Christmas Gifts: Homemade Sugar Scrub

Thank you for all your comments on my last post, particularly the Christmas rant. I feel I should qualify it a little by saying that I do absolutely love Christmas. I made a felt gingerbread house last year, for heavens sake. What sane person does that if they don't like Christmas? I enjoy choosing gifts and I revel in the festive build up - sending and receiving cards, the advent calender, all of it, and I love the big day. It's the countdowns that irk me, the way they panic people into buying, and over buying too. 

I don't think making your owns gifts is superior to buying them; I have chosen to make gifts this year as, for many reasons, we have more time than money at the moment. I'm sure next year will be totally different and there might (hopefully) be more money but a lot less time and I'll be Christmas shopping in earnest. My need to budget and organise is also partly because we have five close family birthdays in December: my mother in law's falls on the 9th, Bella's on the 18th, my sister Anna's is on the 23rd and my sister Katy and her son, my nephew, celebrate their birthdays on the 27th of December. It's joyfully hectic but must be planned carefully! You can't leave all that until the last minute.

So, whatever your thoughts on Christmas, here is a little something that I made this week which is ridiculously easy and very cheap, and takes all of twenty minutes and looks more than the sum of it's parts. If you google "sugar scrub recipes" you will find hundreds of different combinations with different sugars, oils and scents or flavours. Essentially, you need sugar, some oil to bind it together, and something to fragrance it with. Some recipes suggest two parts sugar to one part oil, some much more. I ended up using a lot more sugar and a lot less oil - I just kept playing around with it until I was happy. I found that too much oil in the mixture left too much oil on the skin after use and I wanted my skin to feel moisturised, not greasy. I used:

 2 x 500 ml airtight jars from Ikea, excellent value at only 80p each.

1 kg granulated white sugar

100 ml coconut oil

100 ml olive oil

essential oil - a few drops

Mix the sugar and oils together in a bowl until you have something that resembles damp sand.

Add the fragrance a few drops at a time, until you're happy with the amount and mix well. I chose bergamot oil. Essential oils are very strong and you wont need much - maybe ten drops in each 500 ml jar. Pour into your clean and ready jars.

Pat the mixture down with the back of a spoon, pushing it all the way down to the bottom and seal the jars.

Now the fun bit - play with ribbons, washi tape and labels. If you're like me, bemoan your horrible, scrawly handwriting. 

Admire the pleasing colours.

It will be packaged up prettily with the wash cloths and some other bits and bobs. 

And best of all, there was enough left over for a small jar for me. 

Making, thinking, planning...

I do not like these adverts and messages I keep seeing everywhere saying things like "Only 41 days until Christmas!!!" or "6 Saturdays until Christmas!" Shops which tell me to "beat the rush" or "avoid the panic". No, I do not like them at all. I know quite well that Christmas is coming, like it did last year, and like it will next year, and don't need the launch of a red cup campaign or the reveal of a new Christmas tv advert to tell me this. I want to feel festive, not panicked. It's enough to make me start having anxiety dreams about wrapping paper. What I want to do is this: I will make all my gifts in good time and then, perhaps a week or two before Christmas, when things are made and wrapped and done, I will go into Leeds while the kids are at school. I'll buy a red cup of gingerbread latte (I'm not totally immune to the power of marketing) and wander really slowly around the shops, admiring the lights and enjoying the festive atmosphere. I'll maybe leave myself one little gift to buy, something pleasing, like a fancy soap from a pretty shop in the Victoria Quarter that smells nice when you go in, and I'll savour that purchase and swing my paper bag around, and sip my drink, and feel smug. I wont give my sister a too-short scarf like I did last year. 

So I am cracking on now, in between everything else that goes on in life here, to avoid a last minute panic. I bought this huge box of jelly beans online and, with those little plastic reindeer, have a crafty idea for emergency gifts for small people that will be useful if there are any of those "Oh, I didn't realise we were exchanging gifts..." moments in Bella's circle of friends. I've made some homemade sugar scrub. It came out really well and I'll write a post about it soon. I had a small moment of pure joy when I got out my Liberty print washi tape and used it to make some labels. What else. I fed the Christmas cakes this morning, drizzling brandy over each one. I made four in total, back in October - one medium sized one for us and three small ones for gifts (for the men who wouldn't appreciate a wash cloth). I costed each one at around £5 each. Most of that is the brandy.

