Attic24

I'm Back :o)

Hello everyone, it's good to be back with you in the Attic again after my little break, thanks so much as always for calling in to see me.

I hadn't intended to be gone quite so long but last week sort of gathered it's own momentum and I decided just to go with the flow as the days rolled by. I had fully intended to use my time away from Blogland constructively last week, intended to Get Stuff Done. But Clutter and Mess still reign supreme around here, and I didn't manage to achieve an awful lot.

However, what I have done is to sort of shift my nesting instincts away from the Piles for the time being and direct it towards Christmassy things. Nice, pretty things like wrapping paper, ribbons and bows, which has been surprisingly satisfying. All of my Christmas present buying is now finished and I'm hopeful that gifts and cards will indeed be mailed out on time this year. And I'll be happy about that for sure.

I've been making a conscious effort to sloooow myself down a bit more this past week too. Been putting my (swollen) feet up and spending more time resting. Making time to sit still and rest myself physically has not come easy. But I'm working on it. A neat pile of Inspirational books and magazines has helped keep me occupied, as has my ever-faithful crochet (do remind me to show you the new bag I'm working on...I keep forgetting to show you).

We put our Christmas tree up on Saturday. After last years trauma with the Needle-drop Situation, we decided against a real tree this year and instead dragged out our old artificial one from the depths of the clutter in the cellar. As much as I crave the sight and scent of a real tree, I know that truthfully I just cannot cope with any sort of cleaning up of fallen pine needles this year. 

So yeah, the tree went up with a new set of coloured lights and a new fandabidozy sparkly star on top, but that's as far as I got before I ran out of steam.

The Little People are taking it all in their stride. They've not actually asked me why the tree remains undecorated (which is an activity that they normally have full involvement in). Instead, they simply took  it upon themselves to begin making their own decorations from paper and bits of coloured thread they have stashed. I came downstairs this morning to a rather huge mess on the table before breakfast, with tree decoration production in full swing. It all looked very creative if a little chaotic.

These are Little Lady's decorations, already proudly hung on the tree. I have absolutely no idea what significance the crocodile has, but did very gently suggest that perhaps she could think of something that was slightly more Christmassy....

 

....and so the angel followed the crocodile and who knows what will be next? We had to halt production in order to eat breakfast and get ready for school this morning, but I'm reliably informed that more decorations will follow.

I wonder if I provide enough encouragement whether they will keep on making and hanging until the tree will be full of their little paper creations?? Maybe we won't do baubles and shop-bought decs at all this year, but will go totally homespun?? Will keep you posted on that one.

And talking of keeping you posted, I'm starting to give some thought to the business of blogging and my little Attic24 space, and how things need to be managed as the next six weeks unfold. I don't want for you to worry about me if I'm suddenly not about, and of course I'll do my level best to keep you informed.

Think I'll need to have a little chat to J about the delights of Guest Blogging so that he can step in and do the necessary when required. That's going to be fun (?!)

Right...need to go drink tea now so will love you and leave you for today....tomorrow I'm going to make into a "Ta-dah-Tuesday" as my Lampshade Makeover is finally ready for it's big reveal....oh now that WILL be fun!!!!!

See you tomorrow

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Advent Garland :: Ta-dah!

I've been wanting to make some sort of Advent calendar/garland type thingy for many years now, but until this year I've never been organised enough to get my creative thinking cap on in time. Arriving at the very last few days of November and suddenly wanting to create a handmade advent something-or-another is not really possible. Way too rushy and stressy for it to be worthwhile.

But this year, lo and behold, I have actually managed it. Yaaayyyyyyyyy for me!!!!! I feel very impressed with myself I have to confess, and even though technically speaking I haven't quite finished stitching all twenty four numbers yet, I am overlooking that weeny little fact and giving myself a pat on the back anyway.

