Monicas Creative Room

We have had so much snow lately but last night it began to rain and thaw. I woke up early this morning by a huge rumble when all the snow on the south side came down from the roof. A large pile of snow totally blocked the view from the windows. The bird feeders that I had put on one of the poles were nowhere to be seen. Even the poles where gone, buried deep in the snow.

View from the kitchen and living room:

Outside:

We started to dig for the bird feeders. I had to screw the hangers back as they had come loose. Now the birds can eat their nuts again:

Then we had to dig away some of the snow so we can look out through the windows. Here is my husband shoveling snow from the roof while still standing on the “ground”:

I went up on the roof to take some pictures. It was easy to climb up as the snow was higher than the edge of the roof on the lower part of the house. The last picture is a beautiful view of our neighbours:

We have a storm warning for tonight and the temperature has dropped below freezing again.

I have not had time or inspiration to make new designs lately because of all the work the snowing have caused, and because of some other things that have occupied my mind for the past few weeks. But I will soon be back with some new designs, I hope.

Take care,
Monica

Over the past two days we have got a huge mass of snow. Nearly 50 cm (20″), and we have shoveled like idiots. Last night we also shoveled the roof of the greenhouse. I was getting pretty worried that it would not survive the enormous mass of snow. It was quite difficult to even get to the greenhouse when it was one metre (40″) of snow on the ground. Each step was a pain to take, because the snow reached my waist. My arms and shoulders are aching!

Today we are resting but it will start snowing again late in the evening and it will continue snowing for at least two more days.
PLEASE, we don’t need more snow now!!!

Monica

Here are some boxes that are made from the earlier Christmas Crackers designs. I made these designs before Christmas but I have not had time or inspiration to make the sets ready to publish until now. I know that they are too late for Christmas but they are useful for many other occasions. I hope you like them!

You can find the new files here.

Monica

The recent days have been quite cold here. In the morning it was -28C. We had plan to go out shopping so we had prepared the car so it had the engine heater on for more than three hours before we were to go. That was good, otherwise I don’t think the car would have started. Now at least, I have all the ingredients I need to make a delicious sandwich cake (smörgåstårta) for New Year’s Eve.

The sun is still absent most of the day. It only rises just above the horizon for a couple of hours before it goes down again. I very much long for the longer days to come!

I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Monica

Some days before Christmas I started to make candy, lots of candy. I love to make fudge as it is so easy to make and tastes so good.

This year I made six different fudges, salt and sweet liquorice fudge, cream caramel fudge, chocolate fudge, orange fudge and rum/arrack fudge.

My fudge recipe

Ingredients

450g white caster sugar
200g double cream
150g butter
50g glucose syrup
50g syrup

Flavourings

Sweet and/or salt liquorice: Mix 2 tbsp licorice powder and 1 tbsp ammonium chloride in the sugar before the wet ingredients are poured in. Exclude the ammonium chloride if you want sweet licorice.

Chocolate: Mix 100g chopped dark chocolate before boiling.

Vanilla/orange/rum etc: Stir in after boiling 1 tsp of the desired taste. Add more if you want stronger taste.

Directions

1. Grease an 18cm square cake tin.
2. Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring all the time. Put a sugar thermometer in the pan and keep on boiling until the mixture reaches 116C. This usually takes 15-20 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes.
4. Stir in liquid tastes (and colours if you want) and beat the mixture with a wooden spoon. Keep beating until the fudge cools to about 70-80C.
5. Pour the fudge into the tin before it gets too thick and leave to cool.
6. Cut into pieces with a greased knife.