Because we only have so many trips around this sun...

Advent day 4: Clothes Peg Angels

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

These clothes peg angels prove it.

My hatchlings are thrilled with their creations.

And have spent hours playing with their newly made friends.

I hung a line of thread across the ceiling so they could make them fly.

Today's craft was a resounding hit.

Now if you want to have a go, all you need is some of those wooden clothes pegs,

and to share where our inspiration came from,

Have a look at these:

(all these are for sale by other websites.)

Homemade gifts - Snowman soup

This is our project today. 

We are putting together all our snowman soups.

Snowman soup is easy to make. 

Buy a few dozen of these cellophane cones, 

and fill with your favourite hot chocolate powder.

This is our favourite.

Then top with chocolate chips,

and marshmallows.

 

Add candy cane, and tie with a ribbon.

Then pop it in a nice mug.

We are going to cellophane wrap ours in groups with some pretty snowflake cellophane I found.

If you want to buy inexpensive mugs and individualise them try Barefoot farm's great method:

http://mybarefootfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/handmade-holidays-sharpie-plate.html

Homemade gifts - Aprons

First I'd just like to apologise for the number of fingerprints on my camera lens that have caused some blurry spots in these photos. (I'll try to get that cleaned up.)

The hatchlings and I have decided this year we are going to do a holiday baking/ craft advent to count down the days in December. 

I'll be posting these daily and I hope you'll join us.

In order to get into the right mood, I thought it would be rather nice to have some festive aprons. 

Then I looked online, and saw what festive aprons can cost.

Digging through my fabric box and cutting up an old pair of trousers and a dress, these are what I've made for free.

I thought they'd make easy gifts too.

A snowman for hatchling no2. 

This fabric was a torn dress.

A polar bear for hatchling no4. 

Made from trousers.

A Christmas tree for hatchling no3.

Remember the old tree skirt? 

(Daddydragon thinks, 'Tree skirt?)

Well, it is a little shorter now.

And the kitty with a santa hat on the left is for hatchling no1.

Now we are ready to start on our holiday crafts, and hopefully we'll have a fewer stained tops too.

Friday again?

The mornings are dark and so we eat breakfast by star light.

The days are short. 

The mornings are slow and just a little quieter.

Which is quite nice. 

Soon enough we will be back in the middle of the long summer days. 

 I am stocking up on these calm dark hours, before the almost endless days see my hatchlings awake until two am. 

Not that I mind our midnight beach trips, it is just that this gentle wintery wake up is appreciated. 

Along side the various knitting projects, I have tried making mittens.

Here is my first attempt, a little blue pair for hatchling no4.

I knit really long cuffs so hopefully, when unfolded, they will stay in his coat sleeves.

Total cost of wool used, 35p. 

And on the off chance that you too have a Thomas the tank engine fan who needs to put his felt markers to a more productive use than colouring on the bedroom door, try this link.

http://webpages.charter.net/mortickles/coloring.htm

Improving what we have

My hatchlings are really hard on their clothes. 

So hard in fact that in one week, we had four pairs of trousers ripped to an unwearable condition.

That could add up to over 200 pairs of trousers a year if I kept buying more.

The pair of trousers in the photo was a plain pair of denim trousers that belonged to hatchling no1.

She just keeps tearing holes in them.

And I keep patching them.

Today, we were asked, 'Where did you buy those jeans? They are lovely!'

Another way we have found to improve clothes is iron on transfers. 

We buy them online for about 50 pence, and they come in almost any style and character you could wish for.

I take the pretty pink top someone spilt pasta sauce down the front of,

and iron on a A5 sized transfer.

Now, my hatchling has an elephant top (elephants are her favourite animal), and I don't have to throw out another stained top.

Sometimes such a very little bit of effort goes a long way.

Serve with a hubcap

This brings back memories, but is at the end of the day, a little nugget of truth.

Crochet Christmas gifts

This is my start to our homemade gifts this year. 

I've made each of the hatchlings a pair of slippers.

Just a plain sole, and then a brighter colour up top. 

and a scarf to match.

Some darker and chunkier slippers for the boys.

I have a series of hats I am making and I'll do a post when they are all completed.

Here is the Christmas pudding hat I made.

And one very wonky handbag, using the scraps of wool I had for a little girl who wants a rainbow purse.... well, it isn't pinterest worthy, but it will make her happy.

I would love to say here is the pattern but the truth is I have never used one. If there is sufficent interest I'll post the steps I have used, but for the most part they are just really easy crafts.

Take for instants the scarf and slippers. The matching set took about 6 hours to make. Total cost of the wool used: 65 pence

Hard to beat that really.

Next week I'll post the sewing projects we are making as Christmas gift ideas.

Habits die hard

It takes roughly three weeks to break a habit, according to random google searches.

And now three weeks in, this habit is starting to feel a little more natural.

The habit of not shopping that is.

It is so easy and normal to just buy stuff.

