❆❆❆ Christmas 2012 ❆❆❆

Christmas 2012... well it's typical of me that while everyone else is writing their synopsis of 2012, and wishing Happy New Year, I'm just getting around to telling you about December and Christmas! I guess it's better late than never. Well I hope so anyway. 

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 I really had been looking forward to Christmas for what felt like forever and it has gone by in a flash. I always feel sad when it's over but I am still enjoying spending these relaxing days with my little family. So here's what we've been up to...

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We got our tree on Friday 30th November, ready to decorate in time for the 1st of December. It's a Fraser Fir, my all time favourite type of Christmas tree. It was a little more difficult this year as one of us had to run distraction with Little R while the other one tried to put on the lights and then the decorations. I used to be a rather fussy Miss when it came to the fairy lights, well I mean D used to put them on and I used to observe and give rather strict directions and oh how times have changed, I'm just so happy to get the tree up and I just give D free reign with the lights, what's the point in stressing? Right? Well I don't have time anymore, Little R and bump are keeping me rather busy and I don't imagine that changing any time soon! So D does the lights (and did a good job too) and then I did the decorations and Little R amused us greatly, it was a lot of fun. We have mainly red and white decorations, not to follow any trends or fashion, it's just what I like. So here's what it looked like...

I treated myself to a little Christmas purchase... well it felt like rather an extravagant purchase... an Emma Bridgewater Joy plate. Some people are able to furnish their kitchen crockery entirely out of Emma Bridgewater which does amaze me slightly so I was more than happy to be able to invest in the little plate. I really wanted it to start our own wee tradition and use it as our plate to leave out for Father Christmas on Christmas Eve and that's what we did this year. It was such fun!

December has been a very busy month as amongst other things I filled the advent calendar with lots of fun things to do. One thing I was desperate to do was to visit the christmas display at a local garden centre. It was such an amazing place. There were animatronic Santas everywhere. Little R loved it and to top it off there were little trains hidden all about the place and as he is already a train fanatic this definitely was a hit for him.

The next adventure was to visit the local farm. At Christmas they take you on a tractor ride and one of Santa's elves reads a story on the way. When the tractor stops you take a walk to a field where the reindeer live and then to get to feed them... super duper. Little R had sooo much fun at this, not to mention his Mummy & Daddy & Granda. After feeding the reindeer carrots we went to Santa's workshop and made a little bag of reindeer food to take home and to leave out for the reindeer on Christmas Eve. And then we got to meet Santa... I was worried that Little R wouldn't like that part but he was great and Santa was too. 

Haha the next job was to make some gingerbread men. I really wanted Little R to help but he's still a little too young for this to hold his attention so I just made them myself. I'm hoping in years to come he will help me because I'd much rather do it with him. This story has rather a tragic end to it as the gingerbread men didn't live for very long... 

My two little dachshunds helped themselves to the gingerbread men on the tree. I don't think you can really comprehend what a feat this is because they are only little doggies and they reached the highest man close to the top of the tree. Look at the two little monsters, don't they look like butter wouldn't melt! Well it turns out they are rather fond of gingerbread!  

In December I also finished work and started maternity leave. I am so very thankful to be off work because it was really exhausting in the last month. I gave my all in work because it's so busy and then I was fairly useless by the time I got home and Little R is so energetic so I had to go to bed when he did! Ah at least it's the winter and it's dark outside at 8pm, worse having to go to bed at 8pm when the sun is shining and children are still playing outside! Anyway my last week was particularly exhausting, no wind down for me I can tell you, so when I left work on my last day I arrived home to a lovely hot bath, with a new christmas magazine, some lovely treats, new christmas pyjamas (which did actually fit over the bump!) and candles everywhere. I felt extremely lucky, overwhelmed and very emotional. D finds it difficult to surprise me and this time was no different, I was particularly difficult, I won't go into it but I'll just say that after all D's attempts he had to march me up to the bathroom to reveal my surprise... oh dear I am hard work at times!! Anyway it was such a lovely treat for which I'm very, very, extremely grateful.

