Happy New Year–2014!

Happy New Year everyone!

Did you all have a good Christmas break?  Ours was hectic and fun!

We travelled up to Northampton for a wedding the weekend before which definitely put us in the festive mood.  It was such a beautiful venue filled with twinkling lights you couldn’t help but feel romantically Christmassy.  This is the venue…

…just fantastic.

Then Christmas and my little man’s 2nd birthday (where on earth has the time gone?!) spent in my family home in Wales. Loads of food/drink, bundles of presents, board games and telly…a lovely time to get together.

Here are some Christmas presents that were hand made by me this year… they were all received well, and it gave me a sense of achievement to watch people unwrap their homemade goodies.

- a memo board for my mum

- a desk buddy for my sisters crafting room so that she can put her scissors etc. in.  He turned out okay but I would make some changes in future designs.

- Peg bag for my sister in law (sorry for the poor photo’s)

- Tree decorations for my friend and my cousin’s boys

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a lovely time spent with family, but also a nice return to normality for us coming home after over a week away.  The familiarity of your own bed and sofa is second to none, and living out of a suitcase really is tedious!

I’ve taken down the Christmas decorations, something I always am keen to do, and the house has a new sense of space.  Already we are embracing some new adventures for the year ahead. I feel full of inspiration at the moment. Small DIY projects have already been ticked off the list, and some bigger projects on the horizon.

So I wonder what 2014 will hold in store for us?! Do you have any resolutions?  Mine are:

1) As an extension of last years resolution, is to reduce the amount of time spent travelling, and invest my time into enjoying my family.  Funny sort of resolution really, as you think that would come naturally, but I often feel the pressure to be so many places for so many people, that sometimes time spent simply with my family can become neglected.

2) Exercise more.  I’ve already signed up to a “Return to Netball” programme, and hopefully I’ll get my running shoes back on when the weather warms a little.

3) Consider selling some small crafty bits.

4) Continue being a wicked mum/wife! (Ha ha…okay, no one’s given me that title…but I’ll take it!)

Right time to get my crafting house in order!

Love from me and my little man x

Aberystwyth (my home town)…just a week before the devastation of the recent storms… x

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

Christmas Spoils

Where did Christmas go...?!  

We travelled back home yesterday after spending Christmas with the in-laws.  We had a great time celebrating Christmas and Birthdays but I admit to feeling an overwhelming sense of comfort being back in my own home.  

After Christmas has been and gone, I just want the tree down as soon as possible in a bid to greet the New Year in on a clean slate.  I get that hurriedly rushed feeling that everything must be clean so we can relax and be at ease (...one of my annoying quirks is not being able to relax in a messy  room/house...so difficult now with a one year old around!  I don’t mind cleaning...but sometimes it feels like a monumental chore, especially these days when my little man makes things take twice as long...) We’ve stripped the house of it’s Christmassyness this morning and made best attempts to clean the majority of downstairs.  We’ve been so lucky with presents this year (so much so that we had to leave presents behind for them to follow on at a later date!), so the challenge has been where to store all of our new things.

10 Smart Soldiers

There have been so many lovely toys and gifts for my little man’s 1^st birthday and Christmas  - people have been so generous.  My little man’s top 5 toy highlights this year have been: 1) Pop up tent and tunnel with 100 play balls – he has been crawling in/out of this non-stop (...and so have I...), 2) Wooden soldier skittles, 3) Garage (with cars, lift and ramps and all sorts of boy-like fun),  4) A box of balloons (seriously an amazing present), 5) Rocking horse (but it’s a beautiful cow..!).

 

I have been equally spoiled and I will share a few of my top presents... My new crafting hobby has now enabled easier gift selection for my Mummy Clause...

My first sewing box (and my gorgeous oil cloth)

Treasure box.

My stocking was filled with all sorts of sewing goodies such as owl needle holder, pig pin cushion, little scissors, polka dot fabric scissors etc so a treat to open them on Christmas morning.   I had a gorgeous first sewing box to bestow all of my goodies in, and a beautiful box full of ribbons.  My sister ( aderyn du )has made me a gorgeous box of treasures – stunning fat quarters in a variety of colours, she has gifted some of my favourite fabrics from her own collection, cute buttons and ribbons...AND...iron on “mylittleman” tags! Very cute!  She also tucked in a ball of yarn and crochet hook as I’m keen to learn the gobbledygook mayhem of crochet!  Lovely gifts that that will get my creative side going...but most importantly they look amazing too!

My sisters present to me!

Scrumptious Fat Quarters.

Other top non-craft presents were a sage/cream spot oilcloth from my man for my kitchen table, kitchen roman blinds made by my sister-in-law (yet to be installed so picture will follow in due course), a picture of my little man from a previous photo shoot.  I have been spoiled!

We have been given Christmas money to buy a new laptop, and we have been gifted a shiny external hard drive, so soon I will know that my pictures and important bits are safe, and will be able to blog from the new laptop (also pretty in peacock blue!).

Crumbs...we have been spoiled...more than we could ever ask or hope for.  Thank you everyone!

It would be wrong of me not to mention the gross relationship I have had with food over the past week...I have eaten all sorts of yumminess from turkey dinner, home cooked sausage rolls, sprouts with chorizo and chestnuts (you’ve always got to mention the sprouts...!), to puddings galore in the shape of chocolate log, frangipane (...or Frangygranny...) tarts, Christmas pud, mince pies....  Excessive on all counts...but it felt so right at the time! Granny has also enlightened my little man to his first experience of biscuits in bed....apparently it’s what Grannies do....!

Another Christmas gone...now a few days with my men to settle, contemplate and plan ready to see what 2013 has in store for us.

I hope you had a lovely Christmas...

Love from me and my little man x

Christmas Beginnings

 

CHRISTMAS!

One of my favourite times of year I think...when the decorations go up and your home begins to feel cosier as it gets dark outside and you can sit in the warm and sit mesmorised by the twinkling lights.  The tree has always been allowed up from the 1st of December...so without fail our tree was assembled!  It's not a real tree but it's a good fake one.  One year when my little man's old enough I'm sure we'll go off to one of these places where you pick and chop down your own tree...that sounds like an excellent family start to Christmas...the thought of my little, and my not so little, men cutting down the Christmas tree brings a smile to my face.

My little man checking out the tree...

My husband puts the tree together...and I do the decorating with his approval (or dissaproval) from the comfort of the sofa.  We always buy one new decoration every year to add to our tree so we've got a bit of an eclectic mix on our tree...but that's how we like it.  Then we can look back and think about the associations we can make with the decorations we have.

 The addition this year is very important....a Christmas Cracker.

First Christmas Bauble

Not just any cracker...this is the cracker from Southampton General Hospital as last year I was discharged home at 6pm Christmas Evening having had my little man the previous evening.  From memory the Christmas dinner in hospital was awful...although I think I was too excited and scared to think about food at the time.  I was dissapointed I didn't have a 1st Christmas Bauble, so we took the cracker which will always remind us of our little mans' first Christmas.




 Some exciting news in the house...Santa has written to my little man! He wrote a nice personalised poem and sent it by Rudolph express delivery!  I had my doubts...but I think this has reconfirmed the reality of Santa!

A letter from Santa!!!!

 Hope your Christmas sets off to a good start...! 

Love from me and my little man x