Hi to you all and welcome to 2012! Â I hope you have all had a wonderful festive season and a most happy new year. Â I had an impromptu getaway with the kids while Greg was getting on top of some renovations (I wonder if they will ever end!). Â Thank you to all of you who inquired after my health. Â I am happy to say I am fully recovered. Â I will be back in this space soon to share our adventures with you. Â Until then, sending you the best of wishes for a happy and prosperous 2012!
Jacinta xx
To all my dear friends out there, I hope this festives season has been kind to you. Â We had a beautiful Christmas day. Â Happy children and good food to fill our bellies made our day so very special. Â After a awful start to my week (I had food poisoning), it was a mad rush to get all the last minute preparations complete. Â May the coming New Year bring you all much peace and blessings too. Â Thank you for all your lovely comments over the year. Â I appreciate the time you take to check in here. Â Here are just some of the lovely memories from our festive season.
With love and light, Jacinta xxx
There are so many variations of Rocky Road, this is my recipe. Â I tend to make a few extra yummy treats around Christmas to give as gifts. Â This being one of them. Â Greg and I tucked into a piece each tonight. Â Hopefully we’ll leave some for gift giving! Â I use raspberry liquorice instead of turkish delight and add a couple of other goodies like chocolate coated blueberries and scorch almonds to add flavour and interest. Â I recommend using a silicon dish or lining your dish with baking paper to help when cutting up the rocky road, otherwise it will stick to the dish and make it hard to remove. Â I bet you can’t stop a just one piece!
Ingredients:
200gm block dark or milk chocolate
150gm (approx. 2/3 cup) scorch almonds
70gm (approx. 1/3 cup) dark chocolate covered blueberries, or dried blueberries*
120gm (approx. 1/2) Raspberry liquorice, cut into small pieces
125gm (approx. 2/3) Marshmallows (I only use Pascal’s brand), cut in half
2 tbspn desiccated coconut
*If  you can’t source dried chocolate coated blueberries, you can always substitute with fruit and nut coated chocolate if desired.
Method:
Using a double saucepan, melt chocolate over a gentle heat. In the meantime, combine, scorch almonds, choc coated blueberries, raspberry liquorice, and marshmallows in a bowl. Â Once chocolate has melted, remove from heat and pour it over the other ingredients. Â Gently stir ingredients together and pour the rocky road mix into a dish. Sprinkle with desiccated coconut and place in fridge until set. Â When set, use a knife to break the rocky road into bite size pieces. Â Will keep well for a few days in an air tight container or in the fridge in warmer weather.
Rocky Road by Embracing It All
Enjoy! Â Jacinta x
While procrastinating having a break from doing some essential Christmas crafting, I stumbled upon a great collection of Christmas craft ideas.  I deemed it worthy of sharing here.  I hope it offers some inspiration to you.  Linky here.
In the meantime, Tenneille’s quilt is coming along nicely. Â I have decided to add another border to the quilt (hadn’t yet attached it in the photo), as it was a little small. Â That teaches me not to double check measurements given in inches as I am more familiar with centimetres.
Tenneille's Summer Breeze Quilt
I hope you are enjoying the lead up to the festive season so far? Jacinta x
I bought some chocolate chip brioche bread this week for something a little different. Â I decided to try it out in a bread and butter pudding recipe. Â The result was really tasty. Â It’s not too sweet and is quick and easy to make. Â I like to leave the crust on the bread, as it gives it a little bit of crunch when cooked. Â The recipe is adapted from, The Woman’s Weekly Sweet Old Fashioned Favourites.
Ingredients:
6 slices chocolate chip brioche bread (plain brioche or other bread is suitable to substitute)
2 1/2 cups milk
3 eggs
1/4 cup raw sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Butter to spread on bread
Method:
Spread butter on one side of each slice of bread. Â Cut each slice into 4 triangles. Â Arrange in an ovenproof dish, slightly overlapping each piece of bread. Â In a jug, whisk milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla essence and nutmeg until combined. Â Pour liquid over bread and let it sit for about 5 mins to allow liquid to soak into the bread. Â Place dish in a pre heated, oven at 160 degrees celsius (325F) for approximately 45 minutes or until slightly browned on top. Â Serve warm with a dollop of cream if desired. Â Will serve 4-6 people.
Chocolate Chip Brioche Bread and Butter Pudding
Enjoy!
