Better late than never…

Advent came a little late in this household.  My husband and I had our chocolate advents (a yearly provision from my in-laws) ready to go, but I had plans to make my little mans’ advent…but the plan came the day before the 1st of December, so I was definitely against myself in time.

I wanted to do a fabric hanging advent calendar with pockets that I would be able to fill with all sorts of things as he gets older. There are so many gorgeous, fun and funky Christmas fabrics online, but time and money was against me.

So remember this friendly cat looking after his Christmas Pud… He was the start.  I found the fabric in my local craft shop and I thought he was fun and Christmassy enough to pass muster on my son’s home made advent.

In the same shop I found a nice snowflake ivory fabric to be the base, with a red marble dot fabric for the pockets.

 

I sewed the top/bottom strips on first.  I then cut out and sewed the pockets in place, over sewing the tops to define the pockets.

Felt numbers were so tedious to cut out, but they were easier than hand sewing numbers in place.  I then put buttons in place to mark the “holes” in the numbers.

I backed the advent with plain calico fabric, and inserted a small baton to give rigidity to help it hang properly.

I wish I could photograph things properly…I swear things look much better in real life!

I have filled it with gold coins and a secret goodies hidden here and there.  My little man enjoys putting his hand in the pocket to pull out a treat…but I think he’ll understand it more next year (especially as we can start from Day 1 and I can put some thought into what to fill it with!)

It was a festive project…and now I know how to make one…I want to make another!

I hope you are enjoying your advent calendars on the countdown to Christmas!

Love from me and my little man x

Festive Fun!

I have found a moment to sit down and put my feet up.  The Christmas tree is twinkling, winter sunshine is streaming through the window and I have a cup of tea by my side.  The house smells divine as I found a last miniature candle in my cupboard which I’d been saving and forgotten about.  It’s my absolute favourite Yankee Candle “Christmas Cookie”.  My large ones burnt down so soon I’m going to have to fork out for  a new replacement one.

So we’ve been doing all sorts of Christmas crafting the last few weeks.  The house has looked like a bomb has gone off, a glitter bomb to be precise!  We are finding shiny sparkly bits on most surfaces, in most of our food, and it has spread into almost every room! 

There are a few crafting bits that are for other people, so we won’t mention those here yet.  We can mention a few though…

Salt Dough – We tried to make salt dough when I was with my sister last year but they didn’t work.  I think we blamed her oven at the time, but the microwave recipe was a disaster too.  I think this put me off having another go, but as an impromptu activity with my boy, I thought I’d try again.  I used this recipe this time (1 cup of flour, 1 cup of salt, 1/2 cup of water – baked at 100^oC for 2 hours or so).  My little man loved emptying the cups into the bowl, and armed with wooden spoons we mixed and mixed until we could get our hands in to squidge it altogether.  A fantastic sensory experience for little ones – although he pulled the funniest face when he tried to eat some! 

We had a little problem with the dough…when rolled out and cut when I attempted to lift onto the tray they all broke, so we had to do them thicker.  Maybe next time I’ll cut them out onto greaseproof so that they are easier to remove.  We cut out a lot of shapes…

They had to have quite a while in the oven to dry out as they were so thick.  I think thinner ones would look nicer.

Another day we spent painting some of them.  Someone likes to mix the colours to make a browney/green gloop…I won’t tell you who that is!

I then decorated a few further…

They really need to be varnished to seal them properly…but I think I will scrap these ones and make some new ones next year.  I started to lose patience with them as I wasn’t really in the mood for painting them.  I have hung a few in the tree…

Snowman – I felt we needed a few more home made items to brighten up our Christmas displays.  So we made our Snowman!  There was a lot of glueing and fluffing…but slowly our Snowman came to life!  I love this one…it was fun to make.

Craft Room – I forgot to blog about my lovely home made birthday present made by my friend.  She has made me a lovely sign for my craft room.  She felted it by hand and I think it it is one of the best presents I’ve had!

How cool is that eh!!!?!!!

I’ve got a little sneak peek for you too… This fellow has been used in something I am soon to reveal!

Hope you are all getting festive!!!!

Love from me and my little man x

Deck the Halls

It’s DECEMBER!!!!

That definitely gives us the go ahead for putting up the Christmas Tree!

We had help this year from my fab friend, although our approach to tree decorating is quite different.  Hers motto is “less is more” with a strategic placement approach.  Mine is a more whack it all on approach!  Together we’ve created a monster….

Note my little mans home made stocking hanging on the wall waiting to be filled.

Now our Angel is not in the middle for a reason…my little man felt something else had to go up there too…

…his stripey elephant!

We’ve had an amazingly festive weekend.  A visit to Beaulieu Village Christmas Evening which was brimming with people, twinkling in fairy lights, and full of yummy food and drink.  The air was awash with smells of chestnuts, mulled wine, and hot chocolatey goodness!

My little man loved dancing to this music wagon, and he would’ve been quite happy to stay there all night for sure.

 

 

 

 

A merry evening indeed. 

We have also done a lot of crafting this weekend and making presents.  Here’s my pal working away…(we set up in the lounge for warmth)…

We’ve both achieved a lot this weekend with presents ready to post out.  I’m itching to show you them all, but I’ll keep my lips zipped tight in order to keep the surprises under lock and key!

More things soon!…I  truly love this time of year.

Love from me and my little man x