First and foremost: the picture I've promised. Here I am, with this year's spread in my booth:


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Just a quick post because I'm well and truly done in.

The fair was a great success. I haven't sold everything, but I sold a great deal and raised more money than last year - not by much, but more nonetheless - and gave away the rest to my (ex-)colleagues as gifts. The only items that didn't sell well were the embroidered cards, but that's okay: ( Read more... )

I've packed my last surprise gift box and finished my last Christmas card. I hoped to make a round number - that would have been 40 - but I seem to have lost motivation to make a mad dash one day before the fair. So, it's 39 cards; I'm sure noadvertising will approve. *g ( Read more... )

Today, I've delivered the Christmas cookies to six out of eight recipients. The others will have to wait until next week, since they no longer work at the school and therefore I couldn't just put the boxes down on their desk in the teachers' room. *g ( Read more... )

I've finished decorating my last batch of cookies, the ginger hearts (I'll try to take a photo tomorrow, before boxing them). I confess that I've simplified a bit the filling (simply glued together two of them with molten chocolate instead of some complicated... stuff with orange marmalade, which I made last year and don't intend to use for baking ( Read more... )

Today I've baked my last cookies: Iranian cookies, with date and pistachio filling, respectively. And ginger hearts - those will be decorated tomorrow. I've decided to finish the Christmas baking. I'm tired and no longer enjoy doing it, so it's time to stop.

I've also finished Christmas card #38. I'm trying to make one more until the fair; it's ( Read more... )

The best laid plans of mice and men and all that ( Read more... )

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

That said, we didn't celebrate today at all. Unless the big cleaning frenzy and the crazed battle at Lidl disguised as food shopping counts. I'm really tired now, but I'm glad I did the shopping when I did because shortly after I got home it started snowing! Fortunately, there was no wind involved, so the balcony could ( Read more... )

This was a fairly successful day. I've managed to decorate my Almond and poppy seed biscuits and my Orangenbusserln, which are, basically, shortbread cookies with finely chopped aranzini, orange peel and orange juice in the dough ( Read more... )

Today was the day of small accidents. Not the "I've hurt myself" version, mind you, at least not physically ( Read more... )