Christmas is coming!! please help me

[evelyn]

You are all wonderfull people!

Thankyou all so very much, i was getting myself in a rite tiz, i will start checkig out the links you have put up this evening today i am putting in a new veg bed today.

p.s

Do any of you have the method for making sope? i have found resipies but no method.

Eve

[SarahJane]

I am giving a selection of chutneys and savoury marmalades to the adults and a small box of chocolate truffles.
There are some great ideas on this thread though. I may have to use them next year.

[StripyPixieSocks]

Maybe next year we could start some kind of Christmas swap shop where we could make several of something (say a block of soap) and put the extra bits on here to exchange for say a hand cream or something then we might get a variety of gifts to give... or something

Just an acorn of an idea...

[Milims]

That sounds like a fab idea SPS. It seems that everyone here has lots of differing talents so we are in total a great resource!
In the meantime these are lovely and very easy to make - even I can do it!
http://www.downsizer.net/Projects/A_sus ... _Slippers/

[Annpan]

Maybe next year we could start some kind of Christmas swap shop where we could make several of something (say a block of soap) and put the extra bits on here to exchange for say a hand cream or something then we might get a variety of gifts to give... or something

Just an acorn of an idea...

Great Idea - why don't you start it this year, in the swaps section... When I decide what the heck I am doing for christmas gifts I will join in.

[evelyn]

Hi all you lovley ishers,

I toddled off to the village this morning with my shopping trolly, withdrew my pittence from the bank and went shopping for ingredents for bath salt, bath bom's and sope.

I got some quisical looks from the girl in Boots and the woman in the spiritual shop but i got almost everything, a quik trip to the supermarket filled my list. I spent about £25 so i was feeling rather pleased with my self.

Untill i poped in the local chemist shop to descover that they were selling loads of realy fancy bath sets for £1-£2.50, so i was very fed up and wondering if i should go back to the village and return everything and get the gift sets insted, thankfully i bumped into a friend who was insistant that she would much prefer home made.

So i have spent my afternoon making lavinder salts, turned out very well, and bom's, i think i made them too wet, so i will have to see if the harden up, i havent started on the sope yet as i am very worried that i will make a mess of it, i think it is a job for tomorrow when i am a bit more relaxed.

I am making my made up onion sweet chutney later this evening, it always goes down well as gifts and it will only cost me about £4 to make 6lb. You probobly alreddy know about the best place to get cheep good onions, but for those of you that dont, find an Aisian groser, they sell them in 10k saks for around £2.

Eve

[SarahJane]

Sounds like you have had a really busy constructive day! You put me to shame. How did you make your bath bombs? Are they easy?

[Thomzo]

I'm planning to make chocolate slabs for everyone this year. They're all the rage in the shops, Thorntons and Boots are selling them at well over £10 each.

Asda's own chocolate is actually really nice and less than £1 for the large bar. Melt white, plain and milk chocolate and pour over greaseproof paper in an abstract pattern. You can mix food colouring into the white chocolate and add extras like marshmallows, sprinkles and dried fruit. I made some small ones a few months ago for the cake bake at work and they sold like hot cakes. I just need some of the flat ferrero rocher boxes to put the finished article in. Might try freecycle.

Cheers
Zoe

[evelyn]

My bath bom's were a compleet disaster, i made the paste too wet so they were squishey and sticky.

I know what i did wrong so i will have another go tomorrow and hopefuly have better results.

I got the instructions off tinternet, a friend sent me a link, i would give you the link but i am a bit of a spod when it comes to anything tec, so if you know how to do this please tell me and i will post it for you.

Eve

[Rosendula]

I just thought of something we're doing for ourselves that might be an idea for you. We're in the middle of redecorating our living room and decided our old pictures just won't look right (and we're sick of them ). Richard's gone all arty-farty with his camera recently and took some gorgeous pictures of flowers, insects and raindrops on leaves, so we're going to have them printed out to a size that will fit our old picture frames. Perhaps if you have any of that sort of picture you could just buy some frames for them. Ours will be really big, but A4 size would work well too. Have a look at these pics. If you can imagine them cropped and maybe with the big splash of colour off to one side or something, I think they're lovely. You're welcome to use them if you think anyone will like them

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr58 ... ropped.jpg
http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr58 ... ropped.jpg
http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr58 ... 010130.jpg
http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr58 ... 010145.jpg
http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr58 ... 010149.jpg
http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr58 ... 010151.jpg

[evelyn]

Thank's

They are fab!

Eve

[StripyPixieSocks]

On the art thing... get yourself a flower press (or make a simple one) go out and find some really nice coloured leaves and press them, stick them onto a neutral / earthy coloured background and slip them into a small frame ore series of small frames (maybe 4 with 4 different leaves in).

If you get simple wooden frames you could always paint the frames in a colour to match the leaves...

Go wild, you could put anything in there really, just call it modern art and voila... everyone becomes an artist (or critic lol)

You could even get one of those box frames (the ones that are slightly deeper) and fill it with dried stuff like pine cones or Conkers or sycamore keys or something and tell people it's a never ending art project as when they get fed up of looking at it, give the box a shake and voila another incarnation of conker arrangements etc...

[Milims]

We got the recipes out of a couple of recipe books - I know one of them was a Cadburys book and I think the other was by Mary Berry. Both long gone I'm afraid.
But I had a quick Google and here are a couple of sites that look interesting.

http://www.chocolate-source.co.uk/choco ... uffles.htm

http://www.famousfrenchdesserts.com/cho ... cipes.html

Hope these give you some good ideas - in fact I might have a go again myself this year.

I just had a look at the first web site - ooooooooohhhhh! I think we'll be having a go at the easy truffles for prezzies!

[Percy]

Last year we decided we were going to cut back. We bought some cheap bottles of Olive oil and put in differant herbs and dried spices depending on who they were for. Along with the usual pickles ( sure recipes can be found on this site somewhere) from stuff i had grown on the allotment. We designed a simple label on the computer and put them on the bottles/jars. That sorted the adults out. Mind you the kids were different but by saving on the adults we were able to sort the kids out.

[clare]

We always buy the smallest school photos then scan them make then slightly bigger then get frames from the car boot sale or charity shops and frame them for the great Nans and Grandparents,we got frames for as little as 20p and they looked new and with the children in them they are a great gift for next to nothing!If you don't have a scanner you can get copies in some photo places for as low as a £1 each.