Christmas Creativity and more!

So this is me, right about now! 35 weeks pregnant and surrounded by Christmas. I'm not really sure exactly what I want to say today, I just know that I really, really want to write a blog entry... so here goes!

I've been having lots and lots of fun with Christmas this year. Yet again I did leave way too much until the last week before Christmas, but I still managed to really enjoy the busyness of it all. Money is tight for us at the moment, so we had to be really organised and plan all our presents in advance, making sue that we weren't going to blow our bank account! I've done home made gifts for quite a few years now, but this year was a little different as I would usually go down the edible gifts route, but instead made bubble bath and sewed some purses out of some of my Japanese Kimono fabrics that I love so much! The inspiration for the purses came from a book I've been reading, and I made my first one for my Mum's birthday in early December. I was so proud that I'd made something that actually looked nice, and that I'd been able to teach myself. I loved the sewing and I feel like I'm discovering a real passion for it through making these gifts. This is something I really want to develop next year, because I know how much I love making things from fabrics and I really want to learn more techniques and skills. Anyway, here are a couple of photos I took of some of the purses:

The bubble bath was great fun too, and so easy to make! You can buy 'bubble bath base' online, my favourite website for soap making is the soap kitchen which I've found to be the best value for money and the greatest range of products. To the bubble bath base, I added a range of essential oils that I thought would smell nice, mixed it together and put it into some gorgeous bottles, which I also found online, here after hours of searching! The hardest part was getting the bubble bath into the bottles, which I eventually did with a disposable piping bag (after a few messy attempts!). A little photo for you:

My daughter also made her own gifts of glycerine soap and chocolate truffles. The soap was really fun, you buy glycerine and then melt it and add essential oils, colours and even flowers and herbs, let it harden and then cut out shapes using biscuit cutters! Chocolate truffles are also incredibly fun to make with children, as all you do is melt the chocolate, add cream and any other flavours (we added brandy!), let it cool overnight and then dust your hands with cocoa powder and roll into balls!

It blew me away just how much my daughter, Amber, loves giving. She was just so excited to give gifts to people. On Christmas eve, she was busy at her creativity desk, and later on after she'd gone to bed I found this pile of presents, all drawings she'd done, cut out and then wrapped in more paper and masking taped together under the Christmas tree! The wrapping paper said things like "mama" on them and had little smiley faces next to the names! It was so adorable it brought tears to my eyes! She had also 'borrowed' my fabrics and 'wrapped up' some of her toys and put them under the tree, I will never forget her reaction when I opened up her plastic phone and acted really excited, her little face just lit up, it was gorgeous! I love involving her in present making, and I think it will get more and more fun the more capable she gets, as there are still lots of things that are quite difficult for her to manage.

I have loved decorating our cottage this year, being in this home, I have just wanted to spread Christmas everywhere, and I've realised that I'm very much a traditional girl at heart, I love bringing foliage into the house and I love gingham, yep, I'm a self- confessed gingham addict! I made quite a few things out of foliage, including a wreath for the front door, a 'swag' over the fireplace and a table centrepiece. When I was making these arrangements, I kept thinking over and over in my head 'I love this, I was born to do this'! It was wierd, I just got lost in it. Here are some pics:

So lots and lots of photos of our living room! It's so fun to discover that I love something- like foliage arrangements. Christmas has really inspired me to 'get going' and keep making things... I'm seriously hoping I'll have my own little business up and running this year. I'd better have our new baby first though! It's quite fun to  have the 'excuse' of being pregnant, as it has meant that I've had to stay at home, which has given me more time to discover what I love and start playing around with ideas. Even if I wanted to get a job, I couldn't right now and I think it's all beginning to make sense to me. The idea of having a creative business and being a Mum, just suits me down to the ground right now.

I'm hoping I'll be able to blog a big more regularly in the new year as I try and fit everything into my day! I'll leave you for now (as I'm aching as only a pregnant woman can!).