Jacinta x
Yesterday I managed to finish a Christmas stocking each for Greg and I and another two for a dear friend’s two gorgeous boys. Â Ironically, this friend happend to call in very briefly today on her way to see her family, which was totally unexpected. Â She doesn’t live close by either. Â Kind of like a Providence moment. Â I like that.
A close up of Greg's Christmas stocking
A close up of my Christmas stocking. I was so excited to find cute owl material in a Christmas theme.
I have also finished the hand embroidery on Tenneille’s quilt (was actually meant for her birthday back in February!). Â The pattern is called Summer Breeze by Sweetwater.
A sneak peak of Tenneille's quilt. It is made from Sweetwater fabric.
I am currently up to cutting out the bunting flags that will sit along the hand embroidered lines. Â Tenneille’s bedroom curtains are also made out of Sweetwater fabric, and the yellow wall colour in her room is not disimilar to the yellow used in this fabric line, so the quilt will look lovely on her bed, once it’s finished. Â Fingers crossed it will be under the Christmas tree before midnight Christmas Eve!
I have decided to have an early night tonight. Â Scarlett has a gymkhana day at her riding school tomorrow, which means an early start tomorrow morning. Â The weather is looking pretty dismal too. Â I’m hoping the rain will hold off for the fun filled day. Â I hope you have a fun filled Sunday planned too. Â Jacinta x
From Soulemama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.
I love your moments too. Â So feel free to leave a link in the comment section for us all to see. Â Have a beautiful weekend. Â Jacinta x
Meow
…now lets see if I can get more than just one finished. Â Admittedly, I started the felt cat for Tenneille many months ago. Â It got put away and promptly forgotten about. Â Of course December is now well and truly upon us and all the hopes I had of making many gifts is becoming a bit of a pipe dream.
I have been working on some more Christmas stockings. Â One each for Greg and I and a couple more for gifts. Â They just need to be sewn up. Â I have a felt horse cut out for Scarlett that needs sewing up too. Â Of course, we have a family wedding to attend in January that I promised the girls I would make a smocked dress each to wear, but you can already guess where I am going with that. Â Do I try to do too much, with very little time? Â Heck yes! Â But I’m sure you can relate. Â How are you going with your Christmas gift preparations?
Jacinta x
For those of you who have been following along my blog for a while you will know we have been in the midst of a kitchen renovation. Â I am happy to say it is complete enough to finally share with you all. Â We are really happy with how it has all come together. Â It’s light, bright and there is so much more space to work in. Â Our kitchen sits in the centre of our home and it finally feels warm and welcoming. Â Oh and the island bench, it is heavenly. Â It is close to two metres long and it has really made the kitchen a wonderful space to work and entertain. Â We had friend’s over the other week and I was able to prepare dinner and chat without walking around people, unlike our previous kitchen. Â We are looking forward to many hearty meals together. Â I will share details of the renovation at a later date. Â Remember the kitchen before! Â We are so glad to be rid of the old pink kitchen.
View from dining room door
View from front deck
I love the island bench
Oven cooks beautifully
This is pretty close to the true colour of the flooring
Last, but not least, the kitchen sink
Jacinta x
(PS, darling husband, I can’t promise that it will still look like this when you get home tonight)
Saturday was well spent in our garden. Â We finally had a free Saturday and ideal weather to have a bonfire. The amount of tree litter that our lovely Mountain Ash trees gift us is almost unsurmountable. Â We need to burn off at least every 6 months to keep our yard looking somewhat kept. Â I just love the smell of the eucalyptus burning and the workout from walking up and down our hillside block, while dragging great bundles of twigs, is great exercise indeed. Â Now if I did this everyday, I’d be a contender for some sort of iron woman contest. Â Greg certainly earnt his keep with keeping the bonfire burning too. Â I think the girls may have contributed a stick or two, before skipping off to some very important fairy house construction.
Just a couple of our Mountain Ash trees. It's very hard to capture their true height.
It was lovely to sit around the fire at the end of the day with the kids and toast marshmallows. Â The girls also love to burn cook apples over the coals too. Â I figure it’s a great way to top ones-self off after eating so many marshmallows. Â Suffice to say, the kids didn’t need much dinner.
Bonfire days around here are up there with some of the most anticipated days of the year (I’m taking Christmas and Easter). Â Do you have something that you look forward to doing as a family too? Â Jacinta x
