It Feels Good

Well we had another session of Christmas card making again on Friday this week when Mummy and the kids came for  family dinner.  It's a regular thing we try to do on as many Friday's as possible so we can have time together as a family and catch up with each other.

Even mummy got involved this time around.  Aunty Jessy had just sent them all a package so to surprise her they wanted to send her thank you cards in a return package.  Jessy and I send each other packages every now and then she sends one along to friends or her sister and the kids sometimes too - just to keep in touch.  It's such a nice thing to do and who doesn't love to get a surprise package?  I know I DO :-)

One of the nice things about this session was that there was another adult on hand to help Maddy.  That might've meant that mummy didn't get to finish her card but....

....at least Grandma actually managed to make a card!  I had been trying for the past few days to make one but I simply couldn't be with 3 kids at the same time and still get my own crafting done!

The kids kept asking me when was I gonna make a card?  It wasn't my best effort but hey, it was still a card.  I was just warming up okay LOL.

I finally got to make a card I liked this morning.   No kids, no mummy, no interruptions - just pure, clean, crafting and it felt sooooooo GOOD.  I didn't realise how much I had missed paper crafting.  I've been 'sew' busy (get it?) LOL that I haven't made time to craft anything else.

And my card is recycled from old Christmas cards too.  I used a picture from one card, die-cut with nesties, recycled ribbon that came on a gift and even a second card just for punching out the glittered snowflakes.  It feels pretty good to get these Martha Stewart snowflake punches out too.  Shame I didn't think about them earlier as the kids would've loved these!

This is a closer shot and you can just about see the glitter on the picture.  It came like that so I didn't need to get messy glitter out - how cool is that?  I even made a white glittered scallop border from the same card that I punched snowflakes out of.

Best of all I think I'm gonna give this card to the kids.  They will be sooooo surprised. I managed to cut and mount the picture whilst they were with me but nothing more so I think they will enjoy seeing it made up into a card.  I'm sure they'll remember it when they open it and I hope they approve of how it turned out.

Years ago, when I was kid, my mum used to cut old cards out with pinking shears to make Christmas tags - in fact she still does this sometimes.  I showed Zach how to do it and he did make me several tags but I made a few myself this morning.  I particularly liked cards with repeat elements like the ones above - you know the same design, 3 in a row kinda thing.

Once I cut and separated them, punched a small hole in the top, added gold cord, it gave me a nice set of 3 matching tags from each card.

My favourite tags turned out to be the 'joy, hope, peace' ones at the left of this shot.  Super quick, super simple, and recycled which I just lurve plus I save money.  Making and giving anything homemade just makes Christmas for me I guess.  It takes me right back to those early Christmas days when at least half of the pressies under the tree were hand made and we would happily go around the neighbourhood dropping off baked goodies.  Mostly cos we were short on spare cash but we had a blast making the gifts ourselves.

I don't have near the same amount of time to do as much as I used to do and often buying is much easier (and cheaper) but in our own way we're still doing home made today - as often as we can anyhow. 

In fact the lovely chappy who delivered our groceries yesterday got to take away a bottle of Elderberry cordial.  The first we've given out so far but then we did only get it made up the other week!  And today we got a request for hubby's Eggnog which is still a good month away yet but I can't wait until we start bottling that and giving it!

And because it feels sooooo good to be back paper crafting I think I might ask my mum if she has a box of old Christmas cards and maybe book to go spend an evening with her.  She has a few friends who craft and I bet they'd love to get a hand made card from her this year.  I even found a neat idea for making boxes from cards - she's always looking for simple ideas as gift swaps at Christmas.

Like I say - I'm back to paper crafting and it FEELS SO GOOD!

Now go dig out some of your old Christmas cards and see if you can't 'upcycle' some into something new and cute.  I'd love to hear your ideas so PLEASE share.

Enjoy!

Suezie

Finally - Some Paper Crafting Folks!