The idea for my garland came about when I started making these fabulous crochet granny stars, you probably remember my post about them from a few weeks ago (see here). I was originally intending to string a dozen or so of them into a garland to hang over my fireplace (to replace my heart garland for the festive season), but as with many projects of this nature, I found that once I began making these stars I simply couldn't stop. Soon my starry pile was growing a little out of control and when I finally stopped hooking and started counting, I found I'd made sixteen instead of twelve. And that was when it suddenly occurred to me that if I made just eight more, then sixteen would become twenty four and they could indeed be turned into something Adventy.

So twenty four stars were made and strung onto some pink yarn to make a very looooong and colourful garland. But as festive and pretty as my garland was, my stars were Numberless. And no Advent garland would be complete without a set of twenty four numbers, would it??

I needed numbers of some sort then...hmmmm.....well I pondered and I thought, scratched my head and browsed through this amazing Flickr group for ideas and inspiration and eventually came up with a Number Idea.....

I cut twenty four circles out of coloured felt and lots of numbers out of red cotton fabric, then used iron on bondaweb to attach the  numbers to the felt.

A bit of white embroidery thread and some extremely enjoyable and theraputic hand stitching, and there you have it.....a whole bunch of Advent Numbers!

On the reverse of each number circle (which is visible when they're hung up), I added a circle of bonded cotton fabric (embellished with a button and some stitching) to stiffen the felt and stop it going floppy.

And the final thing was to add some coloured paper clips as an easy Hanging Mechanism.

I'm really rather pleased with how it's turned out.

So are the Little People.

They declared that Mummy did a Good Job.

So shall I show you how it looks?

When it's all hung up?

You'll have to excuse the quality of the following pictures I'm afraid, the light is very poor here today (more rain and gloomy dark skies) and I struggled to hold the camera still enough without wobbling.

ok..

here

it

comes.....

Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a good 8 or 9 ft long and beautifully stretches across the whole width of the archway which divides our living and dining areas downstairs.

And today being the 3rd December, the first three numbers are hanging in place, marking the date and the Big Countdown.

In true, homespun, colourful Attic24 style.

I'm really pleased with my Advent Garland.

In fact I Love, love, love it.

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Birthday Day

It was my Birthday day yesterday :: tiptoeing into my fifth decade, I am now Forty One.

Did have a lovely, lovely day yesterday too, waking up to a cloudless blue sky and glorious sunshine which helped the day along enormously.  J had taken the day off work and after some deliberation about what to do with 6 precious child-free Birthday Hours, off we headed over the hills to visit an RHS garden called Harlow Carr.

It was a first time visit to a garden of this kind and we really enjoyed it.

There was a mixture of expansive woodland, lakes, big cultivated gardeny bits (above), and smaller cultivated themed gardeny bits.

And although at this time of year the summer flowers were more or less over, the autumn foliage and elegant grasses more than made up for the lack of flora.

You can see from the above picture how blue the sky was, honestly, I couldn't have asked for better Birthday Weather. It was perfect.

One of the themed gardens I really enjoyed was the Scented Garden. It was beautifully laid out with little pathways winding amongst the flower beds, hidden benches to rest a while (was glad of those) and some beautiful woven willow structures too.

 

In fact, there were various willow structures dotted around the gardens :: I really liked this Living Willow fence.

There was an area of small themed gardens called "Gardens Through Time", which started in the Regency period (early 1800's) and went through 200 years to the present day. These photos were taken inside a little painted potting shed which was the entrance to the Victorian period garden...

...I loved it in that little shed and didn't want to step out!

Out of all the gardeny bits, big and small, my favourite bit of all was without doubt the Kitchen Garden. It was set out in a series of small raised beds  which were interestingly constructed from planks made out of recycled plastic bottles, which pleased me enormously.

I can't describe to you exactly what kitchen gardens do to me, but they give me feelings of huge excitement. I would say that those feelings are right up there alongside the ones generated by bolts of fabric and shelves full of yarn, by little trays of coloured buttons and perhaps wrapping paper and greetings cards too. Oh, and jars of coloured sweets.

