Domesticali

Make a super quick advent calendar

Have you seen all those beautiful handmade Advent calendars floating around? Works of art with teeny boxes to fill or slips of paper listing a fun activity a day. Well, there aren't going to be any of those round here this year.

In a season that is already full to bursting with activities and sheer weight of possessions, I decided that it is we adults, overworked elf-engineers, slaving away, putting the 'festive' into the festive season, who really needed a little daily pick me up. 

Sound good? And I promise, if you fling one of these together for a loved one, you're going to get maximum kudos for thoughtfulness, through minimum expenditure of time. Honestly, the hardest work is preparing the numbers 1 to 24, which I did with some rubber stamps onto stickers and little tags.

How about a nice cup of tea? Individual tea bags in their colorful wrappers attached onto a cord with mini pegs as Advent Tea Bunting. Does it get any more straightforward? But as a reminder to take an interlude each day and breathe, it's one of those gifts that goes beyond the sum of its parts. Alice liked hers anyway.

And hubby was a big fan of his beer advent calendar last year, as well as being the envy of his mates, so why change a winning formula? Buy some beer. Cut little doors into the box. Add numbers.

One tip - if your beer comes in multi-packs like mine, don't do what I did last year and scatter the numbers willy nilly all round the doors, or you'll find yourself on December 22nd with 3 almost empty cardboard boxes, which cannot be thrown away because they contain a single beer each. Strategic placement, people. It will save your sanity. Also, this year I have added a few # labels, for those nights which need more than a single beer (and to accommodate the fact that I bought beer in cases of 10, thereby providing 30 treats for a 24 day span).

It may be November 29th, but you still have time to make a homemade calendar. One which only requires a quick trip to the supermarket, and will provide the equivalent of a friendly hug and an "I'm thinking of you" each day.

Paperwhites

At the beginning of Autumn, flushed with enthusiasm about growing my own flowers for cutting, I placed a bulb order. A rather substantial one. And I managed to rally the troops to help me build a new raised bed and dig trenches and holes in which to plant many of the aforementioned bulbs. Some of them, though, I popped into pots and containers with the notion of forcing them in time for Christmas.

Well, the forcing bit went well, though the timing is clearly a wee bit off. I may have to re-think a few of my gift plans.

But if all the bulbs perform this well, we should be in for a bumper Spring.

Pom pom plum pudding tutorial

Johnny has been more than a little obsessed with pom poms recently. His textiles teacher had the children making them old style - with little cardboard doughnuts, and he was so pleased with his. So a little project to make use of his poms seemed in order.

A little plum pudding pom pom.

To make one, you'll need a lovely brown pom pom - how you make it is up to you. Here's a tutorial for the 'wrapped round fingers' method and one for the 'classic cardboard doughnut' style. The latter is highly desireable if you want to keep small childen occupied for a good long while. Johnny's teacher clearly understands how best to achieve a quiet interlude in her schedule.

When you tie the wool around the centre of your pom pom, leave a good long tail. You will need this to make the rest of the plum pud.

We took a red button and a piece of white felt, cut freehand into a vaguely circular, wiggly edged shape. 

Using the long tail from your pom pom. sew up though the middle of your white felt shape and through the  holes of the button, making a couple of passes to secure them well. We also tied on a tiny scrap of green wool, to look like holly leaves. Done.

Our plum puddings are going to be tied on to bags of Christmas cookies as teacher presents this year. I know it seems early to think of these things, but my offspring break up on December 10th. Aaaaargh. We may well  require more than a cardboard doughnut or two to keep them calmly occupied between then and Christmas....

Where I'm from

It's the simplest of opening conversation gambits really. 'Where are you from?', but it has always been a totally loaded question for me. Up until I was 22, I had never spent more than 3 years living in the same place - different countries, different continents. I'm not exactly your typical english rose to look at either, so people are often curious. And because of the lengthy explanations required, both geographical and genetic, it has become an innocent query which I loathe with a passion.

