Heidi's Crafts

A Bright Smile!!

2012-01-27T14:15:00.000+02:00

Yesterday afternoon, my mother took me out for lunch. Just the two of us. It was such a special time at such a special new Coffee Shop in Durbanville.

We had the most beautiful and delicious Cappuccino.

And a breakfast quiche. It was wonderful to have such a special time with my mother, and I’m so thankful to have a mother like her.

After that, my dad and I had to go to the dentist for a follow-up on our braces :-( (We both have)

I really didn’t look forward to it, but when we got there the most exiting thing happened:

They took my braces off!!!

After having them for 2 years and 10 months.

I was really, really glad to have them off finally! I’m so happy and decided to share a before and after with you.

Before - Some of these teeth where still baby-teeth.

In the long and painful process.....

After!

Dr. Brian Faure and me. Dr. Brian was the first Dentist in South Africa who used the unique Damon brace treatment and he did my braces from the start. For two of the almost three years, we had to fly to his rooms in Pietermaritzburg, every three to six months, for my treatments.

The past year Dr. Bryan moved to Cape Town and Dr Aubrey Everson assisted him in doing a great job with my mouth.

I can’t belief it’s off, it feels like a dream and that I will wake up tomorrow morning with them back. Lol!

Thank you Daddy for all the sacrifices you did to give me this Lifetime Gift!!

Thank you to Uncle Garth from Sevenpointfive who introduced my parents to the Dr. Faure’s method and insisted that they consider treatment - years ago!

Thank you Lord Jesus, for giving me the ability to endure the braces and being in ultimate control of the development of my mouth!

I hope you like it too!

Have a blessed weekend everyone

Heidi-Mari

Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge # 12

2012-01-17T13:24:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone and welcome to the first Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge for 2012! I hope you are all doing well.

The first challenge for 2012 will be

Smoothies and cold drinks!!

Since it’s so hot in South Africa and you need something to cool you down, I thought I would make this fortnight’s challenge smoothies and cold drinks.

The prize for the challenge is a Food Lovers Smoothies and Juices recipe book!

These stylish recipes will help feed your passion with a collection of delicious smoothies and juices that are easy to prepare and a feast for the eyes. Whether you are making a refreshing drink for a summer day, a tempting aperitif or an accompaniment to a light lunch, you will love these delicious and nutritious mixes.

My example is a pineapple, mango and carrot smoothie.

To make this smoothie the following:

Makes 2

Preparation time: 10min plus 20 min standing time

2 large carrots, peeled

1 1/4 cups/ 300ml cold water

1 mango, peeled and chopped

2/3 cup/150ml orange juice (I used pineapple pulp instead)

1 Grate the carrots and put into a bowl with the cold water. Cover and leave for 20 minutes. Or if you have a juicer you can juice the carrots.

2 Put the mango into the blender with the orange juice or pineapple pulp. Pulse until smooth.

3 Hold a sieve over the blender and strain the carrot juice into it, discarding the shredded carrots. Or add the carrot juice. Pulse again to combine.

4 Pour into two glasses and decorate with what ever you like.

I just added a few strawberries.

I can’t wait to see what smoothies and cold drinks you can come up with!

If this is your first time here, this is how it works:

-You can link-up using your blog or if you don’t have a blog, e-mail your entry to me.

-Create a post on your blog with the recipe and at least one picture of the finished product.

e-mail the recipe, with at least one picture of the finished product and I will enter your recipe in the challenge (remember to come back and check out your entry).

-One recipe per person/blog please.

-You are allowed to have help with your baking.

-Please use the blue frog below to enter. Be sure to add the link to your direct blog posting/recipe and not your whole blog as this makes it much easier to find your recipe.

-Please comment on at least 3 other entries.

-Each recipe needs to be linked back to Heidi’s Crafts or has to have the button in the post.

-This is a fortnightly challenge, you have two weeks to enter.

-Entries need to be linked up by Monday the 31st of January for this Smoothies and cold drinks challenge.

-After the challenge has closed, I will announce the entries in a separate posting and you will be able to vote for your favourite recipe.

-You are all allowed to advertise anywhere you like for people to vote for you, on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

-I will have a personalized blinkie, specially for the Winner. As well as the PRIZE!! I ship anywhere in the World!

-Age doesn’t matter, from little girls to grandmas are welcome to enter!

-The aim of the challenge is to encourage mothers and grandmas with their girls to enjoy making food in the kitchen, to share recipes, find new ones and have lots of fun together!

Baking Greetings.

I Serve An AWESOME God!!!!!!!!!

2012-01-14T11:53:00.002+02:00

I serve an Awesome God! A God that can do ANYTHING........a God for whom NOTHING is impossible.......a God that cares, loves and knows your heart. He knows you better than you know yourself, He knows what happened to you everyday of your life, He knows what will happen to you everyday of your remaining time on Earth. He is there when you need Him, all you have to do is ask.

As some of you know, my mother fell pregnant January 2011. It was number nine and we where all SO happy. But then on the 11th of March when my mother was 12 weeks pregnant, we discovered the baby’s little heart stopped beating. It was SO painful for all of us! My mother lost one baby before CJ (my 17 year old big brother) and two babies before me, then after six children, she had this little one. Since I wasn’t even born before the previous miscarriage, I didn’t know what it was like to loose an unborn sibling. I was SO sad and prayed day and night for the Lord to give us another sibling before the 1st of October (that was the baby’s due date)

After many nights of crying myself to sleep (and waking up with sore eyes the next morning!) and a few talks (and cries) with my mother, life went on. My mother helped me lots! She told me God knew what He’s doing, He knows me and that it’s a stretching of my faith.

