The First Sunday in Advent

Yesterday was the first Sunday in advent. The night before we found the advent wreath and the nativity scenes. We have two nativity scenes.

We had to get up very early on the Sunday because we had to go to Mass. Mass was lovely just like it always is. Then we went home for a big breakfast.

After breakfast Mum and Dad went out to buy some candles for the advent wreath. Mum made the advent wreath 12 years ago out of salt dough and it is still just as good as it was when she made it.
The colours of the candles we got were three purple and one rose. The purple candles our for penance and the rose candle is for Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete Sunday is the third Sunday in advent.At dinner Dad lit the first candle on the wreath and we all sang an advent hymn.

Gemma-Rose and I could not wait to find the three wise men. Mum hides the felt three wise men in all sorts of places in the house. She moves the three wise men when every one has found them. She will let them join the nativity scene on Epiphany.

I love advent but I love Christmas even better.

My Blog Banner

Yesterday I thought that my blog would look nice with a blog banner.

I got to work finding pictures to go on it. I soon had some nice photos.then I went to a place on the internet called Picnik. There I found a nice colour for the banner and found some pictures of butterflies and put them on it too. Soon my banner was done. I got Mum to help put it on my blog because she has one on her blog Sue Elvis Writes.

When it was on I thought it was a very good banner but the background blog colour was not right so I went and got a plain purple background. It looked great.

I had a great time making my banner and I hope you like looking at it.

From now on I am going write more blog posts and I will not bother about how many people look at my blog. Just like my Mum I am blogging for fun not followers.

I hope you enjoy reading.

Gemma-Rose the best sister ever

Gemma-Rose is the best sister ever. If we get into fights she always will forgive me.

She will play board games even if she does not like them.

One day when I was out shopping with Mum, she did all the weekend jobs without me. She even did under the bed.

I am so glad that I have Gemma-Rose as my little sister instead of anyone else.

I am glad I share a room with Gemma-Rose. We can do anything together that way.

Even though she was getting bored of me reading out my story to her she listened to me until I had finished. I try to be patient with Gemma-Rose but I lose my temper way too often.

I think that the way to be a good sister is to be kind and to forgive. From now on I will try to be a better sister to Gemma-Rose.

We're Going on Holiday

We're going on a beach holiday. Mum's has booked a lovely beach cottage by 'Swan Lake.' The cottage is called 'Swan Lake Cottage'. Four years ago we went on another beach holiday.

"Swan Lake Cottage" has three bedrooms. They all have queen beds. One bedrooms bunk beds as well. On our last holiday there were four bedrooms, with two queen beds, one set of bunks, and three single beds. The house was much bigger with two storeys, three bathrooms, and two living areas. this house is small and cosy.

"Swan Lake Cottage comes with six bikes and a canoe. I want to learn how to canoe. Dad knows how to canoe so maybe he'll help me. On our last holiday the boys went kayaking.

"Swan Lake' has black swans living round it. It's right next to the sea. In spring, whales and dolphins come to the coast. There's no jellyfish in the lake. There's really nice sand and the water is shallow and clear, just right for swimming.

I'm so excited about this holiday. I'm looking forwards to learning how to canoe, sleeping in a queen sized be with Gemma-Rose, and buying souvenirs. I'm going to take lots of photos and write a diary every day.

After our last beach holiday we made a scrapbook of all our diary pages, postcards, photos, and stamps. For this holiday we want to do the same.

Herbs or Spices?

It was Sunday and the dinner was almost cooked. I I decided to make a dessert. After flipping though a cook book I found one at last. It was called Bread and Sultana Custard.

I asked Mum  if I could try and make it. Mum said yes. I love to make new desserts on my own.

I got all the ingredients out then got to work. I soon had it finished and in the oven.

When dinner time came we all had a big helping of my dessert

 Imogen asked, "What is in this dessert?"

I answered "Bread. milk, sugar  and mixed herbs."

