We don’t need much of an excuse for us to get in the kitchen…Andrews a proper little cook! (I’m not so great…more of a sous chef than head honcho! Good at the prep/tidying up and that sort of thing!) Anyway, we thought it might be quite nice to make a few bits and bobs to give as little Christmas pressies! So hopefully they would taste scrummy, and then I’d make then look fabulous too by making some cute little personalised labels, playing with lots of ribbon, and generally fluffing them up!

Andrews chef of choice is the lovely Jamie Oliver…he’s got abit of a man crush! (Its abit of a fight as to which order the loves of his life go in…I’d like to say I come top but to be honest I think it’s a toss up between Jamie O and Charlotte the letterpress!) So, we get this brilliant Jamie recipe food magazine, and from that were inspired to make some of the very yummy treats! I’ve popped the recipes of a couple down here so you can have a go.

We just got some plain old glass jars and then dressed them up with some easy labels I designed. We’ve printed them onto our gorgeous manilla paper, which I love, makes them feel all crafty and cute and lovely! I think they look pretty nifty, and if I was to get a pressie that looked as cute as that I’d be really chuffed! (OK, ill tell the truth, we made them and they are currently sat on the window-ledge in the kitchen…they look really cute all in a little row like they are, so it’ll be a toughie to give any of them away…I might just have to keep these ones to look pretty and get Andrew to cook up another storm for us to give as gifts!)

Since setting up Sweet Cherry Meadow there have been loads of bits and bobs we’ve wanted to do…and with both of us being Santa’s chief assistants, we were really gutted that we didn’t pull our finger out sooner to get a Christmas Card collection together…don’t worry, we will be much better prepared next year, and as soon as the summers over we will let you know our plans for an xmas range. Anyway, so we weren’t organised enough to do it for our lovely customers, but after being nagged at by our families, we thought we would put something together for all of them! (It didn’t take much persuasion…I had so many ideas I was just really pleased to actually be getting them out there! Don’t worry, I’ve saved the best ones for you lovely lot for next year!)  So I put a few bits together for both our families, and thought while I was at it I would create one to send from the both of us! I think they look pretty good, and they were really well received by everyone who got one! I think I can safely say…….the xmas spirit’s returned! Yay!

Its December! It seems to have crept up on us, it came as abit of a surprise on Tuesday when I turned over my diary to a new month! Much as I tried on my few days off before the wedding, I didn’t succeed in getting a single present! And to be honest I felt like I was lacking a little bit of the Christmas spirit, so we decided to get in the mood with some festive cocktails! (And some not so festive cocktails!)
Just in case your not quite in the festive mood yet, I thought we would share the mixes (I don’t think its called a recipe,) with you! Enjoy! Responsibly! (Probably best not to have these if you have to go to work the next day!)

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