A job I really love in December is wrapping presents! I had decided what design I was going to use in about September - brown paper, red and white butchers twine, a handmade label (bought from ebay - someday I will make my own) and some festive washi tape. Oh I had such fun wrapping these presents. Without blowing my own trumpet I just thought they looked beautiful. Sadly most presents go to children who this pretty wrapping is wasted on but hey I had fun doing it so it was worth it in my book. I just love when presents go under the tree, makes it look more festive. Also D moans for days when there are no presents so it's worth it just to make him happy to - he appreciated my efforts which makes me happy too.

I did some crafting in December too. I made some salt dough decorations which I sadly don't have a picture of but my favourite was the one with Little R's handprint. I painted it white and sprinkled sparkly glitter on it. I really wish I had done it last year to capture his first christmas but sadly I wasn't really on the ball, oh well. Another craft I just had to do was to make Little R his own Christmas Stocking. My word, I made rather a meal out of this job because it took me about a whole week to draw out the stocking pattern. For some reason I didn't like any of the ones I found online and thought it best to draw one out myself, and finally I got it right (D teased me quite a lot about the huge mountain I was making out of this job!). I also made a right mountain out of picking the fabric, again D helped but teased me quite a lot. Anyway I'm super happy with the fabric I picked and decided to make the bump a stocking too (think I could be a bit busy next year!). I picked a fabric by Kate Spain which had two different colours in the range, complementary but different. I used this tutorial but used my own pattern. Then to personalise the stocking I added a white felt letter R to the band of the stocking, I think it looks the business and it was just the right size to fit all the treats from Father Christmas - stickers, clementine, crayons and other bits and bobs. I could have bought one but I just felt that this was something that I wanted to make for Little R myself so that he could have it forever and know that his Mummy made it with a lot of love. 

Christmas Day was sooo much fun. We had a little Elf outfit for Little R that I picked up from Sainsbury's as soon as Christmas things came into the shops. D wasn't keen on it when I bought it but he absolutely loved it the moment Little R put it on, on Christmas Eve. I just love the photo of him under the tree as I think it captures our Christmas perfectly. We opened the stocking in bed as Little R likes to get up pretty early so we did this bit in bed before we ventured downstairs to see what Santa had left. We didn't I mean Santa didn't go overboard as we think Little R is still a little young so he got a little piano, books and a shopping trolley (he loves running about with his cousins so we thought, why not? Plus we're getting him a little teaset for his birthday, I'm not into gender stereotypes and he likes making 'cuppa tea' for us so again why not?). We knew that his uncles were going to get him train things as he is a train fanatic due to his Granda working for the railway so we left that to them, as you can see the train set is a hit!

After we opened presents we went out for a Christmas Day walk with the doggies. It was a lovely day, dry and bright and not too cold but cold and damp enough for me to enjoy my presents. D & Little R got me some absolutely B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L wellies, complete with wellie warmers (I have never had any of these before but seriously why not, they keep your toes super toasty!) and wrist warmers all from Joules. I love the bottom photo because it looks like Little R and I have fallen out but we were just having a little rest and Little R is swinging his feet and chatting merrily, tooooo cute. I'm sorry I don't have a photo of the doggies but they were enjoying their walk too much to stay still... they haven't been out for a proper walk in weeks so they didn't stay still for too long!

