✴ festive postcards

I've been buried deep in festivities over the past few weeks...

First there was a birthday (last year spent ill with flu and heavily pregnant...) then there was an anniversary (last year spent ill with flu and heavily pregnant...) then of course, christmas (last year....ok you get the message...!!).

This year...not ill, definitely not pregnant and all spent with the delights and captivation of an almost one year old! perfect!

Highlights:

• Birthday cake from Patisserie Valerie
  
• Winning Holly the Cardi Bunny from Beck of Dandelion during her giveaway! How lucky am I?
  
• A bountiful collection of new craft/cook books from Mr H;

{Stencil 101 :: Embroidered Effects :: Home-Made Vintage :: Recycled Home :: Escoffier :: Shabby Chic Interiors :: Flea Market Style ::  Bake :: Weekend Sewing :: Bazaar Style :: The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook :: Larousse Gastronomique }

• Decorating the house and making quick doily bunting!

{Fold a doily in half, open, then fold in half the other way, open, then fold in half diagonally, open, then in half diagonally the other way, open. Cut along the folds so you end up with 8 doily pizza shapes. Stick diamante/sequins/glitter on the points of each piece, repeat with different sized doilies. Thread wool/string/ribbon through the holes in the doily pieces and hang wherever...job done!}

• Anniversary retreat in the snow to The Gilpin Lodge in The Lake District.
• Managing to finish a few homemade gifts, including Kitten Kaboodle (adapted from Amy Butlers 'Birdie the Cat Pillow' free downloadable pattern here )
  
• Home cooked meals from Mum
• Watching Ella open her presents on Christmas morning (although it did take hours...)
• A snowy, misty walk down memory lane... (actually it's called Chadkirk Road....!)

• Real fires
• Boxing day party with many children!! Ella loved it!
• Snow! And most importantly....A white Christmas!!!!! Yippeeee!
• A second Christmas dinner at my mother-in-law's!!
• Spending time with friends and family.

How did you spend your festive season?

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

❆❆❆

✴ five minutes peace...

Haven't played along with my place and yours in a few weeks because of this that and the other...The theme queen this week, Pilgrim , has chosen five minutes peace;

where do you retreat to for that sanity-regaining break? i am interested in what or where in your home your sanctuary is.

Hhmmm......Five minutes peace.......

Five

minutes

peace...

What's that??!!!!

I suppose on a good baba napping day I like to escape to the garden, weather permitting and have a few moments of peace and fresh air with a cup of hot tea....And maybe a chocolate digestive...Or two...And dream about the vegetable patches that are a long time in the making but forever in the dreaming...

✴ my creative space

I seem to be running about ten hours behind everyone else....Can't think why...??!

My creative space is a bit of a tipped up house, half emptied packing boxes, toys scattered abandoned on the floor, unopened letters and catalogues (so many catalogues...), sleeping cats and crawling, standing children (actually just the one..) and laundry, lots of laundry.....

I've managed to establish a creative space, my little temporary corner of the dining room at the old bureau, which I've decided after a long contemplation, may well be painted in the new year, possibly a chinese blue or slate grey. It needs a lot of love and care to make it look beautiful and brighten it up from it's current Dickensian state. Although at the moment I quite like feeling like I am a character in a Dickens novel, stitching away at my old oak writing desk wearing fingerless gloves and with only candlelight for warmth. Actually the last two bits of that description are complete imagination but Dickens never really mentioned jeans or iphones so there you have it.

My usual workshop in the garage is not really working for three reasons, 1. it's way too cold, nay freezing, in there 2. it has over the last year become a dumping ground for all things with no home and so I can't actually see my desk 3. the baby, and needing to be within arms reach of said crawling, standing child. Cbeebies only goes so far in it's ability to captivate and babysit!

I've washed a stash of fabric which is ready for things on the to do list, tote bags, softies, lavender hearts, quilts...Sorted the felt for christmas decorations, softie gnomes etc...

Found my lost ball of twine and tied up the belated advent tags onto the wall...

Started to make the embroidery hoop wall baubles...

And most importantly, strung some lights, so pretty!

Still so much more to get done.....

For more creative spaces, head along to Kootoyoo , it's the last peek before Christmas!

✴ what's hot & what's not...

Image HomeShoppingSpy  

I don't seem to have time to do anything at the moment. My dreams of a homemade christmas seem a distant lamplight that I just can't seem to reach in an otherwise foggy fuddle of necessary to do's and run-arounds....Sigh.....I caved yesterday in M&S and bought christmas cards....Even bigger sigh.........

At least there is some time to reflect on what's hot and what most definitely is not on this wet, grey winter's morning.

Pop along to miss Loobylu  for more hot/not lists. Go on...You know you want to.....

Hot

✴Ideal Home Magazine. This magazine is celebrating it's 90th birthday this month. 90 years! Wow! Also really love Ideal Home's blog Home Shopping Spy. Beautiful images and great ideas. Hooray!

