Advent Calendar..... the count down has begun pt2

The second stage of my Advent extravaganza project involved me bin diving into the recycling bin to retrieve a couple of envelopes,

Recycled envelope into Advent calendar

• Cut down the envelopes to your desired size ensuring that you include enough to have a turnover at the top. This one was from a birthday card and so I could cut it in half and still have two good sized envelopes.

• Seal the open side with wide tape, you are now free to decorate with anything you have available. 

• I have used patterned clear tape, this came from Cox and Cox a couple of years ago.  They have lots of interesting things but usually at a price outside of my budget, however, their sales can go as low as 75% off which is when I am most likely to be making my purchases.

• For this one I have added a crafting button, old style pricing tags and shapes punched from paper retrieved out of the recycling bin. 

• The wolly hat stamp was a recent purchase from Hobbycraft  clearance for just 50p, the pompom was from a crafting set I brought from the Poundshop a few years ago and the stars were punched using a little stamp that I brought from Hema last year.

• The final downsized envelope I wanted to be taller and thinner than the other two and was decorated with a very simple design using paper tape and more of the punched recycled paper.  The paper tape was purchased from Wilko a couple of years ago and this is the first time I have used it.

 These are all things that I had in which is a bit of an indicator that

a) I am something of a hoarder/magpie 

b) I am a sucker for a bargain as a large portion of these were sale purchases. 

If I didn't have any of these available I would look at old magazines, newspapers and promotional Christmas flyers and magazines, wrapping paper, print out words and phrases using different fonts or simply write myself, fabric scraps, bits of string, ribbon, old buttons, effectively what ever you have available you can use.

I am really please with the end results and think these designs would work equally well as cards or gift tags

Advent Calendars......the count down has begun pt1

I know its not even December and I am writing a Christmas blog, in my defense you do need to think about your advent calendar before the 1st of December unless you are hoping to bag a cut price bargain at the last minute.

Advent numbers from free printable source

When I was a child our advent calendar was made of card, reused each year until one of the doors dropped off and only then it was replaced. There was no chocolate involved, there was a big door for number 24 and there was always a picture of Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus.  I was one of 3 children and we took it in turns to open a door, my Mum kept a note of who had opened the big doors the year before and worked it out so that privilege was moved round so we all had a fair turn.

Nowadays the supermarkets offer us a chocolate treat behind every door and you would struggle to find any religious references on the vast majority, with cartoon characters being the preferred theme. They are available from mid October and everyone in the household has their own.

No1 Advent Calendar

In recent years I have looked around for new ideas, Pinterest has of course helped fuel this as there are so many creative and imaginative ideas as well as traditions from other parts of the world that are shared.  I very much like the Scandic tradition of counting own the Sundays to Advent by lighting a candle, last year I used four pillar candles and just tied a numbered kraft tag on each one and then remind Hubby which one(s) he could or couldn't light.  The year before I used a star shaped blackboard and just changed the number each day.

While the last couple of years have been simple and understated this year my creative juices have gone into overdrive and I am going completely overboard!   I am planning a multi medium extravaganza that will hang in my lounge and so it needs to be decorative both before and after each day is opened.

 1 to 24 free Advent Calendar print outs

I am a big fan of Pinterest and have created this board full of advent ideas so please feel free to jump in and pin away.

As there are several elements to my plan I will share these with you as I go along.  The first thing I have done is print out the numbers that I am going to use, I have used the black and white mixed fonts from the link below, although I may substitute some of them as I have a couple of other ideas, it will depend how it all comes together.


Free to download - Advent calendar numbers

Vintage style envelopes with numbers

Cute animals with blue background

Black and white mixed fonts numbers



As this calendar is an extravaganza  I wanted it to have a few elements to it so one of the things that I am including is a selection of cheesy Christmas jokes from the links below, these can also be printed out and put in lunchboxes for a little festive smile.


Christmas jokes

Free to download Christmas jokes - child friendly

Christmas jokes on picture back ground

Printable Christmas cracker jokes


I am intending to blog everyday in December up to the big day, I have a daily photo challenge as part of my advent calendar which I will be sharing with you on my next post, I will be sharing my daily Christmas joke as well as any Christmas makes, bakes and  any general Christmas good stuff.

As you can see from the pictures above I will be including some of the paper bags I had left over from my Red Nose day baking bonanza, although they may not be no 1 and no 24 in the final mix.

I hope this wasn't too harrowing for those of a delicate nature as far as Christmas is concerned and that you will pop back for part two.



What are your advent calendar plans?

A - Supermarket chocolate goodness

B - Four candles

C- You have inspired me to make my own

D - I will be reusing last years

E - Don't bother me with Christmas stuff its too early

F - Not for me thanks

Please leave a reply to let me know that you popped by

... boat trips and autumn pics

I had an unexpected treat at the weekend when I was invited to a day boat trip on the River Trent with some friends.   

Unlike today's blanket of fog we were blessed with beautiful autumnal weather and the low sun made for some great reflective  photo opportunities, sadly only on my phone.

If you turn this picture on its side it looks like one big tree :)

Its hard to see where the tree stops and the reflection begins

Swirling water on the River Trent

Love the bridge reflections

Under the bridge - the bit you don't see

Blowing bubbles

We had great fun with our bubble wand, the bubbles bounced off the top of the river and seemed to almost have a life of their own. The local anglers were a little less amused!

