A dress for Christmas

It is really hard not to make something glamorous for E on a special day, so I made her a dress for Christmas. In the market kids party dresses are either polyester or really plain cotton, neither of those are to my taste. I must admit I am not a great pattern maker but I manage somehow. E has quite a varied taste she loves her monster trucks just as much as a pretty dress, to early to decide if she is a girly girl or not, but I am happy with the fact that she is happy with everything around her. E wasn't still for a minute during the chrissy dinner so I took these pictures the morning after and she was yawning all along so a front pose was out of question! 

I used cotton fabric with golden star prints for the dress, added some sheen with a star printed tissue as waistband and bow at the back. To give touch of red for christmas I used some satin rosettes on the front of the dress. Didn't really get the time to sew the button at the back in time for party and I still have to hem the neckline facing at the back opening. I didn't want to make it a snug fit for E so that it hangs down loose and comfy on her body.

The dress might not be stitched to perfection but atleast E was happy to wear it at her age and that is what matters to me. It was worth the effort when my bubby wanted to wear it from the very first time she laid eyes on it, straight off the sewing machine!

Christmas Dinner Party

Nothing shouts christmas more than tinsel, it's true! When I was trying to think of the decorations for my christmas dinner party, H said there has to be tinsel and so it is bling and E loves it. E likes everything shiny and when there is so much glitter all around she is the happiest person at home. I hosted a small dinner party last weekend and didn't end up making most of the items on my menu as ran out of time so quickly, but my gracious guests were happy for a relaxing evening. H hung some lights like a fencing around us and tinsel wreaths and doily pompoms hung from the ceiling. I found a really nice vintage inspired printed fabric to sew the table runners and nut crackers for table centre pieces. I made napkin ties from ribbon and pinched out vintage images. It is easy when you have friends who love everything you do, as they encourage and appreciate everything you do and I am really lucky to have awesome friends.

This wreath was for E's room, I added some gold tissue paper fan rosettes on a ring and santa image in the centre of the ring with gold ribbons in between the rosettes. All other wreaths are made from tinsel on a wire ring, it is real simple idea and easy to execute.

Star of the evening was the chocolate trifle, very christmassy with the cherries on top. The trifle is layers of chocolate cakes, whipped cream with orange zest, thick chocolate custard and cherry syrup. I made the cherry syrup with fresh cherries cooked in butter, some sugar and orange juice. Shave some of your favourite chocolate and top up with some whole cherries.

Happy Christmas to all and Enjoy making delicious treats....live a little x

Oh so very orange Christmas Tree!

Last year I saw fluro orange and fluoro pink 18 inch christmas trees at a store priced $100 each. I loved them but did'nt want to pay that price for so tiny little trees. This year we decided we'll colour our tree orange! After trying on a few tree branches H (hubby dear) found the best way to get the colour is to first spray paint it all white and then add orange and we went for fluoro orange paint. I must admit that painting a plastic tree makes it quite stiff and it is a bit hard to keep the leaves opened and fluffy after the painting but all in all you can achieve the colour ad it looks damn neat all dressed up!

I wasn't sure what coloured tinsel to use and settled for gold in the end which was a good choice as it merges very well with the orange. Silver beaded garland give a pearl effect which goes with my vintage inspiration. I did manage to find some ornaments with vintage santa claus images and these are my favourite ornaments on the tree. The wooden ornaments look really nice as well especially with the white base. I do have some glass ornaments to add but I saving them from my little toddler who might hurt herself if the glass breaks, she is already finding it extremely difficult to keep her hands off the tree!

Our tree looks so bright that it simply doesn't need any lights to brighten up the place so no tree lights this year! A bit of vintage on a very dramatic looking tree, new concept maybe not everyone's cup of tea but we are happy with our tree this year.

Almond Cookies Recipe

Baking cookies is really worth the effort when you have a little one who is running around the kitchen as she smells the delicious cookies being baked! This has been by far the most successful bake ever as Elina really did enjoy these almond cookies. It's a recipe I once read in a magazine and each time I make them they taste a little different. This time I used freshly grounded almonds instead of the store bought almond meal, you can taste the difference!

