Wednesday 17 December 2008

Decking the halls

I picked up these lovely decorations yesterday from the Cancer Research shop - all of this for £1! There were lots more, but I thought I would leave some for the other bargain hunters. The decorations are all made of wood and metal, which matches my objective this year of not buying anything plastic. (Unfortunately the decorations came in plastic wrappers).










My other objective was to have some sort of mantlepiece - I've longed to have a proper fireplace since I moved to this house 18 years ago . We have an ugly old fashioned gas fire and a back boiler, which both need to be replaced but finances have not allowed - there are so many things that have taken priority over the years, but after seeing what wonderful decorations other people have blogged, I gave my self a kick up the proverbial and bought this beauty on EBay. Its basically just a wooden mantleshelf, purely cosmetic, but somewhere for me to put my candles and a bit of holly. (Yes I know that's not holly, it's laurel, but I will go out and see what I can pick at the weekend - maybe some berries too). When I have properly decorated my new mantlepiece I will proudly display a photo, watch this space.....




How's this for rustic decorations:


I made these from some twigs and scaps of knitting wool. I plan to make some more, maybe paint them or use gold paint.


Finally, here's a picture of our tree. Over the years we have had so many different colour schemes, but most of our favourite decorations are white, silver and gold, so the majority of the other colours I gave away on Freecycle. Many of these are wood, glass or metal (though I do still have some plastic ones). There are also a few hand knitted ones (stockings, candy canes and so on).
I'm off to do some Christmas shopping and to drive to the west country to deliver gifts and to pick up my daughter from University.

Saturday 13 December 2008

I knitted this hot water bottle cover for my sister using some wool from my stash - it's a Christmas present, which I must post in the next couple of days.


This is just about the only preparation I have done for Christmas so far, other than put up the tree. I am so envious of The Nester and the 150+ bloggers who have posted pictures of their beautiful garlands. I don't have a fireplace, or anywhere to put up a garland, and have been searching EBay for a fire surround, but I might just resort to a shelf, so that I can put some candles and pine cones.

I've neglected my blog recently - here are a couple of recent highlights in my life:
  • A visit to the Country Living Christmas Fair in November - my daughter met me in London and we had a lovely afternoon...












  • My son and I had a short holiday in Herefordshire and stayed in a lovely barn conversion, and had a really enjoyable day Llama-trekking