Domesticali

Farewell 2013

Last year we spent NYE with our old friends and in lieu of making our own resolutions, we wrote fairly generic ones and each picked one from a bowl. Hubby got "no shouting before 7am" and fittingly, mine was "make more use of the photos sitting on your hard drive".

So I jumped on Sue's bandwagon of a photo mosaic each month, and what an enjoyable ride it has been. And to round it all up, I made a little video of what 2013 turned out looking like.

2013 - a year in pictures from domesticali on Vimeo.

 Turns out that my resolution was definitely one of the worthwhile sort. Perhaps getting other people to make your resolutions for you is the way forward. Anyone got suggestions for 2014?

The beginnings of twinkle

So, it's a week to December and I'm beginning to feel my festive juices flowing. The music is always what gets me first - Johnny is learning the words for his Christmas Service and there is much bathtime warbling of carols going on. The selection is quite eclectic, meaning many of them are new to him, but I find, deep in my memory banks 3 verses of the Sans Day Carol just waiting for me to access them.

Christmas is like that, don't you think? Somehow inexorably bound up with memories and traditions and recollections that spring up almost unbidden. But along with that wealth of the past, I like to add a little something new each year.

Glittery card, spray mount, circular punch, small helper, sewing machine...

One hallway, beginning to look a bit like Christmas. Feeling twinkly yet?

Half term halloween

Fourteen day half term, absentee husband, dismal rain, caged beast children.

Baking is usually the answer. Bludgeon them into submission with sugar.

But there is a broken oven to add into the mix. So shop bought gingerbread men and icing in squeezy bottles had to suffice. Fun all the same.

Hearts and pancakes

This is a good week, if you are fans of seasonal celebrations. Shrove Tuesday and Valentines Day and during half term too - enough to get anybody's creative juices flowing. However, some of our efforts to mark the occasions have been more successful than others.

I'd seen a cute idea over at Pinterest and armed myself with my foolproof Delia's classic pancake batter recipe and a squeezy bottle, we set to.

The idea is, you put your batter in a squeezy bottle and then you can make doodle heart pancakes. Look how cute those things are (images from the Bite delite blog).

Okay, want to see mine?

Hmm - not really as attractive, is it? Thise suckers are more difficult to do than you'd think. Plus lacy looks nice, but isn't as filling, so I'm afraid we abandoned all efforts to be chic and just had round pancakes instead. Greed 1 - Style 0

Thankfully, there are other ways to celebrate the festival of love. Our antlers got a little seasonal makeover.

And we thought we might try our hands at making a celebration of love film - me and the boys. We've begun, even though it is highly unlikely to be ready in time. The photoshoots have been fun, but they keep getting hijacked by play dates and games of football and cat sitting duties. I'm sure Sam Mendes doesn't have these problems.

 

Dismantling

It's not quite twelfth night yet, but our decorations are down and stowed away back in the loft ready for next year. It's a strange time - I simultaneously relish the extra space and airy sensation that removing several trees immediately gives, while missing the all day glow effect of the fairylights and the general feeling of magic and wonder that the whole ensemble provides.

Each year though, there are one or two things that I can't bear to put back in the loft. Last year, it was my styrofoam cup wreath which was so at home hanging over the mirror, that it has never left.

And this year, these pom poms, strung by Johnny during his long ill phase in December and hung up high over his bed.

It felt so wrong to take down those little puffs of happiness, that they are staying put. And I wonder why our house feels more crammed full with each passing year - sigh.

'Twas the night before Christmas

Christmas Eve always seems to bring with it a brief moment of calm. The house is ready, the lists ticked off, giblet stock and cranberry sauce made and filling the house with the finest smells of the season.

Tomorrow the jollity and the mayhem, the champagne and the celebrating and the cooking and eating will take over, but for a few moments this evening, all is calm.

 And so I am stealing a moment to wish that your Christmas is merry and bright and that you enjoy each sparkling moment. 