Baking cookies is so simple and yet if the recipe is not good you end up with a jar full of cookies no one wants to touch, so I keep the recipe every time I bake a good batch. 

Here are the very first variety of cookies for Santa this christmas, I better get a present this year as these are delicious. I must admit I have never left cookies for santa (maybe that is why he never left me a present) but when I watch the santa clause movies I feel like doing it, ah can't really be bothered. Maybe Elina would like to do it when she is a bit older who know or she might just turn around and say "Santa at the mall was so mean that I don't want to leave him cookies" ouch! Kids are getting smarter but I would still like to keep some stories just as they should be for children to enjoy always.

Ingredients:

1 cup Rice Flour

2 cups Ground almond

1/2 cup raw sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 table spoon ice cold water

You can use blanched almonds for decoration.

Nutmeg to sprinkle if you like

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven at 350° F or 180° C

2.  Mix all dry ingredients together

3. add butter and start kneading into a dough

4. squeeze in the ice cold water and make a dough

5. roll one table spoon of dough into balls and flatten lightly on top

6. you can use almonds on top at this point or just sprinkle some nutmeg and make an impression with a heart shaped cookie cutter like I did.

7. Bake in the oven on a lined baking tray for 10-12 minutes or until the top becomes delicately brown

8. Allow them to cool on a wire rack and tuck in!

Simple and delicious and best of all they are gluten free, so get baking!

DIY Paper Doily PomPom

My favourite decorations are the ones which hang down from the ceiling and are delicate in appearance. I was looking for something new to make some pompoms, anything other than tissue paper and found these paper doilies in my party supplies cupboard. Paper doilies are so versatile for decorations. They look great as buntings, lamps, cupcake wrappers, scrapbooking,flowers and in this instance as pompoms. These pompoms made from paper doilies are so simple that you can make heaps and hang them together from the ceiling or make smaller versions for your christmas tree decorations.

Here is how to make these delicate beauties.

1. Fold eight paper doilies in half

2. Open the fold and stitch them straight through the centre

3. start sticking each doily in a honeycomb pattern. Pinch centres of two doilies and stick with a sticky tape.

4.Now pinch the top and bottom ends of one side we just stuck in centre and a new layer. Stick together.

5. Keep repeating the process. basically we are sticking the centre of each doily to the layer on the left and the ends to the layer on the right.

6. once you finish sticking all layers the pompom will open up in a honeycomb pattern.

7. you can use some more sticky tape at the top to open up the layers forcefully, only if your pompom is not opening up nicely.

8. Tie a string to the top in the centre of each pompom and hang them up.

Simple and beautiful delicate pompom decorations will go well with any summer party, birthdays or wedding!

DIY Vintage Inspired Christmas Trees

It's december already and Christmas is just round the corner. Time flies really fast and with Elina we don't even realise what time of the year it is as every day is so exciting and new. Having studied in convent schools in India, Christmas has been an integral part of my life growing up. Our mum was kind of forced every year to celebrate since we were so excited as kids. Me and my sister would decorate the potted christmas tree every year, I would mostly follow my sister's lead, we would bake, dress up and become santa for our brother. Happy days and such cherished memories. 

Playing along with the vintage theme that I have chosen for christmas this year I have made some paper christmas trees to go over the mantle place. I found some really cool vintage inspired wrapping papers at Typo which I used to make these trees, you can print out some images from web if you can't find these wrapping papers.

• To start make some paper cones preferably card paper and trim the base so that it stand firmly.
• Cut some fringes of the wrapping paper and start sticking them to the base first moving upwards.
• It might be hard to stick the fringe in a straight line on a cylindrical surface so best to work with smaller strips of fringes.
• Fill in any gaps that you find in the fringe with a piece of paper
• Try using the fringe lengthwise to make a variation like the smaller tree in image above.

