In-betweeny days

Hello friends. It seems my intentions to start writing here again quickly fell by the wayside. I’ve been pondering whether 2018 is the year when I will finally say goodbye to this space. Every time I post now, I do feel that it just gets lost amongst the many other blogs that are around and I struggle with where and how to get people to read it. I know it’s not all about statistics, but if the audience is so small, I may as well just write a private journal. However, the thought of saying goodbye to this space always feels too difficult. Perhaps it will just fade away until I no longer think about posting.

How has your festive season been? I hope you’ve had the chance to spend it how you want to, whether that be turning the Christmas up to full tinsel, or just having some time to pause and rest and reflect.

I’ve realised that these in-betweeny days are my favourite. Every year I seem to struggle with the run up to Christmas. The hype starts too early for me. I feel this pressure mounting to get everything done in time. School and pre-school go crazy with lots of extra things to remember and Mckdad is around less because, of course his school also has lots going on. This year, was particularly challenging, mostly because I just wasn’t organised enough and didn’t start early or plan things. I’ve already decided that next year will be different. I will plan early. The advent calendar activities will be planned and not decided the night before they are due. Large family gatherings will be a meal out, rather than me feeling I should always host and put in so much effort and work.

However, now that is all done and I feel the whole family has been able to take a huge breath. This is really the only time of the year that we have few plans. We don’t embark on any house projects, or go away. Sometimes, I find that hard, to be doing nothing. I am a planner by nature. I’m not great at ‘wasting’ a day. However, I seem to have managed it this week. A little light tidying here, a load of washing to do there, but mostly I have been able to hang out with the kids a little and find pockets of time to pick up a crochet hook or the knitting needles.

One thing I will definitely be keeping in mind this year, is that it is OK to prefer this quiet, calm bit that falls after Christmas and that I am not failing at Christmas if I find the run up to it quite stressful. I feel this pressure to love it all, as that’s what I see everyone else doing. The pressure is entirely self-inflicted and I need to get better at thinking “they are them and I am me and that’s OK”. In fact, I need to get better at that is all aspects of my life. If I have any New Year’s Resolution, it is that.

Yes, I did say, crochet hook! I have been doing a little secret project for The Fibre Co. with my crochet, work hat on. I wondered if I would remember how, but the muscle memory is still there and I’d forgotten how satisfying it is to work on little motifs, repeating each step over and over again. I also have a sweater that is so close to being finished, I can almost feel myself wearing it. I have high hopes for this one and can’t wait to share it with you.

As this Twixmas time moves towards New Year, I naturally find that I am ready to start thinking about real life again. I begin to think about lists and work and being more organised. I really do need to up my game here. I found the last school term a struggle. As if I never really got into the swing of it. Everything felt last minute and really that just stresses me out. I already have the boys PE and swimming kits packed and today I must order the school lunches. That is a huge improvement already! I may even get the iron out before they go back, but let’s not get carried away, I still have family films to watch each afternoon and a few mince pies to finish off.

Happy New Year to all of you and hopefully I’ll be back soon…….or maybe not soon, but back at least.

Styling the Season – December

Styling the Seasons, by Apartment Apothecary and Lotts and Lots :“Reflect the change of seasons and show those changes in your own home, by styling any surface (shelf, dining table, mantelpiece) with something you like to reflect the new month and what it means to you”

I have wanted to make my own wreath for years. I am not an early Christmas decorator and a wreath seems like the perfect advent adornment to gently welcome in the festive season. It’s just always been one of those things that I’ve had to put to one side and just haven’t had enough time. I always vow to book a workshop, but as well as being ouchingly expensive I just haven’t managed to fit it in.

I’ve recently joined a new WI and so was delighted when December’s meeting was a wreath making demonstration and a chance to make your own. We all bought our materials with us and then shared whatever was left. Add to that some Christmas nibbles and it was the perfect evening.

I toyed with many ideas for what I wanted my wreath to include, orange slices, cinnamon sticks, gold pine cones, berries, but as the evening drew nearer and my Pinterest searches more frequent I decided I wanted a really simple, green design.

I insisted on a family foraging trip to our local woods, an awesome little advent activity too, where the two smaller children collected pine cones and MM, armed with his knife and I collected fir, pine and holly offcuts. I then bought half a bunch of eucalyptus and some Rosemary as I knew I wanted both to feature.

