Thursday, December 20, 2012

All Things Christmas

Only 5 more sleeps til Santa comes!



Sadly, SJ and I made the decision not to have a tree this year. This is last year's tree, our little lemon scented conifer which I had hoped to turn into a large tree in the garden one day...but it died while we were away in Queensland. So to save myself the heartbreak, no tree this year.

Instead, I put together this little advent calendar (base and papers bought from Spotlight) decorating it in cute Christmas papers. I have to admit that's as far as I go, I had good intentions of putting numbers on the boxes and filling them with goodies...maybe next year.

Not Christmas related, but while I was being crafty I also decorated a set of drawers I bought from Ikea (from the Moppe range) with black and white papers to match our bedroom quilt. It now holds my collection of sunglasses and 'cheap' accessories (large bangles and beaded necklaces) all my 'good' stuff (being mostly gold) is in my red leather jewellery box.

Back on topic. I sent out almost 100 Christmas cards again this year and posted them all off last week. It's a tradition I'm in two minds about, when I see the huge stack of cards like this it doesn't feel very environmentally friendly but at the same time, I like the old school snail mail card rather than something electronic and via group email.

In case you were wondering, this is where my Christmas cards went off to. Sadly, I have no friends in the Americas and unsurprisingly an awful lot of people to post to in south-east Queensland.

Speaking of post, I received my Vogue Forum KK gift yesterday from the lovely Joan who got me pretty spot on, travel + photography + cooking + red!

I made these for a Christmas themed morning tea at work, Chocolate biscuit balls/Christmas mini puddings.
I'm not a huge fan of Christmas puddings and it's a common method to make these from small balls of the stuff, instead, I make mine using crushed biscuits.

The recipe if you're wondering:
- 1 packet of biscuits (250g, I used milk arrowroot) crushed finely
- 1 tin of condensed milk (400mL)
- 3-4 tablespoons of cocoa

Mix it all together and then roll into little balls (slightly wet hands helps). Refrigerate to set.

Then, melt one block of white cooking chocolate, drizzle it on top and top it off with red and green lollies to look like holly.

I used cut up gummi bears in this instance, mostly because then SJ and I can eat the rest of the packet on our road trip. Cut up raspberries and spearmint leaves work well too, or alternatively, just a red smartie.

We also had a bit of leftover white chocolate, so it didn't go to waste I dribbled it over some nuts and dried fruit (almonds, cashews, dried cranberries and sultanas) and made a few little clusters. Also to eat on our road trip.

All my Christmas presents are purchased and wrapped. Including a bunch of stuff I bought at Daiso. I'd show you but my sister now reads this blog and I don't want to spoil it for her.

I made all the little bows myself, was a silly waste of time but I suppose much cheaper than buying them.

And finally (this is for you Soph) I painted my nails with a Christmas theme last night. Cute little Santa hats.

Very simple to do, a red triangle, white tip and white dot. What I'm loving about the design is that if it chips, I should be able to just repaint the white AND as my nails grow out over the next week (which they do quickly) I won't have 're-growth' the way I usually do.

Well that's it from me folks, SJ and I hit the road early tomorrow morning and we should be in Brisbane Sunday afternoon. I won't blog much until after Christmas (and I'm sure you'll all have better things to do than read them anyway) but I'll try and update our road trip over instagram: http://instagram.com/missdirections/

I wish you and your families a safe and happy Christmas and hope you all enjoy the holiday!

Ash x

11 comments:

  1. I LOVE YOUR NAILS .... !!! how cute !!! I love the tree too !

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  2. I am so impressed with your gift wrapping Ash!! Puts mine to shame :(

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  3. OMG i love the nail art.
    And everything.. How festive are you? :)

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  4. How creative are you with all the drawers! Good work!

    Loving the nails!

    And good on you for sending out cards. I feel this tradition is fading, but I like it! I still hand them out... include to some people at work - even though some people think i'm wasting my time haha

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  5. I love recieving Christmas Cards, though this year I've recieved one (from my KK) and quite a few ecards. It's sad that the art of cards in a way is dying.

    Pudding rum balls :P great idea, the gummy bears. We made the ones using Arnott's Royals last year and use Jaffas and Spearmint leaves (from Safeway), but they were too thick and it was difficult to slice them.

    Wow, that's a lot of presents. Where did you buy your paper from? We use the same paper and ribbon at work ;)

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  6. Yay I'm glad you like your presents! :) Yours are wonderfully wrapped btw; the ribbons look great!

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  7. How cute are your nails, hope you had a lovely Christmas
    Please check out my blog and enter my competition.
    http://socialamore.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/social-amore-turns-1-giveaway.html

    Amanda xo

    ReplyDelete