Do you get what i mean? It's something to do with how neatly arranged it all is, how pretty and promising and inspirational it all is, and how abundant too. Makes me want to immediately go home and create the very same set-up in my own back yard, well on a much teensier scale obviously. 

I loved looking at this garden as if it were a huge patchwork of colours and textures.

 

The little neat rows of vegetable plantlets made me want to cry with pleasure.

It was lovely. Lovely-lovely.

We ate a very enjoyable picnic lunch sat on a sun-warmed bench in amongst the very beautifully planted herbacious borders.

And then it was time to leave....not to go home though, no no, we still had a few hours of the afternoon left to accommodate Birthday Pleasures. So we decided on the spur of the moment to drive up over the big hills to the little picturesque village of Grassington, which is in the Yorkshire Dales and not too far from home.  We pottered about in the afternoon sunshine, walking the little lanes, bobbing into the most delightful little shops and eventually coming to rest at a small cafe to enjoy a sit down and a delicious cream tea.

Then it was back down the Dale to our town to pick up the Little People from school, and then home sweet home.....

....ahhh it was really good to come home! I bought the above sign yesterday from a gorgeous little shop in Grassington called the Rustic Rabbit. I had rather a big attack of The Wanties in this little shop, sooo many gorgeous bits and bobs to tempt ones pennies out of ones purse.

But I was very restrained as I knew full well that back at number 24 there was a colourful little stack of wrapped birthday gifts waiting to be opened. Thoughtful and beautiful gifts sent from friends and family, I felt very blessed indeed. Had a lot of fun (with help from Little Fingers) unwrapping these parcels and there was much ooohing and ahhhhing.

So that was my yesterday, my Birthday-day.

Forty-one, crikey.

Not sure quite how I'm feeling about my life at this particular point, I most certainly never, ever expected to find myself on my 41st birthday with a big round belly and twenty-five weeks pregnant, thats for sure. I appear to be experiencing something of a little emotional wobble to tell the truth, but am hoping very much it'll be short lived and I'll be back to my usual up-in-the-clouds self again very soon.

Think I shall now go and eat cake :: always a good cure for the Wobbles.

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Edited to add :: Awwwwww, many thanks for all your birthday wishes, I really appreciate your kind words. My wobbles are gradually subsiding I'm pleased to say, the tea and cake (and chocolate) helped enormously. Will also be showing you some of my gifts soon too, in case you were wondering what was underneath all that scrummy wrapping paper! xx

Easter Time

Ooooooh I've just recovered from having a bit of a hissy fit here in the Attic. It was not a pretty sight. I had made myself a coffee and tripped up the two flights of stairs all excited to be writing todays post because I'd taken some lovely photographs during yesterday and was really excited to show you. Push the ON button on the computer and nothing. None of the usual whirring of power. Complete silence. Ahhhrrrggghhhh!!! Straight on phone to J :: WHat HAs HApPenEd to the computer, it's DEAD!!! Try to control my voice, try not to sound panicky, try to hide the rising hysteria and alarm. He calmly tells me he Broke the power switch last night by Jabbing it too hard. JABbING?????!!!! What were you doing JABbinG at the computer, my photos are all on there, all my lovely Easter Decorating photos and now I can't get at them!!! He makes some sort of remark about HA thats stopped me from wasting time blogging today......so I ask him if he Jabbed on purpose, if he sabotaged the computer to deliberately keep me from my blog. Laughter. He laughs, and I feel very silly. I recognise the symptoms of Addiction, and I feel a little ashamed. I am truly addicted to my blog :: yikes, I am an Addict.

So what do I do??? I do what most Addicts do and take STEps to get my Fix that's what. I get my camera. I re-take photos of Easter Decs. I locate J's big laptop, the one he doesn't much care for me using. And I commandeer it. Upload my photos onto it, and here I am, getting my fix for the day, feeding my addiction. Phewwww, it was a close call.

