day 179: home made christmas crackers and a peanut butter bird feeder

the finished crackers

day 178 and after a busy day yesterday it was nice to spend the day at home crafting with the peeps.  we made pinterest inspired crafts for yesterdays book (slinky malinki's christmas crackers) and today's book christmas in the little house.  for yesterday's book we are making christmas crackers and the craft for today's advent book is a home made bird feeder.  both crafts were found on pinterest and pinned to my 2011 advent crafts board and they will also be my creations for pinterest today :)

the cracker instructions are from kerry at squawk fox, "where frugal living is sexy, delicious, and fun" ... sounds too good to be true, but it's not!  the website is full of fantastic home made ideas and how to do things more inexpensively.  her instructions are very comprehensive, everything you need to know from a list of requirements, how to make party hats, where to find christmas jokes, and decorating the actual cracker. i downloaded these printable christmas cracker jokes from activity village.  once we had everything on the craft table, we started cracker making with gusto and got all seven completed this afternoon :)

ben adding the paper to the to rolls

pollyanna applying stickers :)

the goodies we stuck inside :)

a very proud boy with the first finished
cracker ... yay ben!

outcome:  this is a REALLY fun thing to do with your kids, surprisingly with the three of us working together it didn't take to long either ... and even if i do say so myself they are much nicer and far more personal than store bought ones!  it was easy for the kids to read and get involved with because the photos with words gave you all the information you needed to be sure of your steps.

my sincere thanks to kerry at squawk fox for providing such a fantastic step by step tutorial for making your own christmas crackers.  if you haven't purchased any crackers and given their is still plenty of time to give it a go and if you have kids, i urge you to include them in the process as it was great fun :)  also a big thank you to

the first finished peanut butter bird feeder

as for the peanut butter bird feeder, this wonderful and easy idea comes from the moffat girls.  all you need is an empty toilet tissue roll, some peanut butter, and some wild bird seed.  simply spread the peanut butter over the toilet tissue roll then roll in bird seed.  find some where to attach it and WAIT for the action to take place!

what you need :)

add cute girl to apply peanut butter to tp roll

add handsome boy to roll said tp roll in
bird seed :)

outcome:  bowled over!  these were so much fun to make and so easy for the kids to do on their own we made seven!  the birds showed so much interest and i am sure they will be a big hit ... the only problem was every time a bird went close to one the peeps excitement scared them away!

my sincere thanks to the moffat girls (big and small) for sharing this wonderful tutorial for wild bird feeders ... we will be doing this again and again!

today we also did some marshmellow roasting on the brazier and made home made xmas mince pies!  i love our home made ones as they are made without peel and have apricots and cranberries in them instead of raisins and currants ... yummy fresh flavour with the brandy!  SOOO GOOD :) 

lighting the brazier is a tricky job ... DO it SAFELY ;)

there is a fine line between burning and melting ben! 

my sweet mum cutting bases for the tarts

my husband laughing as he adds stars to
the top of the tarts before cooking

happy people eating fresh from the oven christmas tarts!