Fancy Bakin'

Hi!

Jingle Bells.... Jingle Bells.... Wow, Christmas is only 3 sleeps away, can you believe it (if you read that this post is from Wednesday and that should mean only 2 sleeps, it's cos it's 1:30am and I haven't actually gone to bed yet from Tuesday night, bare with me!) How quick has this Christmas season passed? My last Christmas as a single girl! Next year I'll be Mrs Lam, how exciting!! LOL {giggles... snort!} No really, I'll be married {giggles again}, still seems so funny.

Last weekend was the Christmas get together dinner for my Mum's side of the family which is always a hoot. I have a bunch of awesome cousins who have lovely partners and now fantastic kids too, so it is always a big bunch of fun! We chat, eat, play, eat, chat, eat, take pics, eat, chat, eat, eat, open presents, eat etc.... LOL! Check out us girlies in our Santa hats! This isn't even all of the girls, Fliss didn't make the pic, neither did Sienna, Amy, Georgia, Emma, Elise or Alexia (or Yvette and Tassy I'll add!) but there is one other little person who did make the pic.... the tiny peanut inside Alicia. Yep, she's pregnant! She's due early June which means she'll be 7 months pregs at our wedding! How cool is that! We are all so happy and excited for them, Congrats Alicia and David!! I had a dream on Friday night that it was a girl too... but I did have a dream when Fliss was pregnant with Cooper that she would have a girl and call her Moon. Yeah, random!! That didn't happen. Maybe one day Will and I will have a Yue Liang (Chinese for Moon) of our own :) {wink}

I made a bunch of new treats that I hadn't made before which was fun. And I tried to make impressive looking ones this year too! For starters, the Marshmallow Candy Canes which came out of Super Food Ideas mag. Fiddly, but fun, and pretty much just sugar and air, so probably not a good idea to feed these to any children you have to take home with you. The centrepiece of my plate was the Spiced Gingerbread Shortbread tree made with 3 different sized cookie cutters! It turned out awesomely and looked great drizzled with white choc and sprinkled with coloured sugar sprinkles. So cool! I think I'll look for an even smaller star for next year so the top isn't so flat. I'd like cutters that could layer into a nice peak! The plate looks so cute adorned with white marshmallow snowmen (not home made, sorry!)! Aren't they the cutest. Plus I also made Mocha Shortbread fingers (delicious!) and almond caramels! I had so much fun making it all. We saved the Christmas tree to eat on Christmas Day :) or at least to show Tassy on Christmas day, maybe we'll eat it the next day seeing as we always seem to wedge food into every available crevice til bursting point on Christmas day!

Here I am doing my best Martha Steward meets Mrs Claus impersonation! Look at all the food in the background of this pic- I can see Cheesecake, Torte, a Cupcake tree, a panetone, dips etc...we eat very well when we get together!

Well, I hope you have finished all your Christmas shopping, are getting some quality time in with your family and I wish you a Very Merry Christmas if I don't post before then!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

:) C

Christmas Shenanigans

Looking back through last year's Christmas Posts is a really cool way of reminding myself of all the cool baking and decorating I got up to {thought to self- I must make those delicious gingerbread cupcakes again!} and it also reminded me of the Christmas Shenanigans Will and I got up to with the Decorations at work last year. Remember this pic? Well the Reindeers didn't make it back to work this year (too many Christmas Shenanigans caught on CCTV?), but they have been replaced with a "Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"-esk kind of Christmas Tree forest. The perfect habitat for one giggling, twenty seven year old boy masquerading as a decoration! You know the funniest thing, he wouldn't have even looked twice at the trees before he met me, he probably wouldn't even have noticed there were trees there at all. But my head has passed on it's vast knowledge of how to be childish and fun, and still be the boss and Will has absorbed it all! Every time we got out of the lifts at work he'd say "We haven't taken our picture yet!" hehehe {giggling to self, at the monster I've created!} Love you Will!! I wonder what props they'll provide us with next year!