• For this tree I punched out some circles from a wrapping paper 
• Start sticking these circles on the tree with glue only on the top edge of the circles.
• Cover the whole tree with these circles.

I made a fan shaped tree as well as shown in the first picture. This one was Martha Stewart inspired tree, I just glued the fan shaped paper on a paper cone, I glued the tip at multiple places so that it stays in shape and added some golden paper stars on top.

These are so simple to make and great for your table at work or any special corner in your home. They would make great gifts as well, gift it to neighbours or friends and make loads as they are so easy to make and so many versions are possible!

How to make a Tee into a Dress

Sewing and embroidery is meditation for me, very therapeutic and the satisfaction is greater than eating a great meal! I know might sound quite odd coming from me but I really do enjoy it more than cooking, even though cooking comes more naturally to me. Kids wear has always been fun for me as I get to play with colours and patterns and the child will not complain, well at least my one year old doesn't. Elina loves every new dress that I make for her she walks around holding it on top of her head trying to wear it herself!

However, sometimes I struggle to get the factory made finish to my garments and I look for simpler ways to create gorgeous clothes and this is my latest Original Idea which I am sure mums would love. Make a dress from a basic tee!

It is really simple to make well simpler than make a dress from scratch! 

1. Choose a Plain or printed Tee which a bit loose for bubby

2. Take two strips of fabrics which are twice as long as the width of the tee and at least 5 inches wide to form the frills (decide frill width based on the dress length you require)

3. Double fold and stitch both the sides of these frills about 1/4 inch

4. stitch both the ends of the frill together and gather one side of the frill

5. Pin the frills in position on the t-shirt

6. Stitch the frills in place 

7. Add a button or a ric rac lace flower like I did on the top of the frills and its done!

Doesn't take long to create a unique dress like this one and above all you can play around with this as you like. Make one wider frill instead of two frills or use laces instead of frills or just add strips of fabrics and don't gather them into a frill. This would be a great christmas gift too, it's not too expensive either. Happy Sewing!

DIY Vintage Inspired Lockets

As I am feeling a bit vintage inspired this christmas, I have been thinking of handmade gift ideas for christmas as well.This is a great christmas gift idea, make your own vintage printed locket. They are so simple to make and you can choose to make them as you like, with wire or with embroidery thread. If you don't generally make jewellery it is hard to find the right materials at home so I am demonstrating these lockets with embroidery threads. You can use your old chains or just buy any chain from a dollar shop, they are cheap but look just the part. Rest of the design can depend upon what beads or trims you have in your drawers.

You will need some self adhesive laminate sheets, vintage image printed out and cut to shape, needle and embroidery thread (preferably a blanket needle), glue gun or craft glue, beads or pearls, scissors and chain for the lockets.

Steps:

1. cut the vintage floral or any print of your choice in a any shape you like, circle, oval etc.

2. laminate these cut circle of prints by sandwiching it between two laminate sheets and cut the laminate sheet along the printed edge

3. start adding beads or feather or jewel stones on the edge of these laminated print outs. You need to make a hole with the needle in the top centre of the printed locket and attach locket to the chain with the embroidery thread or a wire. Don't forget to know the thread.

4. make sure you tie a couple of knots after beading the thread and attaching it to the chain.

5. feathers can be inserted in the beads. Glue the points which you think are weak and might open up while wearing the necklace.

Get creative with these lockets and gift it to someone who loves vintage jewellery. If you like the images that I have used ,then download these prints for free by clicking here Enjoy!

Vintage inspired Alphabet Wall

Exciting times ahead as I embrace the opportunities to teach my little one. It is such an amazing feeling to see your child understand and respond to your teachings. Elina is at such a stage in life that she wants to imitate me, try and communicate with me and respond to me, I have realised that when I introduce toys or activities early to her she enjoys them more and takes her time to explore them. It might be a bit early to have an alphabet wall for her but she responded really well to this wall full of pictures and some that she recognises like "D for Dog", yes my baby is a dog lover just like her mum!

