All I can say is wow to my new Pampered Chef Mini Muffin Tray and Minni Tart Shaper, definantly a best buy :) I love it. I decided to make some Mini Mince Pies to take to my folks for xmas.

I used my Pampered Chef Mini Cutters to make the stars for the tops, Which were a perfect size.

Nice golden colour after being cooked :)

2 packs of Short Crust Pastry and 2 Jars of Mince meat and 68 mince pies later (ok a few were snacked on along the way lol). Below pic is of the first batch I made :)

Here are a couple more HIH LOs, Only 9 days behind but I'm determined to catch up. And this last week I have done well taking photos during the day and adding pics and writing in the evening. I have to say my HIH has kind of turned into a Diary of December 2009.

Had some fab news yesterday, I won the Rusty Pickle Rak over on Sarah's blog which can be found here http://smellyblog-slcarrington.blogspot.com/ I'm looking forward to the arrival of the Shazaam Papers I have won.


Have managed to get another 3 LOs done for my HIH, I'm really likeing how the LOs are all turning out, I can't wait to have them all completed so I can get them printed in to a book.

I have finally finnished my Kaisercraft Advent Calendar. Better late than never lol. At least it's ready for next year. I ended up using wooden letters for the Count Down To Xmas title instead of a LO in the middle which is what I wanted to do originally but my boys wouldn't co-oporate in getting a good christmas photo.

I painted the wooden letters in blue acrylic paint and then gave each letter a coat of fine silver glue like Stickles to give them a bit of sparkle.

I painted the wooden trees in green acrylic paint and added some addiesive stones.

And I painted the wooden presents with blue acrylic paint and added some a hint of silver glitter glue and some adiesive stones.

I'd like to say once again a huge thank you to Chrissy (http://www.MerlyImpressions.co.uk) for putting together a kit for me and getting it to me so quickly.

Had another attempt at trying to get a photo of Bokeh and I think I've got (well I'm hoping I have lol.) The second photo of the snowman aunament and lights in the background is my favourite and I also love the colours and effect in the 3rd and 4th photo.

I'm getting there with my Holidays in Hand LOs, got some LOs still to do from the beginning of December which unfortunantly I don't have any photos but thinking of doing pages based on prompts for them. Also got a couple of LOs waiting to be done, just need to get the photos from hubby's phone. Here are my next batch of HIH LOs.

That's all for this evening hopefully Il get some more crafting done over the weekend.

Had ago at filling my Holidays In Hand pages with writing and photos. I'm kinda doing a diary of each day to include our preps for xmas and on the days I don't have photos or the day was rather boring eg just house work lol I'm going to try and include the prompts but they wont be in order, I'm trying to make the class fit in with my everyday life so we have some kind of record of things we did in Dec 09 to the lead up of christmas if that makes sence. Here are the pages I have done so far. Got a couple to do tonight, just need to get my photos together.

I decided to have a go at Assignment 6 Festive Walk again so here are my photos

I think out of the three greenery photos the one below would have to be my fave as I love how the snow has settled on top of the hedge, kind of reminds me of cakes sprinkled with iceing sugar. I also love the colours.

I took this one of my Youngest too, though I don't think it fits in with the assignment but it was taken of him whilst on our walk to pick my middle son up.

More Photos for my Course.

Below is Day 5 - Get in Shape - basically takeing some photos of people. Well you can guess who my subjects were...yep you got it my boys. Unfortunantly their attention span didn't last long so it was a quick photo shoot.



I love the middle photo best though it's really supposed to be a group shot, for that one the bottom one would have to be the best one. Just wish my eldest had been looking in the right direction lol

Day 6 - Festive Walk, Ok this was getting out and about and taking pics. these were photos I took a little before the actual course started and liked them so I submitted.

Day 7 - Razzel Dazzel - Basically to get the hang of takeing photos of Bokeh. I was finding this rather hard. But have been told I can't really perfect this techneque by takeing shots of rope lights which is what I had been doing. I was takeing photos of my next door neighbours xmas lights that are decorating the outside of their house.

I think this is the best photo of what I think Bokeh is supposed to look like

The following photos are me trying to get Bokeh but not really working very well lol.

I have to say this photo didn't come out like it was supposed to but I kike it, it looks funky :)

The Course has actually finished but we have to the 6th of Jan to practice and submit a collage of 6 of our favourite workshop Images from the 12 moduals. I personally am glad we have more time before putting forward our End Product, one for the fact I have already fallen behind but 2 I really do need a lot more practice. I don't really feel my camera is that good and that's the reason I'm not getting as good pictures dispite changing settings etc. I'd love to look in to getting a DSLR or something. My Camera seems to be a lot better at taking photos outside than anywhere.

My latest Wire Work as promised. My course has come to an end. Tomorrow is the last day and I have to go in and hand my portfolio over to be assessed, thankfully I dont have to hand the sculptures. My portfolio is a record of how my sculptures have developed and comments on difficulties I found and Ideas I had along the way. Well here is my Cat.
Before I put on the wire skin lol.


The finnished Cat :)

Well I got to finnish doing the last of my portfolio entries tonight but will leave you with some pics of my Cookies I made tonight using the Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe on the Bakerella website. Which can be found here - http://www.bakerella.com/milk-cookies/ . They looked amazing if I don't say so myself and my boys loved them, they even said they tasted better than the cookies we get from Tescos some times bless them.

The mix

The dough balls ready for the oven

Just come out of the oven

Served on a Trey to cool

And last of all a photo of my boys enjoying the cookies they weren't to pleased in me asking them to pose, they just wanted to get on with munching lol.