Had a super-lovely day here at Attic24 yesterday. Ahhh it was really great! The weather was glorious, see the view from the Attic window yesterday afternoon, isn't the colour of that sky just perfect?

We didn't go anywhere, it was a stay-at-home day. The Little People played outside almost the whole day with various friends coming and going. I baked banana bread, supplied endless snacks, drinks, sandwiches, and many buckets of soapy water for car/scooter/bike washing. Wiped tears, cheered races, picked up, tidied up, supervised, cuddled, scolded. And in between all that I did Eastery Things.

I was mostly by myself this year, which was kind of bitter sweet. You may remember last years post about decorating for Easter? It was a full-on affair with me and the Little People doing it as a three-some. This year, they were too busy playing outside to want to stop and come in to help much. I was secretly quite happy to be puttering around on my own, arranging things, creating little displays, but it didn't hold quite the same level of excitement without the extra four Little Hands.

First up was my table display. On Friday last week I visited all eight of my town's charity shops, searching for a bowl to plant some narcissi into, but with no luck. So in the end, I found an old tin down in the cellar to use. It's a Christmas tin (with a reindeer on the lid), but the bottom of the tin, blue with white spots, seemed OK to use for Easter. Into the tin I popped a pot of spring flowers (narcissi, a primula and a hyacinth) which I'd bought for a few pounds from the supermarket. Stuffed the rest of the tin around the flowerpot with scrunched up newspaper and put a layer of white decorative stones all over the top.

It made the perfect place to put coloured foil wrapped chocolate eggs (already seriously depleted I might add), along with some beautiful painted wooden eggs and a knitted hen which I bought last week from the gift shop (the shop with the half price yarn). Isn't the hen sooo cute?

Next up I made an Easter Tree, using two stems of fake blossom which I bought a few years ago. Down to the cellar (again) to retrieve the Easter Box and unpack my collection of decorations ::little painted wooden eggs, felt birds and flowers, fluffy chicks and a cute nest.

Little Lady came in at this point to begin helping, so you can see the nest got rather overcrowded, as did a few of the branches...but it looks very sweet I think.

The fake blossom is quite delightful actually (it came from Dunelm Mill a few years ago, and was not expensive at all). And after reading Janes post last week about her collection of fake flowers, I am really seeing artificial blooms in a new light...might have to start looking out for more.

I had been hoping to make some new easter decorations for this year, but somehow the time ran out. I still really like these running ducks though (bought from ebay a few years ago), but would have liked to have made my own. I'm thinking on creating a permanent twigs-in-jug type display to keep up all year round, so that I can make some lovely little birds and flowers to brighten up a corner.

These little felt egg cosy's were also hiding in the Easter Box. I had forgotten about them actually, and was really pleased to see them again. Made them last year on a whim one night, after seeing them on the Yvestown blog.

Ahhh candy-coated chocolate mini eggs....so pretty, so yummy and so very very Eastery for me. I cannot contemplate an Easter season without them. I've been buying them for the last few weeks, popping one or two into the Little Peoples packed lunch boxes every day, and one or two into my own mouth every day too.

I made crispy nests yesterday too look...would like to tell you that like last year the Little People begged me to make them, joined in the melting-chocolate appreciation, scrabbled to lick out the bowl afterwards...but nope, sadly I did this all by myself. And that included licking out the bowl. Shame on me.

And lastly, I finally found time to do some eggs. We (Little Man and I) have been blowing them out over the last couple of days (using the egg to make Frittata, pancakes, banana bread, buns) and last night I sat down and painted a few of them ready for decorating. I used some emulsion paint tester pots to paint them with, which worked out great :: the tester pots (from Focus) are the sort that come with their own brushes attached to the lids. I love paint and paint charts, love the names of the colours. These eggs (clockwise, starting top left) are painted in :: Tea Tree, Raspberry Delight, Raspberry Smoothie, Seychelle Blue, Lemon Fizz and Ice Pink. Lovely.

