A very merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Have a blessed holiday season with family and friends.

Christmas Village

One of my favorite Christmas decorations is my lighted Christmas Village. It is the first thing I turn on in the morning and the last thing I turn off before going to bed!

There is a little schoohouse

A little cottage - peek inside the window and see the family sitting down to supper!

A Christmas shop full of shoppers buying last minute gifts!

A victorian house with the family gathered around the fire having a cozy evening reading books!

I love how the little village looks at night with the lights glowing.

Here at our nest we have been busy with Christmas baking. Is there anything lovelier than the smell of cookies baking in the oven? We have our freezer stocked now full of goodies to eat over the holiday season. Some of our favorites are gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, shortbread, checkerboard cookies and molasses to name a few!

Christmas Goodies

I visited our local specialty foods shop this past weekend and bought some goodies to have over the Christmas season:

Thorntons Toffee from England - yummy!


Fruit candies from Farrah's in the Yorkshire Dales - I must confess that it was the jar that sold me on these candies!

Harney & Sons Holiday Tea - smells wonderful!

Raspberry Jam from Tiptree England

Patchwork Pillow Fun!

I had a small amount of scrap fabric pieces left over from a quilt I made and decided to use them up by making a patchwork pillow.

It didn't take very long to put together - simply cut out equal-sized squares of coordinating fabric (my squares measured 3 inches by 2 inches) then sew into strips. Join the strips together to make your pillow front. I added a 3 inch border around the pillow then attached the back of the pillow. The finished measurement of my pillow was roughly 19 inches square.


It is a great way to use up scrap material and you can make them as big or as little as you want. With Christmas around the corner it would also make a nice gift!

MUFFINS 'N JAM

If you love jam on your muffins like I do here is a great way of baking the jam right into the muffin. Just fill the muffin cups halfway up with your favorite muffin batter, add a dollop of jam and then another spoonful of muffin batter. Pop in the oven, bake and enjoy!



My favorite jam with muffins is strawberry. What is yours?

PAPER CRAFTING THURSDAY

I'm joining in on Kelli's 'paper crafting Thursday' today. As I am sure you are all more than aware, Kelli has a lovely blog "There's No Place Like Home".

Today I would like to share some Christmas gift tags that I have made using cardstock, old Christmas cards, stickers, ribbons etc. These are really addicting to make and once you get started the ideas flow. It is so nice to adorn a gift with a touch of something homemade.

CINNAMON SPICE ORNAMENTS

These oranments are so fun to make and the smell is heavenly! Your house will literally smell of cinnamony goodness!

3/4 c. ground cinnamon
2 tbsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. ground allspice
1 c. applesauce
1 tbsp. ground nutmeg

Mix all spices together, blending well. Add applesauce and mix well. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness on wax paper. Cut shapes. Gently transfer ornaments to an ungreased cookie sheet and allow to dry at room temperature, 4 to 6 days. Before drying, make a small hole in top of ornament with a large needle and a loop of gold or silver thread or apply a small magnetic strip to back. When ornaments are completely dry, store in sealed plastic bag or air tight container until ready to use.

I strung red gingham ribbon through the holes and tied in a bow



I hung the ornaments on a little table top tree and added red beaded garland. I made mostly star-shaped ornaments but also added smaller hearts and gingerbread men.