My Very Own Peg Wreath

Yup. I copied Hambly - and just in time for Christmas, too.

Surprisingly quickly, you can apply washi tape to pegs, apply pegs to a cardboard donut, and apply a cardboard donut to your front door.

just in time for Christmas

I went a little further and used some of the fake snow I had left over from last year's Christmas Crafts classes:

the only snow we'll be seeing this Christmas

We had a lovely evening yesterday hosting mulled wine and nibbles with friends who are still in town. The house still smells of mulled wine, which is not a bad thing. Now it's time to hole up with the husband - wrapping presents (well, embellishing them with home-made bows and labels), watching Home Alone (we've gone right through the Christmas film library this year, starting with A Nightmare Before Christmas, and ending with Die Hard 2), cooking and eating a lovely three-course meal (got to get our eating stamina up for tomorrow), and pretending all our tiny candles are in fact one large warm cosy fire. A twinkling tree, a nightcap, and to bed to wake up on Christmas morning.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Ps. I forgot I issued a teaser here about another wreath I made. It's a bit late for a tutorial, since it's an advent wreath, so maybe we'll revisit that next year. But here's a photo of what it looked like at the start of December anyway:

pretty, no?

Give a Girl the Right Shoes...

...and she can conquer the world. 

(Marilyn Monroe)

A long, long time ago, I started a blog. On my blog I wrote my first post. And in that post I wrote a poem about shoes. I've blown away the dust, so you can read it here.

Fast-forward to 2011, and things have changed somewhat. A wedding on the horizon produced the necessity for both the bride- and groom-to-be to buy shoes. Usually, when it comes to weddings, no expense is spared; but we are sensible people, and know our limits. We also knew what we wanted from our respective wedding shoes.

So, while he secretly broke in his shoes by wearing them around the office, I secretly practised teetering around in mine at home.

Creative Scrappers sketch #187

Mine were grey felt with a scottie dog patched onto one; his were black and white and shiny. They certainly produced a lot of 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' on the day.

and dance we did

On that special day, it wasn't just about a girl and her shoes - it was about a boy and his, too. And you know what? We both knew we'd chosen the right shoes, and we both felt that we could conquer the world.

Smart Words

A few people out there in the cloud are talking about the new answer to Wordle (Sian, your finger is on the pulse as ever!) - and so I will too.

Tagxedo is a cute, easy-to-use little app that makes pretty things happen to words. You have to play around with different colour/layout/orientation combos, and different amounts of words and which font(s) you choose, to get a shape that you're happy with, but in the end, you end up with word (sm)art like this:
 

It's pretty. But I looked at it aftwerwards and wanted to bling it up a bit. This is when things get dangerous - I'm liable to ruin something in search of a (possibly unreachable) goal. So I "reined" it in a bit. I kept bling to a minimum and it gave it just the right amount of Christmas sparkle, don't you think?

a sparkly eye for christmas time

You can even create your own colour theme (if you don't know all the HTML colour codes by heart (!) then go here for some simple assistance). 

I have made a couple more but since they are Christmas presents I'm bound to secrecy until after the 25th. Go check out Tagxedo and link back here - I want to see what you create!

Scrapbook Challenges Sketch 273

It's been a long time since a Scrapbook Challenges sketch came about. The transition from Ning to SC's own site has been a priority though, and well worth it.

The sketches are back now, and number 273 has produced some brilliant interpretations from the DT. The sketch:

Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #273

My interpretation is... well, autumnal (just coming out of summer). That's the mood and season I was in when I made it - and that's how long it's been since an SC sketch! So nothing very Christmassy here, but inspiration nonetheless, I hope:

a rare photo of my dad

I used a rare photo of my dad from Father's Day this year - he's holding a chocolate orange (his favourite) cupcake that I made for him (and that I have to admit were even too sickly for me).  I used a lot of different brands on this page - Websters', Cosmo, Lily Bee, Basic Grey, Crate, Sass - because I wanted to get that brightness of colours going.

still loving those circles

Here, I punched a circle in the base layer and adhered some patterned paper to the other side to show through the window.

OK - over to you! Go to Scrapbook Challenges, sign up if you're not already a member, and find the inspiration!

Doing a Jenni Bowlin

At the weekend we visited a flea market while all others about us were losing their heads in the melee of Christmas shopping. And in the crisp clearness of Saturday lunchtime, with our breath before our faces and our toes crunching up in the cold, we came across a stall tended by a little old lady and her daschund, wearing matching quilted, bejewelled navy coats. She was selling vintage fashion items (what a fool I felt for not having my camera with me that day) - brooches, clothing patterns,  stockings, earrings... and buttons.

The Husband quickly ducked out; any opportunity to avoid having to look at, think about or touch buttons is leapt at by that man. I was left to rummage, happy if a little colder for having taken off my gloves for the express purpose of more effective rummaging.

I found many things I would have liked to take home. In the end, only one item found its way into my bag:

in the fashion indeed.

please excuse the lighting; it's black outside today

Just as Jenni Bowlin boasts vintage button finds, now so can I. I expect I'll look at them for a while, before using some on wedding layouts. And then, back to the little old lady and her daschund, for the next purchase.