Some Crafty projects

On the walk out with Missy yesterday evening I noticed that some of the trees had had loose twigs blown off them.  Being as we did not go the long way round I ended up picking up one or two of them and came back with quite a little stash.  I intend to turn them into some Christmas decorations for the house.  Some of them have green moss on them.  I had thought to give a light dusting of white paint to some of these twigs and to some of the larch cones which I also gathered up.  I had also thought of bleaching some of the larch cones and dying them red.  I am going to mull that one over.

I have purchased quite a few long cinnamon sticks from Tiger which I also have stashed plus 1kg of cinnamon sticks I purchased last year which are also going to be turned into decorations of one sort or another.  I have star anise as well.  Some small oranges are going into the dehydrator this week split so that they can be used in garlands and I also intend to start the Pomanders off.  I think by the end of the week the house will smell quite Christmassy and spicy as I also have the Mincemeat on the go.

I need to get a big bag of cloves though - I did have one but have misplaced it so I think I will be having a recce round town this week to see if I can source some.

I have some polystyrene balls that I have had for a little while which I also intend to use.  I had thought to paint the balls in gold and then glue on the little larch cones all over the surface and then attach a ribbon and use them as hanging baubles off the wall garlands which I have for the house.  I thought that the star anise could be used in this way as well.  Using a glue gun and putting on a few at a time.  I had also thought to get some larger twigs about the size of a 5p piece and cut down into little slices and yet again decorate the baubles in the same way, giving them a varnish once they are finished.  there is so much you can do when you get going.

I use cloves a lot particularly at Christmas; in the bread sauce, studded in the ham - then glazed with brown sugar and honey it is lovely.  Mum first did this one Christmas when I was a teenager.  I had never had anything like it and I absolutely loved it but then I do go a bundle on pastrami anyway. 

I also want to get some mulling sachets made up and get some lemon and orange peel dried to go in with them.

So as usual quite a few projects in the planning and trying to do a couple of the smaller ones of an evening with the bigger projects being tackled at the weekends.  Trying to make the most of my time as usual.  There is about ten weeks left until it is Christmas so really need to get a wriggle on as much as I can.

I also need to get some croutons made and also bread dried for my own bread sauce mixture straight from the pantry.  I also want to fry some onions and then dehydrate them for some extra flavouring for gravies, breads etc.  its all in the experimentation and as usual I am up to my neck in it.  Told you before it is just the depth that varies.

Ta ta for now.

Catch you later.

Pattypan

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