Advent Calendar 2013

Every year the countdown to Christmas from December first in our house is an exciting time. We usually have a hand sewn advent calendar that I fill with all different types of treats and activities to make this time special. You can read about our past Advent Calendars here.  This year I was faced with the challenge of two children who still really wanted to count down til Christmas and an overseas holiday for the last half of countdown.  So this is what I came up with - brown paper bags decorated with paper doilies cut in various ways and some printed numbers from Pinterest (link here) on the front.  I chose paper bags because they are big enough to hold something of a decent size but can be thrown away too.  My list this year involves more sweet treats than we would usually have but I did what I could and what was easiest for our circumstances.

So this is what our bags ended up looking like.

And below is the list of what we have in each bag each day:

1. A Christmas play date with friends
2. A coupon for 1 app each from the app store
3. Chocolate
4. Popcorn
5. Chocolate
6. Chocolate
7. Chocolate
8. A coupon for a movie rental
9. A coupon for an afternoon ice cream from the local shop
10. A book about Asia
11. Going to see 'The Nutcracker' ballet in the city
12. A magazine each for our trip away
13. Sweets and chewy for the flight
14. Hong Kong dollars for spending
15. Deoderant each
16. Chocolate
17. Grinch Pills
18. A $1 scratchie each
19. Hand Santa-tizer
20. Sweets
21. A coupon for a mocktail on our cruise
22. Sweets
23. Snowman poop
24. Vietnam money for spending

I used Pinterest a lot for this advent calendar this year.  So below are the links for the coupons I printed and other things I made that were from there.

Coupons (link HERE) I printed them out and just used the ones that were relevant to us.

Our book on Asia is this kids one from Lonely Planet.  I got ours at the Book Depository (link here)

The Grinch Pills were from Pinterest (link here) and they look like this (just using Tic Tacs)

The Snowman Poop was very similar using Tic Tacs again and was from Pinterest (link here).

And finally the hand Santa-tizer was from Pinterest too (link here) and they look like this using just a small hand sanitizer bottle.

Enjoy your Countdown to Christmas!

Handmade Christmas Gifts

Every year I have a number of people who I always give a small handmade gift to so I have been busy getting some made ready for giving very soon.

This year I decided to make travel mugs.  I bought some clear ones in my local craft store and then went about inserting fabric into each one to make them look lovely before screwing them altogether ready for drinking out of. 

This is what the finished product looks like.

 (this is what they look like from top view)

These were easy no sew presents.  They came with a template which I traced onto stiff interfacing and fabric, applied some stop fray to all the edges and then inserted into place.  I used Moda Bake Shop's tutorial on how to make them (link here) which was easy to follow.  

Hopefully the recipients of them will be happy.

Last Minute Sewing...

Well we are all ready for Santa to come to our house, well almost (we need to do his Santa plate and spread our reindeer food).  I had some extra time this afternoon, which I know is a miracle in itself, so I thought I would sew a couple of things that I had wanted to do but were not a necessity.


Firstly I embellished a t-shirt for Emma to go along with her Christmas skirt, so her set is now complete and ready to wear. This photo is so dark (the weather is so horrible today, it is a nice white shirt trust me!).

And I have wanted a stocking for our much loved dog Billy but I've had trouble finding one in the shops at a reasonable price so when I read my new book (Fa la la la Felt) I got the idea to make my own.  

I just traced a stocking we already had that was the size I wanted as a pattern and cut out some bones to pretty it up.  I then quickly embroidered his name on it to make it special.  Now Billy has a stocking too, all ready for his Christmas treat.

Merry Christmas everyone, I wish you all a happy and safe festive few days and I hope that Santa is kind to us all!  

Handmade Christmas

Every year my girlfriends and I get together and have a day with the kids before Christmas.  We all have a Secret Santa (for the kids) and we make each other something small and handmade.  That is the only guideline, it has to be handmade (even the secret Santa presents).


I've already shared one of my kids presents with the skirt and shirt and I put together a little sewing kit so Caty could make her own little owls.


For my lovely friends I put this together.

I made them all two hand sewn Christmas decorations, an apple and a pear and put them inside this cute little box.

And then they each got one of the following books as well.  These books are to die for, I am very happy that I bought one of each for myself too!

The decorations I made them are from the Fa la la la Felt book.

I got some gorgeous presents too, I'll have to come back and post them when I take photos.  Thanks girls for a fabulous catch up as always and for my thoughtful gifts. 

Christmas Skirts

I've been busy organising Christmas presents around here.  Every year my close friends and I have a get together with our kids at Christmas.  We all have a Santa or two or three to make a hand made gift for.  This year I got 2 lovely girls.  So for one of them I have made a Christmas skirt and t shirt to match.  The skirt is a really easy pattern from Oliver and S.  It's a free one.  The link to it is here.

To the shirt I just added a couple of vintage doilies and a button.  Easy. 


I also made Emma a skirt, pretty much the same but with pom pom trim.

Now let's hope this little Secret Santa likes her gift...

Lolly Tree

When I write the activities for my advent calendar each year I try to keep them interesting for the kids but simple enough that it doesn't turn into a huge mission to accomplish them.  In years past I have stayed away from this one but this year I thought we would give it a go and it went really well.  The photos are terrible so bare with me.  


This is our lolly tree.  Perfect for Christmas and having on the table for little nibbles.

So, basically this is how you do it.


You need

• a polystyrene cone
• wrapped lollies (we used Minties, Sherbies, Redskins and Milkos)
• green cellophane
• pins 

The process is simply that you cut your cellophane into rectangle shapes large enough to wrap your lolly in with some excess at the top for pinning onto the polystyrene cone.  Then wrap each lolly in the cellophane and starting at the bottom and working your way around and then up and up pin each wrapped lolly into the cone.  We left the top of ours just green as the cellophane gathers at the top but anything on the top would work.  We also added a few curls with curling ribbon to fill in a couple of gaps.  Now it sits on the table ready for anyone to start picking the lollies off and enjoying them.  

A quick and easy activity that the kids can do with little help.  And you can keep the cone and pins ready to use again next year.  

And I thought I would share those two other gifts that I said I loved so much from work.

The first one is a banana knitted by one of our little preppies.

And the other a sweet birdie that sits on my half wall alongside Emma's dancing photo.

So nice...

Hand Sewn Goodness...

Being a hand made kind of girl I really love gifts that are made by someone.   I just wanted to share one today, one from a child in my class, one I really love.

A new notebook with hand sewn cover.  I love notebooks, I like to make lists so I am constantly writing things down.  It will get very good use in my hands.  


And I have madly been sewing these little cuties as they have been my little hand sewn gift for people like dancing and scout teachers and parent helpers at school etc.  

Ill be back later to share another gorgeous hand made gift from school that I love (and one that is not hand made but I still love anyway).