Another year over eh?
This time of year always seems to fly by for me, maybe it's because we are usually on holiday around this time. Which means our days are filled with lazing about and drinking so the time seems to pass faster.
It has been an odd year, drastically split in two halves. One full of joy with visits from the family and talks of future travel and the second part full of bankruptcies, worried faces, protests and people hoping their jobs will still be there in January.
Well we didn't let the kreppa put a dampner on our festivities and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves this year. Who knows when the next time will be when we buy alcohol!
We were invited to a bbq at some new friends home. T is Icelandic and W is a Newfoundlander, great people and lots of lovely kids! :) I had been bought some silicone chocolate moulds for xmas, so I made them some chocolates with a bag of Joi Fel white chips. I melted the chips and filled the moulds half way, let them set them popped in a piece of glace cherry and filled up with the rest of the melted chocolate. Before I had put any chocolate in the moulds, I grated some dark chocolate into them, for effect really.
They look really cool, if I do say so. Very filling, even one is a lot! They look great in my HR chocolate box :D .
I made panna cotta for dessert tonight, it's from a box, but it was still gorgeous! You only add the cream and milk and heat them up, then put them in glasses or ramekins and cool for a few hours. I had never had before and thought it was devine!
Well that's all from me for 2008. Happy New Year :)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
let it snow, let it snow
Now that everyone has opened their gifts, I can reveal what I made them this year. Everyone got the same themed gift. A keychain with 2 photo's of them with us on their visits to Iceland.
It took me a little while to figure out how best to print out the tiny photo's needed for the keychains, but in the end, I used iphoto and their collage theme in printing. You can then zoom in or out, to make certain areas of the photo the focus. It worked really well and I thought everyone would appreciate the small gifts.
l-r:Ali, mam, dad, Peter and James(since he hasn't been here, I had to go back to 2005 to find a pic with both of us!)
The backs:
Stephen's family also received keychains and I made a keychain and earrings for my friend SJ up North:
I received lots of fimo and a gift card for the craft shop, so lets hope I am more productive in 2009 :)
Gleiðileg Jól
Karen
It took me a little while to figure out how best to print out the tiny photo's needed for the keychains, but in the end, I used iphoto and their collage theme in printing. You can then zoom in or out, to make certain areas of the photo the focus. It worked really well and I thought everyone would appreciate the small gifts.
l-r:Ali, mam, dad, Peter and James(since he hasn't been here, I had to go back to 2005 to find a pic with both of us!)
The backs:
Stephen's family also received keychains and I made a keychain and earrings for my friend SJ up North:
I received lots of fimo and a gift card for the craft shop, so lets hope I am more productive in 2009 :)
Gleiðileg Jól
Karen
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
A New Addiction
In Iceland they have Jolasveinar, 13 Yule Lads that come down from the mountains, one each night from 12th Dec until 24th Dec. They deliver very good kids small gifts in their shoes, that have been left on the window sills. Each lad has a different name according to what is his pastime. For one it may be licking the spoons, another slamming the doors. In olden times the lads were an annoyance to families, which is where they get their names and pastimes from, but these days they are good.
Well Stephen and I partake in this cultural event and receive a nice gift for every day in our shoes :) I've received some lovely Icelandic chocolates, silicone chocolate moulds, candles etc
For today I made Stephen some geeky items with my newly acquired Hama beads. I had wanted to play with these for ages now, since I have been on Cut Out + Keep. I had a lot of fun playing around with them last night and even made two small decorations for the tree :)
Needless to say Stephen was very happy with his geeky keychains and beer mat :D
And the decorations:
There is one bead in the wrong place on the snowflake and I was so annoyed when I saw it! grr
Well Stephen and I partake in this cultural event and receive a nice gift for every day in our shoes :) I've received some lovely Icelandic chocolates, silicone chocolate moulds, candles etc
For today I made Stephen some geeky items with my newly acquired Hama beads. I had wanted to play with these for ages now, since I have been on Cut Out + Keep. I had a lot of fun playing around with them last night and even made two small decorations for the tree :)
Needless to say Stephen was very happy with his geeky keychains and beer mat :D
And the decorations:
There is one bead in the wrong place on the snowflake and I was so annoyed when I saw it! grr
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Why does it always rain on me?
It's almost Jóladagur. This year is going to be a little different for Stephen and I, it is the first year either of us will have worked the 25th! For me, having always worked in retail, working up until 6pm xmas eve is pretty usual, but never, NEVER having to work on the 25th was a huge bonus.
Somehow, we have managed to escape it the last 4 christmas seasons in our current job, but we got stuck with it this year. Hopefully we will be out and finished early, so we can run back and put the turkey on.
To make matters slightly worse, all that lovely snow we have been having is due to end tomorrow, with rain forecast for the week. We have only had one un-white Dec 25th since living in Iceland and even then there was a little.
Anyhoo, I made myself some seasonal earrings to wear in work on Jóladagur. They started out in my head as snowflakes, but I realised they would work great as laufabrauð, so that is what I am saying they are!
I made them with white glittery fimo :)
My brother received his extremely late birthday gift yesterday. It was a tshirt that I designed a comic strip for and printed it on.
Here's what the comic was like:
I will post pictures of the couple of gifts I made for people after the 25th.
Somehow, we have managed to escape it the last 4 christmas seasons in our current job, but we got stuck with it this year. Hopefully we will be out and finished early, so we can run back and put the turkey on.
