The Joy of Books

A little bit of crazy-cool stop motion for you!

- Bee

Savoury Bready Cups

A wee recipe I adapted from Sophie Gray "Delicious"

6 slices of bread with the crusts removed
Tomato paste
any toppings you like (I used ham, tomato, pineapple and cheese)
egg and milk

roll your slice of bread with a rolling pin, spread with tomato paste and pop into a muffin pan, one  per slice.
mix your egg and milk in a little jug with salt and pepper
top with your chosen toppings
pour over your egg mixture and top with cheese
bake in the oven for 15 mins
eat :)

I made this for Bridget and I to eat for lunch today, they were scrummy! Three each was just right :)

have a go for yourself!

-Leah x

Sad Day

picture source

Friends and family spent the weekend farewelling two lovely folks, Chrisjan Jordaan and Alexis Still. Chrisjan and Alexis passed away tragically in a hot air balloon accident on January 7th 2012. I went to their funerals over the weekend, it was lovely to be with friends and see just how many lives these two people touched in their short years on this Earth. It's comforting to know that even though it is so sad that they are gone, they are in Heaven with Jesus, having a wonderful time. This photo brings me so much peace, taken the morning of the accident. The stripes of the balloon arch over them like a rainbow: A symbol of God's promises, His peace and His love. I know I'll see them again someday.

"You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." 2 Corinthians 3:2

- Leah x

Flat Date "Out on the Town"

'So what are you ladies up to tonight?' The chap at Kaffee Eis asked us.

'This! This is it!' We replied.

The guy serving us gelato was I think a little surprised to hear that our idea of a big night out was coming in to the heart of Wellington's nightlife scene to have gelato and a cup of tea!

Crazy party animals we certainly are not, but the four of us here at Little House had a grand time on our Friday night :)

A few snaps from the night :)

have a great weekend!

-Leah x

Lemony Lemonade

My home-made lemonade!

When the weather is hot hot hot like it was today, I like to make bottles of icy cold home-made lemonade!

 here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

(this recipe makes roughly 3 litres of lemonade)

1 - 1&1/2 cups white sugar (depending on how tart/sweet you like your lemo-nard)

6 medium lemons

3 litres of cold water

ice

Juice the lemons, making sure to remove the pips from the juice.

Stir the lemon juice, sugar, and water in a large jug until the sugar is entirely dissolved.

Garnish with ice.

Boom.

- Bridget

Check out our cat

Twiggy hasnt been featured for a while, so this is her today, relaxing on Leah's bed.

- Bridge

So much to tell you

Hello, Happy past holidays, and Happy New Year from Little House!

Well I have so very much to tell you.

First of all - an apology. One really must think a lofty craft commitment through thoroughly before embarking upon a craft blitz during the silly season. So obviously we didn't quite make it the whole way through the craft and recipe advent deal we had going.

It is sad.

We had some really great ideas lined up - but sometimes people get busy. And sometimes those people who get busy, are people like us. And sometimes those people who get busy, are people like us, because they are us...

AND BOY DID WE GET BUSY HERE!

December in my memory is a whirlwind blur of craft, baking, photos, art, birthdays, Christmas, and New Years, as well as many other things I cant recall right now.

ANYWAY.

This post I wanted to share with you what we got up to during our mad month of December!

LAURENS 23RD BIRTHDAY TWO DAY BONANZA!

The celebrations of Lauren's birthday started the day before her actual birthday, we kidnapped her in the afternoon and took her to a secret location!

The secret location was...The Wellington Botancial Gardens! HOORAH! Jaimee made this yummy venetian chocolate nut cake.

The weather was beautiful, such a great way to start celebrating the birth of a great lady!


Later  on in the evening I set up a treasure hunt around our yard with clues as to where and what we would get up to late that night!

First stop: The Telecom Tree!
Second stop: The Library for sorbet!
Third stop: (We intended to go to Alice's but alas, it was closed) so on we went to Hawthorne!

On Lauren's actual birthday we had a pretty relaxed day, she got a tattoo, we shopped a little for Christmas presents, and we surprised her with a dinner picnic in the yard for the finale. As you can see below, telling Lauren she has 5 minutes to dress fancy results in a ball gown, David Bain style sweater, and a vintage lambs wool coat.
Wow what a birthday!

CHRISTMAS TIME OH SWEET CHRISTMAS OF MINE

Next on the agenda was CHRISTMAS!!!WOOO YEAH!!!
Leah and Jaimee headed home, and Lauren and I lingered on at Little House.
Poor Lauren had to work! lame-o.o.o.

I spent Christmas for the most part with Will, Scarlett, and Rachel.
We headed round to Will's parent's home since Will had the place to himself.
We kept it casual, walking the dog, eating outside, opening the odd gift, cooking up a mighty feast, and watching The Grinch.

