day 158: lemon yoghurt cake

this is just DIVINE, really it was that good. the whole
family oohed and ahhed :) 

day 158 and we need something for the tins this week and we are LIMITED by what's on offer.  luckily the chookies have behaved the last few days and i have an abundance of eggs, their are lemons on the tree, and we have some greek style yoghurt (yeah, that's how we spell it in nz) that needs eating in the next couple of days.  enter pinterest.  when you put in lemon yoghurt/yogurt as a search you are given some delicious options to pin to your boards, in my case my recipe must do's board!

after much ogling at all the yummy looking baking, i decided to go with freutcake's, lemon yoghurt cake.  leah's use of "especially delicious" had me printing the recipe before i even read if i had all the ingredients in stock ... lucky for me we did :)  and to top off a great recipe, this does NOT require heavy machinery either, things are looking decidedly good for this recipe and i haven't even tried it yet :)

see no heavy machinery for this cake!

while the cake is still warm you pour syrup over it ... YUM

gratuitous photo of pretty looking cake
with are beautiful roses ;)

outcome: mmmmmm so very very tasty :) the family adored this loaf and it was way too easy to eat and then eat some more of.  if you are watching what you are eating (insert my name here) as christmas is coming, do not make this cake, it is far too yummy to abstain from.  yeah, it really is that good and WAY  to easy to make, which is just as well because the tins could be bare by tomorrow again :)

my (add entire family) thanks leah from freutcake for this outstanding recipe.  this loaf would make the perfect gift if you can bear to give it away :)

day 157: christmas pj's for the kids

the finished pj pants :)

day 157 and after yesterday's sewing success i decided another sewing project was in order for today's creation.    i went with christmas pj's for the kids, well actually kid because i have no boy christmas material at all so ben's will have to wait until dec 1 :)  nancy at my cotton creations has the MOST amazing tutorial for making the EASIEST pyjama pants.  please check out her tutorial if you have kids and a ready stash of fabric.  i guarantee you will not want to pay for your kids pj's again!

polly gave me a pair of her winter pj pants that still fit well and i used those to cut the first piece of fabric as nancy demonstrates in her tutorial.  then you use that piece to cut the second and final piece of fabric for the pj's.  as christmas is in the summer here, i decided i would shorten the length and go for 3/4 pj's so pollyanna wouldn't get too hot in them.  then head to the sewing machine and turn on the iron.  approximate 30 minutes later you will end up with some cute as pj pants.  in fact, these pj's were so easy i decided to cuff them at the bottom of the legs and add the same christmas fabric to the top to jazz them up and make them even more festive! and thanks to nadine the sewing went well today because i changed the needle ... thank you my dear :)

what you need for this tutorial ... and a sewing machine!

polly's christmas pj's

outcome: as you will already be able to tell, i LOVE these pyjama pants and the tutorial from nancy was just awesome!  even me and my sewing capabilities never missed a beat with this creation. i plan to make all the kids pj pants from now on and just team them up with a cotton tee.  this has been one of my favourite pinteresting creation days so far!

the biggest thanks to nancy at my cotton creations for her amazing christmas pyjama tutorial.  i had so much fun making them and they were so quick and easy, i instantly went back to her site and became her latest follower!  

day 156: pocket page mini album

the finished album complete with tags!

day 156 and today i am working with paper to make this really cute mini pocket album by jill a designer for october afternoon.  this pretty little album has been pinned to my paper crafts board on pinterest :)

this album could be a little testing for me as it involves the sewing machine ... yikes.  however i decided to give it a whirl and trust my elderly machine to be able to plough through five sheets of paper without care for tomorrow.  it is possible after i have done this to the sewing machine it won't be fit for sewing tomorrow.

you need 5 sheets of double sided paper cut to 5.5 x 12", a pair of scissors, and a scorer (if you want straight lines and have my ability to create curves out of perfectly straight paper).  the adhering for this mini album is all done with a sewing machine ... i know, amazing right?

all cut to size i am using the the basic grey curio
collection, thank goodness for a scorer ;)

cut the corners off and you are ready for sewing

i did it! i managed to sew an album together without
perforating the entire thing or breaking any needles!

