Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a lovely, relaxed and happy Christmas! We did and I'm feeling very peaceful inside. Hope you enjoy your holidays if your going away, or just time at home perhaps using or wearing some of your pressies!

As it is friday, here is a pretty plate. A lovely Christmas one! Will start blogging, creating, making and sharing again soon.

 

 

Thankyou all for reading my blog!

 

Taz

 

xxx

Pretty Plate Friday!

Here is another pretty design on a favourite plate of mine. Gets used all the time! Love the autumn colours!

 

 

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

 

Taz xx

Christmas Baking: Picnic Fare.

Last weekend, my friends, Percy, husband and myself had our annual picnic at the local carols. It was a fun night with lots of entertaining entertainment, loud singing and the best bit, food! The day before we all shopped for ingredients to bake up a feast. Here is what we made. I can very easily get you the recipes from my friends if you would like them, so just leave me a comment below!

The cutest shortbread reindeer

Delicious peanut brittle

 

Very cute father christmas cupcakes

 

My homemade fruit mince pies

 

The easiest egg and bacon pies

 

We also had homemade sausage rolls, fancy sandwiches, mini picklets with samlon and cream cheese and some with raspberrys and white chocolate and my friend made the best cheesy herby pull apart bread! Let me know if any of these foods tempt you for christmas or new year celebrations.

 

Im going to make more fruit mince pies today for another carols picnic and going to attempt real egg nog.

 

Also dont forget its friday, so a pretty plate will be up on the blog later too!

 

 

Oh and before I forget...little percy was the camera mans best friend at the carols and featured on the big screen 4 times!!

 

 

 

Happy Friday!

 

Taz

 

xx

 



 

 

 

Pretty Plate Friday!

Another very pretty design on a plate of ours!

 

 

 

Hope you've had a good week!

 

Taz

xx

 

Christmas Baking: Homemade fruit mince pies.

I've been baking! My mum makes the best homemade fruit mince pies! I love the fact that she does instead of buying premade ones! I no longer live at home, so although on christmas day I will eat quite a few, I have to wait till then to have hers. So I decided to try make my own. It was a hot day and my energy to go shopping was lacking, so I made the mince and pastry from what we had around. These were buttery, fruity, crumbly and delish! Traditionally fruit mince needs to sit for atleast a month before using. I was very happy to find a 30 minute sitting time recipe in this book I own.

You will need:
200 gm mixed dry fruit- I used sultanas and apricots
2 meduim green apples, grated
1/2 tbs grated lemon/orange zest
a squeeze of lemon juice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp all spice

Throw everything in a food processor and blend until very well combined. You can mash it by hand too. A fork is best.

 

 

Taste and add more spices if you wish. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes. Now make the pastry.

Combine 200gm plain flour, good pinch of salt with 200gm very cold butter in a food processor until it forms a ball. Add a sprinkle of ice cold water to hold the dough together. Quickly, roll the dough on a floured surface and cut rounds out. Place these in individual foil cases.( I did not, and mine stuck to the tin!)

 

 

Fill the cases with mince mixture. Brush a bit of milk over the edges and place another round on top. Brush with milk again.

 

 

 

Bake in a hot oven (220C) for about 20-25 min. The pastry should be golden. Sprinkle some caster sugar over them while they are still hot. These are very homemade looking. 'Rustic' ive been told to say! But theres something even more christmassy about homemade food so I dont mind!

 

Serve!

 

 

 

 

 

Making homemade mince pies will become a new christmas tradition for me and I can't wait to make these with Percy one day!

 

If you make these, enjoy!

 

Taz

 

 



 



Happy Birthday Sammie!

My little sister, who writes the lovely blog Madness and I, turned 18 last week. She no longer feels like a little sister, which makes life alot more fun as we can spend more time together doing the things we both love, which seems to be opshopping, cafe hopping and other lovely things. I love buying her pressies for birthdays and christmas, as we both have very similar interests. This is no longer annoying...but as a teenager, this and anything else that got in my way was(but lets be honest, teenagers who find EVERYTHING annoying are the annoying ones!)! But now I have someone to share my girly life with! We went out for pizza and pasta(yes we had both), I made cakes and this is what I gave her for her pressies..

Made her this case out of an old apron for her new ipad.

 

 

Cute shoes

 

Banana and berry cupcakes with homemade cream cheese icing. Get the recipe here.

 

Bought her the Gathered App for her new ipad which I gave instructions for in this note.

 

 Got her the Hello Sandwich craft book

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And wrote in a pretty card!

I know she had a happy birthday but I will say it again,

Happy Birthday Sammie! Love you lots!

Taz

 

Pretty Plate Friday!

Sharing this pretty with you. Its a lovely design on a plate I own.

Taz

Christmas Decorating!

I put our christmas tree up. And all the cute decorations. And the lights. And the buntings. And the other lights. And the wreath. And I'm loving the warm, christmassy feeling our house has right now. A bit of Sarah McLachlan singing christmas carols, or Mariah belting out Oh Holy Night! Sitting with a cup of tea and homemade shortbread with my lovely hubby! I'm so terribly excited about the lunches and dinners we will be running in our local community, as well as the meals with family and friends. Im enjoying the sewing and wrapping of christmas presents and the traditions we are making for future christmas's when Percy is a bit older and knows whats going on! I kinda don't want this season to ever end! Here are some photos of the decorations that are making me so happy!

I made our wreath and buntings with vintage christmas paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of my favourite christmas tree decorations..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Round christmas lights in our kitchen

 

 

 

 

I plan to make some more decorations between making presents so will keep you posted.

 

 

Thanks for reading..

 

Taz