:) C

Christmas Cards 2009 Edition!

Hi y'all!

Well, if you write on my blog (all 4 of you- Mum, Y, F, AJ.. oh and Tassy!!) you should have received your card today! How did you like it? Ok Yvette, you may have to wait one more day, lets see how good the postie is in our Nation's Capital. He's usually pretty quick, did you get it already? Oh, Fliss I just realised I didn't post yours cos I thought I'd see you this week... don't worry, it'll look so much better IRL when you get it!!

I started out with this really pretty and awesome design for my cards, bought all the Baja Breeze cardstock and ribbon, then realised I didn't actually own the SU Winter Post Stamp Set I was going to use {slapping forehead}... so it was back to the drawing board! I decided I was not going to buy one snowflake stamp off etsy just to make these cards so I dug around at home and came up with a small Hero Arts round snowflake relief and some tiny tiny snowflake (kinda) shapes that were with the Hero Arts Acrylic Birthday sentiments I have. A quick borrow of Fliss's heat gun to emboss- man it had been YEARS since I'd done that!- and we were away! I am really really pleased with how they turned out! I think the Real Red stands out so nicely against the muted blue and silver! Love them! I hope you like them too! They were actually super quick to make too, cos they have a simple design and the BG stamps are arranged randomly, so I didn't have to really worry about where I was stamping them, just a rough idea of placement. Then the red label is punched with SU's Curly Label punch and the stamp is from the matching set, I don't think I could have asked for a quicker design, and fun to make too cos it included embossing, stamping, punching and tying ribbon! Happy me {high five-ing self!}

BTW I have increased my Christmas Cards received to 3! Wow! Lol {giggles} I'm clearly not very popular, or I come from a much lazier time than my predecessors and my peeps don't send cards! Hang on... hey Mum, where's my card?!! I want to see what you wrote about me in this year's Christmas Letter {wink!}

:) C

Happy Birthday Will!!

Today is my Fiance's birthday! Happy Birthday Will!! If you haven't texted Will yet, here's your reminder!

If you know Will, you will know that he loves fishing! If you know him a bit better, you will know that he loves fishing dispite rarely catching anything. That is testament to one of his greatest virtues... patience! He just loves going out, on his own or with his bro or friends, and dropping a line in. Sometimes he gets nibbles, sometimes he gets nothing at all! The second last time he even caught a fish! Actually I think they got about 6 that were legal size, so that was like all his Christmases had come at once!

So I set about making him a fishing birthday cake!! I searched everywhere for fish lollies to put in the "lake" made of blue jelly (reminiscent of the "Pool Party" birthday cake Mum made me once from the Woman's Weekly birthday cake book- I loved that cake!!) I finally found these lollies called "Swedish Fish" at the International Lolly shop at Macquarie Centre. They cost an absolute fortune, but they looked fantastic! I made a "rod" out of a wooden skewer and tied a fish to it with sewing cotton! I even put a few fish on the "bank" so it looks like he's had great success!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLY, I HOPE YOU HAVE A FANTASTIC DAY!! xoxoxoxooxoxoxo

:) C

The Crazy Grocery Shopper..

Are you a Crazy Grocery Shopper like me? Do you spend forever wandering up and down all the aisles, looking for specials and those meat bargains (mouldy meat as Dad calls it- gross!) but then end up buying something truly ridiculous that you don't really have any hope of using? Oh yes, this is me to a T. I learnt this from Mum. Mum would go grocery shopping every Wednesday when I was growing up. This was an all-morning event, not a quick 20min trip to the local corner store, but a fully fledged few hours making sure everything on the list was bought, and a few special things too (like a packet of Twisties on my bed when I got home from school- {gazing into the sky as the song "memories" floats above my head}). But what I didn't learn from Mum was buying something on special that you've never used before, that seems like a total bargain and that you only have the faintest inkling of what to do with. Enter.... a 1kg bowl of Ricotta cheese. Oh but it was on the best sale!! Down to only $3.98!! Well that's cos you have to use it all up by Tuesday Boof Head (the reason for the sale)! And you have to find a recipe! Don't worry, I am from the internet generation, thank goodness. Hello Blueberry Ricotta Muffins!! The recipe is from here, but I had to modify it a bit and add some mini M&M's cos who knew Blueberries only came in 125g punnets?! Oh man, they were sooooo good with the chocolate, ricotta and blueberries. So I stamp this one.... [SUCCESS!] Would you like one?