make some tags to insert in your SEWN pockets and you
are done :)

outcome:  this took NO time to make for a mini album that is so cute.  i really loved the october afternoon paper that jill used in her album, really fun and ideal for an album like this.  the basic grey curio paper i used was not bad too and has given it a really vintage feel.  as for the sewing, the album is still together so that's a good sign!  i did have to strengthen the middle seam as i think i had the size of the stitches too small and it started to perforate so the basic grey curio border stickers came to the rescue and provided me with a perfect bind!

reinforced binding :)  just to be sure!

all in all this album is really cute and i am going to buy (in december!) some october afternoon papers so i can make one with pollyanna :)

my sincere thanks to jill, a designer for october afternoon. this is one of those albums that will be perfect for lots of occasions when you have a few photo's you want to pass on to friends and family as a thank you for a special occasion or as a gift for someone else to fill ... for either this little album would be ideal :)

ps: my little dear of a sewing machine hauled like a trooper so i will be able to sew tomorrow should the whim take me ;)

day 155: gift card holders

the finished gift card holders

day 155 and i just can't the christmas bug to disappear ;)  yeah, haven't really tried to be fair!  today i am completely inspired to make kerryanne from shabby art boutique's gift card holders.  they are just so cute and what a wonderful way to personalise a gift card for someone special.  they are part of her simply christmas series, which i am totally enjoying, i am really treasuring all the the home made goodness and spirit her blog is fostering for this holiday season.

the tutorial is superb and really easy to follow and i didn't make any adjustments to her design as their is plenty of room to make these your own with the embellishments you add to each gift card holder.

supplies for four gift card holders

the first sewing is complete and ready to assemble
the pieces together :)

all sewn together and ready to embellish

the embellished card holders :)

a closer look!

outcome:  these were totally addictive, the sewing was not too problematic if you can sew straight lines.  i found it difficult with my more elderly machine doing the final stitching around the edge, but all in all the sewing wasn't too bad.  i will be making many more of these in the future as they are such a great way to give gift cards, much better than a card (unless it's from jen, jenny, or erin those girls are amazing card makers).

thanks SO much to kerryanne from shabby art boutique, these are such a great thing to add to the gifting repertoire!  i am absolutely loving her simply christmas and making my christmas more home made, if you have have a few minutes its worth looking in at :)

day 154: christmas book advent

the books for the christmas book advent

day 154 and the christmas bug has well and truly taken hold of my pinterest creations.  today i am making the first of a couple of advent countdowns for the family.  this one is dedicated to the kids and their love of reading and art.

the magical idea came from oopsey daisy's alison. when i saw her idea i pinned it to my christmas is coming board knowing it would be perfect for my kids even though they are much older than her little man. the concept is that you wrap up 24 christmas books so each day during advent you open up the book and read it with the kids then do an activity that has a synergy with the book you have just read.  the nice thing is the kids have a little surprise to open each day and a new activity to reinforce the message in the book ... fun times :)

i actually think as long as you adapt the craft and books you chose for your children and situation, this is a really awesome idea for all aged kids.   my kids can read but they still love me reading books to them and they adore baking and crafting, thus making it a perfect thing for us to do all december.  if you are pushed for time or christmas books maybe do a twelve days of christmas one :)

below are the list of books i am using and the activity that will go with each one:

1. A Letter to Santa - Writing a Letter to Santa
2. A Kiwi Jingle Bells - Make Strawberry Jam
3. The Littlest Christmas Tree - Decorating our Christmas Tree
4. Slinki Malinki's Christmas Crackers - Making Crackers for Christmas Day
5. Christmas in the Little House - Bird Feeder
6. How the Grinich Stole Christmas - Make Candy Canes from Pipe Cleaners
7. On this Special Night - Make a Fabric Pillow to Gift to a Friend
8. Christmas Comes to Mrs Mouse - Make Fabric Little Houses for your Friends
9. Mr Men: A Christmas Carol - Make a Mr Christmas Pudding Bean Bag
10. Angelina's Christmas - Bake Christmas Tarts for the Neighbours
11. Grandma's Kiwi Christmas - Pohutukawa Picnic
12. Santa's Kiwi Holiday - Go to Mission Bay to Make Sandcastles
13. Berenstain Bears Save Christmas - Gingerbread Cupcakes
14. The Christmas Caravan - Make a Christmas Star out of Tinfoil
15. Mog's Christmas - Make Christmas Stockings for the Kittens
16. Polar Express - Polar Express Hot Chocolate Party
17. Mrs Wishy Washy's Christmas - Home Made Bubble Blowing Solution
18. Snow Bears - Making a Teddy Bear
19. Mr Men: 12 Day's of Christmas - Make a Card for Raya and Deliver her Present
20. The Christmas Story - Ice Block Stick Manger with Hay and Baby Jesus
21. Jolly Old Santa Claus - Brownie Reindeer
22. Santa and the Reindeer - Reindeer Gingerbread Biscuits
23. The Night Before the Night Before Christmas - Make Christmas Tree Ice Cream Cones
24. A Kiwi Night Before Christmas - Make a Cricket Pitch Ready for an Afternoon Match

