nuts anyone?

here are my nutcracker soldiers, waiting patiently for christmas.




Or perhaps not so patientely. they look a bit annoyed, or maybe even bewildered!
don't worry guys, you wont have to guard the fine crockery much longer, i know it is a great responsiblity!

TOday i was going to go into Dublin, to see Andrew at work and absorb some of the Christmas atmosphere, but unfortunately little miss is pretty sick, and i think it would be unfair to her and not much fun for me! so, maybe tomorrow.

It's a beautiful morning here though, blue skies and a lot of frost on the ground... come on Ireland, do what you do best, rain! it would snow now if it rained... fingers crossed..

hoping all of your christmas preparations a going well and wishing you all a white christmas!

An army of gingermen...

marched out of the oven, with a leader amoung them commanding " rise up, ye gingery gingermen, take your purple ribbons and fullfill your mission to be tasty morsels in peckish mouths." and all the little soliders followed him to the tree, where the hung and waited.




(You can see which one is the leader, he has a skip in his step.)

from small scraps of felt grow...

.....holly and mistletoe garlands!

Here is a quick and lovely itea for you, if, like me, you keep every little scrap of any thing!

These are so cute, and i had lots of fun making these up! i think people will enjoy recieving them as they are not your average christmas card!



Also, these take no time at all to whip up, so if your attention span for crafty things is short, this is ideal for you..



All you need is:

Any old scraps of felt, in any colours.
A sewing machine threaded with any colour thread.
Small "unusable" short scraps of ribbon.
scraps of card (there may be some in your recycling bin! just make sure it is clean..:-P)
A hole puncher

OPtional: if you have one of those toys for putting in snaps, you can also use it to put those little hole brads in. Not necessary at all though/

All you do is cut your holly or mistletoe and berry shapes.

Sew them together by feeding them under foot as you approach the end on the piece before.

Punch a little hole in the end, and if you have that tool, use it now.

cut card into ideal size for envelope.

punch a hole, you can also add those hole reinforcers if you have them.

tie the card and the garland together with the scrap of ribbon.

And Voila! All done!

little red men.

As with most people at this time of year, there are a million and one things to do, and so somethings simple things can take a little longer to get done...!

Our advent calendar went up yesterday, and here it is! We are on day 8, so it is a bit late, but better late than never... anyway, i kept us up to date by ensuring all the days where eaten as they came around....



Sorry about the photos, it is a pretty dull day here!




i don't know if you can see, on the top of the branch, there are a couple of little people.... close up this is who they are.




I found them at the bottom of a bag i got in the charity store the other day, and now i keep finding them all around the place! they where insisting on speeding up and down the advent calendar!

Crafty Christmas Markets

Looking for a last minute opportunity to stock up on some special crafty gifts before christms?


photo: Cranberry pop. Paper Bauble Set from www.Tanyamac.etsy.com

there are loads of craft markets popping up all over the place these days! i think it is great!! Buy local!!

Here are a couple that might interest you anyway:

The Crafty Market on this Sunday 4th Dec from 12pm to 5pm in the Dublin Food CoOp, check here for directions.

The D8 Christmas Gift Fair is on at St Kevin's Community Hall, Bloomfield Avenue, just off South Circular Road, Dublin 8 on Saturday 12th December 11am - 4pm. The community hall is located behind what was an old grey stone church building on South Circular Road and is now converted into apts.

Also, The Christmas Fair in the Mermaid Arts Center in Bray on Sat 12th Dec from 2-6pm and 7:30- 10pm and Sun 13th Dec 10am-6pm and 6:30pm-9:30pm , Main st, Bray, Co. Wicklow

Wishing you all well in your preparations and hoping you are all planning on a crafty handmade christmas!