Christmas Countdown | Part 12: Gift Wrapping Guide

I have a love/hate relationship with wrapping presents. On the one hand, I love going all out and adding all kinds of pretty extras. On the other hand, I get really frustrated when things don't look perfect, like when wrapping tricky shapes. In order to get in the zone, I stick on my Christmas playlist and make sure there's enough room around me to spread everything out.

This year I consciously bought things that were square shaped. Just to make my life a little easier. If it's not square, don't buy it! Just kidding but if it is an odd shaped present, you can always "pop it in a Christmas box" (name that quote) or any box for that matter. Or you can attempt to wrap it the way it is. 

I wanted to blog about what I used to wrap my presents this year. Over the years I've tried wrapping paper from all over the place; Ikea (bad quality), Hema (not enough), Cactus (not aesthetically pleasing),... This year I bought everything from Primark. And when I say everything, I mean everything apart from ribbon. I can't even remember where the ribbon is from, I've had it for ages. But the rest is all Primark which means it was all really cheap (1,50€ per wrapping paper roll). 

I picked out three different patterns, all of which equally adorable. My favourite is the Merry Christmas one, I love all of the colours. It's festive and funky. The other two are really cute too. I also bought a roll of 50 sticky labels, which have come in really handy. I usually write straight onto the paper which is hard to see, so these were perfect. To finish it all off, I got some cute little festive stick on tags. No real purpose but they make it look like you have put in even more effort. 

I always wrap my presents the same way and I'm sure everyone knows how to do it but if you don't, here's a quick guide. 

Measure out the paper and make sure the short sides come up half way. Make sure everything is pulled tight for a really nice end result. It's easier to explain and makes more sense if I give each side a name. The two long sides will be A & B and the two short sides will be C & D . Stick A halfway across the present with clear tape, then fold over B. If it's too long or if your cutting skills are like mine (abysmal), the fold B in on itself to create a straight line, then stick it down onto A. Now for the C & D. Fold in the left and right sides of C so that the top and bottom look like triangles. Then fold down the top and fold up the bottom and stick in place. Repeat on D and now it's time to decorate however you want.

I always thought people used one single piece of ribbon and went over the whole present with it but if you do that you have to twist the ribbon underneath, so I chose the cheats way and cut two pieces of ribbon. I put one piece around length ways (C to D) and stuck in place with tape, then I used another piece to go around the middle (A to B) and taped that too. 

If all else fails, do what my brother did and get someone else to do it for you. (He asked me. He didn't have any boxes. It didn't go too well.)

Christmas Countdown | Part 6: DIY Stove Top Potpourri Gift/Tree Decoration

Festive paper cups

Festive cardboard coasters

Ribbon

Cellotape

Scissors

Dried clementines

Cinnamon sticks

Cloves

Pink peppercorns

All spice

Mixed spice

Nutmeg

Christmas tree sprigs

Hi everyone,

I love typical, winter/Christmas scents. Spices and fruit, anything reminiscent of mulled wine and Christmas baking. I decided to attempt a little DIY project that could be given away as gifts. 

I looked up a few potpourri ingredients and after reading a few different ones, I realised you can just pick and chose what you want to add. I went for an array of my favourite scents.

I started the night before by drying out my clementines. I did this by slicing them into +/- 1cm slices and placing them on a rack, in a baking sheet as this prevents them from sticking to the baking sheet. I heated the oven to 120°C and left them in for about 1 1/2 hours, with the oven door slightly ajar. I turned them all over every 20-30 minutes just to make sure they weren't sticking. After 1 1/2 hours they were mostly dry but still a tiny bit sticky. I didn't really mind too much though. 

I chose to use festive paper cups to hold all of the ingredients, but I think it would probably look a lot nicer in clear plastic bags or clear plastic wrapping paper, bundled together and tied with some ribbon. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any clear wrapping paper. 

I got the cups and the set of coasters in IKEA for 0,99€ each. I had to cut the coaster to fit the top of the cup and then I poked two holes through the coaster. I threaded some ribbon through and tied it into a knot on the underneath side of the lid. This is so that you are able to hang it on the tree. Then I filled the cup with all of my ingredients, about 4 pieces of clementine, 2-3 cinnamon sticks, a teaspoon each of cloves, pink peppercorns, nutmeg, all spice and mixed spice, and a few sprigs of Christmas tree.

I taped the lid on and then decorated the cup with more ribbon. I also attached another cinnamon stick to the front of the cup. Feel free to decorate the cup however you want. And there you have it! 

You can attach a little note saying to pour the contents into a pan with water and let it simmer gently to fill the house with delicious, festive smells. It smells just like mulled wine (without the wine obviously). I think you could even use this to make mulled wine, but I would just use a bit less of the nutmeg and no tree sprigs.

Gingerbread Latte

This hardly qualifies as a recipe, but I wanted to share how I make my own gingerbread lattes. We don't have Costas or Starbucks here in Luxembourg (sob) so I had to figure something out to get my gingerbread latte fix. I know it's not quite "in season" yet, but that's the beauty of doing it yourself. 

