New Beginnings 2015!

A New Year and New Beginnings!

Its been a very busy couple of months together with the build-up to Christmas we've also moved home to the other side of Bristol. With the move I've gained a fresh excitement for the year ahead and I've starting doodling again and am almost finished with a crochet bag I'm making for my sister, I'm loving making it so much I hope to post the finish bag soon (fabric pictured below as a taster).

I like to think of myself and an enthusiastic learner in the gardening department and thanks to my Mam  I managed to save my sprout before we moved house and they successfully made it to the Christmas dinner plate! They tasted great and I was so please I cant wait to start planning and planting in the new garden but I'm going to do my best to hold back and see what comes in the garden for the first year. 

If your interested the Sprouts were part boiled and frozen then on Christmas day left to defrost in the morning, then fried in butter until golden then I added a good glug of white wine and simmer/boiled until all the liquid was gone (instructions also thanks to my Mother) xxx

Happy New Year!

Sloe Gin label

So here it is, I have a long list of things to do but the weather is so rubbish and the little one's sleeping nicely so I thought id finish the Sloe Gin stamp quickly and I must admit I'm quite happy with it xx

Christmas Hamper

Since the Honey at my Wedding was a great success it's given Me, my Mum and Sister the taste for homemade goods so we planed on making a Christmas hamper for Aunties and Uncle for Christmas.

My Mum provided the Honey, made and decorated a Christmas Cake and Preserve as well as and cultivating and bottling her Homemade Ginger Beer (such an amazing drink that I must try and start my own batch this year).
My Sister has been perfecting her skills as a Chocolatier and after a very excited corse decided to make some luxurious chocs for the Hamper. My Sister's new blog-Emma's Fancies show's her in action doing the finishing touched.

I contributed with:
Homemade Lemonade
I've had great fun making Lemonade last summer and am addicted to the Sloe Gin which we create ever year but due to the shortage of Sloe's this year I'm going to stick to making some Lemonade for the hamper although it's not very Christmassy. I also made some labels with my wonderful husbands Illustration.

Seed packets
I'm also fascinated with collecting seed so this October I collected a bunch on Munchkin seeds and packaged them up as gifts, hopefully this year everyone will be tempted to give them a go and grow Munchkins for Halloween.

Homemade Bath Bombs.
Although handmade edible goodies are traditional my Aunty loves bath stuff and I though it would add a girly feel to the hamper so bought some Bath Bombs and Bath Melts from bathbomb.biz and had great fun making and packaging them up for the hamper (a gift for me and for the hamper) well worth a try.

Peppermint Creams.
One of my favourite cook books (which also contains the homemade lemonade recipe) has peppermint creams which are so easy to make and such a lovely treat so last minute I thought why not and made a batch for the hamper.

I enjoyed making the hamper so much I hope to keep making things through 2013. Next on the list to try is fudge :)

Next year I plan to perfect my winter remedy teabag- it didn't make it into the hamper this year as I couldn't get it strong enough but here's some work in progress pictures.