Will show you tomorrow if I can get the Little People to sit down and apply themselves to decorating them. Or maybe I might just sit myself down and have a little quiet Creative Moment when the Little ones take themselves off outside to play.

Hope you're having fun this week whatever you are up to, hope the sun is shining, and hope you are happy. See you tomorrow...

xxxxxx

Happy Valentines Day

:: paper hearts drawn and cut by six year old hands ::

:: heart confetti, punched out of off cuts ::

::little six year old fingers write Loving words ::

:: little four year old fingers get busy with glue and sequins ::

:: Mummy's forty year old fingers get busy with invisible thread ::

 

:: coloured hearts dance in the air ::

:: chocolate hearts for breakfast (with toasted muffins and fruit salad) ::

:: a mid morning coffee  ::

 

:: and some after lunch lounging ::

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xxxxxxx wishing you all a  HAPPY VALENTINES DAY xxxxxxx

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2008

Hello, lovely to see you as always, thanks so much for stopping by.

Today you are joining me in a celebration, a little belated celebration of the Old Year. When New Year comes around, I always find I am not quite ready to begin planning for it until I've had a thorough chew over the year just gone by. So this is what I'm doing today :: having a good ol chew on 2008 before I get on with the business of welcoming 2009.

2008 :: what a year! I feel so blessed, it was a year of such creativity and happy discovery for me. I busied myself settling in to a new house, in a new town, making new friends.  And then there was the start of Attic24. wow. Without sounding all dramatic, I can honestly say that starting to write this blog has really changed my life. I don't feel now is the time to talk Blog, I'll save that for another time...today I simply want to share my photographs with you, photographs which sum up what a happy, bright, colourful and creative year 2008 was for me.

As you probably know, I do enjoy taking photographs with my little Canon Ixus. I take photographs most days, and as a result I have amassed a fair collection of images (typically 300 or so a month). There were over 5000 photos for 2008. For someone like me who thrives on visuals, creating these 3x3 mosaics has been a very exciting project to work on. The above collection was a very random selection of favourite images that kind of sum up my life chez Attic24. Sewing, crochet, flowers, baking, walking, family time, me-time. And now, here follows a month by month visual diary of 2008. Remember you can click on each image to pop it up in a larger window. Here we go then, I so hope you enjoy!

MARCH 2008

APRIL 2008

MAY 2008

JUNE 2008

JULY 2008

AUGUST 2008

SEPTEMBER 2008

OCTOBER 2008

NOVEMBER 2008

DECEMBER 2008

 

I'm a bit lost for words really after that little lot!

I hope it's not been too much bombarding you with all these images? I'm thinking that throughout this year it'd be fun to make one of these 3x3's at the end of each month, a sort of Attic24 Visual Summary. And  with that in mind I've created a little photo album to put them in :: so at any time you feel the need for a colour fix of Attic24 life, you can look over in my sidebar (down near the bottom) and have a little looky at these "Monthly Mosaics". You don't have to of course. Just saying it's there.

SO pheww, I feel better now. Feel kind of refreshed for the year ahead. Folks, I have such a LOT of stuff whizzing around in my head right now, so many projects and things that I wish to make happen, it promises to be a busy old time here at Attic24 over the next twelve months. A new crochet blanket will be starting shortly. House renovations also beginning very soon. New recipes coming, new things growing, an Etsy shop to open...ooooo I am so excited for it all! Yipppeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

Have a great day, whatever you are up to. Hope you find that ray of sunshine today xxx

Post Christmas pondering

So...we are out the other side, we made it! Haha woohoo!!!
Quietly, to myself, when no one else is listening, I am sighing with relief.
Phew.
It's been at times hectic, chaotic, stressful and downright rushed.
Yet mostly it's been joyful, peaceful, fun, happy and wonderful.

