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Bas de Noël is something my little one does at her French school for Christmas. Little hands sew with big effort - using a special heavy cross stitcher (for the non sharpened point), fighting with the extremely long, long  thread, sweating and chatting with the other kids, but determined to finish and make every stitch count, imprinting memories, excitement and love. These anxious sparkling eyes just urged me to help her make one Bas de Noël for her teacher and sew a tag-a-long for it. For the label, I used felt and backstitched the to: - for: names. For the tag-a-long, I stitched the "Bon Noël" words over a checked cotton piece of fabric, lined with thin felt for avoiding a flat and boring look. "Joyeux  Noël" is a much more appropriate and popular felicitation, but I chose "Bon Noël" for matching my ratio - size of the tag : size of the lettres. There is nothing better than a handmade present for Christmas. It is even better wh...

Everything that pushes me travel back in time makes me happy. I wish I was born in 60s, then I wish to travel to 18th century. I have some preferences to old traditions, and strongly believe that values were higher and more respected in the time before us.  I am in a mood for a folk Christmas, only because I remember my Christmas two years ago - all the hopes, expectations and believes we wished for,  from the retrospecting glance today: I like the patches on this guy's "coat". How cold he must be, but still smiling... I am so grateful we still consider Santa as a sleight traveler, reindeer powered. I wouldn't stitch him on an airplane. Maybe my passion to the late 18th century could vision this famous gentlemen on a dirigible but nothing more modern than that ...  ... and the music from the angels' voices, and the freedom to feel happier in this season of the year, give me nice and calm sense of completion... When I discovered Brian J...

Viennese Cookies 310 g flour pinch of salt 270 g superfine sugar 227 g butter grated rind of one lemon 2 large egg yolks 1 tsp vanilla extract The old-fashioned recipe uses grated cold butter into the flour. I cut the butter in small pieces and worked it into the flour and the sugar with the tips of my fingers. Sift the flour in a large wide bowl. Add the sugar. Add the cut or grated butter and work it into the dry ingredients with a wide kitchen knife. Just with fingertips, work the butter until the mixture resembles cornmeal. Do not over work. Beat the egg yolks slightly and add them to the butter mixture. Working with a fork, combine the yolks, knead with hands for few seconds to form a nice glossy dough, wrap in cling foil and leave in the refrigerator to chill for at least one hour. Roll the dough very thinly - these cookies are supposed to be extremely elegant. Cut the snowflakes out. For the linzers, I used Linzer cookie cutters with interch...

These are my last year's Christmas projects. I found Tilda . My Christmas sparkled in light blue and silver. The angel-gardien of the Holly Spirit ... The heart I put into my sawn presents. I had hearts for all the members of my family. My little bears in love with the snowman they created in our front yard, printed forever in my memory and stitched with so much love to remember this moment always. The charm mitten to remind us for the love we share all the time, but especially around Christmas. The delicious treats we prepared together and shared with friends ... What are the stars for, but to wish and hope ... We had a lovely Christmas. Hope this one be warm and loving as well ...

for the 6 ramekins : 60 g unsalted butter 50 g brown sugar Beat the soft butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until creamy paste. Cover the bottoms and walls of the ramekins. Leave aside. for the vanilla sauce: 250 ml heavy cream 3 yolks 3 Tbsp powder sugar 5 ml vanilla extract Heat the cream in a heavy bottom pan until just before the boiling point. Beat the eggs and the sugar. Add the cream to the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Add the vanilla extract. Return back to the pan over a medium heat and stir until slightly thickens. Cover and set to cool.   for the biscuits: 75 g unsalted butter 50 g sugar 115 g flour 75 g blanched hazelnuts, crashed Beat the butter and sugar with the wooden spoon.Add the flour and form a ball. Divide in 6 equal pieces (aprox. 53 g each). Shape each into a ball and flatten with your palms to form a nice thick disc. for the tailoring: apricot halves compote 5 Tbsp apricot jelly Tailoring: Assemble the...

It was St. Nicholas feast day yesterday. All kind of orthodox names that root from Nicholas celebrate at December 6th - the date when St. Nicholas died 1670 years ago. This saint is a favourite of sailors and fishermen. The main dish in that day is fish. I prepared: Danish Pastry Gold Fishes with cheese for the Danish pastry dough: 160 ml milk 90 g eggs 310 g unsalted butter 6 g dry yeast 25 g sugar 3 g salt 310 g flour for the filling: choice of  medium hard cheese as feta, Emmental, cheddar, mozzarella, etc. Also small pieces of raw Salmon fillet could be used. preparing the Danish pastry: All the ingredients have to be cold. The dough preparation is by hands. Shape the butter into a square. Keep it cold. Working with hand whipping tool, beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add the milk to the eggs. Dissolve the yeast in the mixture - work intensively with the tool, because the yeast dissolves hard in cold liquid. Add the suga...

I was in the book store with my little girl. Around Christmas, bookstores are the most cheerful - all the decoration, candle aroma, Christmas cards, reminding you to speed up your choices, make up your mind, choose, write and send, if you want these cards to be received on time.  I read to my angel  "How many sleeps till Christmas"   . She was charged - not that she is not impatient and calmly awaits Christmas, but because the book described it right, somebody else can not wait for Christmas to come. Since that afternoon, I am asked this question every morning: "How many sleeps till Christmas?" Today's answer is : 20 more sleeps till Christmas.  Before I fell asleep tonight, I have work to do. The countdown is ON. Finally, I decided - my Christmas this year will be in Ivory and WineRed. All the presents I will prepare for my family, all the table decoration will be in Ivory and WineRed.  Here is my collection: I have been thinking abou...

It is a countdown to Christmas Day. This is the most pleasant stress I have been put through - so many plans and projects, so little time to do them. Every year around Christmas, I feel trapped in my own fear that the time is not enough to accomplish everything. And this is only because I want to do all - I put in my "ToDoList" everything I like. But than I realize that one life is not enough to plan, work and finish all I want for Christmas. Snow came earlier than anticipated this year. Even though I still have this bugging feeling of being behind the schedule. I started a project that I will need for a Christmas Party. It will be full of kids - not even sure how much more than a hundred would they be. At first I wanted to do monogrammed snowflakes, but as soon as I realized they will be so many, I decided to make something else: Petit pains d'épice / Gingerbread biscuits 170 g unsalted butter 170 g shortening 250 g brown sugar 2 large eggs 3...