she was in a slight daze and very slowly dug in.
Untitled-1

After her party we went straight to D.C. with our friends to see a Capitals game!
DSC_0882

It was a great time, but they ended up losing 2-3.
DSC_0901c

Sunday morning was the traditional Christmas cookie baking day with Hubby's family. 
But first we picked up Starbucks for everyone! Yum.
162974_1632449963905_1016312532_1713020_3516284_n

My nephew, Sister in law, and Grandma (in-law) decorating cookies.
Christmas Baking
We made an array of cookies including chocolate chip, peanut butter blossoms, candy cane cookies, and lemon drops.
DSC_0920c

This morning I was surprised to wake up to snow on the ground. Apparently I don't watch the news because I had no idea. It was only a dusting but the first one of the year deserves a photo or two.
Snow

And, Olivia visited tonight! We attempted cute photos by the tree but Livi had other plans. So that failed, miserably! She's so cute though :) 
DSC_0952c

She didn't like the tree and wouldn't stay near it for long! What one year old doesn't like to destroy a tree?! Only this girl! Here we bribed her with a cookie. Lasted for half a second :)
liv

We were lucky to catch Santa coming around on his fire truck right before they left! It was freeeezzzing out but we got candy canes and I think Livi enjoyed it :)
DSC_0987

DSC_0989
Santa Clause is coming to town!

That about wraps it up! Next weekend will be much more relaxing!
And seriously, less than two weeks until Christmas?! I should be getting the rest of my online shopping done now!! 

YOU are gifted!

Yesterday afternoon, as I was riding my bike up a rather large hill (in an artless attempt to work off an overindulgence of salt-n-vinegar chippies) I passed a church. Out the front was a large billboard and on it was this message:

"Some of God's greatest gifts are packaged as people..."

Given that I was only halfway up the hill, I had a while to ponder this.

And for some reason, it had a lot of resonance with me. People really can be a gift in themselves, can't they? I feel honoured to be blessed with some friends and family who really ought to be wrapped in paper and tied together with string, such is their gift to me, just by being themselves!

And then I thought, wouldn't it be a lovely Christmas gesture to recognise some of the special people in blogland who entertain, enrich, inspire and lighten our lives a little with their words each day?

So I'm creating my own award, it's called the 'you are gifted' award, and I'm going to give mine to a few special bloggers to recognise their gifts. And then I'm going to invite YOU to do the same.

Here I go:


Amanda from The Homely One. In blogland, I am yet to encounter a more supportive, encouraging person than Amanda. I know she visits many of your blogs, and faithfully reads and post comments week after week. Amanda, your gift is this friendship that you have extended to me and to many others. Thankyou.

Sonia from Tied with a Bouw.  You've got to admire this girl for her style - I adore her white, pristine modernist apartment in KL, and this is a girl who would like stylish in a paper bag! A girl with a taste for the finer things in life, she manages to write in such down-to-earthedness to inspire me to enjoy living vicariously through her! Congratulations on your beautiful (and no doubt stylish!) baby girl, Sonia!

Janette from My Sweet Prints. From humble beginnings, I've enjoyed watching Janette grow from a girl with a blog to a girl with a blog AND a thriving online print business! Janette, your gift has been your entrepreneurial get-up-and-go to inspire me (and many others) to just believe in our dream and go for it! Your prints are amazing, girl!

Maxabella from Maxabella Loves. Here's a woman whose posts are always witty, inspiring and written with such honesty. Maxabella's gift is her ability to recognise the beauty around her and motivate others to do the same. Loving your work, girl!

Jess from Life's Little Whispers. There is something organically gorgeous about Jess, and we share lots of the same decorating taste and ideas about living with and creating an environment for children. Jess' gift is in projecting such a positive energy about her and in making others appreciate the simple things in life!

There are so many others I could/should mention... but now its your turn.

It's simple. Just acknowledge 3-5 special bloggers like I have, writing a little line explaining their special 'gift'. Let them know about it, and invite them to similarly spread the joy! If you are the recipient of a 'gift' its always nice to acknowledge the person who sent it to you... but the fun here is in the 'giving', not the 'receiving' Feel free to steal my button above.

Special best wishes to every single person who has ever taken the time to comment on my blog, each of you hold a key to my little diary... where would I be without you? x

I recently

had the pleasure
of spending time
with these gorgeous children
in their back garden
while they played
& climbed trees
enjoying the great space
they call home

Smiley Baby.

It's a little tough to get work done when there's a smiley happy baby in your arms :)
IMAG0192
Bailey 7 weeks
Be back later with an actual post. The weekend was busy and I feel behind yet again!

Christmas Yule - Blog Bake

Winter Woodland Christmas treats
Christmas Yule-Blog Bake
Most Wanted, the lifestyle magazine from voucher codes, is running a Christmas Yule-Blog Bake.

