Christmas Crafting & Sewing Part 2 . . . . "The Mouse Family" & Crafting With Sid's Class

Greetings lovely friends & readers

(Apologies in advance - another photo heavy post)

 Instead of a vase of flowers, today we have my vintage wringer washing machine overflowing with fluffy ruffles petunias  💗🤍

When the tree men removed the old Silk tree here, they left my washing machine tipped on its side with one leg broken, where it sat for over a year.  Recently I propped it up with some bricks under the broken leg, scrubbed it & filled with fresh compost & a punnet of petunias.  Much nicer!

It's a dull overcast day here today (which I LoVe) & I'm enjoying the tree lights twinkling away & changing colours.

Longtime readers of my blog may remember that I've tried this year to work my way through the many kitsets that I had on my sewing shelf, some not ever opened.  This Corinne Lapierre felt Mouse Family kit was among them.  I sewed these up back in early October but I'd decided to dress mine in a festive theme.  I used plastic pellets in their bases as they were tricky to get to stand up properly.  

When it came time to decorate I thought they may need their own little table so I could display them properly 🐭🐀

They are all dressed in their Sunday Best & I've woven a little story around them .  .  .  .

Here we have Mrs Mouse dressed in her pearls & festive hat -  she is carrying a wreath & she wants to decorate it with the berries in her hand.  She is tired of Christmas preparations & all the work being left to her  .  .  .  she'd quite like to lie down, have a big nap & wake up on the 1st January next year !

Here we have Mr Mouse in all his finery - Mrs Mouse sent him into the woods to get a tree for the children to decorate.  She can't believe that he has come back with this stupid skinny branch .  .  .  words fail her!  He says it is fine & she just shakes her head & thinks he needs glasses (!!)

And here we have Junior Mr & Junior Miss Mouse - they are all dressed up ready for Christmas festivities & getting into mischief. They are wearing their best outfits & Miss Mouse even has a bow in her tail. 

 

That's as far as I've gotten with my story - I need to think on it some more.   Feel free to add to it in the comments dear friends .  .   . any suggestions gratefully received  😊

This little wooden house was $1.50 in the Salvation Army Op-shop - it was already painted white so I just added a festive transfer to it.  I think it looks sweet with my mice family & a couple of bottlebrush trees.

And then I found this little book amongst my Christmas books.  I purchased this in the Stratford Hospice Shop for 50 cents when I used to visit Mums.  I remember when I came across it & thought I'd found such treasure.  

I'll share a couple of pages - it is immaculate despite being old.  Each page has a lift out surprise & these were all still tucked in there, none were missing.  The lift-out surprises are on the left hand pages & a sweet accompanying picture on the right hand page.  

It is truly just the sweetest little book & I love picking it up & thumbing through it.  

🎄

At the beginning of this term in what I can only describe as a moment of madness, I asked Sid's teacher if she'd like me to do some Christmas crafts with the class.  Of course, she said Yes!  

I spent some time putting together some samples including air-dry clay ornaments, a peat-pot & calico tree, & a paper bag snowflake.  She let the children choose & they all chose the snowflake.  

I used this tutorial * here * ... but changed it as cutting through 9 paper bags was far too thick for the kids so I got them to cut each paper bag individually & we cut ours prior to gluing.

 We had a day doing this in groups of 6 or 7 at a time.  There are 28 children in Sid's class so it took some time & of course, they all worked at different levels.  

Sid, who is still in a plaster cast, was my helper.  I've blocked the kids faces out & also forgot to snap many pics as it was very full on, including supervising using hot glue guns & Yes - some did burn themselves (!!)  

The teacher strung them all up in the classroom when they were finished & they looked wonderful.  

This is my sample above left.  It was a fun day but when I came home I did feel like I needed a rather long nap!! 😉 

I decided I needed to make some Christmas coasters as I wanted to fussy-cut some of the gorgeous Tilda Merry Little Christmas fabric that I'd purchased months ago.  

I used this free pattern from mollyandmama.  The felt I had was too orange-y so I purchased a piece of pure wool felt which would wash better when The Mr slops his mug of tea on them!  

My local sewing shop had this colourway called Holly Berry - how perfect ❤️🍒

I'm delighted with how they turned out & think a pair of these would make great gifts, tied up with ribbon. 

