Our first Christmas

I hope you've had a nice Christmas with peace and rest.

We've had our first Christmas at home -and even though family was missed- we have really enjoyed the peace and quiet of not having to travel around.

Here are some photos of our last week of preparation and our celebrations:

 Results of our advent "Juleverksted" -lovely gingerbread houses and cookies.

Best tip ever -roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper (no extra flour needed) the day before and you are ready to get cookie-cutting when guests arrive + no fiddly transfer to a baking tray for baking! 

 

 Stefan making his Grandma's "lefser" - a true taste of Christmas.

 

Going out on a Christmas tree hunt -coming home with a Holly branch to decorate. 

While we were away Mary and Joseph arrived at the stable.

 

Some down time before the feasting watching a crackling fire  (on the Mac) - I even managed to finish Aline's Owl jumper in time for Christmas.

Our Christmas Feast -Slow roast Pork belly "RIbbe" with Meatballs "medisterkaker", sausages, potatoes and fried apples - Sherrypudding and creamed ricepudding and finally 7 types of Christmas treats. 

True bliss.

What did you do for your holidays?

Thanks for following!

&

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

Giveaway winner!

Sorry for being so late to announce who won the giveaway...I have no real excuse...

Without further ado

the winner is

Hege

Gratulerer!

If you could get in touch sending me the address you want it sent to that would be great!

And I'll pop it in the post as soon as possible.

Reminder -Giveaway

Who wouldn't want a nice treat? Don't you?

I'm giving away this hand-drawn necklace to one of you readers of my blog as a celebration of my newly opened Etsy shop and to say thanks for reading to you!

Only 5 more days left to join! Go to this page to sign up. You put your name down twice :)

You need to see these!

These might be the cutest childrens books ever!

From the 80's -the time all good things were made *wink*

 

It's stories without words - so gorgeous!
I only discovered them now and got them straight away for Aline!

How to make gold

No Christmas without some bling

This time in the shape of crunchy sweetness - also known as Honeycombe, cinder toffee...

Ingredients:

• 335g sugar
• 125ml honey
• 125ml golden sirup
• 25g butter
• 80ml water

• 2 teaspoons bicarb

Please note that this is extremely hot and you do not want little fingers anywhere near the stove when making these! 

1. Grease some baking paper and place on a baking tray
2. Mix all the ingredients together except the bicarb in a big pan and bring to a boil. It needs to boil while stirring for about 10 min. To see if it is ready drop a few drops of the mixture into a glass of cold water. If it just dissolves it needs to boil longer, if it turns into a hard/firm ball then it is ready for the next step.
3. Now for quick action. Quickly stir in the bicarb and pour immediately onto your pre-greased sheet. This is going to make it expand very rapidly! It turns it into an erupting volcano.
4. When it has cooled down, break into pieces. For some extra luxury dip into melted chocolate. Store in an air-tight box.

Etsy shop is now open! GIVEAWAY!

Welcome to my new Etsy shop 

Mundane and Beauteous

You can join me in there by clicking on the link 

or clicking on the photos of the things I'm selling in the side bar.

Please help me spread the word!

To celebrate this grand opening I'm giving away one hand-drawn bird necklace!

If you would like to have a go at winning it you get two shots -you can:

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite item in my little shop. (If you like my shop please add it to your favorites!)
2. Share the news about my shop and blog on your blog or on facebook/twitter. Then leave a comment on this post letting me know that you've done so.

 Leave one comment for each entry please! The giveaway is open for a week only!

Also remember that the first week you get 15% off if you use coupon code WELCOME15!

If you buy now you get it just in time for Christmas!

Etsy shop opening tomorrow!

Tomorrow my Etsy shop goes live!

Go to http://www.etsy.com/shop/MundaneAndBeauteous

Sneak peak of what is to come:

For the first week 15% off any order when you use code WELCOME15
 

Welcome!

Christmas Dress

I have no fancy intro - but I just want to share some exiting news with you:
I have designed my own Christmas dress and ordered it at Styleshake.
And if they deliver what they say - it should turn up on my door in 10 days. How exiting!

Do you want to know what it looks like?

 

What do you think?

I'm telling you once you've started you don't want to stop!
I've all ready made enough designs to last me a long while -but the options are endless and it's so so fun! If you want to see the rest of my "collection" just type fisher.hoyrem in the search window.
You should have a try! Go straight over to Styleshake and have a go!

