Boiled Christmas pudding

Tomorrow is December 1st. Yes that's right, you heard me. I know some of you might find that piece of information quite scary, but relax!! Christmas time can get hectic, but what's the point if you're not enjoying it hey? I'm quite a Christmas fan, (not the horrible 24 hour shopping at Highpoint commercial type of Christmas, but the handmade, unrushed type of christmas full of special family rituals, music, and gathering with friends and community that we have created for ourselves...)..so just a warning, you might hear me crap on about it during the Advent season. I apologise if it's not your thing!!

Last week I made the pudding for our Christmas family get together. The recipe is taken from a very old Women's Weekly cook book. It took 6 hours to boil. I hope it's yummy, but if not I'm sure we can always lay on the custard and cream pretty thick!! Thought I'd share some pics.

Happy last day of Spring (if you're a southern hemisphere dweller, if not...hope it's not too freezing where you are!!)

Mezz

Easy Peasy Recipe Swap.. Recipe #5

Thanks to Raylee, aka ess-arr (which stands for eco simple stitches, artfully recreated recycling) for her easy peasy recipe for Apple cakes. Check out her recipe and her creative upcycling blog here.

Feel free to keep sharing your lovely recipes!!

See you soon..very soon in fact, I think I'm going to share another post later today!!

Mezz

with a little help from my friends

Last week Taz (aka Butter and Buntings) and I got together at my place for a bit of lunch, cake and crafting. It was hard to not spend the whole time cooing at her lovely little bubba boy, but I managed to get a few things done.

Do you like crafting with friends? I always find it more fun then doing it on my own!!

Mezz xx

Easy Peasy Recipe Swap- Recipe #4

This easy peasy recipe for her not so secret choc-chip cookie has been sent by the lovely Ash. Ash is not only my best mate, but married my brother years ago, so is also my sister in law! She writes a lovely blog about healthy eating, excercise, cooking, craft, motherhood... called Go Mumma. Not growing up with sisters, I feel so blessed as an adult, belonging to a big sisterhood of sister in laws...love to them all if their reading!!!!

Ingredients:

125g butter softened

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg

1 3/4 cups self raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

125g choc chips (I use milk, dark and white together)

60g chopped walnuts (optional but nice)

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 deg C. 

Cream together butter and sugars, add vanilla and lightly beaten egg. Mix in SR flour and salt until a soft dough forms. Stir in choc chips and walnuts. 

Roll into balls (teaspoonfuls) and place on a greased and lined biscuit tray making sure to leave space for spreading. 

Bake in moderte oven for 10-12 mins or until lightly golden. Allow to cool on the tray for approx 5 mins before transferring to wire racks. Makes approx 40 small biscuits. 

yay! Christmas cards!!

Here are the Christmas Cards I've made to send out to friends and family this year. Am I allowed to be so in love with something I've made? What does that make me??!

The real reason I'm loving these cards has nothing to do with my crafting abilities really. I kept the design super simple, just a cut out love heart and "Merry Christmas" stamp. No, the reason these cards make me smile is becasue of the lovely music book I used for all my hearts.

I found this Christmas carol book recently in the Op Shop for 50c. I have A LOT of Christmas music already, so didn't need the book for the music. I grew up with the exact same Carol book at my mum and dad's house, and have very fond memories of my dad playing guitar while we sang from the book together, and then as I got older being able to play the piano and sing the carols myself, and feeling pretty darn clever!!

The pictures in the book are so cute, and bring back lovely feelings and memories as a kid for me....

So how could I not chop it all up and make some sweet, simple cards??

Feeling a bit festive already!!

Mezz xx

Easy Peasy Recipe Swap -Recipe #3

Thanks Nicole (aka Make Grow Bake Sew) for sending through the recipe for Healthy Chocolate Bliss Balls... Looks amazing!! Check out the easy peasy recipe here . I think they would make lovely Christmas gifts to take around for the neighbours!!

Feel free to share your recipe too!!

Mezz

Easy Peasy Recipe Swap RECIPE #2

Thanks to the lovely Taz (aka Butter and Buntings) who sent in her easy peasy recipe for Peanut Butter Biscuits. Check them out here.

More soon!!!!