"This one is all about having fun, getting creative and coming up with something tasty that says 'Christmas' to you! It could be anything from an artesian bread, layer cake, cupcake, scone, macaron, whoopie pie, cookie, pie......the list really is endless the only constraint is that it has to be a baked good!"

We will be picking and announcing the overall winner on Wednesday 15th December 2010. We will post the results up here on Most wanted."


I have entered my Winter Woodland Christmas Cake and Winter Woodland gingerbread bird house and am looking forward to seeing the Christmas delights from the other entrants.

Winter woodland Christmas cake
Gingerbread Bird House
My Winter Woodland Christmas cake
My Winter Woodland gingerbread bird house

Have a sweet day!

Gluten free Christmas Cake

Acorn labels

Christmas Cake (makes 1 20cm round cake)

Ingredients
450g (15.8 ounces) currants
200g (7 ounces) sultanas
200g (7 ounces) raisins
100g (3.5 ounces) chopped glace cherries
100g (3.5 ounces) cut mixed peel
75g (2.6 ounces) chopped almonds
3 tbsp brandy
350g (12 ounces) plain gluten-free flour
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp salt
275g (9.7 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
225g (9.7 ounces) soft brown sugar
5 large eggs
zest of one lemon
zest of one orange

Cooking instructions
  1. Place all dried fruit in a bowl, pour over brandy and cover. Leave for 12 hours or overnight.
  2. Preheat oven to 150 deg C (300 deg F).
  3. Grease and line tin with baking parchment.
  4. Wrap newspaper/brown paper around tin and secure with bakers twine.
  5. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until the mixture turns a pale colour.
  6. Beat in eggs slowly on medium speed.
  7. Sieve flour, salt and spices into mix slowly on low speed.
  8. Fold in soaked fruit, almonds, lemon & orange zest until well mixed.
  9. Pour mixture into tin, level with spatula.
  10. Place sheet of grease proof paper on top, with small circle missing from centre.
  11. Bake for 3 hours and 15 minutes on middle shelf.
  12. Place cake on a wire rack to cool.
  13. Remove cake from tin.
  14. Pierce cake several times with skewer.
  15. Pour 3 tsp of brandy over the top of the cake (feeding).
  16. Wrap in baking parchment.
  17. Wrap in foil / store in airtight container
  18. Feed at regular intervals over the next few weeks.

Baking parchment
Gluten Free Plain Flour
Almonds, glace cherries & cut mixed peel
Zest of one lemon

After at least a few weeks comes the fun part! Decorating it.

Have a sweet day!

Iced acorns, leaves & robin

Iced acorns, leaves & bird by Torie Jayne

Petal paste acorns

Ingredients

Equipment

Instructions
  1. Add food colouring to icing.
  2. Thoroughly knead petal paste until colour is even and paste is soft.
  3. Push paste into mould, removing any excess that stands proud.
  4. Turn mould upside down, push back of mould so acorn cup and nut falls out.
  5. Leave to set for 5-10 mins.
  6. Ice acorn cup to nut using a spot of royal icing.
  7. Brush glitter on acorn cup
  8. Brush dust on nut.
  9. Leave to set hard.


Iced leaves

Ingredients
  • Roll on icing
  • Food colouring

Equipment

Instructions
  1. Add food colouring to roll on icing.
  2. Thoroughly knead until colour is even.
  3. Dust icing sugar onto a hard clean surface and roll out icing to 3mm thick.
  4. Cut out leaves.
  5. Place over edge of plate or rolling pin etc, so leaves do not dry flat.
  6. Leave to set hard.

Leaves & snowflakes for my Christmas cake
Iced leaves

Iced Bird

Ingredients
  • Roll on icing
  • food colouring

Equipment

Instructions
  1. Add food colouring to icing.
  2. Thoroughly knead until colour is even.
  3. Dust icing sugar onto a hard clean surface and roll out icing to 6mm thick.
  4. Cut out birds.
  5. Push cocktail stick in birds feet.
  6. Leave to set hard.


Iced Bird

Have a sweet day!
The magic of the reindeer...



Oats and glitter....gives extra energy to the reindeer's 
(ensuring Santa makes it the whole way around the world)

oh, the concentration and determination!


We packaged up the reindeer food for our little Playgroup friends....we prepared gift tags and added little bells, string and a fun little message!



oh Yum!






Christmas ice
recipe here











Christmas cupcakes
recipe here












Choc Ripple cake
recipe here










all images courtesy of taste.com.au


every year I plan on making some festive food.....& this year I think I have found some yummi, sweet & easy recipes to start with! I plan on making the week before Christmas full of days at home....rather than rushing around & what better way to fill the days with baking & listening to Christmas songs with my girls. Hubby will be just as happy to sit down after a hard day, put his feet up with a cuppa & enjoy something we have created!


have you started making & baking Christmas goodies?