A December Recap

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Well another Christmas is behind us & tomorrow evening we roll on in to a shiny New Year.

I thought I would do a bit of a recap on some projects I completed in December but did not get to post about prior to Christmas. In no particular order here either  😉 . . . . .

While searching the internet for a Primitive Santa pattern I stumbled across these beautiful patterns from                    Kentucky Primitives & fell in love with this one -  "Mousie's Christmas Letter to Santa"

The pattern comes as an instant download & included is the Letter that Mousie wrote to Santa, which you then have to coffee stain & generally "muddy up".

Click on the photo so you can enlarge & read the Letter

The letter is so sweet - you can read it top right.

Unfortunately my Mousie Brown turned out to be more of a "Ratty Rat" as I added too much black to my light brown paint.  Once dry, you sandpaper him & then rub with cinnamon so, as you can imagine - he smells great!!

I gave him a jute string tail & a woollen checked scarf.  His pencil is made from a twig & the end sharpened, with a dab of black paint added.

I got these large books for free from my local 2nd hand Bookstore in Kihikihi, so I painted & distressed them for Mousie to stand on ... a little primitive vignette.

I packaged up & posted off a large order of my Citrus & Rose petal potpourri to the bottom of the South Island.

I made two Lavender & Lace covered coat hangers for my friend Bev.

I made a Lavender sleep pillow to gift to one of my daughter in laws, along with a jar of Sleep Balm purchased from The Herb Farm

You may recall the swap I mentioned in * this post * where I made the 8 felt mice to send to my swap partners.  A gorgeous array of Christmas Ornaments & gifts began to trickle through my mailbox.  We were allowed to create, thrift or purchase a Christmas related ornament & the girls came up with such a wide variety of goodies. 

From the far north to the deep south, lovely packages came in & brightened my days. The girls each agreed that we all got far more out of this swap than we ever anticipated & it was so special to open each of the swap gifts & think about the giver, most (6) of whom I have never even met.

This year I made Gingernut Bites, Fudge Cake & Mars Bar Slice

I made my usual Christmas baked treats & packaged them up in cellophane & brown paper bags ready for gifting to friends.

In early December I invited 3 girlfriends for a Christmas Morning Tea. I polished my Oak dining table & set it nicely with my vintage crochet table cloth & my finest bone china.  I went to answer the phone & when I returned I had

     "an extra guest" sitting at (on !!) the table (!!!) 😑

( Stitched using Cottage Garden Thread "Mistletoe" )

I finished these two Stitcheries during Lockdown & finally made them up into small plump cushions using some Liberty fabrics.  The patterns are a Natalie Bird Design from this Christmas book * here *

...... I can show them now that they have been gifted.

I came across this Stitchery on calico that I had started many years ago.  I used to make these Oval Christmas Santa bags & sell in my Craft Cottage, but had never made one for myself.  This is a very old pattern by Wendy Briggs of Country Friends Designs whom I am sure is no longer creating.

I finished stitching the Santa & then made him up into this cute Christmas bag ... I had planned to fill it with greenery & berries but this might have to wait until next Christmas now. 😉

Well dear friends - this is my wish for you all as we wave Goodbye to another Year & we welcome with anticipation a New One.

Thank You all so much for taking the time to visit with me here ... I appreciate each & every one of you. 💕

Wishing you a wonderful celebratory weekend ... mine will be spent with a good book, a glass of vino & a couple of furry friends,

With VeRy Much Love & Friendship To You All,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x

A (mini) Christmas Home Tour 🎄

Greetings lovely friends & readers

As promised, I have put together a little Christmas Home Tour of my rather small & humble Home.  I have decorated my dining room & lounge, & just tucked a couple of bits into my kitchen. 

Come along with me - grab yourselves a cuppa or a tipple. Hang on a minute & I'll pass you one through the screen 😉😊🍷

I have a Galley style kitchen that you walk into directly off the deck & then into my dining room.  A couple of shelves in my kitchen above - just small festive bits tucked into them.

The bench to the right of my stove area.

Beside my dining table I have a vintage Singer Sewing Table which I change the displays on throughout the year. This is my Christmas display (which I think I showed last post)

Our dining room is L-shaped & has the fireplace in, as it was originally the lounge.  This small round table above holds my knitted ornaments tree & some other bits. I purchased the Poinsettia yesterday for $5.

The table in the corner (above) holds some handmade items & then below is the fireplace hearth & mantle. 

(If you click on the pics you can enlarge them & see clearer)

The mantle is not especially wide so I am limited to what I can display on it.

A small display of bottlebrush trees on my china dresser.  (I am totally in love with bottlebrush trees lately!!)

Now we walk through into my Lounge room ......

A display on my vintage typewriter & then the Tilda Reindeer I made last year hanging above this.

My American Oak Spindle Leg table with some handmade Santa's on - & the antique wooden trolley cart filled with teddies beside this.

The old fireplace mantle which I installed * here * - both in the day & at night.

