Last minute Christmas decorations

Here are a few last Christmas decorations we made at our home. We made a garland with cookie cutter critters made from glittery saltdough.

For the saltdough you need:

1 cup fine table salt
2 cups cornstarch
1 cup water
1 teaspoon oil

Mix all the ingredients and knead well. You can add some glitter if you like. Then roll out and cut cookies out of it. Let them dry for a day or two (or dry in the oven at 50 degrees for 1-2 hours).


Another project involved Origami cranes. We used this tutorial to make them:

Origami crane tutorial

We put five cranes on a string and hung them from a lampshade.

The last project is very popular with the kids. It's Christmas trees made from popsicle sticks. Cut the sticks into several sizes and glue them onto one stick that serves as the foot. Then let the kids decorate the trees with paint, glitter, pom poms etc.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you! We had a wonderful relaxed Christmas eve. We went to church early at 1 pm. Just with our daughter leaving the boys with the babysitter. It was very festive with lots of singing. Then the kids did their afternoon nap and I prepared the food for dinner (lasagne - very untraditional). While doing that we had afternoon tea with cookies and sweets. Around five we went out again to the playground to get some fresh air and a cold nose. And then it was time for the presents accompanied by glass of sparkling wine. Our daughter was amazing. She was so happy about the things she got that she kept on playing with them for the rest of the evening. The boys went to bed at 7:30 pm and we had our dinner. Then it was also time for the big sister and when all the kids were sleeping we had a cozy time on the sofa reviewing the day. What a great day!

Xmas in Hong Kong

I just wanted to show you some of the Xmas decorations around town. It's so massive! But also very nice. For the locals it's more a kind of party. Our daughter is totally into Christmas trees at the moment so for her the shopping centers are like paradise. Today was her last day at Kindergarten and they had a little Christmas party. She was already overexcited. So I wonder how it will go on Monday and Tuesday with all the presents...

XMAS decorations

 

This year I have chosen pink, silver and white as the main colours for my XMAS decorations. We also got a real tree. The scent is wonderful. I had almost forgotten how XMAS was smelling but now I am reminded every day. Have you prepared everything for next week or are you still in the middle of it all? I still need to get one or two presents. We have thought about the food already but we still need to organise everything. But this year we take it really slow. Just the five of us. No big hassle. Relax as much as possible. Our daughter is already very excited about all the XMAS trees. For her it might be the first time to realise the whole thing...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Hong Kong!

24. door: Christmas tree

I got my Christmas tree from IKEA. We had a look in the beginning of December and decided for a medium size one. But we said we were only going to buy it in the middle of December because otherwise it might have lost all it's leaves already. But then when I went there to get it they only had five mini trees left. So I quickly grabbed the freshest one and here it is now. Our mini Christmas tree!

I decorated it with golden, silver and glass baubles and fairy lights. I also dried orange slices and made little golden leather hearts to hang on the tree.

23. door: Nativity scene

As a child I loved the nativity scene at my parents house. It was like a little doll house. Now that I am a mother myself I also wanted to share this experience with my daughter. I bought this lovely simple nativity scene for this Christmas. You can check http://www.amazon.com/ for similar ones.

22. door: Bird cage Christmas deco

I fell in love with bird cages as home deco and especially as a Christmas decoration. I got mine from the bird market (Prince Edward MTR, at the end of the flower market). You just need to add some branches, flowers, fairy lights and Christmas baubles...

21. door: Chocolate Santas for my colleagues

These are the last days at work before everyone goes on winter holidays. As a little surprise and Christmas greeting I bought these chocolate santas for my colleagues. Happy holidays!

20. door: Candied Almonds

These candied almonds are yummy with a glass of mulled wine or just red wine or tea or beer...

100 g caster sugar

5 tablespoons water

150-200 g almonds

In a saucepan mix the sugar and the water and bring to boil. Boil until the mixture turns brown. Then add the almonds and mix well. Spread the almonds on a sheet of baking paper and let cool down. Store in an airtight jar.

19 door: DIY photobook gift

My daughter is totally in love with coloring at the moment. So I had the idea to turn her little sketchbooks into stylish photobooks and give them away as Christmas presents for the grandparents.
 I used sketchbooks in A4 size which have thicker paper and won't crease as easy as normal paper.

All you have to do is to let your kid design the pages and then stick photos into it. The grandparents will love it!

