Little Christmas round up...

So, after the whirlwind of school plays (GB was a king, complete with carpet beard!) and end of term shenanigans Christmas appears to have come and gone since my last post.

In the spirit with which my blog is meant, as both a diary for me and a sharing of all things crafty, here are the best bits of the last 2 weeks:

Christmas started as it will officially end (tomorrow), with the drinking of snowballs with lovely friends.

Pre-Christmas I became, what can only be described as, obsessed with clay modelling and the endless possibilities it offered. It started with a bookmark for the snowball drinking Jane, the idea of which I borrowed from a pin, although I can't seem to trace the source (I went as far back as here).

After trying a couple of other clay options I went back to using good old Fimo, coloured the legs in with a Sakura Glaze pen, painted the shoes with red acrylic paint then coated with red glitter. If you fancy making one remember to slice the top of each leg before firing (which you can then slot a piece of strong card in for the marker)

 

What a great idea (wish it had been mine) and, as always, much harder than it looks (which is why one leg is much fatter than the other!)

I also used fimo to make this years Christmas place settings, for both the toadstools (on a painted and stamped block) and the little tags wrapped around the cutlery.

 

Our Christmas day pudding was individual Christmas pudding trifles (recipe here) served in little jam jars. They are decorated with a strip of doily, ribbon, a jingle bell and a fimo tag. All tags were stamped pre-baking.

 

I didn't stop there with the fimo...oh no, I spent another inordinate amount of time making other tags for presents!  I borrowed the idea from this pin 

from (marleyandlockyer thanks Planet Jane!)

using real doilies to make these little beauties. 

Here's how to do it:

1) roll out some white fimo 

2) take a doily and place it on the clay 

3) use a rolling pin to make an imprint of the pattern onto the clay

4) use a cookie cutter to cut out a shape of your choice

5) use a sharp pencil to make a hole for hanging

6) stamp a word on if desired

7) bake in the oven for 30 mins

The best bit of all these tags is that they were reused by hanging on the Christmas twig above the table and will all be making an appearance next year. My fimo passion lives on....

The elephants got their special ruffles on

(there's your blocks Emily...still yours for next year!)

 We saw lots of all the special little people in our lives 

(Sonny, Luca and Mabel)

and enjoyed the company of our boys

(Thank you Mackies and Davenports for great outfits/accessories!)

Cleggy, master of fun, devised some excellent entertainment in the form of a Christmas day quiz. It's only right to include a couple of photos....sorry family

(Phineas and Ferb, Granny as Cher and The Simpsons)

(Cam from Modern Family, Nelly as Wee Jimmie Krankie and me as Pat Butcher)

It was a particularly enjoyable Christmas this year - and lovely to spend so much time with all our slightly unhinged but very funny family.

Quick animal update:

Minnie the new pig has settled in extremely well. She was moved down to  the the bottom of the garden because it was hard work keeping her in the kitchen while catering for 10 people and also because cooking a large Boxing day ham in her presence just felt wrong.

She gets more confident by the day - and despite loving her new house also likes to sleep in with the chickens. If she does spend the night in her own house she goes over the wake all the others up the minute you let her out in the morning...oinking and banging her snout on their door. I might have to film it - it's too cute.

Mr Bob Boblington (GB's new hamster) has survived the clutches of Mabel and also the 'total wipeout' style obstacle course that Nelly helped the boys build for him.

Ned continues his hibernation in the workshop fridge - so far so good. We open the door once a day to make sure there's enough oxygen in there and weigh him weekly to check he's not losing too much weight.

And finally - to fight the 'end of christmas' holiday blues I've been happily making boxes from Christmas cards

idea borrowed from here

 And finally got my head around crochet. I had been taught the basics by patient Jane earlier in the year - but needed to get a grip of other stitches and also learn how to read a pattern (of which Jane has no need - she is toooooo clever!)

I treated myself to this wonderful book for Christmas and received the other from Granny (thanks Granny!)

With help from the two books, and after much frustration (why would English stitches be called something else in the US?? WHY?)  I've managed to create some lovely things, which have given me immense pleasure, including these jar cosies (check out the variety of stitches!!!)

and inspired by Lucy over at Attic 24 this pencil pot.

Passion for crochet lives on too.

All that remains is to wish all my friends, 

old and new, near and far, 

 

Happy New Year

 I hope it brings many adventures and lots of laughter. 

fee x

PIG!!!!!!!

When Cleggy was headteacher (at the school the boys go to!) he had a pig, goat and some chickens to enhance learning (/for his own amusement). Ever since he left, about 3 years ago, he has been desperate for a pig of his own...it was only a matter of time!

So, this week our own chickens and ducks were joined by Minnie the micro pig. 

Except she appears to be living in the KITCHEN!? Apparently this is short term...we'll see!

