New Thrifty Gifty - Organised for Christmas and all ocassions 2010- Santas Challenges

rufusdog52

Ddraig wrote: »

Ty Rufus.Im 2 kids down this week,no school run so I may indulge in reading the last 100 or so pages of our group,lol.
Hoping it will be easy to get back in the swing of things.Went on the mortgage calculator yesterday and got giddy playing with the mortgage overpayment tool,lol.Im adamant id like to earn 100 extra a month to overpay mortgage in 2011.And make enough good jewellery to give to female family members in 2011.
Anyone else got next year in their minds already?lol.

Yes I have already started thinking about next year. I am making quilts for my two sisters and have already started collecting the fabrics for them. Think I will be making some kind of jewellery for the nieces but dont know what yet and may be bags too as I found a pattern for a nice bag I printed out ages ago and had forgotten about.

These are the main things I would like to get out of the way soon as into the new year as I can as will be a big weight off my mind for rest of year. Brother and Sil are having a quilt this year so they will probs get a food hamper again next year.

junior_j

Hey

I brought my friends little girl a mini dolls house and it comes with little dolls house items and all opens up , only £4.00 and I brought lovely brought colored jelly beans wrapping paper and matching tags for a £1.00. Going to her a sweetie cone too. That was from matalan. Didn't see many good things out today , pound land have good Halloween stuff. And toy story and sponge bob cups to if you are doing hampers/snow man soups ( i brought cello cones for snow man soups too) xx

elysia2003

DDraig welcome back. You will never believe this but I was thinking about you this morning! :eek: How spooky is that? :eek:I'm glad your little one arrived safe and sound.

The house is so Christmassy at the moment - I've made my Christmas cake today. I've just took it out of the oven to cool. The Nigella recipe says to put 120ml of Brandy in. It looked an awful lot, and the fumes from it nearly knocked us out. We very rarely drink in our house. We only had the brandy in because our elderly neighbour gave it us last Christmas, and I have the feeling he didn't want it either because it was awfully dusty. LOL.
Anyway, when we tasted the remenants in the bowl, as you do, it tasted lovely. Mmmmm.

I had to go down the shops to get the baking parchment for the cake and while I was there I bought a basket for my Mums HM foodie goodies. Store 21 have some lovely ones in at the moment, for anyone still looking. Wilko's had a few but ours has just been re-done and don't have a big selection now sadly.

I've sorted out all the stuff for the Christmas Eve hampers, just need hot choc to make snowman soups to go in them now, and that's them done and dusted.

I bought turkey and a massive peice of pork on Friday and cranberry sauce. So I really am getting there, organising wise. Need to make three sock monkeys at some point, but with the kids being off next week, it will have to be the week after!

Thanks for the challenges Mum2one. I like the sound of the secret santa. I'm off to have a think about the questions. :cool:

fedupandskint

I made my Creola Cake Soaking fruit today - it smelt so Christmassy! It needs to soak for a week so will be baking next weekend for the first 2 cakes then considering whether to do another 2 of these or 2 Classic Cakes

Caved in to the Yankee Candle Teapot on QVC for the kitchen for Christmassy - loved the look of it and to dress the eat in kitchen a bit more than usual/ This year I have a small Christmas Tree I bought in the sales last year for the large window sill and then this tart burner so that's a good start. I'll have a look in the sales again this year to see what's around for next year

Can't remember who asked this earlier - straight after Boxing Day is the best time to buy cards, wrap and decorations as they fly out of the shop as they have been so massively reduced

mary-op

Hello all :j

elysia - glad you got the letter ok even though it turned out not to be needed after all.........lol When I wrote it I thought I'd be off line till 28th:eek: but so far so good.

mum2one - challenge not too painful...........cupboards were cleared out and re-arranged and tidied a while back and amazingly they've stayed that way ...........lol:rotfl:
MAKING PRESENTS/ CRAFTING
Set yourself a list of what you need to do…….and set a finishing date.

The above is something I've been trying to do nearly all year..........finish date was end of Aug. then Sept. then Oct.......now it'll be Nov.:eek:
Still, what isn't done this year will wait and go on my list for next year. Just need to cover two more shoe boxes and chuck stuff in them (sorry wrap and pack neatly!), sort out grandchildrens 'party in a bag' (got two gift bags for wine that'll do for champers and party bits for them.
We don't have a houseful so luckily I don't have to panic about food stock..........just be me, OH and our lad.

Spent the morning doing my coaster/beer mat calendars so now they're all done apart from the magnetic strips -might end up getting some more bull dog clips instead.
Well, off to see what else has been going on.........:)

elysia2003

Mary do you use ebay? Here is some magnetic tape. This one is the cheapest, excellent feedback too. If you don't have ebay/paypal I'd be happy to puchase it and send it on.

Real_Toothfairy

Hi all.......will try and catch up tomorrow.....had a hell of a week....but all calmed down now....

Lovely dinner today ....DN staying with us from Warrington....and DB came over so was nice. Just been making snowman soup with DN giving his opinion!! Anyway here is a pic....Hope u all had a fab weekend xxx

mary-op

elysia - oh if you could I'd be so grateful. I've never used ebay and don't have a paypal account either. Price looks good.........oh eck. Not sure now whether to have two lots...........yes.........I'll go for two then at least I've got it for next year (if I dont use it all now..........lol)
Bless you for that.......:T

toothfairy - they look brilliant :T

toffeeapple

Went away for the weekend, came home to find someone accusing me of copyright issues... what a joke!!

Last time I put photos of creations for anyone to see on here!!

toffeeapple

Real toothfairy - brilliant snowman soup, fab idea to put tinsel on the top of them.

Mum2one - yet again thank you for your time and trouble of setting another challenge!! Love it. Got to break it down and work out what needs to be done...

rufusd!!!2 - love the idea you'll have your own special Christmas day on the Monday. We've done that before now, my hubby is a chef so we've had to wait for our xmas on another day before now!! Kids loved it as it just spread out the celebrations!!