A Home Made Christmas

Pennies have been tight this year at TheMadHouse, so we have put our heads together and made as much as we can.

Rice and Lavender hot pad with removable cover

 

Felt pocket tissue cover

 

Home made tea cup candles

 

Basic wrapping with brown paper, wool, string and ribbon  - I am of the opinion that good packaging detracts from the homemade feel

 

I tied home made gingham and mother of pearl hearts to the wrapping.

We  had printed postcards of some photo's we had taken over the year at Moo.

I made pouches to hold them

The minimads decorated 90p shoppings bags from Hobbycraft

 

I made unique appliqué book bags for my neices.

Filled with home made crayon rolls

Paint brush and water colour rolls

and pen rolls

We included a good pad of artists paper in their bags too.

We made pear butter from gifted pears over the summer

The boys made calenders

We supplemented the gifts with some fantastic charity shop finds (Father Christmas Cushions 50p brand new)

All in all, I am really proud of what we managed to achieve over a short space of time, with little on the resource front.  The thing is that it has all been made with love and the person receving the gifts.

 

Pear Butter

We were given a bag full of pears from my wonderful sister in law, off the tree in their garden at the social club.  Now the mini's love pears and ate lots, but I wanted to do something with the rest of them to remind us of Autumn all through the dark and cold winter and also to give as gifts for our Thrifty Christmas.

So we decided to make a pear butter/jam thing.  MadDad set too pealing all the pears, whilst I cored them and he then chopped them.  We put the in the slow cooker with a little water and left them to cook over night on low.

I then blended them in the Magimix and popped them back the slow cooker, along with the zest and juice of 4 oranges and a teaspoon of all spice and let it cook down until it mounded on the spoon.

Whilst they were cooking I popped all the jars and lids in the dish washer and set it on a hot wash.

Then I Jared them all up and popped them in a large casserole pan of boiling water for 10 minutes.

Et voila yummy pear butter.  Now to make the labels and store.

All this productiveness makes me feel so much better.  Sorry for all the self pity.  We will manage and Christmas will be fantastic because I am going to be fine and we will spend it together as a family.  Thank you for all the kind words and thoughts.  Things can only get better.