She told me how other people may have been affected by it. (Appreciating their babies more, for example)

I made peace with God that He knew what He was doing.

Still I kept thinking why everyone was having babies now! Many of my mother’s friends and some of my blog friends just had or was about to have babies.

One Wednesday morning in December (I think is was around the 7th) as I was taking to my parents coffee in bed, (CJ, who usually makes the coffee was on another movie shoot.) my mother had at smile on her face, but not just any smile, her eyes where extra sparkling as she sat up in bed. I asked her something about the little ones who slept with them that night, but the smile only grew bigger and bigger. I looked at her and finally asked the question:

“Are you pregnant?”

She looked at me and.........nodded!!!! My mother said YES!! She is pregnant!!!!!!!! We are expecting another baby!! I cried-laughed giving her a huge hug. We are expecting another sibling in August 2012!!!!

THE LORD HAS ANSWERED OUR PRAYER! The Lord answered my prayer.

Never give up, never give in, never say it’s to big for God, never say God doesn’t understand! He DOES! But He knows whats best for you.

Stay strong in the tough times, don’t give in, don’t fall. Remember what He has done for you in the past, remember the promise He gave you for the future...have faith.

It may seem like God don’t know, but just have faith and wait on Him. I have been through it!

Thank you everyone who prayed for us during this time. Please will you continue praying for this tiny little baby to grow strong, be born on the right time, the right way and for his/her calling in live.

Have a blessed day

Heidi-Mari soon to be a sister of 8 siblings!!

Use Something Old - Creation For Stampin For The Weekend.

2012-01-13T13:19:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all doing well, and getting out of the holiday mood! Today I would like to show you a calendar I made for my mother for Christmas. It’s also time for a new Stampin For The Weekend Challenge, the theme is

something old.

Use some of the things you had laying in your boxes for some time.

Our sponsors for this challenge is Lilly Of The Vally!

Now here is my example:

I used a lot of old paper and images to make this calendar for my mother and June seems to have the most and oldest paper!

I made two cards with this paper months ago, you can have a look at them here and here.

I also used an old image from Whiff Of Joy. I don’t use it much, because it’s such a big image, I have to make a very big card. But here it worked well. I coloured it with the following Copics:

R20, R21 and E00 - For their skin.

E37, E35, and E33 - For the girl’s hair and the cookies.

E35, E33 and E53 - For the boy’s hair and the chair’s feet.

E33, R21 and E53 - For the chair.

R20, R21 and E00 - For the girl’s red top and the boy’s pants and socks.

Y15, Y11 and Y00 - For the girl’s yellow pants, top and the boy’s socks.

B05, B02 and B000 - For the boy’s top and the girl’s patches.

W3 - For a shadow around the stamp.

I simply printed the calendar and put pink or blue pearls on the birthdays of our family. Here are Danika and Andrew’s.

Please will you hop over to Stampin for the Weekend and take part in our challenge. The theme is easy - so everyone can join in!

I would also like to take part in the following challenges with this calendar:

Anything Goes Challenge - Anything Goes

Bearly Mine - Anything Goes

Everybody-Art-Challenge - Shabby

Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Goes

Before I say good-by, here are a few pictures of what the other pages of the Calendar looked like:

I wrote the names in Afrikaans, because our mother-tong is Afrikaans. This is January and Michael’s birthday.

February and it’s my mother’s birthday, my mother loves red so I made February Red!

March is usually a month to go to the beach in South Africa.

April, I just love this paper and the soft ribbon!

May is fall is SA and I think this image fits well.

June (the one above)

July is winter and I just love this image! It is also my birthday.

August, I suppose should be more of a boy page, because there are three boys’ birthdays in August, Daniel, CJ and Josua, but I just love this paper.

September is more or less spring, so I made a spring page.

October, I decided to play around with ribbon! It’s my dad and David’s birthdays.

November is hot and this paper generates heat!

December is high summer, but I decided to make it a Christmas month. When you come to December it will remind you about Christmas.

I just punched wholes in the top of each page and put 3cm Key Rings in.

So there you are! It took me about 3 - 4 days to make or 13 hours of non-stop-work. Now I know three days isn’t 13 hours but I can’t work 24 hours of the day and I also had to keep it a secret from my mother, she LOVES it!

I hope you liked it too!

Crafty Greetings

Summer Holidays At The Lues Family 2011

2012-01-11T16:51:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone, today I would like to show you some of the things we did for Christmas 2011!

We hardly ever go away at Christmas, we just have family and sometimes friends over.

On Christmas eve, my grandparents came for a barbecue to our house and it was lots of fun.

Home-made Christmas crackers!

Michael pulling his cracker with my mother.

Wow mommy.......my chocolate, really?!

mmmmmm.....

David and my mother pulling

After everyone had chocolate, we had delicious cocktails Danika and my Mother made.

We had a lovely barbecue and chatted till late.

An amazing fruit cake my mother backed for Christmas morning, with the Nativity scene.

Christmas breakfast table, which you can read more about here.

A lovely Mango, carrot and pineapple smoothie. (We NEVER have smoothies so it was a real treat)

We had a lovely time opening gifts.

We (my mother and I) made my dad a beautiful Scrapbook page to hang in his office (I don’t have a photo of it, sorry)

I made my mother a calendar (Will post it on my blog soon!), and my mother also got a beautiful glass tea pot.