18. door: DIY Baby Shoes

Browsing through my favourite winter decoration book (Dezembertage) I saw golden leather shoes for babies and was hooked at first sight. But I looked everywhere and I couldn't find any in the shops. So I finally decided to make my own. I found this super easy pattern Baby Shoe Pattern and golden leather was also not too difficult to get hold of. And then I only needed to find out whether my sewing machine was able to get through the leather. But to my astonishment it was not a problem at all. Easy! And since I used leather you don't have struggle with lining or anything. The shoes were ready in less than an hour!

17. door: Sewn paper ornaments

These little red trees were made of two tree shapes cut from cardboard. Lay them on top of each other and stitch a seam exactly on the middle line. Afterwards open them up and place them wherever you like as Christmas deco.

16. door: Gift wrapping

This year my gift wrapping is all natural. I used brown packing paper and decorated it with apple stamps (just cut an apple into halves and use it as a stamp). I also crincled some of the paper (which is a good way to recycle already used wrapping paper, looks best on unicolour paper). I decorated the parcels with sisal ribbon and dried lime slices and cinnamon sticks. The gift tags were made of white cardboard using winter pattern stamps. 

15. door: Festive wardrobe

What to wear for the festive season this year? Here are eight festive looks out of my wardrobe...


1) Winterwhites

2) Festive Reds

3) Cool Greys

4) Cozy Plum

5) Sparkling Black

6) Golden Hues

7) Powdery Pink

8) Warm Copper

14. door: Dresdner Christstollen

No Christmas without a "Christstollen"! This is a family tradition. Here is my favourite version:

750 g plain white flour
250 g butter
90 g caster sugar
10 g dried yeast
200 ml milk
500 g raisins
75 g chopped almonds
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Melt the butter in the milk and let the mixture cool down to room temperature. Mix the flour with the yeast and add all the solid ingredients. Then stirr in the milk/butter mixture and knead well. If the dough is not smooth enough add lukewarm water. Let the dough rest for about an hour or until it has doubled in size. Then knead again and form two bread shape rolls out of it. Let the rolls rest for another 30 min and then bake at 180 degrees for 40-50 min.
Brush the warm stollen with butter flakes and then sprinkle icing sugar on top of it.

13. door: White macarons

 

I am fascinated with French Macarons. But it's actually really quite tricky to get them right. This time I tried a new recipe by Donna Hay and 'voila' they all got nice feet. On the downside they turned out too big and some of them got broken. But after all it's the best recipe I have ever tested. It came in a little booklet 'Donna Hay: Christmas Special 2011' with the last 'Living ETC' UK magazine.

200g icing sugar, sifted

120 g finely ground almonds

3 eggwhites

2 tablespoons caster sugar

Mix the almonds with the icing sugar (I gradually added the icing sugar while grinding the almonds). Beat the eggwhites mixing in the caster sugar until soft peaks form. Now fold in the almond/icing sugar mixture with a spatula. Set aside for 10 min. Place 2 teaspoons of the mixture at a time (I think 1 teaspoon would be better) on baking trays lined with baking paper (I actually used silicon mats). Preheat the oven at 160 degrees (fan). Bake the macarons for 15-20 min. Let cool down.

I used ginger jam for the filling. In the original recipe they use balsamic strawberry jam. But Nutella is also very nice. Or you go for buttercream...

12. door: Patchwork Christmas ornaments

This year I made Christmas ornaments out of fabric leftovers. I went for stars and trees in patchwork style. To give them a festive touch I used upholstery fabric. But that turned out to be a bit tricky when it came to turning the inside out... So the shapes are a little bit mismatched. You should either go for bigger ornaments with upholstery fabric or use linen or less heavy fabrics for better results. Nevertheless I still like them and they decorate an arrangement of branches set in a vase in our living room now. 

11. door: Winter plants

Here are some winter flower arrangements which always put me in a festive mood.

1) Hyacinths
2) Poinsettia
3) Hellobore
4) Yellow berries with moss

Roses and white lilies also add an extra festive touch to any Christmas arrangement. Or just put a single branch with red berries on a vase. Instead of a traditional Christmas tree why not go for a bunch of branches and decorate them with Christmas ornaments this year?

10. door: Chai tea and Christmas cookies

I love Chai tea and especially during the Christmas time! I have experimented a little bit and this is my favourite recipe:

4 teaspoons of tea leaves (strong black like Assam etc.)
6 cardamom pods, crushed
6 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
milk and sugar to taste

Boil 1 l of water in a sauce-pan and add the spices. Keep slightly boiling for about 10 min. Then add the tea leaves. You can either add the milk and the sugar now or you serve the tea with steamed milk and sugar separately. But remember to sieve the tea leaves and spices before serving.

For a quick fix try Chai tea bags (e.g I get mine from M&S).