Best Wishes for 2011.

As 2010 draws to a close, it is a great opportunity to reflect back on the year. It has been a wonderful year for us personally with lots of fun family memories and celebrations, including our wonderful trip to Japan last January.

Creatively it has also been a fantastic year with lots of wonderful opportunities that have come out of being part of this fabulous blogging community. I have been excited to have my designs published in Stitch, Quilting Arts Gifts, Homespun, and Handmade Magazines, and being part of the Craft Hope book. I was also a member of the QFD Creative Design Team and had a number of tutorials posted during the year. We have had some wonderful sponsors support us - special thanks to Ladybug Quilt Store, Ribbons Galore, Janellybelly Bags and Things, and Cute Tape. Thanks also to Penguin Australia for sending us some crafty books to review.

We have also had some new toys to play with, including the Cricut Expression machine and Canon EOS DSLR.

Here is a review of our 2010 -

There has been lots of sewing.....

Baking ......

Paper crafting........

and other crafting going on!

My goals for 2011 are to develop my photographic skills, including taking the camera off automatic focus; and to launch my own range of pdf sewing patterns.Sarah and I want to try a few new crafts over the summer period including candle making and glass etching. Sarah is looking forward to doing a unit in Textiles and Fashion at school next year, and we are going to enrol in some more cake decorating/cooking classes to further develop our skills (plus have some Mother/Daughter fun!)

Stay tuned for 2011! If there is anything you would like to see more of in 2011 please let us know.

Sarah and I would like to thank you all for your amazing support and encouragement in 2010 and hope you will continue to follow our crafty journey in 2011. Hope that 2011 is a wonderful year for you and yours:)

Capricorns

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas - it is certainly my favourite time of year. Sadly the decorations are all packed away now for another year. It is funny, but as soon as Christmas is over, I am usually energised to pack everything away and then the relaxing summer holiday period can begin!


We have a large number of Capricorns in our extended family so we are now focusing on all the birthdays we have in the coming weeks. Apparently "Capricorns are classy, practical, reliable and thoughtful. Powerful ambition combined with an excellent work ethic increase their likelihood of success." I am not sure if I believe in astrology but no doubt my DH and Sarah would agree with these characteristics!

Sarah and I spent an enjoyable afternoon today playing with some supplies that we received from our newest sponsor, Cute Tape. We made up some gift tags and wrapping paper for the upcoming birthdays using some new stamps and Japanese Masking Tape.

I *heart* the Doily Stamp - I can see it will be getting lots of use. If you love Japanese Washi Tape, cute stamps, packaging supplies, and Japanese stationery items, check out Cute Tape.

Twas the Day before Christmas......

... and all through the house there was an air of excitement and anticipation as we put the finishing touches to our Christmas preparations.

The Christmas table has been set....

Decorated cookie ornaments have been packaged up....

Gifts have been wrapped......

Stockings are in position.....

..the carols are playing, and the kitchen smells divine.

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and peace and joy in 2011.  Thank you so much for stopping by during the year to follow our sewing, crafting, and baking journey. We really appreciate all the kind comments, emails, and support you have shown us throughout the year. We look forward to sharing more with you in 2011.

Hope your Christmas is an extra special one, filled with family, friends, and good times.

Be Merry...       Lisa & Sarah xx

Gifts from the Kitchen

Nectarines are one of my favourite summer fruits. I made up a batch of Nectarine Jam for Christmas giving using the recipe from here. Dressing up the jars is my favourite part -  I used some lovely red/white striped grosgrain ribbon from Ribbons Galore.

Sarah made up some Chocolate Candy Cane Truffles using a recipe from Martha Stewart Holiday Magazine 2006. They taste delicious.

It is not quite so hot today (although a 38 C day has been forecast for Christmas Day) so we are about to crank up the ovens and make some Christmas Cookies. Hope you are all enjoying the lead up to Christmas.


.......And just to prove that not everything we are making this month has red and white polka dots, here is a make-up purse that I made to pop in with a Christmas gift.

Festive Treats

I love to make Christmas special (it is all in the details!) and made up some treats this weekend for our festive entertaining.

We had some special friends for dinner last night and these are the mini chocolate boxes I put at each place setting (filled with Lindt balls).

We will be celebrating Christmas lunch at our place this year (4 generations!) so I am working on some pillow boxes that I am going to fill with Christmas lollies.

I only have to work two days this week and then can't wait to get started on the Christmas baking. It is being to feel a lot like Christmas ......

8 Sleeps to Go!

One of the things I love most about Christmas is baking up lots of treats to give to family and friends. I hope to start my Christmas baking next week. Sarah has made a start on hers already now that school has finished for the year and made up some delicious Neapolitan Coconut Strips to give to her friends. She used a recipe from Martha.

She packaged them up in some little Ikea spice jars, with a decorated label to match. They looked so cute!

