Wishing you all a Merry Christmas xxxx

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Christmas Colour Inspiration

Id like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas just incase I dont get a chance to pop my head in again, with it only being 4 days away & so much to prepare & baking to do I am wondering if I will have 5 minutes to sit & browse my beloved blogland!!! I have just braved some last minute food shopping & quite honestly feel a little frazzled from the madness of it all. Well tonight I am going to make a gingerbread house with the kids & if I do get a chance I will post some pictures. For now Lets just sneak in one last Christmas colour inspiration with some Glamourous Gold. 

Gold table linens give some luxury & sparkle to a table setting dont you think? why not match with white for a really glamourous look.

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The Icing On The Cake!

So a number of weeks back I posted my Christmas Cake Recipe, well here's 'Part 2' of the installment with my show & tell (now freshly iced cake.)

My decorating recipe.  


Ingredients:-

4tbsp apricot jam
700g natural marzipan
2tbsp sherry or rum
700g royal icing
Icing sugar to dust



1 Place the cake on a board. Put the jam in a bowl, stir in 1tbsp boiling water to make a glaze and brush all over the cake. Roll out the marzipan on a surface dusted with icing sugar, aiming for a 23cm square. Don't roll the marzipan or icing too thin, otherwise they may tear, making it hard to get a smooth surface.

2 Lift marzipan with a rolling pin to avoid tearing. To do this, sit the rolling pin on one edge of the marzipan and roll, lifting as you go. Place it over the cake and gently smooth the top of the marzipan with the rolling pin. Lower the sides, smoothing the surface with the palms of your hands. Trim any excess marzipan.

3 Brush marzipan with sherry or rum. Roll out icing (as for Step 1) and cover the cake using the same method as before. Trim excess icing, then smooth the surface with your hands. The less you fiddle with the icing, the better, so don't worry if you don't get a perfectly smooth surface. The decorations and icing sugar will help cover up any imperfections. Leave to dry for an hour.

4 Pile up redcurrants on the centre of the cake and add the holly leaves. Finish with a light dusting of icing sugar.

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Festive House Tour

I wanted to squeeze in one more festive house tour & I found this cosy cabin over on Country Living. There is something very magical feeling to me about a cabin style home all decorated for Christmas. I can imagine the thick falling of snow outside, while children are playing on sledges & building snowmen. I have always thought I'd love to go ski-ing over Christmas & love the idea of being snug & warm infront of a roaring fire (yes me & my open fire places again) with a hot toddy in hand....just feels like the perfect Christmas doesnt it.

 So lets take a look around shall we.

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Create A Magical Christmas

A Festive Feast

I shared a recipe with you last week for a cranberry & mincemeat filo tart which I was making for my friends for our girls christmas get together. Well it certainly went down well & we had a fabulous evening together (love my girls).
So as promised here is the rest of the menu I served up for the evening a turkey & cranberry wreath served with a pomegranete, pear & walnut salad....

For The Turkey & Cranberry Wreath:- From Pampered Chef

ingredients
• 2 (8 ounce) packages refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
• 2 cups chopped cooked turkey
• 1 1/4 cups shredded swiss cheese
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/2 cup dired & sweetened cranberries
• 1/2 cup mayonaisse
• 2 tablespoons honey dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 egg white, lightly beaten

         Method

1. Preheat oven to 375*F.
2. In bowl, combine turkey, 1 cup of the cheese, celery, cranberries,  mayonnaise, mustard and black pepper. Mix well. Set aside.
3. Unroll the 2 packages of crescent rolls; separate into 16 triangles in a circle on a large pizza pan or stone with wide ends 3 inches from the edge of pizza pan and points towards the outside. Points will extend off the edge of the pan(depending on size). Arrange the remaining triangles in the center of the pan, matching wide ends with triangles already in placed. The points will overlap in center.
4. Using small rolling pin(or small round jar or drinking glass), roll over seams of triangles where wide ends meet, making a smooth surface for filling. Don't seal center triangles.
5. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop filling evenly over the dough in a continuous circle.
6. Beginning with the last triangle placed in center of pizza pan, bring point of triangle straight across filling. Next, bring point of the opposite outside triangle diagonally across filling, covering point of previous triangle. The filling will show.
7. Repeat, overlapping points of inside and outside triangles to form a wreath. Tuck the last end under first.
8. Brush top of wreath with egg white.
9. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheese.
10. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!

For the Salad  Ingredients:

Spinach
Pear, sliced (fresh or canned)
Gorgonzola cheese
Walnuts
Cranberries (or pomegranate seeds)

Dressing Ingredients:

1/4 cup oil
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup reserved pear juice
4 teaspoons dijon style mustard
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon poppy seeds

Directions:

Mix together ingredients for dressing and pour over salad. If you don’t have enough pear juice, just substitute water.

