Merry Christmas to you!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! Here some Instagram photos of my last few days! I'm celebrating the holidays with my family in The Netherlands but we also made a quick overnight trip across the border to Germany to browse around the Christmas markets in Münster.

Enjoying the Weinachtsmarkt in Germany. Lights everywhere, glühwein, lebkuchen and bratwurst!

I baked a traditional Dutch Christmas bundt cake! Christmas tree bauble, feeling festive in my reindeer socks and Christmas crackers for the table decorations.

Preparing Christmas dinner; we have some vegetarians in my family so this year it's Jamie Olivers cranberry & pistachio nut roast as one of the many courses for our Christmas day feast. Last night we went to the Christmas midnight mass and today I did even more baking; the most delicious gooey chocolate crinkle salted caramel cookies ever... (recipe to follow!)

A quick run at the beach earlier today and now I am relaxing, eating and drinking with family...

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with family and loved ones! Xoxo

 

DIY Instagram photo collage

A little while back I was thinking about what to get my flatmate for Christmas and thought a photo collage of our favourite pictures from our holiday to New York together would be a really nice idea. I wasn't really sure how to go about this project until I stumbled across this brilliant website! Printstagram is the perfect way to enjoy and share your Instagram photos. The website connects to your Instagram account where you can select your favourite images which you can then get printed in several options; memory boxes, squares, calendars, mini books, stickers or even a poster.

I opted for their squares to start my little DIY photo collage project after I had found some examples of making a collage with these in the Internet. For the squares they have two size options; mini squares (2.5 x 2.5 inches) in a set of 48 or their standard squares (4x4 inches) in a set of 24. Once you select the images you want, they are then printed on quality paper with a nice matte finish plus a neat white trim. You can pay via PayPay (easy!) and then they are posted out to you! I had a mix of NYC holiday photos and some of my other favourite pictures I wanted to get printed so I decided to get 2x sets of 24 standard squares which only cost $25/£15. It was so easy to order and when they arrived on my doorstep after about 2-3 weeks I was very excited! I LOVE them; they are such great quality and look super cute :)





Now the next thing I needed for my DIY project was a photo frame. I found this great simple large white frame at Marks & Spencer's but IKEA also has some lovely frames with cool raised edges (link).

 

The frame I bought came with a premade insterted border for 7 photos but I didn't need that so I just took that out and was left with a large white sheet of paper which I could use to adhere my prints to. Most photo frames come with these back sheets which is perfect but if yours doesn't, then don't stress, you can easily improvise by using any kind of paper/cardboard and cut it to size.

Next up was the fun part; choosing and arranging the photos. In this frame, it perfectly fit 20 squares (4x5) I had about 30 New York photos to pick from so it was still a tricky task to decide which ones wouldn't make the cut ;)

 

 

After a bit of playing around with the squares I was left with my final collage!

 

Now that you have the images all in their right position, all you need to do is adhere your photos to the white cardboard. For this you can use any kind of glue stick, nothing fancy required. So I got out my trusty Pritt!

Apply the glue to the back of the squares and then just stick them onto the sheet in the order you want. I was very lucky that with this frame it was a perfect fit and they all aligned perfectly which meant no little trimming tasks where needed.

 

It didn't take too long to do and quickly my sheet was filled with all the pretty squares! I popped the sheet back into the frame, placed the glass back on and TADA my DIY Instagram photo collage was done!

 

 

I absolutely loved the end result and couldn't wait for Christmas time to give it to her! We exchanged gifts on Thursday and she seemed to love it so mission accomplished :) I still have more squares left so think I will get myself one of the IKEA frames soon for my own personal Instagram photo collage!

 

 

Do you think this is a project you might try for yourself or as a gift? Oh and if you would like to follow me on Instgram, I am 'dutchessroz'!

 

Chocolate Fruit Bark - Christmas Foodie Gift!

For Christmas I always love showing off what a domestic goddess I am spoiling my loved ones with some homemade baking ;) Over the years I have treated my family and friends to Christmas Rocky Road (link), Biscotti (link) and the most amazing festive chocolate crinkle cookies (link). I think foodie treats make for wonderful festive gifts. This year I found all my recipes on Pinterest and when I spotted this Chocolate Fruit Bark recipe, I knew it was something that I had to make. Easy as 1-2-3 and delicious...PERFECT!

