So I have finally finished my 12 Days of Christmas.  Granted, I finished well before Christmas but I am finally getting the last post up.  This post is a summary of the 12 days of Christmas and I have included days 11 and 12 here as well!

Lets go 12 -1 just for fun – if you say it out loud I made a rhyme 😉

Days 10 – 1 contain links to the posts if you want to see all the pictures and/or the instructions to do the project yourself.

Day 12:  Christmas Cookies

The plan was for two Christmas parties to go down so I made a load of Christmas cookies, particularly the fun cookie-cutter sugar cookie type, and then one was moved until the new year and the other I spent with two lovely friends instead of five.

I spend several hours in the kitchen with my friend Laura making up some sugar cookies.  This recipe was specifically chosen because she made me some of these delightful cookies for me as a birthday gift back in September.  Normally I am not a fan of sugar cookies because they are hard and not very flavorful but these are a different story.  There is also a method to the madness to guarantee moist, fluffy, soft, and flavorful cookies.  Tips below…

Anyway, the cookies were delightful.

Supplies needed:

Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Icing

This icing dries hard and shiny.

• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 tsp milk
• 2 tsp light corn syrup (We used sugar and water.  Heat sugar and water over the stove.  You are shooting for a syrup consistency with the ratio and there’s no better way to explain it really.)
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• assorted food coloring (we used food dyes, better for you)

Your steps:

1. Make the cookie dough:  cream butter and sugar together with a mixer until smooth and creamy looking, mix in eggs and vanilla, add flour and sprinkle the baking powder and salt across the flour then mix it all in together
2. Chill dough in covered bowl in fridge for 15 – 30 minutes (TIP:  chilling makes it easier to roll and work with)
3. Roll out dough on a floured surface to about 1/4″ thick and cut shapes as desired (TIP:  this is the first step to successfully making a desirably moist sugar cookie so when in doubt always go thicker rather than thinner when rolling)
4. Bake for 4 – 6 minutes at 400 degrees until the very bottom edge of the cookies are lightly golden brown (TIP:  this is how you achieve a moist cookie and though it doesn’t look like it they are thoroughly cooked)
5. Let cool
6. Mix the icing ingredients together in a small bowl and mix with a fork (TIP:  while mixing you should pretend you are beating eggs, you want to get all the clumps out, and when you’ve achieved the right consistency it should move like honey – simply add water until the consistency is reached)
7. Add dye (TIP:  making more than one dye at a time and adding dye to the colors as you go makes it more fun)
8. Ice your cookies

Day 11:  wine bottles make vases

My husband, a few months back, started using out consumed wine bottles around the house as vases for our fake flowers.  Then I purchased some candlesticks and found I was in need of a few more wine bottles.  And finally, the last piece in the conception of this project, my friend Megan told me about a wine bottle project she was doing.

Megan brought a couple of wine bottles to my house and some fluffy off-white yarn and some standard brown, twine colored yarn.

Now, the project itself was not Christmas-like but the idea was to add the candles to the home so because of this project I was able to utilize some plain wine bottles for burning my table candles. When I finished the yarn bottles I stuck the candle in a green wine bottle and burned my fun candlestick down until red was showing and, vuala, I had a Christmas decoration – green bottle and red wax… get it? 😉

Note:  Later I did add flowers to the yarn bottles 😉  I just didn’t get a picture of them like that.

Supplies needed:

• empty wine bottles
• yarn
• hot glue

Your steps:

1. plug the hot glue gun in and have sticks at the ready
2. wrap the yarn tightly around itself once just under the lip of the bottle and it should remain secure without hot glue
3. wrap down the neck
4. for the shoulders dab glue around the circumference in variation as you wrap to keep the yarn in place (TIP:  be sure to go around the bottle otherwise it will start buckling on one side and only use a teeny dot because it won’t show that way)
5. after the shoulders feel free to sprint down the body simply wrapping
6. when you reach the point you want to stop trim your yarn, dab the end with hot glue, and adhere it to the bottle (TIP:  tuck it under the last row of yarn for a better hide)

Day 10:  client Christmas cards

Day 9:  Christmas Book

Day 8:  Christmas cards

Day 7:  Sharpie mugs

Day 6:  Snowflakes that won’t melt!

Day 5:  Christmas ornament Christmas wreath

Day 4:  PEACE yarn letters

Day 3:  Crayon ornaments

Day 2:  Pinecone ornaments

Day 1:  origami star Christmas tree garland

Merry merry Christmas!!!! 🙂