2012, here we come!

Oh my goodness, am I the only one to be blinking and open mouthed in disbelief that we are now in 2012?! Where on earth did 2011 rush off to? Last year sped by and here we are in shiny new 2012. I hope you had a lovely Christmas and a happy new year to you all :)

Since moving in in early Summer, I'd been looking forward to Christmas rolling its way around and decorating the house all festively. I'd planned to make a lot of our decorations, firstly for budget reasons, and secondly just because I enjoy making things!! However, when it came to it, I couldn;t find much of what I wanted in the shops anyway. I had a few ideas as I'd been pinning things on my Christmas Pinterest board for ages and there was a definite trend towards a scheme of silver, white and natural materials such as jute and hessian, so I had to make most of them.  I'm really pleased with how out first little cosy Christmas here came together.

I'll make no apologies for my photos as they are all unedited and a mix from different cameras and my phone - if we waited for me to edit them I'd never get around to sharing them!

The piece on the top of the tree is very special....it's a traditional German tree topper and belonged to my grandma; she'd at some point mannnny years ago bought it here on one holiday from her homeland and she was very proud of it. It is hand blown and despite the fact that for the last few years I'd always gone and put her tree and decorations up for them, I was still surprised at how very fragile it is. It meant so much to place this on top of my tree, although incredibly emotional to be not be placing it on top of my grandparents tree for the first time in years.

The deer candle holders too were from Nanny's - they sat on top of her tv all year round but I thought they'd make lovely festive focal points - I sat the large one on a piece of flat wood to give it a bit more emphasis.

When I saw this hessian banner I knew I wanted to make one myself to hang over the lounge mirror.....

And inspired by two simple wreaths here and here, I created this for the lounge door.....

The flowers on the wreath were inspired by these decorations, and I made a few to nestle in the boughs of the tree too.

I was struggling to find white tree decorations that I liked, and stumbled across these white clay tags online, which gave birth to a "salt dough" decoration idea:

If you are interested in whipping up a batch for yourself, see my tutorial over at Sarah's Cards here. I also crocheted a few things for the tree, including these "puff centered" stars I found on Ravelry.

I took this idea, added a bit of hessian and rustled up some snowy candle jars:

My lovely friend Clare got me a little set of Christmassy people decorations last year that you sew up yourself....I strung them into a little garland and hung them from the lid of the piano - so cute!!

And my favourite thing that I made myself, directly copied from this idea here, is these two stockings to hang from our dresser - I had to get the sewing maching out and everything so I was mightily impressed by my efforts!!! The blingy broaches were an absolute bargain -some costume jewellery found on ebay....it cost me just under a fiver for both including p&p :)

So those were the highlights of our Christmas decor, proudly sponsored by Pinterest!!!! ;)

The craft extended a bit towards gifts too.....Sarah's Cards retreaters will remember the fab little cartons we demonstrated for Make & Takes......well I thought they'd be a fab alternative to cards/envelopes for money and vouchers.....I also added a candy cane between the carton and the decorative bits for an added festive feel.

 

And here I am....in all my sleepy, tripple-chinned glory on Christmas morning.........

Which brings me nicely on to my new years resolution......remember all that weight I lost...four stones?! Well it's creeping back on at an all too rapid weight as I've been so innactive, so my goal is to get fit and exercise more again, and hopefully loose all those pounds (and more!) in the process. I can do it, yes?!!!

Happy New Year xxx