Christmas

And so this is Christmas . . .

Re-evaluating my life during the pandemic as thrown my blogging schedule off course, but I’m back to share what I’ve been up to over this festive season – my most favourite time of year!

I had the pleasure of hosting a couple of functions at my house during December. I wanted to have an Australian theme this time to celebrate how blessed the majority of us have been in this country throughout this difficult year. I’ve always wanted to tie foliage on the back of chairs and using eucalypts to do this was perfect for my theme. I mixed up some foraged Australian natives with some garden flowers in jam jars down the middle of the table. A white tablecloth and black ribbon and candles was a great contrast for the natives. I found some beautiful Australian botanical wrapping paper online, which I used to wrap the presents at each place setting. I wrote names on gum leaves with silver pen and attached them to each gift.

After these functions were over, we also hosted our annual hot chocolate party – the kids love this and enjoy inviting a few friends each. It’s a very easy and fun way to do some Christmas entertaining – a full description can be found in this previous blog post.

In other news, I made the three wise men from assorted furniture legs I found in Bunnings. I used permanent markers to mark out the features, but you could also use paint. A fun and satisfying project!

Lastly, I’ve enjoyed making some nasturtium flower vinegar for gifts. This is a beautiful colour and has a lovely peppery flavour, which is great on salads. The recipe can be found on the Milkwood site.

Well that’s it – a wrap up of my Christmas activities. I’m looking forward to celebrating that very special baby’s birthday with family and friends :

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Christmas

DIY Christmas Wreath

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I love making things at Christmas, but I often find myself running out of time with all the other end of year events that pop up. I’ve started early this time to see if I can squeeze in a few projects. I had a lovely time making the wreath above which was inspired by a Mollie Makes calendar I saved from a few years ago.

I started with a wire coat hanger which my son kindly bent into a circle shape for me. It’s great having kids who’ve grown old enough to help you with things like this! Next, I cut some long thin strips of Christmas fabric, put some multigrip glue on the back of the fabric and wound it around the wire, overlapping it as I went. I also used a strip of fabric to make a hanger. I glued this together, but also put a row of hand stitching at the base to make it secure.

After this I glued some vintage Christmas cards, which I had collected over the years from antique shops and fairs onto the wire base. I love anything vintage (and especially old cards), but you could use some more modern ones if you prefer. I left the cards to dry overnight and then stuck on some embellishments and some old stamps from my childhood stamp collection.

Ta da! A fun and quick project, finished and ready to hang once I added some fresh pine branches.

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Do you run out of time for the fun of Christmas crafting with all the busyness of this time of year or do you start your projects way ahead of the festive season?

Christmas

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

3C4C8EC7-C08E-4216-907B-30B2232A627D This is the second part of my post about our Christmas tree themed Christmas from last year. Last week I shared all the details about the food and today I’m sharing the table setting details. One of the fun things I like to do each year, is to make a special little present to put on the Christmas table for each person. For each of the female guests, I made the trees pictured above from vintage napkins I found in an op shop and cinnamon sticks.

4A4585CF-D66D-4BA0-9250-66056B53A558 For the boys I made cars in jars parked in the snow with mini Christmas trees strapped to the roof (pictured above). These were easy to make and a lot of fun to put together. The link to the tutorial I used is here. The men received some “Christmas tree” chocolate from Cadbury wrapped in Christmas tree paper with a sprig of fresh pine and a Christmas bell on top.

66A412CB-FFA9-4894-9919-F31F5A82212A We managed to find some Christmas tree serviettes and I made little individual Christmas trees from old corks and rosemary sprigs to place at each table setting. The tutorial for making these is here.

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Even the crackers had Christmas trees on them! For the table centrepiece I filled one of Mum’s old wooden boxes with some freshly cut conifer and some white pillar candles. It all looked stunning and my little nephews loved the cars in jars! I’ll leave you with a photo of my cute nephew impatiently waiting for all the festivities to start!

E50197CB-390E-411F-8952-AE9FEBB7EEE0 More Christmas decorating ideas coming next week!