Sister presents ...

Each year, my four sisters and I exchange little presents, with a theme. Last Christmas it was my turn to think of a theme...we each drew a tag out of a hat which had one of our surname initials on it plus a coloured bauble from another hat.
Julie got blue T, Leanne got red K, Susan got pink G, Janine got purple M and Marilyn got green S.
We had to buy or make a present for the four sisters, eg mine something starting with T and it had to be blue....
We did pretty good with some hilarious things thrown in!
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I did up a blue Christmas tin with truffles, treats and Lady Grey blue tea. I handmade dark choc cherry truffles, candy cane cookies, chocolate almond bark and rocky road.
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Leanne had red naughty knickers, KitKat chocolate and a kitchen gadget...there's not a lot of fabric in those knickers!  :/
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Sue gave us a pink gown and pink chocolates and body wash...
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Janine was clever and made this purple mosaic (from a kit she bought online)and put it with a magnet.   I'll pop it out in the garden...
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Marilyn gave us a green succulent and lime green soap...
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Here's four of us with our red naughty lingerie and our bro-in-law Snow, wearing his! Haha!
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Next years theme will be easier - it was Marilyn's turn to come up with something...

🍷Oh, what a worry,
this time of year,
thinking of a gift
for four sisters dear!
Now Christmas 2017
will come around quite quick,
I hope this idea will do the trick!
What do you think?
🍾 A nice bottle of drink...
and just for a bit of class,
add to that 'a nice glass'.🍷
So buy a bottle beginning with your initial - this will make it very special!
Luv Maz

Well, Blogo seems to be behaving so far, fingers crossed it continues!

Cheers - Joolz xx

Christmas 2016

I am trialling a new app for blogging on my iPad, called Blogo (not to be confused with Bloggo, which has caused me no end of frustration - writing posts then having them disappear into the ethers or not loading my pictures...grrr!)...so lets see how we go! I start with a Christmas wrap up ...

We opened presents...

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We had a lovely champgne breakfast to start the morning off...

We had 28 people for lunch so it was a busy morning preparing for them. I got this turkey into the oven...

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Kirby decorated the tables beautifully...

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The turkey cooked to perfection...

Gus baked a ham in the Weber. Just a simple glaze of maple syrup, brown sugar, mustard powder and oil. Delicious!

The spread of food. Lovely salads and meats. I didn't get to take pics of dessert but there was my pudding (wow, full of brandy!) and pavlova.
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It was full on and very loud as we had 11 kids running around. I'll be back with our sister presents next...once I work out how to publish this post. Wish me luck!

Cheers - Joolz xx

Countdown...

... to Christmas 2016.  I've been baking biscuits...

Taking silly selfies ...

Baking more cookies.  These are Pioneer Woman's Choc Candy Cane Cookies

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I made Cranberry Almond chocolate bark...

and cherry and hazelnut dark chocolate bark...

I've eaten my whole body weight in cherries!

I've been trying to keep the house tidy but its hard when you have things on the go...

Dark chocolate cherry truffles...

Cherry shortbreads...

 

This looks like fun!

Christmas Day is meant to be a scorcher here with 37C forecast.  We had planned with my family to have a hot lunch of turkey, baked ham and lots of poultry and pork, roast veggies and all the trimmings.  Yesterday, I canned that idea and we will be having cold meats and salads.  I just cannot deal with hot food for 28 people in that kind of heat - at least we have air conditioning!

I hope it cools off for dinner as we have 12 for dinner also.  That will be a mish mash of meats, veggies and salads.  We are planning lovely prawn cocktails for entree so that should kick it off nicely.

I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and safe, healthful and happy New Year.

Love - Joolz xx

Tree is up!

I assembled the tree yesterday lunch time - took me 3/4 of an hour!

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Then I spent the best part of 3 hours decorating it last night.  I am pleased with it - it's nearly all baubles and not many other decorations (I have many!).  Another thing ticked off the list.  Next is baking all my goodies but that has to wait until next weekend!

Cheers - Joolz xx

She sews!

i recently came across a tutorial for folded fabric ornaments so I thought it would be the ideal project for me as I am not a very good sewer, but I love it!

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I purchased some fabrics from Spotlight (thankfully out for half price!)...

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Following along on my trusty iPad, I cut then sewed the circles...

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Followed the directions...

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Wow, I think I have actually made one!

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Tah dah!

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I like this one...

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These really are fun to make and take probably 10 minutes tops!  Nice little
things to include with a Christmas card or your homemade gift...have a go!

Folded Fabric Ornaments



Cheers - Joolz xx

Pudding capers...

Apologies for my absence - still having trouble posting sometimes.  Very frustrating when you sit and upload

several photos then it just crashes or refuses to publish said pics.  I'll try and get some posts up today of what I've been up to - nothing that rivetting but  I have plenty of pics to share. 

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I have had my pudding fruit steeping in brandy for about 2 weeks now so it's time to make the Christmas Pudding!

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First, I whizzed up 2 cups of fresh bread crumbs...
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Add in the flour, mixed spice and ginger...
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Four cups of fruit...
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1/2 cup of almonds...
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Suet and brown sugar and salt...

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Give it a really good mix to combine all the dry ingredients...
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I grease the pudding basin with butter and I line the base with baking paper so we don't

have any tears on Christmas Day when it won't come out of the basin it doesn't stick!  :)

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Add in the wet ingredients - 4 eggs, brandy (although this is really already in the fruit - a bit extra won't hurt!) and boiling water with the bicarb soda...Mix, mix, mix...

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Place it in the basin and smooth it out...
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I make a cartouche to cover the pudding then place baking paper on top of the

basin and tie with string - not an easy task if you are home alone and need another

pair of elbows and hands!  My struggle is real!

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Now, if making one pudding isn't enough for today, I thought I'd make another batch and make

two smaller ones.  You know when Christmas has come and gone and you have a hankering for

pudding, say in July when the weather turns cold...frozen pudding!  Whip it out of the freezer, grab some custard and cream and voila! Christmas in July!

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So here are my darlings, all slowing bubbling away on the stove steaming for 5 hours.   I hope they are good puds!

Cheers - Joolz xx