Wine Bottle Toppers

I've been getting ready for Christmas since July! My mom and I made these adorable hat and scarf wine bottle toppers when I was visiting over the summer.

I love how they dress up the bottles and think they are just perfect for a hostess gift. They are now available in our Etsy shop!

And, of course, these bottle toppers aren't just limited to wine bottles. They will easily fit a variety of bottle tops, including sparkling cider, any similarly shaped bottle...even a beer bottle!

We've got four matching set options as you see here.

Happy Holidays...they're just around the corner!

If you do decide to stop by our Etsy shop, Sunshine Makings, please enjoy 10% off your purchase with this coupon code: SSBLOG

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Christmas in July (2)

I finally had a chance to get the pictures together of a few more things my mom and I have made for Christmas in July. Since I love coffee and really don't like to waste the cardboard cup sleeves, we made some Christmas cup sleeves.

My mom made these adorable beaded Christmas trees and appliqued them to the red cozy. Festive, right? (It feels a little strange to be festive one day and at the beach that same afternoon, but it's made it easier for me to read Christmas books to my little girl who likes them all year long.)

We also made some Christmas potholder sets from a vintage pattern my mom has in an old crochet pattern book. I love the red, white, and festive variegated colors of this set.

We also made one with Christmas crocheted Christmas trees stitched onto the white potholders. Aren't they cute! I'll be making quite a few of these to hopefully sell at a couple holiday fayres and fetes. And I'm sure we'll come up with even more festive crochet items. 

If you would like any of these, you can find them in my Etsy shop, Sunshine Makings. 

15% off for the month of July!

Happy Christmas in July!

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I'm linking up to some of these fabulous parties!

Christmas in July

My mom (Jerry&Kay) and I thought it would be fun to get a little festive this summer and celebrate Christmas in July! So, we spent some time planning, shopping, and making this assortment of holiday crocheted items. We created some of our own patterns and also used some vintage patterns from a crochet book from the 60s that my mom has had, in her words, "forever." 

And we are offering 15% off all Christmas items in the shop and a variety of other items. We created this cheerful mug cozy and coaster set that has an elegant touch with beading on the Christmas tree and a special bead button. We have options for a larger Starbucks sized mug or a standard souvenir sized mug.

My mom made these beautiful poinsettia doilies. I thought they were also from a vintage pattern, but she just informed me that she found the pattern in Crochet 101 by Deborah Burger. She made a set of four 6-inch doilies and an individual 8-inch one.

I really enjoyed crocheting this adorable elf baby hat. I have admired this style of baby hat for a long time and added a bit of whimsy with the bubbly edge and extra large pom pom.

Here is a closer look at the Christmas tree on the mug cozy.

If you would like any of these, you can find them in my Etsy shop, Sunshine Makings.

15% off for the month of July!

Happy Christmas in July!

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I'm linking up to some of these fabulous parties!

Nanny's Fudge

A few days after I made some delicious-dairy-free-chocolate-peanut-butter-fudge (phew...that's a mouthful), I made some chocolate fudge. My mom sent me a fudge recipe that my Nanny made when my mom was a child, the same fudge recipe my mom made for us when we were children. Of course, being my disorganised and scattered self, I started to make it and then realized that I didn't have any evaporated milk. I had used it in an extra pumpkin pie. But I did have almond milk in the fridge, so I gave it a try and it worked...deeeelicious. Another delicious dairy free fudge! Mmm...mmm.

Four Way Christmas Fudge Recipe

Ingredients:

1 jar marshmallow cream

1 1/2 cups sugar

2/3 cup (158 ml) evaporated milk (or almond milk)

1/4 tsp salt

12 oz (340 grams) semi-sweet chocolate pieces (Green & Blacks Organic - Yum!)

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 c (57 grams) butter or margarine

How to make the fudge:

Combine marshmallow cream, sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt in a large saucepan.

Bring to a full all over boil, stirring constantly.

