Christmas puddings - a late post

As the holidays ended I could finish some things :D I have started them at the end of November but I didn't want to make a picture while all the little puds were ready. I have loved these little ones since the first time I saw them in a magazine.






I know I am a very late person, but I always try to be on time... So finally I have finished the Christmas puds from the Handmade magazine Juliet sent me....
I haven't knitted to much in the last days so I couldn't find right size needles for it. That's why I looked for my old 'marocco' game (when you have different coloured sticks, mine are made of wood, but they can be plastic as well and you have to pick them up without touching the other sticks, one by one... I think you know this game) and chose some sticks of it.


And I could start knitting... I didn't have red beads for the berries on top, so I painted some wooden balls and used them. I got plastic berries from my friend so I put some on tops. We don't agree which ones are better....

They became decoration in the kitchen window or they are going to be decoration on our next Christmas tree. Who knows?

I wanted to have something more. I have to tell you I do not like to copy things from magazines on books. Of course I like pattern but I usually use them as basics and then I make things from my head. maybe that's why making puds was not enough for me.... (and in this case I couldn't change colours or pattern, it is perfect like this)

So I have made a pudding cap for me as well... I used the design as a basic but of course I had to change lots of things.





I am still waiting for you guesses in my 'Wrapping game' in the 2nd Jan post! :D (till 15th Jan)

:(

I am so sad about the wrapping game... I have put a 'game post' on 2nd Jan and nobody made a guess...no comments there.. When I come home I am so excited and run to my laptop to check it and nothing there... a whole week ago... sigh....

I thought it was a good idea, but maybe it disappeared somehow among the posts.....

My favourite part of the flat

My favourite part in the flat is the kitchen window. I started to make seasonal decoration there 2 years ago. I bought two cheap place mats made of bamboo. I used plastic thread to hang them in the window and started to put on things like flowers, little dolls and other things. My flat is a very crowded thing, not much place for decoration but the exception is this window.


During the year we have curtains with embroidered lemons on them (lemon is the favourite fruit of my B). Last year I decided to make my own curtain of the polar bear fabric I got from Australia from my mother-in-law. I matched it with a blue fabric and they made a good winter atmosphere. I love to see them during winter time.

Last year I bought some little accessories (they are made of clay but they look like gingerbread or its Hungarian version 'mézeskalács'.) and we also had cinnamon and anise balls.

I forgot to write this post in Advent but it is still winter time so they are still actual.

During cold winter nights I sit in the kitchen with a candle and feel warm inside - I know I am a very lucky person.

Thank you, Lou!

Another beautiful surprise reached me this weekend:
An envelope from Australia. Lou - another very kind online friend - sent me 4 magazines, a beautiful calendar and a postcard.

Thank you so much, Lou!

Last minute rush

It is a beautiful story for me so I'd like to share it with you.

Some days before Christmas I found a piece of paper in my post box from the postman. I had to go to the local post office to get my something. I became totally excited as getting a package/parcel/letter means 'magic' to me since my childhood. I always had penfriends and was very happy to get letters from them. I usually don't get parcel but with those lovely Australian and British ladies I got to know through the net it changed a bit and I got 4 envelopes during December which was one of the best parts of the year for me.

So I went to the post office and got a tiny little box. A really small and cute one. I am sorry I don't have a picture as I tore the paper immediately to see what was inside. I got an angel made of pasta, a little patchwork decoration and a patchwork 'candy'. (here we have a special sweetie which we eat at Christmas, we buy them in different tastes...and they are covered with chocolate and put in colourful paper.... we put them on our Christmas trees). The little box was sent by an internet friend who is a real friend now. She lives in another town. Later we wrote e-mails and now I know the whole story of the candy.
My friend, Borcsi decided to make some Christmas decoration for herself after giving away all the ones she made before. She decided to use orange fabric. (And because she knows me she remembered how much I loved orange). From the rest of the fabric she could sew two candies. When she finished them, she decided to send me on of those. How sweet she was. And I am proud to have the pair of her treasure on my Christmas tree.

