So as from this Christmas I've decided to do the boys a Christmas Eve box, over the last couple of years I've seen the idea pop up a lot along the way.
Now that I have it all ready I thought I'd share with you what the boxes will be filled with.
Colouring book ~ The Works
Snowman pencil & rubber ~ Tesco
Rudey's Windy Christmas ~ The Book People
Peppa Goes Skating ~ The Book People
Reindeer Food ~ Made by my Sister-in-law
Melamine Cups ~ Local Xmas Fair
Thornton's Snowman Chocolates ~ 99p Shop
Melamine Plates (not pictured as for the life of me I don't know where I've put them! ~ 99p shop (set of two)
Wipe Clean Writing Board & pen ~ The Works
Santa Pjs ~ B&M
Santa's Little Helper Pjs ~ Ebay
I'll be making a Christmas Eve plate for Father Christmas and Rudolph's treats like the one featured in my Christmas Pinterest Board post to put with their boxes.
I haven't gone too crazy this year, just adding a few things to keep them occupied whilst the last few lose ends are tied for the big day!
I haven't gone too crazy this year, just adding a few things to keep them occupied whilst the last few lose ends are tied for the big day!
If you've seen my Christmas Pinterest board you'll have seen a few ideas I have for the festive period!
I thought I'd share with you the making of our Salt dough handprint Santa's.
These are great personalised decorations to keep (and remind you how little hands have grown!!)
All you need is;
Plain flour 1/2 cup
Salt 1/2 cup
Water 1/4 cup
Paint for decoration
String to hang it up with
Pre-heat your oven to 100C
Pre-heat your oven to 100C
Mix all the 3 ingredients until they form a ball, the dough shouldn't be sticky. You may not need all the water so add it slowly.
Roll out the dough......
And place your hand firmly onto it.
Cut around the handprint and remember to make a hole for the string (I used a straw for this)
Place on greaseproof paper and put into the oven for 3-4 hours (depending on the thickness of your dough it could take longer)
Once cooled you can decorate your salt dough......
Santa handprints all ready to display !!
Will you be making homemade decorations this year?
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| Image from cakecentral.com |
Reindeer Cookies
Who knew turn a gingerbread man cookie cutter upside down and it becomes a reindeer! Great activity for the kids over the Christmas period.
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| Image from nasagreen.BlogSpot.com |
Salt Dough handprint tree decorations
I wanted to include some handmade decorations onto our tree this year and these seemed perfect!
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| Image taken from Uploader |
Christmas eve Santa plate
I've been humming and haring about getting one of these Christmas eve plates for Father Christmas's treats, I thought they were a little on the pricey side for what they are and when I saw the idea of decorating a plain plate with sharpies I was sold.
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| Image from buzzfeed.com |
How to make Reindeer food
Those reindeer get hungry flying around the world in just one night you know!!
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| Image found on Etsy.com |
Santa wreath
I can totally make this! A variation on the classic wreath to hang on the front door.
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| Image found on clipzine.me |
DIY Christmas light hack
A great way to add soft lighting around the house and to utilize all those extra fairy lights you have lying around.
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| Image found on examiner.com |
Santa's footprints on the fireplace
Can't wait to see the boys faces on Christmas morning!
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| Image found on letscookathome.co.uk |
Rocky road Christmas pudding
I don't like Christmas pudding so this is my ideal alternative.
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| Image found on media-cache3.pinterest.com |
Christmas day table centrepiece
I've bee trying to find an idea for our table centrepiece for a few weeks and then this popped up on my feed, I already have a silver lantern and spare bubbles. I just hope it turns out to look just as good as this one!
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Here are our meals for the week,
Monday ~ Chicken & veg Korma with rice
Tuesday ~ Homemade pizza & chips
Wednesday ~ Creamy pasta &sausages
Thursday ~ Faggots mashed potato & veg
Friday ~ Teriyaki Salmon & egg noodles
Saturday ~ Out
What meals do you have planned this week?
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Last week I received my first Degustabox ~ this one was the Winter Box.
I've seen lots of people rave about the Degustabox so when I was sent a half price first box coupon I jumped at the chance to try it out.
I am very impressed by the selection of the food and drink items included in the box.
Here is what I received;
Montano cider ~ I not a big cider lover, but will definitely give this a try. I'm sure Iain will have a bigger glass than me! £2.79
Kettle Chips, Salsa & mesquite ~ We really like kettle chips so these were a big hit and I don't think they'll last long - Very glad we weren't sent the Stilton & Port ones (Yuck!!) £2.19
Holy Cow Curry Sauce, Mughlai Korma & Kashmir Roganjosh ~ I haven't come across this brand of curry sauce before so looking forward to trying them. We were sent a mild and a medium sauce which we'll all eat. £3.38
Branston Mediterain Tomato chutney ~ This is the perfect partner for cheese, meats and crackers with our boxing day lunch this Christmas. The price point is a big plus too. They've also launched a Caramelised Onion flavour of chutney too, which I'm going to buy for our Pate starter on Christmas day! £1.50
Lindt Lindor My Melting Moment (6) ~ Degustabox how did you know that Lindt is my all time favourite chocolate!? You can't go wrong with chocolate in my eyes I'm in heaven! £3.25 (65p each)
Pip Organic Cloudy apple organic fruit juice (2) ~ This is also a new product to me, I'm not a huge fan of fruit juice I prefer squash but the boys will love these, they are a handy size to pop in my bag or the buggy for out and about or even to go in Harry's school lunchbox £3.00 (£1.50 each)
Cool Dawn Recovery ~ Cool Dawn is a herbal detox drink made to help prevent and cure hangovers! Great for the festive period! £2.98 (£1.49)
Kent's Kitchen Fajita flavour shot ~ I'm really love all the flavour shots that you can find in the supermarket at the moment. I haven't come across this brand before, we love fajitas so I can't wait to transform our chicken fajitas with this. I'm definitely going to find out where I can buy these from, the price for four shots is brilliant. £1.85
Chai Latte, Spiced ~ This was my free sample, now I love to drink tea but I'm not sure if I'm going to be a fan of this. I might try making it with the suggested half water half hot milk for a creamier tea.