She's very cute and getting more mischievous by the day. If she could just learn where to wee me and her would get along just fine! Cleggy adores her, and as far as mid life crisis go I'm thinking it could be worse?

Meanwhile, we have all been making and doing some Christmas crafts...which invariably involves the boys starting with gusto...then sloping off to watch The Simpsons.

Inspired by Heidi on Pinterest I made this peg nativity for The Granny

Also inspired by this picture on Pinterest (Pinterest,how I love thee!) we made these baubles for the lounge, which this year is all white:

They were bit messy, but fairly easy to make

Inspired by this picture I made some new simple blocks 

for the fireplace

The rest of the house is red!

 

 

The stairs have been enhanced by an early gift from Cleggy...a little Northfield Primitive mouse(thank you Sarah...he's adorable)I plan on doing some major perusing of blogs over the next week or so...but just in case life takes over I'll take this opportunity to wish you all a very chipper Christmas and a fun packed 2012...fee x

(off to slurp some more mulled wine and pretend to be interested in Cleggy, who is reading me random pig facts!)

Ho Ho Hold on a minute...

There is a serious lack of Elves in the chipper nelly workshop!

(oh for some Elves....)

It's been a busy old time - here's a brief rundown of the last couple of weeks...the nice bits anyway!

Firstly, you remember the lady from Ladybird who ordered the single '!' block (see here)? 

Well, she got back in touch to say that the people at Ladybird liked said blocks and would I like to begin discussions to acquire a licence to sell them legitimately!!

I'm sure it will be way too expensive but it's exciting none the less...

I have been in the workshop day and night of late - my biggest seller this year has been three little blocks that spell 'joy'. I now loathe them, and the irony is not lost on me!

To keep my spirits high I've eaten my body weight in mince pies and bought some new music for the ipod (not sure Kate Bush's '50 words for snow' was a good choice for spirits...!) and am only a few days away from starting on the snowballs immediately after the final school run of the day!

Cleggy and the boys made lots of produce for Christmas hampers earlier in the year - so we have been wrapping and making up baskets for the rellies we don't see at Christmas.

This year there is Windfall Chutney, Chilli Jam and Elderberry Balsamic Vinegar - yum!

I've caught up with some lovely friends, where I ate my body weight in dough balls!

 

...and won a fab giveaway  Not only an amazing bag, but some homemade soap and vintage buttons, all beautifully wrapped, of course...

(thank you again Helena - your gift, and your blog Blondie Blu are both wonderful!).

Of course, there have been plenty of festive shenanigans around these parts. For the last few years we have swapped a regular advent calendar for our rusty buckets. Each bucket contains a challenge, a quiz or a treasure hunt, sometimes leading to a treat, sometimes a trip, sometimes an activity.

This year, just before advent began, the boys chose to play a trick on Cleggy, and thought it would be funny to make him (inadvertently) eat 'stop and grow'. It was funny (come on Cleggy...you did laugh, eventually) but it has backfired so this year we have the 

 

Rusty Buckets of Revenge

Now, if you are at all squeamish it might be wise to stop reading now. The first act of revenge was in the style of a bush tucker trial. 
The boys had a series of things to eat, including dried meal worms and actual crickets. All bought from the local pet shop. Cleggy assures me that he checked it was ok to eat them, and if you think otherwise, PLEASE don't tell me..It's too late!

 Being boys, they all ate every bit! Alfie even picked a cricket leg out of his teeth later on while watching TV. Lovely.

 Today was a face full of swamp. Cleggy enjoyed himself far too much making a vat of gloop - which seemingly included leaves, mud, coffee granules, pasta, yogurt and flour. He added some bicarbonate of soda just before serving for extra fizz. 

The boys had to dunk for pegs which had clues on - all sounded like fun until I pointed out that the amount of red food colouring would leave their little faces looking like they had a nasty disease! (it didn't stop them - but we did have to have a cloth handy. Kenzie still has a red nose - how appropriate!)

Hours of fun...and no one is enjoying it more than Cleggy!

I'm pleased to report that Ned is doing fine in the workshop fridge - I've opened the door each day for oxygen and weighed his box, to make sure he isn't losing too much weight. So far so good.

Finally, we also have some new additions at the very bottom of the garden!

Our friends Alison and Richard wanted to re home their last two chickens - so they moved in with the posh Orpington Ladies this afternoon. 

 Obviously, there's a new pecking order to be established...and when Cleggy went down to close the coop door tonight it became clear that someone is definitely bottom of the rung:

Don't worry Alison - Cleggy managed to get her into the coop!

More chicken antics to keep us all entertained.

My shop closes tomorrow (hooray!!) so once all the orders and commissions are safely posted I'm looking forward to a bit more time with friends - both real life and blogging.

Until then...fee x