The small details

Replacing the sparkly strings on my olivewood decorations with invisible thread, it occured to me what a bizarre mix of big picture and minutiae this time of year brings.

Of course, we know that it's the big things that really matter - spending time with the people we love. But sometimes, there are satisfying moments to be had in taking care of the little details too.

In the last couple of years, I find myself far less hysterical about Christmas preparations. Enjoying taking care of the things which bring me pleasure and learning that it is fine to let go of the things which feel like a duty. Trying not to absorb the stress of others.

Am hoping this peace continues into Christmas Eve, when my shopping trolley and I do battle in the supermarket (securing a delivery slot was one of those little details which passed me by...). Though the shops are only shut for a day. Which leads me to believe that the frenzy of over-provisioning is just one of those traditions that my fellow supermarketeers and I just can't seem to let go of.

Corners of my home

On Saturday, I had to stop by the house of a friend to collect something from her. When I rang the bell, there was a longish pause, then a great deal of scrabbling and fumbling. Uh-oh, clearly I should have called ahead.. She answered eventually and ushered me in apologetically. The hallway was full of bags and boxes in various piles. Evidence of a clear-out.

And it made me smile, because I recognised the impulse.The one that hits just before the decorations go up, the urge to purge the clutter and make ready for the season ahead. And there has been a little of that here over the last few days. Putting things to rights and attempting to pare back a touch.

The antlers were a birthday present - I just needed a little quiet time at home to install them in this spot, which is making me happy whenever I walk downstairs. And the boys have done such a good job of clearing the excess from their room, that I let them put up their teeny tree in all its gaudy glory.

And by the end of the weekend, the house was looking a lot more loved than it was at the beginning. Although our tree remains unpurchased and our outdoor lights are myseriously missing. We must have has Christmas gremlins last year.

The clearing also seems to have extended to my blog - what d'you make of the new look? It is designed to allow for bigger photos - a precursor to a resolution to get back to my camera in 2013.

She's making a list, and checking it twice

Less than a week to December! There wasn't really any need to remind you of that though, was there? Because right about now everyone starts to be a little more aware of the date than usual, mostly expressed in deadlines - last posting day, days left of term, final order date for turkeys, grocery delivery slots. There's such a frenzied sense of countdown.

Which really renders the whole idea of Advent calendars pretty redundant for adults. When so much headspace is already dedicated to what needs to be shoehorned in before the big day. I think that is probably why hubby's beer advent calendar always goes down well, signifying as it does, a moment of reprieve from the responsibilities of real life. Yup, he's getting one again this year.

But what I really want to achieve in time for Christmas, is for my Toast style lifestyle to materialize. You know the one I mean - when the house is beautifully uncluttered with the personal treasues significant to us allowed to shine. When everything is orderly and I can enjoy the company of family and friends instead of rushing around doing my finest impression of a headless chicken. Where there are whole stretches of the day devoted to staring into the middle distance and pondering, whilst wearing cashmere.

So I've made myself an Advent calender, out of the flier that Toast kindly posted through my door on Saturday.

And over those little pictures of lifestyle desireability, I am going to stick bits of paper with the stuff I need to accomplish between now and the big day. The boring stuff like clean the microwave and finally get round to putting the halloween decorations back up in the loft and as I get them ticked off my to-do-list, I am going to remove the bits of paper and watch my perfect lifestyle emerge.

Think I'll make it by Christmas?

Positive Mental Attitude

Mark, the elder one, was running in a Cross Country fixture last weekend. We were sat at dinner the evening before, joking about carb loading and planning the arrangements for getting to the race, when he came out with "I don't think I'm going to do very well".

Perhaps he had a point - he had run well in the heats, but this was the regionals. Plus the age category was U13, so many of the competitors would be from the school year above him. It was going to be a tough gig. But there's no defeatist talk tolerated around our table! We had a chat about your best effort being enough and how a positive mental attitude can really make the difference.