After our Christmas Day walk we had some lunch and then Little R & I went off for our nap. Dinner was all prepped and it was time to relax. My brother joined us for dinner so it was just the four of us. We had to wait for dinner as my brother had to work for a few hours on Christmas day so by the time he finished Little R were up from our nap and it was time to get the dinner on and have our starter. We had smoked salmon bellinis and prawns with chilli, garlic and ginger on toasted ciabatta. These went down a treat, the prawns were specifically requested by D and he enjoyed them very much. Then the main course was Roast Beef. I absolutely love taking photos of food and nice dinners. I was a little worried that people in blogland might think this was slightly insane but I'm very happy to say that I have seen many people posting pictures of their Christmas dinners and this made me smile. So dinner was Roast Beef (just didn't fancy turkey), mash and roast spuds, cauliflower cheese (a christmas must in my family), roast carrots & parsnips, roast onions, stuffing, brussel sprouts and lashing of gravy (we are also gravy nuts in my family and I'm very slowly and steadily turning D into a gravy nut too, well it's been 16 years and he isn't quite as mental as my family are which means more gravy for us, but he's nearly there!!). I love decorating the table at Christmas but I went for understated this year, I left my new table cloth do the work... red and white polka dot oilcloth. Dessert was unphotographed but absolutely D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S. My brother doesn't really bake but took on the challenge for Christmas. I must admit I was a little apprehensive but I need not have been for he made one of the best desserts I've ever had - Chocolate Roulade with spiced winter berries. Yummy Scrummy. After Little R went to bed the three of us played scrabble and went to bed very happy at having such a relaxing and wonderful Christmas day in great company. 

Mostly over December and Christmas we have been doing a lot of this... Little R and I have been napping together most days since I have been off work, I don't seem to have much stamina at 8 months pregnant so I'm enjoying relaxing with him (although I'm slightly worried that I am creating bad habits). And then when he goes to bed in the evening I have been going to bed too and reading my christmas magazines (with a little treat or two! A chip shop from my home town does the most amazing ice-cream with melted marshmallow, D has been kind enough to pick me up some and bring it 30 miles in a cool bag! Normally I couldn't eat too much of it but I have a seriously sweet pregnancy related tooth!). I have only just discovered the joy of Country Living... it's so beautiful but I don't want to get too hooked as it also makes me quiet envious of the owners... think I might save it as my Christmas treat!

We have also watched The Snowman about 100 times since the beginning of December, Little R absolutely loves it. We get requests for "Snowman, Boy" at least a couple of times a day and we fell in love with the new animation The Snowman and the Snowdog (I almost cried my eyes out watching it for the first time on Christmas Eve). So now we get requests for "Snowman, Boy, Dog", ahh it melts my heart. 

Artwork courtesy of D and sketch pad courtesy of Granda.

So I'll leave you with a snap shot of a December day in my family, enjoying time together, a little glimpse of the advent calendar (never really got a good enough photo of it to show you but we loved using it), Little R nibbling on a gingerbread man I didn't put on the tree (one of the few), the doggies getting a little couch time (they aren't really allowed up anymore due to Little R and the new baby on the way, but hey it's Christmas) and our Christmas hats (I forgot to wear my antlers).

I hope you had a very lovely Christmas and I hope that 2013 has lots of amazing things in store for you. Thanks for reading, following, commenting and for making this blogging malarky a world of fun.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Helen xx

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I can't wait, I can't wait!

Ok so I have been getting really excited about Christmas since about August (well probably January but so I don't look so insane we'll say August). I've been scouring the internet (blogs and pinterest mainly) for christmas baking ideas, present wrapping ideas and the like. I've been going through my blogroll and reading everyone's lovely posts from past Christmases. This has been getting me very, very excited indeed. So yesterday, in order to ease the excitement, D put up some fairy lights in the kitchen for me. 

 Then I did some baking as I haven't done any for absolutely ages, surrounded by lovely fairy lights while listening to The Cardigans on the laptop. 