I got a Lindt Chocolate apron and a few other lovely goodies.

Michael in his own play-world.

We had a lovely week between Christmas and new year, just relaxing!

On new year we had a great meal, we had “Chinese Stir fry”

The table and more crackers

All the yummy sauces!

My new apron!

Part of “Chinese Stir fry” is to eat your food with sticks! We only had 2 pairs left (the little boys love playing with them outside and not bring them back in, lol!), so CJ and I ate with them!

During the week we had lots of fun and delicious foods.

One evening, we had home made hamburgers (this is my hamburger).

A Lindt Chocolate pudding with Chocolate ice cream and White Lindt Chocolate sauces!

The little ones watering mommy’s garden, and playing in the kitchen while we made lunch.

Playing in the swimming pool.

We also went Ice Skating!! Something we did like 6 years ago and never again! It’s a real challenge, VERY slippery, it looks so easy when you see other people do it, but try it yourself! I struggled to get the hang of it.

CJ did very well.

Josua also did okay, Andrew sat on the seal and rowed himself!

So did Danika.

And I........went all around in a circle, holding on to the side of the rink, lol!

We where all wet in the end, but it was lots of fun!

This past weekend we also packed Above Rubies magazines in trade for going to the ice ring!

Josua, myself (my eyes are not closed, I’m just looking down) and CJ.

700 envelopes that needs to be posted all over South Africa!

“I’m gonna get posted too! See I’m wearing white to match the envelopes!”

I hope you all had a lovely holiday season too!

Have a blessed new year!!!

Winner of Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #11

2012-01-03T13:41:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone, Happy New Year!!!! I hope you will all have a great year in which you will achieve you goals.

I know I’m a little late, but here is the winner of Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #11.

Thank you everyone who took the time to vote! The winner is

Danika!

CONGRATULATIONS Danika!!! Your refreshing Fresh Fruit Cocktail was and looks delicious!

Here is the special blinkie I made you:

I really hope you like it!

All you have to do is right click, then click “save image as”.

Then you can proudly display your winner blinkie on the side of your blog with a link back to this post so that your blog readers can see that you won and also join in next time.

Please note: that I’m taking a 2 week holiday from my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge. I will be back on the 16th of January.

Have a blessed day everyone!

Baking Greetings

A Tablecloth Overly For Kelly’s Sensational Sewing Challenge!

2011-12-31T09:39:00.002+02:00

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all doing well! Today I would like to show you a tablecloth overlay I made for our Christmas table.

My Mother brought me a beautiful piece of red material with yellow stars on.

I simply cut it in a square, and overlocked it.

It’s quick easy and simple and it looks beautiful!

Here’s a close-up.

Here is what it looks like when I laid the table.

This was our Christmas Breakfast Table.

Kelly’s Sensational Sewing Challenge’s theme this 2 months is Christmas. I would like to enter this table cloth into her challenge.

Kelly also has a prize this 2 months! Please hop over and see if you can take part.

Have a blessed weekend

Sewing Greetings

Voting For Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge

2011-12-27T22:47:00.003+02:00

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great Christmas and a lovely holiday so far. We are having a very relaxing holiday!

Now it’s time to vote for the winner of my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #11. It’s also the last challenge for the year. I’m taking a 2 week break for my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge, so I’ll see you all again around the 10th of January.

The 11th Challenge was Colourful food and I have a total of 6 entries, which is really great for this time of year. We have some lovely Colourful entries this time and they are:

Dodi:

Who made these creative Cake-pops. I love the sparkles on them!

Tane:

Who made cute Christmas cakes. It’s beautiful decorations!

Perrin:

Who baked a stunning Christmas Fruit Cake with panted baubles on top. Love the baubles!

Kelly-Anne

Who cooked a delicious Blackberry jam. Love the dark colour!

Danika (Who is only 8years old)

Who made the most beautiful, refreshing Fresh Fruit Cocktail. I just love the fresh fruit skewer inside!

And my mother, Linnie:

Who baked the a finger-licking Panettone (it’s a delicious light Italian fruit cake) with fresh berries. I love the white topping with fresh berries!

Thank you so much for all of you who entered, I love all your beautiful colourful entries!

Now if you don’t know how to vote all you do is:

1 Go to the top of my blog,

2 Just under my blog header, on the right, is a voting poll with all the entries.

3 Next to each name is a little white circle

4 Click on the one next to the name of the entry you like best.

5 Then click on the button that says “vote”.

You have voted.

Voting close on the 1st of January at noon.

Good luck everyone.....

Baking Greetings!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

2011-12-25T20:57:00.000+02:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

From The Lues Family!

Christmas Crackers - For Stamping For The Weekend DT

2011-12-23T21:06:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all doing well, getting all the last things done for Christmas. Well, there is still a Stampin for the Weekend challenge this week.

The theme is:

Anything Goes!

That’s right you can enter what ever you like.

We have 2 sponsors and the first one is:

The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop, who is offering the winner 50 meters of Divine Bakers twine and a pack of Doilies! How great is that?!

And the second sponsor is

Bugaboo Stamps, who is offering the winner 7 free digi stamps!

Now it’s time to show you my creation for this challenge:

Christmas Crackers with a beautiful Christmas image.

We make our own crackers every year, since it’s so expensive to buy crackers with such cheap, easy-breaking gifts inside. And it’s lost more fun and prettier to make it yourself!

Here is a tutorial I wrote a few years ago on how to make your own.