I haven't made many Christmas gifts this year - somehow time has just gotten away from me. So I was pleased when a recent tidy up of the sewing room unearthed this wine tote. It was an early prototype of the Recycled Denim Wine Tote I made for Stitch Magazine out of an old pair of Sarah's jeans. It will be just the thing for gifting some wine this Christmas.

I am always looking for creative ways to package up gift cards as I seem to buy more of them these days, especially for the teenagers in the extended family. To make this stocking, I cut two stocking shapes on the Cricut using the Very Merry Tags Cartridge and glued the edges together. They would be easy enough to cut by hand. 

Hope you are all enjoying the lead up to Christmas!

Seeing Spots

I have been meaning to make a camera strap for a while now, and it was a quick and satisfying project. Everything looks good with Amy's Lotus Full Moon Spots. I used a tutorial I found at Ikat Bag and bought my strap hardware here. My Mum gave me some black leather from her stash.

Sarah has put in an order for a strap for her video camera - in red and white polka dots!

I added to my collection of polka dot fabrics this week with these lovely Kaffe Fassett Spots.

Spots are super cheerful, don't you think?

Appliqué Fun

Christmas preparations are well under way here at Sugar Headquarters. Although my "to do" list seems to be getting bigger by the day. How I love this crazy time of year.

This week I have made up a couple of appliquéd kitchen towels for special friends who I love to share a cuppa with.

The inspiration came from Scandinavian Stitches, a delightful book with lots of whimsical appliqué designs.

There has also been a bit of gift wrapping going on. I made the doileys on the gift bag using the Cindy Loo Cricut cartridge. I love how the red and white give them a festive touch, even though they aren't Christmas images.

Sarah decorated  another Gingerbread House - this time for her young cousin.I love the gingerbread house kits at IKEA.

Hope to finish the Christmas gift shopping over the weekend so that we can start on the Christmas baking! We are hosting Christmas lunch at our house this year - I can't wait.

Chocolate Spice Cupcakes

Sarah loves to spend her pocket money buying cook books and recently ordered Martha Stewart Cupcakes from the Book Depository. It is a beautiful book with lots of lovely recipes as well as ideas for packaging cupcakes as gifts (not that any would last that long around here!)   Sarah made up a batch of delicious Chocolate Spice Cupcakes this afternoon. She certainly spoils us - they were the perfect treat after Christmas shopping.

Sorry I have been a bit remiss in answering comments and emails lately. December is such a busy time of year - can't wait for the summer holidays!

Gingerbread Houses

Sarah and I had the best time today at a Gingerbread House and Christmas Cookie Workshop at Cake Tinz and Thingz. It was heaps of fun to decorate our house while sampling all the lollies.

I went for a Red and White House to match our Christmas Table....

Sarah went for a polka dot roof which was very effective.

They look lovely all wrapped in cellophane.

We also learnt some techniques for decorating Christmas cookies. Here is the Rudolph Reindeer that I made. It was the first time we have used the edible markers to write on cookies.

Here is the house our teacher made during the workshop. I think Gingerbread House making will become a tradition for us. Now we have mastered the basics and used royal icing, we will enjoy improving our technique next year!

Thanks  Parentmap for featuring our Festive Garland in their article on Holidays Crafts for Kids.   It is a great article featuring 30 holiday crafts, activities and goodies for December.

Christmas Decorating

It is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas now that we have started our Christmas decorating at Chez Sugar. The teens insisted that we had to put up the decorations on December 1 - I love that they are still so into Christmas. They were in charge of the tree while I set up up most of the other decorations. We are predominantly into Red and White this year.

It was fun to put out many of the new handmade decorations that I have made over the past year.  The Advent Christmas Houses were strung across the dining room cabinet

Baubles were displayed in hessian baskets. I love the polka dotted baubles I found in Target.

The Dala Horse was given a festive bow.

I made up a few decorations out of embossed white card and bakers twine.

Hope you are enjoying the festive countdown. Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year.

Review: Gourmet Crochet

A review copy of Gourmet Crochet: a yummy yarn cookbook by Christen Haden and Mariarosa Sala arrived on my door step this week from Penguin Australia.   This is a sweet book which contains a smorgasbord of crochet items from sushi to fruit salad, cakes, and sandwiches.The book contains a helpful crochet guide at the beginning which guides you through the basic stitches and construction techniques, with lots of diagrams. The book is then divided into menus.

This book is perfect for beginner to intermediate crocheters who want a quick project and a a change from afghans. The projects would be a great way to use up your yarn stash. I would imagine the toddler/preschooler set would love some funky crocheted play food for their next tea party.

Gourmet Crochet was released in Australia on 22.11.10. It is 80 pages, paperback, and has a RRP of $16.95. ISBN-13:  9780143206071