Oh yeah, I crumbed some Ricotta over the top of our Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner too... delish!

:) C

My fave Decorations.

Spreading some more Christmas Cheer over here! I'm gonna post about some of my fave Christmas Tree decorations today! YAY!! I'm not sure if you have favourites, or if you're like my future family in-laws who didn't have a tree until last year when Lil went and bought the biggest tree the shop had and all the exact decorations that were on it on display! It is a beautiful tree, but it's a bit like walking into Myer when you walk in their front door cos it's so uniform! It is slowly getting some personality though, it gained 2 new Christmas balls this year that don't match the others, maybe I'll buy it a couple more so it looks haphazard and eclectic like a proper tree {wink!} My tree has bits and pieces from all over the world (name dropper) and some hand made ones too :) Ones given to me by Mum (snowman, top right- I think she had hopes of replicating him, but never did), Dad (daughter's are a blessing ball), Felicity (wasn't the Good Will Toward Men angel from you?), or tied to presents like Yvette and Alicia sometimes do. I have ones that I was supposed to tie to presents, like the glass snowman with glitter in his bottom ball- bottom left of the first pic, of which I bought 3 to tie to presents but alas, was not able to part with {sigh!} Some from America- e.g. the Mickey Mouse head glass baubles amongst others, some from Germany and other exotic places. Some I just buy in a silly whim like the crazy little Gingerbread man with his giant bow - top right of bottom pic, or the reindeer with wobbly disjointed legs- background of bottom left on the last pic. And then my beautiful, but small, collection of delicate glass balls, I especially love the winter scene on the bauble bottom left of last pic, so beautiful. The newest member of the Tree is the Mushroom bauble top left of first pic, oh so sweet! I even started writing on the back of them (or somewhere discrete) where I got them so I will remember in years to come! I love my decorations, and I guess that makes me love my little tree, if it wasn't for such a small tree all these decorations would be lost amongst the foliage! I guess a small tree is a blessing after all :)

:) C

Some Christmas Cheer!

A little birdie reminded me that I've neglected my blog this week, well that's only cos I don't think I've had anything blog-worthy to post about! But then I remembered Mo. Say hello Mo! Mo is my new Snowman Mug that brings me a little bit of Christmas Cheer every time I put the kettle on :) Ain't he the cutest!! Good Ol' Mo was only $3 at the local crap shop at Eastwood, a bargain I'd say. I think I'll have to go back and get Mo a friend! I have a bunch of Santa Mugs that I haven't yt unpacked for Christmas this year and Mum also gave me a Santa jug, sugar bowl and serviette holder as an early Christmas present that will make nice companions for Mo!
Hey Mo, time for a Milo and a Fruit Mince Tart? Yep, I thought so!
Happy Weekend!
:) C

Pumpkinbread Snowmen!!

Hi y'all!!

My latest Christmas treat: Pumpkinbread snowmen!! I saw this awesome Snowman tray in Coles on Friday and couldn't pass it up, it was only $5!! It does only bake 6 at a time though, so you either have to bake in batches or only bake 6 snowmen and the rest in cupcake cases (which is what I did) but for some reason the snowmen tasted better {wink!} Originally the recipe came from here but I switched it up a little cos I didn't use the streusel on top, it sounds absolutely delicious, but it was another 1/2C butter and extra sugar that I really didn't need. Plus the snowmen look good on their own anyway. I meant to sprinkle the cupcake versions in chopped pecans before baking but forgot. LOL! Next time... and there will be a next time cos these are absolutely delicious!!