For this cracker I used a beautiful Whiff Of Joy image called Betty Mouse with Candy Cane and I coloured her with the following Copics:

R20, R21, E33 and E53 - For her skin

R29 and R27 - For her hat, skirt and on the candy cane

Y15, Y11 and Y00 - For her yellow blouse

Y15, Y11 and Y00 - For the bow on the candy cane.

W3 - For a shadow around the stamp.

And for this cracker, I also used a Whiff Of Joy Stamp called Christmas Train and I coloured them with the following Copics:

E35, E33 and E53 - For their skin

R20, R21 and E00 - For their ears

R29 and R27 - For the red on the train

G17, G14 and G12 - For the Green on the train

B05, B02 and B000 - For the blue on the train and the mouse’s hat

Y15, Y11 and Y00 - For the yellow on the gift box

V04 and V01 - For the purple on the train

W3 - For a shadow around the stamp.

Inside these crackers are Chocolate Lindor Balls, and you can give it to anyone and they will be happy.

Please hop over the Stampin For The Weekend and see if you can take part in our challenge! There are great prizes and stunning DT creations.

I would also like to take part in the following challenges with these crackers:

Cooking It Up With Katie - anything goes

Crafting for all Seasons - Christmas

Crafts and Me - Christmas

Divas by Design - Christmas

My Mum's Craft shop - anything goes

Penny's Paper-Crafty - Holiday Gifts

Sisterhood of Crafters - Christmas

4 Crafty Chicks - Anything BUT Rectangle or Square

Aud Sentiments Challenge - Anything Goes

Paper Play - Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you have a lovely Christmas with friends and family!

Crafty Greetings

Winner of My Baking Challenge #10 is..........

2011-12-19T20:20:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone! Today is Monday which means........it’s time to announce the winner of my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #10 - Fruit and Vegetables.

Thank you everyone who took the time to vote!

The winner of challenge #10 is..........

Tane

Congratulations Tane for winning my 10th Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge!!!!

Your White Chocolate Mousse with Fresh Fruit looks amazing!

Here is your special blinkie with a picture of your Chocolate Mousse:

All you have to do is right click, then click “save image as”.

Then you can proudly display your winner blinkie on the side of your blog with a link back to this post so that your blog readers can see that you won and also join in next time.

Now there is always a next time with my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge!

The current challenge is Colourful Food! Which means you can enter anything with colour! The prize is a Delectable Desserts recipe book by Linda Fraser!

You have until Monday the 26th of December to enter

Baking Greetings

Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #11 is.........

2011-12-13T20:38:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well. It’s time for a new Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge!

But before I get started, I would like to apologize for the late postings. I only managed to post the voting post last night and I know this post is late too. I’m really sorry, but over the past week our whole family of ten (lol) was sick, on Monday it was my turn. Really sick, I couldn’t even get out of bed to do the voting post. So I’m very sorry. But here it is now.

Have you all voted for the winner of the previous fortnight’s challenge Fruit and Vegetables? If you have, thank you so much and if you haven’t you can vote here.

Ok now the theme for this Fortnight is.......

Colour!!!!!!!!

I want to see colourful food.

The Prize is a Delectable Desserts recipe book by Linda Fraser!

- This is another AMAZING recipe book with over 75 spectacular recipes for delicious desserts of all kinds, from ice creams, bombes and mousses to tempting soufflés, pies and tarts.

- Over 300 photographs, highlighting each step-by-step recipe and finished dish.

-Ideas suitable for all occasions - from special events and celebrations to informal entertaining and everyday family meals and treats.

-Includes quick and healthy recipes as well as rich traditional desserts

The contents of this book is:

Pies, tarts and cobblers

Fresh Fruit Desserts

Crumbles, Custards and Puddings

Cold Desserts and Ices

My example is cold chocolate cylinders with mousse and fresh fruit:

Most of this is made out of Lindt Chocolate!

We made chocolate cylinders that we learned to make on the Lindt Chocolate Decorations Course. The decorations on top we also learned there.

Okay first we made the cylinder with tempered chocolate, then we made all different kinds of decorations for the top. We put orange, fat soluble coloring powder on a transparent sheet, then the chocolate on top and then rolled it, put it in a cylinder (like a toilet roll), let cool and pull off the transparent.

Then we made dark chocolate and white chocolate mousses to put inside. Both brown and white chocolate mousse are made the same way.

Here is the recipe:

Makes 3 cups.

ingredients

170g/ 6 ounces chocolate chopped

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter cubed or sliced

4 egg yolks

3 tablespoons sugar (don’t be tempted to leave out the sugar as it stabilizes the mousse)

1 tsp vanilla extract or 2 tbs cognac, rum or kirsch.

1 cup heavy cream for whipping or more as needed to thin the chocolate mixture.

Method:

1 Combine the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl.

2 Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir with a wooden spoon or whisk until melted and smooth. Note: make sure the bowl fits perfect over the saucepan and that no steam can come up the sides of the bowl. If it does it will stop the chocolate from melting.

3 Combine the egg yolk and sugar in a heatproof bowl and set it over the saucepan of barely simmering water. Whisk for about 5 minutes, or until pale and slightly stiff.

4 Remove from the heat. Stir the chocolate mixture into the egg yolks, add the vanilla and stir until well mixed.

If at this point the mixture becomes stiff and grainy, whisk in heavy cream, 1/4 cup at a time, until the mixture is smooth.

5 Stir for a few minutes to cool. Let cool to room temperature.

6 Whip the cream to soft peaks.

7 Stir about 1/4 of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture and then fold in the rest with a rubber spatula.

