Somethings festive...

A friend sent me some candle wax tubes to be creative with. I ended up buying some candles for my niece to decorated. With having gold and silver wax, I would have loved a darker colour for her to decorate but white only seemed to be available but also affordable. She really enjoyed decorating the candles but she did get a little upset that they were 'leaking' as we left them to dry. I imagined with the air they would dry fairly quickly but it wasn't the case at all which was a shame. If I'd thought about it earlier I would have encouraged her to decorate one side so that I could lay it on its side and the designs stayed as they were. I wrapped each one up for her to give as a gift to her teachers and neighbours. You can see her little hand in the last photo trying to make a grab for the candle so that she didn't forget it.

I don't exchange gifts with friends anymore as I've just been so unwell to even consider shopping for anyone. I did find it really hard last year and definitely would have this... I can just about make it to work and back. Anyway it was so thoughtful and quite surprising to receive these gifts in the mail which really did make my day. I love the cards and the cute paper.

I took part in a secret Santa at work. I bought my partner some jewellery which I think she liked, it was so hard to photograph due to the lighting issue. In return I got this book, I was a little disappointed at first when I saw it as its a notebook with plain and lined sheets. I love looking at notebooks but never know how to use them. However I actually like the quality etc... of this notebook and if any of you have a suggestion of how I could use it, let me know! I told people at work that I was going to plot about them!

On Friday we were told to come to work this coming Friday in a Christmas jumper. I felt quite annoyed actually as I'd been in the city on Tuesday and saw tonnes of jumpers. I'd actually wished I celebrated Christmas so that I could wear something silly like it but as I don't I just looked. On Saturday I wondered around many stores looking for a jumper but they had all sold out! How annoying as if I'd been told earlier I could have bought one or ordered one online. Eventually I came across this one which sadly is a little small (well I feel like I'm going to explode out of it!) but I got it anyway as its not like I had any other options. Its still cute but I loved the ones with noses, pom poms etc... attached to make it a little 3D.

 

I'm posting my Christmas Postcards on my Bursts of Bubbles blog for anyone whose interested.

I want to carry on being Festive!

You may remember that I'm challenging myself with a mini letter exchange with Got that swing. Its turned out to be really fun thinking up ideas of how to decorate each postcard and envelope to a list of loves that she sent me but the hardest thing for both of us is keeping to a small space as we are both super long letter writers. We came to the conclusion in the end that we should stick to a theme of what to write on the back of each postcard so that it is just a quick burst of us... all good things come in small packages so they say!

 

For my second postcard I decided to stick to a festive theme and use the stickers she sent me in her first mini letter. I often think its nice to see what people come up with using what you send them even though my friends just need to check out my blogs to see that....

 

I like how they turned out but the problem with taking photos at this time of year is that they end up so grainy.

Not part of our mini letter but a real spoiler I got this...

Its funny as I'd bought the pack of KitKats to post to her the day before I received this, only I got home and showed them to my younger brother who told me that there is an Oreo flavour too but its not suitable for Vegetarians so I decided when I go to the supermarket next I will see if they sell it. The only problem is that I went to the supermarket on Wednesday and it turned out I'd left my purse at home... my husband was on his way home so I phoned him to make a detour to the supermarket instead and completely forgot to check. I went again yesterday as I forgot a few other items, instead I bought things I hadn't intended to due to special offers and forgot what I actually needed. So as you've probably worked out my mind never gave me that nudge to check out the chocolate aisle. I will definately go today just for them but I'll probably end up buying some for myself too...

 

Anyway isn't that postcard great, its definately festive and so retro... it reminds me of a 70s rave night even though I was born in the 80s and have never been to a rave but one can get those imagination wheels working.

 

I've eaten some of the sweets but you'll be glad to know I still have some left. The fudge so reminds me of the Asian mithai Barfi.

 

Have you had great mail days too? as usually January is quiet for some people but for me its usually when I get my mail as friends write to me over the holiday season.

Christmas Crafting Part 2

I was busy creating the last of my Christmas cards on Saturday when my niece called me down by saying 'I'm here Khala, come down!'. So I had no choice but to... she handed me a piece of paper, 'I've made you a picture Khala' before I got the chance to question her about it, her mum piped up... its a picture of her dad sleeping... erm ok... I actually asked her why I needed a picture of her dad sleeping but got no response.

To me though it looks like dads dreaming of spring or summer as he's got a flower above his head but best of all 3 sunshines even though the yellow one isn't visible. I think I know how dad's feeling there as we're all nearly dreaming of some warmer weather.