The pumpkin bread so much reminded me of when I was in Connecticut, this time of year 3 years ago. Oh, all the pumpkin bread, ginger bread and fancy Christmas treats I ate from Starbucks in Old Saybrook, so so so so beautiful! Here are a couple of snaps from there, just for old time's sake! I LOVE that awesome red barn at the Old Saybrook Country Barn store! It's fantastic!! I hope one day Will and I can spend a Christmas in the Snow somewhere! I loved my White Christmas in Germany, I'm sure he would too :)

Merry Christmas!

:) C

A little spontanaity..

I love a litte spontinaity, when you don't really have anything planned for the weekend and it just happens? That's what it was like for me this weekend! After lunch yesterday I got a call from Fliss who was after some "hired goons" as Matt called it, to come along to the beach and hang out with them. Well, I managed to tear myself away from my Christmas Present Wrapping- as much as I love wrapping presents, the idea of hanging out with family, and the fact that it was going to be both Cooper and Sienna's first day at the beach, won hands down! Luckily I have had many years of contortionism when it comes to climbing into a packed car (both with our Tarago and it's forrest of Palms Dad would buy plus 6 people's worth of luggage; and my last trip to the USA and our 6 people and luggage in the Suburban and me sitting way in the back) cos I had to climb over Cooper already strapped in his car seat and slot myself into the middle empty seat in the Land Rover between the 2 baby seats! {insert Soulcalibur computer game voice: "Charlotte... WIN!"} So I was sitting beside this sleeping angel, and a very happy, chatty Cooper as we headed to Manly. Alicia met us there and we had fun chatting and playing with Cooper and some sand toys and nursing a very sweet sleeping Sienna! I snapped heaps of gorgeous pics, they are all on my SLR at Fliss's though, so you'll have to do with these 2 from my little point and shoot camera.. Sienna looking angelic in her Car seat and Cooper enjoying some of Mummy's Royal Copenhagen ice cream (no 50c Maccas cone here!) I love the look on his face, it's like "What is this magical cold stuff, it's awesome!" See the tiny pink sock poking out of the peanut sling too? So cute!
Thanks for a fun day Felicity!!
:) C
P.S. Did you notice my new Christmas Banner? How awesome does that Christmas dinner look? I'm looking forward to another one Mum!!

Merry Christmas Season!!

Hello!!
"Where have you been?" I hear you ask!! Well, as of Tuesday I have moved back to doing night shift! One of my good friends resigned and my boss offered me his position as Night Supervisor. I had missed my night shift since moving to days last January, so I've been making the most of my mornings at home this week and have gone to Ikea (without the 4 million people of the weekend), visited Felicity, Cooper and Sienna, met Will for Coffee and Lunch out, put up my Christmas Tree, almost finished my Christmas Shopping and have slept in til at least 10am most days.. woo hoo!!

So, Merry Christmas to you! I love Christmas so much! I love baking, decorating, Christmas Carols, Christmas Lights, the Christmas story! Yay for Christmas!! I had so much fun putting up my Christmas Tree (as usual). I just LOVE it!! My flatmate is an Indian guy and he had never helped decorate a Christmas Tree before so I gave him some decorations to put on it and he was chuffed! He was like a little kid sitting beside the tree just staring at it! he kept saying "It's so Beautiful"!! Lol. It's only a tiny tree too (about 1m high) so imagine if it was a full size floor to ceiling tree! I put it in front of the window so all the neighbours and passers by can see the lights from outside :)

Here is my little tree in daylight too, excuse it's unglamorous location next to the heater, but I only have a small apartment, hence the small tree, so things tend to live cheek by jowl. And as Yvette pointed out, I have a lot of stuff (thanks {sigh}!)

What should I do for the rest of today? I could wrap my Christmas presents, go to the local village shops for a bit of a look around, do my grocery shopping... wow, night shift is awesome!!

:)C