I made a t-shirt for my god-daughter's first birthday. Well, I stitiched on a cloud, I didn't actually make the whole t-shirt. With hindsight I wish I'd left off the rays of sun, but I still love that pink cloud on the striped background. I love making t-shirts and things for small people, I really do. My crocheted granny square blanket continues to grow slowly and quietly in the background. I've made 61 squares now, just over one quarter of the total I need. No rush. And my knitting. My blooming knitting. I am in a real sulk with it. I have fallen out of love with the pattern and yarn and want it done, over. I feel like I fell under a Yarndale spell and bought yarn that, as far as I can tell, is like fluffy parcel string and the thinnest double-knit I have ever seen. I am just really hoping that when I finish it some kind of magic happens and I love it again. 

I've been tinkering a bit with this space too, aiming for a cleaner look and something that is easy for readers to find their way around. I'm working on some pages. My friend Jen came over for coffee and cake on Monday morning and helped me with some practical, technical things, but we did a lot of chatting too. I find it invaluable to have a friend who also blogs to talk things over with. Things like sponsored posts, adverts, that sort of thing. Which way to go. Why some things work but others don't. How to make a little money (which, I wont lie, would be very welcome) from this space without it turning into one of those blogs where you feel you are being sold something in every post. So that this blog is still me, still mine.

Christmas Gifts: Crocheted Washcloths

I think this post should really be called "Something for the Ladies" as the colours and nature of these gifts mean they are unlikely to be well received by my brother in law. I finally finished something on my Christmas gift list - six cotton washcloths. I'm really, really pleased with how these turned out. The colours are dreamy and the yarn is smooth and soft. The cotton gives them such a pleasing weight and substantial feel in the hand. 

They were a delight to work up, each one taking only a couple of hours at most (and that's with my slow hooking skills) and a pattern easy enough to memorise and do a little of here and there, or an solid hour in front of an episode of Homeland. 

They are basically a sort of granny square, working out from a central circle. The pattern is from here, via Ravelry. 

I used Debbie Bliss Eco Baby yarn, bought from my local yarn shop, and used a 3.5 mm hook. Each cloth measures 18 cm or 7 inches square and cost about £1.70 each to make. They would certainly be cheaper if I'd used less expensive cotton yarn, but I love this organic, un-mercerised yarn and think it was worth the extra money.

Look at them, so neat and pretty in a pile. I want to keep them all.

But they are not for me, and will be packaged up in twos with a jar of homemade sugar scrub and some other bits and bobs into boxes of pampering goodness. 

Lucky ladies. 

Mars-Bar-Crispy-Bars

Hello! Happy Friday. Thank you for your nice comments on my last post, I had fun taking those sparkler photos. And hello new followers and readers, it is lovely to have you here. Making and baking for Christmas gifts continues. I have an amazing list. I am so good at lists. I have about ten things that are in progress, the same number at the, ahem, "planning stage" and one finished gift, a doll for my niece. I am so pleased with how it turned out but I'll wait until I've made the second, for my other niece, before I show you. The are sister-dolls for sister-nieces. I fear I may have slightly over-egged the gift making - I hope you're not disappointed!

Anyway, here's some cake. I know you don't really need a recipe for crispy bars, but I thought they were so good, and a few of you asked, so...here it is. I'll hang my baking head in shame.

I used to hate crispy cakes. You know the sort - a handful of stale rice crispies covered in a mean amount of melted chocolate, and then dolloped into a little muffin or fairy cake case, and sold at fetes and fairs for 20p. Then I ate one of these, which is how they should always be made, and was converted. John and I pretend we make these for the children but we all know it's a lie. We probably eat most of them. Ludicrously easy to make, they are an excellent activity to do with small people when you want to "do baking" without actually baking anything. You need:

5 Mars Bars, although any sort of supermarket "Chewy Caramel Bar" will do just as well.

120 g or 4 oz butter.

150 g or 5 oz Rice Crispies. Again, "Rice Pops" or "Rice Snaps" will suffice.

50 g or 2 oz white chocolate.

Melt the Mars Bars and butter together in a large bowl. I do this in the microwave so use a bowl big enough to hold the Rice Crispies but small enough to fit inside. Give it a good stir - it will look a bit curdled and unappealing at this stage but have faith. Stir in the Rice Crispies.

Tip the mixture into a square baking tray (mine is 8" x 9" or 20 cm x 23 cm). Squish it into the corners and flatten it down with the back of a spoon. Give it an hour in the fridge to set. Melt the white chocolate and then drizzle this all over the top of the crispy mix. This is huge fun for adults and children alike, and I defy you not to want to have a go. Then put it back into the fridge for another half an hour.

I use a silicone baking tray for these. I usually loathe these floppy baking tins and avoid them, but have found that for anything you want to bake or refrigerate hard, then tip out and cut into pieces - like flapjacks, crispy bars or rocky roads - they are fantastic. The bendy sides make it so easy to tip out, and you don't need to grease or line them.