I was inspired by the lovely blogs I was reading, especially Cherry Menlove's blog. I quite fancied making her White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies, well really everything on Cherry's blog looks so appealing and this seemed the least faffable to me. Well that was the theory, however..... A few years ago I lost my beloved electric hand whisk (a house warming present from my sister) when holidaying in Donegal. That sounds much more interesting than it really is, I just left them behind in the house we hired and I even rather stupidly thought that it would still be there a year later when we returned to the same house but they weren't! Boohoo. Then I purchased a really great and cheap electric mixer with a bowl attached, nothing fancy like a Kitchenaid or anything but it did the job, freed up my hands while mixing and I just loved it. Then one day I decided to try making dough with the dough hook, I felt like a little break from hand kneeding and who'd have thought it would be a good idea to read the instructions on where to put the dough hooks? Well clearly not me, and so I attached the hooks in the wrong way round and up the dough merrily travelled into the workings of the mixer. Although I needed a slap for doing that miraculously it continued to work for a few months, albeit with the odd bit of crusty dough falling out of the workings when it came out of the cupboard (but I never let it contaminate my baking in case you're worried for the people who eat my cooking!) and the odd bit of heat coming off the motor. But one day it decided it had had enough and it gave up on me. From that point I have been electric mixer-less. I toyed with buying another handheld one but thought it best to wait and get a replacement with a bowl but then I could never justify buying another one especially since we have so many other things to prioritise, childcare, nappies etc. Anyway this baking session left me feeling tired and a bit worn-out, I thought I had picked an easy recipe for relaxing Saturday afternoon (my brother had even offered to take Little R out for a walk - I thought I'd easily get the cookies made and put my feet up too ha!) but the lack of electric made it a bit too much work. So I decided we can't carry on like this, I can't keep avoiding recipes that require a lot of whisking and I just noticed this evening after a quick search on the internet that Argos sells a basic one for £6! I've been knocking myself out and I could have had electricity again for only £6 - I need another slap!! 

Anyway despite my doing the mixing by hand I did end up with a decent batch of cookies. Definitely no-where near as good looking as Cherry Menlove's but rather than cooking them in batches as suggested by Cherry, I ran out of patience and piled far too many on the baking tray at once so they all look a bit wonky. You see I was still hoping to get to put my feet up before my brother and Little R came back... I'm almost 29wks now and feet resting moments, while hard to come by, are very much appreciated! And I also wanted to have them ready for my brother as a thank you. So despite their random shapes they were well received and scored an 8.5 (my brother likes to score my work and fully admits that as a true critic he can't do anything himself). I'm not a huge fan of them myself, they are rather sweet but D and my brother like them a lot and that gives me a lot of satisfaction.

Since I started writing this post the lovely D has put up some fairy lights in our dining room and I am basking in their glow as I type (our living room and dining room are joined by an arch).

Teehee I love how a bit of tinkering in picmonkey can make a terrible, grainy photo look much better, well it does to me anyway. Little R's reaction to the lights has me in stitches. He looks at them and says "Oooh lights" and that pretty much sums up my feeling too. He is so much fun at the minute and I think he is going to make this Christmas even more special. I can't wait, I can't wait!!

I've been busy recently as my lovely friend has had a little baby boy. She also moved house so I have been busy making little things for her and her new little bundle of joy. I'll show them soon, fingers crossed. 

I'm off to the Creative Craft Show in Belfast with a friend this Saturday and I am also finding it difficult to contain my excitement about this. This friend has a special birthday this week and I've ordered her a beautiful pair of earrings from Folksy (love that site). She is very crafty and I'm not saying she's old, she isn't, but she has done nearly every craft there is and I know she'll appreciate something handmade. I really wanted to make her something myself but I just can't find enough hours in the day (need more sleep these days). So we are both looking forward to the show and I'm sure they'll have some Christmasy things too just to get me even more in the mood.

Thanks as ever for stopping by and good luck with your crafty preparations for the days ahead.

Helen xx

The countdown begins...

Hello there, I should put a little warning on this post, if you don't like to think about Christmas until December or at the earliest November then I think you should look away now! 