 

Doesn't this look scrumptious? This chocolate bark recipe uses dark chocolate with 51 percent cocoa and adds some dazzle to it with dried apricots and figs, raisins, and cashews. The addition of the dried fruit and nuts spreads out the chocolate’s intensity, and adds in a healthy dose of antioxidants and finer; so need to feel too guilty when enjoying it!

What You’ll Need:

• 1-2 bars of good quality cooking chocolate
• 1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped
• 1/2 cup dried figs, chopped
• 1 cup mix of raisins, cranberries and mixed nuts

Tools:

• 1 large baking sheet
• Parchment paper

What to Do:

• Melt chocolate over a double boiler or in your microwave until its smooth.
• Pour chocolate over parchment paper-lined baking sheet, spreading so it so that it is about 1/2 cm thick.
• Evenly sprinkle dried fruit and cashews over the chocolate.
• Place the bark into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes, or until the chocolate harden.

I went for the super easy microwave option. I found this great Lindt cooking chocolate at my supermarket. I just broke the bars (I used two to make a good quantity) into pieces, placed that into a bowl and microwaved in short intervals of 20-30 seconds on medium-high power and stirred after each interval until the chocolate was melted.

About halfway ready....gooey runny chocolate, omg!

Perfect, all melted and only took about 2-3 minutes!

 

Now onto the toppings! For my slightly Christmasy chocolate bark I chopped up some dried apricots, dried figs and used an already mixed bag of raisins, cranberries, pecans and cashew nuts. However you can really let your imagination run wild and use any topping you fancy. Some other ideas could be adding; candied orange peel, cherries, hazelnuts, almonds and pistachios. Even more contemporary toppings are: cocoa nibs, toffee pieces, candied ginger, crushed peppermint candy and other dried fruits such as pineapple, blueberries, strawberries plus even toasted pumpkin seeds, cereal and pime nuts. Anything is possible!

Now once your chocolate is melted, just pour it onto a baking sheet which is on a tray of some sort and smooth it out, I just used the back of a spoon to do this.

Sprinkle your toppings onto the chocolate and you're basically done already! Now all that's left to do is just place the tray with your chocolate creation into the fridge to cool and lick that chocolate bowl clean ;)

When the chocolate bark has cooled and hardened, just snap into pieces and enjoy! Yummy....

I wrapped mine into little cellophane bags, added a cute Christmas tag and TADA a lovely and delicious Christmas present!

Will you be making any foodie gifts this Christmas?

 

Deborah Lippmann - Razzle Dazzle NOTD

Christmas is just around the corner and every part of me is getting in the festive spirit...even my nails!
Nothing screams Christmas to me like glitters so I decided to add a bit of sparkle to my look with this recent nail of the day.


I got this Deborah Lippmann polish as part of last years December Glossybox. Razzle Dazzle contains lots of cranberry coloured glitters in a blackened raspberry jelly base. The base is quite sheer which did mean it took three coats to achieve full opacity. The varnish applied smoothly and drying time is super quick but when the polish dried it was a little grainy so I added a layer of Seche Vite topcoat to smooth it out.

Above photo is with flash. It was hard to properly capture the glitter and how they catch the light in these photos but I have to say I loved rocking these festive sparkly nails. Overall I really liked Razzle Dazzle and I am now very keen try some more Deboral Lipmann nail polishes.

For example check out these two lovely limited edition 2012 holiday sets!

ROCK THIS TOWN set which includes: Moon Dance (deep lavender swirl glimmer), Chain Reaction (dirty brass glimmer) and Phoenix Rising (foxy copper glimmer).

SHE'S ALWAYS A WOMAN mini set which includes: Putty in your hands (putty taupe creme), Raspberry Beret (flecked berry) and My Prerogative (royal blue creme)

Deborah Lippmann nail polishes retail at £14 each sold in House of Fraser online and in selected stores. 

Have you tried any Deborah Lippmann nail polishes before?