Homemade Christmas Cards

This was another idea I found on Pinterest.

Make your child's footprints into robins!!

Mince Pies

I don't like mince pies very much ... but obviously when it comes to Christmas I will have the odd one or two ... then last year a friend's girlfriend made some lovely pies with a frangipan topping.  Wow! These were amazing and have (almost!) converted me to mince pies!  I was also intrigued by Paul Hollywood's deep mince pies which have chopped apple and satsumas in ... anything to water down the richness of the mince meat is good in my book! So this week I found myself spending an evening in the kitchen making a rather huge batch of pies! 

The frangipan topping is also nice and simple: Cream 200g butter, 200g caster sugar and 200g almonds Add 50g flour, 2 eggs and 2 tbs brandy/rum This made a huge amount of topping so I would suggest for 12 mince pies - half the quantity would be needed. Just dollop a teaspoon on top of your mince pie rather than a pastry lid! Well ... here we are, Christmas Eve! What a lot of festive blogging I have done! Let's hope I can keep it up in the new year! Merry Christmas!!!!

Christmas Cake

I once again used Ruth Clemens' recipe for Boozy Fruit Christmas Cake and left it rather late to marzipan and decorate them! So with the Christmas countdown getting nearer and nearer and with my plan to cut one of my cakes into 8 portions to give as gifts I needed to get a wriggle on!

I'm rather pleased with the results.  I have kept it simple this year.  We have a house full of colds and coughs and I wasn't feeling particularly inspired!

 

Christmas Films - What Are Your Favourites?

We all love Christmas films don't we?

But what are your favourites?  Is there a film, which signifies the start of the festivities? Do films hold special memories of being young?

Here are my favourites ... it's an ever-evolving list with new ones added every year.  Let me see if I can limit it to 10.  In no particular order (that would be far too tricky!)

Meet Me In St Louis.  For me, this is the start of Christmas. I love it.  I LOVE IT! I often wonder how I got into my 30's before seeing it. How did that happen? My favourite scene is the Christmas ball when Esther is dancing with her grandpa and they waltz behind the Christmas tree and she reappears the other side with John.  Wonderful.  

Home Alone I & II.  I saw both of these films when they came out at the cinema with my family. We laughed so hard that I thought we were all going to die! Both films are watched multiple times in the run up to the big day.  Can you believe that Mr Plum had not seen either of these films until he met me?

Santa Claus: The Movie.  I can remember my dad taking me and my brother to see this at the cinema one Christmas Eve.  It's the ultimate in American 80's cheese.

White Christmas.  Of course! What's not to like?

Elf. A recent addition to my Christmas film must sees! 2 year old Miss Plum is also a fan.

Miracle on 34th Street.  I watched this for the first time at the weekend. I know! Where have I been? Living under a rock??? I had recorded the 1990's version off the telly ...and Mr Plum has come home with a DVD with both versions on!!

Arthur Christmas.  I saw this for the first time at the weekend and we had to buy it. 

The Holiday/Love Actually.  Christmas schmaltz in perfect London/perfect 
England/perfect LA.

 It's A Wonderful Life. Mr Plum STILL hasn't seen this film! We have now got it on DVD and will be watching it on Christmas Eve.

The Snowman & Mickey's Christmas Carol.  I have put these films together as they remind me of the children's Christmas parties that my Dad used to organise at his work (although apparently we only watched Mickey once!).  Every year we would watch the Snowman and I can't wait to introduce Miss Plum to it.

Mary Berry's Yule Log

Hands up all who watched the Great British Bake Off Christmas masterclass on Wednesday night?

Here is my Yule log which was so easy to make! Perfect for eating on the shortest day of the year!!

A Bit of Cath This Christmas

Anyone who follows my Christmas board on Pinterest will have seen a few things ...

1.  My, perhaps overly ambitious, list of Christmas craft ideas!

2.  I love the Cath Kidston Christmas Deer!!

Lucky old me ... Mr Plum bought me the iphone case as a little treat.  I hadn't been feeling at all festive and I think it was because I just didn't have enough Christmas deers in my life!! It is so cute!  I also have the Christmas organiser which is slowly getting filled up! 

I have to say that I am a rather latecomer to the wondrous website that is Pinterest. Are you on there? Leave me your Pinterest name in my comments - I'm always looking for new people to follow.  You can find a link to my profile on my blog side bar.

Who's feeling Christmassy???

Me!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Tutu For Miss Plum

I started taking Miss Plum to Baby Ballet last month. She enjoys it and adores the teacher (Miss Zoe). I think she is the oldest ballerina in the class (which ranges 18months-3 years) and as a result I think she get's a little bored that the other ballerinas can't keep up with her ... Antics!!

