and to all a good night!

The berries are ready, some edible gifts have been made and distributed. It's late and I've played Santa. Now to get a little bit of sleep before the wee ones awake with excitement.

Thank you for stopping by this year, I've so enjoyed reading all your comments and reading your blogs. I wish you and your families a very merry festive season! I hope it's a happy and safe one. xxx

night lights

We were lucky enough for the weather to clear last Friday night and we headed into the city to see Motat's Christmas night. It was amazing, and so much fun. We don't often go out at night so for the kids (and me for that matter) that was a real treat. They had so much fun having a tram ride and checking out all the activities at Motat, and I was in love with seeing it all lit up with fairy lights. We also checked out the lights on Franklin Road, for those not from Auckland it's an inner city street (mainly with Villa and Bungalow type houses) that goes all out decorating their houses with lights. It's amazing to see all the different things people come up with, and how magical it can seem when everyone gets involved. We arrived home with two sleeping babes that we bundled off to bed without them waking. Something I want to do every festive season!

It's not too late to catch the Motat Christmas light nights, the last ones are this Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th night - 8-11pm

caper

I bought Meg McElwee's book Growing up sew liberated a while ago and I've been trying to find some time to get sewing from it. The first project I tackled was the hooded play cape, a little something to pop under the tree for miss E. I was lucky to be given a lot of fabric earlier this year when a friend was going overseas. I used some of that for this cape, a lovely blue silk and a pretty patterned fabric. I'm pretty sure she'll love it and I can't wait to see her running around the garden in it! Lets hope the weather on Christmas morning is much better than today, it's raining and raining and it makes me stress a little about the big family Christmas planned for my little house! Rain, rain go away!

winners

Just popping in to annouce the winners from my snowflake giveaway. The international winner is Mousy Brown! and the local winner is Hannah! Congratulations to you both and thanks to everyone who commented, it was lovely to read them all. Mr A drew the names out of a bowl (in case you are wondering) with a lot of miming from me as to what he was supposed to be doing.

Hannah can you please email me with your address please? Mousy Brown I'll pop yours in the post this week!

Thanks again everyone

*big sigh* The Auckland art and craft fair is done and dusted and what a great day! It was so busy that I didn't get a chance to check out many of the other stalls. I want to say a huge" thank you!" to everyone who stopped by to say hello (and those who couldn't make it and wished me well) and support me and of course the organisers too. It was much busier than the December fair last year, and I was blown away with the sales too (yay!!!!). My suitcase of goods was much lighter when it came time to pack up.

I did manage a few quick purchases though, from some neighbouring stall holders. I picked up some lovely 4ply cotton from Happy go knitty and some beautiful poppy cards by Melissa of Tiny Happy. I got a coaster from my neighbour stall holder, Rock and roller coasters - Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell, a big favourite of, can you guess? My two year old Son! My last purchase was a tea cup bird feeder for our garden, by Helen Kerrigan. we filled it with some alpine strawberries for the local birds. I hope they enjoy them :)

It's nice that it's all over now and I can concentrate on making some Christmas gifts for family and friends and start to relax a bit and enjoy the season!

Don't forget about my giveaway! Thanks to everyone who has commented so far, I'll draw the winners sometime late tomorrow.

let it snow

I've been making lots of these snowflakes, for the Christmas ornament swap, for presents and for the Auckland art and craft fair this weekend. They are crocheted and then stiffened with a fabric stiffener. I'm hoping that there will be a few left over to hang up here at home. I have however put a couple aside to offer as a giveaway to you dear blog readers! I'll draw one overseas winner and one NZ winner and send each a snowflake and perhaps a few other little treats too. Just leave a comment on this post and say what country you are from (and perhaps what your favourite holiday tradition is?) and I'll pop you in the draw. You don't have to have a blog to enter either. I'll draw the names on Monday, hopefully giving the overseas winner a chance to hang their snowflake before Christmas!

sweet

After making the banana/nutella iceblocks it got me thinking of other banana combinations. I tried banana/apricot yoghurt/maple syrup (a tiny bit) combo with great success! Well my taste testers certainly didn't have any complaints! Yum!!!

I made some apricot and orange balls this week too. A nice sweet treat that you can keep in the freezer for months (if they last that long). Great for popping in a tin or nice jar as a Christmas present.

Apricot and Orange balls
250-300g of dried apricots chopped roughly
rind of 1 orange (peeled off with a vegetable peeler)
2 Tablespoons of orange juice
1/2 or 1/4 cup caster sugar
1 3/4 Cup coconut

In a food processor chop the orange rind and caster sugar. Add the apricots and orange juice and pulse till the apricots are nice and small.  Add 1 cup of coconut and pulse. With wet hands shape into little balls, and roll in the remaining coconut. I keep mine in the fridge or freezer until I'm ready to gift them (or eat them!!) YUM!!!

spirit

It seems that the Christmas spirit is slow at arriving this year. I haven't sent a single Christmas card, I wasn't getting excited at the thought of putting up decorations or our tree. But it's slowly starting to gain momentum. We've had our local Santa Parade and it was so neat watching the kids enjoy it, mr A being that much older now (nearly 3) and totally excited by it all. He hardly stopped waving and clapping. So this week I'm going to make an effort to get into the fun of the season so I've started some Christmas sweet treat making to give as gifts for Pippins leaders and teachers etc. Hopefully I'll find some time to post some of the recipes too.

In other news, I had my artist interview over on the Auckland Art and Craft fair blog over the weekend, you can have a peek here. Only a few days to go now!!!!

other

I seem to be in denial that the Auckland Art and Craft fair is just (and ONLY one) week away. I've got most things done, just a few bits here and there, but I know sometimes it's the little things that take the longest.

This week however I've been making a start on some Christmas gifts, I tried a new crochet pattern. The Diamond slouch beanie by Holland designs (a lovely local and talented crochet designer), a present for a friend in a cold northern hemisphere location(my Ravelry notes here). I've also started (and actually finished since taking this progress pic) a wee embroidery based on this pin. I've blurred the initials to protect the identity of the recipient just in case they might be having a sneak peak!

Happy weekend friends! I'm going to have to drag out all the Christmas decorations this weekend and try and get into the festive spirit, it's taking a little while to kick in this year.