Pinspiration: christmas decoration storage

image from re-nest via pinterest

(I re-pinned it but the link wasnt direct to the blogpost - apologies)

I saw this ages ago, but had to wait to do it until now.

Its worked quite well, it would work better if you don't, like me, collect random odd shaped christmas decorations, but have perfectly matching baubles instead. hence my pictures make it look like a junk shop stored on an apple crate, but I've still kept them like that. I've then stored them in a box to keep them safe.we get our eggs delivered on a large sheet once a month, so I've been saving those rather than boxes, and I got some more, and the larger apple sheets from our market, who would normally just recycle them at the end of the day.

the eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed some glass cat heads in the photos above, heres a closer one with two of them in - a set of 6 of these were my secret santa present from Lisa-Marie, along with some christmassy truffles! Thank you very much Lisa, and sorry it took so long to write about them!

(apologies for the appalling quality of photos, it was night, on an iphone.)

if you'd like to see what else I'm pinning, you can find me here

DIY: pom pom garland

The hardcore, long term readers out there may vaguely be able to dredge up from the recesses of your mind that I spent a long time making pompoms a year or so back, in the hope of one day making them into a garland for christmas time. Today was that day. Never say I dont finish a project...

Christmas crafting results.

Here's the bits I managed to make in time for Santa to deliver them:

first up, the stockings. note to self, if you're going to make bigger stockings to replace those which are too small, TAKE MEASUREMENTS. these turned out to be pretty much the same size as the originals, but appreciated none the less. the bigger red one on the left is the one auntie Mary made me in 1986.



Remember the Cath Kidston-esque sewing kit I wanted to make? well, I did it!
needle book:
scissor pouch:

and a muffin sized cupcake pincushion:

And because I just realised I never gave you a full sized picture of the ornament exchange decoration I made, here it is:

I didn't manage to make everything I had planned, scented hearts and some padded coathangers, or the dreaded Christmas tree skirt, so I have some projects for next year. how I'll manage them I don't know, I'll have to sew all through my honeymoon or something!

a few of my favourite christmas things...

Just before it becomes to obscenely late to blog about Christmas, I thought I'd share my best bits of with you all.

Watching rabbits, and pheasants stroll through Mum and Dads garden on Christmas morning, leaving tracks in the snow:

Walking through the snow in my New Shoes:

the Lovely Cushion that ma-in-law also got me, which I'm trying not to squash lest it come to the same fate as the other cushions in our living room:

Our humongous reading pile, which has more to be added to it still thanks to an amazon voucher! the reference books in the pile are James, its amazing how much a good dictionary/encyclopedia aids a crossword...

The two at the top of that pile are 'advice on courtship and marriage' - from James sister - and 'Don'ts for husbands'. my favourite snippet is:

'A good husband will allow his life companion a bank account, and will exact no itemised bill at the end of the month. Above all, he will pay the Easter bonnet bill without a word, never bring a friend to dinner without first telephoning home'

sage advice, I think you'll agree.

My other best bits from Christmas, sans pictures:

• all of us, going to the midnight mass at Hexham abbey, and walking past the park with the trees strung with giant squiggles of lights. (and singing descants in the mass because I just had to)
• Joking with auntie Mary (great aunt Mary if you please) about how she must be the queen because they've never been seen together, and with her cracker crown on it must be true.
• possibly the tiniest camera in the world, outside of James Bond...
• falling asleep within 20 minutes of lunch.
• seeing how much Mum had wanted the book I got her, and how much more surprised she was that it was signed for her!

All in all, a very lovely Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Just a quick little note while i have the time, to wish you all a very merry christmas, wherever you are. I hope you have a relaxing fun filled joyous day with the people you love. xx

p.s.I got most of my Christmas crafting done, I'll put up pictures soon! x

...and merry Christmas.

This idea came to me a couple of days ago, and little and insignificant as it is, I've decided to roll with it. As you may have guessed by now, I love Christmas, I love everything about it. I really believe that it can be a magical time of year for any age (I'm 25, and I was still skipping around at work today to carols).

I also love all the interaction that happens here in the blogging world, its such a great community. I've already enjoyed Micaelas ornament exchange immensely, and loved all your efforts at spreading Christmas joy so, I thought I'd start a little 'tag' of my own - for whoever wants to join in, in the spirit of Christmas, about Christmas. I'm going to write about my favourite memories, feelings and traditions to do with Christmas, and then pass it on to all of you, my little band of readers, friends. Whoever wants to write their own thoughts out, go for it, just comment back here to this post so others can read yours too. What do you think? Anyway, if nothing else, you get a bit of an insight into my weird and wonderful Christmas traditions...