I've been getting excited about Christmas since about August and have been slowly stockpiling presents since then. I must admit I am usually not that organised and usually have a dream/nightmare in December where it's Christmas day and I haven't bought any presents so I have decided this year that I am going to be super organised and not have any shopping to do in December. This is a great plan in theory but no doubt I will still end up racing around like a luny on the 23rd of December trying to find something but I am trying to avoid that. I love Christmas but I hate Christmas shopping in December: crowded shops, longs queues at tills and anxiously waiting on Amazon orders to get here in time for Christmas are yuk and I promised myself I'm not doing any of that this year. Watch this space!

Anyway enough ranting. I just love Christmas and I love getting prepared so this year I was very good to myself and purchased this...

It's a Cath Kidston Christmas Organiser that I saw on Hookin with Laa Laa's blog and I knew instantly that I had to get it (well after a few days chirping away at D he told me just to buy it - I'm not a very spontaneous shopper, I don't like to waste money!). It's sooo lovely, I wonder why I never had a Christmas organiser before. It now lives beside my bed, ready and waiting for any Christmassy ideas that come in to my head. 

So anyway the main reason for this post is that I have completed a Christmassy make and I really wanted to share it before December. It's an Advent Calendar garland type thing. Basically I wanted to make an advent calendar that my little family can use every year and I wanted something different than the shop bought calendars. I got the idea from a book my husband borrowed from the library for me which suggested making 24 red felt pockets and numbering them 1-24 and hanging them up on a string and each day you would take one down to help you remember what day you are on. I thought it was a neat little idea and decided this was the project for me but I thought it needed a few tweaks and embellishments. So I made my 24 little pockets numbered 1-24 but I felt the numbers needed to be embroidered to the pocket to help them stay put and to make them look pretty and this is the finished result...

I also added a little jingle bell to the bottom for an extra Christmassy touch...

I also decided to pink the edges (is that the correct term?), what I mean is the straight cut edges looked a little boring so I used pinking shears to crimp the edges and I think it makes them look more festive. I didn't like the idea of just removing each pocket as the month progressed so I thought it would be nicer to turn them around after each day passed and have something on the back. So after a little searching on the internet I decided to put the words HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS on the back of the pockets so this will eventually be spelt out by Christmas day. I decided to separate the words with a little star button and some felt. This idea is my favourite and the fact I came up with it all by myself gave me the biggest thrill. This is by far my favourite pocket of the 24...

 This is how all the little pockets will look together...

 And this is how they will look when turned over...

I'm going to hang the little pockets on some twine with small clothes pegs and I might even wrap some fairy lights around the twine if it works. Oh my word, I am soooo excited... I don't want to wish my life away but I am really, really, REALLY looking forward to when I can get this out of it's little box...

I'm going to fill the little pockets with special advent things to do like decorate the tree will be on day 1 and other things like make gingerbread men (I have never made these before some recipe recommendations would be really useful, otherwise I'll probably just use the BBC recipe), sing christmas carols, make mulled wine. I might also pop in some little treats like gold coins and candy canes but I'm not sure what to put in for Little R as he isn't eating sweets yet... maybe some little boxes of raisins (or baby crack as my Aussie friend likes to call them) might do the trick.

I also have some news to explain my terrible blogging habits of late. I feel I must apologise for not commenting on all the wonderful blogs that I love, I do still love reading them but I just can't find the time to comment and as for actually writing a blog post well I am even worse at getting this done! And the reason... I am 24 weeks pregnant (baby is due at the end of January 2013). Working, looking after Little R (although I have to admit D is great help and lets me have little rests when they are much needed) and trying to get some craft done make it hard to keep up in the blogging world but I'm so glad other people do manage it because I do love reading everyone's crafty exploits. I think making this little advent calendar has excited me even more because I know/hope little R and his little sibling will get years of fun out of it. It's going to be a chaotic 2013 but we are up for the challenge!

Thanks as always for reading and hello and a big thank you to my new followers, I'm so delighted you want to see my little corner of bloggyland.

