Could this be ..

the makings of a Christmas journal???

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I had a rummage through my stash today and found some Christmas papers that could do with being used up. The idea of a Christmas journal still appeals, so .... could this be the makings of a Christmas Journal for 2009? I'm ever hopeful!

xx

Christmas is coming ...

Yesterday's post didn't happen 1) because I didn't really have much to write and 2) because I wanted to get the binding attached to the quilt ready for me to finish the hand sewing today. By the time I'd finished I was ready for bed! I also thought you are probably getting fed up seeing photos of my sewing ;o)

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Today, there is a definite smell of Christmas in our house :o). I decided to make homemade mincemeat - which should then, hopefully, lead to homemade mince pies in December. I picked up a few ingredients after dropping Claire at work and got stuck in as soon as I got home. I've never made my own mincemeat before but had heard it tastes much nicer than shop bought. Following the recipe in the Rachel Allen, Bake cookery book was really straight forward. Rachel's recipe books tend to be the ones I go to when I want to try something new because I've never been disappointed with any of the recipes yet.

I know it doesn't look particularly wonderful but it smelt delicious! I had been keeping used jars and cleaning them out with some home baking/cooking in mind. I was glad I had a few ready to steralise as the mixture filled six assorted jars. I see it also says the mincemeat can be kept for a year.

I thought it might be a good idea to label them so I remember when the mincemeat was made. Now I need to be patient and let it sit for at least a couple of weeks before using it.

xx

Not much to say

Not much to report today. Mondays are when I take Mum to Sainsbury's and we do our weekly grocery shop followed by a coffee and chat in Starbucks :). That part is fine, it's when I get home and then have to unpack it all that I don't like it. When you think about it, first you walk around choosing everything and putting it in your trolley. You get to the checkout and you take it all out your trolley again to go through the checkout. And guess what, you then have to put it all in shopping bags to take home. You unload it from the trolley into the car, from the car into the house and then you have to unpack the bags again! Wow, that's a lot of packing and unpacking!!!

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I was ready to take Cloud for a walk after all of that, I needed the fresh air to blow the cobwebs away and to relax a bit. The weather has still been very breezy so I made sure to put on a waterproof, fleece lined jacket. I felt lovely and warm and could enjoy the wind in my face and even the rain we got on our way round.

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This afternoon I started another task on my To Do List. I wrote out my Christmas Card List - I thought I had probably made enough cards to cover everyone; haha, way off the mark. I have the same number of cards to make again plus a few! How did I get to have about 80 cards to send out??? Do I know that many people ;o). I even made a start on writing the cards too - I've decided if I write a few each day it won't seem such a huge task and I think it may just work!

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I had sent an email to Karen today to tell her I like her Christmas Journals and I am inspired by the fact that this year will be her 4th year of making one. I have thought about this a few times but tend to feel overwhelmed when it comes to making the album up in advance - I like to know what photos and journaling I'm working with when I make layouts. This year I think I'm going to give it a go, I'll get the papers together and see how I get on. If it works out I've no doubt you'll see some photos of the layouts during December. Wish me luck!!

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Considering I didn't have much to say, I haven't done too badly ;o). As you will see in the photo below (because I like to have one in each post) I'm now in my pyjamas and I am ready to have an early night. I'm hoping to do more sewing tomorrow as well as the ironing and more card writing. Let's see how much I actually do!

xx

Where did the weekend go!

I had such good intentions of what I was going to do today and didn't actually get much done at all. It started off when I came downstairs for breakfast and there were a few over ripe bananas in the fruit bowl. I knew no one would eat them like that so I made some Banana Loaf. The recipe I used was from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook - I think I'm just going to slowly work my way through all the recipes in the book ;o). This banana loaf was different to the one I used to make in South Africa (which, for some reason, doesn't seem to work as well in the UK - why is that??) in that it used cinnamon and ginger in it. I'm not complaining though, it was very tasty and even Jon had a slice. I used a tin which was slightly smaller than they asked for and I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the fact that it sank a little in the middle?

A slice of the loaf, ready to have with a cup of tea :o)

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While waiting for the loaf to cook I thought I would have a look at a few blogs I normally read. Well that was fatal because I hadn't been reading many blogs recently and I ended up spending a lot longer than anticipated on them. It was great to catch up with what everyone was saying and I also got to look at a lot of the Around the World blog posts posted by a group of ladies from Shimelle's Blogging for Scrapbookers class. Great work everyone, it was fun to see the view from your windows and where you scrapbook.

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This evening Emily and I went to church as Jon's Bible study home group was taking the service and Jon was playing his guitar - which he did very well. He's been putting in a lot of practice and it paid off. Well done Jon!

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We watched The X Factor results show tonight and it was the twins turn to leave. Although they could be fairly entertaining it was definitely time for them to go. Next week will be interesting ...

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I'm now ready for bed as tomorrow is another busy day.

xx