Homemade Christmas Gifts

An inexpensive way to treat loved ones on any occasion is to make homemade gifts. This Christmas I made homemade Baileys, Pesto and Laundry washing liquid. I found a really easy Baileys recipe on Pinterest (click link for original recipe) but I've converted it below to make it easier to follow. the pesto recipe is my own - trialled and tested on my husband and friends, and the laundry washing liquid recipe is from a dear friend.

Happy Homemaking! X

Homemade Baileys

1 & 2/3 cups of your choice of Whiskey - I used the Highlands brand from Aldi ($26)
1 can of condensed milk
1 cup of thickened cream
2 tbsps of chocolate syrup
2 tsp of vanilla essence
1 tsp of coffee (dissolved in a drop of hot water)

If you can be bothered taking your blender out, pour all the ingredients in and wazz up for a minute or two until a smooth consistency. Otherwise pour the ingredients onto a jug and whisk up until smooth. This yields about 1 litre or just under.

I mark the use by date by the cream date, but the alcohol can preserve it for a week or so longer. If you're worried, pour the baileys into a ice cube tray and freeze it.



Homemade Pesto 

2 bunches of washed basil with stems cut off
150g bag of pine nuts
60g grated Parmesan
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a mortar and pestle or a food processor and pour enough olive oil until you're happy with the consistency. And you're done! Use this as a dip with cheese and crackers or use about half a cups worth in a cream sauce. Yummo!



Laundry Washing Liquid

1 & 1/2 litre of water for the stove 
1 cup Lux Soap Flakes (from the grocery store)
1/2 cup Borax (from Bunnings)
1/2 cup washing soda (from the grocery store)
8 litres of cold tap water
8 - 12 drops of essential oil of your choice (lemon, lavender, orange, rosemary, clove)

Put 1 1/2 litres of water on the stove in your regular saucepan and add 1 cup soap flakes, 1/2 cup borax and 1/2 cup washing soda. Using a whisk, allow the mixture to fully dissolve as you stir it whilst on low-medium heat.
Once you think the mixture has dissolved, put approximately 8 litres of cold water in a 10L bucket and add the hot soapy mix to the cold water and stir. At this time you can also go ahead and add your choice of essential oil.
Using a soup ladle and a funnel, pour the mixture into containers. (I use old milk and juice bottles)

Use ½ cup in a normal load of washing and use a booster for really soiled clothes. 

You can continue to use a fabric softener if you need, although I use White Vinegar as a fabric softener.

Pasta Maker

Yesterday I made pasta for the first time. Some dear friends had given me a pasta machine for my birthday in May and I hadn't yet found the chance to use it. So yesterday I whipped the box open and worked it like an Italian nonna.
After reading Jamie Oliver's fresh egg pasta recipe, I thought to myself, ok yeah that sounds simple, I can do that...boy was I wrong! 

My first mistake was that instead of using a bowl to make the dough, I tried to be all fancy and just make a flour well on the kitchen counter like he does. Big mistake, I found myself running after rivers of egg mixture all over the counter top haha! I finally got the mixture together and didn't realize what a workout kneading the dough is!!!! My fadoopadoopers are sore this morning!
My second mistake was not having enough room on my kitchen counter. I didn't realize how long the pasta stretched out through the machine, so I found myself looking like a mummy with all this pasta wrapped around my arms!
Having a new machine, I also spent a lot of time cleaning out the factory grease and grime with a spare ball of pasta dough. This took so long!!!

Lastly, I think I made the pasta too thin. After it had dried on the rack, taking it off was a nightmare. It kept crumbling and I had so much pasta on the floor rather than the rack!
Although I had some disasters, I would do it again. Now that I know what i'm doing, I could probably do it quicker.
The taste and freshness of homemade pasta was amazing. It just melted in our mouths! 

I served the pasta in a creamy pesto chicken sauce and it was devoured in under 10minutes! 

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DIY Banner

Here is a simple banner which I crafted up this afternoon. It's easy and I know I'll use it at any chance I can get. You could make any greeting with this too! 

Here are the 10 easy steps:

1. Take a stack of scrapbooking card and choose which colors you want to use.
2. Lay out your order of colors/patterns.
3. Measure up and cut out squares. The card stock I used was 12" x12", so I made 4 squares measuring 6" x 6". 
4. As well as this, using white card cut out smaller squares. I made squares measuring 4" x 4".
5. Go ahead and pencil on a font of your choice onto the white card.
6. Take a marker and thin pen to fill in your font. I used the thin Sharpie pen to out line and then filled the letters in with the marker.
7. Hot glue the two cards together.
8. I then sewed around the edge of the white card. I did this for strength and also for looks.
9. Next, take a ribbon of your choice (I used a ribbed white) and sew on the back of the cards. Making sure to leave a space between each letter.
10. You can make any greeting using these instructions.

Flower Headpieces

My sweet sister made me a flower headpiece. So easy and cheap to make too!
Take a simple headband, bunches of fake flowers and get hot glue happy. 
Go do it. You know you wanna!
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