We actually bought a gingerbread syrup a few months ago and I was so excited to use it but I found it was rather disappointing. It smelt amazing but didn't taste at all like a gingerbread latte after adding one teaspoon of syrup and the more I added, the sweeter it got obviously. So I came up with a simple, alternative method to get that lovely gingerbread taste but without making the drink unbearably sweet. Anyone can make it as the ingredients I use are usually the kind that everyone has somewhere in their cupboards anyway. There's no faffing about trying to make a syrup, you just put everything straight into the mug. You can use whichever coffee and milk that you like, it's all personal preference. Also depending on the size of your mug, you might want to add more or less of the spices (my mug is more on the larger size).

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Coffee of your choice

Half a mug of milk 

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger 

A pinch of ground nutmeg

1-2 tsp sugar (it's up to you though!)

Chocolate powder or cinnamon to sprinkle over the top

Whipped cream (optional)

Serves 1

Make your coffee according to the instructions. Choose your mug (vital step!) and pour in the sugar, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon.  Add the coffee and fill the mug halfway, then mix it all together really well with a spoon. Now for the important part! Heat up the milk in a microwave for a minute and then make it frothy. I prefer using one of those fancy mini electric whisks (mine is from IKEA and was super cheap) or you could use a milk frother if you have one but a standard whisk or a teaspoon will work too, your milk just won't be as frothy. Pour in the heated milk and mix it all together, then carefully spoon the frothy part of the milk into the mug. Top with a little bit of chocolate powder or cinnamon to make it look really fancy and special. If you know how to make shapes with it then do, because that just makes it look even more amazing and professional. I can't because my precision skills are basically nonexistent. If you want to go all out and treat yourself even more then add some whipped cream. And now you have a yummy coffee and you didn't even have to leave your house to go and get it! Drink and enjoy! (At this point, I should probably just rename my blog the lazy girl's guide to life.) (I just checked, it already exists. Curses.)

DIY: Air Conditioning

Summer in Luxembourg comes in short, random bursts and when it does arrive, it can be unbearably hot, especially these last few years. We aren't near the ocean so it's sticky and stuffy. My bedroom is on the top floor and is so much hotter than the rest of the house. We do have a fan and sometimes leave the windows open but that just makes the hot air circulate around the room. So my boyfriend and I decided to do a project after seeing it on various websites. DIY projects with Stefane are easy because he is a complete perfectionist which means he usually does all the work (although I do try to help where I can). I'll let him take over and explain what to do, it's really simple and affordable. 

You'll need: 

A standard cool box - 14€ 

(it doesn't have to be fancy, we chose the cheapest one)

A small fan - 9,99€ 

(again, we chose the cheapest one we could find)

A pipe, diameter of 10cm - 5€ 

(we used a curved pipe so that we can redirect it)

5-6 screws - 0,50€

Optional:

Duct tape - 5€

Aluminium plate, 1-2mm thick - 4€

Total: 38,49€

Tools:

Electric drill with a 5cm diameter drill head attachment

Screwdriver

Shears or strong scissors

Knife (optional)

Pencil

Electric screwdriver

Start by disassembling the fan with the screwdriver, so that you only have the piece with the propeller and the electric engine. Trace around this piece on one side of the lid of the cool box (not in the center), this will be the outer circle. Then draw an inner circle one centimeter from the one you just traced, so that you can attach the fan later on. 

Use the electric drill with the attachment to drill through the top of the box, in order to make it easier to cut around the inner circle. This is the most time consuming part of this project, because the lid of the cool box has several layers of hard plastic. Once you have cut through it all and neatened it with the shears and the knife, attach the fan using the screws and the electric screwdriver. 

Next, use your pipe and place it on the side of the box, opposite to the side where you put the fan. Try and place it as far away from the fan as you can, to guarantee a bigger air way and to ensure that the air is cool enough. Trace around your pipe and drill another hole, then neaten it with the knife again. You won't need to screw this part, but make sure the hole is not too big for the pipe. Stick the pipe in and if the hole is too big, then you can use the duct tape to make sure the air doesn't come out of the hole itself. The air needs to come out of the pipe to guarantee better air pressure. We didn't need to use the tape as the pipe fixed quite snug. 

And that's it. You can also use the metal plate so that there are two floors in the cool box, you simply have to shape it like a small table so that you can put frozen bottles or ice packs under and over it, to create a even longer air way. This is optional and we didn't feel the need to use it. 

We tried this using two different methods, ice packs and frozen water bottles, using old bottles and tap water. We found that the water bottles have a thinner layer of plastic, meaning they didn't insulate as much as the ice packs. This means the bottles can absorb the heat from the air quicker than the ice packs, which ensures a lower air temperature. Basically, the bottles made the air cooler than the ice packs.

Now to put our creation to the test. The outdoor temperature was 24°C/76°F that evening and when we put the air conditioning box on, the temperature sank to 13°C/55°F within two minutes. Indoors it was 25.5°C/78°F and the box temperature sank to 5°C/42°F. Even though it was hotter indoors than outdoors, the sun wasn't shining and there was no hot wind trying to get in to the box.

It's obviously not comparable to a real air conditioning unit, which cools the room to the desired temperature, because our DIY air con only cools a standard sized room down by one or two degrees. However, it does make a noticeable difference and it feels amazing to have cool, dry air instead of the same stuffy air going round and round with the fan, making sleeping more bearable. It makes as much as a standard fan. It's also a lot cheaper to buy, you don't have to install it and it doesn't consume a lot of electricity. Even freezing the bottles won't add any electricity cost because the freezer is always on anyway.