Happy Christmas 2022 ………..

I’ve wanted a Charlie Brown type Christmas tree for ages now …… so for this year at least, this is the closest I’ve got.

Found in an Evesham charity shop, where else, for just £2.50 and three AA batteries, it would have been rude not to.  All I had to add was the shiny, red, jingle bell ornament. I love it.

With just a few days to go I’d like, with much love, to wish you all a  wonderful and peaceful Christmas, stay safe and after a short break I’ll hopefully be back ………. on the other side, on 2nd January 2023 and then "properly" on 9th January.

Mini Santa Chocolate Sleigh Decoration/Favours

This is the idea I’ve had in mind ………..

…….. ever since I bought a few packs of the little, white, wooden sleighs (2 for £1) from The Works when they first appeared in the shops.

There’s not a lot to them, it was just a case of waiting for the nets of chocolate Santas to arrive in Home Bargains (79p a net of 12) and then finding the right sized, wrapped chocolate to fit on the sleigh, in this case Marks and Spencer Italian Chocolate Assortment (£5) which look a bit like Santa’s sack(?).

I tied a narrow, red ribbon around the neck of the chocolate and then put two, self adhesive, foam pads on the bottom so that it would stick on to the sleigh.

I used two, self adhesive Christmas greetings (Hobbycraft, a couple of years ago) in either pink or green on the two sides of the sleigh runners.

An adhesive, foam pad was also stuck to the back of the Santas to attach them to the front of the chocolates.

As I said, there’s not an awful lot to them, it was just a case of trying to find components that were all in reasonable proportion to each another.

I think these would make a really cute table place setting/favours, perhaps changing one of the greeting tags on the side of the sleigh for the name of the various guests? 

Knitted Christmas Wreath

What’s a girl to do when she spots a knitted wreath kit in the Salvation Army charity shop for just £3.50, well, it would look rude not to!

The kit was originally from Aldi and I was curious, as to how hard could it be, for less than the price of a coffee and slice of cake I thought it would be worth a punt while saving the calories!

Oh my goodness the needles were mahooooooosive, as was the thickness of the yarn ……

…… a good thing the instructions seemed pretty simple.  The knitting itself couldn’t have taken me more than an hour.

When I saw it wrapped round the metal frame I loved the texture.  The yarn was far too thick for any needle, but it was possible to thread it between the stitches to join the two ends together and then to close the edge inside the ring, although it didn’t like too much pulling to tighten anything up.  I used the left over wool (almost a whole ball) to pad out the inside of the wreath.

I used some burlap ribbon that originally came with a hamper a couple of Christmas’s ago, to make the bow following a tutorial on YouTube.

To add a little more colour I glue gunned some red, wooden snowflake embellishments, putting a flat backed pearl in the centres.  I also threaded a length of jute thread in the back to hang the wreath from.

The wreath is now destined for Marc and the cottage, he loves a knitted novelty, he loves a wreath for any occassion and he loves a good charity shop bargain, so I can’t really go wrong to score maximum points can I?   I’ll post pictures later when it’s in situ and his reaction, especially as I’m going to put it back in the original box and suggest we tackle it together to busy ourselves during my stay!  Happy days …………