The COOLEST paper stars...

Don't you just love finding something you can make QUICKLY, out of practically NOTHING and it's STUNNINGLY effective?? Well here's something like that...I went to a ladies evening at my daughter's church..a night of Christmas crafts and food to inspire (I was making salads!)...and one of the lovely ladies there, Gloria, showed us how to make these paper stars. So amazingly simple and yet stunningly effective. They'll look great in a long garland or to decorate an empty spot. And depending on the size of your piece of paper, you can change their size..
The white ones are simply computer paper...I've sprayed one silver on one side and red on the other and that looks effective too, and cheaper than buying coloured paper (I think!) Will take a pic of that when dry.



Isn't it just so lovely??
As soon as I saw Gloria making them I thought how lovely would it be to make one (or many!) out of my mothers sheet music? Bringing a bit of mum into this year's Christmas :) Looks cool don't you think? It looks great particularly due to the music being very old with the vintage colour of old paper...gorgeous! I'm going to pin it to the wall over the piano, which was also my mums.

And this one was simply made out of magazine pages! Which is what Gloria's were made of...nice glossy paper that folds well and has a reasonable weight to it...

If anyone's interested I can do a photo pictorial of how to make them if you like. Just leave me a comment, or email me and I'll pop a tutorial on here :)

And for some reason I couldn't load my wreath and tree photos...:( Will go try again.

ciao bellas

and Christmas blessings to you all!!

luv jessie xx

As Christmas approaches...

And so begins the Christmas baking/cooking...fruit mince filling for tarts...strawberry jam...gorgeous!!


And not to forget fresh lemon curd! (lemon honey/butter for you others who don't call it curd)...yummmm

mmmm...using up the last of this weeks strawberries and making them into a gorgeous glistening jam! (jelly for you american friends ;))..so divine...had it warm on french vanilla icecream and it just melded in and became a swirling delicious parfait! :)

Ah..fruit mince pies...the essence of Christmas (that and pine trees!!)...with the strawb jam in the bowl next to them...the testing pot that became my delicious dessert..hehe...

Another close up shot of the fruit mince pies...fresh made sweet shortcrust pastry...sublimely encasing the fruity, spicy mix and topped with a star! Divine! (my kids would say only divine with chocolate in them!) So they push a couple of choc buttons thru the centre and warm them in the microwave till it melts...now that is kinda divine!!

Oh and our fabulous Raspberry Mousse Tarts with Meringe Tops....they were SUBLIME!

Yes...doesn't it look delicious?? Kinda like a giant cupcake!! haha...they were delish!

Well it's time to put the tree up ...yippee. I don't usually put it up till two weeks before Christmas but really want to have time to make Christmas presents this year so can't leave everything till the last minute. So enjoying the festive feel of having decorations around the place...more to do yet.

Can't wait to see my fellow bloggers Christmas decorations...ciao for now bellas!

love jessie x

Bag pics...

Ahh...the photos FINALLY uploaded...so these relate to my earlier post today :) Let me know what you think! :) I love comments!! hehe

Baglady time...

And so to some more creating...more bags I think. Have lots of fabric curtain samples to use up that my friend Grace gave me...ends of lines etc from her job. Fantastic for nice sturdy bags - heavyish linen type fabrics. So this is the first of my next 'batch' ...a nice 'french' style tote - perfect for bringing home your flowers from the local market! ;)

...a bold neutral stripe lined with vintage floral fabrics from my stash...with a nice ruffle added to front (of course!!) So this is the prototype for a few of these I think...made a couple of mistakes with sizing so will 'iron' those out with the next one....guess I'll just have to keep this one! oh darn!! haha...but friends and family...you're more than likely to get something like this for Christmas this year! Hope I get your colours right!!

hmmm...pics won't upload for some reason...grrr
try again in a minute.
ciao bellas..
jessie x

The BIG DAY!!

The big day finally arrived...my gorgeous son Evan married the girl of his dreams, Renee..praise the Lord! Never seen him look so happy :) Such a moving, joyous, heartwrenching time...so many emotions packed into one day!! It was such a beautiful day...and a really wonderful service...so many comments on how lovely the service was...


Ah the first dance...as man and wife...MR AND MRS CHRISTIESON!!

Ah my boy...isn't he handsome?? :)

Cutting the cake (made by moi ;))...

The whole whanau (family ;))...on mine and Steve's sides...in front of the beautiful 'waterfall' fairy lights on stage at our church...can see three of my girls...Emma far left in red/black, and Beth in blue...and Laura in black and white next to bride..think Claire is in the back somewhere...and I am 3rd from right in my 'beautiful' dress..hehe...Steve just showing behind me..

And now I am no longer consumed by wedding plans...days are very long! haha...Steve is back in Dubai...or actually Saudi Arabia this time and I'm praying he'll make it home for Christmas, tho it's not looking likely...but my God is a God of miracles!! oh yeah!! So you never know...might be my time for one :)

Anyway...will get back into blogging soon...get some creating underway again...

ciao bellas

jessie xx

Christmas is just around the corner girls!

