Festive Happies

What a lovely weekend I've had. Nothing special, nothing fancy, just a lot of pottering around the house with Bella and Angus while John was at work, doing nice things together just the three of us. Well, four if you count Molly.

Making me happy this weekend:

:: Pink poinsettias.

:: Angus in his Christmas jumper writing his Christmas cards. This is the first year he's willingly done this and it's mostly because his handwriting has improved. He told me proudly that his teacher said he's "nearly ready to start using a pen!" which is apparently a very big deal

:: Dogs cuddling dogs.

:: Boxes of clementines.

:: Crafting with air drying clay while listening to Christmas music. This was my first time using this and I really enjoyed it - I will show you the results soon.

:: Making paper chains in our pyjamas this morning.

:: Decorating the tree yesterday afternoon. This was the first year that it wasn't stressful. Partly because I didn't try to turn it into a massive Family Event, partly because the children are older and - Bella especially - can actually help with things like untangling the lights. 

:: Arranging a Christmassy mantel with much less colour than usual and I really like it this way.

:: Twinkly lights reflecting in the window.

:: Molly. Even if she did steal and eat a huge ball of raw gingerbread dough, left on the side for mere moments, ready to be rolled out and cut into shapes for Bella and Angus's homework. She suffered no ill effects thankfully but slept a lot, and I had to quickly made another batch of dough. Nothing is safe from the greyhound! It is a bit like having a baby in that, when she's sleeping, I get a lot done. When she's awake, not so much.

Thank you for your nice words about my Christmas napkins. Please know that faffing around with ultimately pointless and unnecessary things like cross stitched napkins is my way of retreating from the madness at this time of year, of maintaining some mental equilibrium, and in no way makes me more organised or prepared for the coming weeks.  

A Set Of Hand Stitched Christmas Napkins

Shall we call 2016 the year of the napkin? You would think that I'd had enough of cross stitching onto small squares of fabric this year, but no, it's still a lovely thing to do.

These are for Christmas and Boxing Day, for special family meals. Then they will be washed and packed away, ready to bring out next year. Isn't unpacking boxes of Christmas decorations one of the nicest things? Full of treasures you love and haven't seen for eleven months, waiting to be handled and displayed once again.

I really enjoyed deciding what to sew on each one. The robin was an obvious choice and I quite liked making the pattern on a piece of graph paper, trying to turn an organic shape into a series of squares.

Likewise the parcel wrapped in brown paper and the Christmas pudding.

The tree, snowflake and mittens are from the pattern for Alicia Paulson's Winterwoods sampler (which I think might still be one of my favourite things that I've made, ever).

I deliberately didn't iron these napkins. I like the way linen looks when it's freshly washed and softly crinkled.

I can't wait to use them this Christmas. I am already looking forward to setting the table on Christmas Day, making it look pretty and festive with a white cloth and lots of greenery and candles. Of course we all know that it only stays perfect for about five minutes before it is covered in opened crackers, paper hats, spilt gravy and dollops of cranberry jelly, but it's still something I enjoy doing. 

But before that I need to: write and post cards, finish buying and making gifts, wrap gifts, buy a tree, decorate the tree, decorate the house...oh, you know, not much.

*

Thank you ever so much for your lovely comments about Molly. She is doing great. It's hard work but she's worth it and making big improvements in behaviour every day, and coming out of her shell more too.

Joining in with Jennifer's Winter Project Link Party.

Molly

Wow, thank you so much for your response to my Advent boxes! I was worried that I'd gone a bit over the top with them (ok, I definitely did go a bit over the top) but you all liked them and could understand why I'd bothered - for the love of crafting mainly, and for the love of Christmas. Isn't it interesting how appealing things are in miniature form? I bought a couple of bits for those boxes from a dolls house website and I did enjoy browsing those sites. I could really get into the whole dolls house thing given half a chance, but it's probably best if I never go there. But thank you very, very much for your comments. 

Well, this weekend has been a whirlwind and I am completely exhausted. We have a beautiful new, four-legged addition to our family called Molly. We collected her yesterday afternoon from our local branch of the Retired Greyhound Trust. She is two and a half and was taken in by the charity when the trainer who owned her retired, which is why she's younger than the usual age for a retired greyhound. 

