Lights of the season.

I'm the Queen of better late than never, so it would really be fitting of me to post about our pre-Christmas light adventure in January, would it not?

We bundled Stella up in PJ's and blankets and took my favourite fellow mama Ali along for the ride. This was another first for Stella, Christmas season always seems to be full of 'firsts'. Seeing Stellas face light up with pure joy gave me a little lump in my throat, these memories we are creating are going to be the highlights of her childhood, things she may look back on and smile about. Things she may want to one day share with her own children.

Some of the houses we admired had interactive adventures for the young and young at heart, including Santa and lollies. We managed to tour our small city and stay bright eyed until 11pm, before tucking the little elf into bed. This is a family tradition I'd like to continue for as many years as we are able, no matter how many children are sleeping in the car seats or chattering from the backseat.

From us to You.

Merry Christmas

I hope your day was full of quality time with family and friends. I hope you ate until you couldn't eat anymore, and laughed until you rolled on the floor. I hope your babies slept and your toddlers smiled.
From my family, to yours.

Mr K's Shortbread: Recipe for Success

I welcome myself back to the blog to share with you the recipe used to create our Christmas shortbread in this post.

I find this to be the most simple, clean, cheap and of course, satisfying recipe I have yet to come across.
 

MR K's SHORTBREAD

Ingredients:

500g butter
500g plain flour
200g caster sugar
2-4 tsp vanilla extract


Method:

1. Preheat fan forced oven to 180 degrees (360 fahrenheit) & line oven tray(s) with baking paper.

2. Cream softened butter and sugar with clean hands in a large mixing bowl until a thick "paste is formed. 
(I find the softness of the butter to be a crucial part of a successful recipe. Too hard (refrigerated) and it will not have the ability to be creamed with the sugar creating a lumpy and uneven texture & too soft/melted which will create an unstable and unworkable liquid. I find the best method is to slice butter into 1-2cm pieces and rest on a chopping board while measuring the other ingredients.)

3.  As palates vary, fold in the desired amount of vanilla extract to suit your liking, until combined.

4. Add the flour (unsifted is fine) and fold into the mixture until combined and evenly distributed. A ball of dough should form in the bowl once this step is complete.

5. On a floured bench, knead the dough lightly before rolling. 

6. Using a rolling pin (or anything somewhat cylindrical) roll the dough to a 50mm thickness and trim the edges, creating a large square of dough.

7. As we decided to place small squares in jars, and after getting frustrated with a knife, I found it fast and easy (and overly enjoyable) to use a pizza cutter to cut the dough to the required size.

8. Once cut, pieces were placed on trays & trays & trays and placed into the oven. Oven heat was then reduced to 150-160 degrees (celcius) 302-360 (fahrenheit).

9. Cook for approximately 30 minutes or until golden brown. (I found some pieces towards the edges of trays were required to be pulled out early due to the airflow in the oven.)

10. EAT! EAT! EAT!


A fast and simple way to create a recipe for all the family to enjoy this festive season!

I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and hope this can bring lots of happiness and full bellies into your little corner of the world!


Until next time,

Mr. K

Gift guide for little musicians.

Stella has become more and more intrigued with music. She will move and groove to any kind of tune that plays and strums Nicks guitar whilst singing a little tune. She really does have ryhthm! More recently we have started getting out the big keyboard for her to accompany Mr K on the keys. We can spend a whole afternoon playing the instruments, singing songs and having a dance. Its one of my favourite things to do as a family and I just adore seeing my little musical bunny enjoy herself so.

I've put together a quick gift guide for little musicians you may know this Christmas and in the process had some ideas for Stella myself.

...enjoy...

* Jingle feet by Robot Holidays

 

*  Natural wooden zylophone by smiling tree toys.

 

*  Antique wooden childrens grand piano from Simply Chi.

*  Lullaby renditions of Christmas rock classics by Rockabye Baby

 * Musical Baby App for iPhone.

 * Baby's musical hands App for iPad.

Happy musical Christmas days! 

A Christmas DIY

 With all the Christmas organisation going on around this house, it leaves a little extra time to let the mind wander to more interesting things. Things like creative projects and DIYS. What better a way to spend an evening than baking, crafting and creating with your loved ones? One night last week, Nick and I set to work making small Christmas gifts for our family and friends. We giggled and chatted whilst baking, taping and taste-tetsing!

Over time, I have quite the collection of glass baby food jars and wanted to put them to good use. We decided on a cute, packaged up jar of homemade Christmas shortbread. It was a small and simple gift that was low on cost and totally handmade.

I washed and scrubbed all the baby jars and dried them thoroughly. Then it was a matter of simply wrapping gold paper around the jar, taping, then adding a cut off doily tied with twine. I had cut out 'tag' shapes in card, written greetings on them and also attached these with some thread. Its as simple as that!

...Almost!  Nick, being the better chef out of the two of us, baked 25 small serves of shortbread. (He will share his recipe with us later on) We then placed around 7 pieces in each jar and covered with a small circle of cling-wrap. And there you have it! A Christmas DIY.
Baby jars + shortbread + gold paper = Sweet Christmas gifts.

Giving something handmade this Christmas has helped to quell my unease with the excess of materialism and consumerism surrounding us at this time of the year. Call me a party pooper, but I just cant help but think of how much wrapping paper, how many store-bought cards and how much packaging ends up in landfill come boxing day. I wander through the shops and see people bickering over prices and the quantity of products, I see tired, over-stimulated children nagging at their parents for the latest version of 'such and such' and the must-have brand of 'such and such'. It makes me feel deflated and if honest, quite nervous. I don't like thinking of incredible amounts of waste and flamboyance in purchasing. Don't get me wrong, I too enjoy giving. I get excited about the buzz that hits stores in the form of carols and decorations, but there is something about this excessive gift-giving that makes me incredibly uneasy. I think it partly comes from growing up in a household of not many "things". At times, money was stretched and material things were sacrificed, it bought me up with a conscientious mind of waste, want and need.

Giving handmade and using recycled resources makes me feel good, I often hold onto supplies and bits and bobs for this purpose entirely, so that I can re-use it to create and give. If you are creative minded and enjoy crafting, why not do the same this Christmas? Make your own decorations, create your own gifts. Buy less and give more, all it takes is a few resources and some time in 'the zone'.

Happy handmade Christmas!

Christmas is coming!

Tinsel and glitter mean Christmas and family, and this year couldn't be more perfect. Stella had her first tree adorning experience and we are playing 'DJ Santas' dance track on repeat. The shopping has been completed and the present lay prettily-wrapped under the tree. Being organised feels so...relaxing!

This year, I am looking forward to a memorable and joyful day with family friends. What about you? What do you have planned this year? Are you organised? Or still running the mad season rush?

'Tis the season to be jolly!

A two minute DIY

This year I decided to hand make all our Christmas cards, I seem to hoard cheap and nasty cards from over the years and end up throwing out rather than using them in the bid to purchase something a little nicer. I bought a few pieces of brown card and a packet of white doilies and spent half an hour in front of the TV making these sweet and simple cards. I folded the doilies in three and cut out small shapes to make a snowflake (think back to your kindergarten days!) 

The result was very simple, yet very pretty. And they match this years wrapping colour theme of brown and gold.

doily + scissors + brown card = Christmas cards!