I am coming down with a cold.
I have never known a Christmas tree to shed so many pine needles..
I LOVE my new pyjamas and fluffy socks.
Ditto drinking Bucks Fizz whilst wearing new pyjamas and fluffy socks.
I am looking forward to beginning a New Year.
I am not looking forward to cleaning up pine needles.
I am wearing a beautiful handmade bracelet today.
I am also wearing my favourite baggy linen trousers.
Which damn-and-blast-it are not feeling as baggy as they should.
Actually, they are waaaaaaay too tight.
I shall be commencing a diet shortly.
Soonish.
Mamma Mia (the film) is playing on the TV.
Again.
We've watched it oooo maybe 37.5 times?
Probably more.
I would dearly love to go to Greece again.
When my trousers fit me again.

xxx

Christmas Eve

Awww, can you believe that it is Christmas Eve? Already? How did this day manage to sneak up on me so fast then?! Here at Attic24 we have stumbled very chaotically through the past week or two with very little preparation for Christmas. We are are an exceedingly last-minute sort of a family. So yesterday saw some slightly panicky, mad-dashy, heavy duty present-shopping take place. It was stressful at times, but now thank goodness the presents are all brought and (mostly) wrapped. I am relieved to say the least, it took a lot of effort to remain calm at times yesterday and I am glad that particular part of Christmas is over.

This morning we walked, up a steep grassy hill behind our town, up high to look out over the misty rooftops. Fresh, damp air, it was quite wonderful after the commercial chaos of yesterday.

 

Back towards town through the woods, muddy shoes and rosy cheeks. Pockets stuffed with clementines and golden chocolate coins.

Emerging out of the woodland and into town for some last minute shopping at the market :: Seasonal greenery of one kind...

...and another.

After lunch, a little time to sit and drink tea and browse through my precious collection of Christmas magazines.

I'll be baking in a little while :: some star shaped cookies to decorate with silver balls and edible glitter. They will be wrapped in pretty cellophane bags and tied with ribbon to give to family and friends who visit us in the next few days.

We do not go mad for presents in our house, it's very low key. We buy for the Little People of course, but between J and I we have an agreement not to buy stuff for each other. Instead we tend to buy treats for ourselves, its easier that way, and quite a lot more effective and satsifying. J's gift to himself will be computer-related (his passion) and purchased after Christmas during a special trip to a hugely geeky computer shop. He will go with his Dad and is very excited at the prospect of this buying trip, it is already all planned out. Sweet eh?

And my present to-me-from-me is some soft and cosy pyjamas and snuggly fluffy socks which will be my outfit of choice for this evening and much of tomorrow. Oh, and look, I also bought myself two little books which I am very excited about. I cannot wait to dive in to those pages.

Today I bought us two new morning tea cups for our Christmas brew in bed tomorrow, cannot wait for that either. In fact, it has to be said I am rather excited for tomorrow. ooooooo yes I really am!

 

Our special Christmas plate is all ready set out waiting for the mince pie, glass of wine and carrot which we always leave for Father Christmas and Rudolph. The empty stockings wait to be filled. The Little People are expectant and excitable. Me too.

 

Yes, me too.

Happy Christmas to you all, I wish you all the brightest, happiest day, filled with love and laughter, hugs and kisses. Have fun!

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Winter Solstice

Yesterday was the Winter Solstice, the shortest day and the longest night. It was cold and murky and grey and wet here in North Yorkshire, it really was an awful day weather-wise.

I wanted to celebrate the day in some way, felt that this particular day in the year was important and worth celebrating. I wanted very much to do something light and bright and celebration-ish with my family, to start something that might in future years become a Family Tradition. And I would dearly love to tell you that my family felt the same, but honestly, I would be telling you a big fat fib. And as I am all for honesty, I have to confess that truthfully, they didn't care at all for celebrating Winter Solstice.

So it was me who made the sun decoration above. I did ask for the Little People to help, but they weren't interested in the slightest. I could not even entice them with the promise of a new tube of squeezy gold glitter glue. So I crafted alone.

