Photographs from the Last Few Weeks

December is such a busy time of year for us!  Here are a few photographs of the last few outings we have done and I hope to back and blogging regularly soon!!

We celebrated Christmas as a family and the little ones were delighted with their gifts...so were Nancy and I!  Read more on Nancy’s blog here. 

This is my Christmas present from my mom and dad which I just adore! A beautiful sewing kit in beautiful boxes which I’ve already started using!

We went to visit friends of ours who were on holiday from Cape Town the other day and spent the whole time in the swimming pool! We had a lovely afternoon and were so sad when the day ended!

Mommy and her adorable baby enjoying some sunshine.

Sweet Gabrielle in her tube.

 I took Rebekah for a swim in the ‘deep water’ and she loved it!

Rebekah and Gabrielle sharing a moment together.

Beth...relaxing! 

Nancy’s blue eyes...aren’t they beautiful?

On one particular morning this week we headed down to Myoli Beach in Sedgefield to go for a swim.  When we arrived it started pouring with rain, so Dad asked God to let it clear so we could play at the beach, and guess what?  It did!  Nancy and I were able to have a fantastic time in the waves!  Dad took all these stunning photographs...I think he did a pretty good job!

Gabrielle at Myoli Beach

Little miss Rebekah

My dad took this photograph of me ducking under the waves at Myoli Beach...isn’t it interesting?

I love this one of Gabrielle lying on the beach. Look at her reflection in the sand...beautiful!

Beth going boogie boarding!

A sunflower plant came up in our garden a few months ago, and now we are enjoying yellow sunflowers which never seem to stop blooming!

P.S. Sensational Sewing Challenge is open for another month (till end of January 2012) so please enter all your Christmas makes HERE. Remember, I’m offering a PRIZE, so don’t miss it!!

Blessings,

Kelly-Anne

Heidi's Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge - Colourful Food

Good morning everyone!  I hope you all had a very blessed and merry Christmas?  Today I am entering my very dear friend's Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge for 'Colourful Food'!  My entry is blackberry jam.

What you will need:

A big pot

Wooden spoon

2 side plates, placed in the freezer

Pastry brush

Jars with clean lids

Scale

Clean wiping cloth

Plenty of hot water

Ingredients:

1.2 kg Freshly picked wild blackberries

800g sugar

Method:

Place your berries in your pot, along with the sugar.  Bring to the boil over a medium heat without the lid.  When the sugar has dissolved, use your pastry brush dipped in water to clean the sides of the pot (you need to remove all the sugar that hasn't dissolved yet).

Take note of the time...your jam should need to boil for just under an hour.

Wash your bottles in hot, soapy water and place in the oven on a low heat to sterilise. Bring clean lids to the boil in water. Set up your bottling station - I use two oven racks, two plates, a ladle, a clean, wet cloth and a clean dishtowel for the next stage...

Testing if your jam is ready is the tricky part of this process. Get your ‘frozen’ plate out of the freezer and pour a little bit of the syrupy jam on to the plate (you will do this about 50 or 55 minutes into your cooking process).  If the jam is runny and doesn’t slightly wrinkle when pushed gently with the tip of your finger, your jam is not yet finished evaporating. It should make a tiny pucker when it is finished boiling.

Put your pot on to one of the oven racks and get a jar out of the oven with your dishcloth
 (leave the rest in the oven to stay hot). Put the jar on one of the clean dinner plates and
immediately start pouring the jam into the bottle. Fill right to the top.
Use tongs to lift a boiled lid out
of the hot water and screw on tightly.  Wipe your bottle and set aside.
 Repeat until all the jam is bottled. Rinse your cloth and give each
bottle a thorough clean. Press lightly on each lid to seal.

Blessings,

Kelly-Anne

Merry Christmas Everywhere!!

Merry Christmas, everyone!  I hope you have a blessed day with family and friends!

Kelly-Anne

Snapshot Saturday - Food

Celebrating Christmas for Real!

Christmas is a very special time of year for us because we celebrate Christ’s birth. A long time ago, Jesus lay in His mother’s arms in the town of Bethlehem.

The real Christmas story has been retold by many people all over the world, but over the years, the Real Story has developed into only a tale that children hear over the festive season. This ‘tale’ isn’t a reason to believe anymore, it is becoming simply a ‘fairy tale’. Look around you – malls, websites, magazines, cards – everything has to do with Santa and his elves, making presents and spoiling children all over the world.

Now please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not implying Christmas is dead wrong, it is fun to pretend, have a Christmas tree and give presents to your family members, but for me, Christmas has become a bit too much about ‘me’ and more about fantasy people and animals. Thus Christmas has become less about Christ!

But wait! Isn’t He the ‘reason for the season’? My mother was telling us the other day how everybody back in the ‘old days’ (actually not that long ago!) used to send cards to friends at Christmas. She said how enjoyable it was to receive Christmas mail and on almost every card was a picture of the nativity scene, the shepherds or angels. Take a look at festive cards now and notice how they’ve changed...

Santa has become more popular than Jesus.

Friends, Jesus is the one we are to worship this season, not a fantasy story. Teach your siblings more about the birth of Christ, sing carols that glorify Him. Maybe you could organize Christmas boxes for orphaned or under-privileged children in your area? I think as believers in Christ Jesus we should spread a little light this season, showing others the true love and joy of Christ!

Christmas is a wonderful time to enjoy with others but we must be careful not to move away from the Real Story completely!!

Blessings and Christmas cheer, Kelly-Anne - a lover of the Real Christmas Story.

“An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the Town of David a Savoir has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:9-11

A New Winner!!!

 Amy, the winner of my ‘Ever After Giveaway’ left me a comment saying I was to choose a new winner!!  Nancy randomly selected the new winner and that winner is..........