Face it, I had few words of wisdom to offer on the actual running side of things, so cod sports-psychology was all I could offer. In fact, the older the children get, the more I realize that as a parent, I honestly have no answers to the vast majority of their quandries. I listen, I try to make sure they know I'm on their team and I trot out a load of old bunkum and hope that it makes them feel better.

But words do have the power to do that sometimes. No matter how well worn or rehashed they are. And sometimes, just saying it out loud makes it seem a little more real or a touch more possible.

I'm hoping this theory holds true at Christmas. Because I've been making a banner.

All is calm, all is bright

Positive Mental Attitude, people. And a little glitter card and a template from here.

A little stitching

My reading glasses are lost and have been for about a year, I think. It didn't seem like a great tragedy - I hated wearing them anyway. Mostly because I had to take off my normal glasses to do so and was thus rendered mole like if I needed to look at anything more than a foot away. I know this is why bi-focals were invented, but my optician said I was too young to go there (hey, I take my compliments where I find 'em). And most of the time, slightly fuzzy near sight isn't too much of an issue. I only got the glasses because at the time, I was working in very poor light and getting cracking headaches using a screen at an awkward distance away.

But finding them would definitely make cross stitch easier. Because in theory, sitting with one's hoop sounds like a meditative and relaxing activity. But in practice has involved much tutting, sighing, and strategic positioning of backlights.

Still, my version of The Guardian is done. Yes, there are two errors (which Hubby irritatingly spotted), but I'm counting on the fact that with no reading glasses to help me, I'll probably never notice them again. 

I am really taken with the idea of cross stitch in a single colour on interesting coloured Aida - this one is Misty Blue and I got it from Ray Stitch. I think I have the perfect spot for it, come the season...

Halloween howdy

Is it okay to wish you a Happy Halloween a day late? Seems fitting this year as all our preparations seemed very last second. Not to mention recycled from years gone by. Still, that's the essence of tradition isn't it?

The trick or treaters seemed to like our Coraline inspired orange. Well, the brave ones who ventured out in the pouring rain did anyway.

Honestly, the weather was so nasty that I put off photographing anything until this morning. And I think the toothpick fanged pumpkin looks better by day anyway (he was totally inspired by a picture I saw here).

And there's something about a little row of ghostie lollies in the early morning susnshine.

In a bookshop recently, I was browsing through a copy of Pippa Middleton's book 'Celebrate'. She has a tutorial for making these. Or there's mine. No royal connetions, but hey, it's free. Not that I'm accusing Pippa of harvesting ideas. Heck, these are as old as the hills - we used to make them when we were kids.

But it does raise an interesting question. As bloggers, are we now more averse to freely sharing information, when it is clear that many people are making money (yes that evil word) from the same skills, by way of book deals, or publishing their own ebooks, or selling patterms on Ravelry, or goods on Etsy?

Not that I am against any of these things. I've contributed to a book and been paid for it (and believe me, I know it is not an easy way to make money). I have no problem in paying for a pattern I'd like to knit or an ebook or magazine I'd like to read. I am pleased to support the skills of talented people by my spending habits.

But what does make me a little sad, is the creeping suspicion that by doing so, somehow it is damaging the cohesiveness of our blogging community. In the olden days, blogging was a great way to transfer skills, knowledge and ideas. There was no Pinterest, no Ravelry, even Google Reader was pretty new fangled. Trends travelled by word of mouth, there were tutorials written, swaps organized, photography projects to join in with. It felt like the greatest party and I just couldn't wait to be part of it.

These days, I wonder if bloggers feel a little daft to be 'giving away the goods for free', when other people are monetizing the same thing. Or just that the resources availible on the web are so vast, that there doesn't seem any point in adding another small voice into the mix.

But one of the things that first drew me to blogging was the sense of community that it provided. I'd like to feel that again. So I'm cooking up a plan - a game for us all to play, where the sum of the parts is so much more fun than the individual. It'll take a little while, because it's an investment in time and effort, but I'll let you know when it is ready and I hope that you are up for joining in!