I had this idea that we could make some jam-jar lanterns :: four of them, so that we could each light a candle. So down to the cellar to my stash of Bonne Mamman jars, and into the Little People's craft cupboard for some Gummed Paper Squares (oh how I love these!). I did not get a lot of enthusiasm here either. Little Lady was pretty happy to help out, but Little Man (who to be fair was not feeling very well)threw a minor tantrum when I asked him to decorate a jar. He stropped, and moaned and groaned and eventually managed to drag himself to the table but with the sourest face you have ever seen. It was not an awful lot of fun round our crafting table, but hey-ho I did my best.

And tantrums and grumpiness aside, between us we did manage to produce four decorated jars.

A bit haphazard, a little rough and ready, but still quite cheerful and colourful.

I went to my local candle shop and spent a delicious time sniffing all the seasonal festive Yankee Candles. So hard to choose! Should I go for Christmas Wreath? Gingerbread? Eggnog? In the end I chose Silver Bells and it's utterly gorgeous, kind of a christmas tree smell "with fresh notes of cypress, spruce, apple, wild berry, clove and white cedar".

As well as candles I also needed some greenery. Now in my mind, I had imagined that we would all go out for a lovely, jolly country walk to collect some bits of evergreen foliage to bring back home. It would be such a lovely thing to do on a Mid Winter's Day!

But it didn't quite work out like that. No. It was wet. And cold. And Little Man really was not feeling great, and J had locked himself in the Attic working all day. What to do? Go out alone, that's what. So out I went with a shopping bag (Cath Kidston of course) in the pouring rain, and proceeded to surreptitiously attack some local hedges down near the canal. Trying to do it quickly and discreetly whilst wearing my very un-subtle green coat with scarlet lining to blend in. I felt really bad doing it. I mean, just look what I did :: I stole someones rosemary!! And I hacked a good few branches off a beautiful ivy!! Naughty, naughty me!!!

But no matter, the Contraband Greenery was essential, because I had read that on Winter Solstice, wreaths have to be made from evergreens to represent the closing of the year, the circle of life etc etc. So an evergreen wreath I had to make. Well I did my best. It was sort of a circle anyway.

And we lit our lovely scented candles, in the haphazardly decorated jars, surrounded by the Contraband Greenery in a rough wreathy-type circle, and it looked and smelt rather beautiful I thought.

I had also read that as well as candles and wreaths, we should be thinking about burning a log. Not just any old log, but a Yule Log. Hmm, I wasn't quite sure what a Yule Log should look like?  And quite frankly I didn't feel like going out on my own to procure a Yule Log from the woods, I already felt really bad about the Greenery situation. So instead I selected a log from the fireside log basket and attempted to make it Yule-ish. I used the bits if evergreen which didn't make it into the wreath, and tied them to the log with some natural raffia. eh Voila! One Yule Log!

Of course, it was not immediately obvious that this was a symbolic and Special Log. A Yule Log no less. I had quite a bit of explaining to do. And my explanations were met with much raising of the eyebrows let me tell you. What with the smelly candles and the Stolen Greenery and the trussed up log, it was all a bit much for J to take. He thinks I'm half way to Loopy-land at the best of times, and this sort of thing just kind of makes me seem even more loop-the-loop than ever I guess. More tree-huggy than he can deal with. But still, he humoured me, bless him, and the fire was lit ready for the Winter Solstice Burning.

So it is early evening, dark outside and we are all in our pyjamas and snuggled in front of the fire. We are warm and cosy. We are home, and we are safe and we are together.

We burn the homespun Yule Log and we each make a wish (yes, even J). It was the sweetest thing to see the Little People with eyes scrunched tight in concentration, formulating their secret wishes. It really melted my heart, such a special moment. I've no idea what they wished for, I would love to know.

And that's the tale of our first ever Winter Solstice celebration. Not quite as I had envisaged it, but as my Mum would say "All's well that ends well".

