Paper bows and frills

To dress these rather plain CD boxes I recently bought, I've made some pretty little frills and bows using pages torn from an old paperback.

Fairly straightforward, the hardest part was convincing myself that it was okay to pull apart a book, even though it would never be read again and was a great way to repurpose.

The idea for the bows came from the recent pom-poms I made using tissue paper.

Stacking six pages together and folding in a concertina fashion, the pages are then held in position by a small piece of floral wire.

Gently tease apart to create a half pom-pom, creating a lovely little bow for on top of your parcels.

The doilie type frills are even simpler.

Cut a circular shape out of paper

Fold three times

Cut shapes from the top and sides

hole punches create an effective pattern

open flat, then gently press with your iron to remove creases.

The boxes are to house the learn to sew cards I made earlier this year. Each box will contain one card and a threaded plastic needle, tiny Christmas gifts for Poppy's besties at school.

Advent Calendar

Finally ready. Just in a nick of time really, because we start our Advent countdown Tuesday. In no way could our family be described as religious, but we do enjoy the traditions of Christmas, and the Advent Calendar is a fun way for the kids to countdown to the big day.

Our calendar is BIG. Standing 145 cm high, and 95 cm wide, it certainly commands attention.

Made from a single, large piece of chipboard, it has been cut to shape by lovely husband, then covered in a sheet of wadding (like quilters use), then clad in a bright, lime green cotton. This was then all secured with a trusty staple gun.

Each of the 24 red spotted pouches is 8cm x 8cm, with a smaller 6cm x 6cm apple green wool felt block attached on which a number has been sewn using white embroidery cotton and a

simple split stitch. The bottom three pouches were a chocolate green wool felt to represent the tree trunk.

The pouches are then held in position using upholstery tacks.

The star on the top used red wool felt on one side and the lime green cotton on the other. Here is a handy star template if you are not confident to draw a freehand star. Using my photocopier I then enlarged this to make a star just the right size for a tree topper.

The pouches have been filled with assorted chocolates

little decorations

a handmade felt brooch or two

Snowflake cutters for cookies we will make

and cake toppers for some Christmas themed cupcakes.

Hopefully inquisitive fingers will leave it alone and not peak at the surprises too soon....

Christmas Crafts

Birthday's and anniversaries are out the way, now it's time for a bit of Christmas crafting.

Of the many, many projects I have saved during the year with Christmas in mind, this is one of my favourites.

Last summer while at the beach house, the kids collected a big bag of Sheoak cones, for Easter crafts. They were promptly forgotten, then unearthed during my recent spring clean.

These are currently perched on our mantle, but when a few more are made, will be dotted around the house.

My Advent calendar WIP is coming along nicely and I hope to get it finished tomorrow. I love finding all those little nic-nacs to hide inside.

Christmas cards are to be printed off, and a few presents for special friends are to be made.

Here's some of what I made last year.

Candy Cane Reindeers

Noodle boxes with felted fortune cookies, edible fortune cookies and kid size chopsticks.

Matryoshka dolls and mini brooches made using fabric from Kristen Doran.

Candied citrus peels, fruit mince tarts, parmeson sables and pate made using an old family recipe.

Snowflake Cookies.

With less than 4 weeks to go, its time to get busy.

Summer Head Scarf

With summer on it's way, my garden has been in need of some serious attention. Usually I will don a hat, or pull my hair into a Pony, but for breezy days, a scarf is perfect.

These are so quick and easy to make, and are great for using up fat quarters you might have lurking around in your stash.

1. Measure out two pieces of fabric, the first 44cm x 44cm, the second 44cm x 6cm.

2. Cut an 18cm piece of 2cm wide elastic.

3. Fold, then press a small hem on the 6cm length.

4. Using straight stitch, sew along this hem.

5. Press with right sides together.

6. Using straight stitch, sew along the length, using a .5 cm seam allowance.

7. Turn right side out. I find poking with the wide end of a chopstick makes turning this easier.

8. Feed elastic through.

9. Pin elastic in place, then sew in position, about 3cm along from end. Trim elastic so close to this hem.

10. Fold, then press a double hem on opposite sides of 44cm square.

11. Sew along this hem using a straight stitch.

12. Carefully fold small pleats along the sewn sides, meeting in the centre. Try to keep these small. Pinning helps.

13. Stitch along the pleats, about 2cm from the end.

14. Gently ease the pleats into the open end of the elasticised band.

15. Sew into position, very slowly, taking your time, as it is easy to break a needle trying to stitch through all the pleats.

All done. Apologies about the cheesy photo. Believe me I am traumatised by the horridness of it, but if you can see past my crazy person grin, you can see what it looks like on.

Ta Da!

I am also in desperate need of a new gardening apron, so the next scarf might be matchy-matchy with an apron.

Best Husband

Isn't he nice? Takes me places, entertains me, makes me breakfast every morning and a cup of tea EVERY night. Works very hard so I don't have to. And best of all - loves me.

Happy anniversary.

Tweeny

Ten, almost eleven is my little tween. Oh so grown up one minute, wanting a mummy cuddle the next.

Last night we were treated to a dinner made by our lovely boy. Having announced earlier in the week that he wanted to cook Friday night, he then proceeded to scour recipe books, before settling on Chilli Con Carne, ala Jamie Oliver, hero to tween boys.

Last nights' foray into the world of cooking was by no means the first time he cooked for us, but it was the first time he sat down, recipe book in hand, planned out a meal, wrote a shopping list, went to the supermarket, and then prepared it all on his own. So awfully proud of our almost eleven year old, we ate every mouthful with pleasure.

Until recently our son has shown little interest in typical boy pursuits such as Aussie Rules Footy, but has favoured more diverse interests like dance, cooking and reading.

Interestingly, dance has recently been abandoned, with no real reason given, other than he wanted a break for a while. I am curious as to whether this has been the result of peer pressure or not, but at the age of (almost) eleven, I think he is old enough to make his own decisions on

what he wants to do in his spare time.

It seems that although boys now have so many alternative role models, the sporting heros are still those that reign supreme. As I have not even the slightest interest in sport of any kind, I'm relieved that he at least shares a couple of common interests with me still.

One more day of ten, but hopefully not the last of that little boy who likes to roll around on the lawn, giggling his heart out.

Cake Pops

Oh how I struggled making these. Our recent hot weather has made kitchen chores more than slightly challenging. Power outages have meant that the air conditioner has been on and off, and my hot kitchen is certainly not a pleasant place to be.

All in all, I made about 30 cake pops. Very, very nice, easy in theory, but chocolate candy melts and hot weather don't really mix. Much fiddlier than I anticipated.

The smooth coating I was aiming to achieve was far harder than it looked. Perhaps next time I might try a different brand of melts as the Wilton brand was tricky.

I decided to keep them in the freezer, rather than at room temperature, and the combination of chilled, firm cake, and crunchy coating works well. These are to be taken in to my son's class this afternoon, to help celebrate his birthday which falls on the weekend.

They really are very good, and I have plans to make more in the next few weeks. Hopefully with practice they will look more like these.

Cupcake Bites are also very sweet, and Bakerella's are just so lovely. Possibly a good school holiday activity, or something for classmate presents.

On a more successful note, yesterday we released our butterfly.

As part of the Butterfly adventure's party package, Poppy was given a Chrysalis in a net cage. After three days of patient observation, it finally emerged. A day later, with wings fully dried out, we released it into our garden, where it hungrily flew to the nearest flower and drank for the next ten minutes before leaving.

A wonderful experience, and Poppy is already saving her pocket money so she can order another Chrysalis.

One last look

Before

After

All that work, and gone so fast.