Landlocked Mermaid

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...