Scoop or pipe the mousse into the cylinders and decorate on top.

Then we took some tempered chocolate and made patterns on the small plate.

And then for a finishing touch, black berries and raspberries cut in half, put close to the cylinder.

Be sure to keep it in the fridge if it’s a hot day. (Yes we made a lot!)

If you don’t.........

this will happen! These were some of our tests!

Bon Appetite! This is a really, really great dessert!

Now it’s your turn to show me what you can come up with! Anything with colour will do!

Here is how it works:

-You can link-up using your blog or if you don’t have a blog, e-mail your entry to me.

-Create a post on your blog with the recipe and at least one picture of the finished product.

e-mail the recipe, with at least one picture of the finished product and I will enter your recipe in the challenge (remember to come back and check out your entry).

-One recipe per person/blog please.

-You are allowed to have help with your baking.

-Please use the blue frog below to enter. Be sure to add the link to your direct blog posting/recipe and not your whole blog as this makes it much easier to find your recipe.

-Please comment on at least 3 other entries.

-Each recipe needs to be linked back to Heidi’s Crafts or has to have the button in the post.

-This is a fortnightly challenge, you have two weeks to enter.

-Entries need to be linked up by Monday the 27 of December for this Colour challenge.

-After the challenge has closed, I will announce the entries in a separate posting and you will be able to vote for your favourite recipe.

-You are all allowed to advertise anywhere you like for people to vote for you, on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

-I will have a personalized blinkie, specially for the Winner. As well as the PRIZE!! I ship anywhere in the World!

-Age doesn’t matter, from little girls to grandmas are welcome to enter!

-The aim of the challenge is to encourage mothers and grandmas with their girls to enjoy making food in the kitchen, to share recipes, find new ones and have lots of fun together!

Baking Greetings.

Please Note: This will be the last baking challenge for this year. After this challenge I’m going to take a 2 week break. I’m sure everyone else will be on holiday or to busy to enter anyway!

Voting For My Baking Challenge #10 Fruit and Vegetables

2011-12-12T20:36:00.003+02:00

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend!

It’s time to vote for the winner of my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #10 Fruit and Vegetables. I had 9 entries which is really great, and they are all such amazing entries! They all look amazing!

First entry is Dodi:

Who made delicious Pineapple Berry Smoothie.

Second entry is Tane:

Who made mouth-watering White Chocolate Mousse with Fresh Fruit!

Third entry is Perrin:

Who baked most beautiful Apricot Cupcakes with Fresh Fruit Topping.

Forth entry is Kelly-Anne:

Who made an icy-cold Fruit Slushy for a very hot day.

Fifth entry is Sarah:

Who cooked yummy Apricot Jam, with a beautiful colour too!

Sixth entry is Aunty Wendy:

Who made old Fashioned Apricot Chutney, mmmmm......

Seventh entry is an e-mail entry of Aunty Hazel:

Who baked a finger-liking Spinach and Butternut Quiche!

The eighth entry is Jessica:

Who baked an amazing Blackberry and Apple Pie.

And the Ninth entry is Aunty Karyn

Who made a yummy Carob Pie!

Thank you everyone for entering and a special thank you to Jessica and aunty Karyn for entering for the first time!

You many now all go and vote and anyone can vote for you!

To vote all you do is:

1 Go to the top of my blog,

2 Just under my blog header, on the right, is a voting poll with all the entries.

3 Next to each name is a little white circle

4 Click on the one next to the name of the entry you like best.

5 Then click on the button that says “vote”.

You have voted.

The Voting will close on the 18th of December at noon.

Good luck everyone.......

Voting Greetings!

E-mail Entry For My Baking Challenge!

2011-12-11T18:49:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well.

I have an e-mail entry for my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge, from a dear friend of mine’s mom.

Aunty Hazel made Spinach and Butternut Quiche!

Here is her recipe:

Ingredients

1 cup plain flour

75g butter

iced water

1 cup butternut

tomato slices

red or yellow pepper, sliced

15ml olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 large handful spinach

10ml butter

250ml cream or milk

3 egg yolks

1 cup grated cheese

1 slice round feta

salt and pepper

Method:

Mix the butter and flour until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.

Pour in the iced water and knead until dough forms a ball. Cover and

refrigerate for 30 minutes. Grill the butternut, tomato and pepper

with a little oil at 180 degrees celsius. Fry the onion and spinach

in butter until soft. Add cream, egg yolks, cheese and veggies. Roll

out the dough and press into a pie dish. Bake blind until golden.

Pour in filling and bake until set.

Thank you aunty Hazel for entering my challenge, your Quiche looks really delicious!

There is still a little time for anyone to enter. Challenge closes Monday the 12th of December at noon. You can enter here.

Have a blessed day

Baking Greetings

Pink Christmas Card For Stampin For The Weekend

2011-12-10T12:50:00.001+02:00

Hi everyone!

It’s time for a new challenge over at Stampin For The Weekend!

The theme for this fortnight’s challenge is………

Christmas!!

We would like to see any kind of Christmas card.

Our sponsor for this week is Simon Says Stamp who is offering one lucky winner a $20 voucher.

Here is my card:

I decided to make a pink Christmas card and give it to my ballet teacher.

My ballet teacher is an older lady and I really love her, since I’ve been doing ballet with her since I was 5 years old. She loves pastel colours!