I have used a very earthy chevron printed paper for the background, which I stuck on the wall and then pasted these vintage printout over them. I liked these colour tones as they are more easy on the eye and yet quite attractive and bright.

These vintage alphabet images are from Red Wagon. I changed a few images on some alphabets just to make it simpler for Elina's understanding, you can download these files here 

Handprinted gift wraps

Gifts, they are great to give and get! The best part of the gift is how it's wrapped, if looks nice from outside it will be nice on the inside for sure and opening a beautifully wrapped present is all the more exciting. There can be so many possibilities and ideas to wrap a present and it all depends on the wrapping paper. I am so over the regular "Merry Christmas" printed wrapping papers and the ones which are different are really expensive. Here is a great idea to make your own wrapping papers. You can customise them to any design, print or colour as you prefer and play around with the idea. 

I have printed random geometrical motifs on Gold coloured tissue paper with poster paints.

I used pumpkin and leek to create these patterns. Just carve out your vegetables or use them as is and dip them in paint and start printing, make lines or circles or just random patterns on the paper. I used tissue paper as the gold colour paper is slightly more dense than the other colours. you can use crepe paper or any plain coloured wrapping paper and print on them. White base with bright colours will give a really nice effect.

I used black contrasting paper under my ribbon and also punched a lace edge pattern on a plain white paper to lift the printed pattern on the wrapping paper. Play around and you don't have to be perfect with the print placement, that is the beauty of this idea.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special

Doctor Who is one of our family favourite TV shows, there is drama, action, sci-fi, adventure all in one. The most exciting television experience ever and it has completed 50 years now! Time travel would be so interesting and dangerous (not so with the time lord!) that I so wish that someone would make this possible in my lifetime. 
We are crazy about Doctor Who gadgets, aliens and especially the Tardis. We spent this weekend watching the 50th Anniversary special with coffee and the most moist butter cake I baked. I had to mark this occasion with some handiwork of my own so I decorated a onesie for Elina. Well what better memorabilia could I have given my daughter! I also printed out some quotes and put them in frames to create simple yet expressive wall arts. 

The doctor's fan looks absolutely divine in the red bow, searching for her screwdriver. Beware Daleks and run for cover Master, the doctor is here!

It is so simple to make this onesie that you can make more than one version. You will need some fabric paint, an old tooth brush,paper cutter, fabric and sewing thread to make the bow.

Really simple steps:

1. Print out the pattern you want to spray paint. Doc Who logo for starters.

2. Cut out the pattern such that the design you want to print has been cut out (negative part). The middle part of "D" was detached after cutting out the motif so I stuck it in the centre with sticky tape.

3. Place the stencil on the t-shirt or onesie, use a card paper on the inside of the onesie to prevent any colour leaks. Also cover the exposed clothing with some rough paper.

4. Spray fabric paint on the stencil with toothbrush. Do not use water.

5. Remove the stencil carefully and let the motif dry.

6. Make a gorgeous bow preferably with red fabric and attach it to the onesie.

Here is the butter cake I baked with chocolate frosting and Jaffa for the love of the Doctor who has saved mankind on numerous occasions. I heart The Doctor ! 

#ChristmasTraditions#AdventCalendar#DIY

'Tis the season to be crafty fa la la la!! I love this time of the year as there is so much happening and there is a mad mad rush all around. The markets are flooded with ideas and so is the web. Everyone is making something or the other, food, gifts and so much more. My favourite bit is to go and drive around neighbourhoods looking at christmas lighting, amazing how much thought and effort some people put in every year and I for one want to encourage them more by visiting. Christmas at home and at school used to be quite different from what I have celebrated for the past seven years in Melbourne. At home mum had a christmas tree in a pot which out grew the pot every year, we would decorate the tree and light it up with the most gorgeous coloured lights. Mum would bake cakes and cookies, we would put out our stocking and mum would fill them up with chocolates. My fondest memory was dressing up as Santa for my little brother when he was four year old, he was asleep and I woke him up and mum said "look Santa is here" he said " Hello Santa" and slept with a big smile on his face. School was all about christmas crafts and carols, just beautiful to be in the chapel during these days.