It's been bonkers. She's never lived in a house before so, while it's not quite like having a puppy, there is still a lot of work to be done with training around toileting, food and sleeping. She needs to wear a muzzle when we go out on walks as, to be blunt, she thinks that all birds, squirrels and small dogs are to be chased and eaten. She's only ever been around greyhounds so she needs to learn to play nicely with other dogs, especially smaller ones. The muzzle will come off soon; she's bright and very motivated by treats and praise. We took her to Bosham this morning, a favourite place of ours, for her first sniff of sea air. If all this sounds like a lot of work it is, but we are all a bubble of Molly love.

At home she was at first very quiet, a little anxious, and followed us around. She only settles when we all sit down, which is practically never, as we are always up and down, in and out, doing things, so she is constantly underfoot. But she's also delightful and mischievous and there is definitely a playful side there. She loves her bed and keeps pilfering things - slippers, jumpers, oven gloves - to put in her nest which we all find adorable. She likes picking up shoes and putting them down in places where the owner can't find them. I found one of my boots under the sofa earlier. Mealtimes are interesting because she has never been around food preparation - before, she got fed and that was it. As soon as we sit down at the table she appears, sniffing around plates and all cooking smells are fascinating to her.  This afternoon Bella and I made mince pies and I just helped myself to one from the tin (guiltily, in case Molly saw). When my back was turned she had her paws up on the worktop and was trying to open the cake tin with her teeth! So, basically we are getting to know each other and it's hard work but wonderful.

Christmas preparations are ongoing in amongst all this madness. Eucalyptus is currently my new favourite thing and I've made a little indoor wreath from an embroidery hoop. It took about ten minutes and I love it. The silver green of the eucalyptus is so pretty, I really like having it in the house, and it smells fantastic too. I cleared everything off the mantel this week and tried to put back one or two things and I think it looks better that way.  I gave my round shelf a little festive attention and treated myself to the Christmas copy of Country Living. I have ordered a turkey and ham, and bought cards and stamps. Of course I haven't written or posted any cards, but simply knowing I bought them makes me feel a whole lot more organised. 

Twenty Four Little Boxes

I made my own advent calendar this year, twenty four little boxes each filled with something to make, eat, do, look forward to, or play with. Oh, I have had some fun with this project. It has taken me a long time, but I have enjoyed it so much.  

I started thinking I'd just fill matchboxes (you can buy plain crafting matchboxes quite cheaply) but they weren't always big enough, so I bought a few of those plain brown lidded boxed from Hobbycraft too, the ones sold for decoupage, and found a few other boxes here and there which I covered with brown paper.

Thinking about the contents was so much fun and I'll admit that I may have gotten a bit carried away at times. The look of the inside of the boxes was as important as the activity we'd do. I wanted to create little Christmas vignettes, so that a tiny scene would appear as the matchbox slid back.

I raided the children's toy boxes and pilfered cars, animals, Playmobil figures, Barbie shoes and Sylvanian Families crockery. For some, I got out my crochet hook or needle and thread and stitched something tiny. I made Fimo food and ordered a few little odds and ends from a Dolls House Miniatures website. I rummaged through magazines, last year's Christmas cards and old printed Instagram photos for suitable backgrounds.

Some are filled with treats; chocolate coins or a promise of hot chocolate in a cafe after school.

Others are filled with suggestions for activities we can do together; make paper chains, bake gingerbread, make a wreath to hang in the house, hang paper snowflakes.

For some, we have decorations to hang on the tree. I'm rather fond of that felt mistletoe, I'm looking forward to hanging that somewhere.

These ones below are intended to be taken away and played with - I am hoping I'll find half this stuff in Bella's dolls house soon, then I'll know it's been used for it's intended purpose.

And then there are the scenes I made, and the numbers on these boxes sometimes correspond to dates in the diary. So, the box on the left is for the day we plan to choose our Christmas tree, and the one on the right for the day we collect our dog and take it for a walk. (It kills me that I could not find a small toy greyhound anywhere!)

Others were just for fun (I have no desire to go ice skating, for example) but I enjoyed creating them. The bottom left box with the two red stockings is for Christmas Eve. Two miniature versions of the red felt stockings Bella and Angus will hang on their bedposts.

This one is for me. It's dated the 17th, the day after the last day of term and our staff Christmas party. I expect I may feel delicate, and certainly tired. It's full of copper kettles, woollen mittens, a basket of yarn and a crocheted throw; a planned day of resting and nesting with tea and crochet. 

Now they are all wrapped and lined up in a row on the living room windowsill, ready for the coming days. Today's - filled with chocolate coins - was well received, but chocolate always is in this house. As always, it's the making that's as much fun as the end result with a project like this.

Happy Advent friends.