....Christmas countdown Day 2

Day 2 of the countdown to Christmas and I am pleased to announce the winner of the gift-tag give away is Tracy Worswick.

 Having spent so much time indulging myself making my Advent Calendar I realised that I haven't given much attention to all the other things that I need to get done!


So this week I need to

• Locate the Christmas cards I brought in the sale last year, get them written and in the post.  There is a link here to the Royal Mail so you can check the last day for posting from the UK

• Decide when the tree is going up and what other areas of the house will be getting a bit of Christmas magic. 

• Make some more Das ornaments, there is a lot of clay left and it will dry out if not used and they will look perfect on the twisted branch I brought back from my holiday.

• Work out what days we are at home over the Christmas/New year period, what guests we will be having and do a rough menu plan. My hubby laughs at me because the shops are only closed for 2 days, however, some of the usual items disappear from the shelves to make room for all the Christmas goodies. 

That should keep me more than busy over the next few days.

No Chocolate on today Advent Calendar, but there is on the photo challenge "Hot Chocolate".  It is one of my favourite indulgences and is not just reserved for a frosty night in Winter.  I do sometimes add a few marshmallows but never cream, the more chocolate the better as far as I am concerned!  I had a lovely hot chocolate selection pack from Whittard's last year my favourite was the Rocky Road and it has made it onto my Christmas wish list again.

The deer spoon was a little birthday treat from last year purchased from Dee Puddy.  It is a wonderful piece of nonsense, it has tiny little arms that can be hooked over the top of the mug so that it peeps over the top at you, stupidly the mug I picked for my hot choc photo isn't tall enough for him to do that.




And finally the thing that you have all been waiting for the Christmas joke.....................

"What do snowmen eat for breakfast?"

"Ice Krispies!"

There will be another groaner tomorrow :)

How are your Christmas preparations going? have you got your cards written or are you sending  e-greeting this year?

... making a free Christmas wreath

I am in full swing with my Christmas preparations and today I had big plans for sewing some of the elements for my Advent calendar project, however, I was distracted with a different make.  I was able to get some dogwood from one of my neighbours, its flexibility and red colour make it ideal for making a wreath base.

Start by taking a long stem that has very few side shoots and is not too woody.  Make into a circle overlapping about 15 to 20 cms (6 to 8 inches) on each side. fasten the ends with a piece of plastic covered wired.

We could leave it at that but it might be a tad on the understated side, so take another piece and start wrapping it around/inter-twining. Fasten with more wire as needed, you are looking to build a base that you can continue to weave more stems into.  I have allowed some of the side shoots to roam from the basic shape as I don't want it to be too constricted and I want it to take some of the shape from the wood and the way it has grown.

All you do now is weave/wrap more stems in, you should be able to position them in the gaps between the stems that are already there so shouldn't need to wire them in, however, use more wire if you think you need it.  Trim any stems that are too thick and woody as they won't be as pliable.

I will decorate this with ivy and holly from the garden in a couple of weeks when I am ready to hang it, and maybe a bauble or two.

Not a bad afternoons work, creating something from nothing.


Don't forget to enter my Christmas give away details on this post

Advent Calendar .... the count down has begun pt3

Time is ticking on my Advent project, I could almost do a count down on my count down! so expect a flurry of activity on the blog over the next few days. Oh and we are having a give away!!

A nice simple make today as I turn my attention to gift tags, both as part of my Advent calendar and also for using on gifts.

When used in the Advent calendar I am going to attach a string at the bottom and tie in pieces of paper with the joke and the daily photo challenge, sort of like bows on the string of a kite.   I am not 100% sure if this is going to work but part of this creative process is taking an idea and giving it some time.

I have followed on with the same theme as the envelopes I made in pt 2 of my Advent calendar project.  I have introduced some stickers that were a part of my Christmas crafting stash, from Cox and Cox, yes of course they were an old sale bargain. I have tried to take them beyond the edges to create a less uniformed look.

While the advent tags are completley over the top, no holds barred I have pulled it back a bit with some of the gift tags, keeping it simple, less being more.

I have used punches and rubber stamps in some of my designs and I know that they may be considered to be uneconomical for the amount of use they are given. My thoughts are that they should last a long time and can be sold on when you no longer want them, so I consider them as a  investment. Some of the smaller stamps like the ones I brought from Hema are fairly low cost and they do pop up in the pound shops every now and again so not too much to pay out.

Finally the simplest of all, this was made with part of a page I recycled from the book I am still trying to craft my way through that I introduced here ,


As the spirit of christmas is starting to wend its way towards us I am having a little give away, I will make up a little goodie bag with blank tags and some stickers for you to craft your own gift tags. To enter just leave a comment below and I will pick one at random on December 1st (UK only sorry) as I don't get many visitors its got to be worth a go.