Vintage Metal highchair & handmade Mohair Bear

I like to create little vignettes, which I say are for the grandchildren but truthfully I think are for the 

grown-up-child that lives here (Yours truly !!) 😉

I had planned to pack away the Tilda Princess-&-the-Pea cot which I made in * this post *.  However I decided to leave her out & give her some Christmas embellishing.

I wrapped some empty boxes with pink paper & sewed her a simple Santa hat (pink of course) from a scrap of pink felt. 💗

I hung my gorgeous pink stockings from my Gothic Mirror 💕

This Tilda Father Christmas was made earlier this year & was my first attempt Ever at Needleturn applique.  I have hung him on my quilt ladder.

Another little pink vignette using up bits I already had .....

          The tree stands just behind my couch rather than in a corner so it is decorated all the way around.

Under the tree is my vintage metal trolley filled with (empty) wrapped boxes & (some of) my vintage teddy collection.

Beside the tree I have a squishy armchair & a round oak table - both Christmas decorated 🎄

Beside my TV is another small table - this time a primitive vignette.  I will write about Mousie Brown in my next post - he is a new pattern.  The music bunting was made just yesterday from some scraps of vintage sheet music I found.

The top of our vintage radiogram - I like to put little Santa hats on my teddies at Christmas.     I haven't included my coffee table display (similar to last years) & a couple of other tables because I think you might all have a crink in your necks by now.

Thank You So Very Much for staying with me through this long drawn out post.    This will be my last post before Christmas - we are having our family Christmas this Sunday & then I am heading down to Mum's mid week to spend Christmas with her.    I would like to take this opportunity to Wish You All a peaceful & blessed Festive Season - may you all enjoy the spirit of Christmas.  I appreciate each & every single one of you that takes the time to visit me here & read my ramblings. The Mr assures me I am only talking to myself so I thank you for the chance to tell him he's mistaken 😉

                                   With much love & friendship To You All,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x 💗🎄🎁😻

 

Christmas Festivities

Greetings lovely friends & readers

It feels like December came around really fast!

Last weekend I sat on the floor & wrapped 48 tiny parcels in red tissue paper ....  I was filling my grandsons advent stockings again, even though it only feels like yesterday I was filling them for last December.

On Wednesday the 1st December I hand delivered them & both boys got to open their first one. 

 I picked Alec up from school which he was very excited about.  Also he had forgotten it was December 1st so his advent calendar was a real surprise.

Last December I made myself this Advent Angel just prior to Christmas & only got to enjoy her for 7 days before 

"the big day" arrived.

So I was delighted to pull her out this year & get to enjoy her for the full lead up. Each day I change the swing tag on her dress.

Go to this older Post if you want to read the details about her.

Early in December our small craft group usually go out to lunch as our little "break up" for the year.  This year we decided to go across to Tirau, about an hour away.

Last year a couple of the ladies handed out bags of baked treats at our lunch so this year I decided to do something with the multitude of cotton dishcloths that I continually knitted during our Lockdowns, to help keep myself sane.  

I frequently buy soaps from this lovely little craft shop out at Pirongia & store in my gift box.  I added a soap to each dishcloth & wrapped it up nicely in cellophane with a Christmas swing tag tied to it. I did up 7 packages & popped them in my vintage cane basket so the ladies could each choose their own.

The Craft ladies were all just delighted with their little surprise gifts 💙

Speaking of dishcloth cotton, I purchased these two new lovely colourways from Spotlight last week when I went across to visit Alec.  You can see from the photo that a certain ginger 4-legged furry creature took a liking to the bottom one while I turned my back for barely 2 minutes !! 😖

We had a lovely outing to Tirau for our lunch & I purchased a couple of Christmas gifts for hard-to-buy-for people.  I usually buy a couple of new Christmas decorations each year & these above were my purchases from Tirau as they had 25 % off all Christmas stock. 

I belong to a small private group on Instagram of 8 ladies & this year we all agreed to take part in a Christmas Ornament swap.  The ornament could be handmade, shop bought, or thrifted.  I decided to make the girls these felt mice in stockings, a free pattern off the internet (which I can no longer find) & I began stitching mine back in early November as I knew they were labour-intensive & fiddly.

Once finished I thought they looked a bit tiny so I decided to add a box of my citrus potpourri to each parcel as I was sure the girls in the group would love this.  I purchased these Kraft favour boxes online from * Here * & just love how attractive my potpourri looked all packaged up in them.

Recently I called in to see my friend Gail at the Op Shop where she volunteers - she was just about to toss this broken section of Christmas Tree in the skip.  Being the "Steptoe" that I am, I asked her if I might please have it.  I chopped it up with The Mr's wire cutters & the greenery has come in so handy this year for both decorating And gift wrapping. 

Madam Butterfly (aka Pippi) was off colour for a few days last week -  She gets like this from time to time.  I came home from Tirau to find The Mr had tucked her up sound asleep - I am rather thinking she might put this on for all the fuss & attention she gets 😉

Thank You all for your ever-welcome visits here today dear friends,

I hope the coming week is good & kind to you,

With much love & friendship to you All,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x