Yeah, all's well that ends well, I like that saying a lot.

xxx

Deck the Halls

Hello, good morning! Aw it's great to see you, thanks for stopping by. Yes do come in and make yourself at home, we can have a mince pie and a brew and chat a while....

Did you see the wreath on my front door as you came in? I'm ever so chuffed with my wreath this year, I wasn't intending on getting one so big, as to be honest I normally can't afford them, but this one was only £6 from the supermarket. Yes, I know, quite a bargain. It's been beautifully made and looks fresh and evergreeny just like my tree. The ribbon that was on it wasn't very nice and actually it fell off, so I used some wired gingham ribbon instead.

 

I made the little felt and cotton  decorations about three years ago now I think, when the Little People were small (age 1 and 3) and when looking after them was very much a full time, exhausting job. Time for stitching and crafting was pretty much non existent back then, and once they were in bed for the night I was always so tired I never had the energy to get creative. But I can remember sitting  in my old kitchen after the Little People were in bed, stitching these bit by bit, night after night and really enjoying it too.

We did old fashioned paper chain making on Saturday :: very early before breakfast and still in our pyjamas (we tend to do a lot of things still in our pj's around here), and it was a lot of fun.

I was forced to watch the Little People get licky and sticky with these, was told in the strictest terms that they were not for Mummy to do, even though I desperately love making paper chains and even resorted to begging. Note to self :: buy my own personal private for-mummy-only stash next year ;o)

I am thinking that I may well leave these chains up after Christmas, I love the colours and the frivolous nature of them, makes me smile.

 

Apart from the tree, and the door wreath, and the paper chains, my other Christmassy bits are reserved for the two fireplaces. You can look at this post to see what my fireplaces usually look like. One of my favourite bits of christmas is the whole stocking thing. I just love it.

 

At each end of the mantel above our open fire, we have these cheery snowmen-hooks to do the business of holding the stockings. Did I make the stockings? Well....the stockings themselves were bought very inexpensively from a supermarket, so technically speaking, nope, I did not do any stocking construction. But I did do the embellishing. A closer look? Yes, by all means, do take a closer peek at my handiwork....

 

....appliqued cottons with little buttons and sequins. So much fun to do, every bit stitched with love. This is the fourth year these stockings have been brought out now, and I sincerely hope they have many many more years to come. Don't think you can ever be too old for a stocking.

As well as the fairy lights, I do like to have candles along the mantel. I use jam jars with little tealights and some homespun stitchy prettiness.

Shall we look at the other end of the room now, check out my other fireplace??

My table is looking quite festive, my fireplace too...

...I have these coloured fairy lights on the mantel all year round, but the other bits and pieces have been changed. Crochet hearts, Summer photos, shells, feathers, jugs and flowers all packed up to make way for Christmassy bits.

I do love wreaths, love the whole idea of them. I like the way they make a room/home feel so cosy and welcoming. I've got some ideas in my mind for making some wreaths next year :: it's one of those things that I've been meaning to try out and haven't yet got round to. If you like wreaths as much as I do, you have to check out this Flickr group, and this too, for a huge amount of wreathy loveliness :: it's fabulous :: wreath-tastic!

Aww look at those cute wooden stockings! This is my solution to the how-to-display-christmas-cards dilemma. Our cards get pegged onto these ribbon hangers (cute little wooden christmassy pegs do the job) and there they hang without getting in the way of anything else. I find Christmas cards a mixed blessing to be honest. Both sending and receiving has it's issues. In fact I've still got mine to write, they usually only just make it out in time for Christmas.

It's been lovely having you visit, do you think my home is looking Christmassy enough? I know it's taken me long enough to get with it, but I admit I am finally beginning to feel the excitement now. May even have another mince pie with my lunch, put some Christmas music on. Yeah, think I will, think I'll go and sit by the tree, eat mince pies  and crochet a little this afternoon. Hmmm yes, I'm veeeeeeeeery excited because I've just started on something new. Just a little in-between-blankets crochet project to tide me over the holidays. Can't wait to show you

xxx