My Christmas Crafts begin with the Advent calendar. I never had one growing up but I would like Elina to have this as a tradition. I made two, just because I enjoyed it so much! Here is the first one which is more of a discovery calendar for Elina as I have put little tokens for her in the pockets to take out every day until christmas.

I printed out some vintage numbers to stick on my calendar but you can use scrapbook cards or stickers as well. Here are the really simple steps to follow:

1. Cover a canvas or board with wrapping paper or fabric of your choice. I just used a wrapping paper and sticky tape to cover my canvas.

2. Cut your number print out in any shape or along the lines of the artwork.

3. Paste them on card paper in contrasting colours which will go well on your canvas background colour/pattern.

4. fold three sides of these number cards leaving the top side open, this will be the mouth of the pocket. Fold around 1 -1.5 cms on all three sides or bigger if you have enough paper.

5. cut the  two corners to create a notch as shown in the picture below.

6. make another fold on these three sides.  Use sticky tape to hold the bottom fold together with the sides to form the closed end of the pockets.

7. Move around the pockets or numbers to decide on the placement on your canvas.

8. Stick the pockets with sticky tape or glue on to your canvas and hang the calendar. You can fill the pockets with anything you like from christmas crackers to candies.

Pockets on Vintage inspired christmas calendar. You can make your own variations of this idea. Watch out for my next post with another easy idea for Advent calendar.

Summer Coolers

A hot summer day and a glass of chilled summer cooler, what more can one ask for! My favourite season is summer, I love the sunshine, feel happy getting out of bed, love dressing up, entertain, vacations and above all iced drinks. Although it gets really hot in India but I have never felt the heat like I feel in Australia, a hot day is really hot and you can only cool down in the sea or by ice creams.It is refreshing to eat all the juicy fruits or drink fruity coolers on a beach under some shade. Today after a month into summer we finally had a really hot day and I have been happy from the time I woke up. Hubby can home a bit early today and we enjoyed some refreshingly cool drinks while our daughter played in the sand pit.

I have added my touch to these coolers and renamed them. They are really simple, quick and refreshing and here are the recipes.

Minty Ginger- 
Ingredients: 1 inch Ginger crushed
                      two sprigs of mint leaves
                      a pinch of crushed white pepper
                      3 teaspoons sugar  or to taste
                      juice of half lemon
                      a glass of water

Boil water, ginger, one sprig of mint leaves, sugar and white pepper in a pan for 1 minute. strain the drink and allow to cool. Squeeze half lemon juice. Pour over ice and garnish with a sprig of mint leaves.

Sunshine- (my original concoction)
Ingredients: Juice of one orange
                      One part apple juice
                      Crushed Strawberries

Mix two parts freshly squeezed orange juice with one part apple juice (I like it cloudy with fibres) over ice and top up with some crushed strawberries.

Cucumber limeade-
Ingredients: juice of one lime
                     2-3 tea spoon sugar
                     thinly sliced cucumber
                     water

Mix lime juice and sugar in one glass water. Add sliced cucumber and let it rest for 10 minutes to infuse cucumber in the limeade. Serve over ice. 

Cucumber and lime marry very well together. I had a cucumber lemonade at a cafe some years ago and tried this with lime today, it definitely tastes better with lime. You can add white rum or vodka to any of these drinks and enjoy with friends in a dinner party.

Oats and Blueberry Pancake

My daughter's taste changes ever so often that it is hard to keep up with it! Well I think it happens to all toddlers as they are more interested in what is happening around them than what is on their plate, so as long as it looks good it is good to get their attention. She used to eat oats with fruits when she was 10 months old and since then I have tried everything but there is no way she will eat anything that resembles porridge as it is not chewy enough for her and she cant eat it with her bare hands. So I thought won't oat pancakes be a great as she can hold them and eat them by herself. I searched for a great recipe but unfortunately there are none that I could find so this is my own recipe and it did taste good. It's not quite doughy as a standard pancake, more like a quiche sort of texture.