I saw a tutu tutorial on Pinterest so have made one for Miss Plum and one for her doll, Lily, of course!

I'm really pleased with how it has turned out! Not bad for an evening's work!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone. Isn't that a pip?

A Family Christmas Gathering & Christmas Mini Muffins

My parents came to visit this weekend and we headed to the Albert Hall for the famous sing-a-long carol concert! It was great fun! After a slight stress with my brother organising and then managing to double book himself (and turning up to the concert slightly squiffy!) we had a lovely time singing all the fabulous Christmas carols and other popular songs! One of the most memorable moments was singing the descant to Hark The Herald ... and my brother singing along in a scary falsetto voice!! Ha ha! Also, doing the mexican wave to Slade's famous Christmas hit was brilliant!

Miss Plum enjoyed herself and lasted until about 30 minutes before the end ... such a good girl!

So, after feeling completely unfestive for most of the month ... a couple of days of baking, card making and writing and Christmas cake decorating - I AM FEELING CHRISTMASSY! (I also had my first snowball of the festive season with my mum last night!)

Last Christmas a friend at work spotted a recipe for Christmas mini-muffins on the BBC website.  I wanted to make them but didn't have a mini muffin tin - but picked one up during the year and made some last week.  I would have taken a photo ... but they have all been scoffed, so you will have to make do with the BBC picture!!  Here's a link to the recipe ... so easy, so tasty! 

 I will be making some more this week!!!

A Scarf For Advent

I have made a start on my Advent Scarf.

I first found out about the Advent Scarf at my work knit and natter.  The pattern is posted daily on Ravelry and you do a bit of knitting each day.  Needless to say, it is the 15th December and I am still knitting the pattern for day 4!! Hey ho! I'm knitting at my own pace and really enjoying it!

Let The Festivities Commence!

Oh hello!

It's been a while, I know! 2012 has whizzed by in a blur ... but recently I have started to want to blog about Plum Cottage again and the stuff that we get up to.  It's just finding a time when I am not at work, rushing around taking Miss Plum to ballet or various play dates, not stressing about the state of our flat (I would love to have a cleaner!) or asleep (usually in front of the TV at 9pm)! yes, my life is still as rock 'n' roll as ever!

So suddenly, December is upon us.  I had thought of a festive re-launch of my blog, but as it is now mid-December that is unlikely! ha ha! December is here ... and I don't feel very festive.

This is unusual for me.  Christmas cakes are usually baked in October and decorated at the beginning of December.  This year's are still sitting on my work top waiting for their marzipan.  I must get on with that.  I have normally started the Christmas weight gain by now having started truffle making and cupcake baking ... but (thankfully, for once!) this has been delayed!

I had lots of plans to get on with various crafts - a felt Christmas tree for Miss Plum, an Advent Scarf that I had seen on ravelry, a tutu for Miss Plum to wear to ballet, a sleeping bag for her favourite doll.  Most of these are still on my to do list! I must sit down and get on with them!!!

So here I find myself on a rainy Friday morning, recovering from the bug that has been doing it's rounds at nursery, sitting with a sleeping babe beside me on the sofa (I have exhausted her out with Christmas card decorating and biscuit dough preparation), watching Meet Me In St Louis (this, if anything will make me feel Christmassy I hope!).

We have decided, for the first time in a long time, to spend Christmas in London, rather than go to our parents (we alternate).  Miss Plum is 2.5 years old (can you believe it?) and we wanted her to have Christmas morning at home.  We are looking forward to it - and will be heading to my parents on Boxing Day and then up to Yorkshire to spend New Year with my inlaws.  But I think that I have been in denial about the whole thing as .... I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I AM GOING TO HAVE FOR MY CHRISTMAS DINNER!  So I am having a flick through my favourite cook books to decide on a nice veggie dinner ... anyway, here I come to the reason for my post.

My inlaws are rather partial to port and Stilton ... not separately, which would be nice (!) but Stilton with port in it (this is far too strong for my palate!) They discovered it while cruising and are often prepared to pay up to £30 for a tiny jar of it in Fortnum & Masons.  Crazy!  One year I made them some.  I think they liked it, although they may have been humouring me!  On a recent visit to Fortnum's, my mother-in-law glanced towards the Stilton ... but came to her senses and didn't buy any as she thought that she would be able to get it in Waitrose. (Waitrose did it for about a tenner last year, I think).  It turns out that Waitrose aren't doing it this year ...

I have found a recipe for potted cheese in my Betty's "A Year Of Family Recipes" cookbook

Ingredients:

250g hard cheese (such as Wenslydale, Stilton, Cheshire, Swaledale, Single Gloucester) - finely grated.