Christmas for me, is the ultimate sensory experience. There are so many colours and decorations to see, food, wine, pine trees to taste or smell, crackling warm fires, carols and music to listen to, and presents to rattle and unwrap. My mum makes Christmas pudding to my great Granny's recipe, and its absolutely beautiful. Every year Dad and I force mum into making far too many puddings and mince pies, we're only a small family, but somehow we eat them all! (my dad and I have BIG bellies.)My parents and I would decorate the tree together listening and singing to carols, hanging glass icicles alongside felt Santa's and trees I made as a child.

When I was little, my grandpa would always come for Christmas. on Christmas day, I would sit in the middle of the room and hand out presents to all three of them, and get one for myself. We'd open them together and then start again. My dad keeps a clipboard by him even now, on which he makes a list of who-got-what-from-who, so that we don't forget who to write thank you notes to. He also insists on a box put in the middle of the floor, for us all to throw our wrapping paper into, and then he misses every time.

This year, my parents have moved up north, which means that they now live much closer to me. It also means that they live closer to my great aunt, who is going to come to my parents for Christmas. My aunt has now all but lost her sight, but when she could see, she was a wonderful embroiderer. She not only made me my advent calendar, but also the stocking my mum still fills for me every year. This year, in a nice role reversal, I am making my aunt a stocking, along with new ones for my parents (because the old ones were too small to fit anything in!)

Also due to my parents move, this is the first year since I was born that I won't sing any carols in my village church where i grew up, and my Dad ran the village choir. This is the one thing I am really missing this year. I adore singing, even though I'm not amazingly good, there's nothing like the feeling I got of singing with the group of people who have known me all my life, and sadly I'll probably never have that again, although I would like to join another choir one day. This was a massive part of Christmas for me, walking to church with mum over frosty crunchy grass, singing our hearts out to candlelight, wishing my oldest friend a happy Christmas as the clock struck midnight during the midnight mass, and mince pies after before bed.

The other tradition I'm missing is wrapping day. That same friend and I would save our presents until we had bought them all, then get together, shut my parents out of the living room and wrap all our presents on the floor together, watching the sound of music, and singing along to every word. We now live too far apart to make this in any way practical so I think this year, I need a different friend, an different film , and the start of a new tradition for Christmas!

I also love buying presents. I've nothing against handmade presents, in fact I'm all for them, and as you may know, I'm doing a few myself, but I also love choosing that perfect gift for someone. This year, I've bought a copy of a book about one of my parents favourite wildlife artists who also knew my Grandpa well, and I wrote to him and asked if he would sign it for my parents. He was absolutely charming about the idea, calling me literally as soon as my letter hit his doormat, and now I can't wait to give the book to my parents. We've had an old map of the lakes framed for James dad, who is awful to buy for. Not only does he literally want for nothing, he almost pushes things away again! I've still got some presents to make, I want to make my aunt some padded coathangers if i can, perhaps with a scented heart to hang with them, and I've yet to finish the cupcake pincushion for the SIL's sewing kit!

Do you have any thoughts on Christmas that you'd like to share? so many of you are far better writers than me, I'd love to hear your traditions and memories. just write your own post, about whatever you like, and then either email me or comment on this post so we can all read about your Christmas too.

(eeep I'm a little bit nervous, please be nice!)

Thank you...

Just a quick post to say thank you to Louise from Postcards from behind the hedge and beyond who sent me one of these lovely cards that she made with one of the Christmas lists suggested to her while ago. A lovely surprise when I got home late last night!I was very confused for a while as it was lying front down on the doormat, and I was sure I knew your name but couldn't place it at all Louise, then when I turned it over it all made sense. Its hanging with my other Christmas cards, but is definitely getting kept when Christmas is over!

In other news, I've been avoiding posting recently partly because I'm so busy at work at the moment, but also because I can see myself careering towards my hundredth post, and I felt sort of like I should be doing something momentous with it, but I just know that that wont happen at the moment. Anyway, while I'm here, I must just share these things I've seen tonight, some of which may have unfortunately added *more* things to do to my Christmas crafting lists... uh oh....

This felt ball wreath by Pickles via For the easily distracted and Black.White.Yellow. Yum, just yum.

This wreath at Emma Lamb

People who keep wrapping presents with doilies.

That, and thanks to spare thoughts, who remembers what I'm doing tomorrow! Thank you :)

Trees up, Ornament swap!

So you've seen little snippets of the ornament I'd made for my swap partner, well last night I got home to not one, not two, but three parcels. Made my boring day much better! two were Christmas presents from family, which are now sitting under the tree, and one was from this lovely lady! I was so excited, especially when one of the THREE parcels started jingling! Yes, Krissa sent me three ornaments, and I love them all!

