It has been a week spent creating and making and baking… ’tis the season for our kids to spend some time at the table making and creating gifts.

One person supplied us with eats and treats…

Because someone has to sustain the troops with Christmas cupcakes…

And lots of mixing…


To finally get our spicy christmas cookies on the go…

And then we forgot about them till late on Christmas day…
Gifts for Friends
Grapefruit Curd:

You will need:
- 2 grapefruit
- 2 lemons
- 400 g of sugar
- 100 g butter
- 4 eggs + 2 extra yolks
Carefully peel and cut one of the grapefruits into segments, removing the pith. With the other grapefruit, first grate the rind off using a fine grater and then squeeze the juice out. Also squeeze the juice of the two lemons. Place the grapefruit segments and juice, the lemon juice, the sugar and the butter into a pot and very slowly warm them until the butter have melted. Then beat the eggs together and strain them into the mixture, stirring all the time. Cook very gently for about half an hour until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of your spoon. You have to keep the mixture from boiling, else it will curdle, just gently heat it and patiently stir it… it will thicken eventually and you can store it in jars.


Hot Chilli Chutney

Roughly chop these ingredients in a food processor and then place in a large pot:
- 2kg of Tomatoes
- 1/2 kg of onions
- a head of garlic peeled
- 4-5 deseeded chillies
- Tie some leafy celery stalks and hang in them in the pot.
- If you own a teach caddy or a spice bag: then hang some coriander seeds and cloves into the pot and remove them later.
- a cup of cider vinegar
- 1/2 a cup of brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon of Paprika
Add to the pot:
Boil the mixture up and then leave to simmer for about half an hour. Remove the spice bag and the celery stalks and store in jars. We use this as it is on pasta, as a pizza base, as a chip dip… really for anything you might need a sauce for… it’s good, try it!!!


Plum Jam
Honestly this is so easy that we have made it again and again… love it!!!

Caramel Sauce and Fudge
Well the Caramel Sauce didn’t last long enough to get it’s photograph taken… so quick and easy. Here’s how to make caramel sauce: Put eight table spoons of butter and two cups of brown sugar and a cup of cream in a pot. Let the pot simmer and stir it for about five minutes, then add a teaspoon of vanilla essence and stir for another minute. Your sauce is ready and you can keep it in jars… though it won’t last long enough to keep.

If you are looking for the quickest, easiest fudge recipe in the world, then follow this link. The fudge will last marginally longer than the sauce… in fact you may even be able to leave it long enough to cook and to wrap up.
Se7en’s Secret Sibling Gifts

For two days our kitchen table looked like the epicentre of a hurricane of craftiness… and this is a gallery of gifts that emerged…









And that’s us, fun crafting gifts… until next Christmas!!!
I love ALL of these. So easy and cheap! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas. xx
I love this!
Especially the gorgeous gifts for and by siblings. It is just adorable. My older boys would love a Lego display shelf like that too.
The food looks amazing too. YUM!
Cute homemade gift ideas- very doable.
Hay Julia, thank you, so glad that you enjoyed our gifting!!! We all have a lot of fun creating and honestly my loathing of the shops (Which may have something to do with having se7en + 1 shop assistants) means that anything we can create with what we have already is a huge bonus!!! Wishing you all the best in 2014!!!
Hi there Vanessa, So thrilled you stopped by and enjoyed our gifting!!! I have to say a passion for lego crosses all age-groups and my kids all play with it with a passion. I have to say that I was quite impressed with the Lego display box myself, I can think of a million ideas for it and lego is the least of them… hope you are having fab holiday-time with your family!!!
Yes Nita, doable is the way to go… my kids have been doing this “gift swap” tradition for years – we all love it and they really do rise to the occasion and make something fab for each other. Wishing you all the best in 2014!!!