Sending you all Christmas wishes (and kisses!) 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a GOOD NIGHT!

Christmas cookies, baked with love and gifted from a friend really do taste better than anything I can make!  This year, our dear friend Jennifer Lynch gifted us with a platter of cookies too beautiful to eat (well, almost, we will be digging in Christmas eve).  She also wanted to share some of her Christmas crafting with you all.  In her words…..

“At the home ruled by Jane & Emma we’ve been busy crafting Christmas presents for the holiday season…  Over the years we try to celebrate the home-made Christmas, which starts to definitely make life busier, when every holiday they are looking for home made surprises – I’m beginning to wonder about setting expectations, but I love the fact that they treasure those hand crafted items.  So what’s been on our Christmas gift giving list:

Nasturtium Seeds – hand picked by the girls from their garden this summer, and packaged up in beautifully hand painted envelopes with their artwork – they are ready to spread some gardening joy.

Fire starters – pinecones, hand dipped in beeswax and  beautifully wrapped packages to make our families lives a little easier & warmer this holiday season.

& Home Baked treats…  We wanted to share our favorite recipe this holiday season!  (So far we’ve made about 20 dozen of these cookies – good thing many of our friends are helping us eat them!)

Easy Sugar Cookies

Ingredients
1 ½ cup butter, softenend                                          5 cups all purpose flour
2 cups white sugar                                                     2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs                                                                         1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat over to 375 degrees F.  Roll out dough on floured surface to ¼ to ½ inch thick.  Cut into desired shapes with any cookie cutter.  Place cookies 1 inch apart of lined cookie sheet.
3. Bake for 7-8 minutes in preheated oven.  Cool Completely.  Decorate with Royal Icing, and edible sparkles – as desired!

Happy Holidays from Jennifer!

We seem to be running out of time to craft something for everyone on our list.  Luckily, Gabriola Island has had many craft fairs to help us make sure all our loved ones receive something handmade. If you are still looking for a few ideas in this neck of the woods, here’s a few local makers that can surely help you out:

• Thorne Crate Company has a variety of gift crates full of local homemade goodness (thanks for including my hubby’s Slow Rise Bakery Granola in the breakfast crate!)
• Feedlot Studios - the funky and functional pottery of Mariko McCrae will make anyone smile (I love her silk screened tea towels too)
• Forgive and ForGet Boutique – Robyn McMahon makes magic with fabric in bright and modern designs (the cowl I got from her gets nothing but compliments).
• My friend Jane Reddington grows and incredible garden and has her floral art cards to prove it – pick one up at Village Foods or ask me how to reach her if you need one of her sweet hand-sewn owls to round out your gifting!
• Panacea Herbs is the only skin care product line I will use – check out the new product line and ask about the gift sets. These organic, all natural products are gifts that shows you care!
• My dear friend Christine creates magic with her Modern Bohemian collection of fabric creations! her pillows and aprons have that extra something you are looking for.  My girls are in love with the corduroy skirt and scotty doll stuffy she made them and I have one of her fabric buntings hanging front and centre in the guest room!
• Paula is another friend who dishes up beauty at Madd Art and Inaja Jewellery (email me as her website is not yet up). You will love her metal sculptures and we love our latest acquisition from her, a tea cup bird feeder fro the garden!
• You must check out the shiny beauty at Paprika where design + silversmithing collide. I am in love with the tangle pendant – it reminds me there is beauty in the chaos!
• Illuminati Glassworks has incredible glass decor and functional items that willl bring light into your home (and snowflake ornaments that I need more of, good thing their gallery is open from 12-4 today) and Tammy Hudgeon’s glass and mixed media will colour your life in a similar, yet totally different way!
• Hayden Harvey has art to wear AND put on your walls – check out her gallery and contact her if you see something that sings to you (I love the 3-D butterfly pendants)!
• SpiritSong Designs (silver jewellery and horse art), I love the “seek peace within” pendant
• My talented friend Dianna Bonder has whimsical artwork and children’s books that will become family favourites (we have pieces of hers in many rooms and I gift her books to every child I know).
• The Happy Hippy Soap Company wants to help fill your stockings with the good stuff (that brown sugar body scrub is the best).
• Sheila Norgate is another local artist that you should consider for someone dear.  I have opened up a painting by this amazing artist on a Christmas morn, and oh how loved and amazed I felt (and still do every time I walk past it)!
• Also today, stop in at The Herbe Shoppe OPEN HOUSE from 10-6 or drop into my friend’s La Belle Vie Studio (for aromatherapy and art of every kind) at 3300 South Rd.  Her studio and more are described by the Gabriola Island Chamber of Commerce.

