I know I said I wasn’t going to make a round wreath but I just couldn’t resist! I made the simplest one ever but it looks good. And It didn’t cost much either.

You’ll need: Nice wrapping paper (lucky us it’s Xmas and they have fab wrapping papers everywhere!), a round polystyrene wreath, some dress making pins and a pair of scissors.

Cut 2 cm strips (about an inch) from your paper, and cut those long strips in 10 cm piece (about 5”).

Join the two ends together, apply to the wreath and pin it in place.

Go all the way round, I did about 5 rows, you can do as many or as little as you want depending on the size of your wreath.

Et voila! You’re all finished!

I was thinking of making a round Xmas wreath, but my eldest son is really into snowflakes at the moment (probably because it hasn’t snowed yet!) so I made a giant snow flake to hang on our door.

You will need: a big bag of lollipop sticks, hot gun glue, some metallic white paint, some PVA glue, and glitter the colour of your choice!

Start by arranging the lollipop sticks so that you know where to glue them.

Hot gun glue your lollipop sticks together, just a tiny amount is enough.

I guess you can use some PVA glue, but it takes longer to set and with my impatient boys it’s a bad combination (who am I kidding, I’m the impatient one)..

Once you’re all set you need to mix some metallic white paint with some PVA glue and some (actually a lot, I just love the stuff!) glitter.

Just apply on your snowflake everywhere, let it dry, hang it et voila!

My youngest boy is in the Xmas play at school and he’s a star! (I knew that already). I volunteer at the school and the (lovely) teacher asked me to help with the decorations. I made a few stars and that gave me an idea for a Xmas decoration project to do with my kiddies. Hanging woollen stars! Either to hang on the Xmas tree or to hang from the ceiling, you know wherever tickles your fancy!

You will need a star template, cardboard, white wool, hot gun glue, PVA glue, white metallic paint and Glitter.

Just cut out your template and reproduce it on your card board as many times as you want. We cut three different sizes.

Then paint your cardboard with the white metallic paint, let it dry.

Start by applying a tiny dot of hot glue to stick your wool on one end of the star.

and wrap your star with the wool. Go round and round until you’re happy with how it looks.

Hot gun glue the end of your wool to the card board. And dot some glue every now and then to help keep it in place.

Mix the PVA glue with the glitter.

and glitter the hell out of your stars!!

Let it dry, with a needle insert an invisible thread and hang it where you want! Et Voila!

Hope you had fun making this, good luck clearing all the glitter away now!!

We went for our Xmas meal yesterday evening with the girlfriends and we usually take this opportunity to have our secret Santa. I just love it! We used to have secret Santa for our kiddies but quite frankly, they get enough toys as it is and we decided to treat ourselves instead. I mean we really deserve it anyway!

Here is what I got: A little hand-made bag with inside it a pair of embroidery scissors. I adore the Michael Miller fabric that she used! It’s just so me!

And I knew nearly instantly who offered me this lovely present as the Eiffel Tower theme gave it away!

My lovely friend J. (hi love!) sewed it for me and she usually manages to find a little Eiffel Tower when it’s my birthday! Thank you, it’s just so thoughtful! xxx

As we’re off to France for three weeks for the Xmas holidays, we need to pack up a few toys for the boys. The recurrent favourite toy that we must absolutely have to bring with us is Lego. Yes, no surprises there, especially since I have not two but three fans of Lego. So the trouble is to find a way to pack them, find a place to play, and find a way for my not-so-keen-on-tidying-up-such-tiny-pieces-cause-it-takes-forever-mum-please-help-boys to pack it up quick and easily. So I thought of a solution and here is what I done:

you will need some fabric (you may want to use two different fabrics but i used only one in this project), a pair of fabric scissors, a tape measure, some thread, some ribbon or some thin rope and some interfacing.

Start by folding your fabric in 4 and decide how big the radius of your circle should be. Mine I decided would be 14″1/2. Then with a fabric marker trace from the corner outward a little dot every now and then at 14″1/2.

Now you can join the dots together and trace a line. Cut an inch away from that line so you end up with a quarter of a circle:

Unflod it and you now have a circle! you need to cut a second one either from another fabric or the same…

I wanted the bottom of the pouch to be a bit more sturdy so I ironed in the middle of both circles some interfacing:

measure 1″3/4 away from the border and mark a dot on the fabric you will use for the inside of the pouch. then 3/4″ away from that dot mark another dot:

repeat this process an inch away from the mark you have just drawn:

Now that’s the hardest part in the project: making button holes with your machine. Usually everything should be explained very simply and clearly on you sewing machine manual. But if you have troubles with it, just let me know and i will do a tutorial on it.

now pin your fabrics right sides together:

Sew 3/4 of an inch away from the border all the way round leaving a 4″ opening:

Before turning the fabric inside out you must clip the fabric all the way round in order for the circle to look nice and smooth:

turn your fabric right side out and press:

top stitch all the way round to close the cirlce:

mark all around your fabric two dots: one at one inch and the other at 1″3/4:

you must now sew all the way round, an inch away from the border:

now sew 1″3/4 away from the border:

and you should have something looking like this:

insert your cord or ribbon inside one button hole (if you use ribbon, insert it with the help of a safety pin attached to it):

and there you have it! A lego pouch:

I used ribbon instead of the cord as it was too thick and would stick to the fabric… so if you want to use cord I recommend the thin silky type as it would slide better between the fabrics.

I just love how it turned out! I am now thinking of making one for each Lego theme my son has. I will find some star wars fabrics for his star wars Lego collection, some aeroplanes fabrics for his airport Lego collection… and try to keep inside each pouch the instructions to go with it.. Hope you’ll have fun making this! any questions you know where to find me!