I used a Whiff Of Joy Stamp called Betty Mouse with Candycane and coloured her with the following Copics:

E35, E33 and E53 - For the mouse’s skin

R20, R21 and E00 - For the mouse’s ears and tails

RV34 and RV13 - For the mouse’s pink hat, skirt, nose, under her foot and the bow on the sugar cane.

Y11 and Y00 - For her yellow top

B02 and B000 - For the bow ribbon around her waist and on the sugar cane.

G14 and G12 - For on the sugar cane

W3 - For a shadow around the image

A glitter pen - For a sparkle on the image

I finished the image off by adding 4 little pink pearls as a neckless.

I added some ribbon - a wide light pink ribbon and a narrower, softer, see-through ribbon on top, with a bow. I think it really fits with the soft pastel paper.

I distressed everything nice and thick to make it stand out more and finished the card off with a few dark pink pearls.

Please hop over the Stampin For The Weekend and see if you can take part in our fortnightly crafting challenge.

I would also like to take part in the following challenges with this card:

Card Makin' Mamas - Christmas

Clearly Inspired - Christmas

Crafty Catz - Anything Goes

Fabulous Friday - Glitter

Inspire Me Fridays – Anything Goes

Raise The Bar – Christmas

Pixie Dust Studio - Glitter and Bling

Have a blessed weekend everyone!

Crafty Greetings

SACHS Blog Carnival # 13 - Christmas Celebrations/Crafts/Ideas

2011-12-08T22:18:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone!

Today I would like to show you name tags I made for Christmas to use on Christmas presents.

This is a very simple and easy name tag to make.

You will need:

A Templet for your tags (optional)

A hole puncher

Coloured cardboard paper (Any colour you wish)

A Christmas rubber stamp (You can buy them here) Or use any rubber stamp you have.

A Versa Mark ink pad

Embossing powder (Any Colour you wish, I used mix colored)

Little bit of Maizina

A clean cloth

Ribbon

A To: and From: rubber stamp (optional)

A Heat Gun

Any black ink pad (optional)

Double-sided-tape (optional)

Step #1. Cut as many tags as you need. You can find templets on the internet or make your own. I used a crafting machine, but that really isn’t necessary, you can just cut a plain rectangle and round the corners.

Step #2. Punch a hole in the top of the tag.

Step #3. Put the Maizina in the cloth and puff it over the tags.

Step #4. Ink the rubber stamp with the Versa Mark ink and stamp it on the tag.

Step #5. Quickly throw the embossing powder over the image on the tag, before it dries.

Step #6. Gently shake off any excessive embossing powder and heat the image with a heat gun. Not to close or for too long or it will burn.

Step #7. Let cool and put the ribbon through.

Step #8. With the black ink, stamp the To: and From: in the top left corner. Or you can use a black pen and just write To: and From:.

Step #9. Put double-sided-tape on the back of the tag and stick it on the present. Or you can have a long ribbon and put the ribbon around the present.

There you are!

I have the privilege to host this Fortnight’s South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers on Christmas Celebrations/Crafts/Ideas.

I also have some other Christmas ideas and crafts for christmas:

Making Christmas Crackers!

In this post I showed a complete tutorial on how to make Christmas Crackers step by step.

I also baked Christmas Cookie decorations with my siblings.

In this post I have a easy fun cookies recipe that you cut into stars, decorate with icing and hang on your christmas tree!

Now here are Christmas decorations, crafts and ideas from other home schoolers:

Karen from Karen’s Clan shares a selection of some crafts they've done this season, and some ideas of ones they'd like to do if they have the time - otherwise, they'll do them next year!

Taryn from Hayes Happenings chose to make most of their 2010 Christmas gifts with some fun results. Here they are:

2010 Gifts I: Beaded bookmarks and keyrings

2010 Gifts II: Honey Hazelnuts

2010 Gifts III: Playdough, bean bags and kids’ gifts

2010 Gifts IV: Christmas Cookie Mix in a Jar

In previous years their creativity has centered around establishing Christmas traditions that are steeped in the biblical message of Christianity.

You can read about how they made an advent calendar covering a whole bible overview, Christmas stockings that focus on the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, an annual whole family nativity play and gifts for their neighbours. For more Hayes family Christmas celebrations please visit their Christmas category.

Lindy from Homeschooling in South Africa shares how even when you're not an artsy-crafty person, and your budget is restricted, it's amazing what you can get up to... if you just keep it calm and simple and don't try to keep up with the Jones'.

This posting is overflowing with Christmas ideas.

Mel from Mel’s Mouthful on Mothering shares a post of Christmas on a tight budget. Like a lot of people worldwide, they are also having to make sure that they are spending wisely, cutting back on the extras and budget carefully. It's a challenging thing to do - especially during this time of the year. The pressure to get all the right decor, get those expensive gifts and that big Christmas lunch! How do they manage during this time?

Here are some ideas.

Wendy - From Loving Learning shares Christmas decorations she and her family made last year for christmas.

Donette from The Journey share how one of the ways they bring the celebration of Christ into their Christmas is taking part in a Jesse tree Swop. Each day they read and speak about a bible story as well as hang a handmade decoration up on the tree. The kids love taking part and as a family they enjoy exploring God's word.

Jenni from Jenni C’s show how to make easy tags that can be made to put on Christmas presents, or one could make a box full of them and wrap them up as a present for someone. They can also be made to use as place names...at the dinner table...

She also shares creations for the feel free at heart and love abstract creations, or know someone that loves abstract.

Her advent post includes free downloads for making your own decorations/or scriptures to study for the 25 days before Christmas. There is also another idea for Christmas tree decorations made from Fun Foam Clay. This clay is super fun to work with and even the smallest hands can play with it... it looks good to eat... so watch the little ones mom...

