Quick Christmas Embroideries

With Christmas not too far away I didn't want to start making anything which will take too long for me to complete as I still have a couple of unfinished projects lingering around so this week I made these two small embroideries. Both are free and can be found on Kitschy Digitals.

The robin is part of the Festive Bird Set designed by Bridgeen Gillespie. My Mum loves this one so now it's finished it will be going to live with her.

The Yule Tree Sprite is designed by Cate Anevski. I'll be keeping this one as it is Caleb's favourite and he likes Cate's designs

Last night while reading through my blog list I saw a recipe posted on by the babbling brooke ,for chocolate shortbread. Instead of making a shortbread round I cut the mixture into biscuits for the children. I did have to try one myself, just for a little taste test and I can't see these lasting for long when the children come in or Anders for that matter. Thanks for posting the recipe Kate :)

Handmade Gifts

It has been a busy week here so far especially for Little L who has been in her first nativity play at Primary school, been to her first school Christmas party and will be going to her first disco this week. The boys are going to the cinema and bowling with their school. I can't wait for them all to break up for the holidays because then it will feel more Christmassy but that maybe because I subject them to every Christmas film going on TV.

Little L has gave out the teachers presents which I made for her yesterday as I think that the rest of this week is going to be hectic for them. For her teachers and classroom assistant I knit these circular scarfs using a free pattern which can be found at Hand Knitted Things . Thank you for sharing your pattern Julia :)

Key rings were made for two more classroom assistants.

This tea cosy and egg cosies were made for friends. The tea cosy was knitted using a pattern from the book Kirstie's Homemade Home and it can also be purchased from Ravelry - Kirstie's Tea & Egg Cosies by Suzie Johnson. I only used the pattern for the main body of the cosy and made up the rest as I went along. For the egg cosies, I just used an egg cup for size and started to knit until I was happy with it.

Scrappy Quilt

I have finally completed the scrappy quilt which I was making for Little L. When I reached almost half way with the quilting I did question why I started it in the first place, it just seemed never ending.

Now it's all finished, I'm thinking of making another one but maybe with a colour scheme and not so mish mash.

Though I do like the fact that it is mainly made using clothes that my family were just going to throw away anyway. Its a jumble of shirts, pj's, pillowcases, sheets, anything that was lying around at the time. Little L likes to look at it and point out which fabric used to belong to her Grandparents, Aunt, Uncles, etc. so it looks like it has some kind of entertainment value as well.

The Forgotten Tree

Does anybody else has a space in their house which is generally used just for dumping stuff ....  things that you buy or are given which just gets put in the 'dumping space' until it finds its proper home. Well ours is a little gap between a chest of drawers and the wall and at the moment it is home to a backpack in the shape of Yoda (this was my sister's), a camera tripod (used to be my Dad's), a giant Christmas cracker (January sale last year) and a little white Christmas tree (also January sales). Due to this space being the usual spot for storing wrapping paper, I discovered the little tree last week. I didn't know how I wanted to decorate the tree but knew that I didn't want to go out buying decorations for it so I started to search the internet for Christmas decorations tutorials. There are absolutely loads especially for felt ornaments so I set about making some.

All of decorations in the above picture were made using free patterns which can be found on the Wild Olive blog.

The patterns for these were from a few different sites, Candy Cane and Pudding - Bugs And Fishes  , Robin - Dazie Delights and the Ballet Slippers - Imagine Our Life .

I thought I wouldn't have to make many more to have enough for the tree ( it's only 2ft ) then at the end of last week my Gran send me a box with her old Christmas decorations in. We had been talking on the phone and Gran said that although she does put some decorations out, the tree is too much bother for her these days (my Gran is 89). She said that still had her old decorations and if I had any use for them she would send them to me but to her it was a box of tat.

Some of the decorations in the box were quite modern but others like these birds I remember her having when I was little

I love these old Christmas light bulbs

but my favourite thing in the box is this fairy. I don't know how old it is but my Dad said it was always on the tree when he was a boy and he was born in '52.

After receiving these ornaments I think it would be nice to have all vintage decorations on my little tree but I'm not prepared to pay what they go for on Ebay especially at this time of year so I'll keep my eye out for some more next year but I'll definitely put the fairy out somewhere. Somewhere Little L's hands can't reach.

Christmas Crafting

Its starting to feel Christmassy for me already in our house. That's due to us Christmas shopping, Little L going to her first school fair last week and all the Christmas films I have subjected the rest of the family to over the weekend. No tree up yet though because if I put it up too early I'm sick of the sight of it by the time Christmas arrives. Andy has been dropping hints about it but I think he'd be happy to have it up all year round.

This week Little L has been busy cutting decorations out of this book, Christmas Decorations to Cut, Fold & Stick  . My sis bought it for me as a pressie on her last visit.

The pages are printed with Christmas decorations, paper chains, angels, snowflakes, hanging decorations, etc.

The instructions for all the decorations are printed inside the cover, the cut and fold lines clearly shown and all you need is some sellotape to construct them.

Its a great book for children. Little L finds some of them a bit tricky for her to cut out yet but she managed to make some paper chains by herself with me just cutting the sellotape for her.

I've been making some quick decorations using felt. These mice required no sewing, just some cutting out and gluing. The tutorial can be found here

I only stumbled upon a tutorial for these felt Santa's on Flickr the other day. These are designed by Shelly from the Gingermelon Dolls blog who also makes dolls and animals using felt. Gingermelon Dolls patterns can be purchased from Etsy. I only wish I'd have found this blog sooner as I know my mum would love the gingerbread men and snowman but I think I'd be cutting it a bit fine to start them now. The tutorial for the Santa's can be found here.