Yuletide Blessings!

I've been a busy elf, trying to get everything ready for the big days ahead. I'm not nearly done everything I'd like to do, but I'm not too worried about it. No matter how much I do (or don't) the holidays are coming.

We celebrate both Yule and Christmas in our house. It's rather nice. Yule is marked with a lovely feast and is fabulous in it's giftlessness. We'll drink and eat until we're merry as can be, feed the birds and leave some treats for the faerie folk, then head back inside to nosh on the Yule Log.

We see the Yule Log as a symbol of luck and prosperity... plus it looks jolly lovely and festive. In the book I swiped my cake recipe from, there were ridiculously complicated instructions for making a log cake. Pffft! Here's how to make one easy peasy...

First of all, there's nothing wrong with buying a store bought jelly roll to make your log, but if you are making one from scratch, roll the warm cake in a towel and let it cool. This will help prevent cracking when you roll it up.

Looky at how nice and rolly that cake is!

Now fill your cake with cream, icing or jam.

Now, make a diagonal cut at one end of the roll.

Plonk that bit you just chopped off where you'd like your 'limb' to poke out.

Now cover it in chocolate icing. Some people ice the ends but it's supposed to be a chopped log and I like the look of the 'rings' so I don't bother.

When it's covered, drag the tines of a fork across the surface.

Hey look! It's just like bark!

Add some powdered sugar for snow, meringue mushrooms, berries, shaved chocolate and decorate the heck out of that log!

How easy was that?!?!

Take it easy, breath, and enjoy the holidays... no matter which ones you celebrate :)

xoxox

Great Big Beautiful Babes, Catridges, Trees and Father Christmas

I'm buying mostly handmade this year. I was shopping on etsy this afternoon and found the perfect hand printed tee for someone. Hmmm, which size to select? She's sort of small... what the hell? X-lrg is size 8? When did this happen?

PEOPLE OF EARTH! THIS IS INSANE!

If the average size woman in North America is size 12-14, who in their right mind decided that size 8 should be called extra large?

If  I ever become rich and famous I'm going to do three things...
1. Buy A LOT of candy and chocolate.
2. Open a chain of crafty/arty shops with Phizzychick and call it PhizzyKnickers
3. Start a clothing line that goes from size "Needs to eat more pie" all the way up to "Great Big Gorgeous Babe"

Grrrrrr.

-----> Insert nice story here to calm ruffled feathers....

Last night I'm tucking D into bed and he says "Mum, what's a cartridge?" so I tell him. Then he says "But how do you use them with trees?" And I say I have no idea what he's talking about. So he proceeds to sing and ends up with "... a cartridge in a pear tree."

-----> Insert two freebie photo's for Father Christmas making, because I love you to bits.

The first Christmas figure I was aware of as a child was Father Christmas. He's a little different from the iconic American Santa Claus. Father Christmas appeared thinner, with a long, rather than bushy beard, usually wearing a full length robe of red or green. The fake ones you could see in shops were almost always terrible and sort of frightening because they were so phony. I'm sure the REAL Father Christmas would have given them a lump of coal for looking so frightful.

ANYWAY, here are two photos from my collection that you can use to make a Father Christmas from (or other crafty bits if you please). You know the rules. Don't sell 'em, don't post as your own, or I'll turn you into a plum pudding.

P.S. Since I'm on a ranty roll I just wanted to add that Paypal is a pain in the bum. No matter what currency I deal in... Canadian or American... I get royally buggered on the conversion. If sell in Canadian I get screwed when I buy in American. If I sell in American the get me when they convert the money deposited in my account. Bastards.

It's CRAZY Knicker's CRAZY CHRISTMAS SALE! The prices are INSANE!

Ok. Not really.

BUT I do have some stuff on sale in my etsy shop over the next couple of days while there's still time to ship to the good ole' US of A for Christmas using regular mail. I've dropped some prices by $10 to $150 including...

All Faerie Towns in a Teacup are just $35!

There's only 3 of these available in the shop right now and the price will never be this low again.

Latisha Lottie Nepenthe- OOAK Fairy Godmother of Mischief Makers - On Sale $60

Skull and Crossbones Spirit Board - On Sale $75

Little Fairy Sewing Cupboard - On Sale $35

Ameilia Chimchinny - OOAK Fairy Godmother of Adventurers and Daydreamers - On Sale $70

Ada Sweetlully - OOAK Fairy Godmother of Gardeners and Romantics - $70

Mary Primm - OOAK Fairy Godmother of Teapots and Manners - $85

And if that wasn't enough shameless self promotion there's a few new items in the shop...

Set of 4 faerie cards and envelopes - $8

Set of 6 miniature notelet cards and envelopes - $8

AND Faerie Specimen's are finally being added and more will be posted over the next day or two.

***All prices listed are in CAD funds.***

If you've lasted to the bottom of this long and salesy post you are a grand person and I love you to bits.

Stop by tomorrow and I'll post a freebie to show my appreciation :)

Red Spotted Toadstool

The fantastic craftylittlemonkey over on craftster.org was very kind and very generous, and sent me a fantastic package of goodies which included a glorious bell jar with a wooden base.

I decided to make a red spotted toadstool to go inside. It looked awfully lonely in there so I built a ladder. Then I thought there needed to be a reason for the ladder and toyed with the idea of putting a telescope and star chart on top but space was pretty tight up there. So my husband said "Why not make a wee paintbrush and bucket of paint? After all, how else do you think those toadstools are such vibrant colours."

And so, believe it or not, I listened to my husband. Shock of shocks!

It's snowing! SNOWING!

Okay, so I slept through the snowing BUT the kidlet did wake me up before 7:30 to drag me to the window to see the absolutely perfect layer of white stuff.

Everything is covered in ice and snow. And it's gorgeous!

and just look at those perfect little paw prints!

*dreamy sigh*

Padfoot thinks the snow is a new toy just for him.

D's sled on the other hand is his mortal enemy :)

**Excuse the double posts between here and the Pixie Hill blog. I'm going to squish everything together soon. **

Cannibal Snowballs and Peggy Fairies

Where are the days going? November is breezing past like nobodies business!

Just a couple of small things to post...

A couple of years ago I made some emotional snowballs. This year I made some cheeky ones. At least one of them is a cannibal.

I also made some very simple, but very cheery Christmas fairies.

I think they're rather cute :)

Now, it's 3:20 and I've been working so hard on dull design work that I'm still in my jammas so I gotta run! Cheerio!!!!

Faerie Specimens

It's going to be a glorious day. It's Friday, we're going to the Santa Clause parade tonight and I made something cute. Really, stinking cute. Quite possibly the worlds best stocking stuffer :)

They measure around 1.75" tall. Teeny weeny!

Each are numbered and have their own specimen description.

No. 001.11 - Faerie House and Toadstools, found in the Eastern field beneath a large pine tree

No. 002.11 - Faerie House and Toadstool, discovered beneath the rows of brussel sprouts 

No. 007.11 - Ladybird and mushrooms collected from a mossy stump on the South hill. 

No. 003.11 - Faerie House and Toadstool, plucked from a spot very near the compost heap.

P.S. Here's a pic before the labels to give you a better idea of the size of them.

These aren't in my esty just yet because I think I'm going to hoard them for our open house. If I can capture some more I might list one or two in the shop.