want some ho ho with your yo yo?

 

I've been yo yoing.

These are so quick and easy to make and

because I don't need the sewing machine for them

I can hang out with everyone else and still make stuff.

 

I'm still not sure what colours to do this Christmas

but these red and white yo yos will be added to gift cards or...

 

 

I could just make them into a Christmas Tree!

 

 

 

 

 

round and round we go

 

I found a big bag of these at my local Vinnies.

 

They were too good to leave behind.

 

So I used some scrap wool to crochet around them.

 

Now I have a bit of a head start on Christmas decorations.

 

When do you start making your decorations?

 

What have you re-made from supposed junk?

 

What have you been up to?

jingle bells

 

jingle bells

 

jingle bells

 

jingle all the way

 

oh what fun to have a jingly jangly tree hey!

just a quickie

 

Things have been a little frantic around here lately

so I thought I'd pop in and say hi and show you

a very quick and easy decoration that you can do for Christmas.

 

Simply wrap some coloured thread around jars

 and drop in a tealight.

I used baby food jars and battery operated tealights

because I don't like/won't use candles of any sort.

 

I have found a stash of baby food jars that I will be using

for Christmas crafts so I will show you more in a

couple of days , I hope you can come back then.

 

 

we all fall down

 

My favourite part of Christmas is the decorating.

 

These old, old Christmas trees of mine have seen better days.

Each year I drag them out and each year when they're not falling

over they just look very uninspiring.

I have had these daggy trees since I was a tiny thing

so I couldn't really get rid of them and I could have

sprayed them but then they wouldn't be the same.

 

I just gave them a very good dust and popped them into

some jars I had and poured some rock salt in the base.

This has kept them the same and stopped them falling over

but now they look really pretty sitting on a mirror.

 

I can't wait till I can start decorating for real!

When do you start?

christmas 2012

 

Are you still up ?

It's after 10 pm here and I am nowhere near ready

for the big day tomorrow .

 

What about you , are you on top of things ?

 

 

I'm looking forward to a few days just relaxing .

 

Are you going away or staying home ?

 

 

Why wouldn't I want to stay home when this sight

greets me in the mornings .

 

Travel safely and have a Merry Christmas xx

 

 

tidying up my balls

 

I've been known to be a little crazy about my Christmas lights .

Each year when it's time to take my 1000s of solar lights down

I give them a dust off , remove the battery and wrap each set

carefully in their own bag which is then labeled coloured or white.

 

This fussiness has never extended to the inside house decorations

or really inside the house at all anywhere.

 

Last year I started to address this by threading some of the balls on

a thin piece of ribbon when I packed them away .

It didn't take long before it grew ..

 

and grew

 

and grew .

 

 

Now when you walk in the front door you can't miss this

 

and if you look up when you sit in my husband's chair you see this

 

and if you so happen to walk past the loungeroom you see it like this .

 

I never knew getting organised could make me this happy !

testing out Christmas

 

I've been doing a few Christmas gift try outs.

This one is so very easy .

 

All I did was melt some really nice chocolate in the microwave.

Then I dipped in some beautiful old teaspoons I found at Vinnies.

Pop them onto some baking paper to set in the fridge and

when they are nice and firm wrap some cellophane around them.

Decorate with a pretty piece of festive ribbon .

 

I thought the dipped spoons would go really well with

some Christmassy cups with marshmallows.

They would also be good with homemade bickies or special coffee.

 

The chocolate spoons can be swirled through hot milk or coffee

and then your friend gets to keep the spoon and the cup .

 

 

The whole thing only costs a few dollars so you could

make a few for teachers , neighbours or

for the unexpected Christmas guest .

 

Or your kids could just pinch them and suck the chocolate

off like my kids are sure to do !

 

What do you think ?

Do you have any cheap and cheerful Christmas ideas ?

 

lolly wreath ~ anyone know a good dentist ?

 

I wanted to try making a lolly wreath so I got myself

some very willing helpers , lots of wrapped lollies,

 a wooden ring and some string .

I then just tied those little lollies to the wooden ring .

 

 

I kept tying and then I did some more tying .

 

These are going to be sweet  Christmas decorations !

 

 

See you on Sunday for the Christmas linky !

under the christmas tree

 

Yes , yes I know I'm a bit early but if I don't

get organised now I won't be organised again this year .

 

So because I am such a big thinker I thought maybe

I'm not the only one who wants to be organised this year.

I have also noticed that pinners are pinning a lot of Christmas stuff already.

 

So I thought what if I had a linky thingy here and you

could show what you are making to put under the tree.

You could link your sewing , recipes , decorations anything !

 

What do you think ?

Would you like to join in ?

What if I made a special button and you could tell

your friends what you have left under the tree ?

What if you could find all the links to the best Christmas stuff here ?

 

What if you found out it starts on Sunday ?

What about it ?

 

 

a big ho

Told you there was a big ho here .

Wishing all my readers a fantastic Christmas

please, please travel safely .

I will be back here after Christmas but

then in the New Year I will tell you all

my exciting plans for 2012 weeeeee!

This year has been a great one for my little business

and yes it has been a lot of hard work

but I think I have been given heaps of help

from you and others in the webby world .

Thanks so very much .

If you are looking for me you can find me

most days on facebook come on over

the Christmas tree is up and the kettle's on .

HO HO HO

the point is

Hello there !

I've been making poinsettia brooches and thought

if you had a spare few minutes you might like

to make some too .

First I made a template from cardboard in a sort of

poinsettia petal shape .

Mine is about 1" along the base tapering to the top

and about 3" high .

Trace 6 petals on doubled Christmasy fabric .

Stitch around the sides leaving the base open

for turning through .

Cut around the petal with pinking shears

and trim the point .

Turn right side out and press .

Use a double thread and tacking stitch to join the petals.

Pull the thread to gather the petals into a flower shape.

Use little , teeny stitches to stitch the flower securely .

Add some pretty matching buttons to the centre .

I can hardly call this a tutorial (but I will anyway) these are so easy !

These can be used as brooches , gift toppers or Christmas

 decorations maybe you'd like to wear one in your hair!

I hope you get a chance to make some of these .

Quick coasters

Tick tock Christmas is coming quickly .

I have heaps of quick Christmas ideas if you're interested.

Yes by quick I mean really lazy and hardly any effort.

To get some pretty coasters to match your Christmas

theme just use a gluestick to glue some wrapping

paper to small paper doilies .

Easy enough for the kids to help with and when

they're finished with they can just go

into the recyle bin .

Not the kids the coasters.

be seated

I've been having a bit of a fiddle with place settings

for my family Christmas dinner .

I finally got myself organised and did teeny tiny

stitches on my dyed doily rounds and turned

them all into a very festive runner .

So , so lucky my oilcloth and doily runner

match my button tree .

I am a hopeless cook so it's just as well

the table will look beautiful as it might distract them .

it's all about the money

Every Christmas a chocolate coin is placed under

every plate at the dinner table .

My kids don't think it's "just like magic " anymore

but it really isn't the same Christmas unless I do it .

Last Christmas was a very traumatic one and I was

so distracted I didn't manage to get any coins .

The week or so before Christmas day I had

so many people hunting all the shops for me and

I was even ringing nearby towns looking for them .

This year it's going to be different .

I have so many gold coins they can all eat the

chocolate and maybe I won't have to cook !

Do you have your own little traditions?

Please tell about them , I love hearing nice stories.

on the...

first day of Christmas

my true love sent to me

lots and lots of buttons

so I made a tree .