Landlocked Mermaid

Once again, December is barrelling towards us at great speed. It seemed like only yesterday we were lamenting the end of summer and now the end of the year is nearly here. I doubt many people will be lamenting the end of 2020 though! (Personally, I believe it is naive to think 2021 is going to miraculously fix everything and it could be even harder, but that's the pessimist in me.) With the days getting much shorter and the heating finally on, I guess it's time to start thinking about Christmas. I had planned to get a head start on my gifts this year as I plan on making them all. However, between falling out with my sewing machine every time I use it and helping my brother in law-ish, all that time I gave myself in September has shrunk considerably.  Having not decorated at all for Hallowe'en it feels weird that I will be getting the Christmas decs out soon. There were a few contributing factors to the lack of Hallowe'en decorating, not all covid related, which make me...

'Tis the season for distraction, falalalalalalala. I am terrible for hoarding cards: birthday, Christmas, thank you - whatever the occasion, I will hoard it. I am loathe to throw them away (read: recycle them) because someone has gone to the effort of sending it to me and they are so often very pretty. So what can I do with them? Other than just hide them in various places to find in a couple years time and wonder how they got there. Someone actually offered me the solution ages ago. I shared a post about Christmas crafts in 2018 to Facebook and asked if anyone had any other Christmas crafts. The answer: make bunting out of cards. So, thank you Sharon Garforth! This was lovely and easy to do, therefore will be repeated for years to come. I am even tempted to make some out of my birthday cards too, if I ever find the stash from previous years. I know they are somewhere! Bunting! WHAT YOU WILL NEED Old cards Scissors Hole punch Pen Ruler Pencil String ...

Hello everyone! I hope we have all had a happy and healthy Christmas! We just have the weird not-quite-Christmas-not-quite-New-Year week to get through, then it is 2019! I am looking to re-jig some things, get my blog schedule under control again (can you tell I have been winging it, these last few weeks?), and hopefully try some new stuff for 2019.  As you are well aware, I got crafty for Christmas this year and now that everyone has had their presents I can finally share what I got up to! This is going to be in three parts, because I have three recipes to share. One is sort of a recipe, I don't know what else to call it. In any case, the odd one out is the one I'm sharing today. This was my first year making stuff, so I wanted to keep it simple. Between amateur craftiness and busy work schedule, I didn't want to over load my poor tiny brain. I wanted to make a couple things: one edible and one smelly. For some reason, growing up we always called bath sets "s...

These last couple days I have been busy doing the final bits of making and assembling gifts, ready to deliver over the coming days. While I would love to tell you all what I have made and how, it will have to wait until the new year. Don't want to ruin the surprise for the family and friends who read. However,  I have been blaring the Christmas tunes and thought we could have some festive fun. I know it's not exactly aquatic themed, but 'tis the season and whatnot! My favourite Christmas songs are... Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin' Stevens You're A Mean One, Mr Grinch - The Grinch (2000) Baby Shark Christmas Lights What are your favourites?

This year I am hosting my first Christmas party. It's not going to be a traditional Christmas party, as it is with my Game Night group - so we will be playing board games a plenty while drinking copious amounts of beverages. So not massively different then. Well, the decorations are up, so that is the halls decked. One less thing to worry about. Our new living tree, electricals to be tidied. We always have more than enough games and drink, so that is not a worry either. Playing Tsuro of the Seas. So I guess my main worry is the food. The easy option would be to get any of the multitude of Christmas party nibbles. But they will be packaged in so much plastic, therefore making them a last resort. I like cooking, so I am going to make my own nibbles. I will end up having to buy a few things, but that is considerably better than buying all the things. What can I make? Chips and Dip. The chips will be one of the things I buy, but I make a pretty ta...

Four weeks today, it is Christmas day. Do I feel under prepared? Not really, I usually put off Christmas for as long as I can - I think I did all my shopping on the 23rd one year. It's a side effect of working in customer service. We've been pushing Christmas drinks since October so I have been very much doing my best to ignore it. But four weeks is close enough for me. I have a Christmas playlist on from Spotify and am having a good old think about what I do over December which is festive and not damaging to the planet. I could rant for a few hundred words about the amount of plastic packaging and carrier bags I still see (seriously?! They cost 5p and totes are totes better. See what I did there?) Instead I am just going to focus on my festive cheer.  🎄 ADVENT CALENDAR I have my homemade, fabric advent calendar made and ready to be filled. I am going to pop to Lidl later to see if I can find some fun chocolates to put in numbers 1 to 23. I was originally thinking...

Today I have been busy making my advent calendar. I went to start it the other day and had a complete brain fail, so I called on the expert: my mum. She instantly saw what the probems were and suggested a much more practical way to construct the advent calendar. Best bit? We used the glue gun. No sewing involved! It ended up very different to the design, but I am extremely happy with it. And I cannot thank my mum enough for the help she gave me this afternoon. Turns out this project maybe was a little too much for me. But it is done now. Check out the making and project! Blocking it out A different and more practical background. Starting with a few patterns and pockets. Mapping out the final fifteen pockets. Lots of folding and gluing. Wonky donkey, but finished. The pockets are much smaller than planned; but this means I can get creative with what goes in them.  I could do foil wrapped chocolate lollies, little slips of paper with th...

The Hallowe'en decorations are down, the remaining goodies drastically reduced in supermarkets, and the festivities are a fond memory. Now, I am a massive fan of Hallowe'en, if you hadn't guessed already, and usually at this time of year I am aggressively pretending Christmas does not exisit. It starts in December, Novemeber 25th at the earliest. Honestly, I think it stems from working in retail and food service where Christmas starts in August. That's when the stuff goes on the shelves (seriously, Santa plushies on August Bank Holiday). That's when the Christmas menus are released. Christmas takes some planning, so people start early. Last year, we planned our Christmas day on December 23rd and it was wonderful - but there were only four of us to feed.  But this is my first Christmas trying to be plastic free and it is going to be hard. So I am going to have to be one of those grown ups I keep hearing so much about and actually try to plan Christmas. Well, may...