W is for Wrap

One of my favourite things about Christmas is wrapping all the gifts. I love all the paper, ribbon, tissue, and tags! This year I have gone for a brown paper theme, with parcel paper and pretty ribbons. I also bought some brown paper sandwich bags to use for the hand-made gifts, as I thought it would give a nice earthy touch.

Wrapped and ready to go!
{Ribbons, Hobbycraft; brown bags and coloured tissue,
 eBay; brown parcel paper, Rymans; tags, WHSmith}

It's important to me that the wrap that I use can be reused or recycled easily. The brown paper and tissue can go into household recycling, and all the ribbons can be reused for other gifts. I also use a lot of gift bags which get reused until they no longer look the part! Then I take the handles off and put what I can into the recycling. Some of my relatives have been known to iron wrapping paper and reuse it, but I don't go that far!

Happy wrapping, everyone!

Laura x

T is for Tree Decoration

Happy Friday everyone!

Some people have a lot of handmade decorations on their tree. Most of ours have been bought from various shops (though we do have a lovely bauble that Emilie made for Sophie's first Christmas, and a felt star that my Nan made for Sophie this year). I thought it would be a nice idea to start a tradition of making a new decoration for Sophie for the tree each year. So today I quickly made this felt dove inspired by the Christmas special of the Great British Sewing Bee which I watched this week.

Isn't it cute? It was so easy to make. I made a paper template and cut out two pieces of cream felt. Then I cut out some tiny hearts out of red felt, and stitched them on using small running stitches with red embroidery thread. I used the same thread to sew the two doves together with mattress stitch, around the outside and over a small loop of ribbon for hanging the ornament, tucked between the layers. Just before getting to the end, I pushed in some toy stuffing (using a chopstick!), and sewed up the final few stitches. It took less than an hour, and that was alongside entertaining and feeding a baby!

Have a great weekend!

Laura x

S is for Stockings

This year, I decided to make some stockings for our family, so that we have pretty and matching ones to hang up each year before Christmas.

But they're not finished yet, and so neither is this post!

To be continued...

[Update: June 2015 - finished, but not blogged!]

P is for Pincushion {Tutorial}

Good morning!

Today, I'm going to show you how to make these lovely kilner jar pincushions. They are so easy and would make a wonderful gift. I've made several to give this Christmas.

Materials

A kilner jar with 2-part lid
A piece of cotton fabric about 20x20 cm
A small piece of felt
A small handful of toy stuffing
Craft glue / PVA glue
A spatula
Fabric scissors
A pencil
A ruler

Instructions

1. Unscrew the lid of the jar and draw around the jar plate on the reverse of the cotton fabric. 

2. Use a ruler to mark a circle 2.5cm bigger than the jar lid. Cut out the circle.

3. Carefully cut small triangles all around the edge of the fabric. This helps reduce bulk so the lid will still fit on the jar.

4. Cut out a circle of felt to fit inside the jar lid.

5. Take the stuffing and scrunch it into a ball. Place it on the centre of the fabric.

6. Put the jar plate over the stuffing, and push it through the jar rim to form the pincushion.

7. Use craft or PVA glue to stick the fabric to the plate. Use glue underneath and on top of the fabric so it sticks really well and as flat as possible.

8. Glue the felt to the plate to cover the raw edges of the cotton fabric. Screw the lid of the jar on straight away so that the glue sets in place.

(It should look like this.)

8. Have fun with your embellishments! I used some lace trim (£1.39 per metre) and paper flowers on wires (£1.29 for 6) from Hobbycraft.







You can fill the jar with whatever you would like. I included a tape measure, some ribbons, cotton thread, a needle (safely tucked inside the thread), some cute buttons, some safety pins, and a needle threader.

Laura x

K is for Knitting

Hello everyone!

As you know, I {heart} crafts. I've been doing a lot of knitting recently. It's the perfect winter occupation for a person like me who has to stay home in the evenings while baby sleeps, has no TV, and doesn't enjoy computer games (my husband's favourite pastime!)

