Advent Swap Catch Up

I haven't been able to show the lovely goodies I got in the Advent swap from the lovely Jill as it's been a wee bitty hectic here.  But now the Wee Man is at school I've had time to photograph all the lovely goodies I got and lovely they are!

Lookey, lookey see what I got!

Jill is so talented!  All the crocheted goodies has spurred me on to try crocheting again.  I remember enjoying crocheting when I was at school and could still vaguely remember how to do it.  So I picked up a crochet needle and gave it a go.  I'm struggling to find the "hole" where the needle should go into for each stitch so it's coming out a wee bit wonky, but I am getting there.

Thank you Jill for all the lovely goodies and for inspiring me.

A Handbook for Christmas

Come December, the shops are choc full of guides and handbooks on how to have the best Christmas ever.  How to dress your tree, how to serve a Michelin starred dinner and how to make exceptional presents that will become heirlooms.

Not one to deviate from the bandwagon I found the best Christmas handbook ever published.  Bought for a meagre £1 from a charity shop last week, the book has given me a lot of  lightbulb moments and a few chuckles.

It covers everything you need to have a very merry Christmas for all the family with recipes, decorating ideas, craft ideas and even instructs you on how to take down and store your decorations for next year. 

By far my favourite section in the book is the "Choosing of Presents".  With a handy illustrated guide on which presents to give and not give each member of your family.  For example,  who knew giving Gran a corset for Christmas would elicit this response from her?  

And it is really not a good idea to give Mum toilet paper and a scrubbing brush?

The kids would take exception to receiving a school uniform or writing paper.  And poor baby should definitely not be reminded of his incontinence.

There's also a chapter on how to decorate your tree to a theme with great crafting ideas for ornaments.  There's the Children's tree.

With wool and stick stars.  I remember making these at school.

Sweetie garlands which will no doubt rapidly become an empty sweetie wrapper garland.

And fluffy woolen pom poms.  Did these at school too and hated it.  They are so monotonous to do.

There's also the Victorian tree with gravity defying doves at the top of the tree.

A Soft and Safe Tree for baby with cotton wool garlands and paper chains.

And my favourite tree is the Wildlife tree for your garden.

Who needs gawdy Blackpool lights in your garden when you could have this lovely creation?  It's so simple to make and the little birdies will be kept happy through the Christmas season.

The book also gives some handy tips on how to build with snow.  Who'd have thunk you could use a cardboard box to make snow squares or a wasing up liquid bottle to make towers?  Genius!

All I need now are four trees, two feet of snow and definitely not toilet paper or scrubbing brushes.  

Advent 4, 5

I'm really enjoying my advent swap.  It's so lovely to have a little something every day to bring a smile to my face.

Here's what the lovely Jill gave me for the 4th...

It's the most gorgeous hand knitted coat hanger.  I am at odds to use it as I won't then be able to see it.  How can I display a coat hanger?  Hm, I feel a Google search coming up.  There are a few more coat hanger shaped parcels from Jill and I am very,.very tempted to rip open the parcels.

And for today's parcel, I got a great quilting book.  I see so many gorgeous quilts on blogland and I dream of having the ability and patience to make one.  Hopefully this book will inspire me to take the plunge.

Parcel number 6 tomorrow.  I can't wait.

Have yourself a Merry BIG Christmas

I was in London yesterday and I was struck by how huge-mungous all the Christmas Decorations were.  I never really noticed before but I had the Wee Man with me and he was in awe by the size of everything.

We'd gone to London to see the Lego Christmas Tree at St.Pancras station and I had expected a six or maybe eight foot tree but instead....

It's a whopping 33 feet (10metre high tree) is made with  600,000 Lego bricks, has 1,200 Lego baubles, 172 Lego branches and it took two months to build.  It is by far THE best Christmas tree I have ever seen.

Onto Covent Garden and we were met with a mahoosive reindeer and ginormous baubles.

Image credit 

I remember several years ago the Big Man and I were in awe of the decorations on Carnaby Street.  They were giant fairy light bulbs and we, being young with plenty of time on our hands, followed the cables to a giant plug on the side of a building.  It was hilarious and very, very memorable.

Unfortunately we didn't take any photos of the decs and I can't seem to find any on t'internet.  I have however found more Carnaby Street Christmas Decoration delights.

Big really is beautiful...enjoy.

Carnaby Street 2011

Carnaby Street 2007

Carnaby Street 2009