 

I couldn't help laughing on my way to drop my niece off to school on Friday as we turned the corner and were hit by a blast of cold air.... she went 'oh its cold. It's freezing!' she sounded like such an old lady. Her dad got a phone call later saying she wasn't well and can they give her some medication, my mum went after a hospital appointment to get her but they refused to let her go home saying she was fine now. Well when I went to get her, I got a lecture on having dropped her off at school poorly when she had been perfectly fine for the hour and a bit she was with me... I'm guessing she caught a chill from that blast despite being wrapped up in tonnes of layers, gloves, hat and scarf.

Anyway back to Saturday after she gave me this picture, it was like someone pressed a repeat button on her as she kept continuously asking to make Christmas cards as we hadn't finished the few she had left. I decided to share another type of card I made with her in case you'd like to do something like it yourself with a little person. Its so easy and one you can more or less leave them to do.

You'll have to excuse the photos as I took them about 8pm on Saturday night as my sister had mentioned she was going to write them to give on Monday. They are a peach and beige colour but they both look exactly the same. I have a tub of glitter glue from my days of making FBs and Decos which I hardly use anymore and weirdly still work. Before she had even started she told me she was going to make lots of spots so I told her to go for it even though I knew they would flatten out. They remind me of fireworks, baubles or fairy lights.... her mum has some Christmas foam stickers at home and I said if she wanted she could get her to stick some on top but she liked them as they are.

I've since told her not to write the cards as I saw a post on GypsyofJaspers blog about Salt Dough ornaments that I thought it would be so much fun to make with my niece as she's been begging for me to bake with her for ages only this will have a different twist of course as she can paint them. I've decided to make circles (baubles) and stars and she can give one each to the adults that work with her which in reality I don't actually know how many there are so I'll make about 20 if I can. Its one of the things my niece has always found hard is not knowing who would be there on the days she went.

I've only seen salt dough used once at work and it was a nasty experience as the children used it like play dough to make something in pieces so they were differently thicknesses. It ended up taking a whole day to cook it so the thin bits snapped and the fatter bits were still squidgy... so you can imagine where that project ended up! We had no choice as it was just crumbs so I hope the same doesn't happen here.

Hopefully I'll leave work straight away at 4pm tomorrow (I'm getting home about 4.30pm due to parents not collecting their children on time) so that I can do this with her as on Tuesday I'll be viewing a house which has probably sold by now as we had to wait a week to view it at the time we wanted! Its been put on the market for the 3rd time! Then I'll work until 4pm on Wednesday too.... I hardly do anything with my niece anymore and feel so guilty... I can't even remember the last time we went to the library.

I'll blog about our salt dough adventure soon though as I will give this a try.

I've mentioned the C word....

 

I thought once my holidays end I would be back to regular blogging again especially since my husband isn't in the country at the moment which means I have a lot more time to do my own thing. You would think that's the case anyway but I'm getting up at 6am every morning for my niece which means I'm completely shattered by 8pm and just want to go to bed.... of course I don't as I want to make the most of having my bedroom back to myself that I've been crafting and writing letters.

 

During the week I made some British themed postcards for make my day which are still available. Then last night I finally made a start on my Christmas cards.  

I had planned on using these square Christmas images that I bought from Crafty Individuals some years ago but couldn't bring myself to do anything with them even though I tried as I found them boring and couldn't understand why I bought them. I finally decided to do something with them when I bought a pack of GB stamps and they were 90% Christmas stamps which really annoyed me of course.

I decided to buy some Christmas paper as I wanted something brighter compared to last years. I know its not that bright but most of my things are Vintage looking so I couldn't go for cutesy bright. Anyway once I got last year pack out I realised I had way more paper left then I imagined so I've ended up using mostly that in order to finish it off. If I don't finish that this year I think I'll have to give it away as I can't have another year using that same pad again.... it didn't even have that many sheets.

 

When I went to the craft store yesterday I was so excited to see washi tapes, its come in so handy already to make my cards with that its tempting to buy some more from Angoo-Mart but I won't as I have already placed 2 order this year. I have asked the lady in the craft store in the city though to see if she can get hold of some as then I will hopefully save on shipping but if not at least it means I can choose what I really want rather then filling a box. Also like the tape I bought above, the green one was cut twice so when I peeled it off, it came away in layers so I was able to take it back where as if I bought it online I wouldn't have said anything.

I mentioned that I started making my cards last night but when I actually sat down the images and stamps just wouldn't work so I decided to back all the cards and round all the edges in the hope that an idea would come to me and thankfully it did after I'd been to the opticians today. I decided to not use the postage stamps and just focus on the images, paper, washi tapes and my templates from last year to create something. I'm not 100% satisfied and I've not co-ordinated the colours at all but its a lot better then I imaged. Also they are completely flat at the moment so maybe this year I will post my postcards naked.... if  I don't then I can use the Christmas Stamps on the back.. I'll have to see.

 

Are you thinking about Christmas already?

 

I am trying this year as I always end up feeling rushed with taking so much on as you know from previous years of me almost having a melt down and wondering if I'll get them done in time as I've over done things.