the books to be wrapped :)

a lot of the crafts have (of course!) come from searches on pinterest and so i have HAD to make a new board called 2011 Advent Crafts.  the links on the activities above will take you to my board that has the activities listed and linked their.  

as always on the day the kids and i make the creations we will blog about them right here with rightful thank you's to all the glorious owners of these wonderful ideas.  but for tonight all my thanks goes to oopsey daisy's alison, she is truly talented and has imagination to envy.  thank you alison so much for blogging about your christmas book advent, i can't wait for december to start so we can get into it :)  ok that's it for today, i'm off to wrap 24 books now the kids are asleep!

  

day 153: countdown to christmas free printable

a dry erase christmas countdown :)

day 153 and i have a christmas countdown on my blog but not in the house ... shame on me!  today we solve this small issue with a free printable countdown from sarah at life {sweet} life.  not only does she have a free printable to frame for your christmas countdown, but sarah also offers it in two colour choices of red or green ... now that is sweet.  the free printable is designed to go into a picture frame with glass so you can use it as a dry erase crhistmas countdown.

this is a perfect because i have lots of frames so i don't need to buy anything for this project, although i could have done with a magenta printer cartridge :(  i printed the red version of the countdown out confident i could find a frame to match the size ... i couldn't.  i did, however, find a very christmasy looking frame that was a 6 x 4" frame so decided to go with that and print the image out again at that size.  only this time my printer told me i was out of magenta ink and would need to print in greyscale .... WHAT (P*@#*&$(*  this is when no spend november came and bit me in the behind today.  no more colour printing for another 21 days, yikes!  and that folks is why i have been forced to have a chosen greyscale christmas countdown.

my first choice red one, shame about the fact i didn't have
a frame for this size ... measure first then print

the greyscale option with a frame that fits!

happy days, a frame with a print that fits :)

nested christmas countdown in the the rest of the greyscale
decor!

outcome:  luckily i have planted the frame in with some black and white photo blocks so it doesn't look too bad ... but a lot less christmasy than the red one i had planned to use.  love the free printable though, looks great in a frame.

thanks goes to sarah at life {sweet} life for the wonderful free printable that has two three colour choices, it is brilliant and can easily be adapted to any size frame you have ;)

day 152: holly decoration

the finished holly decoration

day 152 and the christmas spirit continues today with some felt holly.  this tutorial comes from kirsty of LovePaperFish who blogged about these holly decorations as a guest on bugs and fishes.  they looked so cute and i though would look awesome on the christmas tree so pinned them to my christmas is coming board on pinterest.  kirsty also did a wonderful job on explaining her process (these were developed from scraps of something else she was working on!) making this creation easy to attempt.


i decided to go with a red spot fabric on top and keep the same material on both holly leaves. i also had no felt balls to use as the berries so went with buttons and a bell instead.  apart from those two minor changes, i followed kirsty's tutorial to the letter :)

cut out four holly leaves

then add two fabric tops

sew together with a little stuffing and add some berries :)

outcome:  really cute.  the hardest part of this creation was designing the holly leaf shape, once you have that sorted you are sweet!  i love that it requires just a little stuffing to give it dimension and am sure it will look great on the christmas tree.  hopefully if there is a gentle breeze blowing the bell will toll :)  if you didn't want to attach this to a christmas tree another great place for it would be on a door knob or attached to a gift instead of a bow.


my thanks to kirsty of LovePaperFish who guest blogged on bugs and fishes with this wonderful festive tutorial.  it really was a pleasure to make and one i am sure to repeat again and again.