China Centerpiece

 
As I planned my pink Christmas it me realize I do not have a lot of pink Christmas things like Santa's and angles and that made me really think out of the box. What I do have a lot of pink is china, one of my many weakness. My plan was to use a lot of white, silver and gold hopping the bits of pink and pale blue would stand out. Plus I am the type you will never walk in my house and see pink everywhere. Believe it or not I am a "tad" understated  ;-) I believe in knowing when to stop.

 

For my Christmas table I used my shabby chic floral tablecloth, my great-grandmother's Theodor Haviland Limoges pale pink rose china and pink King's Crown glasses. For the center piece I set out different size saucers, children's tea cups, tea strainer and set tea candles with rock salt. Then I just add some greens from outside. I was so happy with it. There was one more special touch and I will show how I made it as soon as I can.

A Christmas Tip

 

A Christmas tip :

Stock up on candied orange peel (it will keep all year), so you can make things like soda bread with candied oranges and bittersweet chocolate throughout the year !!!!!

Entrance To My Home

 

Thank you for the sweet comments about my kitchen. I have to tell you the first time I saw this house, my jaw hit the ground! It was love, pure love!!! Here is my entrance right of the kitchen. What I love most about this room (which I did not take a picture of) is the cobbled floor. I will confess that I do not do much decorating outside, I do not have the energy :-) My decorating consisted of two pink picks shoved in a pot by my front door. A peek of pink.

 

This is my tribute to Sarah Lugg!!



I have decided one should always keep their dirty work gloves on a glass cake plate. I hope today is lovely day for you and not to crazy. If it is make a cup of coco, find a pretty spot in your home to enjoy and pretend you and me are having together.  Because I wish we were xox

Bleach

I have gotten a few e-mails from some people saying their trees did not loose their color. They got lighter but not white. Well I was talking with Angie she was told me on her doll-loop they have talked about the fact that once bleach is opened it looses it's strength. So if your bleach is old, that might be the problem. When I get a chance (not till probably after Christmas). I am going to buy a new bottle of bleach and try using that and see what happens. If you have done any trees I would love feed back on your trees and if your bleach is old or new.

I hope this helps. Also Sarah has started a flicker group for the trees.

PS. Check out Angie's wonderful spice tree. I am going to see it today and can not wait !!!!!

Girly Christmas Tea

 

 

 

Well here is my girly tea table. Lately on days were we are home it usually go like this: in the morning after work is done, we mix up something yummy for the freezer, bake off some for us, work on a craft and then have an afternoon tea party. This is my idea of heaven, especially on a cold, blustery days. A full wood stove to keep me warm, something yummy and a craft to keep my hands (and brain) busy.

Another new cookie we have made this year, Rose Walnut Cookies. I took another recipe using orange water and changed it all around. I can never leave well enough alone. I made it with some brown rice flour. Which we like but it does have a bit of a sandy texture. It is important to let these cookies fully cool before eating them. The rose taste is very delicate and will be lost in the heat.

Since it is hard to find recipes using the rose syrup, I made a list on the side of recipes I have using the rose syrup. If you have a recipe to share, I would be glad to add it to my list.

 

Rose Walnut Cookies

3/4 cup walnuts
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour  (I used1 cup all-purpose and 1/2 cup brown rice flour)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tsp. rose water or rose syrup
1/2 tsp.vanilla extract

Rose syrup or rose water 
confectioners sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Toast the walnuts until golden brown and fragrant, about 6 minutes. Let cool, then chop about half of the nuts and pulse the remaining nuts in the food processor until finely ground.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt and nuts together in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar, egg yolk, rose syrup and vanilla extract together in a mixer on medium-high speed until the mixture gets light and fluffy.

Add the flour mixture to make a crumbly dough. 

With a tablespoon, scoop out 1-inch pieces of dough and roll into balls. Place the cookies on greased baking sheets. Bake until the cookies set and start to brown, about 12 minutes.