I hope you have enjoyed the piccys, leave me a message to let me know how the weather is with you.

.... red roses and recycled raffia

It was garden tidy up time this week and this included moving our rose bush.  I have no idea what variety it is we picked it up from a local garden centre bargain corner a couple of years ago.  

It flowers quite early in spring and goes through in fits and starts right through to the end of summer and into autumn.  I don't usually bring the flowers indoors as I like to enjoy them in the garden as they last longer but the timing and weather we just right for both Hubby and I to get stuck in and sort a few things out. The flowers are beautifully scented but happily not over powering.

I chose to display the roses in a variety of bottles that I have collected, to add a bit of texture I wound raffia and jute string around the bottles. The different sized bottles worked well with the differing sizes of stems.

As I was winding the raffia around the bottle it occurred to me that this was the third time I had used this.  Its first outing was on the Christmas tree at the cottage we stayed in last year, it was brought home and used on a birthday present for my daughters boyfriend and now it was providing a bit of decoration in my lounge.  I have a feeling that it will be making another appearance over the festive period in some form or another.

I am very pleased with my autumnal looking mantelpiece, although I really should have swept the hearth!

Are the roses still blooming in your garden?   Do you have a little something that keeps being reused? Leave me a little message to let me know x

...a Pumpkin adventure

When shopping in Morrisons last week I spotted medium sized pumpkins on sale for only 50p!  not bad value when I can make a big pot of pumkin soup and have fun carving a pumpkin face.

The pumpkin face is of the traditional variety with the obligatory toothy smile.  A look round Pinterest offered plenty of advice on what you should do to preserve your pumpkin once it has been carved, they include

• soak in bleach solution 1tbsp to 1 gallon water over night

• rub carved edges with petroleum jelly (vaseline)

• PVA glue spread around the inside

• Special pumpkin preservation spray ( I think this might be USA only)

I found this link really interesting as it  does a comparison of the various methods.  I have gone for a quick dunk in a bleach solution and a then left it to dry, I actually don't mind that it will start to decay as I think that will add to the ghoulish festival that is Halloween.

I made my soup based on a recipe from Country Living magazine pumpkin and bacon soup as always I didn't stick exactly to the recipe. I used chopped lardons instead of bacon, I used more pumpkin as I mis-read the quantity (oops). I omitted the cream, the sage and the Stilton on cost grounds.  Because I had added more pumpkin I also added some extra stock, a bit too much unfortunately so when I blended it I tried to not include too much liquid, however it is not as thick as I would have liked and I am not keen of the texture.  The overall flavour is of the bacon and it works well with a thick slice of wholemeal toast, but I do feel that the seasoning is not quite right, probably as a result of me messing about with it, I will try and tweek that.

In the interest of clarity Morrisons have no idea that they got a mention here today and 50p was not paid to me.

Have you made any soup recently? I am always interested in new recipes so please share your favourites.

Sewing 30 minutes a day in October - week 1

How hard can it be to fulfill the challenge of sewing 30 minutes day in October?

A little harder than I had initially thought.  Of a potential 3.5 hours I succeeded with 2.5 hours and only one of these was a 30 minute stint. I found that once  I had started something I wanted to finish it or I had to get to a point where I could walk  away and easily just pick it up (not that there is anything complex about these makes).

One of the things that ate into my time was that I didn't think through the whole process of what I was making so I was running round getting buttons and trimmings and string and things.  There was of course the creative process of deciding what to use and how I wanted the finished item to look.

Grey felt heart

This was my first make, I blanket stitched the edge with embroidery floss using 1 white and 2 red strands I was trying to get a bakers twine type effect which is not quite there, maybe 2 and 2 might be better. I raided my vintage button collection and thought that the proportions of the little button were perfect.

Red felt heart

The second one took a little less time as I had everything to hand and I had learnt from the first make to include a hanging loop!

White felt heart

 
For the last one I broke out one of my Cath Kidston heart buttons, I have had them for a while and these seemed like the perfect project.


I am happy with my makes in the first week of this challenge and I am looking forward to next week.  I think I need to dedicate a little time to planning so that I do more sewing and less running around!

Grey, White, Red felt hearts

Did anyone else take up the challenge?  its not too late to join in, you could always do a mini challenge and join in for the week.

.. sewing 30 minutes a day in October

I posted last month about the 30 minute sewing challenge but couldn't commit to taking part as in September so I deferred it until October. Well here we are on the 1st October so I am going to try and sew every day of the month for at least 30 minutes!

Vintage thread box

My first thought is to cut some felt I have brought for making Christmas decorations.  These are mostly hand sewn and are small enough to fit into a corner of my voluminous handbag for the days when I am not at home.

I do have  a couple of unfinished projects that I will probably tackle as it would be nice at the end of the month to have some thing to wear.

Unfinished sewing project

I don't actually know how much I could get done in 30 minutes, if you follow this blog you will have realised that I am not a fast sewer and I am easily distracted!

Oh look buttons, see very easily distracted

I have started a Pinterest board 30 minute sewing challenge with ideas of things that in theory can be made in 30 minutes.  There are quite a few small items that would work well as Christmas gifts so I may use this as an opportunity to make a start on my Christmas list.

My local Facebook sewing group are supporting this initiative and we are planning to do a weekly check in so I will keep you up to date with what I have achieved and pass on any great ideas from the group.

If you want to join in just comment below or if you have just finished your month of sewing share your makes and experiences with us.