To make matters slightly worse, all that lovely snow we have been having is due to end tomorrow, with rain forecast for the week. We have only had one un-white Dec 25th since living in Iceland and even then there was a little.
Anyhoo, I made myself some seasonal earrings to wear in work on Jóladagur. They started out in my head as snowflakes, but I realised they would work great as laufabrauð, so that is what I am saying they are!
I made them with white glittery fimo :)
My brother received his extremely late birthday gift yesterday. It was a tshirt that I designed a comic strip for and printed it on.
Here's what the comic was like:
I will post pictures of the couple of gifts I made for people after the 25th.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Don't Step in the Mushroom Ring!
I finished my mosaic class on Monday last. I am (again) so glad for Stephen's encouragement to get out there, he knew I really wanted to try this out and just needed a huge nudge ;)
All of us who had taken the course, (there ended up being 3 of us)were very happy with our finished items. Personally, I think we all did a great job too. Everyone gave it their all and we each did something very different. Our teacher Alice was full of pride.
Alice had helped us out in between the last two classes, by glueing on our edge tiles, as we would not have had the time to do all that and put the grout on and clean them up in the final class. So, kudos to her for that :D
Without further waffle, here is the piece I made for moi.
All of us who had taken the course, (there ended up being 3 of us)were very happy with our finished items. Personally, I think we all did a great job too. Everyone gave it their all and we each did something very different. Our teacher Alice was full of pride.
Alice had helped us out in between the last two classes, by glueing on our edge tiles, as we would not have had the time to do all that and put the grout on and clean them up in the final class. So, kudos to her for that :D
Without further waffle, here is the piece I made for moi.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Chocolate Madness
Today was such a beautiful wintry day. The kind of day you want to walk around everywhere and take pictures of everything, just to remember how pretty the world looks covered in fluffy snow. Also with the moon at it's closest to earth in over 15 years, the scenery was pretty spectacular! Pity then, we were in work :(
It is also Stephen(my boyfriend)'s birthday today. I baked him a chocolate sponge cake, my first ever chocolate cake. It turned out really good. I used the recipe I have for a regular victoria sponge cake and just added cocoa. Then I made up chocolate butter cream.
Chocolate Buttercream
75g Unsalted butter
175g Powdered sugar
3 tbsp cocoa
milk
Cream the butter, then add the sifted sugar and cocoa, beat into the butter. Add enough milk to make the mixture spreadable.
I received a very cool silicon heart mould for making chocolates from Stekkjastaur, the first Icelandic Yule Lad. So I melted some Icelandic cooking chocolate and made a couple of chocolates up. They look so professional! I can't wait to try out different versions.
I have been really enjoying my mosaic classes. I have one more left, this Monday. I decided not to do the mirror, instead I am doing a long rectangular candle holder. I have not decided wether to give it away or not, so no pics yet :D
It is also Stephen(my boyfriend)'s birthday today. I baked him a chocolate sponge cake, my first ever chocolate cake. It turned out really good. I used the recipe I have for a regular victoria sponge cake and just added cocoa. Then I made up chocolate butter cream.
Chocolate Buttercream
75g Unsalted butter
175g Powdered sugar
3 tbsp cocoa
milk
Cream the butter, then add the sifted sugar and cocoa, beat into the butter. Add enough milk to make the mixture spreadable.
I received a very cool silicon heart mould for making chocolates from Stekkjastaur, the first Icelandic Yule Lad. So I melted some Icelandic cooking chocolate and made a couple of chocolates up. They look so professional! I can't wait to try out different versions.
I have been really enjoying my mosaic classes. I have one more left, this Monday. I decided not to do the mirror, instead I am doing a long rectangular candle holder. I have not decided wether to give it away or not, so no pics yet :D
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Chewy Oatmeal Goodness
It's already one week into December and it feels like I have no time at all. I have not one present completed, not one bought or any cards written. Nothing new there! ha
I am suffering from a major bout of procrastination and have been for some time. So I baked instead of crafting, hoping that would spur me on. It didn't have the desired effect, but mostly because the cookies I chose to bake created a mass of dough! I only have one shelf in my oven, so I could only bake about 5 cookies at a time. I ended up baking 29 cookies and was still left with about 1/3 of the batch.
The cookies were oatmeal raisin cookies. I followed the recipe, just adding sliced cooking cherries to the recipe. There is quite a lot of butter, I don't think I have ever baked with 1/2 pound of butter before, but it did make extremely delicious chewy cookies.
This is one recipe I will keep bookmarked and will force me to buy another shelf for the oven! It took me much too long to bake the ones I did.
Anyhow, here are some photos.
I am suffering from a major bout of procrastination and have been for some time. So I baked instead of crafting, hoping that would spur me on. It didn't have the desired effect, but mostly because the cookies I chose to bake created a mass of dough! I only have one shelf in my oven, so I could only bake about 5 cookies at a time. I ended up baking 29 cookies and was still left with about 1/3 of the batch.
The cookies were oatmeal raisin cookies. I followed the recipe, just adding sliced cooking cherries to the recipe. There is quite a lot of butter, I don't think I have ever baked with 1/2 pound of butter before, but it did make extremely delicious chewy cookies.
This is one recipe I will keep bookmarked and will force me to buy another shelf for the oven! It took me much too long to bake the ones I did.
Anyhow, here are some photos.
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