Remove cookies from the oven and immediately brush them with rose syrup and dust with powdered sugar. Let cool and enjoy

                                                          

                                          

  PS. Do you like my blinged-out deer. I bought him silver but added crystal glitter and vintage flowers. I showed him to my husband, who is a deer hunter. He looked at me and said "You know he is a buck, not a doe" I said "Yeah and your point". He just walked off shaking his head and brushing glitter off his shoes ;-)

 

 

Trees, Perfect Trees !!!!

Do ever make something sooo wonderful, you want to call every friend and tell them about it. That is how I feel about these trees. I am soooooo in-love with them. I want to do dozens of them and fill my house. Mama and Jack posted about how to make these trees and am so glad you did Sarah. Thank you xoxoxoxo. They were very easy. Although I have to say I had to use a lot more bleach, like a generous 2 cups and it took a good 40 minutes to get light trees. But what I loved about these trees, is how they were all different. I only used two different colors, hot pink and blue. but each dyed it's own way. They each faded in the dye differently. Some I did not dye but just bleached till I liked the color. I posted lots of pictures so you could have a really god look at them. Also I did not use rite (but plan to for future trees) I did not have any and did not want to spend the money. I had bottles of liquid water-color. They are very intense and mixed that with water and they worked great. But in the long run, probably cost me more money. But I used them because I already had them. I just love the soft, luminous quality of these trees !!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Makeover Wreath

 

I have been busy play and decorating my house. I am trying to use what I already have as much as possible. So I spent a day after I had striped my house of fall things and took innovatory of what I had that I could use for my pink Christmas. I had this cheapy Martha K-Mart wreath from several years back. I was never really happy with it but it worked in a pinch when I got it. I decided to give it a make-over. At first I was going to do some balls in aqua and some in pink glitter. But after I did the aqua, it looked so wonderful I decided to stop. It is important to know when to stop. The aqua really brought out the gold and copper balls. I think pink would just distract from it all. I am thinking for future Christmas, aqua and copper might be a fun combo. Also adding the glitter gave the wreath another texture and add a bit more depth.

What I did:

The wreath is all plastic and I have discovered decoupage medium works well on plastic. I thought it would bead up, like glue would but it does not. So I just covered the balls in decoupage and then glitter, that simple. Except that it was a large wreath and I had to work in section the let that dry. But it only took an half an hour or so to dry, I am really happy with this, imagine just a bit of glitter transformed this wreath. My mother was over today and really loved it to. Hanging on my grandmother Clare's mirror made the wreath sparkle all that much more. By the way can you see in the bottom picture we have a bit of snow. Yeah, a bit of snow is a big deal for us.

I am now looking at what else I own that could use a bit of a make-over. I wonder what you have that could use a simple makeover ??? I have a lot more to show. Wait till you see my pastel trees !!!!!

 

Buckles and Tags

 

I wanted to share some more buckles I made. Instead of glittering, I used some vintage wallpaper and copied it onto card stock. I am LOVING these. Here is the pattern

Also here are some great tags to inspire you and feel free to click on the tag below and save xoxoxox

Popsicle stick tag

Acorn template PDF

This is actually a Thanksgiving template but if you were doing a woodland theme, I think this would be perfect.

                                             

Glittered Buckle

Last year I saw the sweetest glittered buckle for packages. It had slits in them and you ran the ribbon through them and wrapped them around a package. Well they wanted $8.00 for one buckle. I was determined to make my own. I came up with a template (below) and here is what I did.

1. I printed up the pattern below. I used a 3x4 inch setting. But you could do any size. I traced that onto a piece of card stock that I can always keep as my template. I traced the pattern onto card stock and cut them out.

2. Then I covered the card stock with glue and then glitter. I like to use a glue stick when I have to cover a large flat surface to cover. Shake off excess glitter and let dry. I do not cut the slits till I use them and know what ribbon I want to use. With an exacto knife I make slits a bit wider then the ribbon I am using. Then slide the ribbon through the slits. You can use the buckle going either way. It make a lovely replacement for a bow. 

Glitter hint: no matter how careful I am I still get glitter all over my table. When I am cleaning up, I get a damp paper towel and wipe down the surfaces. It seem that the glitter sick to the damp towel great. Then I just throw the towel away.