Friday 30 December 2011

Christmas Wreath - Home Made

We also made Christmas Wreath’s together this year, Mel, her mum Monica, my mum and our friend Jo. Last year we went to the wonderful Harriet from Flora’s garden workshop but this year we couldn’t make it due to work commitments etc.

So we thought we would give it a bash ourselves. We had a lovely lunch courtesy of my mum;



So courtesy of ebay we got some wreath rings, and used a local florist for the flowers and also foraged some materials. Some holly, foliage, fir cones etc.



Mel also had a little helper, her son the adorable Kenzie came along for the afternoon.


Considering we all had access to the same materials the difference in all of the wreathes was incredible, and we had a wonderful afternoon giggling, reminicing, gossiping, and being creative, here are the results;


And I cannot emphasise enough how great Harriett at Flora's Garden is, and if she is doing a workshop in your area do book and go along, you will not be dissapointed!
Here are her details;

http://www.floras-garden.co.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/FlorasGarden

http://twitter.com/FlorasGarden

All the best!

Claire
xxx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

Our Home Made Christmas Presents Given

In my previous blog I explained that my brother came up with the wonderful (kind of last minute) idea of making Christmas presents for each other this year because money was tight etc, if you didn’t read it here is a link to it.


http://honestlyitseasy.blogspot.com/2011/12/xmas-presents-2011.html


So Boxing Day came (we celebrate as a family on Boxing Day rather than Christmas Day, things get too complicated trying to arrange to see everyone on one day).
So for my mum I made a decorated mirror. I decorated it with fabric flowers that I cut out of material and clipped together with a brad and then attached to the mirror. Here is the final article;



My mum and dad camp a lot in their caravan, and dad likes to refer to the van on site in a pub fashion ‘George and the Dragon’. My dad had kept a drawing board that he had made for a project when he was at school many moons ago, so I recycled it and made it into the sign for him;



Nothing like a bit of recycling! For my brother and his girlfriend I created two sets of colourful plant pots with herbs in. One set was for inside the hose at this time of year and the other was suitable for outside. Katie (my brothers girlfriend) makes incredible soap – more about that in our next blog post. O some of the herbs will come in handy for her. Inside ones were Coriander, parsley and aloe vera, and outside were wild garlic, Bay, Chocolate Mint, Apple mint, and Silver Thyme. I put the names if the herbs on metal spoons rather than the plastic labels that never last very long.

I also made some hand warmers for everyone, simple to do, basically 2 squares of felt sewn together and filled with ceramic beans. Place in microwave for 2 minutes and you have hand warmers!

So that was what we made for everyone’s presents, stay tuned to our next post later on to see what we got in return.

All the best!

Claire
xxx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

Tuesday 27 December 2011

A Festive update!

This time of year is always quite hectic but I thought I would just drop a quick blog around to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I will update the blog again in the next couple of days letting you know how my family got in with the whole mke your christmas presents idea my brother came upo with as my last blog post detailed, but I can honestly say I am very surprised at the quality of the presents that came out of the whole experiment. But we will not be repeating the event! ;)

We've been enjoying great food, great drink (including some lemoncelo at the in laws - deffiantly making some of that at some point!) but more importantly we have spent some great time with family and friends, which lets face it, is what Christmas should be about!

So from both Melanie and I, we wish you a very merry christmas and hope that 2012 is a very successful year for you, and we hope you continue to follow us both and our journey's via out blog and facebook page etc.

All the best!

Claire
xxx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Xmas Presents 2011

I do echo Mel’s comments in the blog post above – things have gone particularly crazy over the last couple of months, I have managed to book an extra few days off work before the Christmas period to get myself back on track, so normal blogging procedure will resume and be much more regular in the future! I didn’t even manage to make the Good Food Show which Mel blogged about last time, which was annoying, but you have to pay the bills somehow!

So my wonderful, dearest brother came up with the idea that this year we should make our Christmas Presents for each other. Now, firstly I quite often make the Christmas presents I give out, because I think people appreciate the thought that goes into them and they are unique.

But this year I decided I was going to have a break, a bit of relaxation time in the lead up to Christmas as this year has been pretty hectic and next year is already looking chaotic! So over the last few months I've gradually been purchasing Christmas Presents.

Then my brother says 'for something different why don't we make each other Christmas Presents this year, it should work out a lot cheaper as well'.

This is the last time he gets a say in what we do/buy for Christmas. Because now that everyone else has to make presents it means that mine have got to be better than usual!

My brother and his girlfriend were very easy to sort out, my mum the same, but my dad is just a bit of a nightmare! He is exceptionally difficult to make for as I obviously cant's make him anything I have done before, so things like Whiskey Fudge, Jams, Chutney's, pickled onions and eggs etc are off the menu! We have finally figured out what we are going to do, but it will take more time than all the other present put together!

I do wish I could fill you in on everything we are doing but just incase any of the family end up reading this blog before the big day I can't post anything about it. You will however get fully updated as soon as the December 25th has been and gone.

Does anyone else make gifts for their families and friends for christmas, if so what do you make?

I'm also coming down with a cold, any natural remedies you can suggest would be very welcome, I really don't have time to be ill!!!

look forward to updating you all again soon - next week we are starting to gather things for our wreathes and table decorations for the festive period!

Deck the Halls - fa la la la la!!

All the best!

Claire
xxx

Twitter:
@CropredyChicken
@Honestlyitseasy
@steelsyrockitup