I’m reluctantly stepping back into “Simply Christmas’ mode again today after the most luxurious and relaxing weekend spent in Byron Bay. Imagine my surprise when I opened my birthday card from my hubby on Saturday morning and inside was instructions telling me to get up and pack a bag because we were heading off on a surprise getaway. I love Byron Bay and its eclectic mix of alternative locals and visitors. I could spend all day there in a side-walk cafe just watching the passing parade of diverse and alternative life stylers – it’s certainly never dull. The whole experience, although just brief, was a very relaxing retreat away from our busy lifestyle.
I do apologise to everyone who eagerly enrolled for the Christmas Planner E-course or took advantage of the ‘Crazy Sale’ that I posted on Friday evening. I had no idea I’d be absent all weekend!! I’ve caught up with all the orders now, so let’s get back into our Christmas preparations.
It’s week four and our final week of October. Let’s try and complete a few more of those handmade gifts this week before we move onto the other aspects of Christmas preparation in November.
I think everyone has a few people on their list that are particularly hard to buy or make for; for me it is usually the men. This week on ‘Simply Christmas’ you’ll will find some interesting tutorials for those harder to make for people. Here’s a little tip…. make sure you pop back on Wednesday - there’s a very talented guest poster dropping in with what I believe is an amazing project for you all to make.
Anyway, here’s a few offerings for today.
This first one, a water bottle carrier from the lovely Kathy at Pink Chalk Studios would be great for teens, beachgoers or the jogger in the family. Click here for the tutorial.
Everyone has iPods these days and I love this denim iPod cover tutorial from Julie Ree. I’m making a couple for the teenagers in the family and I’m going to try incorporating a jeans pocket into the design. Click here for the tutorial.
Leigh Ann from Spincushion has this great tutorial for a photo coffee sleeve on her blog – think of the possibilities!!
Finally, something close to my heart – gifts for our pets. Yes.... some of us give our pets gifts at Christmas and I know there will be two fury babies in this house who will be enjoying homemade dog biscuits.
There are lots of recipes for dog biscuits on the internet but allot of them use peanut butter (which one of my dogs won’t eat). So here’s Gypsy and Milly’s favourite recipe.
Cheese Bone Dog Cookies
2 cups unsifted plain flour (all-purpose flour in the US),
1 1/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese ,
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped,
1/2 cups vegetable oil,
5 tablespoons water.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Combine flour, cheese, garlic and vegetable oil in container of food processor. Cover and mix until mixture is consistency of coarse meal. With machine running, slowly add water until mixture forms a ball.
Roll dough out to 1cm thickness and cut-out biscuits using a dog bone cookie cutter. Transfer to ungreased cookie tray. Bake in preheated hot oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until bottom of cookies are lightly browned. Carefully transfer bones to wire rack to cool completely. Refrigerate in airtight container.
I packaged my dog bones up in a lined calico bag using my tutorial from here. I also painted a couple of doggy paw prints on the front of the bag and then tied the bag up with a bone and ribbon.
This weeks GIVEAWAY…
What better way to count down the days until Christmas than with this cute hanging Blackboard Santa!
The Giveaway will be drawn on Friday from my Follower’s list. So far I have sent gifts to all corner’s of the globe; Australia, United Kingdom and last week to New Zealand. I wonder where this fellow will be travelling to?
Have you entered in last weeks guest poster giveaway yet?
Jen from Melei is gifting a ‘Mystery Box’ to one lucky entrant who leaves a comment on either her tutorial post (scroll down to Wednesday’s post) or her blog. Why not pop over to her blog and say ‘hi’ – you might be the lucky person whose name gets drawn out to win the Mystery Box.
