Merry Christmas

I just wanted to do a quick post to say Merry Christmas! 

I hope that you are all as blessed as I am with friends and family, not just today but all year around.

I will be spending this morning with the kids and hubby, opening presents and eating and being merry. Then this afternoon I head over to my Aunt's, which will be the very first time I have spent a Christmas Day with her and I am very much looking forwards to it,since she is an amazing cook and has been baking for three days to get ready for Christmas.(Nom Nom Nom!)

After the big day and after we've all calmed down and recovered I should be able to show you some of the presents that I have made!

But for now Happy Christmas! 

Swap Gifts And A Robin For My Tree!

The title says it all really - but SQUEE!
It is the first time I have been involved in a swap, and have thoroughly enjoyed it.  If you are a crafter who happens to enjoy computer games  (Or a gamer who happens to enjoy crafting) I strongly advise you to head over to Sprite Stitch. In their own words: "Sprite Stitch is a community of people dedicated to handmade arts and crafts with themes centered around the video game industry."

But they also have an amazing community. I only really got into video games when I met my husband, and started crafting stuff for it mainly for him.  But I have since got into it quite a lot myself.  And it may have taken him five years but he's finally got me on the Xbox aswell (I've always maintained that a PC is a lot easier as I've never got the hang of controllers) But I am now hooked on that as well Damn him!

Anyway I now have my swap items from the lovely Jayde over at http://absolute-101.blogspot.com/  And they are absolutely brilliant!!

Thank You Jayde!!!
Also in the post on the same day I received this gorgeous Robin, who is now living in my Christmas Tree

This was a Giveaway Prize from Cute Crocheted Creations and I love it!
These couldn't have arrived at a better time, as I have been watching my postie like a hawk anyway for the last of the Christmas Presents arriving. So it was quite nice to get something that for me and that didn't need to be wrapped as I have already spent about 3 hours wrapping gifts this year already!
So Thank You to Laura aswell. 

This Year

Normally at this time of year I find myself saying "next year will be better" or "good riddance to the end of that year". I don't mean this ungratefully or flippantly, but it is fair to say that me and my gorgeous family have had our fair share of troubles.
BUT this year instead of saying next year will be better, I find myself thinking of how far we have come this year ....  literally we have moved 350 miles north west... but aside from that I just wanted to list a few of our achievements this year. It is quite a nice exercise to do, and has made me incredibly grateful. In no particular order:

• We have moved to the other end of the country. Successfully!
•  I have started this blog, which I love doing and I have found the crafts community online in force which is incredible!
• (whispered so as not to tempt the fates) My son has had his first "hospital free" year....
• My daughter has started school and loved it. She is now beginning to read!
• My gorgeous husband has found a job that he enjoys and where he is appreciated.
• I have learnt how to knit.And found that it is incredibly addictive.
• We have bought our gorgeous but rather hyper dog and wouldn't be without him anymore
• But most importantly we have grown as a family this year. We have stood on our own two feet more, but had the sense to know when to ask friends and family for help.  We are a closer family unit and I am proud of us!

This year hasn't been without its challenges, (I spent 3 months in and out of hospital over the summer) but we have faced them and come through the other side and I am very positive for next year.

Link to Giveaway Day

Sew Mama Sew is currently hosting a huge Giveaway Day (that lasts all week) with loads of links to giveaways. 
I am not involved in this myself but I have just spent a good half an hour or so looking through some of these giveaways. It always amazes me how generous people are, and also how many craft blogs there are out there! 
There are 6 different catagories so there is bound to be something there that you want to try for so hop on over and have a look : )

Happy Homemade Christmas

I have been AWOL the last week due to the other half doing something(Goodness only knows what) with the computers. Unfortunately most of what I have been doing craft wise can't be shown yet, just in case certain people read it.
But what I do have to show you is some lovely Christmas stuff!
Firstly we have the tree...

This is the first time that I have ever had a "real" tree.  When we moved, everything from the cellar in the old house had to be dumped due to damp (we were not very impressed I can tell you!!). So this year we needed to buy a tree whatever happened.  I will admit it was my lovely husband's idea, so we all tootled off in the car to the garden centre and had a great day out choosing our tree and buying decorations, which again we had to start from scratch with! I can tell you transporting our 7 foot tree in our little car was an experience, but it got us all in the Christmas spirit and now the house smells lovely and Christmassy as well!
We do however have some lovely decorations on the tree courtesy of my gorgeous kids.  The salt dough decorations have been painted and glittered and hung on the tree:

I am really happy at the way these have turned out, and the kids had a ball making them.  I think the only thing I would do differently is to coat them with something, possibly a varnish, as the glitter tends to get everywhere! (If you like the look of these the recipe for the salt dough is here ) We let the kids decorate the tree, which was so much fun and more than makes up for the fact that everything is slightly wonky.  I am very much of the opinion that me and the hubby will have years to have things done neatly when the kids are grown up, yet we have limited time when the kids can be kids.  I love the fact that they decorated and made decorations.  It makes our Christmas Tree truly ours.
Also, thanks to friends and family the kids have also received Christmas craft packs resulting in these beauties:

The Christmas Tree's were from a good friend of mine, along with some colouring in boxes which I just need to glue together, and Rudolph is from Grandma.  She got both the kids a lovely books with lots of different things to put together. I'm saving the rest for the week before Christmas when my daughter's not at school, as I know that she will get bored within half a day of not being at school!
I have cross stitched decorations on the go, which should hopefully be up by the end of the week and only one more homemade present to make...probably....
I hope you are all having as lovely a time as we are, and that you are enjoying the Christmas season! 

Internet Brilliance

I was reading through some of the blogs I follow this morning (there are quite a few...) and found this brilliant link over at Owens Olivia 

So pop over to the Random Tutorial Generator and watch how quickly your morning goes! x