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progress

Whilst most blogs are talking about goals/plans/resolutions for 2011, I thought it would be much more to the point to see what progress I am doing on my list of 25 things to do before turning 26.

a nice filler photo
after the rain

The list …

  1. Be finished with orthodontic work.

    2. Going very well, should be no more than a few months to go.

  2. Challenge myself to take more thoughtful photos.

    3. I’m more happy now with my photos than I’ve been a while but I still don’t think I’m taking my strongest photos

  3. Ride my bike more.

    4. Bike goes in for a service on Friday

  4. Get a will.

    5. not yet

  5. Get better with my practice of one thing in means one thing out for my belongings.

    6. Did a big clean out of my wardrobe on the weekend, so getting there

  6. Spend more time creating.

    7. Doing pretty well on this front

  7. Print and frame more photos.

    8. I’ve printed more but they are not framed

  8. Bake a rainbow cake.

    9. not yet

  9. Do more study.

    10. Well I’m still at uni and I got a 6/Distinction/83% for the last semester 🙂

  10. Go to the Drive In – hopefully the Wonga one if it re-opens in the next few months.

    11. not yet

  11. Go media-free for at least 48hrs.

    12. mmmm

  12. Make marshmallows and honeycomb.

    13. I’ve made other things ….

  13. Be more regular on my blog (gee, that sounds like an All-Bran ad).

    14. I’m doing better than I have been

  14. Grow my investments.

    15. Making sound progress on this front

  15. Reduce the stack of clothes in my mending/alterations stack.

    16. Just about all gone

  16. Make my own tea blend.

    17. I’ve got ideas in my head

  17. Make strawberry jam.

    18. done 🙂

  18. Get fresh flowers more often.

    19. I like fresh flowers but I just wish they would last a whole lot longer

  19. Write and comment more.

    20. Not doing as much as I would like

  20. Grow professionally.

    21. It’s in the works

  21. Get my routines started again – planning meals for the week and exercise.

    22. making progress

  22. Read some more classics.

    23. yeah

  23. Finish my granny square blanket.

    24. Just need to block it and it will be completed

  24. Make mulberry crumble or pie from the mulberries in the freezer.

    25. The mulberries are still in the freezer

  25. Turn 26

    26. Well I’m getting closer every day …

… and that is where we are on Jan 5 at 21:48

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Strawberry Jam, Dec 2010, Made by Helen

I made Strawberry Jam in December which I gave as part of my Christmas boxes. I finally got round to taking a photo of one of the jars! The felt topper changed between jars depending on what I had at hand but they were all tied up twine and finished with jingle bells.

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Breakfast for 2011

Well I’ve been home in rain drowned Brisbane for a touch over 24hrs now and I have the mozzie bites to prove it.

I came home to a very impressive cocktail party that one of my housemate’s was hosting, the kitchen had been turned into a fully kitted out bar. The party was good and it was great to catch up with the assorted bunch of people who were there. I turned in to bed sometime round 3:30, I was so exhausted! The party of course kept on going and going till 9ish or so this morning. If I’m tired and need to sleep, I’ll go to sleep – doesn’t matter what is going on round me – perfect since my bedroom opens onto the kitchen and the deck. Which works pretty well in this house.

I had a lovely and quiet breakfast this morning. A cup of peach sencha tea, a vegemite and cheese toasted bagel and the most recent copy of Good.

A New Year's Breakfast

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Christmas is near

Well, I’m sitting at my Mum’s house as I type this as in a few hours we’ll be heading to the airport to go to NZ for 10 days to hang out with my Aunt and her family. It’s funny, at work people have been asking why I’m going to NZ for Christmas to which I reply I have family there and the response is always the same or similar “Helen, you have family everywhere” (in matter of fact not really, just Iceland, London, NZ and Tassie but it does seem like everywhere).

All my baking and creating has now come to an end for a year as I handed out presents and parcels to friends and co-workers over the last few days.

All the staff in my section received a little goodie bag, which consisted of 2 Christmas Tree sugar cookies, 1 Lebkuchen Man and 2 little chocolates.

The front.
Biscuit parcels for co-workers

The back.
Biscuit parcels for co-workers

My girls all received a double stack of decadent goodies. Which was filled with a jar of my Strawberry Jam (which reminds me I must take a photo of one of my jars – they looked so pretty), sugar cookies, vanilla rings, rum balls, sunshine/apricot balls, 3 types of nut brittle (hazelnut, peanut and almond), loftkökur and lebkuchen. That also reminds me, I’ll have to take a picture of of what the little bags inside the boxes look like -that will have to happen next year.

The boxes.
Boxes of baked goodness tied up with twineBoxes of baked goodness tied up with twineBoxes of baked goodness tied up with twine

oh so pretty. They are all tied up with bakers twine from Bespoke Letterpress. To continue in my theme of using my Figgjo Flint Lotte collection to hold assorted bits and pieces, here is what I am using as a dispenser for my twine – a milk jug. 🙂 At work I have a butter dish holding my staple remover, paper clips, white-out etc, at home I have a soufflé dish that holds my jewellery tree, a jam container that holds teabags, a little serving skillet that holds a candle and coins etc etc.

A very nice twine dispenser

I leave you with two pictures from the “Hard Crack Factory”
Welcome to the Hard Crack Factory

Hazelnut Brittle

mmm brittle.

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Continuing on with posts on Christmas Baking

I sat on the deck earlier this evening as I expected it to start bucketing and re-drafted my Christmas countdown plan. From tomorrow morning till when I fly out to Kiwi Land on Thursday everything that I need to do is written down; what I have left to buy, when I need to do, which days I’m delivering gifts to people etc. It’s all there.

It’s this time of year that I am thankful for having an oodle of Tupperware cake/biscuit/slice containers. Tomorrow afternoon is going to see the return of Operation Icing for this year. Which will see all available flat surfaces in this house covered with iced biscuits. 😀 so much sugar but oh so good.

I’m doing things slightly different from last year instead of doing the 25 cake boxes of I’m going to make little packages similar to what I did for “Super Hornet Day” for most people and continue to provide some morning tea each day and a few very close people will get a box like last year. I’m very proud of what I did last year but it was a mission and a half and I want my sleep this year.

Less of this.
Packed and ready to go, 156/365

More like this.
Super Hornet Biscuits, 251/365

This is the morning tea “basket” that I took to work on Wednesday.
treats for morning tea

I found the Pyrex dish at one of my favourite op shops a couple of weeks ago and with that festive gold trim, I knew it would get a work out over Christmas. I put an old glass jelly mould in the middle of the dish and filled that with white chocolate drizzled Lebkuchen men and filled the dish with Rum Balls and Sunshine Balls.

Everything of course went down a treat and the last two days I’ve taken Vanilla Rings and Loftkökur which have equally gone down a treat. One of the ladies I work with reckons my Lebkuchen men are the best “gingerbread men” she’s ever had, that was really nice to hear.

mmmm Loftkökur
Loftkokur