And now I can't stop....

..... making these little spice filled house and tree ornaments, instead of doing some more pressing things like writing my Christmas cards. But they really are addictive and I love how my sewing room smells.

I've also been playing with gift tags; aren't they cute? Sort of like mini post cards. I made the fabric stamps the same way as I did for my Christmas cards.

Then I made one more tea box for the charity fair which went off to a good start as a lot of my things were snapped up right away. I was planning to recycled whatever wasn't sold as Christmas gifts, but apparently there's nothing left to recycle!

I've made more Christmas cookies too and I'm sharing another of our favourites:

Spitzbuebe which means "Rascals" in Swiss German (don't ask me why they are called that)

250 g (8 oz) butter
125 g (4 oz) powdered sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp water
350 g (2 cups plus 3 Tbsp) flour
1/2 cup of red current jelly

Cream butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, pinch of salt and water and mix well. Add the flour and bring together into a dough. Refrigerate for at least half an hour.

Roll out very thin (2 mm, 1/8 of an inch) and cut out circles. For half the cookie circles cut small holes or stars. Refrigerate again for half an hour, so the cookies will keep their shape.

Bake 8 to 10 min in the middle of the preheated oven (200 C, 400 F).

Cool on a wire rack, then assemble cookies with red current jelly. Keep in an airtight container in a cool place

Enjoy

Vreni xx

A Christmas Village

After my first Christmas house ornament turned out slightly too big I found a tutorial here and had another go. They are much more suited to hang on a Christmas tree and they also smell heavenly as I filled them with cinnamon sticks and star anise as well as the normal filling material of course.

While trawling Pinterest I came across these lovely cinnamon Christmas tree ornaments and had to make some as well. They too are filled with star anise seeds. 

Now I have sewn myself a proper little Christmas village. They will  be for sale at the charity fair later this month. 

Cheers
Vreni x