I sat in my best friend's car when opened the little box. He became totally excited about my candy and he said he would have been to have some next Christmas (next year). I was quite surprised he liked the idea so much (he is not a patchwork fan).

I knew they (he and his partner) would have a tree with blues decoration so I decided to make a box of candies for them. It was a big rush and Christmas was very busy so I finished the last one 2 minutes before they arrived (and I have some half-finished ones... maybe i can finish them next year).

They were absolutely happy with them and I have heard they gave two to the girl's mum and two to her sister. That is a big complement for me.

Wrapping Game

During Advent everyone buys and makes presents and put them into nice wrappings just to make friends and family happy. Here are the presents of my family this year:


After the season of presents and wrappings I would like to invite you for a game I found out in Advent. I helped to my best friend with wrapping. We wrapped the things in her shop at night (you know, no customers at night). This is how the shop looked like a night before Christmas:

We made lots of colourful presents to our families. I took photos about some of them. There are some twin wrappings - if two people got the same present I made twin wrappings for them. (I didn't want to make the same design for the same person but when you have more than a hundred presents to wrap you want to make your job a bit easier and help yourself with using a similar design. And Pungi's family has a game at Christmas: they try to find out what is inside the wrapping before opening it. If two people get the same present they get the wrappings at the same time and they can think together.)
If you want to play, just match the wrapping and the goodies inside. And the prize? I am not sure yet, so it is a secret (for me as well :D).

Here is the list of the goodies:
1. a jar of honey
2. a T-shirt
3. a packet of ashtray stones
4. a vase
5. a bunch of snow flowers (plastic)
6. a soft toy reindeer
7. a book shaped box
8. a DVD writer
9. a packet of tissues
10. vitamin powder
11. a pair of socks
12. a pair of scissors
13. a mug
14. thread
15.a mobile decoration (a cute polar bear)
16. a wall calendar

And here are the pictures of the wrappings:












OK, have a nice time with the game and leave a comment with the key. I think the end of the game will be the 15th Jan, then I post the key. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

First of all

I WANT TO WISH YOU, DEAR READER A VERY HAPPY, LUCKY AND CHEERFUL NEW YEAR!

I have made some pictures about our little 'party' (we were only four with our best friends so I am not sure I can cal it a party).

This blog will seem like a food blog with this post, but hey, I am not only needle and fabric.
I am not a big chef (my B does it for me), but I can bake nice cakes and cookies. Yesterday we all made something... My B was the luckiest (OK, he was ill, so we didn't want him to cook all day), he only made coffee for us! We three made the other part of the food. I think my best friend made too much food again (this is usual she buys food for a whole army when we are only four... OK, we have food for the whole week, hihihihi).

So here are the pictures of the food part of our New Year:

This is paste made of eggs, onion, and some spices and maybe butter... Hmmm, I am not sure but it was made by my friend, Am.

These are the tramezzini sandwiches my friend, Pungi made. She made 40 sandwiches! Can you believe that?

She put lots of nice things like paste and salad on this special bread called tramezzini. (She made 12 kinds of sandwiches yesterday!)

Then she puts the top bread.

She makes a hill. It is important to stick the edges of the bread so the filling doesn't come outside.

Then she cuts the bread into triangles.

She puts the sandwich in foil and I added a sticker with the name of the sandwich. We made funny names for all different types!

And this is the grapefruit I made. This is the very favourite of my B. This is the biggest amount I made. I used five kilos (!) of grapefruit for this! I hope it will be enough for my B! (And I think this will heal him.)

And today when I woke up (it was around noon as we went to bed at 6 o'clock in the morning) I saw this beautiful snow! I think it was snowing during the night and luckily it didn't stop till the evening. I hope it will snow tomorrow, too.
(This first pic was made yesterday, we had small snow that day, too.)

I loved the walk in the snow. We visited my mum to wish her and her husband a happy new year. I helped her with the snow (I had to clean the pavement ans stairs in front of the house and in front of the garages) which I like! So it was a really good day. Here we say: You will do the things every day of the year you do on the first day! I hope I will be so happy every day of 2008! And hope this for you too!