Prompt: Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it?

Aha! At last a prompt that's about something tangible and physical! (at least, that's how I'm choosing to interprete it...)

Well, My partner would say the last thing I made was an unholy mess in the bedroom, using duvets, pillows, cats and casually dropped clothing, but he would say that any time you asked (and no, he isn't any tidier than me either).

The last real thing I made was a Christmas cake at the weekend. I was late making it this year; I've normally made it back in early November and dowsed it with rum a couple of times by now, but things got away from me a bit this year. Fruitcake gets a bad rep, but done nice and moist and packed with tea-soaked dried fruit and a few glugs of Captain Morgan Spiced or Sailor Jerry, it's damned good stuff really. Especially when consumed with a chunk of good Wensleydale cheese and a glass of home-made damson gin (which I set steeping a few months back so doesn't count for the purposes of this prompt). This year's cake might not be as matured and flavoursome as previous ones, but I'm sure it will be fine!. And I still need to make another cake for a culinary-challenged friend who would otherwise resort to buying a supermarket nasty.

Because I've been so disorganised this year, I've also really left it too late to make pomanders, which I am disappointed and cross with myself about. I love making them, and I love the spicy cinnamon-clove scent of them drying by the woodburning stove. Maybe pomanders needn't be just for Christmas though, and if I start them now I'll still appreciate them in the cold, colourless, dreary days of January?

Oh and I also need to collect some holly and ivy to make a Christmas wreath for the front door. And make that Bailey's Irish Cream fudge I promised my partner... what the heck am I doing sitting here drinking coffee and munching Hobnobs when I need to start getting busy!