Wrapping up

My very favourite part of the preparations is done and dusted - the Christmas wrapping. How I love the bit where you take all the things you've squirrelled away over the past few weeks and parcel them up prettily.

Those packages have so much hope invested in them - that they make the recipient happy, or their lives a little more comfortable, or more fun. But it is in that moment of handing over something obscured by wrapping, that the true importance of the gesture seems to me to really show. I am giving this to you, because I love you and I took care over it because you are special. And in a sense, what is inside becomes the least important thing of all.

Johnny made air dried clay tags, with alphabet and snowflake stamps for our packages. He has honestly been the best Elf this Christmas. I love watching him do this sort of thing. So careful, so thoughtful and suddenly so competant - my little one is growing up.

If I don't catch you again this side of the 25th, I wish you the Merriest of Christmases. And thank you for the gift you give on every occasion you visit here and spend time with me.

My trusty assistant

Never before has it taken me until December 19th to decorate the tree. It's rather wonky, but I am truly past caring. It is done. I must have looked ill, because Johnny took pity on me and helped me to decorate it. Which led to this exchange:

Johnny:   No, we can't have that bauble there.

Me:   Why not?

Johnny:   Look - it's in line with that one.

Me:   Silence. Eyes boggling.

Johnny:    My mother is very particular about these things, you know.

Sigh - I can take to my bed happy, knowing that my parenting work is done. I have produced a child who is as neurotic about the Christmas Tree as I am.

Don't come too close

Germ alert - am I the only one whose offspring always seem to celebrate the beginning of their Christmas holidays with a stinking cold? They are back on fighting form, but have passed their lurgy on to us, and I for one am feeling rather sorry for myself and not remotely festive. In fact, I am ashamed to say that we reached the 15th of December without putting up a single decoration. That's unheared of round these parts. So in spite of feeling grotty, I forced myself to put up our plastic fantastic version yesterday.

Perhaps the twinkly lights will work their magic and I'll wake up tomorrow full of verve. Then we can go and buy the real tree. Though the plans for that could be scuppered by hubby not returning - he's stuck on an iced up plane somewhere in Northern Europe. One de-icing truck has broken down, the second has run out of de-icer and the third is valiantly attempting to keep the whole airport open. It may be a long night....

I saved him a jelly though - good for sore throats. The squirty cream is just good for morale.

 

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.

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....

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?

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.

Hands off Halloween

So, we're pretty much ready for this evening - all decorated, cupboard stocked with treats for the little ghouls who turn up on the doorstep and pumpkins  carved. Though Johnny is very insistant that his is, in fact, a plumpkin.

 

Coffee Lady ratted me out in my crafty preparations by asking about the involvement of the children after my last post. Rumbled. They may eat the food, but the joy of the preparation has been all mine. A self confessed craft-control-freak, I freely admit, my favourite kids crafts are the ones that I do without the kids. But please note the hands in the picture above. Mark's. In fact for the first time this year, he did his whole pumpkin all by himself. Are you impressed at my levels of self control?

Admittedly, I did still do the scooping of Johnny's for him (only because he tells me he doesn't like sticking his hand inside) and the sharp utensils bit. But I swear he drew on the design all by himself.

They are most pleased with themselves. 

And me? Well maybe, just maybe, it's okay to not be the one in creative control once in a while. 

Happy Halloween!

Halloween happenings

We're enjoying the preparations for Halloween this year (helped by the great timing of half-term). Getting inspiration from books from Kristina, magazines from Lynn and the holy grail of Pinterest. Each year, I get more and more into the fun - not so much the dressing up or the trick-or-treating, but the decorations and the spooky food.

What's not to like about an orange with fangs?

Or pudding with a ghost face

Or Oreo pops made to look like jack-o-lanterns (not as easy to do neatly as I thought....)

Oh yes, we are enjoying the build up a great deal.

 

Valentine's Day

There is a design flaw in Valentines Day falling on a Monday - it's just not the day to be swept off on a tidal wave of love, really. Or for me making it to a computer to wish you a happy one. Will you accept a token a day later?

