christmas - this year

Well, it's gone... but it's going to be back next year! :)

This year my christmas gifts have been frugal. I must confess I didn't have the right spirit, and it's a pity, 'cause it was Smurfette#2's first christmas... but then again, she's too little to really enjoy it. Or maybe not. I don't really know. By the way, next year everything will be normal again.

Enough with that and on with the christmas! Most of my gifts where obviously handmade, and almost all of them where either lavender bags or dangling pot pourri in different essences (apple, orange, cinnamom, ...).

Every gift was nicely wrapped in cardboard little boxes with red raffia bows and some aniseed or orange touch (you know, christmas aromatherapy). Unfortunately, I didn't take a single photo of the wrapping, but Smurfette#1 did take photos of a dangling pot pourri.

please forgive the yogurt pot, we were having a snack moment...

ingredients

christmas - last year

Last year I didn't have a blog for my drabbles, but I did keep track of things. Here's last year Christmas little crafs, mostly made as gifts.

Neighbours' gifts
Some stuffed hearts, a little country in style, almost entirely hand stitched, in dyed cotton. Really pretty, and not only I liked making them, but also packing them. Plus, giving them for Christmas is just the top.

Pot holders
Always useful and never enough, in tablecloth and sweet old honeycomb fabric. You may also obviously conclude that I do love packing gifts...

 

 Stockings

I made them for my nephews. Maybe the design is not top-class (bear with me, it was my first time), but the outcome is nice... and when I filled them it really was better!

 

walking one morning...

... in my beautiful city.

Love to walk alone in rainy days listening to my iPod music (shuffle mode, thank you) and letting thoughts wander.

Inspiring, ain't it?

crafty christmas - more on nativity scene

Yesterday Smurfette#1 almost completed our nativity scene, and Smurfette#2 promptly proceeded to undo everything 2 minutes after. But that's one of the things about our nativity scenes: we set them up, reset them and set them up once again (several times).

Here are some sneak peeks. There are only the basics: the holy family (minus the baby, who's arriving on the 25th) and the animals (sheeps, ox and donkey). The christmas star is coming around the 20th and the three wise men will step on the scene on the 5th.

But for now, this is it:

I had fun building brick walls and also making the door.
I bought the little bricks in a craft store,
but the door is made with popsicles sticks and a wood skewer.

small blog meet - december 2011

 

Hello there! I'm linking up to this month Lynne's SBM (thank you for the opportunity!).

Make yourself at home and feel free to browse my blog and comment. Also, let me know what you think I should be posting to improve and keep up your interest.

Have fun!

crafty christmas - part 2

This year I'd rather make a nativity scene than a christmas tree... so I made a setting which is going to host the scene as soon as it's dry (I painted it today).

I don't like scenes with "wrong" environments, so I dropped the mountain cottage I used last year and bought some polystyrene and spent two days cutting and glueing and painting.

I also built lots of brick walls and this tiles flooring, and my well has now a little bucket that's really perfect.

Fortunately the statues are in the right size (I built up the scene without a model, I roughly remembered the size from last year...)

crafty christmas - part 1

This Christmas I'm feeling crafty... so here are some of my creations (which surprisingly don't involve fabric... for now).

These stars are very easy to do and they do give this nordic touch to the house.

Yes, I know... the lavender wall isn't christmas-y at all, but that is going to change soon (I hope).

new kitchen curtains

My kitchen curtains were old (and, I'm afraid, a little dirty) and I didn't have a replacement to change the look. I went to my local fabric store and bought some fabric to make new curtains: I chose a modern style. This is how they came out:

the complete view

detail

The heart is one of my purchases at Abilmente: I actually bought the red ones for the kitchen and the brown ones for the living room, but the curtains in the living room are far from being completed yet...

With a fabric scrap I made a wedding dress for Barbie#6... nothing for the scrap bin, this time.