Rosehip Chutney

My Gran always made her own rosehip & rowanberry jam and it was delicious. Rosehips are full of vitamin C and once deseeded and cooked perfectly edible.

This chutney is made of  750g deseeded and washed rosehips,
                                     chopped in a food processor
                                     8 tbsp of water
                                     125g of sultanas
                                     200g of sugar
                                     200g of diced onions
                                     1/4 l of cider vinegar
                                     salt, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger and
                                     mustard powder

Simmer for 35 minutes and fill into sterilized jars.

Cranberry Liqueur

Simmer 340g of Cranberries with 200g of sugar and 100ml Cassis for about 2-3 minutes. Add 0.75 l white rum and stir. Sift after 3 weeks and fill into a sterilized bottle.

Rolypoly

Cut a piece of strong cardboard tube,close the top end with strong cardboard, glue fabric and 'hair' on and a felt hat.
 Cut out the body and hand twice, sew together apart from an opening for the head.
Put a heavy ballbearing into the tube, glue it shut with strong cardboard and glue the head into the opening of the body.

This fella slowly rolls head over heels down any incline .

The Winter King

This decoration is made out of a felt body and silk for a cape. Hair and beard are made of brushed silk and the body is filled with wool fleece. His crown was cut from silverfoil and his sceptre is a skewer wrapped in tinfoil.
The pattern is similar to the "Felt Fella" (Felt!).

Spinning Top

This is an easy spinning top made from a wooden disc with a hole

drilled in the middle, a wooden stick pushed through that's

sharpened on the bottom, and coloured with crayons.

Fingerpuppets

This is just one character of the fingerpuppets I knitted for the children - they have a hunter, a princess, a king, a magician,.....It only takes about 20 stitches knitted on a set of needles in a round.

Victorian

Take strips of nice paper

and fold them into a globe. Stapel together, add thread to hang up.

You can use any kind of paper for these decorations and add a tassel at the bottom if it is not too heavy.

Coffee Syrup

For anyone who likes their lattes here is a quick recipe for gingerbread syrup:

                                   2 cups of water
                                   2 cups of sugar
                                   1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
                                   1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of gingerbread spice

Simmer the sugar and water and stir continuously until the sugar is completely dissolved, add vanilla extract and spice (depending upon how strongly you want to flavour the syrup) and fill into a sterilized bottle
(wash in very hot soapy water, rinse thoroughly, dry and put into a hot oven for a bit - take care and use tongs to remove them). Add a pretty label.
Alternatively you can flavour the syrup with 1/2 cup of caramel syrup or pureed raspberries or some hazelnut liqueur or just with the vanilla .

Ornaments

Take gold or silver card,



cut into strips,



bend into shape and staple the ends together.

You can use coloured card, images from calendars or photostrips glued onto another layer of card and add thread to hang the ornaments up.

Bead Decorations

String nice beads onto thin wire and bend into shapes. You can use these as decorations for the home or to jazz up giftwrapping. Some shapes are simple,

some more difficult than others.

Beaded Wreath

Bend silverwire into a ring and tie ribbon to it to suspend the wreath. Wrap a strand of beads around it (string beads onto nylon thread) - you could also add some ribbon wound around the metal.

You could also hang some drop crystals, decorations or small baubles from it.

St. Nicholas

While the dolls are nice (and handmade ), it's the slippers that are of interest today. My kids count themselves lucky as we have both British and German traditions at this time of year and one of them is St. Nicholas on the 6th of December. He (unlike Santa) was a historical figure, the bishop of Myra in what today is Turkey, and he was known to give gold coins to a poor mans daughters so they could be married. He is said to have dropped them into their shoes on one of his nightly strolls.
For St.Nicholas the children leave out boots or shoes on the night before and hope for sweets and treats the next morning - if they were well behaved...
This is a felt alternative.

The slippers are made of three parts: The soles,....

...the upper and the back around the heel.

The back is a long strip of felt, attached to the upper and both sewn onto the sole.