Getting started was the hardest part, but once I got going I found more confidence and love the end result. There are a few pine cones, some larger holly leaves and lots of pine. I think I could have done with adding a little more, in fact I still could, but I love the paired down green and silver look to it. I want to stop everyone who comes to the house and say “I made that!”

This is definitely going to be an annual thing, especially now I know how easy and effective it is.

35 Advent Calendar Activities

I appear to have gone full Christmas on the blog this month. For those of you that are understandably “bah humbug” about the whole thing, I apologise. However, I have been wanting to share our advent celebrations for the last couple of years and have never got it done in time. I am fixing that today. I am unsure as to why, but I loathe chocolate advent calandars. Possibly because  having that amount of the chocolate in the house would always cause some kind of tantrum and it seems impossible to buy one that isn’t covered with a distinctly unfestive character. So, ever since MM was small we have done an activity advent calendar. Things to do to get us in the mood for the big day. The children love it and it’s become a favourite tradition of ours.

Every year, someone asks me what kind of things we put in our little numbered pouches and I thought I would share them, so that you can see it’s not as much work as you may think. As school is part of our lives now I’ve had to scale back on some of the things we used to do, we just don’t have as much time or energy for crafts. Each year Mckdaddy and I sit and look at the calendar for December, we slot in the things that have a definite date, such as a carol service and decide when we’re busy and need easy and quick things to do. Gradually the month becomes filled and in the past, Mckdaddy has done drawings on small bits of card to show what that day is, this is brilliant for non-readers. 

  
Rather than a list of dates, I’ve organised these into groups, so if crafting or cooking isn’t your thing, I hope you’ll find other ideas to inspire you to create a advent activity calandar.

Getting ready for the big day

• Ice the Christmas Cake
• Make Christmas biscuits
• Make mince pies
• Choose a Christmas Tree
• Decorate the tree
• Get ready for Father Christmas’ visit (obviously this one is Christmas Eve)
• Make peppermint creams for gifts
• Listen to a message from Father Christmas

Out and About

• Go on a woodland walk
• See the Christmas Lights in the city
• Drive around to find the best house light display
• Visit Father Christmas
• Choose a new Christmas Decoration each
• Go to a Carol Service
• Go shopping for sibling or parents gifts
• Buy a gift for charity or donate to a food bank
• Collect pine cones
• Go ice skating

Easy Wins

• Candlelight bath (with or without glowsticks)
• Dinner by candlelight
• Read a Christmas Story
• Watch a Christmas film
• Do a Christmas puzzle
• Have a Christmas kitchen dance party
• Have a special festive hot chocolate (Hot Choc, Squirty Cream & Christmassy Sprinkles)
• Make a sparkly smoothie
• Light some sparklers
• School Christmas Lunch

Making

• Make Christmas Decorations
• Colour a Christmas picture 
• Make paper chains
• Make pine cone firelighters
• Make Christmas Cards
• Decorate gift tags (Use Parcel tags and some Christmas stamps)
• Decorate wrapping paper

So, there you have it. 35 pretty easy Christmas activities to slowly build up and get you and your home ready for Christmas. A little bit of organisation now and you’ll be ready for December 1st.

Styling the seasons – November

Styling the Seasons, by Apartment Apothecary and Lotts and Lots :“Reflect the change of seasons and show those changes in your own home, by styling any surface (shelf, dining table, mantelpiece) with something you like to reflect the new month and what it means to you”

For their exciting collaboration with Emily and Ruth from Makelight Studios, Katie and Lottie have asked for a flatlay to reflect the month of November. I have to admit I love a flatlay, as long as I remember that it doesn’t have to be artfully arranged petals scattered ‘randomly’. As much as I love those photos and admire the people that can style them so beautifully, it just isn’t me and that’s OK.
A flatlay photo is a great way to photograph when you live in a chaotic house with three children. You don’t need much space to make it work, it doesn’t take too long to set up and of course zooming in is the friend of the messy, real life blogger. It literally hides a multitude of sins. I have a few places in the house where I can set up a flatlay photo, with different backgrounds. Nano has a beautifully light, white bedroom, with a nice big roof window that is perfect for clean, bright styling. Lady Mck has a lovely, vintage, waxed wood chest of drawers and downstairs we have a dark wood dining room table, although I am always battling the light in this room, even in height of summer. One of my most used flat lay areas for a quick iPhone shot for Instagram is a wooden side table directly underneath our lounge window. It’s not my favourite surface, but is easy to clear and set up while the children are around and chaos is everywhere.

