Sewing. Motherhood. Domestic Engineering.

While helping my mother pack up the Christmas decorations we encountered the same problem we do every year. How do we store the six foot chasms tree? It used to have a cardboard box but this perished after a couple of years and it was always too big and hard to maneuver into the roof space. So after some discussion we decided that we had to custom make something. The bags we did have couldn't accommodate the longest bits of the tree and would easily rip. Mum's idea was to use some old curtains. It meant we got to recycle the material, it would be strong, we could make any size we wanted and could make a number of them.  1. Dismantle the tree, Gold the leaves down and bundle the branches together based on size. Tie them together with ribbon or string and label with a number so you know what order they go on the tree. 2. Find some materials. Can be stuff you just have around the house. In our case they are old curtains that  coincidentally look a bit  Christmasy....

Nothing nicer than a Cherry Bakewell UNLESS it's a Festive Bakewell!! Can get these on special at Coles for about $4 a box of six. They're very cute with a little Christmas deco on top instead of a cherry and they taste exactly the same as the classic Bakewell.   The first time I ever had a Cherry Bakewell was in Abingdon, UK and I was hooked. Super excited when I saw that these are a pretty successful import in Australia :)

At a work Christmas party one of my lovely friends made gingerbread reindeer. As I was eating one I made the revelation that they are in fact gingerbread men but turned upside down and iced to look like reindeers. I thought this was truly amazing and clever so did some googling on the 'gingerbread man conversion' and found these creative characters on Sydney Christmas Bucket List . The best conversions I have seen - each reindeer has a different expression (see left) on his face and the icing quality (skill) is very high. I had a go at making some a few days ago, the first few were hit and miss but after a few tweaks started to get better quality products. Will definitely try again next year but until then I will just look at these cute little fellas :) Happy gingerbreading :D 

  Guest Blog by CartBox   CartBox specialises in cooking, baking and all things Asian :) Click the CartBox link to the right to see all of her other guest blogs. I remember not too many years ago trying a rum ball for the first time, and wow, I hated it... Now this is a little disappointing as for many people in Australia, rum balls are a must at Christmas, so I always feel a little left out. I have always enjoyed making the rum balls with my mum nearly every Christmas, but of course never eat them myself. A couple of years ago I discovered chocolate balls, they are for all of you out there who don't like the taste of rum balls. However... I went to the bakery last week to sadly discover that they hadn't made them this Christmas. So what did I do? I found an even better tasting recipe! I make no exaggeration that I could eat these everyday and die happy. Not to mention, it's super simple! I did however tweak it to my liking ...

Guest Blog by CartBox  CartBox specialises in cooking, baking and all things Asian :) Click the CartBox link to the right to see all of her other guest blogs. Ever wondered what Christmas cheer smells like? Well wonder no more, for just $1 at any Coles in Australia you can buy Christmas cheer bubble bath! Christmas cheer bubble bath comes in two different smells/colours. The red, which I bought, smells really nice and has cute gingerbread men in a snow globe on the front. The blue smells really gross and has little penguins, and because blue is not a real Christmas colour I refuse to buy it. So everyone, get festive in the tub this year with the smell of Christmas cheer!