Howling at the Moon

Yesterday we all, the whole family that is, went to my brother's house, to celebrate Christmas. I made another cake. I think this second one looks much better than the first one.  ~*~ Both my Christmas wreath and my Clay Ornaments were featured by Stacey Embracing Change ! Thanks, Stacey!

When I was young my parents always rented a movie box when we were off from school for Christmas and we watched movies almost all vacation long. As a family we developed a collection of favorite movies in that vacations. Our all time favorite was Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It still is one of my favorite movies ever.When I was about twenty the boyfriend I had then was a dj and made some records for Outland Records (a record store in Amsterdam). On one of the records he used a sample from the movie Close Encounters, as an ode to my family. That was and is how much we love that movie.  For all time sake we thought it would be nice to do it all over this year. Christmas Eve will be the night we go to my brother and his wife to watch the movies of our youth with the whole family. We will all bring our favorite food to put on a grazing board, so none of us has a lot of work making food and such. We will eat while watching and in between the movies we will unpack Christmas p...

Last week my husband asked me if I could make something for his Christmas Breakfast at his job. For my own Christmas Diner with my family I wanted to make this same cake, so this was the perfect opportunity for a try out. Not that it was the first time that I made this kind of cake, but I wanted to experiment with the cream and the decoration. It's not entirely what I had in mind yet, but I think the cake looks okay. The cake is four layered with peppermint cream inbetween. It's covered in mint green fondant and the (tiny bit too liquid) drippings are made of chocolate ganache. The toppings are what I could find, merengue wreaths, marsipan christmas trees, candy canes, lollypops, etc. 

My sister-in-law sent me a link to a wreath making workshop a couple of weeks ago. I never go to workshops, because I like to do that sort of things in my own home, but a friend of mine wanted to go, too. Maybe it's nice to go together, I thought. So this weekend we went off to the little village where we grew up, because that was where the workshop was. It was nice to be back in the place where we both lived for so many years. Not that I never came back all those years, because my brother still lives there, but I'm not part of the community anymore. The town house, where the workshop took place, still smelled like all those years ago. Funny how a smell can bring back lively memories. Anyway, this is the wreath I made. It's hanging on my front door.

Because I live in The Netherlands, where people celebrate Sinterklaas, especially when they have children that still believe the saint is a real figure, trees are only decorated after Sinterklaas has returned to Spain, on December 6th. Most people feel it's definitely not done to set up the tree before that date. To be honest: I feel that way, too. So, just last week I bought a tree, it's my first real tree in years, and decorated it the same day. Most of the decoration are regular glass balls, but from polymer clay I made a couple of ornaments myself. 

This tree I saw on Pinterest . I liked it, so I made it. Matches great with my outdoor Christmas decor.  Update: Just a tip if you want to make this tree yourself.  right after I posted this tree, I went to the blog of the maker to thank her for sharing this idea and saw I could have used fonts that could have been transfered to the wood. Would have saved me so much time as I had seen this before I started. Mine is all hand lettering.

This week both my daughters have their yearly Christmas Diner at school. It always is a big happening for them, although it only lasts an hour. The classroom is decorated with a tree and lots of lights, the tables are put together and beautifully set and Christmas songs are playing. All kids have to bring something to eat, so a couple of weeks before Christmas Diner will take place we look for some nice treat to make. This year my oldest wants Christmas Tree Cupcakes and my youngest wants little ciabattas with mozzarella, tomato and pesto (I will show them bot later this week).  Another issue is the clothes they will wear. My oldest daughter has the age she wants to shop with her friends, so this year she went looking for a Christmas dress without me for the first time (you have to let your kids go, I know, but it's with pain in my heart; shopping for the Christmas dress was something to look forward to).  My yoiungest has a dress with short sleeves and she wanted me to...

My daughter has got some handlettering books from Sinterklaas and while I was cleaning her room I flipped through a couple of pages. I was immediately inspired and made this mug. It's a gift to myself, because a good cup of coffee can really feel like a hug in a mug, am I right?

Now that Sint Maarten deliverd lots of candies and sweets and Sinterklaas has brought his presents and is off to Spain again until next year, it's time for the next holiday: Christmas. This weekend I will set up the Christmas Tree with my daughters. We also have a 'Carols from Scrap' saturday, when there are two choirs formed, one for children and one for adults, that will practice carols for the whole day. At the end of the day both choirs will peform at church. Very good way to get in the mood for Christmas.  I started to make some Christmas Decorations this week.  From gold colored straws I made this star: I got this idea from Etsy, where you also can buy complete kits to make these so called Himmeli's yourself

 A while ago I saw this pattern. Simple and fast to make, but cute. So I made it.  I found this pattern here ~*~ My Lampion was featured by Ginx Crafts!! Thank you very much!

It's almost December 5th and that's the day the people of The Netherlands celebrate Sinterklaas. It really is a children's fest. Sinterklaas is an old Saint that brings presents, together with his helpers. He has a horse that can walk over rooftops and his helpers can slide down the chimney. In the weeks before December 5th children set their shoes before the chimney and at  night the helpers (all named Pete, but you have Rhyme Pete, Dance Pete, Wrap Pete and Chief Pete, to name a few examples) put little presents in it.  On the 5th of December Sinterklaas celebrates his birthday. That day all children are awaiting the evening, because that's the moment Pete can knock at the door any moment and leave a bag full of presents. For the children that are still at elementary school, but don't believe in Sinterklaas anymore there's a alternative Sinterklaas celebration (around the age of 7, 8 you can't make them believe any single thing anymore, unfortunat...