I'm quite slow (read: very slow) at knitting. But that doesn't bother me. It took me until Sophie was almost out of her carrycot to finish the pram blanket! So, I decided to knit her another one. I used a pattern online that I'd been wanting to try for ages. It was actually quite quick to knit because it was on big needles. We use it to keep Sophie warm in her cot at night.

Lovely wavy stripes

Happy baby!

The wool I used is a soft baby double knit wool by Sirdar. In the past I've not usually been too fussy about wool, but I'm getting increasingly 'into' it - oh dear. The trouble is, it can be so expensive! However, if I'm going to spend a lot of time making something, I should use quality materials, right?

Anyway, as a result of all this knitting, I've got a stack of hats, hairbands, and hot water bottle covers ready to give as Christmas gifts. When will I find the time to make something for myself?!

Laura x

A is for Advent

Good evening!

It's the first day of December, which means that Advent has arrived!

I put up Sophie's advent calendar this evening. 

It's been in the works for a few days and isn't quite finished but it looks good hanging on the back of our dining room door!

During advent, I'll be posting each day about the happenings around here in the run-up to Christmas, and about the Christmas story and its true meaning.

Advent is a season of waiting. It leads up to the celebration of the birth of Jesus, God himself coming into the world. We have a whole month each year to remember and reflect on this amazing act. 

In John 2:49, Nathaniel says to Jesus: 'Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel'. Advent reminds us that, as the Jewish people were waiting and watching for their Messiah to appear, we are also waiting for our King to reappear.

I wish you a blessed advent season.

Laura x

Little knitted hairbands

How cute are these knitted headbands that I've been making over the past few days?

They are so simple to make and I can't wait to gift them!

I've been busy making lots of other gifts for family members and will post about those in January. I'm keeping going and staying busy, even though I think about my dear Nan and my grieving Grandad almost constantly.

Laura x

November

In other news... it's November!

The end of autumn is here and soon my favourite season will run into my least favourite. Happily there is the fun of the holidays to look forward to, but really, who likes January, February or March?

I've got a lot - and I mean a lot - of craft projects in mind for November before cooking and baking takes over in December. Now that the clocks have gone back the evenings are dark and perfect for cosying up with knitting or sewing - if baby co-operates and goes to bed at a reasonable time!

Finally finished!

I started knitting a lace baby blanket for Sophie when I was only a month or so pregnant. I finally finished it last week! It should keep her warm in her pram as we approach spring. There are crocuses out in our back garden now. I can feel the air getting warmer!

My next projects are a baby jumper for friends who are expecting a little boy in May, an easy colourful stripy blanket for Sophie's cot, and to finish the jumper that I started making for myself about two years ago. No more new projects until they are done!

Here's an utterly gratuitous new picture of Sophie!

Lovely baby blanket to make

I saw this on a friend's facebook wall, and I want to make one too. So many knitting projects in mind!

Roman blind

The roman blind I made last weekend is finally up!

I also made some matching cushion covers, which were really easy: one piece of fabric (length: 2x width of cushion plus 11 cm, width: width of cushion plus 4 cm), hemmed at both short ends (2 cm hems), folded with right sides facing and ends overlapping by 7 cm, then stitched on both sides taking a 2 cm seam allowance, and turned inside out to create a pillow-like cushion cover. I plan to add some buttons to the back 'pocket' to jazz it up a little.

I really enjoyed making the blind. I'm now thinking about what window treatments to make next, for our downstairs room.

Things I've done this weekend

1. Made a pavlova for the first time.
2. Made dumplings for the first time.
3. Made a roman blind for the first time.

Conclusion: all three very good both in terms of fun had and end results.

Photographic evidence of the pavolva:

My meringue ended up like one large slab, but because I whipped the cream well and mixed a small pot of custard in with it, it stayed on top nicely. 

Pavolva recipe:

Whisk 4 medium egg whites until firm.

Add 200g caster sugar bit by bit.

Spoon onto a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for 1 hour at 140 degrees.

Turn the oven off and leave it in there until cool.

Add the topping just before serving: 300ml double cream, whipped until thick then mixed with a small pot of custard, and topped with fruit.