catching up....

It's already a new year but I haven't finished posting about Christmas! A little catching up before I move onto a new year's worth of things....

A Christmas present for my niece who loves to draw. A carry-around kit for drawing on the go.

I adapted this pattern by Gingercake to make it big enough for an A4 drawing pad.

Sherbet Pips fabric by Aneela Hoey. My favourite part of this is those dogs running along the handles :)

And another Retro Mama elephant. This one was for a little Milly I know :)

Happy New Year! x

peppermint stick

My littlest daughter brought this song home from preschool a couple of weeks ago and it's been firmly stuck in my head ever since. Do you know it?

I took a lick of a peppermint stick

It tasted really yummy.

It used to be on my Christmas tree,

but now it's in my tummy!!

Lucky it's so cute or it'd be driving me mad!

Some new felt ornaments. The candy canes are heavily inspired by these beauties by Amy of nanaCompany. Oh, how I love her blog! I get a bit hypnotised by all the loveliness I find there :)

And a bit of wrapping has been going on. Cookie packages....

and a little parcel or two.

Yum, yum, yummy, yummy, yum,

yummy, yummy, yummy.

It used to be on my Christmas tree,

but now it's in my tummy!

xx

Blue

My most favourite thing at the moment is this lovely armrest pincushion made for me by Yeechi for a Flickr swap. She did such a beautiful job and picked my taste quite perfectly :). I love using it so much that I made one for a friend for Christmas. I used this tutorial by Amy of During Quiet Time. I love how it turned out.

I revisited this Farmer's Wife block (Economy) for one of the pockets.

I'm slightly embarrassed it's soooo similar to the one Yeechi made me, but when something's already so right, why change it don't you think?!

stitchy gifts

I'm lucky enough to have a little group of friends who like to sew. We have regular sewing nights just to sit down together without the kids and have a chat and sew a few stitches.

I've been making some little presents for them for Christmas.

A needlebook made with some scraps of Ruby fabric and pretty printed linen. I used Amy's tutorial for this one. Mine is much plainer than hers but I hope my friend will like it anyway!

One of my sewing buddies has a little collection of Liberty of London goodies on a shelf by her door. So I made her this little hexie pincushion out of pretty Liberty prints :)

Hope they like them!

xx

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...!

Last night I was enjoying a quiet moment after everyone else was in bed. Admiring the magic of our pretty Christmas tree all lit up. This inspired a quick little photoshoot.

Having seen this gorgeous shot on Pinterest, I followed Beth's advice for glowing Christmas tree photos and managed to come up with this.

And look who decided to let me take a pic of his beard......

Ho Ho Ho..!!!

I have a small person at my house who love to dress up as Santa :)

But really. How YUCK are those santa beards that come with the cheapy suits from the shops?!!

That fake, synthetic furry stuff grosses me out. And it's never long before they're full of unidentified sticky stuff and turning a strange colour. Not to mention the fact that they just don't fit so small a face!

So I made him this........

I used this tutorial as a guide for the basic shape but changed it a little to add the scallopy edge for a curly beard look and adjusted the size right down until it fit my small honeybee. Getting the mouth hole in the right place was a definite plus (now he can breathe)!!

To avoid sticking cotton balls all over it (as requested by small Santa!) I also added some curly stitching to give it texture. Luckily this seemed to satisfy!

I did try to get a pic of the beard being worn but one little model was just NOT in the mood!

Do you have a little Santa at your house?

Mmmmmm, Gingerbread!

I love gingerbread.

That smell of it baking is just so homely and cosy. And what could be more Christmas ?! It also brings me memories of decorating gingerbread cookies at Christmas with the small Finnish children whose family I stayed with as an exchange student in Jyväskylä. That was a very special Christmas to me. Having come from Australia with our scorching summer Christmases, that wintery scandinavian Christmas with it's darkness lit by candles and Christmas lights was pure magic.

Whenever I bake gingerbread I find the voice of Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins sneaking into my head to say "mmmmm, gingerbread"! Do you know that part? When Mary Poppins is reading a her shopping list and finds gingerbread on it? Mary Poppins is a beloved movie at my house that has been watched countless times by all family members. The script is clearly etched into my brain forever!!

Until recently, I was quite exclusively a cookie baker and decorator. Last Christmas I was a whirlwind of flour and sugar making loads of cookies for other people. It was lovely and rewarding but quite exhausting, and I was left feeling like I'd neglected my own family Christmas a bit in the process. So! This year I'm trying a bit more balance. Making time for some other crafty things, enjoying the end of year fun stuff with my kids and keeping my cookies simple.

This week I've made my first Christmas gingerbread for the year. To be given as gifts (with my felt cookie ornaments) to teachers and friends.

I love the simple white icing with the gingerbread. They are inspired (very loosely) by the gorgeous designs of my talented cookie friend Haniela.

A woodland-ish mix of minis destined for pretty little gift bags.

And a special request from Honeybee #1 (my eldest daughter) - a gingerbread chef for her food technology teacher :) If you're wondering why this chef is wearing a beanie, it's meant to be one of the funny little caps the kids wear in class. Not sure I pulled that one off so well, but my Honeybee is happy, so that's my job done :)

One to eat, one to keep

I usually decorate cookies to give as little Christmas gifts for the many people who have been involved in my children's lives through the year. You know the ones, preschool and childcare teachers, music teachers, sport coaches.......

This year I decided that as well as cookies to eat, a cookie to keep would be nice. So here's what I've been stitching lately...

I had a lot of fun making these. Especially because I have a bit of thing for felt play food :)

In fact, I'm going to have a hard time parting with them. I've been having visions of them as a garland hanging in my kitchen.....

What Better Way To Start?

I've thought about starting a blog for a while now, but it's a funny thing to start.

How do you launch into it? I've never been sure how to start off. But today I'm feeling a bit just-jump-in so that's what I'm doing. There are a couple of things I've realised make me feel good. Making things, and giving. So what better way to start than by posting about the wonderful Softies For Mirabel drive run by the completely fab Pip Lincolne of Meet Me At Mikes. This is the 3rd year I've stitched up a soft toy (or 2) and sent them off to Pip in Melbourne. I like to hope my creations bring a little happy to someone but they bring a lot of happy to me too. To make something myself with love brings me joy. To see the flurry of creativity that gets sent to Softies For Mirabel each year gives me faith that people are good and they care and there is generosity in the world.

This little elephant is my contribution this year. So fun to make. I loved watching his funny, round shape emerge as I sewed him together. I used this fab pattern by Retro Mama.

So if you're feeling crafty and in a giving mood maybe you'll make something cuddly for this great cause too. How about it?