There were plans to make more of these little rosemary hearts. But somebody pruned my bush very severely. And took all the trimmings to the dump. But on the plus side, you can now make it to the front door without fighting your way through the undergrowth. Not that we ever use the front door. Which probably explains how it becomes so overgrown in the first place.

But I digress. Plans. Yes, there has been much talk of Valentines Plans this year as I've been embroiled in a market research project which has involved answering many questions about my shopping intentions for the 14th and even had me sneaking round the supermarket taking stealthy photographs of their Valentine's promotions. It's hard not to feel incredibly conspicuous when you are trying to look nonchalant whilst behaving oddly. But I did manage not to get rumbled.

Because I guess everyone was minding their own business and not worrying about mine. Which is a lesson I should have taken on the biscuit front. I'd made some dough for heart shaped cookies - it was chilling in the fridge when I stopped by Coffee Lady's blog. And immediately got side tracked by her much more yummy sounding Bill Granger versions. So somehow, mine felt like a disappointment before they even got baked.

Tsk, I should know by now, that it  is dangerous to compare yourself in matters of the heart. So if you got diamonds for Valentines Day in a blue Tiffany box, please, smile at your good fortune and feel free not to share. And don't breathe a word to my menfolk about the biscuits that could have been. Ignorance is bliss.

Partying

Making merry with the six and seven-year-old crowd today. Johnny doesn't officially turn seven till next week, but he was sharing his celebrations with a friend and this weekend fell conveniently between their birthdays.

The whole shared party thing is not something we've ever done before. Mark enjoyed his own moment in the limelight far too much to ever consider it and I was always concerned that my own party control-freak tendencies would not allow me to play nicely in the planning of such an undertaking. But then Johnny is a very different kettle of fish.

Being the centre of attention is a form of torture for him and so I swallowed my own concerns and he and his pal cooked up a request for an indoor play centre party. Which I have to say, turned out to be a very fine thing indeed.

Not least because I got to do the invitations. Using a homemade rubber stamp - inspired by this tutorial.

And make them  cupcakes as well, with a little co-ordinating pennant set for each birthday boy, cut from the insides of the security envelopes I have been squirreling away.

And the other Mum smiled indulgently at my boy's wishes for moustache straws (which I made from instructions found here, taken from this brilliant book).

 
United in a hatred of party bag bin-fodder, we opted for brightly wrapped books instead, with a little sweetie treat tied on.

The boys and their friends all had a great time, with no tears or squabbles or misbehaviour from anybody.

And even better, I was allowed to do all the fun bits which I love and someone else was hugely appreciative that I had done them. Turns out that it's really good to share!

And thanks for sharing your kindness with me on the last post - you guys were right - a glass of wine and a hot bath restored all sense of perspective. But sometimes we need to hear that sensible advice from friends. Thank you.

 

Small shiny things

For a brief moment, this morning, a beam of sunlight shone into the living room, making the shiny things in the cupboard sparkle.

The things I couldn't quite bring myself to stow back in the loft with the rest of the Christmas decorations. Everything got put away slightly earlier than usual this year, because our tree developed a squeam-inducing aphid problem and I wanted it out of the house. See, plastic fantastic has it's advantages. 

And I am sort-of pleased that real life has resumed - it was time. Though I am conscious that while hubby and the boys return to the routines at work and school, I actually continue in much the same vein as in the holidays - pottering, cooking, occasional light housework duties, just with an added chauffeuring requirement. It's not a bad job, is it?

Christmas Eve

It is possible that we have peaked too soon. Everything is ready. Cranberry sauce simmering on the stove with its smells of orange zest, cinnamon and cloves infusing the whole house with the scent of Christmas. Fridge log-jammed with provisions, cookies baked and ready. Really, for me, the foods of Christmas just might be the very best bit.

Not that I don't adore the rest too - the wreath is on the (back) door and the family are in position and ready for the off.

Presents are wrapped and labelled and squirrelled away safely from those tempted to indulge in preliminary feelies and smellies.