She gave me a reason for choosing each one:

- a pig, because she loves them;

- something to remind me what Christmas is all about;

- and something homemade and purple;

I can't decide which I like best, although I do love the owl because he looks like he wants to hug you! Here's a (bad) picture of one of them hanging on the tree, I wish I could take better pictures in my home, but we like lots of table lamps which don't make for good picture lighting.

While I'm at it, I must show you a couple of pictures of the tree up, and decorated. Its ridiculously big! We went to a tree farm this year, where they cut them down in front of you, but they told us there were very few at the height everyone wants, so they were cutting the tops off the taller trees as they needed a cull anyway to make ready for the next year. He pointed to a tree with a break in the branches at an appropriate height to make a 6foot tree, so we went for it. the Norwegian spruce was only £4 a foot, so we got this tree for £24. We thought it was a bit taller than he said it was, but it touches our ceiling! (our flat is part of an old house, we measured, the ceilings are 10 foot high!) its a bit of a monstrosity, but I love it :) (to give you an idea of scale, that mirror on the right, you can see your head in the lower half of that, and I'm nearly 6 foot tall!)

We can't fit the tree (whatever height) into the living room in this house, so to compensate I have this twisty willow with some little ornaments my Mum gave me hanging on it. I love this willow, it doesn't look half so halloween-esque as it appear here, and the twigs frame each ornament nicely.

Here's a couple of my favourites from the twisty willow - sleeping walnut couple, and skiing Santa:

thanks again Krissa, for the lovely ornaments, they made my day!

Christmas is creeping in...

This morning, I (slightly belatedly) packaged up and posted off my ornament for this exchange on Micaelas blog. I hope my secret santa ornament recipient likes it, there's a little sneak peek of my handmade ornament below. I won't lie, I'm a bit nervous at giving something I made to someone I've never met, or talked to even, but we'll see :). Micaela has sorted all of us so its secret santa-esque as well, so my ornament-present won't come from the person that this one has gone to. I'm excited waiting for a parcel to arrive in the post though!

Christmas has been creeping into the house a little bit too over the last couple of days. I'm not one for putting up my decorations gradually, I like to have a few hours on a weekend, or an evening, put some carols on and decorate the house all at once. But the advent calendar has to go up on the 30th November, obviously, so here it is. (the poinsettias might have crept into my bag at morrisons, I had them sitting in my grandpas fish kettle last year, and loved it so much I've done it again. don't they look good with the advent calendar above?)

My great aunt (now 81) made this advent calendar for me when I was three - I know because she sewed the date on the back - there are tiny hooks all over the tree, and around the edge, and I have the box of decorations below to hang up each day. I love this, and its so special to me as I can bring the same calendar out every year to count down to Christmas.

my new obsession.

yes, thats right, I've become obsessed with quilting fabrics. I love the ditsy patterns, the way they come in 'fat quarters', and the way every shop seems to have a different way of folding their fat quarters, but they all end up the same size, wrapped with a little paper belt. Some of the quarters I've bought with a project in mind, some I just liked. and look how cute they all look stacked up together!

The two on the top of the pile below are liberty. I'd be lying if I said the name didnt sell them to me, but I love that the florals were large than the usual ditsy patterns, I want to make something reasonably sized with these too so that the patterns are still visible. I thought the starry one was quite christmassy, I thought about making a tree skirt with panels of that one, but really I want it in a darker colour for that. and the bottom one I got ages ago, but dont have a use for yet.

This lot, I just liked because they co-ordinated. I know thats stupid, but I'll find a use one day!

These three are going to grace the tops of my jam pot favours hopefully, I bought the middle one ages ago, then the other two joinded it ast week. I like that they're all roses, but have other colours in them too.

I bought these two with the sister in law in mind. she has a hankering for the cath kidston sewing box, but from looking at the website it doesnt seem to come with anything inside. So I'm going to make her a little needle book, pincushion and a scissor pouch out of these cath kidston-esque fabrics.

how i'm spending my evenings...

making these!

I'm spending my evenings threading wool around a plastic doughnut to make as many of these as I can. Any of you seen the accesorize windows recently? Our one has garlands made of tons of these strung around them, with accesories hanging off them. I have to walk past it every day, worse luck! I thought they would look great or christmas, either hanging over the mantlepiece, or around the tree like tinsel, or anywhere really! Anyway,I found out that these garlands are essentially the same as the scarves they are selling in store, just with a cord on the end so that they can be hung, so the price will probably end up being the same(ish) price when they come out of the window. No, I thought I'd make them instead! I'm got 8 so far... only about 20 more to go...