Poncetastic the second 2021

[BeastOfBODMAS]

Thread 1 here

I’ve taken the liberty of making us a shiny new thread!

Hello all! Made the marmalade gin at the weekend. It already smells amazing

I decorated my office today. To the bemusement of my colleagues. Not worked with the team for long and they now think I'm a Christmas elf in disguise or they're scrooges. Then went and got more Xmas lights because some sets were dead.

Here at Casa Storm today, the Christmas fairy lights went up and the first door of the family trinket advent calendar was opened. My turn I got some body shop goodies.

I totally lost the last thread but will hang on here. Decorations mostly up ( with everything increasing amounts of tinsel which DH keeps letting the DCs buy. ).

We have people coming for lunch on Sunday before a Christmas concert and a visit to santa on Saturday so I need to get baking. No gingerbread in the freezer yet and no mince pies .

Christmas eve we have a kind of afternoon tea thing with sandwiches, pancakes (often in the shape of snowmen), home made sausage rolls and fruit etc. An easy meal and tidies up any lose ends of food in the fridge. And the children are excited by that point So don't want a big meal.

Ok please talk to me about your mince pie tins. I have a round bottom one but feel it’s missing the corners so there’s less room for filling. So I bought another from Waitrose and it’s a cup cake type tray and the sides look a bit steep.

Have you got the perfect tray? What size are the pie bits?

@OnTheHillNotOverIt I’m with you on the mince pie tins. I use a cupcake tin. My grand had special mince pie tins but I felt they were too shallow!

On a similar vein, does anyone have a recipe for nice pastry for mince pies? I’ve used one with icing sugar, and the one in this years’ Good Housekeeping (which included double cream..not going to lie that threw me) but I’m
Still looking for something a bit more...

Also, has anyone ideas on nice homemade food/bakes to include in a hamper destined for a family with 4 small kids?

@maisiedaisy64 how about these for your hamper
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/gingerbread-bunting

I realised my mince pie tin musings are about my quest to get a good ratio of filling to pastry

We got our tree today and put some other decorations up but I will do more over the next few days as well.
I also bought a different table runner sans glitter! Now Im on the hunt for a nice tree skirt that goes with the colour theme! Dh thinks I'm crazy of course.

No one in our house eats mince pies but I feel a need to do some baking, maybe for the dc lunch boxes for the next few weeks

Hi everyone!🎄🎄🎄

I’ve fallen off the thread, mostly because I’ve realised I’m really not poncing at all this year...And I’ve discovered that I’m feeling very minimal this year (for me, anyway - usually I do quite a lot of decorating). So I’m not sure I belong on the poncing thread anymore!

Nice to catch up though.🎄🎄🎄

My paperwhites are coming along nicely I think but they’re still in the shed. @trumpton Is that ok? I’ll take a photo tomorrow to show you.

Nowhere near as far along as yours, though, @PooterLoop!

@BeastOfBODMAS I love your calendar.

@lucysmam your crochet buildings are adorable as usual!

I’ve hung up three gold ornaments in the bay windows. The candelabra is out, also in the bay. The nisser (Danish Christmas elves) have arrived, as pictured. As have the Christmas mice, also pictured. I’ve put out the advent candles. Tomorrow I’ll do the outdoor twinkly lights on the fence to the front.

The tree will follow next weekend. And that’s all the decorating I’m going to do this year, I think!

Have a lovely night everyone.

Bunting up
Paperwhites in the house
Gin bought to feed them ( hic)

@Trumpton should I bring them in now? And where do they need to sit? Lots of sun? Thanks!🌷

Coolish room. Medium sun. Warmer room later. But they are forgiving bulbs and will flower regardless

I love the bunting @Trumpton

One of my paperwhites has flowered already - the smell is lovely.

Oh wow that’s lovely @PooterLoop. You can slow them down by lowering the temp.

Christmas has come to the Sylvanian House.

That's brought me some relief @Trumpton, I thought mine were very behind but I think they're similar to yours - maybe slightly behind as I was after you all for potting them up.
I love that bunting and the sylvanian Christmas!

@PooterLoop lovely to see a flower already, I can't wait!

Oh gosh it's all gone wrong.

Oh no ! Stake it ( you have a twig or knitting needle ?

Oh no!! Could you also tie something around them to stop the others from drooping much more?

Todays ponceness was this wreath! Yes I know it's a bit lopsided and 11o,clock is a bit bare. But hoping the weight of the baubles might even it out. And I might add tinsel and some proper foliage as we get on into the month

@StormyCornishSeas fab wreath! Where did you get the gold sort of ribbed baubles? They’re lovely!

This was my efforts today....think I’ve room for a few more but I’ve run out of trees which is a problem.

@OnTheHillNotOverIt re mince pie tin/filling. I made some today, my cupcake tin is a 7cm diameter. And then I used a cutter for the base that was 9.5cm diameter. I put two teaspoons of mincemeat in but could definitely have gone a bit more!

Thanks @maisiedaisy64 I will use that as a guide.
Had bit of a disaster trying to make puff pastry mincemeat stars today. The pastry puffed and jettisoned the mincemeat which I then tried to pile back on. Ended up with sort of buttery biscuity pastry things with fruit on top.
They got eaten anyway. It was jusrol gluten free as DD sensitive. Will stick with the shortcrust for the rest of the month

They looked nothing like Good Housekeeping magazine.

@maisiedaisy64 thank you! all the baubles are from Tesco's. The ribbed gold ones came in a set with the large red & green ones

Today’s offering.
Clementine and almond cakes. Advent candle in centre.

Hello, I also fell of the thread as I have been so busy no poncing has happened for week and now I'm back to my usual last minute trying to finish all the diy decorations before its to late to put them up. Its also now a bit late for me to get a tree as all the usual places are sold out, hoping to source one at the weekend and if not I'll just have to improvise. The wreaths need finishing, the cross stitch needs turning into actual ornaments and the living room/dining room needs decorating, I moved house at the start of the year and i'm finding I can't figure out where to put all of the decor I had purchased for the old house very much missing my old fireplace

Hi all 🎄🎄🎄

@Trumpton here are the photos of my flowers...do they look like they’re going to bolt and flower too soon?

Oops forgot photos!