There really is no need to leave our little island today, even if you are not done your holiday shopping.  Wherever you are today, please shop local!  I promise you it will be FUN!

Thorne Crate Company has gift crates full of local, hand-made goodness

Mariko of Feedlot Studios making a sale

ForGive and ForGet creations

Jane's Owls and Garden Art Cards

Margo's healthy organic skin care line - Panacea

Modern Bohemian & Madd Art --- and love the Sniffer Sisters book by Christine's friends

Nina at Paprika

Illuminati will help deck the halls! (photo courtesy of Illuminati)

Tammy Hudgeon will help deck the walls (photo courtesy of Tammy Hudgeon)

SpiritSong Studio - jewellery and art

Happy Hippy Soap Girl Brenda and Happy Hippy Me with product in hand! (photo courtesy of Tina Lynch)

La Belle Vie Studio - a little bit of everything

Today we will mark the Winter Solstice with a nature walk, connecting with nature, taking a pause from the bustle of the season to notice the season. For centuries this day has been celebrated, the coming light has been honoured by rituals and candlelight, the growing season to come has been blessed with greenery decorations,  temples were similarly decorated to symbolize life’s continuity, friends would visit and celebrate this special time, bringing good-luck gifts (fruit, cakes, candles, dolls, jewellery…).  Many of my family’s Christmas traditions started with Winter Solstice traditions and I love honouring this special day with my kids.

We will read The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice by Wendy Pfeffer and The Night Tree by Eve Bunting.  The latter has inspired us to collect fir cones on our early evening Solstice walk, to come inside at sunset to a house where electrical lights are turned off and candles and lanterns glow.  We add peanut butter and string to the cones to make special treats for the birds and squirrels that visit our yard.   We string cranberries & popcorn and make fresh apple ornaments to decorate our own Solstice night tree.  Once we are done these quiet preparations, we head outside into the now dark night, with our flash lights (candles for the older ones could work too) and decorate our “night tree”.  By gifting food to the critters outside and returning to dine on a simple home-made Solstice Soup (pumpkin from last year’s garden) , we honour the coming harvest season and the return of the light. Just as families have done for thousands of years.

I hope your family will also find some magic in this special day. Happy Solstice!

OK, so of course I wish everyone (including myself) would always remember their reusable to-go mugs. But sometimes we need a paper cup and this project is not only FUN, but will at least help save the paper sleeves. It is small enough to tuck into your glove box or purse and warm enough to save your fingers (especially for tea drinker like me, herbal tea in a to go cup is a scalding experience).

Check out the one we made for my Dad — the girls needle-felted a motorcycle wheel, a mustache (idea from knitted one here) and flower on it for him.  I used this pattern.  I made it a bit wider on one side (perhaps an extra seam allowance) – shown on a small cup it fits nicely, if your giftee drinks large most of the time, you might want to make it wider still (but not longer, the length if anything could be shortened).  Since I was using wool felt (from Bear Dance Crafts) I did not use the interfacing and the thickness seemed fine.  We felted the mustache on upside down the first time, so make sure you have the wider side as your top edge (oops).  Play around with it and create a simple, personalized gift for the person who thinks they have everything!