Cut into squares and eat.

The title of these bars is an issue. It's not very snappy, is it? But that's what we call them in this house. If you can think of a better one, do let me know. And have a lovely weekend. 

Bonfire Night

We didn't have a bonfire or big display of fireworks - our garden is so small that we'd probably set something on fire - but after tea we went out side and waved some sparklers around in the damp air, trying to draw circles and write our names. Bella was endlessly entertained by them and waved them around with abandon, but Angus eyed them suspiciously and was not at all keen to hold one. He was happy to watch. I took photos while John moaned about the box of matches and said we should've bought a lighter. 

It's suddenly so cold. The weather has really shifted over the last week and now winter does not feel all that far away. Bonfire night brings out the nostalgic traditionalist in me. We ate sausages, jacket potatoes and baked beans for tea, the sort of food I associate with this night from my own childhood. I've made Yorkshire parkin, a tradition that is new to me but one I have happily adopted. When the kids are in bed we'll eat some parkin with a cup of tea and watch Homeland. We've just started on the first series and are already hooked. 

It's fairy light city round here now. Once it starts to get dark I switch them on and they add a little cosy cheer to dark corners. They remind me a bit of fireworks now I think of it. It's been all go on the Christmas present making front too, I'll have some bits and bobs to show you soon I hope. 

Snapshots

Here is a flavour of the last few days, as my camera and I potter around the house, snapping here and there. 

Enjoying poached eggs on sourdough for breakfast, or lunch, or any meal really.

Admiring the cable-knit scarf my mother-in-law knitted for Bella ("It's just a little pattern I made up, it's nothing fancy").

Feeling excited (SO excited) to have won Jooles' wonderful giveaway from her shop Sew Sweet Violet. Such beautiful wrapping. Violet coloured, of course. I love details like that.

Unwrapping the advent calender bunting and hanging it in various rooms. It's stunning. Jooles, thank you so much. Allowing myself to feel the first flutters of excitement for Christmas. Panicking a very little bit about the homemade gifts still be, well, made.

Embracing a vintage vibe with my sepia-toned hydrangeas next to the postcard of Virginia Woolf.

Enjoying the sun.

Enjoying the rain, when I'm warm inside looking out at it.

Collecting leaves in every colour.

Knitting, still knitting, with that naughty, splitty, expensive but unbelievably soft alpaca yarn. I am doing respite crochet in between rows.

Seeking bargains in the charity shops and being rewarded with these pillow cases. 

Teaching Angus that real men wear aprons when they make apple crumble.

Savouring every mouthful of John's spinach and ricotta stuffed cannelloni. 

So, that's the last few days. Welcoming my parents, walking in woodland, knitting, trips to IKEA, housework, cooking, eating. A lot of eating. We were going to find a local fireworks display tonight but it's cold, raining and very windy, so we're hiding at home instead. I've got a cup of tea and some apple crumble with custard right here and I'm happy.

Pumpkins & Seeds

The thing about pumpkins is that they are really, really tricky to carve. They look like they should be so easy. I mean, it's just a big round vegetable. But they're not - unless you have a set of tools or something and a template - but when you're armed with blunt kitchen knives, a biro and a not-so-steady hand, it's not much fun. I wanted to go with something like this, all beautiful patterns and pretty styling, but the kids insisted on a face. And that's the other thing about carving pumpkins - it's hard to do with little ones, since the very nature of carving involves sharp knives. It's not ideal, really, when you think about it. But we persevered and the kids are very happy with the "punkin", as Angus calls is. To make my self feel better about my failure to produce a pinterest worthy pumpkin, I decided to roast the seeds.

I looked at a few different recipes online and mixed them all together, as is my usual habit. A bit of this one, a bit of that one. After cleaning the seeds as best I could, I boiled them for about ten minutes in salted water. I think this stops the inside part of the seed burning when you roast them. I laid them out overnight on kitchen towels to dry. Then I coated them all with a tablespoon of olive oil and some salt and pepper, and roasted them for about fifteen minutes at around 200°C.

A moment longer, and they would have burned, I think. Next time I'll try ten minutes or a cooler oven.

When they'd cooled a little I tipped them onto more kitchen towels to drain off some of the excess oil, then poured them into a waiting jam jar.

They are deliciously moreish. They taste like a cross between salted popcorn and peanuts. They are crunchy but have just a little give in the centre so they're not totally brittle. I didn't think salt and pepper would be enough seasoning - I was thinking garlic salt, celery salt or paprika - but it's just perfect. I kept dipping in and out of the jar all through the day.