I was really impressed with the items I received in my box, and I'm sure I'll be buying it monthly.
Have you tried the Degustabox yet?
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*all opinions of products sent to me are my own, I wasn't paid to make this review.
A couple of weekends I took a trip up to Olympia in London to the Good Food show.
We (Mum, Nan & myself!) had a really nice day looking around all the stalls, watching demos & sampling loads of food & drink!
When we booked the tickets we also booked seats to see Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood do a demo, it was nice to rest our legs for half an hour and watch them cook.
Their chemistry came across just as it does on TV.
We also stopped off to one of the demo stands to see Luis Troyano (from this years Great British Bake Off) make Jamon and Manchego spiral bread muffins! They looked and smelt absolutely amazing. We got the recipe for this in the show guide and I'll definitely be trying it out.
I didn't buy* half as much as I expected myself too! Probably a good thing.......
I couldn't leave the bottle of Arran gold cream liquor it's made in Arran which is a island off of Scotland where my late Father-in-law came from, I tried it when we went on holiday there in April & bought some then it was lovely and creamy with a little kick at the end!
I also bagged some Arran pin badges for all my partners family I thought it would be a nice reminder for us all of the gorgeous place.
I couldn't not purchase something from the Juicy Lucy stand! I went for a pack of ten Christmas cards with two designs.
When I spotted the Cake Craft World's large stand I have to go over, for those of you that don't know I'm a hobby cake decorator!
After looking at all the fab bits they had to offer and the 'have a go' table I came across the words FREE GIFT! who doesn't like a free gift! After further investigation, for signing up to the Cake Craft World's website at £5.95 a month you could receive a gift worth £9.
I've visited the website a few times and found the content really helpful, with the membership I'd have access to all their many video tutorials, recipes, advice and all the other fab things they have to offer.
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| Blossom flower press and cutter, black liquorice fondant and baking powder. The last thing I bought was a set of 'Super stretch lids'! and a collapsible plate cover. I can't be the only one that has a draw full of Tupperware storage with missing lids!? I'm also forever using cling film or foil to cover bowls or jugs when storing food in the fridge or cooking it in the microwave. The pack came with 6 stretchy cover in circles and squares, with small tabs all around to help them attach to the sides of your storage tub or bowl. They all form an airtight seal and are microwaveable and dishwasher safe. The plate cover caught my eye as like with the stretchy lids I'm always using cling film or tin foil to cover a plate of Iain's dinner for when he gets in from work. The plate cover forms a tight airtight seal around the plate and more importantly keeps the food warm (bonus!). For attending the Good Food show every ticket holder received a free goody bag. Here is what the bag contained;  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and I'd really recommend going if you like food and drink! We'll be there again next year. Have you ever visited a Good Food Show? Follow me; |
*All products were bought with my own money and all opinion of products are completely my own.
These weeks are coming around far too quick for my liking! That C word is fast approaching.
Heres my meal plan for the week ahead.
Monday ~ Spagetthi and turkey meatballs
Tuesday ~ Out for a meal
Wednesday ~ Pasta and tuna with an 'easy peasy' mushroom sauce
Thursday ~ Sizzling beef with egg noodles
Friday ~ Chicken fajitas and sweet potato chips
Saturday ~ Chickpea and chicken korma with rice
Sunday ~ Roast
What will you be cooking this week?
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| Linked up with At home with Mrs M |
So I haven't written a meal plan for a few weeks purely because I've been winging it !
But this week I'm being more organised, I need to make some cupboard & freezer space for all the naughty Christmas things!
Monday ~ Chicken curry & rice ( Using left over chicken from the roast yesterday)
Tuesday ~ Creamy chicken with pasta
Wednesday ~ Sizzling beef with egg noodles
Thursday ~ Toad in the hole, parsnips and mixed veg
Friday ~ Gammon, Egg, Chips and beans
Saturday ~ At a birthday party!
Sunday ~ Roast
What's on your meal plan for the week?
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Better late than never!
What we got up to over Halloween ......
What we got up to over Halloween ......
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| Freddie's spider & my melted crayon pumpkin! See how I did the melted crayon pumpkin in this video. |
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| Handprint bats & decorated pumpkins. |
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| Hello Mr Scarecrow!! |
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| 'CHESSE'!! |
Hope you all had a fab time.
Now lets think about all things Christmassy!
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