"I dont think that you mean mixed herbs but mixed spices." said Mum. "There would be green bits in it if it was mixed herbs."

"There are green bits in it," Imogen said. "Mum I think these are mixed herbs, not mixed spices"

I said "Oh no! I put the wrong thing in it."

"Oh well it tastes nice anyway," said Charlotte. "Just don't tell Duncan and he will never know".

If you want to make this dessert here it is:

Ingredients:

15ml/1 tbsp low-fat spread

3 thin slices of bread, crusts removed

475ml/16fl oz/2 cups skimmed milk

2.5ml/1/2 tsp mixed spice

45ml/3 tbsp white sugar

2 eggs, whisked

75g/3 oz/1/2 cup sultanas

freshly grated nutmeg

a little icing sugar, for dusting

Serves 4

1 Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F/ and lightly grease an oven proof dish.

Spread the bread with low-fat spread and cut into small pieces.

2 Place the bread in several layers in the prepared dish.

3 Whisk together the skimmed milk, mixed spice, demerara sugar and eggs in a mixing bowl. pour the mixture over the bread, covering it all. Sprinkle over the sultanas and leave to stand for 30 minutes.

4 Grate a little nutmeg over the top bake for 30-40 minutesuntil the custard is set and golden. Serve spinkled with icing sugar.

I did not take any photos of the dessert so I can not put any in.

Nifty Notebooks

I was trying to think of some craft to do. Then I came up with the idea of making little notebooks.

Gemma-Rose and I found the things we needed for it. We found scrapbooking paper with beautiful patterns, brightly coloured paper and pastel coloured paper. We also found curling ribbon.

Then we got to work. We cut pieces of paper in half to make double pages. Then we took another piece of paper and cut out a rectangle slightly bigger than the pages. We glued one of the double pages inside the cover to make it thicker. Then we folded down the edges of the cover that stuck out beyond the pages and glued them down inside.

After that we punched holes in the pages and in the cover for the binding. We tied curling ribbon through the holes to hold the pages and cover together. Then we decorated the covers. We cut out flowers from the patterned scrapbooking paper. We were done!

I made one notebook for me and one for my friend. Mine was purple, which is my favourite colour, and the other was pink, which is my friend’s favourite colour.

I enjoyed making the notebook because we could experiment with the paper and glue and work things out for ourselves. 

Making Monsters

From the library I got a book that had these really cute toys in it. I wanted to make some monsters with wibbly wobbly arms. So that night I got out my knitting needles and wool and started to knit.

I didn't notice the time going by, and suddenly it was bed time and I had to stop knitting. So I put away my knitting needles for the night and went to bed.


The next morning I got straight back to work. I worked all day and by afternoon tea time I had finished the monster. Then I wanted to make a smaller one so I did a little bit of maths to work out how.

The little one was finished very soon. I gave it to Dad who was very pleased with it. When he found Mum he said, “Look what I got”. I was very pleased with the toys too. I named my one Mackintosh.

If you would like to make one yourself here is the pattern:

The big monster

The body:

Cast on 16 stitches and knit 72 rows.
Cast off


Arm (make 2):

Cast on 5 stitches and knit 26 rows.
Cast off

Leg(make 2):

Cast on 5 stitches and knit 40 rows.
Cast off

Sew it up and you are done

The little one

The body:

Cast on 8 stitches and knit 37 rows.
Cast off

Arm (make 2):

Cast on 2 stitches and knit 13 rows.
Cast off

Leg (make2):

Cast on 3 stitches and knit 20 rows.
Cast off

Sew it up.

For the face you can sew on buttons for eyes or you can do what I did with Dads toy and sew on wool eyes. Sew on the mouth with wool.


You can also make hats for the monsters.

A hat for the big monster:

Cast on 54 stiches knit 20 rows.

Fold in half and sew up.

Hat for the little monster:

Cast on 29 stiches knit 10 rows.

Fold in half and sew up.