It's no secret that I've had 'little hands' around the house of late, more so this week than ever as I took a couple of days annual leave from work to do a bit of child minding whilst my daughter worked.  It's been a school break so they've been LONG days to keep little hands busy - from about 7.30 am to about 6.00 pm.
Food is always a good place to start so I helped the kids cook their own pancake breakfast on day one - AND I was smart - we cooked up enough so we could have some on day two as well :-)  Grandma's not just a pretty face ya know LOL!  And meal times were made more fun as we all got involved with more than the cooking, such as setting the table, clearing it, washing our own dishes and even helping each other out with the drying up.  All pretty basic stuff I know - but we had fun doin it.  I love working alongside the kids AND it fills a bit more time LOL!

Anyhow the kids were keen to do a bit of paper crafting and I had sorted out a box of old Christmas cards in preparation for some crafting.  These guys sat and created for several hours before Grandma had finally had enough! 

We rounded off each afternoon with snacks and a movie just so I could have me a 'sit me down' mostly LOL.

Perhaps most surprising of all is that Maddy sat still and concentrated for sooooo long.  That's not usally her style.  At 6 years old she almost never sits still unless she's doing something she enjoys and STILL wears her teachers out!  I bet they enjoyed the break from school LOL. Lucky for me she was enjoying herself but when she wasn't - boy oh boy!  Let's just say that I was glad to go back to work on Thursday (for the rest) and in bed by 9.00 pm that evening.  I was all tuckered out :-)

And these were Maddy's finished cards - of course Grandma helped but I think they turned out pretty cute for recycled Christmas cards!

And of course one of the most important finishing touches is to write inside your card.  This was something that all 3 kids really enjoyed.

Again this was something that kept Maddy sitting still and concentrating for quite a while.  She has made this angel card for her God-mother Abbie - who she has always (and still insists on doing) referred to as 'big Abbie'.  She usually sees Abbie several times throughout the year and is even planning to spend a whole weekend in London with her next month - she is sooooo excited!  Something tells me Big Abbie will be shattered at the end of it LOL.

Abbie will be thrilled to get this hand made card from Maddy this Christmas.

Kaleb proved to be quite a dab hand with the Big Shot machine and super patient too since I had him cut me about 60 circles out of card fronts.  I figured the kids might like to make baubles and had a really neat idea but I eventually had to abandon it.  They simply weren't interested.

These were a couple of Kaleb's finished Christmas cards.  He didn't want help so he pretty much did his own thing and I think he did a great job.

These were Zach's cards.  Like Kaleb he pretty much wanted to do his own thing but I did manage to help him with the card on the right.  It was for someone very special so he let me help to get it just right.  The red and green one in the back with a picture of a white Westie dog is for Aunty Jessy - she'll love it.

We pretty much just cut out the various elements from the old cards, added some pretty papers to card blanks and re-assembled them onto the new cards, adding a gem or two here and a button or two there.  We had a whole lot of 3D going on using foam pads but I steered clear of the glitter this time around I'm afraid.  I simply couldn't face the mess that would've made.

As it was this was the state the kitchen table was getting into!  And after a while we were all working on top of each other and everything else that was piling up on the table.  Every now and then someone would ask where the scissors had gone and we'd all down tools and dig around on the table to find them so we eventually called it a day.

In the end we had two whole days of paper crafting - they came back the following day asking if they could make more.  The kids got some really cute cards made, and we had real quality time chatting to one another as we crafted (which is really what it's all about), we all had a load of fun together and I know we're all hoping we can do it again real soon.

I can't wait until the Christmas break when I can get them baking up treats to go along with their cards!

Hugs

Suezie 

Little Hands

This weekend we babysat the grandkids for Saturday morning and while we love to have them around it usually involves finding activities to keep little hands busy.  We pre-planned for the event and decided we'd have a shared cooked breakfast followed by Papa taking the boys to our little plot to dig up the last of the potatoes - he was super impressed with how hard they both worked - and Grandma makin' cookies with Maddy.

Maddy was very surprised to find Grandma had sooooo many cookie cutters - I've had lots of years of keeping little hands busy to collect them and I simply can't bear to get rid of any.  In fact I had to limit her to picking out just 10 (although she somehow managed to increase this number - little madam!).

