bee handmade

Christmas

Time for an update on the bits and pieces of Christmas crafting that I managed to fit in amongst all the present buying and working.

Christmas cards. I made some woven Swedish hearts of out felt and photographed them together on a doily.

I then printed the pictures out on photographic paper and stuck them onto card.

Viola ...

 

Pompom garland. I made loads of pompoms in white and blue wool and strung them together with metallic silver thread.

 

Felt coasters. I used this Martha Stewart tutorial and made some felt coasters. There is a bit of a blue and white theme emerging here.

Walnut shell boats. Using Disdressed's beautiful decorations as inspiration I made some of my own walnut shell boats.

The sails are an image and some text from my copy of the Swedish story The Christmas Tomten.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and a merry New Year. My new years resolution was to not make any but I'm looking forward to a year of new beginnings, lots of crafting and FINALLY finishing my crochet hexagon blanket!

Eek it's almost here

I've been lost in a world of shopping and card and decoration making. I'll post some pictures once recipients have had a chance to not have their little surprise spoiled. I LOVE Christmas but it always creeps up on me. This is mainly to do with the fact that I steadfastly ignore it till the end of November at the very earliest. In fact, I think that perhaps any pre-December advertising should be banned, along with shops playing seasonal music and setting up their Christmas merchandise WAY TOO EARLY. It spoils the magic. I admit I'm probably too old to get a stocking but it really makes me happy. You can't beat eating and making merry. I think I'll be trying out some of Jamie's Chirstmas margaritas and eton mess.

Anyway I digress, this post from the witty Peonies and Polaroids made me smile today and spurred me on to write a post. I quite frequently moo at cows, miaow at cats, baaa at sheep ...  

Here is a picture of cows on the lovely Isle of Harris, the only place where I've seen sheep sleeping soundly on the side of the road.

 

And finally some characterful Highland cattle on the Isle of Skye.

weekend pleasures

• Strictly Come Dancing. I LOVE it. I'm full of admiration for them but unfortunately I have zero rhythm and a bit of a phobia of the dancefloor. I can't believe we've almost reached the end of this series. Saturday evenings won't be the same. If wishes were real I'd ask my fairy godmother to enable me to do this. Oh, to dance the Argentine Tango with Vincent!

• Cooking and baking. Today I'm going to make some of Nigella's spanish macaroons. I'll let you know how they turn out.

• Completing jobs. I finally finished one of the kitchen chairs before being rained off again. I'm really pleased with it. It looks much fresher.

• Appreciating being at home and seeing a little bit of sunshine. These are roses given to me by a friend. They lasted for ages and dried well.

• Reading magazines. The latest Easy Living magazine has a great supplement on stylish one off shops such as RE, Made in Hastings and Berry Red. Lots of fabulous Christmas gift ideas. RE is one of my all time favourite shops. It's so beautiful and full of things you suddenly feel you can't live without. I'm really lucky that I can visit when I go back to the homeland. I feel a bit excitable just looking at the picture.

• Looking at Christmassy inspiration to try to get into the December spirit such as this amazing advent calendar, An Angel at my Table's snowy white decor and Linaloo's beautiful advent calendar.

happy new year

Welcome 2009 - how did that happen? I'm not a huge fan of resolutions because I always feel bad when I break them. The only one I can recollect keeping was acquiring a taste for whiskey! However I do admit to a 'no pressure' attempt to worry less and make more time for crafting (oh and perhaps to purchase a new mac - this post seems to have taken an eternity to compose as my machine is so bloody slow). 

We took down the decorations today (not quite twelfth night but nevermind). I love Christmas paraphernalia but also relish how spacious and tidy everything looks when it's all packed away. It heralds fresh starts and new horizons.

A few random things to share.

My Christmas present from P. Lovely earrings by Abigail Percy.

A wintery walk and an inaugural outing for my new wellie socks.

A flickr mosaic inspired by the one on Ellybeth's photostream. Click on either link to see how to play.

It was a lot harder to do than I anticipated - maybe indecisive should have been the word I chose to describe myself. It made me realise that I like a LOT of things!

festive fun

A wrapped present.

Some Christmas morning blini.

Felt corsages made as presents. I talked about the first one I made here. This time I made a few adjustments.  I think they work better without a stem and with only 1 one leaf. They feel more sturdy and are a bit easier to wear.

No snow unfortunately so, although I was dreaming of a white Christmas, it didn't materialise.

finished

All done and dusted. I got there eventually. I carved some mistletoe leaves.

and a noel stamp.

And then used a mixture of white, gold and green embossing powder to stamp the mistletoe. I finished them off with some mother of pearl buttons as the berries.

 

No I just have to write and sign all of them!

christmas cards

I've been trying to think of an idea for my Christmas cards this year. While I'm deliberating I'll show you one of the cards I made last year.

I cut out this rubber stamp

Then used an embossing ink pad and powder to transfer the design onto folded card.

I also decorated plain brown paper to use as Christmas wrapping. I like having a theme for my wrapping - one of the things I get obsessive about. I love the tradition and ceremony of Christmas; choosing and decorating the tree (real of course), using tree ornaments I've had since I was a a child, hanging my stocking up ... Peter Pan mentality!

This is my collection of stamps.