Christmas Cheer

It's been a busy old week here at Belmont Yarns. We had our first Christmas with Baby R and it's been totally magical. Unfortunately little R developed his 3rd cold and 2nd ear infection the weekend before Christmas and he was in terrible form. I thought he was teething but then on the 3rd day of him being out of sorts he was so lethargic and clingy and only wanted to lie on my chest so we were lucky to get an appointment with the doc that afternoon who promptly diagnosed a red raw sore throat and nasty ear infection. The poor wee chap, a few days of antibiotics combined with calpol/nurofen and he was back to his bubbly self. But unfortunately it doesn't end there, he was on the mend for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but the day after Boxing day started coughing and has a runny nose and now has his 4th cold (or maybe the same one from last week - who knows) and is in rough form again. Sleep is scarce for us all but we'll survive. 

So I wanted to say a few words about how we got on over the Christmas weekend. Christmas Eve (my absolute favourite day of the whole year) was lovely. My younger brother (the godfather!) and his girlfriend came to visit to give Baby R his first present, a lovely red fire-engine which we had a good play with and Monty even got in on the action as Baby R wanted to share his little fireman with him, so cute!

We are still desperate to instigate some traditions here at Belmont Yarns but so far we don't have many, one thing we always do is to go for a walk after dark on Christmas Eve with the dogs, and now Baby R hurray, and oooh and aaah at all the lovely Christmas lights in the gardens and in the houses. The posh streets can be a feast for the eyes but we aren't fussy we love to look at all the lights (although we are more of a fan of the tasteful ones, not overly keen on people who have every inch of their gardens covered in everything from Santas to entire nativity scenes but hey each to their own). So after Baby R went to bed (I have to admit I didn't want him to go to bed, I usually get a bit sad when Christmas Eve ends) we treated ourselves to some bubbles and Christmas carols on the TV. We had waited a long time for the bubbles as I had a dry 9 1/2 months due to breastfeeding and I can tell you they were worth waiting for! 

 Then we exchanged our presents as we sipped our bubbly, mind you only small presents this year as the purse strings have been tightened but we never concern ourselves with expensive presents as, for us, Christmas is about being off work (well I'm still on maternity leave for a few days yet) and spending time together and not about consumerism. However is always nice to open a little something. So my lovely husband bought me...

I can't wait to get using these. My husband thinks it's hilarious that I wanted a Japanese crochet book and thinks I have bitten off more than I can chew. I am defiant and although the patterns look a bit tricky I am confident hopeful that in 2012 I will be able to make something from the lovely Japanese book and if I don't I am going to blame working and looking after a baby. K? It doesn't end there though very excitingly I also received this (he really does listen)...

My own little Pecker from Sew Sweet Violet. She is so lovely and as soon as I took her out of her beautiful packaging she flew up into my Christmas tree and has stayed their ever since! Jooles has the most amazing work, such attention to detail and the craftsmanship is 100%, I would definitely recommend purchasing something from her etsy shop if you ever get the chance. So I was very happy with my haul. I also got new PJs that I purchased myself and donned on Christmas Eve, gotta love new PJs! 

On Christmas morning Baby R came into bed with us and opened his presents that Santa left. Now we really didn't buy him that much as he's only 11 1/2 months and he really enjoyed bashing the boxes and ripping the paper. Isn't that always the way. 

We got a lovely crafty present for Rowan from a very talented, jack-off-all-trades-master-of-all, been there done it, friend of mine and I fell in love straight away. A lovely stripy knitted rabbit, which his own jumper emblazoned with an R. I'm not sure what to call him, Roger seems a little too obvious, what do you think?