Sarah Beckett!!

Congratulations, Sarah!!! Please would you email me your postal address?

Blessings and congrats,

Kelly-Anne

Recipes for Hot Days

The other day it was very hot...I am not a summer loving person because of the extreme heat - I prefer days that aren't too hot, not too cold with a slight breeze!  But hot days are here to stay for a while, so I made something really chilly to cool us down!

 

This is a fruit slushy made out of frozen papaya, frozen blueberries, frozen banana, icy fruit cocktail juice and a little rice milk to bind the ingredients.  The more milk (or yoghurt) you add, the more 'ice creamy' it becomes.  I just blended these ingredients together in our smoothie maker and voila!  A delicious snack to help us cool down!

I'm entering this slushy into Heidi's Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge for 'Fruit and Vegetables'.  Hurry over to join in her challenge, she's offering a great prize!!

Later in the day thunder clouds came rolling in and we had a magnificent thunder storm with quite a bit of rain!

Poor Zak, our puppy dog, was bewildered by the big noises of the thunder and he tried to dodge the rain drops:)

It was beautiful and cool that evening after the storm!

Blessings,

Kelly-Anne

Sensational Sewing Challenge #5...........

Yippee! The festive season has arrived and with that comes activities and things to do in order to get ready! My new sewing challenge theme then is..........Christmas!!! I would love to see anything to do with Christmas! Decorations are fun to make so why don’t you get sewing and enter my challenge?

I have another surprise for you........The winner of this month’s challenge will win a PRIZE!!!  I will send the prize anywhere in the world so now you have to enter:D

This is what you can win!  Buttons, ribbons and flowers to add to your sewing kit!!

My example is a mini felt Christmas stocking.  I found this idea in a book called 'Fun to do - Presents' by Irene Newington.   

up on your Christmas tree!  Your are done!

1.  Trace a stocking template twice onto a piece of red felt.  Cut out.  Cut a snowman shape out of white felt and a hat shape out of black felt. 

2.  Using blanket stitch, attach the snowman and hat onto the front piece of your stocking. 

3.  Glue some gold stars onto your stocking for decoration.

4.  Sew a piece of lace on to the top of the stocking, then join the two stocking pieces together with blanket stitch.  Draw a little face on your snowman.

5.  Attach a piece of gold thread to your stocking so you can hang it

Before I go, I would like to thank my mom, Hazel, Celiah Ann and my sister, Nancy, for entering my sewing challenge last month for ‘something useful’. The winner, randomly drawn by meee is.......

Hazel!!!

Who made these adorable little crayon rolls!

Congratulations, Mom! Here is your winner's button:

Now it is your turn to show me your Christmas makes:)  Below are the guidelines for entering so please just take a short moment to read through them before linking up:)

You can enter using your blog, or if you don’t have a blog of your own, then you are more than welcome to email your entry to me!

Create a new post (no back-linking allowed!) on your blog with at least one photograph of your finished product.

Or

Email me your entry to me with also at least one photograph of the finished product. I will enter it on your behalf, so make sure you come back and check out your entry!

Make sure you also acknowledge where you got your pattern or inspiration from.

Please link back to Beautiful Girlhood so that others may enter too, or use my sewing challenge button in your post. (Email entries don’t apply)

You may enter as many times as you like, but with a different project each time!

 

Leave your entry with Inlinkz below – please note that you must leave a direct link to your blog post so that I can find it easily and leave you some love!!

Leave a comment on a few entries around yours, everybody loves comments!

You are more than welcome to have a little help with your sewing (my mom helps me a lot)! This challenge is open to anyone of any age!

Sensational Sewing Challenge – 'Christmas' closes on the 31st of January, 2012

I cannot wait to see your creations this month!!

Kelly-Anne

Sunday Happiness

This Sunday we cuddled the baby

Cleaned up the garden
Made a yummy lunch
Got dressed up
Went out to see the Christmas lights
Had hot chocolate
Got back home at 12pm

I love our little baby Sofia...can’t believe how big she is already!!

My wonderful mother made this amazing quiche for lunch.

I made a lace hair band...I love it so much so I think I’ll make a few more with pink lace as well.  {Pink is my favourite colour.}  I haven't been able to do much sewing lately, so this was a very quick, easy project that I'm quite proud of!

We drove to Uncle Terence and Aunty Anne-Marie’s place after supper and went in their car to see the Christmas lights in George. It was lots of fun and afterwards we went out for hot chocolates at the mall...we only got home at 12pm though, so I’m a little tired today:)

Have you gone to see the Christmas lights in your town yet?

Homeschool Outing - the Drift 2011

 On Monday the Sedgefield/Knysna homeschoolers got together for a fun outing to the Drift.  I took my camera along and had some fun taking photographs of all the little children playing.  I also got to see a few of my friends that I haven't seen for ages!

{me, a self-porait}

We had lots of fun swimming (getting sunburnt..) and talking:)

With love, Kelly-Anne

Another Email Entry into Sesational Sewing Challenge!

I asked my Mom to please enter my sewing challenge this month for ‘Something Useful’ with her gorgeous little crayon rolls she made for dear friends of ours. You can find the tutorial on ‘Skip to my Lou’.

Aren’t they just too adorable? Mom chose sweet fabrics and had a ball putting these crayon rolls together, even though they were quite tricky to make!

 Untie the ribbon and unroll...

Tie up again when you are finished colouring in your picture!

Please go HERE to enter my sewing challenge for ‘something useful’ which is open till the 7th of December, so you have plenty of time to still enter! Remember, Sensational Sewing Challenge is a challenge, not a contest, so you really don’t have to make professional looking sewing projects. It is aimed at inspiring others [and myself] to make at least one item a month!

With love, Kelly-Anne