With the left over cranberries I made some white chocolate & cranberry brownies, you can find this & more recipes over on my cookery blog Sarah & Josephs Cookery Corner

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Another Festive House Tour

Well after yesterdays little snop around a festive country home I started browsing for more decked out pads & found this gorgeous home (check out the lush log burner, I am so swooning right now). A beautifully decorated, warm & cosy home this is right up my street with its rustic wooden accents.  







To view the full house tour visit House To Home

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Festive House Tour

Lets take a little old nose around a gorgeous country cottage all decked out for Christmas. I saw this christmasy home in a post by the lovely Sarah over on Modern Country Style & just had to share it. I love to see a home all sproused up for the festive season & this beautiful & traditional home really has a wonderful feeling about it. Its timeless style is perfect for this time of year, it feels very cosy & inviting.

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Christmas colour inspiration

Frosty blue is a cool & soothing pallette & its one I've opted for in my dining room this year to match in with the already blue & white colour scheme. Its a refreshing colour pallette & I love it mixed with sparkly silver. My dining room is the only space I can be allowed to colour co-ordinate this Christmas since having kids means plenty of home made & mixed items on the tree in the living room. (Who am I to stand in the way of the childrens creativity?), as long as I get a little space for me to decorate myself.   

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Cranberry and mincemeat filo tarts

I have the girls round for dinner tomorrow evening, we try to get together every Christmas for a meal & normally go over to Chilford Hall, but after it was tragically burnt down earlier this year plans for an Xmas meal haven't quite come together. So I decided to have my buddies round for dinner instead! Not quite the same glitz & glamour as usual but we are getting together never the less for good food & good wine. I was browsing the net as you do looking for a dessert recipe & I stumbled across this scrumptious option. Filo pastry is much lighter than traditional pastry so this makes a great alternative to your normal mince pie. I spotted mince pie flavoured ice cream in Tesco the other day too so think this will be fabulous to serve together. Ill let you know how the rest of the menu goes down in a future post.



Ingredients

• 270g packet (6 sheets) filo pastry,defrosted if frozen
• 410g jar mincemeat
• 125g (4oz) fresh or frozen cranberries
• 2 tsp icing sugar
• 8 x 7.5cm (3in) Yorkshire pudding tins, brushed with butter

Method

1. Set the oven to Gas Mark 6 or 200°C. Cut the stack of filo pastry sheets into 10cm (4in) squares. Cover with cling film while you work with them.
2. Layer up 4 filo pastry squares in the base of a tin, brushing each layer with butter and arranging the pastry at alternate angles, like the points of a star. Repeat with the rest of the pastry to make 8 tarts. Bake for 10 mins until crisp and golden.
3. Spoon the mincemeat into the filo tarts and push several cranberries into each one. Bake for 5 mins, just until the cranberries are softened slightly

Find more recipes over on my cookery blog - sarahandjosephscookerycorner

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Create A Magical Christmas

A couple of weeks ago I showed you a tutorial on some Christmas tree decorations I had been making at home (little robins & Gingerbread men). Well I have had the felt & the cotton out again to make some special mini stockings for the family each with thier initials on them. I plan to hang them on the tree with our other creations & fill them with everyones favourite sweets. (Another great idea would be to make them into a little mini garland.) 

For the stockings .....
You Will Need:-

• felt (Iused green for the boys & red for the girls)
• stocking template
• red & green cotton
• pins & a sewing needle 
• some ribbon
• some scrumptious sweets to put inside

How To:-

1. Use your stocking template to cut out 2 mini stockings
2. Sew some ribbon near the top of your stockings.
3. Sew initial onto front of one stocking.
4. pin together stockings & sew together leaving the top open to pop in your sweet gifts.
5. sew some looped ribbon at one top corner so they can be hung from the tree.

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Christmas Colour Inspiration

Its all about snow white & a bit of sparkle for me this year & that will be the theme in my dinning room with a sprinkle of silver glitz.







                                                    

                                 Images sourced from scrapbook

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Living spaces

I know I am a little obsessive about cosy spaces with open fireplaces but ill never get bored of posting about them. I have already chattered on recently about the appeal of traditional or country style over the cold winter months so I won't bore you by repeating myself but you have to admit this living room is incredibly inviting it has all the key ingredients for a perfect space. Open fireplace, tick, comfy sofa, tick, lots of snugly scatter cushions, tick, cosy throw, tick. What's not to like hey! The soft creamy palette against the gorgeous dark walnut wood is a winning combination, a 10/10 from me.