November is a time for hunkering down. For me, it feels like a dark month, when we really have to accept that winter is here and will be here for some time. I close the curtains before I leave to pick up the boys from school, turn on the side lamps and the heating goes on in November. Usually it is also the month that I avoid any mention of Christmas. Grumbling that it all starts too early and everyone should just calm down! However, this year I have decided to avoid my inevitable festive meltdown, as the present wrapping and card writing converges with school events and requests for baking by getting organised early.

One of my favourite things to do at Christmas is decide on how the presents will be wrapped. We always go for plain brown paper and then I decide on a colour scheme for ribbons and string and order my supplies. I love grosgrain ribbon and bakers twine for a simple, homespun look and this year I have avoided the traditional reds and greens for a, more grown up, palette of black and white. I may, also, dig out a roll of the kid’s IKEA easel paper as a change from the brown paper.

My aim is to get all the presents bought, made and wrapped by the end of November, so that I can really enjoy the children’s activities and excitement in December. I have never even attempted this before, so am curious to see if I can manage it.

I styled this in Nano’s room, while he was at school, when we had a brief spell of sun last week, with Lady Mck happily playing around me and ignoring me, until I actually picked up the camera. Then, she realised I was up to something and started undoing all my efforts. I had to abandon until she was sleeping, when unfortunately the light had gone. Thankfully, this room is so bright that I still managed to get some shots I was happy with.

Bleak Friday

I want to start by making it very clear that I like Christmas and I like getting and giving presents and I like shopping and just the same as most people I can often be found spending a bit more than I really should. I used to think I loved Christmas and maybe I still do, but I am starting to think that perhaps there really are people that love it more than I do, seeing as I try to keep it low key until much later in December. I perhaps just don’t have the stamina for it that others seem to.

This year it seems to me that Christmas has been ramped up to factor ten much earlier than usual. The fairly new tradition for the big Christmas Advert reveal happened at the beginning of November and it just seems to get bigger from there. Which mean we will have nearly two months of Christmas preparation and being told we must ‘buy this’ ‘eat that’ ‘drink this’ ‘do that’. It makes me want to hide under a duvet.

And then came Black Friday, an American import which sees massive reductions on goods the day after Thanksgiving, in preparation for Christmas. Supermarkets opened at midnight and online retailers started their Black Friday deals at the same time. At first I didn’t really pay much attention, but when the morning news started reporting about queues and crowds, a sick feeling started in my stomach. By 9am I had heard a clip of someone in one of these queues, who was asked what she was hoping to buy.

“ummmm…..TV’s, tablets…..ummmm…radios……whatever we can get our hands on really. Someone got punched in the face here last year!”

She didn’t even know what she wanted! She didn’t need or even really want anything. Just the lure of a huge company with enormous profits shouting “Buy this! Don’t miss out! Everyone else is doing it!”. Almost immediately after this was on the radio I found myself in a huge queue of traffic that isn’t normally there and realised I was near a John Lewis. It finally dawned on me that this was really happening and this was really a ‘thing’. As the day wore on it just got worse. Pictures of marauding mobs pushing and shoving to get a TV, police called to supermarkets, many websites not working due to pure volume of traffic and what made it worse was that this was all being done in the name of Christmas.

As someone far more insightful than me pointed out on Twitter, people are prepared to go to Tesco to buy something they don’t even need at midnight, but walking to the local primary school to vote on who runs the country seems to be an effort too far. We are told that we are more financially squeezed than ever and yet Christmas comes around and suddenly consumerism reigns supreme. It just leaves me feeling cold and sick, as if I have gorged on too much chocolate. The only winners in this are the companies that are selling us all the ‘stuff’, despite the massive reductions that were on offer yesterday, they are still making a huge profit, which frankly should just make us feel a bit stupid for the rest of the year as well. I agree that Christmas is a time of celebration, but since when did celebration involve fighting to get your hands on a new games console. WHAT ARE WE DOING?!

