Jikana Damaru

Christmas Rocky Road...

Every year around Christmas, I like to have a go at cooking something I've never tried before. Nothing savoury, of course... just the sweet stuff. Leave the turkeys to someone else, I say!
Reindeer Cupcakes. Christmas Pud...

... and this year?

ROCKY ROAD!

I love rocky road, and was inspired to make some when my husband suggested I whip-up a cheesecake to feed the troops at his staff Christmas party on Saturday night. A cheesecake? Was he kidding me? With two children under three, consecutive rainy days, 87 loads of washing everywhere and 4700 Christmas orders to make, walking on the moon seemed more appropriate than making a cheesecake.

Rocky Road, on the other hand? Can-do! It's super duper easy peasy, and the best thing is you really can't go wrong. Aside from the melting chocolate part - and if you are careful and take a sloooooooow approach to that, not a problem!

My Christmas Rocky Road consisted of all the fun stuff I deny myself otherwise, was about a billion calories per square and was.quite.fabulous. I've eaten my own bodyweight already, and still want more.

Want to have a go yourself?

Here's my own recipe:

Ingredients

500g of cooking chocolate (choose the most premium one you can find - I used one milk and one dark just for fun)

3/4 packet of marshmallows (chop these)

A large packet of Smarties

275g of Fry's turkish delight (chop this up too)

3/4 packet of unsalted peanuts

... and anything else you have lying around that you think might be fun!

Melt the chocolate and then combine in a bowl with all the other ingredients.

Line a baking tray with some baking paper and scoop it all in.

Stick the tray in the fridge for about half an hour to set.

Get tray out and cut up into delicious morsels or bars (if you intend to gift wrap and give away as pressies).

Make a cup of tea and help yourself to a piece (or seven) of your chocolately goodness. Worry about the calories later. It's Christmas, folks! Enjoy.

Delicate...

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you some gorgeous delicate details from prouaPolkovnik, whose gorgeous photo stream I discovered this week whilst looking for gingerbread cookie photos. To see more of Kadri's beautiful photos and crafts visit her blog Polkovniku Butiik.

Some beautiful shots from my Flickr favourites:

The pretty wrapped candles and cute crochet flowers in Romance
The adorable piped cookies in Homemade Gingerbreads
The pretty iced Homemade Gingerbreads
The gorgeous buttons in Romance

Have a sweet day!

summer days

a couple of friday nights ago we headed out as a family to have a bbq picnic dinner. we all jumped in the car & drove for about 15mins to a picnic spot that had a park {perfect for the girls to play while the sausages sizzle} & it had a great view {perfect for mum & dad to relax by} we had the place to ourselves & talked about how we should do it more often {especially with a group of friends} it was great to not have to do the cooking at home like usual or do the dishes! i had left my camera & iphone at home so i could just soak up the experience with out distraction.... but i felt lost without them & luckily my husband had his phone because i couldn't let the last bit of light from the day go to waste!

Christmas cards sorted

My Christmas cards this year were basically created by Amy Moss at Eat. Drink. Chic.. Oh my, if you haven't discovered the amazebaubleness that is Amy, get yourself over there quick smart. She is so stylish, so talented and so creative that you just want to pack her up and hang her on your Christmas tree to admire.

Amy created a set of lovely freebie typographic gift tags and photographed them for her blog. I loved the photo of the Joyeux Noel gift tag on the yellow pattern so much that I asked her if I could use it on the front of my Chrissy cards this year. I didn't hear back from her so... don't kill me, I went ahead and did it anyway. Well, it's not like I'm Hallmark, is it? And Amy did create the actual tag as a freebie printable... she often does. In fact, she makes all kinds of things available to less-talented people like me and I love her for it.

So, I folded 60 sheets of A4 kraft card, snipped 120 corners with my little punch, cut out 120 pretty rectangles, pasted them inside and out, wrote on them and stuck them inside 60 bright yellow envelopes with matching snipped corners... and made 60 cards for friends and fam. And, theoretically, that's the end of that.

Except now that I've blogged about it... I've had second thoughts about 'imitation being the most lazy form of flattery' (or however it goes).

I just don't know if I need to lock myself away for this crime or not... It doesn't feel like I blatantly ripped off Amy's work, but you might think differently. What's the rules for using someone else's creativity and work to spark your own? The reindeer noses were an idea and then I created my own version. Amy's image, though... probably a different story. I'm not really in that space so I don't know if what I did was a heinous crime or a bit whateves... it's all a bit eggshelly, isn't it!?

Merry Blissmas, but the way. I'm all decked, reindeered and now carded out.

Does the internety-publishy world of blogging change the rules?
What are the new rules for 'personal use' of another's work?