Image here 

✴Kirstie's Homemade Christmas. What joy to be flicking around the telly channels last night with no clue of what might be on to discover Kirstie's Homemade Christmas on channel four. And I was just in time for it! Yeah! Love Kirstie Allsopp. Love her witty and argumentative banter with Phil on Location (x 3) and especially loved the Homemade home series she did earlier this year...I was hooked and extremely envious of the gorgeous home, the dilapidated Meadowgate, she had created and renovated with thrift finds and handmade home wares. This time it's all about a homemade christmas (yeah I think the clue is in the title...) at Meadowgate which hasn't seen a christmas for 30 years! Aww!

Homemade is soooo hot!

✴Muji. Stocking fillers, Muji style. Just love their little wooden toys and quirky gifts. Perfect stocking filler size and made from wood...which is good! What's not to love with chicken skittles??!

Image here 

Not

✴Time. Or lack of. Had such great hopes for making and baking, and so far....What was I thinking!??? I guess I still have a little time to get organised....Don't I??

✴Darkness. Ok I love winter, I love the dark, usually. But as it's taking me and the baba so long to get organised at the moment, we end up heading out at about 3.30pm, and it's almost dark! Weird. It's confusing baba boo a wee bit too! Had got so used to sitting on the boardwalk at 4.30pm and watching the waves........Ahhhh, miss that. I do.

✴ five minutes...

It's all gone a bit crazy here. We have returned to a house which had previously felt quite roomy and now all of a sudden feels like a tiny wee hobbit house and which has a million sharp edges and shiny, sparkly 'objets dangereux' which are seemingly extremely interesting to an almost 11 month old. I hadn't realised how easy everything was in a large, open-plan spacious and relatively sparse apartment....Until we returned home!

Until about half an hour ago I hadn't even ventured into the garden. Due mainly to the constant rain and necessary unpacking and monitoring of small crawling child. It's nice to have five minutes this morning to have a little walk on this beautiful wintery day...

The large cherry tree in the middle of the garden has new buds coming through already, I love to see the blossom in the spring which covers the garden in white 'confetti' petals.

It's funny to see how bare the trees are now. Especially the plum tree which looks positively skeletal after the abundant crop of plums we had this year - too many to pick, so much so that several branches broke off due to the weight of all of the tiny red plums!  Plum jam anyone???!

Time to get festive and cut some ivy and holly to decorate the house and I think the potted Christmas tree which has been waiting patiently outside in the rain should be brought inside for some adornment of baubles, ribbons and fairy lights. Hhmmm.....Something else for little hands to grab and pull.......

✴ wedding cupcakes

Yesterday we spent a lovely day at Pembroke Lodge in the middle of Richmond Park to celebrate a friends wedding. Such beautiful surroundings, passing grazing deer along the wintery tree lined drive through the park.

It was suitably chilly, still not quite used to the icy cold weather of Great Britain! 

Also not used to being woken up with a scream and a hair pull by a little person so early in the morning it's still dark, after a bit of a champagne day........Sigh.......

Congratulations Mr and Mrs Smith! x

✴ what's hot & what's not...

Oh my gosh, forgive me, it has been a whole week since my last post.....which was also hot/not!

Slowly trying to get back to some sort of creative love, but having to wade through the unpacking and tidying and sorting and blah...blah.... Feel so behind! Feeling a lot like a cute little chipmunk who has awakened from a long hibernation, but probably looking a lot like a big grisly bear with bed head and in need of a manicure...!

Thankful for Loobylu and the hot/not list to help me climb out of the zoned out blues........

Hot

✴Cox & Cox. I love this shop. I love that they categorise everything by celebration! So much choice for festive cheer from this place but am especially loving the vintage birds, gingerbread house cookie cutters and window snowflake stickers.

Images Cox & Cox 

✴East London Design Show. Really hope I can make it here this weekend especially as one of my friends is selling here! Yoyo Ceramics. Such lovely things she has made. I already have the ceramic butter dish inspired by tupperware but definitely have my eye on a ceramic notepad, eco friendly and uber stylish! Love having crafty creative chums....

Images Yoyo Ceramics 

✴Winter Weddings. So magical and romantic. Candlelight and frost, what could be better?! Celebrating our wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks, couldn't have had a more wintery wedding, getting hitched on the Winter Solstice! Off to a wedding on friday. Will hopefully be feeling a bit more 'with it' by then! I'm sure a glass of champagne will sort me out!! So looking forward to a day without sick on my shoulder (well, hopefully!?)

Not

✴ Jetlag. Obviously! But more specifically a baby with jetlag! Poor little thing has been totally crashed out at 4pm each day then really unhappy to be woken up to have some dinner and even more upset to be put in the bath! Oh dear, hopefully better soon.

✴Jury Summons. Ooops! Guess what sort of letter I've just opened form the pile delivered while we were away!? Supposed to be there on the 14th! Don't they know it's christmas???

✴Jetlag. Did I already mention that??!.........