85g butter at room temperature

2-3 tablespoons of port

pinch of cayenne pepper

1.  Place the grated cheese in a large mixing bowl.  Add the butter and mix together to form a paste.

2.  When well amalgamated, work in the port and cayenne pepper.

3.  Transfer to one large pot or individual ramekins and place in the fridge to set. 

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had merry Christmases and are enjoying 2011 so far!

The Plums had a lovely festive season spending two weeks visiting our families. Baby Plum was the centre of attention with lots of cuddles from both sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-aunts and great-uncles. Mr Plum and I even had two nights out! I even finally got my hair cut!

I was spoilt rotten ...

My parents had my Jamie O book autographed for me!

Fave smellies and a new CK sewing box

Uggs, ipod, chocs, CK dressing gown, CDs and more books ... I was a very lucky girl!

Awww ... baby Plum this afternoon - worn out after a trip to B&Q with her daddy!

So, what does 2011 have in store? Well, I have eight more months of maternity leave and eight more months of doing lovely things with Baby Plum. We started our baby massage classes on Friday at the local SureStart centre - fab!

I am also planning to do more sewing - I am planning to make a quilt and have a go at a Clothkits creation ...

Merry Christmas!

We made it.

5 hours for a journey which is usually 2.5 and an hour at Oxford services to feed Baby Plum ... through ice and snow, we made it to my parents house! Greeted with hot tea and homemade biscuits ... we were so relieved to be here!

So now it is Christmas Eve, the choccies are out and the carols are on the radio.

Merry Christmas to you all!

I will be back in the New Year - enjoy your festivities!

Truffles

Every year I make truffles ... but I think I am going to have to stop as this year I think I have scoffed more than I have actually made!

Here are my white choc and raspberry truffles ... (I made 10 last weekend - not sure where they (ahem!) disappeared to!)

And here are my chocolate orange truffles ...

You can find the recipe here

Lebkuchen

On 1st December, Ruth over at The Pink Whisk began her Twelve Days of Christmas recipes ...

On the first day of Christmas the Pink Whisk sent to me ....

Lebkuchen

The plan was to make these biscuits and give them to friends as pressies....but I have only just managed to get them done (with a bit of sparkly glitter!) so I will take them home to my parents next week ... if there are any left!

Christmas Cake!

Here's my glittery holly Christmas Cake! The glitter looks a bit yellow in the pic ... but looks all lovely and sparkly in real life!

I had some help with the decorating ...

How are your Christmas preparations going?

Christmas Stocking

Here is the Christmas Stocking I have finally got around to making for Baby Plum! I can't wait until Father Christmas fills it full of goodies for her!

Christmas Cake and Experimenting with Babywearing

Having spent last week sat mainly on the sofa holding baby Plum because i) of the snow and ii) baby Plum has decided she hates her cot/gym/bouncy chair ... everything that isn't mummy! I thought I would give "Babywearing" a go ....

So I popped Baby Plum into the sling and headed into the kitchen to marzipan my Christmas cake ...

This year I have followed Ruth Clemens excellent tutorial so I sliced off the slight dome

Then ate the bit I had sliced off ... delicious!

One marzipanned cake ... not sure how much Baby dribble made it into the cake!!

Turns out that Baby Plum also hates the sling so I am back on the sofa, catching up with Replay, doing a bit of knitting, and babe in arms!

Feeling Festive

The pictures don't really do my cosy little living room and justice ... remember the Christmas bunting I made last year?

Our lovely new fireplace and gas fire which we have finally had installed!

And our tree!

Welcome to my blog to any new readers who have found me recently ... how about a little giveaway when I get 50 followers?

Getting ready for Christmas

So, here we are ... December 2nd.

Tree's up (but not decorated yet!)

Christmassy fat quarters purchased from Croydon Christmas "Craft" Fair (it was terrible, truly terrible! Not a crafty pretty thing in sight!)

Christmassy books out and cluttering up the coffee table. My Plum is getting a bit annoyed with my random piles of craft stuff which are springing up around our flat. I will tidy them up ... in due course!!

The Christmas Handbook was a present from Father Christmas in 1988! I love the fact that my mum and dad wrote in our books as children ... I have had this book for 22 years! There is even a random dried flower in the front!

Christmas cutters and moulds retrieved from the cupboard. Now I just need to decide what lovely goodies I will make this year!

Jumping On The Christmas Pudding Bandwagon!

Blogland has gone Christmas Pudding crazy!!

Crafty Helen has posted a tutorial to make lovely felt puds ... but I only had a little bit of brown felt left (and had decided to have a day at home after two days of dragging Baby Plum out and about!) ... so I have made these lovely little slightly padded tree decorations. I'm very pleased with how they have turned out and am about to hop over to The Felt Fairy to order some more felt!