Ingredients:

1 cup instant quick Oats (microwave ready in 90 seconds)

1 1/2 cup milk (full cream for kids)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon sugar

a pinch of baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

few drops of vanilla extract

handful of blueberries (chopped if you like)

butter to grease pan

honey for drizzle

cream/ice cream to serve

Recipe: Cook oats and milk together in microwave for 90 seconds. If you don't have the instant oats just cook regular oats in microwave for longer time. Once the oats have completely cooled down crack the egg in the same bowl and whisk. Add baking soda, baking powder, vanilla essence, sugar and blueberries and mix well. If the mixture looks too thick add some more milk. Grease a pan with butter as the pancakes get quite sticky with oats. flip them over like regular pancakes. Serve warm with honey drizzled on them and some cream on the side. A glass of apple/fruit juice would go perfectly for brekky!

I am sure there can be more delicious variations of this pancake and would love to see you my reader make some of your own! How about  trying oats, banana and walnut pancake?

Nautical Themed Party

This is a very special party I planned as it is for one of my favourite baby boy Vihaan. He is adorable and very close to my heart just like his parents. When I was thinking about themes for his Birth Announcement party all I could think of was whether he would like his pictures when he grows up or not as I sure want to be a cool aunt! My husband was super excited when I told him that it would be a nautical theme and I want him to make a boat. Yes, I did want him to make a boat to display drinks for the party. Vihaan's dad, who doesn't say much was really excited to see the boat taking shape, I could see he had just realised how much fun he can have with his boy. So hubby dear made a fantastic boat and added a spoiler at the back just to jazz it up, only problem being the boat wouldn't stand with the spoiler at one end. He was really disappointed that the spoiler had to be removed to the back of the boat for support. The next much loved idea I had was to add a fishing net over and behind the food tables in the marquee. The boys loved it and we decided to add some miniature rum bottles along with thermocol fishes in the net, I did find a squashed up empty coke can in the net at the end of the party and all the drink bottles were empty too quite obviously! The colour scheme for the decorations was navy,red and white. This is the same party from my previous post Nautical Themed Cake so I haven't added cake pictures for this post.

I added fringes made from tissue paper on white paper lantern that I bought from the $ store and then we added some solar lights inside as the party was in the evening. I made star fishes with fringed tails from party hats these hung in between two paper lanterns. I used cardsheets to create the pom pom fishes, they might look nice with googly eyes as well.

 Fishing net with fishes which were printouts on thermocol. Here is the Boat my hubby dear made and I am so proud of his craftsmanship as it looked just amazing! Vihaan can use it for his room to keep his books and toys as long as it is screwed to the wall. I made an anchor with streamers on the wall inside as well as in the marquee.

 The Blue dolphin looked great part of the decor and I am in love with the polka dot balloons. A kids party is not fully accomplished if there are no balloons, just looking at the little ones' faces make it worthwhile. I had to have some AHOY buntings since it is a nautical theme.

Food was amazing and I was able to enjoy it as I didn't do any cooking that day! Vihaan's dad is an amazing cook and he cooks meat exceptionally well.Although he had organised for catering for this party we forced him to cook chicken as he is so good at it, I'm glad we did.

Chevron partyware looked splendid on the waves printed table cloth and I made a "V" shaped table centrepiece with cardboard and cupcake wrappers. Some clean seashells on the tables around the plates added to the decor.

 This is the invitation for the party. I kept it just in tune with the decor, handmade invitations are my favourite and just a little addition of ribbon lifts up the whole invite. I didn't  do these graphics myself just played around with the pictures I found on this website http://www.aweddingstoryblog.com/ really grateful to the awesomely generous blogger out there as it makes it easier to celebrate themed events.