Christmas and New Year ::

Hello and apologies for unexplained absences, you may have noticed Christmas happened and we all got a little lost and caught up in the mayhem that was nativities, gift buying, wrapping, tree decorating, baking and general fun and merriment.
We had a fabulous festive season, Effie, though completely disinterested in the whole affair, I'm sure had as good a first Christmas as can be and Milo was positively spoilt as usual, but more importantly got to spend precious time with all his cousins, grandparents and great grandparents, the most wonderful part of Christmas.

We headed up to Norfolk on Christmas eve, stopping at my Dad's on the way to my Mum's all the way up on the North Norfolk coast. It was a long long journey, during which we witnessed both sunrise and sunset, but it was lovely to finally get to our destination and visit my Mum and step Dad's newly moved in to house. We spent both Christmas Day and Boxing Day with my Mum, before heading down to Cambridge on the 27th, where we had a couple of days visiting Johnny's family, before heading back home again on the 29th.

It was a long trip and Effie found being away from home and her usual routine a little bit disturbing, meaning neither of us got very much sleep, but it was worth all those long hours on trains to be able to see so many of our family members over such a short space of time and be able to introduce Effie to those of whom she had yet to meet.

New year is a quiet event for us generally, when you have children it can't be much else really. But the four of us headed out for an early dinner at one of our favourite Cheltenham restaurants, The Tavern, a newly found tradition. Once back home and baby's in bed we drank champagne and watched a little of the hootananny. Milo requested to be woken at midnight, but not only was he almost impossible to rouse, after finding too few fireworks to watch he declared; 'I didn't know it would be this stupid, I'm going back to bed'.

Today I boxed up all the decorations and tackled the impossible job of removing the tree without getting needles in every nook and cranny of the house and so we return to normality...

Festive Face-Off :: Christmas Wreath ::

A while back, Country Baskets asked me to take part in this years bloggers festive face-off. They kindly sent me and a collection of other bloggers a box of crafty goodies, we then put our crafty skills to the test to create a festive decoration with the supplies we were provided with.

I was so thrilled with the contents of the box when it arrived, it all looked so wintery and crisp and I was immediately inspired.

After much deliberation I decided on a wreath for our front door, something reasonably simple and classic. I used the wire to form a ring, using a large mixing bowl to help me get the shape and size right, I then carefully twisted the ends around the ring and finished them off with a little tape, just to keep the ends from poking out rather than to keep it in place as twisting did that just fine.

I then grabbed the biggest crochet hook I could find and using the ribbon and double crochet I worked all the way around the ring. This bit was quite tricky to get going, but once I got the hang of it was a breeze and worked up so quickly. I particularly love how the crochet ribbon not only covers the wire but also provides perfect little pockets for inserting decorations.

Next came the difficult task of deciding what to add to my wreath. In the end I used the mistletoe, the snow like pom poms and a few of the bells from the hanging bell decoration, using the little pockets created by the crochet to put them in place.

I'm so thrilled with my end result. It's proudly hanging on my front door and I love the little tinkle of bells it creates every time I come open the door.

If you fancy having a go at making your own you can find all the supplies I used over on the Country Baskets website.

Festive Crafting :: Hama Bead Baubles ::

On Sunday afternoon, the lovely Bex popped round for some hama bead lessons from the expert on such things in our house, Milo. Well, one thing led to another and all of a sudden I found myself getting slightly over excited about the possibilities of hama bead Christmas decorations!

Inspired by these gorgeous hama bead creations, found on pinterest, of course! I set about making some baubles, Milo made a couple too. I cannot wait to get our Christmas tree at the weekend so we can put them up in pride of place!

I am, oh so tempted by these gold Hama Beads I just found on Amazon! Think of all the possibilities!

Free Printables :: Christmas Gift Tags ::

I love a free printable! Anything from colouring book pages, to planners. And I love that these uber talented folks are willing to share their beautiful work with those of us less artistic or computer savvy.

Browsing pinterest for Christmas gift tag inspiration recently I came across so many gorgeous printable gift tags I thought I'd round up a few of my favourites to share with you.