BRIDGET'S 23RD BIRTHDAY

Yep, you betcha. Another birthday.
My birthday was filled with op-shopping, a record player, brown paper, records, hydrangeas, cake, carrot soup, glass bottles, pepperoni pizza, friends, embarrassing stories, and a whole lot of joy.
It was a great day spent with some of my very favourite people.

I am blessed. 

TAME NEW YEARS CELEBRATIONS 

The weather packed it in over New Years, but that didnt spoil our fun!
The Little House crew headed around to our friend's whare on Owen Street for some Singing in the Rain before the countdown, a tipple, and Olie Bollein (Dutch fruity bready fried ball things! nom nom!)

Alana made the Olie Bollein, aint she a cutie?

PHEW!

That my friends, was a lot of information (A LOT)at once!

The main theme in each of these oh-so-fun events is that special occasions are best shared.
Make sure to make the most of the time you have to spend with family and friends during the year ahead, value your relationships.
That is a good resolution to make!

WELCOME TO 2012!

- Bridge (who else puts together such spastic posts?!...)

The Christmas Rush - Mike Tompkins

Gift Wrap Ideas

Christmas day is one week away!

Time to share some gift wrapping ideas!

Here are three ways with one present

I started with a plain brown paper, the kind you buy from the post office to wrap parcels. The crafty-ness of this paper and the possibilities of cute things you can do to presents with this as your foundation makes brown paper my favourite wrapping paper to use. And the best thing about it is that it works all year round! These ideas could work for just about any occasion. I wanted the presents to fit with the decorating theme of Little House, so I kind of chose mini versions of our Christmas crafts to wrap this parcel.




Blossom Pom Parcel


Following on from the Blossom Wreath I made earlier this month, the same idea applies here. First cut out a little card circle and punch four holes around the edges. This is where you will tie your string.

 Next, cut circles out of your tissue, twist the centre to make a blossom, and stick it to your card circle with hot glue. 

Finally tie string through the holes on the card and tie at the back of your parcel.

Ribbons and Fans


These are some paper fan type things I bought from the stationary store a little while ago, thinking to myself "I will totally use those." 
And I totally have not!
If you have any things like this around in your craft stash, scrapbooking stash etc, stick them on a present with a colourful ribbon.

I am a ribbon fiend, I LOVE RIBBON. At Christmas I always buy ribbon from Magnolia Trading on Tory Street. I bought ribbon in the Magic Colour for this year's presents and tied a bow as the finishing touch

Bunting Parcel


My last idea for you today is, of course, bunting!
As you may remember from early this month, bunting is one of my favourite things in the world. I think it's fitting then, to give a little piece of bunting away to a friend. 
Cut out little triangles in a few different types of paper, carefully make small holes at the top, string your twine through. Then wrap the twine around the parcel and tie at the back. Easy!

Have fun!

Leah x

Floral floral FLORAL!

Today Cathy came around and kept me company.

We popped down to the shops to grab faux-flowers, hot glue sticks, cheap headbands, and Christmas mince pies.

Once we arrived back at Little House a flurry of crafting began, stray leaves, tea, cake, and hot glue burns EVERYWHERE!

The result?

More floral headbands...

and Cathy wearing all three of hers at one time :)

- Bridge

Candy Cane Hot Chocolates

Another late post, but a good one!
This recipe doubles as a gift idea too - win!

- Bridget

• 1 cup powdered milk
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips/ smashed plain chocolate of your choice
• 1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy canes
• 
  
• Layer powdered milk, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, chocolate , and peppermint candy canes

Note:

This mix will fill a 1-quart jar (12 servings/ 4 cups), but if your containers are different sizes, just keep the ratio of ingredients constant. On the back of the tag, write: "Mix contents in a large bowl. For each serving, place 1/3 cup cocoa mix in a mug and stir in 1 cup boiling water. Store remaining mix in airtight container."



(this is an adapted version of THIS RECIPE)

Jar Snowglobes

Well it may not be the fifteenth so to speak but today we made....

DIY Jar snowglobes! woo!

These are a super fun and festive way to reuse an old jar.

You will need:

Hot glue gun
Hot glue sticks
1 Jar with a tight fitting lid

small things to put inside your snowglobe

cold water

glitter/ sequins/ plastic confetti etc

For my snowglobe I used a smaller jar lid to stand my horse figurine up a bit higher as he was hard to see when I placed him on the snowglobes jar lid.

Next I hot glued the bits and bobs I wanted inside the snowglobe onto the 'base' (the jar lid).

You can use anything you like to fill the jar - just make sure whatever you choose isnt going to rot/ rust/ decay/go gross in water... plastic is your friend here!

Fill the jar almost to the very top and put in your 'snow'.
When I first tried out my 'snow' I used coconut. Sadly this failed and just sat on the top of the water.

For my second attempt at 'snow' I used tiny glass beads...this also failed, too heavy!

Luckily when Leah got home she suggested glitter and star confetti. AND HOORAH! IT WORKED!

Woo! Winston the glitter horse is now enjoying a mighty disco-y blizzard!

-Bridget