This wooden tree was a $3 op-shop purchase last year - I painted it yesterday & then applied some leftover transfer remnants, before sanding it all over.  I like the vintagey effect of it all.

Thank you so much dear friends, for staying with me through these lengthy catch-up posts,

I hope the lead-up to Christmas is going well for you all,

Sending much love & friendship to you all,

Christmas Crafting & Sewing . . . . Part One

Greetings lovely friends & readers

 On my bench today, my first pick of Sweetpeas.  Growing these from seeds & getting them to the flowering stage has felt at times, like extracting teeth - it seems to have been a VeRy long process this year.  

I am still dehydrating oranges to fill my last potpourri orders, so I strung a garland of them along the rake in my kitchen as well as refreshing the oranges on my faux tree, that sits at the end of my bench. 

Long time readers may remember back in * this post * when I made these little Country Friends dolls for my friend Claire, to fit in a Pringles tin.  I'd cut out a set for myself at the same time & finally got around to dressing them & making them into a swag.  

I managed to use fabrics & felt scraps already in my stash as they only require very small pieces.

I've shown this guy photographed beside a small teaspoon to show how tiny they actually are.  VeRy fiddly to make. 

I've strung mine across the shelf that holds my red china, in the lounge room as the colours all went well together. 

This pair of doll shoes was in my sewing room - they measure 12 cms along the length of the heel so are either large dolls or small childs shoes.  I wanted to take the shiny-ness off them & googled it - it said to rub them with nail varnish remover, which I tried.  This did not a thing, so I lightly sanded them to dull them a bit.

I love small vintage shoes decorated at Christmas time & have several on my Pinterest boards.  I glued some offcuts of Oasis in the bases & then simply jammed a selection of things in.

A small teddy that came off a keyring, some greenery & pip berries, a couple of Christmas ornaments with the hooks removed & the smallest size bottlebrush tree that I had.  I love how these turned out 🎄💚

This white linen doll was in a wardrobe  ... I remember making her about 10 years ago now.  I wanted to do a small festive display on my bed & thought if I made her some red wings, she could pass as Christmassy.  

I cut into some of my Tilda fabrics as the red shade was perfect - I'm really pleased with how she looks now.

(She is a Rosalie Quinlan Angel - Friendship Angel pattern, very old now but still available I think)

Remember back in October in this post when I made this Pixie/Elf - he is a free pattern from shabby art boutique

This wooden trolley cart was $4 from my local SPCA shop, purchased during the winter months.  I painted it, lightly distressed it, & glued a piece of scrapbooking paper onto the tray part.  Even the red cord was able to be used again.

I found a couple of offcuts of transfers that were festive looking & applied these to 2 sides.  I thought it would make the perfect "vessel" to sit my Christmas Elf in.

I thought long & hard about what else to put in my cart - what would a busy elf need??  Some presents to deliver or help with  ... & perhaps a spare pair of elf boots for when his get worn out ?? I covered tiny boxes in fabric as I couldn't find any wrapping paper in the right colour way & then I made some simple elf boots from scraps of grey felt.  

I'm thrilled with him - he doesn't stay on my deck table, I've just photographed him out there as its dull inside the house today.  I must say he looks very happy sitting in his trolley cart  😊

I give my Grandsons a selection of choccy treats in their stockings each year.  I thought I'd like to make them a simple drawstring bag to contain all their edible treats this year.  This was very much about using-up-what-I-had-on-hand & I didn't want to purchase anything, apart from the treats themselves.  

I was pleased how the bags turned out & I even managed to line them with some other festive fabric I had in my stash.  

I banged into an old acquaintance in the Supermarket carpark last week & she asked me what I'd been up to recently?  I explained that I'd decorated the house & been hosting some folk to look at my festivities including my craft group etc.  She commented did I not think this was all a waste of time & energy when I could be doing other stuff ??

I didn't agree with her - we both agreed to differ ... but I felt it was timely when I came home & saw this verse online & it just kind of put into words how I was feeling.  I hope you enjoy it dear friends.