But we've lived in Oxfordshire now for 17 years. My children were born here - it's certainy where they are from. And today, when I saw this video (on the Abingdon Blog) and heard the song (which I'm a little in love with), it made me look at where we live in a warm and rosy light.

Here's to enjoying the rest of the weekend where you are today, never mind where you came from.

Can I mention it?

Christmas. There - I've said it - out in the open. Actually, who am I kidding - we've been discussing it for months. Hubby usually begins in about August. He's a big fan.

There's great pleasure to be had in the familiarity of our celebrations. We know where the tree stands (constrained by plug points for the lights). There are strategic hooks, hidden by the curtains for most of the year, to fasten the garland on to. When those boxes emerge from the loft, full of treasures to be re-discovered, I know where things go. It's the feeling of being rooted.

But there is the conflicting siren call of the novel - something which makes the decorations a little different. Last year, I tried to persuade everybody to embrace the Charlie Brown style nearly bald tree. They wouldn't, so I had to content myself with fastening a big branch to the wall. Then everyone liked it so much, that it's remained up all year. Sometimes, you just need to force change on your family.

When the christmas editions of all the glossy magazines appear on the shelves, I begin to get that little frisson of excitement. What will the new stuff look like? For a long time, I was a colour scheme purist. Red red red all the way, with lots of wood and pinecones. But then those beautiful jewel tones sucked me in, so in one room, there is now turquoise and purple and lime green with chocolate brown and lots of siver.

Though this year, I have to say I have found flipping through the magazines rather disappointing. There's nothing enticing beckoning me. I feel like I've seen it all before. Maybe it's the recession and spending money on such things feels a little like senseless frivolity. Should we not all be hunkering down and paring back?

But flying joyfully in the face of global financial meltdown, there is still that glorious burst of personal creativity to celebrate. And things popping up that I just have to add to our mix. Like this little icord wreath.

Here are the instructions in case you feel similarly.

What about your Christmas decorating this year? Sticking with the familiar or succumbing to the siren call of the novel?

17th Century moments

Yes, you read than right. Doublet Flange.

Number one son is going on a History field trip. In full on 17th Century attire.

I tried to convince him to access his religious side. A Monk's habit, I could have whipped out in no time. But no, he wants to be a Roundhead. Hence the latest pinterest board.

Please send 17th Century inspiration this way. And shoot me if any of my offspring ever decide to get into historical re-enactment.

Me-yew

I'm not Toast's favourite owner today.

We had to make our annual pilgrimage to the vee ee tee for injections which would be bad enough, but also involves cat prison (the pet carriers) and a ride in the car. Yowl city. The vet is actually within walking distance, but I would need to load them into the wheelbarrow to get them there. I love my moggies, but I'm not sure I'm ready to be famous in the village as that crazy wheelbarrow cat woman.

They will get over it. I bought salmon for supper.

 

Look what landed today. Like a little snowflake of happiness.

Emma made it - a dolls house doily, and some Silverpebble magic.

Changing hours

Today we are back in term-time routine and really noticing the impact of the hour change. A glorious sunrise was a wonderful reward for the early start.

But coming home from school in the dark was not so good.

I'm thinking it's time to break out the sparkly white lights. One tiny way of making winter a little more palatable.

Domestic exposure

Johnny and I had decorated the front porch - twigs, synthetic spider webs, rubber bugs - it was looking mighty fine to us. The first Trick-or-Treaters rang the bell - my friend and her girls.

We stood to chat a while and I asked what they thought of our decorations. At which point Mark enquired whether we had got the cobwebs from down the back of his radiator.

Just the picture of domesicity I was aiming for.

 

******************

So, November and NaBloPoMo. I'd like to think I could post every day, but not entirely sure I can keep up with the pace. Though the Habit  girls have opened their doors to everyone for the month. A picture and 30 words, I might be able to manage.