Feel free to join the swap, and send me via email mezzcoleman@hotmail.com or blog post your favourite easy peasy recipe. I'll then share the recipe here at Mezz Makes Stuff.

MEZZ

Let's do an "Easy Peasy" Recipe Swap- Recipe #1

I love easy recipes. I'm not the world’s best cook, so throwing a few things together and coming up with the goods is always nice.

I thought we could do a bit of recipe sharing in the lead up to the silly season. It’s always nice to have a few quick tricks up our sleeves when things get manic. If you have a really yummy and super simple recipe that you want to share, you can email it (you can even include a pic if your very clever) to mezzcoleman@hotmail.com or if you post it on your blog let me know via a comment and I'll share with my readers. 

Shall we play?

Here's mine. It's Yummy, creamy and EASY potato salad.

POTATO SALAD RECIPE

Chop and boil as many potatoes as you want. Keep the skin on!!

Once slightly cooled, add as much mayo as you like, and then add:

Some chopped parsley

A diced red onion

Salt and pepper.

It can be eaten warm or cold, and its delicious! Perfect to bring to BBQ’s.

MEZZ

Any ideas?

I performed a few Christmas carols with my new best friend (the Uekele) down at our local Kmart this week. Hmmm..strange place for a performance? Yes.

I was there to help them officially launch the KMart Christmas Tree, where people leave presents for those who will struggle at Christmas time. I live in Foostcray (Melbourne), which is a very diverse and mulitcultural community, and so it was a lot of fun performing right in the hub of my own community and watching so many people from so many walks of life, faiths, and cultures stop to listen to the music.

 This is not an ad for the Wishing tree by the way. I was happy to support this event and help out a few friends, but I'm also quite cynical and can't help but think that the biggest winners in all of this is KMart themselves, as poeple buy the gifts from their store....(clever) and so they end up selling more of their environmentally and socially unfriendly products. Oh well.

But there are plenty of ways in which we can all look out for the lonely, the poor, the marginalised this Christmas, both locally and globally.

What could we do this year to share a bit of extra love and care? Let's put our thinking caps on!

Please leave your ideas as a comment and I'll share in a different post!!

Mezz xx

some Christmas projects...

Here are a few Christmas-y things I've started working on.

A "Silent Night" thingamajiggy to hang up somewhere (this is unfinished, I intend to add a lot more stars!)

And a "Jingle Bell" halo for Little Miss. This is so cute and simple, I'm gonna whip up a few more for presents for all my nieces.

What have you been working on?

I'd love to know!!

Mezz xo

I wish....

This clip is nothing but Pure. Joy.

Sometimes I feel that I was born in the wrong era. ( I want to be one of the adoring girls on the train!!!)

Enjoy!

Peace,
Mezz xx

more treasure...

A few more second hand finds...

Mezz xx

Last years Christmas cards become this year's decorations!!

I love Christmas cards!! Yes, yes, I know...they're probably very bad for the environment and extremely cheesy, but oh how I love giving, making and receiving Christmas cards. But what to do with all those cards at the end of each year? Here's one idea…. I kept last year's cards and turned them into this year's Christmas garland to hang up to bring a bit of home made/up cycled Festive cheer.

All I did was….

Cut out circles from all the different cards (you could use whichever shape you like)

Chose a festive colour thread (green for me, thanks!)

 

Sew them all together in a long line.

Done!

This is so super easy (and addictive!) I can see myself making more of these over the next few weeks in preparation for December!!!

Any other ideas on how to reuse Christmas cards?

MEZZ

our "new" couch

We have had a fold out couch the last few years which has definitely seen better times. It was given to us second hand, and has served us (and some guests) well, but sometimes you juts need to admit defeat and realise when something is totally too stuffed to fix!

The solution? Mr. Coleman built a new couch using 6 milk crates that we found left out on the streets down in Foostcray. He then used the foam from the old couch to make new couch cushions, and then we covered them with cute fabric which we bought in Vietnam last year. I also just added the crocheted blanket which I found for $3 in the Op Shop near my work.

It's really comfy, and I love that we made it using what we could find. It's a nice spot to sit drinking tea, and looking out onto our backyard which is often full of neighbours playing soccer, or just watching the trams go by our place...

Mezz x