And the baking continues...boiled up all my fruit/butter/sugar yesterday while I was on a mission with the wedding cakes...and left overnight. This morning I got up and mixed up the batch of Christmas cakes...five in total (mind you 3 are tiny individual ones for gifts!)..but still!! Don't they look divine in the oven cooking...a stole a peek in order to photograph them! All wrapped up in good old newspaper to stop the outsides drying out...mums tip...I usually use brown paper and newspaper, but didn't have any brown paper, so all newprint it is!! I like to cover the top of my christmas cakes with blanched almonds as they toast beautifully while the cake bakes and are deliciously nutty to eat...I don't ice my cakes as I don't like icing and only one of my children likes fruit cake at all so I get to do it my way! Hubby doesn't like fruitcake either..:(...so my visitors over the Christmas season get to indulge with me!!

Almonds ready to stud the tops of the cake with....
The proof of the hand mixing!! It was all I could do not to scrape the remains off the bowl and eat them...aghh...as I write I realise I didn't put the golden syrup in...a minor ingredient but will be missed just the same...ah well...

The cute vintage tobacco tin that is my string tin...used to day to tie the newspaper around my tins..

And there they are baking away in my oven...two large ones on top, three littlies underneath (can't really see 'em)...can just see the edge of one. Those are baked in tiny springform tins that I'll leave them in and give the whole thing as a Christmas gift...so the recipient gets a gorgeous cake, in a brand new tin, and they get to use the tin again themselves...forever!!

Well that's it for now...we're off to find shirts and shoes...for my darling hubby for the wedding. Now that I changed my dress the shirt he had does'nt match! (oops! :( )...ah well...hoping we'll find something today...

have a great weekend fellow blogerettes!!

ciao for now

luv jessie xx

Wake up and smell the...BAKING!

Ahhh...the smell of baking in the house! I personally never get to wake up to it...but other members of my lovely family do...cos I like to get up and bake!! Mind you...I have a very good excuse right now...with Evan's (my son's) wedding next weekend, I really do need to be making cakes!! They're having a multi tiered cake with Raspberry Mudcake as main cake, and another tier being Lemon Syrup Cake...which I'll make just two days before as it won't keep like the mudcakes do....but man! they look good on my counter...and smelt divine cooking! So there's several tiers there...plus a dozen Mud Muffins with the 'leftovers'...was a HUGE mix!! lol...

Yum...if I wasn't restricting my intake of BAD, BAD (BUT TO DIE FOR! NOT TO MENTION DIVINE!)FOOD (just up until the wedding , you understand! lol)...I'd whip up some chocolate frosting RIGHT NOW and have one of these delectable choc berry mud muffins with a nice latte...

This will be the bottom tier...

And these will be the other tiers...but with a lemon cake inbetween...

And the other ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS smell around the house this week has been the russian fudge for the wedding...not to be confused with what we kiwis call Fudgecake (but I think the USofA's call it simply Fudge - made with crushed biscuits (cookies), butter, cocoa etc...??) Fudge in NZ is a confection...butter,sugar,milk,vanilla,glucose,conensed milk - all boiled up till setting temperature met...and whipped and poured to set....m..mmmmm!!!! two batches down, one to go (180 pieces done...) It is my sisters DIVINE Caramel Fudge recipe...to die for!! Smooth, soft to the bite (no hard sugary fudge here thankyou!!)...and keeps for months...but it never lasts that long!!

mm..mmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!

so that was the start of my baking week...continued in next blog!...

ciao bellas!

luv jessie xx

Mother of the Groom's dress....:)

This is a close up of the layered fabric...patterned cotton underneath with pink organza layered on top...

Close up of the bodice/midriff...

And this is the final result...hem looks uneven there but its not 'in the flesh'! On my poor old patched mannequin...haha

Back view...obviously the manny has a wider back than me cos couldn't do up!

Nice side view...ahhh

Sooo...here is the dress I've made for my son Evan's wedding in two weeks...TWO WEEKS!!! EEEK!!! ....breathe Jessie :)....I'd bought a pretty awesome dress when away in Auckland in September, but each time I tried it on (in my quest to lose a few kilos/pounds before the big day...had to check on progress by fit)...well...it just didn't look right...something wasn't right, you know? Like...my 51 year old knees really shouldn't be on display! Well, not 'right' at hem length...just below is way more flattering!! (when I'm in shorts they look fine...but just below the hem of a beautiful dress?? ah, no!)...and the fit at the back (which i couldn't see well when I bought it)...well, it just wasn't sitting right...and so I began a new search for plan B...another dress. But we are a small city...only a few shops to choose from for this type of event....and sad to say, I found nothing...sigh.

So! There was nothing for it but to make one...and then began my quest for 'the' perfect pattern...having had such dramas with Beth's Balldress (see posts in September)...I was a little nervous! But as luck would have it (or as I prefer to thing, divine intervention! ;))...I found a great pattern...well, two - a mix of two - bodice of one, skirt of another. I'd spied the most gorgeous fabric - a cotton mix, white background with big dark pink roses all over it...and to make it more dressy I bought pink organza to overlay it with...and I began! Four days later...VOILA! it is done...and I'm SO SO happy with it. My girls think it's beautiful...Emma(23) said..."oh mum, you look like the pretty doll you'd put on top of a cake"!! haha...a compliment, I think!! hehe...how cute. Must admit I do feel very 'pretty' in it...it's a very girly dress...fitted bodice with full circle skirt - ah I shouldv'e been an adult in the 50's! All that whirling on the dance floor!!

Anyways...will post a pic of me in it after the day! Now...how to have my hair...and will I make some organza flowers to put on the dress...shall I make a gorgeous flowery fabric cuff or have a traditional 'real' flower wrist corsage...and what jewellery...and I haven't even STARTED on about shoes!!! hehe...