I finished the day feeling rather disillusioned with the world and as if I didn’t want to buy anything EVER AGAIN. Of course, I will, but I didn’t buy anything yesterday* and I think I will make a point of not shopping at all on Black Friday, which I have now taken to referring to as Bleak Friday.

*that’s actually a lie. I bought a lime for 37p.

Deck the Halls

After a really busy October and November hooking remembrance poppies, really so busy that I could hardly keep up, my Christmas range of crochet is back in my Etsy shop. I am frantically hooking in between all our own Christmas preparations and loving the fact that my little hooky babies will be hanging on people’s trees, or in fact anywhere around their home.

Late last year, at the suggestion on my friend, I think, I tried out some mistletoe in red and was delighted with the results. It has such an iconic shape that I think it’s possible to mess with the colours a little and so this year I have also added turquiose and purple to the collection. The turquiose and red together are perfect for that toned down Skandi look that is so popular this year.

 

and the inspiration for the purple came from those beautiful jewel tone trees that I’ve seen. Christmas colour schemes always make me tempted to go for something new every year.

 

Do not worry though, I haven’t gone completely modern, the traditional dark and light green in both holly and mistletoe are still available.

 

I am giving the holly as teacher’s gifts this year for Mini Mck’s lovely Reception class staff and hope that they will appreciate as much as a bottle of red. Something they can keep and use each year.

You can find them all in my Etsy shop, Teal and Mustard and you can get there by clicking on the picture in my sidebar, but hurry, there isn’t long to go until the big day and once I run out of stock or probably more likely time, that will be it for another year.

 

A Satsuma in the Toe

I’ve been taking part in Snaffles Mummy’s homemade Blog Hop and as I completely forgot to post something one my allocated day, she kindly let me in on Christmas Eve.

Hopefully all your Christmas preparations are done and the only homemade things you’ll be doing today are the odd batch of mince pies or sausage rolls, so I thought I would share a post I wrote a couple of years about a simple addition you can make to everyone’s stocking. I love this post and when I read it back it seemed like an age ago. This year I will be doing two stockings and as is usual for this time of year, I am left wondering, once again, where does the time go?

I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas and are spending it with those you love the most. Merry Christmas from everyone in the Limited household to everyone in yours xxx

It is dark and I am sleeping in a camp bed in my brother’s room. I stir and without opening my eyes, I stretch my feet to the end of the bed so they touch the weight of an old sock, no longer empty, as it was when I went to bed. My stomach flips and I sit up, leaning forward in the dark to feel the lumps and bumps of the stocking. Quickly, I check the time. It’s 6am and finally I am allowed to wake up. 

“Toby” I whisper “He’s been”

The light at the other end of the room snaps on and at last I can start to empty the mis-shapen football sock. It has been cleverly filled by the adults, but to me has nothing to do with them. To me, it has been filled by Father Christmas and left for us to open on our own, while the rest of the house is still sleeping. 

Every year it is the same and yet different. Some items are wrapped, some are not. A comic or a book is near the top, followed by a game or a puzzle. Further down there is a bag of chocolate coins and some peanuts, still in their shells and right at the bottom, as always, there is a pound coin and a satsuma in the toe. 

After they are empty we snuggle back into our beds to read our comics and eat the fruit, until I can stand it no longer and drag my brother downstairs to take our first peek at what has appeared under the tree. 
 know he still continues this tradition with his family, as my youngest niece told me when she was five that she wouldn’t be leaving a small orange for Santa’s snack, because he didn’t like them. When I asked how she knew this I was firmly told “because he gives them away to everyone else, obviously”

This year Mini Mck will have his stocking filled with a few loosely wrapped, easy to play with toys that he can open on his own and at the bottom, with a small piece of peel taken away, to start him off, he will find a satsuma in the toe.

A chocolate free advent – Week 1

As I mentioned in my last post I’m not a fan of chocolate advent calendars and at the moment my children are too young to really notice that they exist, so we are a cheap chocolate free zone this advent. My dislike is probably some misguided lust for nostalgia in that I am old enough to have never had the choice of having a chocolate calendar, because they didn’t exist.