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Create A Magical Christmas

Date & Apricot  Pudding

I found this scrumptious recipe over on House to Home & think I will give it a whirl this Christmas as its a great alternative to your traditional pudding & since I am about the only one in my house that likes Christmas pudding maybe its time to try something a little different

Ingredients

•  60g (2oz) medium oatmeal

•  10-12 fresh dates, stoned

•  20 ready-to-eat dried apricots

•  8tbsp whisky

•  250g tub mascarpone cheese

•  3-4tbsp clear honey

Method

1. Grill the oatmeal until toasted. Be careful, it browns quickly!
2. Put the dates and apricots in a pan with 6 tbsp whisky and 6 tbsp water, and simmer over a low heat for 10 mins, stirring every so often.
3. Mash the mixture roughly with a fork, leaving a few chunks of apricot. Leave to cool.
4. Beat the mascarpone, the rest of the whisky and 2tbsp honey in a bowl, then mix in the toasted oatmeal.
5. Spoon some of the fruit, then the mascarpone mixture, into 4 serving glasses, then repeat the layers.
6. Chill, but bring back to room temperature 15 mins before serving.
7. Drizzle with more honey and serve.

For lots more recipes please pop on over to my cookery blog
                          Sarah & Josephs Cookery Corner

 Theres lots of tasty recipes for you to try out that are perfect for making with the kids ..

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Christmas Colour Inspiration

I wont get a chance to post colour inspiration tomorrow as I am spending the day in Cambridge doing a touch of Christmas shopping with my partner. So here's my post a little earlier than normal with a little bit of festive colour decore to get you inspired. Its not the most traditional of Christmas colour pallettes but I have to say I do like this pretty pink inspiration.

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Bathroom Inspiration

I love to see a beautifully designed contemporary bathroom, espcially as for the most of us its just a dream to have the luxury of a big bathing space like this.
The luxurious big baths are stunning features that really have the wow factor in both of these gorgeous spaces.

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kitchen inspiration

Contemprary gloss kitchens have a real apeal to them I think. Its the clean cut lines & simplicity about them & that they are also easy to wipe clean. White is the most popular gloss door but this can often feel very clinical where as black doors can be very dominating in the average kitchen space & really darkens a room too. I find myself drawn to gloss doors in beige, latte or soft dove grey. The soft muted colours are comfortable rather than stark & clinical. You can always add pops of colour into your space in appliances, splashbacks or accessories.

                  I have my heart set on this Avant Beige door from PWS

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create a Magical christmas

I have been busy making  felt gingerbread men & felt robins tree decoration's with my step daughter. We both enjoyed making our own creations. I have also been working on some mini stockings for the tree too but I will share those another time. Find instructions below to make your own felt decorations.....

           To make a felt ginger bread man tree decoration you will need

• Brown felt
• gingerbreadman template or cookie cutter
• White ric rac
• ribbon for hanging tagdark brown, light brown and white embroidery cotton
• pins & an embroidery needle
•  sharp scissors
• stuffing
• buttons

1. Pin your template to the felt & cut out 2 gingerbread men (or cut round a gingerbread man cookie cutter) 

2. On one gingerbread man sew some ric rac to the arms & legs (to look like icing)

3. sew buttons on for eyes or sew a couple of crosses instead, you can do the same with the mouth.

4. you can add a bow tie with ribbon if you like.

5. pin your gingerbread man to the other cut out & sew 3/4 of the way around.

6. fill your gingerbread man with stuffing & then sew up the remaining gap.

7. tie some ribbon to the top & hes ready for the tree.

Last christmas I shared how to make gingerbread man garland click below to see the post

            http://finishingtouchinteriors.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/create-magical-christmas.html


                                  

                                       For the robin you will need

•  brown, red  & white felt
• 2 circle templates slightly different sizes
• brown, red & white cotton
• pins & embroidery needle
• shapr scissors
• stuffing
• buttons

1. cut out 2 circles from the brown felt

2. cut out one slightly smaller circle from the red felt

3. sew the red felt circle onto one of the brown felt circles at the bottom part of the circle (this is for the robins belly)

4. cut a diamond shape out the the brown felt & sew on above the red circle for the beak

5. cut 2 small circles from the white felt for the eyes & add black buttons to the middle

6. Now pin to the remaining brown corcle & sew around leaving a gap at the top for the stuffing.

7. Add stuffing & finish sewing around the circle & add some red ribbon so you can hang your decoration from the tree.

                                  Hey presto we are done....

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Christmas colour Inspiration

You cant get more traditional than red at Christmas and being that its a popular colour in many homes anyway its easy to incorporate into you christmas decorations too.

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bathroom inspiration

This cosy bathroom has a really modern country twist too it. Ive looked a lot at plum inspiration over the past week with tuesdays kitchen tour & last weeks Christmas colour Inspiration posts. I am loving this colour pallette & here seasonal plum mixed with subtle grey & the warm natural wood makes a delightful combination.

 

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kitchen tours

This bold aubergine colour choice looks stunning teamed with white silestone worktops & the pale blue glass tiles & plentiful stainless steel appliances including the fridge drawers below a built in larder cupboard, a double door wine cooler & coffee machine blow the built in microwave & dishwasher drawers. Its a perfectly utilised & workable space that happens to be very eye catching too.

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