Wreaths, rainbows and a little bit of sewing.....

Hello!!! Thanks for stopping by. Before I tell you what I've been up over the last few weeks I have to show you this -

Is it not fab? A Christmas wreath made of recycled pages from newspapers or magazines! I love it!!! I haven't made one yet but I want to, I really want to. I love recycled stuff. We chuck away so much stuff that with a bit of thought, time and energy can be transformed into something useful or at least usable (if not always beautiful!). Anyway, this (to me) IS beautiful and the true beauty of it is that you can send it for recycling after Christmas this year and then make another one for next year!!! Genius!

Anyway. A week or so ago I received a parcel in the mail (yes, the real mail with real stamps and stuff.....)

Said parcel was from Maryanne and Vicky at Woolhogs. I had won a prize!!!! Yes, can you believe it, me, moi and I had actually won something!!!!!!!! Yay! In all my 40 something years I have never (repeat N-E-V-E-R) won anything, so this was the hugest of huge things for me (can you tell?)! I had entered a little competition on Maryanne's blog and then the parcel came..... How's the cute button?

Want to see what was inside? Do you? Well, here it is ...............

A rainbow of seven skeins of the scrummiest cotton yarn you could ever imagine!!! It's a local product made by Elle and is their Premier Natural Cotton range. I cannot begin to tell you how beautifully this yarn works because yes indeed I've already started a project and it's fab-u-licious!!!! Can't wait to show you but not yet.....no sir, not yet............. 

On a completely different subject, I have been trying my hand at a little dressmaking. After seeing the uber talented Elizabeth over at Mrs Thomasina Tittlemouse make her stunning Edelweiss Skirt, I felt I had to give something a go! My Mom (also very talented with a sewing thread) had a pattern for a super easy dress which she helped me cut out one day last week. Then, last Saturday, I took the bull by the horns and after a little of this

a little of this

and a whole lot of this

I made this.

What do you think? I know it's no haute couture but it's all mine! It's the most stunning apple green colour and there are these little embroidered punch outs in the fabric. Here's a close up.

Aren't they pretty? I think so. I have to tell you that my sewing machine and I have never had what you might call a real relationship. It's always been more of a battle of wills with the sewing machine usually winning! This time, however, I kept repeating the mantra "I am not afraid" the entire time I was sewing and it seemed to work!!!! The machine behaved itself and within 4 hours I had a dress!!! Yay! 

For those of you that are interested the pattern is Simplicity 5628.

 I'm sure there is a technical name for this kind of dress but I call it a 'straight up and down dress'. It's great for summer, especially here in South Africa, where it can get blindingly hot in December/January so I know this little gem is going to get alot of use. Cute bag too.

That's me for now. What have you been up to?

Til soon.

♥

Christmas ideas.....

Can you believe that we only have 30 days until Christmas???? Have I done any Christmas shopping? No. Have I given Christmas a thought? No. Until today. I suddenly had a 'let's get a few Christmas ideas' moment and have spent the last couple of hours trawling the "tinternet" (as my little angels call it) for some inspiration. Here's what I've found so far....

source

Are these chairs not gorgeous? So simple yet so effective. If you don't have white chairs (as I don't with two young boys in the house!) you could always make or buy some slip covers. But even without the white chairs  I think the ribbon, cone and greenery would look just as good.

On the subject of the Christmas dinner table, I saw this place setting which I think is stunning.

source

I'm not a huge fan of too much bling on the table and I think the simplicity of this setting defines its beauty. The tags you could easily find and print from the net and we can all find a bit of greenery. Tie this all together with a piece of natural twine and there you have it. Gorgeous.

Next up .... a little bit of Christmas magic .....

source

..... a Santa key!!!! I thought this was a wonderful idea for those children who don't have a fireplace in their home. This triggered a whole scenario for me (being a preschool teacher)  where the child is given the key on Christmas Eve - naturally presented in a beautiful magical special box decorated with LOTS of glitter (I mean fairy dust....) - and is told to leave it outside the front or back door so that Santa can access the house and leave all the pressies! Can you imagine the excitement, the joy, the decision making process of exactly where to leave it so that Santa will find it???? I think I would have exploded with glee if my mom had given me this to leave outside.....perhaps DH will read this and make one for me to put outside on Christmas Eve even though we do have a fireplace.......

Moving on to all things wrapping, I'm always blown away by the diverse rolls of wrapping paper that are available. The patterns, the colours, the shininess (is there such a word?) of them all. I must admit to loving them but when I saw this I thought how simple and beautiful and natural the pressies look.

source

I think its the combination of the plain paper with the green and red of the accessories. It speaks more to me of Christmas than many of the sparkly blingy (again, a new word!) wrapping papers that we can buy. I'm definitely doing this on our pressies this year! I also love the basket and the straw.....

And finally I found this -

I'm not a great lover of Advent calendars but this one is such a lovely idea. Each tag contains a thought for the day or an action and can be general for the whole family or aimed at children which I loved. I thought up a couple on the spur of the moment -

"Hug your dog three times today!" 

"Tell your teacher you love her!" (I wonder why I thought of that one)

"Draw a Christmas picture and send it in the post to your grandparents." 

What do you think? You could make them very specific to your child or your family or (even better) you could make one as a gift for someone but leave the tags blank, then they could fill them in themselves! I might make one for my classroom for next year but we'd have to do it through November as we always close at the end of November for our major Summer holiday! 

So that's what I've found so far. I'm by no means finished but have made a board on Pinterest so please feel free to pop over and have a look. Here's the link.

Til soon.

♥