Merry Christmas!

The week before Christmas was spent making and dealing with illness, luckily we managed to kick the illness before Christmas Eve. DD and I made crackers for Boxing Day.

  We made decorations.

For our tree in the hall.

We decorated our Christmas cake.

DD made jam tarts for Father Christmas.

               

Together we made a centre piece for the table.

I have not done any scrapbooking but I hope to rectify this in the new year. I have failed in my target of 100 layouts in 2011, but there is always 2012.

For the first time in many years I actually have plans for New Years Eve, let's hope it is a good one. See you in 2012 x

A crafting high

As I sit here writing my post in between blowing my nose & sips of lemon & honey, I am still on a high. I feel like I have achieved something & I hope that, that feeling lasts a long time. Why do I feel this way? I feel this way because I sold something at the Colchester Christmas Market, if I am honest I sold a lot of things at the market. 

Vicky is the mastermind behind the whole thing, she organised us the table (lucky for us we were inside). She had the vision of how our table should look. Yes we do look very bundled up, it was so cold.

She also introduced me to the other lady who shared our table Lou. Lou is a true artist, the amount of detail that goes into her work is amazing. I fell in love with a red felt pin cushion that Lou had made & I made sure that it was mine by the end of the evening.

Here is our stall in all it's glory. You can see my bags hanging in the background, my owls were on the tree. Vicky had seen somewhere a great way of showing our brooches in a cake tray. As far as I am aware there were no other stalls like ours.

So now I have Christmas to look forward to & some scrapbooking to get back to. I think that I might fall a little short of my 100 target, but we will see. I have managed to just about keep up with documenting the run up to Christmas & I do plan to take lots of photos over the festive season.

Next week I have lots of things planned to do with my DD, we have decorations to make, mince pies to bake & stollen to attempt. So I might manage a sneaky post before Christmas. 

So that is what my blog looks like!

I hold my hands up, I have been a very bad blogger, so bad in act that I am now on Santa's naughty list. I can't believe that it is now December, I missed the whole of November. In my defence I have been busy, I have managed to go on holiday, start to prepare for a craft fair that I am attending, go to two crops as well as help my lovely husband buy a flat for him to stay in during the week. There is also all the usual Mum stuff too, going backwards and forwards to school, gymnastics, brownies and swimming with my DD.

My scrapbooking has gone completely out of the window, but after this months crop at Eclectic Keepsakes I can't wait to get back to it, I am brimming with ideas, it all needs to wait until after next Wednesday. Next Wednesday is a big day for me, I am being brave and I am attempting to sell some things at the Colchester Castle Park Christmas Market. I did say after my last attempt at selling my cards that I would never do it again, but my lovely friend Vicky has talked me round. Fingers cross that I sell something, I am feeling a little nervous. I have been busy making flower brooches like the buttonholes that I did for Vicky's wedding, I have also made some owls, covered journals and lastly bags made out of wool jumpers.

The bags started as an idea after I read The Inadvertent Farmer's Blog she had made a lovely bag and provided instructions on how to do it. Great I thought, something different, the hardest part has been finding the jumpers as they need to be 100% wool.

This was my first attempt, I am really pleased with the end result. What pleased me more is that I realised that I can get two bags out of one jumper.

I used the leftover sleeves to make the bag below. I cut down the seam of the sleeve to open it up, if you do this with both sleeves you then have a front and back. I used dowelling to make the handles sturdy. At some point I hope to add a how to, to my blog.

Here is another in purple. Foe the flower I used the Big Shot to cut out some hearts and a circle.

I think that this grey tote is my favourite, my Mum helped me line it . I have used brooch pins on the flowers so they can be moved or even taken off. Mum even used the shirt pocket, as a pocket inside.

So there we have some of my bags that I am hoping to sell (fingers crossed). If anyone fancies popping along, the Christmas market is next Wednesday 14th December at Colchester Castle, from 3pm. I would love to see some smiling faces and you never know you might even pick up some bits for Christmas. 

Then hopefully I will be back to normal :)