Pre-Christmas preparations

There is a rule in our house - nothing Christmas related until the 1st of December.  It is one of DH's rules and I have to say that he is quite right to be laying down the law like this as I would start Christmassy things way back in September given half a chance!

But I couldn't resist a little bit of pre-Christmas preparations as I like to call them!!  I have been meaning to do a little bit of lino cutting each Christmas and using it to stamp onto brown paper as our wrapping paper.  This year I finally got it together and Flopsy Bunny and I (but mainly me) enjoyed a lovely rainy afternoon, drawing onto lino to create our stamps.

 

Here's an almost finished one - just ready for next week (as everything Christmassy starts on the 1st - my CD is lined up and ready for action!) when I will be rolling paint and stamping to my hearts content!

 

How are your Christmas preparations going?

On and off my needles

Before I had a chance to photograph a 'just started' shot of my latest project, it's finished. . .  well, one is and that's before the exciting embellishment has been added.  So far I am just loving this pattern.  It's turning out to be a quick knit which is just as well as they may end up as Christmas presents and then I'll need a pair for me!  I'll do a proper Ta-dah post when I've finished them off with the pattern details too!

Unexpected craftiness

 

Flopsy Bunny was struck down with another version of the Noro virus this week, which seems to be still circulating round her class at school.  As she was not terribly ill we got to spend some quality 'crafty' time together!  I loved her playdoh dogs all in a line.  Then I had the idea of looking through my fabric stash to find something to make some draft excluders.  I have noticed recently how drafty the doors are and I think I need to take action!  Well, as you can imagine this little foray into my fabric pile did not turn out exactly as I had hoped.  Flopsy Bunny started a pile of her own, 'this would be good for a dress and what about this for some socks?!'  I managed to get away with promising a nightdress for her dolly but of course I had to make it right away!!!

 

Then Little Roo came home and announced that Ro-Ro also needed some PJ's before bedtime.  The race was on, me sewing away frantically while they ate their supper.

 

But at last everyone's favourite toy was kitted out with new nightwear ready for bedtime!  Do you recognise the fabric of Ro-Ro's PJ's, yes some left over fabric from Little Roo's duck shorts, which were a real hit this summer.  While I was photographing in Little Roo's bedroom I thought I would just show you some of the many layers on his bed. 

Do you remember this? The camping quilt is making an outing now that the weather is getting colder and Little Roo is beginning to feel cold at night.  I also wanted to show you the blanket on top that I knitted sometime ago, it is lined with fleece and has satin ribbon round the edges - he is certainly going to be toasty warm this winter!

Some half term craftiness

I can't quite believe how quickly this year is zooming by. We had an extended half term with inset days either side of the week and even that week seemed to go fast.  We made another Halloween trip to the Ashmolean museum.  They do some lovely craft activities for children.  They must get through A LOT of wooden spoons though as last time we made a spooky spoon ghost!

This year Flopsy Bunny made a snowy owl called . . . Snowy!!

Little Roo requested a dragon (called Fred), and helped to stick bits on.  There have been some very uncharitable comments about his wings looking like a bow tie!  As part of the creative craftiness the children were encouraged to write a poem about that spoon puppet and we had a fun drive home working out words that rhymed with Snowy and Fred.  Little Roo's poem was a little bit easier to compose, and Little Roo had his dragon falling out of bed and bumping his head! 

A dark, damp space

DH and I have been busy this half term on a little joint project.  There's a small dark, damp area of our garden just outside the backdoor; when we first moved into the house there was an old coal bunker there, which remained unused as we don't burn coal and it wasn't really useful for anything.  Then when Flopsy Bunny came along we dismantled the coal bunker (reusing the concrete sides, of course, to stand compost bins on up the garden!) and put a sand pit in its place.  I had visions of Flopsy Bunny happily playing outside while I pottered in the kitchen within ear shot - but alas she didn't much like being in this dark, damp place either!!  So this year we decided that the sand pit had come to it's useful end and was emptied out and moved to an unused patch of the garden to become the kids mud patch, I would like to say flower bed or vegtable garden but I know that Little Roo will just be digging holes and filling them up with water!  Better there though than in my veggie patch!  So finally this little area of our garden has reached it's potential - a log store!!!

So DH and I set about building this little store.  It always amuses me when we try and do things together as we have such different ways of going about DIY projects.  But we managed this pretty well don't you think??!!  I was on wood sawing and painting and DH was in charge of power tools - of course!!  Ah a season's worth of logs - how comforting now that the temperature is dropping!