Air dry tags post is about a quick and easy way to make unique tags for your Christmas presents. Or make a whole lot and give them away as a present this Christmas. The clay is lovely to work with and is great tactile experience for young children, another benefit is that it is actually not so messy....and it dries over night which allows for a quick project.

Trys from Trixi’s HomeEd Academy contributed her Digital Scrapbook Greeting card to wish everyone a very blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Linnie from Back To Ancient Ways tried to summarize through her posting how they as a family make a difference during Christmas. It is her and her husband’s responsibility to make sure that this time of year is understood by their children as an important message of God’s love and redemption and to instill in them the focus of why they celebrate Christmas.

The actual question for them is:

What are they doing with the feast? Is their focus on the feast; the commercializing of it; or do they glorify God through the feast? They want their children to reach out to the unsaved and make a difference on Christmas - this is the time during which people are most open to the message of Christ.

I've taken the liberty and asked Di’s Digi Downloads to sponsor one lucky blog participant during this blog carnival. They agreed to give one of the participants a $10 gift voucher to spend on online digital images.

These images can be printed, coloured with your favorite medium and used on cards of any kind or paper craft, just as I have done here.

Thank you to every creative posting contributed by our Sa Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers, unfortunately there can be only one winner.

And the lucky winner is:

(drum roll please)
Mel from Mel’s Mouthful on Mothering!
Please e-mail me to claim your prize.

This is the 13th SACHS Blog carnival under the theme Christmas Ideas/Crafts/Decorations which is part of the South African Carnival of Homeschool Blogs. To join the carnival or visit past carnivals visit the SACHS Blogs page. We hope you enjoy browsing!

Crafty Greetings

Winner Of Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge # 9 is........

2011-12-05T16:06:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone!

Are you ready to hear who the winner of my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge is? The theme was Anything Goes.

The winner was voted to be…..

Tane!!!!

Congratulations Tane! You have won Food Lovers’ Soups recipe book!

Your prize will be in your postbox soon!

I also made you a special winner blinkie:

Hope you like it!

All you have to do is right click, then click “save image as”.

Then you can proudly display your winner blinkie on the side of your blog with a link back to this post so that your blog readers can see that you won and also join in next time.

Now there is always a next time with my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge!

The current challenge is Fruit and Vegetables! Which means you can enter any kind of fruit or vegetable recipe you like! The prize is a STUNNING, How to get Five-A-Day the fruit and vegetable cookbook!

You have until Monday the 12th of December to enter.

Baking Greetings

I Cut My Hair Today!!

2011-11-30T13:40:00.001+02:00

Before

After

Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge 10 is..............

2011-11-29T14:54:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone. I hope you are all doing well! It’s time for a new Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge! Before I announce the new challenge, have you voted for the winner of the last challenge?

The theme was Anything Goes and you can vote here for the winner.

Okay, The theme for this fortnight is.............

Fruit and Vegetables!!!

Any kind of fruit or vegetable recipe you like.

The prize is a stunning, and I do mean, STUNNING recipe book:

How to get Five-A-Day

the fruit and vegetable cookbook!

This book is filled with over 50 delicious step-by-step recipes.

The different parts on different recipes are:

Roots, Shoots and Stems

Greens, Beans and Peas

Mushroom and Squashes

Salad Vegetables

Apple, Pear and Stone Fruits

Berries and Citrus Fruits

Exotic Fruits

Yummy-yummy-yum!

My example is delicious Baked Apples:

(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

4 Larger English cooking apples

50g dark muscovado sugar (I used “Rapandora” sugar)

50g Hazelnuts crushed

50g Raisins

2 tbsp finely grated dark chocolate

1/2 tsp ground Cinnamon

Juice of 1 orange (I used a lemon)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F)

Remove the cores from the apples. Take a knife and make a slit in the skin all around each apple, just above the middle.

Combine the sugar, hazelnuts, raisins, chocolate and cinnamon.

Place the apple on a baking tray and stuff the centers with the fruit and nut mix. Finish each apple with a squeeze of orange/lemon juice.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the apples are soft.

Served with a bit of fresh cream is delicious!

Now it’s your turn to show me your favorite fruit or vegetable recipe!

How it works

-You can link-up using your blog or if you don’t have a blog, e-mail your entry to me.

-Create a post on your blog with the recipe and at least one picture of the finished product.

e-mail the recipe, with at least one picture of the finished product and I will enter your recipe in the challenge (remember to come back and check out your entry).

-One recipe per person/blog please.

-You are allowed to have help with your baking.

-Please use the blue frog below to enter. Be sure to add the link to your direct blog posting/recipe and not your whole blog as this makes it much easier to find your recipe.

-Please comment on at least 3 other entries.

-Each recipe needs to be linked back to Heidi’s Crafts or has to have the button in the post.

-This is a fortnightly challenge, you have two weeks to enter.

-Entries need to be linked up by Monday the 12th of December for this Fruit or Vegetables challenge.

-After the challenge has closed, I will announce the entries in a separate posting and you will be able to vote for your favourite recipe.

-You are all allowed to advertise anywhere you like for people to vote for you, on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

-I will have a personalized blinkie, specially for the Winner. As well as the PRIZE!! I ship anywhere in the World!

-Age doesn’t matter, from little girls to grandmas are welcome to enter!