I had asked Mummy to send along her pretty apron that I made her last Christmas since I hadn't had a chance to see her wearing it and it fit her beautifully, plus it even had a little room to grow.  It was lovely seeing her use Great Grandma's measuring cups and spoons.

I just love that I was able to bring these home and keep them.  Barely a day goes by that I'm not using one or the other even if it's as simple as measuring out porridge oats and milk for breakfast - I love hot oatmeal to start the day.  Mom and I worked along side one another in the kitchen many times over the years as she passed on her skills and knowledge, especially when I was just starting out as a young wife, mother and homemaker.  I treasure these simple objects way above anything else and I like to think she'd be happy that I'm still makin good use of them. She'd be especially pleased to know that her great Grand-daughter loved using them too.

I found it hard to believe that this was the very first time Maddy and I had made 'cut out' cookies.  She was certain she had never made them with me before but I think we have and just can't remember it.  Very few Christmases go by without making sugar cookies and I still use the exact same recipe I used with her mummy when she was a girl too.

One thing was for sure.  Maddy definately needs to do this a few more times to get the hang of rolling the dough.  She insisted on rolling the same piece over and over until it was wafer thin so her dough ended up fat on one end and thin on the other.  I had to keep evening things out and after several times of doing this she sat back on my kitchen countertop, put her hands on her hips, tipped her head to one side, looked me square in the eye and huffed at me and then said "Grandma! you're really annoying me!"  Imagine that from the mouth of a 6 year old would you!  Little MADAM!  LOL.

I gave up on frosting the cookies cos we'd played around with dough so much we ran out of time.  These sugar cookies aren't near as nice without the frosting.

And later that day hubby and I decided we'd keep our hands busy makin' Elderberry cordial.  It's said to have healthy properties - keeping colds at bay amongst other things and I'm sure with that luscious deep colour it must be full of anti-oxidants too.  He loves taking a hot flask full to work in winter time.  We have been holding onto our last bottle and I've already had two coughs & colds so far the past couple of months.  I should have been drinking it all along but we were running low.

And in case anyone was wondering - you can freeze the berries and make up the cordial later.  We simply didn't have time to make it up this year so we picked em', froze em' and 2 months later they juiced up yummy cordial every bit as good as the fresh picked & brewed batch last year.  No difference at all in fact.

Then on Sunday we played hooky from church - I know, I know, a new church and we already played hooky - shame on us!  But we still had the other half of the berries to do plus a whole 14 pumpkins to do something with.

We had a bumper crop of pumpkins this year so we gave a few away, cooked and ate a couple and kept 14 back for pies.  I made it just about half way through so I still have these ones left over to do.  We decided to roast them and mash them for pumpkin pie filling and just to make sure it worked ok I made up about 3 pies to taste test.

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the pies.  I was shattered by the time I'd finished and sat watching X-factor followed by Downton Abbey and by then it was late so I headed to bed.  This morning I took a pie into work, hubby took one to work too and the other is half eaten - no doubt it'll be gone by tomorrow.  Me?  I hate the stuff - it's one of the few things I make especially for hubby but Jessy is comin to stay in a few weeks and she's requested a family Thanks Giving dinner since she won't be with us at Christmas - he may get plenty, plenty this year.  I'm sharing the 'oh so easy' recipe in case anyone wants to have a go.

Pumpkin Pie

1-2 pie crusts (I'm not super woman so I use ready made)
2 lightly beaten eggs
425g roasted, mashed pumpkin flesh
6 oz sugar
1/2 tspn salt
1/2 pint evaporated milk
2tspn mixed spice (or mixture cinnamon, cloves and/or nutmeg)
1/2 tspn ginger

Mix all filling ingredients, pour into pie crusts and bake at 180 C or 350 F or Gas 4 for 40 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. 

That's all there is to it - plus they freeze really well.

So 'HAPPY FALL Y'ALL' 

Enjoy!

Suezie