Christmas Crafting

I thought I would show you a few of our snowy pictures from last week. Sadly, it has all but gone for now, though there are still patches here and there on higher ground. I must confess to absolutely loving the stuff.

Man Person even went as far as making an igloo for the Littlest Fairy and Hector of course. He was very excited by the strange white stuff, but he felt the cold badly bless him. There were frequent trips indoors for him to thaw out and warm up.

How beautiful is that fir tree in my neighbours garden?

Following on from my previous post, there was much crafting taking place in the warmth of the kitchen, listening to the radio and sipping mugs of hot chocolate.

I bought this book months ago and want to make every single flower in it. But, being practical, and the fact that my present list is rather long, I decided on a few of the simpler designs to allow for maximum speed and wow factor. I have no doubt that many of you have a copy of it on your book shelves as well.

These mistletoe brooches are so cute and take a few minutes to crochet. In fact it took me longer to sew on the pearls and the brooch back. The original chart calls for a crochet berry, but I thought these beads made them extra special. I also had to back them with green felt as they were a bit floppy.

I have been wearing one to work and so many people have asked me where I bought it from. When I tell them that I made it, they don't believe me!

A few of them will make be used as stocking fillers and a secret santa or two that I have joined in with at work and at my sewing group. Who wouldn't be chuffed to receive one? I have made a few rose brooches as well but haven't managed to get a decent photo yet. I will post pictures next time.

Away from the book, I made this brooch a while ago using a Sarah London design. Check out her blog, it is truly fantastic.

I found this one a lot more fiddly to make up. The basic design is fine, but rolling it up into a rose took me a lot of go's, and it is not as pretty as Sarah's one, but I am happy to wear it nonetheless.

Well the weekend is fast approaching and we are off to find a Christmas tree and start wrapping up the goodies. Bye for now.

Dev x

Scented Fir Cones

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all keeping warm and safe. We are well and truly snowed in today with school closed and roads impassable, so no work either. Overnight, we had about 6-8 inches of the lovely white stuff.

So, what better way to spend the day, than a bit of crafting for Christmas. Now, for the life of me I can't remember where I saw this tutorial, so I must apologise if it was one of "yours". I gathered the fir cones a while back and have been drying them out by the woodburner for a couple of weeks now.

In a pan I melted some cheap and cheerful candles. I didn't bother doing it over a pan of boiling water, just threw them straight in and turned the heat on low.


When it was melted, I added some silver glitter and a good few drops of spicy christmas oil to the mixture. The glitter is optional I suppose, but as these are scented firelighters, the oil is not. I bought mine in Sainsbury.

Now you have to wait a few minutes until the wax cools and starts to set slightly when you dip the fir cone into it. You have to be fairly quick at this stage and get as many done as you can before it becomes too gloopy. When this happens just put it back over a low heat and start the process over again. I had to do this several times as I had quite a lot of fir cones to cover.

They should look soemthing like this when they are done...

Tap off any excess wax as you go and place on some newspaper to dry thoroughly...and that's all there is too it. A pile of gorgeous, sparkly smelling fire lighters.

These are an ideal pressie for friends and family who have open fires or woodburners that they will be lighting over the festivities. I have some cellophane and pretty ribbon to make them look nice and will write on the label what they are for in case they should mistake for pot pourri. I just wish that we had smellyblog, because the whole house smells gorgeous now!!

On other crafting matters, I bought an advent panel a couple of years ago and told myself that I would get it done. Alas, it has been sat in a bag until now that is. A friend of mine has just made a beautiful one and it stirred me into action.

I wish this picture was better, but we have no natural light here today, but as you can see from the close ups above, it is very sparkly and bright.

Anyway, I will say bye for now and leave you with a lovely snowy dove picture. Take care all of you and stay safe.

Dev x