Seriously.

Let me know what you come up with!

Truffles

C is for Christmas and chocolate.

And Truffles are one of the best ways to enjoy chocolate 

therefor Truffles should always be made for Christmas 

to be given as presents and to be eaten.

So a few days ago I made truffles with my friend Sharon. 

We made vanilla scented ones.

We made peppermint infused ones.

We made chocolate orange ones.

Here is the recipe we used:

(It makes about 60 truffles)

• 1 tub of Cream cheese
• 350g icing sugar
• 500g chocolate of your choice -the higher the cacao content the better in my book!

1. Melt chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. 
2. Meanwhile beat cream cheese and icing sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Mix in the melted chocolate.
4. Divide into different bowls if you are doing different flavorings. 

• For chocolate mint -add 3-4 drops of peppermint essential oil (edible quality). We rolled ours in icing sugar.
• For chocolate vanilla  - 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. We rolled ours in ground almond.
• For chocolate orange - add the zest of one orange. We rolled ours in coco.
• Other ideas are a teaspoon of strong espresso - chili - salt - Earl Grey tea

5. leave to cool down in the fridge for an hour before shaping into little bite size balls. They are rich so don't make them too big!

6. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks in the fridge. For the best flavor take desired amount out of the fridge an hour or two before devouring.

Enjoy!

Advent calendar

This is how we are counting down to Christmas in the Fisher- Hoyrem household:

My mum made this calendar for me and my siblings about 25 years ago now. 

Lot's of different things have been hanging on this tree -presents, sweets, encouraging notes, daily activities... This year rather than "emptying" the tree we are hanging on an ornament for each day.

Etsy shop opening soon!

The time has come.

(dramatic pause)

I have decided to open an etsy shop. 

It opens in 3 days. 

Her is a sneak peak of some of what will be for sale

The opening will have surprises and a giveaway so stay tuned for 

a little drop of everyday art 

at Mundane and Beauteous!

Also I now have a page on Facebook so why don't you find me there too - who knows what interesting things might pop up there! *wink*

One of those days...

Some days you just want to stay in bed and not talk to anyone. 

On those days things tend to go wrong or I do something silly. 

Such a day was last week.

I now have a cut or a burn on every single finger on both hands. 

Quite an achievement actually.

So in this blur I have managed to get myself and Aline dressed and onto the bus in to town to meet Stefan for lunch. 

With Aline being the smiling little person she is - my days of anonymity on the bus are over. It is a lot easier to hid behind a philosophy book than a curious baby. 

So an older lady comes and sits down next to me and asks me how old my little boy is. I take a quick glance at Aline and see that I have dressed her in blue and green -which happen to be my favorite colors - as I'm not in the mood for a long talk I say "she's nearly six months " and look out the window to ward off further questioning. 

Aline on the other hand is trying to grab hold of the lady's scarf. Who then asks me if  he is my first child. So she didn't catch my "she" - still not feeling anymore talkative I don't correct her mistake and just say "yes".

Every question and comment during the following 15 min of reluctant small talk is making it harder for me to rectify the gender of my sweet baby without looking like a complete fool. The lady announces that she is getting off at the next stop and I am relived that I will soon be able to retreat back into silence. 

The out of the blue she asks me "what is his name?"

-what would you have done? 

I had a slight moment of panic and then I heard myself answer:

"Daniel"

To which she replied "what a lovely name for such an adorable boy."

-Aline I'm so sorry.

I've never seen your dad laugh so hard as when I confessed to him my web of lies.

In our midst

As the pace is picking up as the party season starts I find myself shutting down. In this dark time of the year I find it very easy to retreat, life flattens out and melancholy lurks around the corner.  

So I find particular comfort in the art of advent - the art of anticipation.

the slow countdown of waiting

the quiet growing of expectancy

the gradual darkening of the day so dawn and dusk nearly meet

the lighting of the advent candles one by one until all are lit on Christmas day.

In our house on the first Sunday of advent Mary and Josef come down from the attic (just in case you didn't know where they normally live...) and they go on a journey around the living room until they arrive at the stables on Christmas Eve. 

Mary is heavily pregnant and Josef is walking by her side.  They are wading through our mess, also waiting for the One who came into the midst of our darkness and mess. And when He came, He came not as the one who has it all figured out, but as the helpless one who needed to be fed, cuddled, washed, warmed, soothed and comforted.