We had a lovely Christmas day with our folks, we went back home and my older brother and his girlfriend kindly hosted Christmas dinner this year to give my Mum a break and they were so good at it. They told us that they don't really like Christmas that much so I had my reservations but I think they were fooling us as they made their house so festive and Christmassy and they made us so relaxed. It was great, he got the thumbs up from me and can definitely host again!! We then visited my sister after dinner to exchange presents. A few years ago I suggested we did Secret Santa in my family and it was been a hit with everyone so it's now tradition. I received a £15 gift voucher (the budget was £10 so Santa was a bit naughty) to the local craft shop which now excitingly stocks a small supply of yarn so I was very excited and grateful to receive this. I suspect my Santa was my lovely younger brother as he is the only one who is really interested in my rambles about crafty things and my blog. The present I was most excited about was the one I made for my sisters baby. My sister loves dachshunds too and I found this really cute sausage dog fabric on the internet. 

I didn't really have much time to make something bigger like a quilt or something so I decided to make some personalised bunting (I just love bunting) and I thought bunting would be cute in her bedroom. I don't have a good photo of the full length of it as it's about 5m long, just of the name and the fabric, but hopefully you get the idea. I'll try and take a photo of it when my sister puts it up. 

On Boxing day we went to visit the in-laws and little R got some more presents so he is a very lucky boy who has lots of books to read (I love getting books and reading to him) and just the right amount of toys to play with. Unfortunately Baby R then started to come down with a cold but we did manage to carry out another of our newly forming traditions, we watched the new Poirot and enjoyed some yummy Beaujolais and a mini-buffet. Oh we are good to ourselves!!

It's been a busy period for us as we also celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary and unfortunately due to Baby R's illness we weren't able to make it out for dinner to the newly opened Italian restaurant, we wouldn't have enjoyed it anyway as we would have been worried for little R and our baby sitters. Anyway times have changed and Baby R is the best gift we could ever have so we aren't too concerned about not making it to dinner, there'll be other outings I'm sure. 


At this rate of going I'm not sure I'll make it back on before the New Year so I wanted to take this opportunity to say wish everyone a wonderful, safe, peaceful, productive and crafty 2012! I'd also like to thank anyone who has popped by for reading my blog, for commenting and for encouraging me to keep going at this blogging malarky, you really are a special lot. On that note I have been nominated for a blog award, I'd really like to post separately about this as I'm so chuffed and mega excited about it. Cross your fingers that I get time to!


Phew another long post... hope you are still awake teehee
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Christmas and Ta-Dah's too

So finally I get to post something that I have made and that's Christmassy, happy-happy-joy-joy. WARNING BIG MOAN COMING UP: I'm finding it very difficult to get the time to do anything these days, I just don't know how other people do it. My little baby boy is 11 months old and we are having so much fun together but it's just very difficult to get anything crafty done, let alone get to blog (originally when I started the blog I had hoped to get a post a week but that was very wishful thinking!!). But anyway enough moaning although I did warn you! So I have been veeery busy - I have been working furiously on my granny square blanket (I am on the last row, although I'm wondering if I should make it bigger, haha I am my own worst enemy!), I made a Christmas present for my 9 1/2 month old niece (some sausage doggie bunting, a post to follow *crosses fingers*) and I made some Christmas decorations (hurray!). Would you like to see them???

 I made some FIMO snowflakes as inspired by the lovely Coco Rose. I came across this post and I realised that I had the exact snowflake cookie cutters that Vanessa used and I love red and white Christmas decorations so it was the perfect mini-project for me. I really loved making these and as soon as they were made I gave most of them away as presents, so I had to keep making them and finally I got to keep some myself!

 Then I made some crocheted snowflakes as inspired by the lovely Lucy at Attic24, who so kindly made a super easy-to-follow tutorial on how to make the lovely snowflakes (after the miserable winter we had last year crocheted snowflakes and FIMO snowflakes are the only kind I really want to see this year *crosses fingers again*). These were really easy to make, I think Lucy's instructions are always really easy to follow, she is the crochet oracle to me! Again as soon as I had made these they were also out the door like hotcakes and so I kept making them and finally got to keep some for myself. I had intended to make a garland of snowflakes but without complaining again I will just say that time really is not on my side. But there is always next year Haha! 