Thank you as always dear friends, for your welcome visits here today,

I shall be back soon with Part two as this post was more than long enough,

Sending much love & friendship out to you all,

Sorting Out The Muddle In My Head

Greetings lovely friends & readers

When I don't post for awhile, yet keep taking photos to share with you,  I get overwhelmed & don't know where to start.   The words & the photos all become a muddle in my head & go round & round.   I sit at the computer to blog, yet walk away many times.    Today I will attempt to sort out the muddle in my head, post some photos & actually put words to them  😳

On my table today - a vase of gorgeous Seafoam roses & a Ginger Snap candle - the most wonderful fragrance!

🤍

Immediately after the Garden Ramble, I began my Christmas Decorating.  What started off simply enough ended up taking me 2 weeks until I was happy with it all.  

I'd had several people wanting to come & enjoy it & I wanted it to be Just Right.  Since completing it I've had 8 different groups - by groups I mean ranging from 2 ladies to 6 which was the largest "group".  It's lovely to share it with people & see the pleasure it brings but I would not want to be doing this all the time.  In amongst all this I hosted the craft group ladies for our final get-together for the year.

 

One rainy day way back in July I sat at my table & dry brushed peat pots & some strawberry baskets that I'd purchased off Temu.  I had "a plan" for these.  My supervisor got tired of overseeing my work & had a bit of a nap.  

I wanted to make up some strawberry themed gift baskets for the craft ladies .... & the peat pots were for us to decoupage at our Christmas get together.

I decoupaged strawberry paper serviettes onto 2 sides of the baskets then lined them with strawberry tissue paper.  To fill them I purchased a small notepad & washi tape (strawberry themed) then I added mini strawberry candles.  I purchased these crochet strawberries from a ladies craft stall, sewed bells to the bottom then added a hanging thread & the Merry Christmas tag. I wanted them to be for the tree 🎄I also found an old bottle of strawberry oil & fragranced each one.  Some strawberry choccy treats completed the gift baskets.

I like to set my table festively for our get togethers.  Lots of christmas treats to eat - this was our morning tea - I've completely forgotten to photograph our lunch as well as any pics of the ladies & our finished projects.  I was having a total brain fog this day (Only this day Julie - we thought you had one most days ??!!)

No sooner had I waved Goodbye to the ladies & begun clearing the table than a certain ginger fairy plonked herself asleep right on the table!!!  She'd spent most of the day at the door, with a sour face, yet refusing to come inside. 

I've been lucky enough to receive some lovely gifts of the baking variety from the ladies that visit my Christmas decor - just wonderful.  Peanut Brittle, marshmallow truffles, fruit mince tarts & shortbread, all homemade  🤤

Last week my friend Dee came - from this wonderful website - & presented me with these 3 delightful handmade elfs .... "felt poppets" they were called.   Dee also gifted me the pattern & a kitset in case I'd like to make more.  I just adore them.

I've been baking for several weeks now - mainly my Fudge cake & Gingernut bites that I like to make each year.  I packaged some up for some of the visitors & they messaged & asked for the recipes - always a compliment.

During the year I keep an eye on the tins in the Op-shops & buy them when they are cheap reasonably priced.  I've filled this one for my rural delivery mail lady to give her tomorrow.

Because I had several bags of potpourri left after the Garden Ramble I put an advert on my Instagram page & took some photos of it attractively displayed around my home.  I find that this is the best time of year to sell it because folk think it is "christmassy" - even tho' I enjoy it all year round.

Would you believe, from that simple advert, I've bagged & posted over 50 bags all over New Zealand.  I ran out of orange slices twice & had to dehydrate some more.  It has been lovely to hear of the Joy it brings to people that have received it. 🧡

Last weekend we had good rain & I could hear the garden lapping it all up.  I sat on the floor & finished off the Grandson's Advent calendars as I needed to deliver them on Sunday, ready to commence on Monday morning. 

I had Sid for a weekend while his parents attended a concert & the following day he fell at school & fractured his arm.  He has taken it all in his stride & was pleased on Friday, to change to a lighter weight cast which he has drawn on already.  He only has one more week of school & then it will be full time Granny duties.

Thank you as always dear friends, for your welcome visits here today,

I will be back in a few days to share more of the muddle in my head - this time some Christmas sewing projects.

Sending much love & friendship out to you all - I hope you are navigating the festive season okay,