Hello everybody (whoever is reading this, hehe) I am in Wales now so I cannot write in Chinese. Dylan and I come back to Wales every year for Christmas and New Year so in general we don't need to prepare much for Christmas like most families do, e.g. buying fresh veg, turkey, stocking up booze and snacks etc. It used to be a
bit like Chinese New Year in Hong Kong, shops shut for ages so people stocked up their cupboards but nowadays shops start their SALE on boxing day. I cannot understand why people still go mental on shopping groceries before Christmas.
Anyway talking about my preparation, even though we don't need to worry about buying food, we still need to shop around for christmas gifts. What they tend to do is to buy a lot little ones as so called "stocking filler" and one big one as a main present. Buying one present is already a hard work so buying several for one person is even harder. Also when it comes down to me to do all the thinking and shopping is even much harder. You may be thinking why it comes down to me, to be fair, it's easier for me to do the shopping as I work in town and also it appears that I am more observant than Dylan so I seem to be able to come up with better idea than him, however my ideas still have to meet his approval otherwise I can't go ahead!!!!
Everyone in the family is a grown up so it's difficult to buy as we all have more or less everything we need/want. I try to be thoughtful and come up with some homemade/handmade presents for them which you can't put a value on, hehe, so I normally get really busy and exhausted before christmas.
I tend to make all the christmas cards unless I am short of ideas. Here are this year selections:
For Dylan:
A close up of the detail on the card (the litle keyring things were made from shrink plastic, a very magical craft material):
For Dylan's brother:
A close up on the card topper which was made from FIMO clay and brushed with pearlescent powder:
For Dylan's aunt:
The cat on the card was made out of FIMO clay and stuck on a little photo frame. The photo frame can be taken off so she can use it as a little decorative item around the house.
For Dylan's Mum and Dad:
The red poinsettia was made out of plain red and red glittered felt. I have made it into a brooch so Dylan's Mum can take it off after christmas and put it on somewhere (don't think it's nice enough to wear out)
My grandmother's birthday is sometime in December. I can never work out which day it is as it's a chinese lunar calendar date. Anyway I have made her a little card with FIMO clay (told you I have gone crazy with FIMO clay)
As you can see on the card it's a dim sum steamer with a lot of birthday buns "flying" around. There are 9 birthday buns in total which implies "long living".
Birthday buns "freshly" came out from the oven (just after I put some vanish on)
It's a 10p coin in the picture so you can imagine the size of the dim sum steamer and the birthday buns (a 10p coin is the similar size of 1HKD coin)
Buns in the steamer (the buns were painted with pastel chalk so the red on them looks very subtle and soft):
The finished product (Dylan said I should put a little trademark tag on it but I forgot, haha):
I think I have gone a bit made with the FIMO clay this year. Not only using it for the cards but also in making gifts. We have several candle holders from the wedding lying around unused so I thought it would be a good idea to decorate them and give them away as a present.
Here is my first attempt. Using 3 different colours FIMO clay to make a simple flower cane:
Here is my second attempt. The pattern on the candle holder was made out of leftover clay while I was just messing around so it was kind of an accident. (I know I should have tried to get a better picture but I was in such a rush)
I didn't plan on making the little cat on the edge but I only notice the edge was chipped when I finished. It would be a waste to give up on it after all the effort so I made a little cat hanging on there to cover up the chipped edge.
Now I am in Wales putting my feet up and looking forward to unwrapping all my presents!! (There are a lot under the tree!!!)
Looking at this picture may make you wonder that there is one cake short!! This is because the 6-inch cake I have made isn't a christmas cake but a birthday cake as Dylan's Dad's birthday is on 27th December. Dylan's mother always buys a cake for christmas so I now always make mine into a birthday cake.
The decoration on this cake is daffodil as it's an emblem of Wales. It was tough to do the flowers as I don't have the proper tools. I could only make them with my hands and a few toothpicks. My small hands came in handy!
I was going to make some gingerbread men but I was running out of time so I went for an easier option: pressed cookies. I wanted to make it more festive so I used the christmas tree disc for the cookies. Somehow I was feeling adventrous and wanted to make the cookies green as they were supposed to be christmas. Having healthy eating in my head, I went for green tea powder rather than green food colouring.
When I showed Dylan the cookie dough before I put them into the oven, he was so horrible. I asked him,"What do you think this is?" He said spontaneously,"Turd" Well, to be fair, it does a bit but he shouldn't have said that.(cry......) When I told my colleague, Julie, about this, she said he was one brave man to mess with me. The 4-inch cake has gone to Julie.
They do look like Christmas Trees, don't they??
I didn't take pictures of the mince pies as I was in such a rush to get everything ready. I have to thank my friend Jessie here because without her sending me the cookie bags and pretty food wrappers I wouldn't be able to present all the homemade food beautifully.
Here is the hamper we put together for John and Roger (one each!) as we really appreciate them as friends, and also they did a brilliant job as photographers at our wedding which we can never thank enough.
With a little gift tag I did on computer:
Here's a hamper for Dylan's aunt, I really like that tin of biscuit from M&S because it looks so vintage:
上碟前的椰菜花 濃湯
司康位生坯
新鮮出爐﹗