So, last year, at the very last minute, actually I completed it during advent, but at two years old, Mini Mck was too young to notice, I made a cloth advent calendar with pockets and each day was filled with an activity or Christmas treat. We have done the same this year and now he is old enough to know which pocket to open and to work out from the picture what he will be doing.

The trick is to plan ahead and make sure you don’t give yourself too much to do. The first week involved three lots of craft and that is most definitely my limit. Make sure to include Christmas things you need to do anyway, such as getting the tree or going to see Father Christmas.

This is what we were up to between the 1st and the 7th December:

01/12 Made Christmas Cards

02/12 Watched a Christmas Film

03/12 Made a glittery smoothie

04/12 Wrote to Father Christmas

05/12 Made Christmas Decorations

06/12 Made wrapping paper

07/12 Choose a present for Nano and have lunch out

Join us next week for more advent adventures

I am linking this to Thinly Spread’s Festive Friday. The place to be for much Christmas excitement. 

Teal and Mustard

Where have I been? Obviously, not here and not really on Twitter much either, which is rather shocking, even to myself. Usually, when I am not here, I am doing exciting things with yarn and either hooks or needles and now is no exception, except that this time I have actually been selling it.

It has all been a rather lovely, but slightly overwhelming accident. A friend asked if I could make her a flower brooch and was happy to pay me, she has been nagging me to start selling my wares for ages and so I was more than happy for her to be my guinea pig. Then, I agreed to do some more for her to try and sell at her school shopping evening. All very calm, with lots of time to make a few flowers and turn them into brooches.

Then, the same friend asked if I could crochet her a poppy in time for Remembrance Sunday. I couldn’t find a pattern I liked anywhere and so for the first time ever, I made my own, after quite a few rejected poppies. I put a few pictures on Instagram and Facebook and charged a reduced price, so that people would make a generous donation to The Poppy Appeal. Suddenly, I had lots of people asking me to make them, for themselves and their Mums or friends. I sold over 20 poppies in a week. I appear to have created a little business.

A week before the shopping evening and while I was still making brooches, I decided that holly and mistletoe tree decorations would be a great seller and so set about adapting existing patterns, to suit what I envisaged. So, this week I have been madly trying to get enough of them done to send.

Now, I have met that deadline, I am ready to start taking orders for my Christmas decorations. I am hoping they are as popular as the poppies and although I would like time to make some for myself, I am happy to sacrifice that this year for anyone that would like some. I have to admit I am more than a little delighted with them

It all feels like it’s happening about a month later than is ideal. I have had to really get on with each project and have so many other ideas for Christmas designs that will just have to wait until next year. For this year, the holly and mistletoe will have to suffice, although I may have to work on a mistletoe bunch that is in my head, even if it means no sleep.

I have set up an Etsy shop, Teal and Mustard and of course added the ubiquitous facebook page, so you can now look at my creations just in time for Christmas. Contact me via facebook or the email for the blog, if you have any queries, or want to talk different colours.

Christmas Cards, toddler style.

On of my favourite bloggers, Chris at Thinly Spread is impressing us all with her fantastic Festive Friday ideas and inviting everyone else to do the same. If you haven’t visited her blog before please take a look. It is gorgeous to look at and beautifully written. 

Christmas preparations are well under way in the Limited house. The cake and pudding have both been made and for the first time ever all my cards were written in the first week of December. This is the only benefit to having a cold AND being pregnant, as it is a job you can do with your feet up whilst watching Christmas films. 

I thought it would be nice for Mini Mck to make some cards for close family and his Godparents and as he is only 20 months hand painting is about as far as we’ve got in the past. 

Whenever we do craft activities I want him to be able to do as much of it as possible, with little interference from me, otherwise it can just become a stressful battle, or I just feel silly that, in fact, I’ve made it, rather than him.

So, with a little help from me, we created these hand-print Christmas Trees and Father Christmas’ cards. 

All you need to make these, slightly abstract, images is some cotton wool, googly eyes, glitter, gold stars, paint and a toddler who loves to make a mess. 

We started with our usual card making trick of hand-prints on folded card. 

To make them festive we added star stickers, cotton wool and glitter. Mini Mck asked for help with the eyes but eventually got the hang of sticking them on. Can you guess which he did? He was able to put the glue on and stick the cotton wool, with a little help and together we poured glitter.

I love them and I’m sure the Grandparents will too.