Winter has at last arrived and when I ventured out today I was well and truly buffeted by Storm Barney. I admit to having a small obsession with the weather and the Shipping Forecast and love to make my home cosy and warm at this time of year. I’ve written a little about taking more care of myself this year. I’ve joined a choir so I can indulge one of my passions, I love my adult colouring books and am working my way through every gingerbread recipe book I own, all in the pursuit of create hygge in the home.…
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Happy Monday everyone, hope you had a great weekend. Yesterday I went clothes shopping with my 3 year old which is always an adventure. She has a huge appetite for trying on clothes. All we needed was a new winter coat but it ended up taking hours. She tried on every one we saw and we went back and bought the first one we tried! I see lots more shopping fun in the future! I got the boxes of Christmas decorations out of the loft so I could sort through them and make an early start on my Christmas crafting.…
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As an avid crafter I love to see which crafts are going to be big at Christmas. On a very hot day in the summer holidays I went into London for the Hobbycraft Autumn/Winter press show which featured ideas for Halloween and Christmas. There were so many lovely things to see and I’ve been patiently waiting for the items to hit the shelves of my local Hobbycraft for weeks! Christmas ideas from Hobbycraft I’m going to share some of the many photos I snapped at the press show. First there was a large area dedicated to Advent calendars. Hobbycraft sell…
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As I’ve mentioned a few times, my 5 year old absolutely adores the Clangers who recently made a return to children’s tv. During the summer holidays we spent many happy hours perfecting our own version of the Clangers home planet. It’s actually still going strong despite hours of play. The BBC Shop has a great range of Clangers toys and we were invited to choose one to play with and tell you about. We chose the Clangers Home Planet Playset which my son has been talking about for months. He already has a few Clangers figures and the Home Planet…
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Christmas came early for me this year thanks to a special invitation to celebrate those special Christmas moments with Waitrose at the Waitrose Cookery School in Finchley Road, London. The evening was hosted by Phillip Schofield and I learnt how to make cocktails and cupcakes as well as sample the most amazing Christmas dinner, courtesy of the very talented Cookery School chefs. You may be asking why I was invited to Christmas dinner in November. Well, throughout November and December, Waitrose are celebrating all of the different moments that symbolise Christmas – whether it’s decorating the Christmas tree, enjoying the first…
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A few evenings ago I was having a very rare night out and we were discussing Christmas. Someone asked if we had any special Christmas traditions and I’m not sure I realised until then that we have lots. Perhaps having young children helps, but I want to make Christmas a magical time for all of us and create some special memories. My Christmas preparations start early as Advent marks the beginning of Christmas for our family. I bring out the Advent Box and set up the Book Advent tower in the lounge. I’m not sure how I heard about a…
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It seems a while since I shared a great craft book with you. Have you started your Christmas crafting yet? Are you making any handmade gifts this year? I’m not making any big gifts but I’ve made some small decorations. I’ve always enjoyed working with felt so when I read about ‘Tis the Season to be Felty I knew I would be pre-ordering a copy. It’s a follow up to Fa la la la Felt! which came out a few years ago and many of the same designers have contributed to the 40+ projects in this book. As soon as…
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Yesterday Little Sis and I had a baking session. She only attends nursery in the afternoon which means we get to spend every morning together and we usually craft or make something. She loves to bake so I knew she would enjoy baking some festive gingerbread biscuits. We were sent a pack of the latest product in the Cookie Crumbles range – the Fabulous Gingerbread Biscuit Mix with wholemeal flour – to try. This mix contained everything we needed except for the butter and Golden Syrup. I made the dough as Little Sis picked her cutters. When she was ready…
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I know it’s November but we got our Christmas decorations out of the loft at the weekend. I wanted to go through the boxes and have a sort out before the children start rifling through them, demanding we put up every Christmas decoration we own. I took out all our Christmassy craft supplies as the children want to start making Christmas crafts too. We love gingerbread and gingerbread crafts so today we’re going to share our gingerbread jumping jack decorations. They are a really fun craft, can be decorated however you like, and look great hung on the tree or…