Can you smell it?? It's almost Christmas!!

I am SO looking forward to Christmas this year! Everytime I think about the whole family together and my little girlie’s excitement, the rush of joy and happiness makes me grin form ear to ear.

This will be Imke’s 4^th Christmas, and every year she understands more and this year her excitement is palpable. She has asked me to write to Oupa Christmas (she has called Santa ‘grandfather Christmas since she saw her first santa clause at our Moms & Babes Christmas party in 2010), and has requested a scooter, a pink ball and the ‘Pirates, band of misifts’ movie.

She has also been cast as Mary in her school concert, and her best best friend, Thomas, is Joseph. I can NOT wait to watch them! Imke has been taking her role super serious, and has asked us to call her Mary lol!

Last year Imke, J and I made all our decorations for the tree ourselves, and I want to do the same this year. My friend Jess (who has an awesome blog you can check out here), has shared this recipe for a clay you can make at home and then paint etc – will be perfect for this years’ tree.

Here is the recipe:

Salt Dough Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup salt

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup luke warm water

Directions

1. In a large bowl mix salt and flour.

2. Gradually stir in water. Mix well until it forms a doughy consistency.

3. With your hands form a ball with your dough and kneed it for at least 5 minutes. The longer you kneed your dough the smoother it will be.

Store your salt dough in a air tight container and you will be able to use it for days.

You can use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and stamps to imprint into the clay once they have been rolled out. Experiment with pressure to find the perfect amount you need. Paint your creations with acrylic paints and seal with varnish or polyurethane spray.

You can let your salt dough creations air dry, however salt dough can also be dried in the oven. Bake at 200 F until your creation is dry. The amount of time needed to bake your creations depends on size and thickness; thin flat ornaments may only take 45-60 minutes, thicker creations can take 2-3 hours or more. You can increase your oven temperature to 350 F, your dough will dry faster but it may also brown, which won't matter if you are painting your entire creation (you can also cover your dough in the oven before it turns brown).

There are a few options to color your salt dough: 1. Add powdered tempera paint to your flour, 2. add food coloring or paint to the water before you mix it with the salt/flour, or 3. add natural coloring like instant coffee, cocoa, or curry powder.

Here are the decorations we made last year

I am putting a countdown to Christmas ticker on the blog – just to get my even more excited! ;-p

xxx