Official beginning of Christmas time 2016

Hello there and happy first advent Sunday!

Did you light your first candle today? We did at breakfast and just now for tea! The cosy time of year started officially! Drink a tea, burn candles, eat lots of biscuits and don't mind bad weather outside, because you are warm and homely inside - what could be better?

Despite the Children birthday party and the Christmas markets, I made a very nice arrangement for our advent candles. The last year I had them on the sideboard (have a look) but this year I wanted them on the table and I used the box I made for the easter table, filled it with moss and four supports for candles and added some deco. I takes not much place, so it is not bothering. I only have to remove it for hot meals.

I found the idea for this lovely little pin trees on Pinterest and I think they are very pretty. You will see them again in a crafting project I have in mind for kids in December!

I hope you had a nice weekend too! And don't let the Christmas stress get you! There are so much more important things than getting presents!

A bientôt,
Jane

A dark fortress with dark gardians

Oh no! Already one month since I wrote the last time. Actually exactly one month! 

I didn't planned like this, but there has been so much going on lately. Unfortunately not only creative stuff, so I can't even drown you in interesting projects now :-( 

But I did anyway some things and I will show them after surviving this week, that has the 10th birthday of my eldest son and two Christmas markets, in which I am involved (stupid me - why can't I say no?).

10 years he has already, my first born! I can't believe it! It had only been yesterday him learning to walk and talk, hadn't it? Ok, probably not! 

You remember the ninja from last year? He still loves ninjas and for his l.e.g.o adventures he build a base and a whole world to play inside (during summer the l.e.g.o ninjas lived in the terrasse flower bed). The only thing he misses are gardians for his base, while the ninjas are absent. He decided on some figures he would like to have and it took me a lot of energy to buy them single (and not hilariously overpriced).

I told my son I where too busy to make an advanced cake for his birthday table, but today I spontaneously decided to cut a brownie-cake in pieces and build a fortress for those gardians:

It's not so easy to cover the sides when you cut a cake. As there is no crust but a larged-pored surface, it is impossible to spread the chocolate evenly. Fortunately a fortress wall isn't smooth :-)

Happy birthday to you, my dear!

A bientôt,
Jane

Calendar page October

October is the mushroom month for me, because my 101 year old grandma likes them a lot and we try always to dig some out and plant them in a bowl for her birthday table decoration! This is why the birthday month October has a mushroom drawing in my self made calendar for 2016.

A bientôt,
Jane

Mushroom deco

My kids found the box with my fall decorations in the basement and decorated our main rooms. I especially like this corner on our sideboard:

A nice arrangement. They are having talent :-)

Those fly agarics I made already last year. The bottom of the stem is filled with lead cord, so they are more heavy on the base and they don't tip over. Very stable decoration!

A bientôt,
Jane

Simple fleece blanket

We don't need necessarily another blanket, but it used up a piece of fleece I have since years. I bought it initially to make a big crocodile for elder son, but never started. Now I found a matching cotton fabric and made a wide border of 8cm all around.

One side of the fleece is light green the other moss green. The border is a green in-between the two colors, but the two fleece greens are in those multi-color dots.

The whole blanket is about 1,60m by 1,25m. It might be usable for outside, when it is not so warm any more to just sit like this on the balcony for a cup of tea or in the summer when it gets chilly in the evenings.

A bientôt,
Jane

Crowns for fall decoration

Since a week it is getting colder outside and it is always grey. No glorious Indian summer at all. 

So I felt like I needed some autumn decoration around the house. In the hedges of some back roads I cut different branches with berries and wound some quick crowns.

Number one is very loosely wound and is hanging on the garage port.

Number two is hanging in front of our dining room window. It is turning in the wind and it is nice to see that one also from the inside. I made it friday and it already gets a bit dry. I guess also the birds found out about it, but I don't mind, if they eat it up.

The last one is hanging beside our main door.

When standing in front of our entrance I made also a photo of little dwarfs village, that has an autumn touch too:

Do you remember "lutin-village"? Have a look for my last years deco project here.

I hope the sun comes back for some more lovely days. I even had to light up the fireplace to get the house warm. This comes a bit sudden after a very hot summer and a warm September.

A bientôt,
Jane

want to see some more fall crowns? Here are those I made in 2014. They have been even more pretty I think.

Bamboo forest for pandas

Little son has been invited to an anniversary and his friend wanted to have pandas. I bought them, but they looked so lost as they had been sold in a plastic bag. I tried to buy a small bamboo plant for them, but couldn't find any that were right for a childrens room. So I had to craft something ...

I cut a circle from wood and in the same size a circle from green thick felt. In the felt I pounced holes where the trees have to stay and glued it to the wood. I drilled small holes in the wood and put in about 5cm long pins. The bamboo trunks are real ones that I cut from a bamboo in the neighbourhood. Of course the real leaves are much too big, so I cut out paper leaves and fixed them with scotch. The result is so nice my both sons would have loved to keep it! 

I think the panda family is looking quite happy and the little girl who got it yesterday is happy too. Win-win!

A bientôt,

Jane