-The aim of the challenge is to encourage mothers and grandmas with their girls to enjoy making food in the kitchen, to share recipes, find new ones and have lots of fun together!

Baking Greetings!

It’s Time To Vote Again!

2011-11-28T21:56:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone, I know I’m a little late posting the voting for my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge. But we had no electricity from 9:00 to 14:00 so I couldn’t write this post and then we had a very busy afternoon.

The theme was Anything Goes and I had 5 entries they are:

Tane

Who made a finger-licking Chicken, and Cheesy Tortilla with Salad!

Perrin

Who baked a beautiful Carrot Cake with Lavender Infused Icing.

Dodi

Who baked a yummy Taco Meatball Crescent Ring.

Kelly-Anne

Who baked mouth-watering Chicken and Mushroom Pie.

Linnie (My mother!)

Who baked delicious Spinach (Quiche) Packets

Now one of you five will win the stunning Food Lovers’ Soups recipe book.

Thank you so much for everyone who entered! Spacial thank you to Dodi for entering for the first time!

I really hope to see you all for my next challenge which will be posted tomorrow!

As you all know, you may ask as many people as you like to vote for you.

To vote all you do is:

1 Go to the top of my blog,

2 Just under my blog header, on the right, is a voting poll with all the entries.

3 Next to each name is a little white circle

4 Click on the one next to the name of the entry you like best.

5 Then click on the button that says “vote”.

You have voted.

Voting close on the 4th of December at noon.

Good luck everyone.....

Baking Greetings!

Friends Card - For Stampin For The Weekend

2011-11-25T10:25:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone. Today is Friday and it’s time for a new challenge over at Stampin for the Weekend!

Your theme for this fortnight is.........

Friends!!!!

Thats right, we want to see a friends card this week.

We have TWO lovely sponsors for the challenge, which means, we have TWO winners!

The first sponsor is: Lili Of The Valley:

Who is offering the winner a £10 gift voucher.

The second sponsor is: In 2 Stamps:

Who is offering the winner a 10 Euro gift voucher.

Thank you so much LOTV and In2Stamps!

Now would you like to see some inspiration?

Here is my card:

I just LOVE this paper and the image seems to fit so well with it.

I used a Lili Of The Valley Stamp called Little Girls - Tea Time. I coloured them with the following Copics:

E37, E35, E33 and E53 - For all the brown of the image.

R20, R21 and E00 - For the little girls’ skin.

G17, G14 and G12 - For the left girls green dress.

RV34 and RV32 - For the dark pink of the image.

RV13 and RV10 - For the light pink.

W3 - For the shadow around the image.

The I used some Wild Orchid Craft flowers and some pink pearls to finish the card off.

I hope you like my card! If you would like to see some more inspiration you can go to Stampin for the Weekend and see what the other very talented crafters have come up with, or you can enter!

I would also like to take part in the following challenges with this card:

Lili of the Valley - Anything Goes

Papercraft Star - anything goes

Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes

Whimsical Wednesdays - texture

Have a blessed weekend everyone

Crafty Greetings

Lindt Chocolate Decorations Course

2011-11-23T21:04:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone!

On Wednesday (16 Nov) my mother and I went for another Lindt Chocolate Course. You can find the first one here. This time we did the Chocolate Decorations Course, and it was from 10:00 to 15:00.

During the first half of the course, the Chocolatiers demonstrated different kinds of decorations and the second half we had the chance to do some ourselves.

First they showed us how to make:

White Chocolate Spaghetti!

Colored Spiral Tri-angulars.

Isn’t it beautiful?!

White, Blue and Brown Chocolate.

In thin Squares, called Cocoa Butter Squares!

White chocolate tear drops. Which you can use to put a filling in.

Or make a bow on top of a cake.

Thin brown tear drops.

It’s so cute!

A Wood Grain Cone.

A chocolate cylinder roll.

More spiraled lines!

A red and white chocolate Transfer Envelope.

Chocolate wire.

A Corduroy.

Piping in cold liquid.

Coral

Fans!

Then is was our turn!

My mother spreading her chocolate on the table.

Check out our pretty aprons!

Me making chocolate Cigarettes!

At the end of the course, we each got a beautiful Lindt certificate!

And we asked for a photo with the two chocolatiers (on the left) Dimo Simatos (One of the finest pastry chefs in South Africa!) My mother, Me and Scott Kirkbrid.

We had so much fun and learned so much!

I can’t wait till we are going to make something out of chocolate.

If you would like to do this course or any other Lindt Chocolate Course visit the Lindt Chocolate website.

Have a great day

Chocolate Greetings

Winner Of My Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge 8 is....

2011-11-21T08:28:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend. I certainly did, I did a lot of reading!! (Something I don’t really do on weekends, a real treat!)

Well, you’re probably here to see who the winner is of my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge, right?

First I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who entered. Sadly there is only one winner though.

The voted winner is............

Perrin!

Congratulations Perrin. You have won the Food Lovers’ Cooking For Children recipe book! Please will you claim you prize by e-mailing me your postal address, so I can get your prize to you.

Here is a special blinkie I made for you:

I really hope you like it! Your Pizza Cookie looks so pretty and colorful!

All you have to do is right click, then click “save image as”.

Then you can proudly display your winner blinkie on the side of your blog with a link back to this post so that your blog readers can see that you won and also join in next time.

Now there is always a next time with my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge!

The current challenge is Anything Goes! Which means you can enter WHATEVER YOU WANT! The prize is a Food Lovers’ Soups recipe book!

You have until Monday the 28th of November to enter.

Baking Greetings