-- ♥ --

PS - Reindeer Noses post - now with added link! If you're keen you can now download and print the label pdf for you to make your own...

[Image used on card by Amy Moss at Eat. Drink. Chic. Card design all my own (but that's hardly the point, is it?)]

Decorated Gingerbread by Annie Rigg

This week I'm reviewing Decorated Gingerbread by Annie Rigg, from illustrated lifestyle publishers Ryland Peters & Small and CICO Books. Annie Rigg has been baking since her early childhood and has spent the past seven years as a freelance food stylist and writer. She currently has five books in print and her work has featured in numerous bestselling magazines. Before this, she cooked for Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones, to name a few, whilst on tour. I chose to review this book as I love making gingerbread houses for Christmas!

The book is split into four main chapters, starting with the basics which includes spiced gingerbread and chocolate gingerbread recipes. How to make, tint, pipe and flood fill cookies with royal icing.

Next up is Cute, which is full of cookie ideas children will love, like the shaped teddy bears, kooky clowns and scotty dogs. Then there is the Pretty section, which includes the scattered sprinkle cupcake cookies, pink love hearts and autumn leaves.

Last up is Festive, which shows you how to make my favourite snowy village scene with candy glass windows. Decorative stars, ornaments and the prettiest snowflake cookies.

The Decorated Gingerbread by Annie Rigg is a cute hard back book book full of sweet gingerbread cookies. At a recommended price of £9.99, I think this hardback book is a good buy as it is has some great tips and sweet cookie ideas.

Some of my favourite shots:

Snowflake cookies

Snowy village

Christmas wreath cookies

Cupcake cookies

Please note that my opinions are my own and I am not paid for these reviews (apart from receiving a free book, of course!).

I really must go and start this year's gingerbread bird house!

Have a sweet day!

A REAL tree!

Today we started a tradition! A tradition that I hope will put smiles on our faces year after year. As a child growing up I watched movies and read books about Christmas and different traditions families have! I would dream about one day having my own family and starting and sharing special traditions with them. Today was a day that I will remember forever. Today in our 5th year as a couple, as a team, we started a tradition that will bring so much joy and happiness to us and our family. My Rob made an ultimate dream come true. We have our very own REAL Christmas Tree!

We (and by we I mean Rob) carried the tree, secured it to the ute and headed home. Once we got it home we (Rob) carried the tree to our backyard and found the perfect spot! We decided to dig it into the ground instead of putting it in a pot as it would be more secure in our 'Aussie summer storms" It was beautiful! I could not believe how cool it looked! Next we tied all of the pine cones we had collected to a piece of rope and spray painted them red gold and silver. Then we decorated! You could not wipe the smile off my face! It was amazing! I was so happy right in that moment decorating our real tree with pine cones as we watched the sun set. That was an amazing dream come true and a special moment that I will remember forever!

Our tree just has to last 3 weeks! We got a hot tip that if we water it every day with water and honey it should last! I hope it does :-) We are having Christmas at our house this year so I can not wait to be sitting here in our backyard with our family with our gorgeous tree as the main attraction! On Christmas I think we will decorate it a bit more with some candy canes and some tinsel but for now its just perfect. Perfect and natural! What a beauty!

Cant wait to see this yard filled with the laughter, joy and smiles of my family!

x S.K.K x

P.S I have been trying to post this blog for a week now but my pictures aren't working! As you can see above they are all sideways! I cant seem to fix this :( Sorry! I'm just mixing it up a bit - turn those heads readers :-)

Snowflake soaps

I wanted all my gifts in my Advent house to be hand-made so after making sparkly strawberry lip balm, cool mint lip balm, snowflake hair bobbles and clips, reindeer hair clips and gingerbread crayons I only had a few drawers left to fill. I went for peppermint, snowflake-shaped, glittery soaps and made a few extra snowflake soaps for my Christmas crackers!

Snowflake soaps
Tools and Materials

Snowflake soaps, How-to step by step

Start by chopping up the soap base into small pieces and placing them in a microwavable jug. Place the jug in the microwave and heat for two minutes on medium heat, the soap will start to melt. Continue heating the soap, checking on it frequently until it has all melted. You can now carefully add any fragrance, colour, or glitter you require. Stir carefully so as not to make bubbles. When you are happy with the colour/fragrance etc., carefully pour into the moulds and leave to set. Push the soap out of the moulds and wrap in cling film to keep fragrance in.

*Please note that if you make a mistake or it sets too quickly you can re-melt at any time.

After wrapping my soaps in cling film I wrapped a strip of washi tape around the outside to add prettiness.

Have a sweet day!