When we moved from the city to the country, I lost the habit of just popping into the shop to pick up an item or two, and it was freeing.

Though, being completely truthful, I replaced it.

I started shopping online.

Anything and everything, on Amazon, right at my finger tips. So much cheaper than at Tescos too!

A good deal, I told myself.

Which is true to a point.

I am not actually anti stuff, I love my stuff.

And I have so many people to buy for.

People that I love to spoil, and show my affection for. My desire to full fill their needs, and often their wants, through purchasing.

That, I think, is part of the problem.

The, I love my stuff and the purchasing, part. Not the people.

The flip side is I want to spend my time and money intentionally, and I want to consume consciously.

I don't want a completely minimulist lifestyle. ( Paws off my holiday decorations... and craft supplies, and ....)

But I need to have a plan, and be the one in control.

A sort of budget of how much can my home hold?

How much do I really use, and need?

It is difficult to part with what you have. Perhaps, not acquiring it in the first place makes it all just a little bit simpler.

Maybe.

Either way, 21 22 days of not buying stuff, and I am pretty happy about that.

Saturday morning

Look at that face! Is it any wonder he gets all the treats?

Down by the bay,

where the peedie 'neeps grow...

(I seriously heard someone sing that this week. I laughed so hard. Perhaps, I ought to get out more.)

And these, my very first attempt at making slippers.

This week we have been making all sorts of hand made gifts for December, and so I'll do a series of posts on these, so that if you feel so inclined you could do a few quick and frugal gifts for your loved ones.

Fast food gone mad

I'm not trying to knock the occasional meal out or what have you, but seriously some things are too easy to make at home and really shouldn't be needed on a mass market scale.
Who buys this stuff:
Pre - peeled banans?

Seriously folks, lets take a little pride in preparing what we eat.
Having read on another blog about a return to food rationing, I started reading up on food market trends. There does seem to be a fair amount of evidence to suggest food has, as we are all well aware of, gone up drastically in price, and is set to continue for as long as we can predict. One paper suggested that this was inevitable due to a lack of knowledge in basic cooking skills. 
Apparently, we as a society have lost the ability to prepare simple home made meals on budget.
Now that is just rubbish!
Unless, of course, there is truth in market research, and in which case the proof is in the photo.
So, given it is autumn, go out and make home made soup, and put those opposable thumbs to good use - peel your own bananas!

When in doubt throw it out!

I have too much junk.

That seems to be my mantra these days. I don't know when I woke up, looked around me and thought holy moly where did all this stuff come from!

Maybe, I could blame the countryside. The wide open fields, the sea that meets the sky, so it really does look like the earth stretches out forever.

Inside though; is clutter here, clutter there, clutter clutter everywhere!

And I have come to an eery realisation, every object we own, we have to take care of.

Each object I spend my time on, is time I am not spending else where.

Well, I want to spend time caring for people, not stuff.

So, to reflect this I am going to throw out/ give away 100 items for 100 days.

That is my goal.

100 things.

Because then I will have 100 moments more to spend where they are most important.

Inbox denial

I am really guilty of email procrastination.

I have 3 accounts.

I have a total of 53 342 unread emails.

Honest.

I confess I am a terribly email user.  I don't know anybody who uses goolemail, and is routinely reminded that they are now approaching the maximum storage limit. Every time I log in, I get a message: 'You are a greedy inbox hoarding pig, who monopolises all the extra GBs, that keep expanding, and still you need more!'

It isn't that I don't have a spam box. I empty that. I just, I don't know, skim through, answer when I can and think, meh, I'll get to the others later.

And then I don't.

I found myself thinking today about creating a whole new email account.

A beautiful empty inbox.

I know I would just clutter it up.

Is that somehow reflective of my state of mind?

I certainly hope not.

Well, as part of my Stoptober/ decluttering, I need some space, and this junk is strangling me... I'm trying to organise and tackle the chaos that churns gently beneath the surface. I know it is autumn, not spring, and this is all a little backwards, but I feel this need to re-evaluate and simplify. Make the world that I create around me reflect a little more of what I actually want to achieve.

Just don't.

Don't ask about my filing boxes.

I am so not ready to deal with those.

I am not sure I am ever going to be ready to deal with those, but then again last week I was going to start a new email account too. Perhaps, there is hope after all.

Don't hold your breath either way, and for goodness sake, do not ask me for a copy of my electric bill from 2008, because I don't know where it is. Actually I do, it is in the loft. In one of 9 matching black expandable filing boxes. (See the problem!) I have it, I paid it, and people who are organized enough that they know where they put their receipts and stuff for the last 5 years, all neatly labelled and what not, blah, I'm jealous and a little frightened of you.

Anyways.

I digress.

I have now emptied my email accounts.

I have 0 unread messages.

I have finally owned up, and swept my email accounts clean.

And that is me completely exhausted.

Button pushing, it is a hard days work, I tell ya.