All is calm and bright.

Merry Christmas!

Travelling

Cannot tell you how relieved I was to make it back through the snow to Oxfordshire from Northumberland on Sunday. I had listened to the dire warnings from the AA and agonized about whether returning home counted as a sufficiently compelling reason for ignoring the advice to stay off the roads of at all possible. But we made it, even if the last 30 miles had me digging my fingernails into my somewhat sweaty palms in fear. 

But it seems that eventful travel stories are the norm at the moment.

Heading towards Bethlehem, some rather perilously placed Wise Men, on swift running camels (and one hapless Ox). I love asking the kids to set up the nativity scene.

And those of you on the move - take care.

The not-for-us card

Oh happy day - it arrived! My favourite christmas card of the year, the one I anticipate more than any other and the one which makes me grin from ear to ear. What's so special about it?
Well, it isn't for us. It arrives at our address, with a perfectly neat and legible envelope bearing our correct house number, street and postcode. The only thing is, we are not called Jules and Harvey. Jules and Harvey have never lived in this house, or on this street, for that matter.

The only thing I know about Jules and Harvey is that they have chums called Graham and Olwyn. Not close chums, because Olwyn apologizes that they haven't managed to meet up again this year, but they are clearly tenacious, because their card has arrived with us for the last 3 (possibly 4) years.

I do love the perkiness of Olwyn, though her habit of using capital letters in the middle of words is slightly bizarre. I also note that she has selected the religious option for her stamp rather than the secular but cheery Wallace and Gromit - though of course, it is possible that Graham was in charge of the stamping and posting of cards. 

Each year, I am fearful that Graham and Olwyn will have pruned their Christmas card list and we (or rather Jules and Harvey) will have been crossed off, but thankfully, not this year! Now, to assign it pride of place on the mantlepiece.

Paper pinecones

There seems no end to my love of things made from upcycled books -  can't resist the urge to chop them up. And also to read snippets of sentences as I use them, which is sometimes a truly bizarre experience. 

See, I just couldn't get the image of these out of my head. They were speaking to me of pinecones. So I punched a load of small circles out of a hapless book and used sewing pins to fasten them onto a polystyrene ball. And my paper pinecone itch was scratched. I may try a few more (right after I buy another tub of pins).

 

Making whoopie

Hooray for frozen ground and cancelled Rugby fixtures - we got to have a much more fun weekend than the one in the diary. Coffee with an old friend on a brief visit from Switzerland, heading off to Christmas Common to choose our tree, lunch in the pub and then returning in the tail end of the beautiful day which had been hiding behind the freezing fog.

And while the boys manfully tackled putting up the outdoor lights in the increasing gloom, I set about my own project in the kitchen.

Whoopie pies! I'd not tasted one before, but Monica had given me a copy of the most enticing looking book, so I just had to give them a go. And let me tell you, based on the chocolate with salty peanut butter filling option we went for, these are incredible. Move over, cupcakes - I may have found a new baking passion. 

There's a great review of the book (complete with a teaser recipe) over at Bakerella. Though if you're hoping to squeeze into some slinky party dress over the festive season, it may be better not to look. Me? I'm embracing the santa belly look. Ho ho ho.

Advent approaching

The children are very conscious that the Advent countdown is almost upon us. Their principal preparations have involved honing their own Christmas wish lists, but when I asked today what they were intending to give to others, there was a stunned silence. And a little embarrassed sheepishness.

And so, when I suggested that they might like to make Advent calendars for others, they pounced on the idea with rather more enthusiasm than I was expecting. We printed out the templates from Sarah at The Small Object and they drew their Christmassy motifs.

And made a start on their own gift giving. Though of course, I have an advent surprise for them - Eric Carle's Dream Snow Advent calendar.

Though perhaps I might be the one who loves it most of all. In a spirit of giving, I may even rustle up one of these for hubby - yup, it's a beer Advent Calendar. Genius. Wish I knew who to attribute it to, but I know exactly who to make one for!!