NEW YEAR'S MOCKTAILS

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! All set and ready for big NYE celebrations tonight?

I'm part of the emergency response team at my work, which means that every fifth week I go on duty. While I'm on duty, I have to have my phone with me and be no further than one hour from the airport at all times. I also can't drink alcohol. For the most part, it just means that I don't make many plans for that week, and most often I just end up chilling at home, spending the weekend making stuff and catching up on Netflix. It's not so bad. I've been pretty lucky with the rota so far as well, and it hasn't really crashed with my plans too much or made me feel like I'm missing out on things. There's been a couple of times where I've not been able to drink at parties, but it hasn't really been that bad (other than everyone automatically assuming I'm pregnant. Sorry guys, just on duty!). However, this time my duty week has landed on New Year's, so I'm looking at a pretty quiet New Year's Eve celebration tonight.

I'm pretty excited about it though still. My house has a fantastic view of the valley, so I'm looking forward to watching the fireworks. I'm also having a friend over for dinner (who is also on duty!), and I'm cooking a reindeer roast with these cheesecakes for dessert. I also plan on serving up some mocktails, so I've been perusing the internet for some mocktail inspiration. At first I was a little disappointed, as I seemed to find a lot of "recipes" that were essentially just fruit juice and didn't feel very mocktail-y at all. But further research led me to the following recipes, which I'm looking forward to trying out. If anyone else is having a non-alcoholic NYE, how good do these mocktails sound?


Cranberry Tangerine Rosemary Cream Soda from Spoon Fork Bacon
Cranberry Sparkler and Apple-Ginger Sparklers from Marath Stewart
Pomegranate Mojito Mocktail from BBC Good Food
A couple of delicious sounding mocktails plus some general advice on turning regular cocktails into mocktails from A Beautiful Mess 

Know any other good mocktail recipes?

KNITTED BABY BOOTIES

So the most annoying thing happened while I was knitting this baby blanket for my sister's baby. I had 20 stitches left (I counted, which in retrospect probably just made me even more annoyed), when I ran out of yarn. Knitter's worst nightmare, right? I contemplated undoing a couple of lines and finishing it off earlier, but it actually seemed more complicated than what it was worth. So off to the yarn shop I went to get another ball. Needless to say, this left me with some leftover yarn.

And what's a girl to do with a ball of baby merino wool? Make some cute booties, of course! I first came across the pattern for these in a copy of Mollie Makes that a friend of mine brought over to me from the UK when she visited this summer, but I could not for the life of me understand the writen instructions how to put them together. Even though I've been knitting for a good ten years now, knitting instructions baffle me. But then I came across these instructions from Small Friendly, complete with a diagram, and it all made so much sense. The booties were super quick to knit and put together. Barely used any yarn though, so I still have quite a bit left. Any suggestions of what to do with the rest?

HOMEMADE COFFEE SYRUP

Whoooooa, December is a busy month. Why is it that when you were a kid December felt like the longest month in the world, but when you're an adult it just seems to fly by? We've been making the most of it though, and in between Christmas parties, Christmas baking, drinking gløgg and eggnog and making and shopping for presents, Graeme and I also celebrated our 6 year anniversary with a weekend trip to my parents cabin. We had hail storms and it was pretty wet and freezing, but we got the fire going and had a lovely and relaxing weekend. We had our annual Christmas beer tasting and Graeme even managed to squeeze in a fishing trip--our freezer is full! And this weekend we went to my friend's cabin in the mountains and played in the snow. It was a perfect winter wonderland and Graeme got to try skiing for the first time (#graemebecomesnorsk). On top of everything, I've also been taking tons of pictures with plans of making a Christmas 2015 album (somewhat inspired by this), but so far I've had no time to sit down and print my photos. I'm looking forward to a couple of days after Christmas when the rush is over!

While a lot of the things I'm up to these days are still confidential (though I'll probably share after the big day!), I thought I'd share these recipes for making coffee syrups. I made these earlier in the week, and we've been enjoying them with our morning coffees. Starting your day with a coffee with a bit of gingerbread syrup in it is sure to get anyone feeling Christmassy! And taking a cup along on a dog walk in the cold is highly recommended too.

Recipe:
500 ml sugar
500 ml water

2 tablespoons clove

2 tablespoons ginger

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions: Add all ingredients to a pot, and simmer for about 15 minutes until the sugar has completely dissolved. Let it cool, and add to a bottle. Enjoy in your coffee with some Christmas cookies or some of Graeme's amazing short bread (honestly, it's probably the best shortbread I've ever tasted, and I lived in Scotland for 7 years).

NEWS!

See that above house? That's my childhood home. And guess what? I just bought it!

I've been renting it out and living in it for a couple of years now already (whoa, how time flies!), but a couple of weeks ago I signed a bunch of papers and what have you, and now it's all official. Exciting! There's tons of things I want to do to the place (and will now be able to!), so watch this space!

Also, just to clarify: no, we don't have snow here yet, this is just wishful thinking. It's a photo I took in December 2012 when I had just moved in. But I'm crossing all my fingers and toes and hoping for tons of snow this year too!

MARGOT PAJAMA SHORTS

I have a confession to make: I am awful at giving birthday presents on time. I also often like to make the present rather than buy, and far too often this ends up taking longer than what I had planned. Making things takes time. And when you're in a full time job, making gifts for people sometimes requires a relatively high level of planning and organizing to utilize the free time you have. And if the person you're making something for doesn't even live in the same country as you, even more planning and organizing is required. I've tried time and time again to organize myself better to stop it from happening, but I'm still awful at it. I tend to make really detailed and overly ambitious plans, completely forgetting that I don't actually have a gazillion hours in a day. And this tendency to make overly ambitious plans is one of the reasons my friend Eb got these pyjama shorts over two months after her actual birthday. Although having said that, I think two months late for a birthday present might actually be an improvement. One bonus with giving them to her so late though, was that I was able to give them to her in person last weekend when I met up with her in Manchester.

To make these, I used Tilly Walnes' pattern for Margot pyjamas from her book Love at First Stitch (a book I'm slightly obsessed with these days!), and shortened the legs to make shorts. I had a good bit of leftover fabric from my button down skirt (another Tilly pattern!), and thought it would be perfect for some PJs, as it's super soft like flannel. I used black satin ribbon for the waistband, and black bias binding on the inside seams and on the back pocket. Adding pockets to an item of clothing instantly improves it in my opinion (now she won't have to hold on to things while she sleeps! haha). The shorts were based on measurements she gave me, though they looked a little bit when I finished so I added a bar of chocolate to the present. That way she can fatten herself up a bit so that the pyjamas fit better, as I'm not quite at the level of doing alterations yet.