We did manage to get our Christmas Tree up on the 1st of December which has been the tradition in our house for quite a few years now and we still managed to get a real tree. We were worried about a number of things (I am a worrier in case you hadn't noticed), firstly that we wouldn't have the space anymore for the tree because we have had to re-jig our living room/dining room to give Baby R more space for cruising and for speeding about in his walker, secondly that the tree wouldn't fit in the car with Baby R in the back too and thirdly that Baby R would pull the whole thing down (that last point lets just say is a work in progress!!!). But we managed to get a smaller tree (we love the Fraser Firs and fortunately the garden centre we love had a smaller tree that was perfect for us, still cost the same amount as the massive one we got last year mind you!), which fitted in the car with Baby R smiling at it as we drove home and it fitted in our alcove (minus lots of it's back branches). 

This was taken on the night of the 1st of December as we enjoyed a well earned glass of wine after decorating the tree and Baby R was tucked up cosy in bed.

This was taken then next day with the top of the tree included (we were very tired after all our hard work!)

You might have noticed that the bottom of the tree is a little bare, well that's because we've had to gradually move the decorations up the tree out of reach of teeny tiny fingers who can't resist the sparkles and dangly bits and bobs.  

Some snowflakes in situ

I also made some FIMO hearts.. I ♥ hearts

This is my favourite new decoration.
  

I wish I had made my favourite new decoration myself but I bought the wreath from the internet in the summertime and then a few weeks ago I bought some battery powered fairy lights and wove them around the wreath. I love, love, love it, it's been the missing decoration from my life!

This Christmas is so special for my husband and I as it is the first with little Baby R. I am loving every minute of December 2011 (I love the run up to Christmas with Christmas Eve as my favourite day of the whole year), it's just so special because we have Baby R to share it with and really that's all I've ever wanted. Last December I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and the snow was so bad that I couldn't leave the house. Baby R was due on the 27th of December but he decided he was too warm and snug to come out into all that snow so he stayed tucked up like a bug-in-a-rug for an extra 11 days. This year I'm happy and sad all at once, Christmas is tinged with sadness for me because I have to return to work on the 3rd of January. I have to let go of the light of my life and give him over to someone else to look after (Granny 1 day and a lovely lady childminder for 3 days and I have Fridays off on a temporary-to-be-reviewed basis). I think it's the toughest thing I'll ever have to do and I just wish I didn't have to. Then sensible, rational part of me knows that it will be good for both of us as it will help little R to become independent and hopefully to socialise and make wee friends. I was a terribly clingy child, even when I started secondary school I was so anxious, I didn't want to go and "leave my mummy", I wanted to be with her all the time and while this sounds nice it was stressful for me as a child and for my parents to have a child crying every day before going to school so I really don't want baby R to experience this. I want him to be a happy-go-lucky child who enjoys life and new experiences but the emotional, irrational part of me is having her heart torn out and while I know I should be enjoying the time I have left I can't help feeling so sad about what's around the corner. I wish I wasn't so sensitive and could toughen up, I knew this time was coming but it's crept up so fast and in the blink of an eye he'll be sharing his laughter and tears with someone else each day, but I want to be the one to make him giggle and to wipe his tears away. I'll have to settle with wiping my own tears away with an entire box of kleenex 


Oh dear I was so happy at the start of this post because I finally got to share my Christmas decorations and now I'm just so sad. I hope I haven't totally depressed you, somewhere in here I'm still feeling happy-happy-joy-joy I just need to let the sadness out from time to time. Baby R and his Dada are off visiting Santa in Dada's work, I thought it best to stay at home to work on my blog so that we would both get used to being away from each other (it's horrible being so sensible), and from the reports I am getting from his Dada Baby R is handling it much better than me, which was to be expected really. Maybe a hot cup of Lady Grey tea and a dark chocolate hobnob will cheer me up and maybe a cuddle from Luca and Monty. Sorry for my ups and downs over this post I hope you can forgive me.... *crosses fingers and toes*