Advent

No tree yet, but some advent characters have begun to appear here. Most of them have been found in the advent drawers.

How about your house? Do you put up a tree and if so, how early?

The Tooth Fairy

Little I is a very stubborn three and a half year old who does not like me to clean her teeth. She will let her dad clean them, but often he is not here at teeth cleaning time. Finally after many tantrums,tears, and hiding under the bed, I made this chart for her, complete with a letter from the Tooth Fairy (yes, the Real One). The letter tells her she can have a silver star to stick on the fairy's skirt each time she lets me clean her teeth without a fuss. This morning she was not interested at all, but at lunchtime she deigned to let me clean her teeth and then carefully added her sticker to the skirt. Who knows if it will work again tonight or tommorrow.

Finished scarves

I have made three of these scarves so far for presents. The first one I made went a bit wrong on the ribbing where you divide your stiches and then rejoin to make the loop for threading the scarf through. But I have now got the knack of it. - hurray. The pattern is quick to knit and only takes 50g of wool so is a good one for using up your stash. I have also enjoyed knitting these as it is so portable and easy to do when waiting outside school, or watching tv. The hardest part was taking the photos as my self timer has stopped working.

Blue Birthday Bunting

I know the blogosphere is awash with bunting but here is a bit more...

It was my friend's youngest son's birthday and we had to cancel going over for a play and tea as Little had a cold and I still felt unwell having had a lingering cold for over a week.

I now am going to post this present to him. The slightly embarassing thing is I started this bunting for his third birthday present...um... he was four this year, the half made bunting has languished in my sewing box for a year. On saturday I fished it out and finished it. Turned out I only has to sew on the ribbon, so it was one of those times when I wondered "Why didn't I do this last year??" Especially as he has such a nice short name!

Handmade christmas cards

This year we seem to have made a range of cards. There are still more to go but here is what I have done so far.
There was a time when I would carefully handcraft all my cards - then I had children and for the past few years I have tried to get them to do as much of the work as possible. BUT this year I have made a few handmade grown up cards of my own without any little helpers. The ones on the left are brooches and the rest are little decorations. I have made some more in red and white which I really like but they are awaiting finishing off. They are to be something a bit more than a card, maybe a presentette, or a card-ent, or a pres-ard...okay, I will stop this nonsense now. Back to more cards.

We made these black and gold cards yesterday for friends and relations - can you tell what they are? They are supposed to be Christmas baubles. I am not sure if anyone will get it. T has told me that I need to draw on the hanging threads to bring the message home.

T potato printed a sheet of black paper with gold paint. It was all going superbly and was a lovely wholesome family scene until I left the room and he went into a Jackson Pollock mode, ending with a full handpainting finale, and obliterating almost all the potato prints. (Yes, this is the seven year old, not the three year old). He then gilded our bathroom and towels trying to wash his hands. He returned to survey his masterpiece and sighed "It looks really beautiful". Once cut up and glued onto blank cards he added the mandatory glitter. *
Next up - these cards are for our Christmas Card Swap. We made ten of these beauties.

I do like to set my children to work...we have signed up for Kids' Craft weekly card swap. You have to register interest by the 30th November and then get assigned 10 swap partner families. This is very exciting if you are seven and like receiving post.

Last weekend in the interest of forward planning we made our ten cards. The rule is that the cards must be made by the children, so I cut out simple tree and stocking shapes, some from felt and some from craft foam which we glued on to the cards and they then added shapes and glitter. Plenty of glitter....

On a more serious note I do try and show T and I that is fun to make cards and gifts for people and it is good to have to make a bit of an effort for others in your giving.

* I didn't tell him off for the Jackson Pollock episode as (and I may sound like Hippy Mum here) the art he does at school is so narrow and prescriptive that he never gets to have any freedom in creativity there or just to enjoy the physicality of working with materials. So I feel it is my mission to allow some exploration at home. I do have rules about wall painting and vandalism though.

Nearly new sale finds

Today I went to a Nearly New Sale held at the end of each month in a village near to T's school. I had been meaning to go for the last few months but keep missing it. It had been described to me as more of an antiques and bric-a brac market but I think I liked it more as it was slightly jumble sale-y. But without the crowd. It had clothes rails and then tables with bric a brac on. Here is my haul...this bright sunny yellow plate, it gives a touch of cheerfulness to our table, just what I need on a cold winter's day. (Only a pound!)

A red silk metallic jumper, with three quarter length sleeves. What more could I want for the Christmas season? Two stripey long sleeved t shirts, I do like some stripes. A navy and white stripey top (from Hobbs, lah-di-dah, posh for me) and a green and black stripey top, the black is sort of shiny and glittery in real life. I think these two will go with my me-made skirts and trousers. These were all £2 each. Little I bought two trains for her and her brother. I am training her young.

Cardigan inspired

I was inspired by Ali today. She posted about refashioning a

thrift store cardigan to make her own Anthropologie style cardigan. Her cardigan is so sweet and chic. I know mine looks nothing like hers but her actions made me get out this old black cardigan that I never wear and some of my lace collection. Here is the result. It is so much prettier than the old black boringness and I think I will wear it a lot this winter. Thanks Ali.