Continue to boil over moderate heat, stirring constantly for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat; Stir in semi-sweet chocolate pieces and vanilla; beat until smooth.

Turn into greased 8-inch square pan.

Chill in refrigerator until firm.

Cut into squares.

 

Makes approximately 2 1/8 lb.

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Christmas CAL

As I was just typing my post title, I had a happy thought: CAL...ifornia! I can't wait to be there for Christmas. Just a few more weeks of grey, wet, freezing cold and then I'll be home for Christmas!

                                 Source: dezeen.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Now, here's what the Christmas CAL (crochet-a-long) is really about. It's at A la Sascha. Anyone can join in. For each day of the CAL, she posts a pattern for a cute festive design. You can either use each one as its own individual ornament, or save them all to make a garland at the end of the CAL.

The first day showed how to crochet a Christmas Fawn:

The second day showed how to crochet a Christmas Bell:

So far, so good! I love these crochet ornaments because they are so quick and it's also a great way to use up yarn scraps. I'm excited to see what's next.

p.s. the sun just started to break through the clouds!

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I'm linking up to these fabulous parties!

Dairy Free Fudge

So, we recently figured out (in June) that my little boy has a dairy allergy. It hasn't been too difficult to adjust our diet or how I cook...until Thanksgiving when I realised he couldn't eat Libby's Pumpkin Pie! Fortunately, I found a decent dairy free pumpkin pie recipe. Phew!

Now, it's Christmas. We like fudge. All four of us. A lot. 

I got my mom's recipe that was originally my Nanny's so that I could make some fudge with the kids. Of course, it has dairy. So then I did a quick hunt for a dairy free fudge recipe and found this: Really Nice Dairy Free Fudge from Gluten Free on a Shoestring. I am still going to make my Nanny's fudge, but I wanted to make the dairy free fudge first so that my little guy wouldn't miss out. 

It took a little longer to firm up than stated in the recipe, but that is not a big deal at all. It is pure chocolatey, peanut-buttery deliciousness...at least I and my two kids think so. King Damascus can't stand it. He can't stand the taste of coconuts (unless he's just cracked open their shell) or even a hint of the flavor (like me with bananas). But he'll enjoy the next batch when I use my Nanny's recipe. For now, I'll enjoy this dairy free fudge with my two little ones. 

More for me...and my hips.

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I'm linking up to these fabulous parties!

Pinned It & Did It - Christmas Tree Skirt

My Christmas tree skirt...

Christmas tree skirt that I pinned...

Pinned via pinmarklet from curbly.com

I pinned a few Christmas tree skirts on my Christmas board because I knew I wanted to make one this year. The last few years, I've wrapped random pieces of fabric or table cloths around the skirt, but I really wanted a Christmas skirt that was special, festive, and one that we can use each Christmas to come. 

So, I followed this tutorial by CraftMel on Curbly. It was very clear and easy to follow. The most difficult part in making this Christmas tree skirt was choosing a snowflake design. I took about three days looking at differenty types of snowflake designs, and then cut out about ten (from our recycle paper) before finally settling on this one...

Cutting it out of the large piece of felt wasn't too bad and would have been much easier if I hadn't had four three-to-five-year-olds playing in the room, me constantly saying, "Remember, don't step in the hot lava!!" lava=felt 

I made one small, time consuming change to the method of making the Christmas tree skirt. Since I really want to use it year after year, and also because I have children running & playing around the tree from time to time, I decided to sew the white snowflake to the red circle. Lots of pins and three days of sewing for short periods of time and I finally finished!

We had our tree for two days without a skirt. It's much warmer now...and prettier.

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I'd love for you to follow my pinterest board.

Snowman & Santa

 I had so much fun crocheting these cute little snowman and Santa Christmas ornaments. 

 Some for Sunshine Makings...some for me! 

I just love the process of creating these little guys and watching them come to life when they were originally just a ball of yarn. 

I especially loved the crocheted snowman and took lots of pictures of him. 

'Tis the Season!

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I'm linking up to these fabulous parties!