Vouchers

Last December I watched someone buy a fistful of giftcards (friends, family, secret Santa?) and it got me thinking that this might be a solution for an advent calendar for a teenager. Obviously this could get quite expensive, so a few (or rather a lot of) other ideas are needed too. How about a movie night in, a pamper session, breakfast, lunch or dinner of their choice, a picnic, a family night, cooking or baking sessions with Mum, a craft session, customizing clothes, cinema tickets (there are some cheap movies for kids in some cinemas), going to the pool (free in some areas), pizza night with homemade pizza,...
For adults the vouchers can be quite practical, like doing the laundry or ironing, washing windows, weeding, a meal, a day out, babysitting, helping with some unloved task,...
The main present is sharing time and skills with someone and can be tailored to the individual likes and interests of the receiver.

Stash

All those goodies came with some magazines over the last year. I picked the ones I liked and collected them. They will make a nice little gift for someone, stashed into a pretty box. Cover a box with nice wrapping paper, tie in cellophane and you're ready to go.

Fotoalbum





Coloured cardstock, enough for 24 photos





Cover and backing. Punch three holes through all the card.



Tie up with some ribbon. Don't tie it too tightly, the pages need some
room to "wriggle".

This is very quickly made and filled with photographs or personal memories and will be well received.

Wreath

Take florists' wire and twist it around the base of the cones.

Form a circle and twist the ends of the wire into a loop.
Disguise with a ribbon bow and decorate any way you like.

Again nature has generously provided part of the Christmas decor. This wreath can be reused for years to come.

Advent

I decided to give one person an advent calendar for adults this year and to tie one of the gifts under the tree in with it.
The envelopes could be filled with vouchers, little trinkets, tickets, money, jewellery, anything small and thin.

Candy

Take big candy canes and tie them to a rope or an existing garland, glue them around a votive with a glue gun or use short ones and stick the round ends and the straight ones together to make a heartshaped decoration for the tree. If you leave the plastic wrapper on the kids can eat them afterwards.

Yummy

Children always like to get something yummy, so if you have nice bottles or jars in the house, keep them and fill them with an assortment of sweet things, cookies or the dry ingredients for cookies or muffins and include the recipe and maybe a cookie cutter as well. Those have the added benefit of keeping little ones busy for an afternoons baking during the holidays.

P.S.: This was supposed to be yesterdays post, but blogger and the internet conspired to make it impossible to publish...mea culpa.

Notebooks

Cover in PVA glue and wrap in material

Fold over at the edges and glue on.
Glue the last sheet over the join to make it neater.

Take a cheap notebook and cover it in leather, fabric, wallpaper, wrapping paper, foil, old maps or whatever takes your fancy and is flexible enough.

Scarf

I don't crochet scarves normally, but this wool is so chunky that the knitting needles didn't cope.

Beads

Keyring - stockingfiller, made from beads, waxed thread and a metal keyring.

Eco wrapping

This is for everyone who doesn't want to sellotape until past midnight on Christmas Eve - either do it as soon as you get the presents (and colourcode them so you know which one is for which person), or try the reusable and neat Japanese solution of Furoshiki.

You need a square piece of fabric and nothing else. If you click on the link above the image will be bigger on the screen .

Twinkle, twinkle...

Cut out 6-, 7- or 8-pointed stars.

Attach ribbon on the back with sticky tape and start wrapping.

Here is another type of stardecoration. I kept the colour scheme of red and white, but anything goes when it comes to the ribbon - whatever suits your theme. Cardboard (even printed cardboard) is the easiest material for the stars themselves.

Dolly, Part two

The main attraction - this is made in a similar way as the felt fella (Felt!) or the felt fairy earlier.
In this case the "hair" has been sewn onto the head in single strands.



 What more does a little girl need?

Dolly, Part one

Find a basket (I made this one) big enough for your doll.





Matress and pillow sewn to size in linen, decorated with lace
and filled with wool fleece.







Duvet in linen and lace.



I made these for my daughter when she was younger - she still loves them although she's almost a teenager now. That's what I call a good present...

Bead Angels

Thread wire for arms around the shape of the body and slip beads onto it.

Crochet

Yikes! I just saw a crochet blanket in a fetching shade of mustardy yellow pease pudding for £ 175.- from one of the mail order companies. Er - no thank you. I'd rather crochet one myself in rainbow stripes like this one:

Not only for Grannies.

More Snowballs

Thread some cottonballs on nylon thread with a needle. Add a little drop of glue under the cottonballs to stop them slipping. (On the photo I used the cotton as it comes out of the pack and white thread to show it properly, but usually I roll tiny balls out of the cotton.) This could hang on the tree or on the windows.