Pegboard Advent Calendar

The new John Lewis Christmas ad has appeared on our TV's, which means I can now mention the C word on my blog once again. The last few months have flown by and I can't believe that Christmas is almost here again. I'm determined to be organised this year and get the Christmas presents bought before the beginning of December, and it all seems to be going to plan so far. The tree won't be going up for another month as the decorator is coming to finish off our lounge just before then, although I will probably be pestered into putting one in the kitchen at the beginning of the month.

Last year I made a gingerbread house advent calendar, but I've kept it nice and simple this year with a pegboard advent calendar on my desk (waiting for the decorator to come before I hang it on the wall).

It takes only a few minutes to put together, and you can hang your favourite chocolates on it. I used these Lindor chocolate orange truffles, but if you want to go for a Scandi look you could use the milk truffles in red packaging.

You will need :

length of ribbon

24 mini pegs

Sharpie pen

24 sweets/chocolates

• tie loops in both ends of your ribbon & attach to hooks on your pegboard or wall
• number your pegs from 1 to 24 with the Sharpie
• place each peg over the ribbon, gripping both the ribbon and the edge of a chocolate wrapper

It's a simple, yet effective, advent calendar that can be used year after year with your favourite chocolates

I bought both the ribbon and pegs from Ebay.

As always, Lindt has a fab range of Christmas chocolates, including the famous Reindeer, and these mini Santas, bears and Santas Helpers, which make great stocking fillers.

I wonder how long it will be before they disappear from my desk!

I received a selection of Lindt chocolate to use in this post

Vodka Bottle Soap Dispenser

I've mentioned before that I'm a bit of a hoarder - not a messy hoarder with piles of newspapers stacked around the house, but one of those that keeps an empty spirits bottle because it looks nice, or a piece of ribbon from a nicely packaged pair of pyjamas because you never know when you might need a piece of ribbon that length/colour. So when my lovely friend Maude (her real name is Michelle, but I'll call her Maude to protect her identity) mentioned over drinks one night (rather a lot of drinks to be honest so I'm surprised I can remember the conversation at all) that she uses an empty vodka bottle as a soap dispenser, I stored that nugget of useful information ready for when it came in handy.

I remember her telling me that you need to look for the right kind of hand soap to go in the bottle - there's no point in having green or blue in a vodka bottle as that won't look right, and the bottle needs to have a screw cap and be the same size as the bottle of hand soap. With this in mind I scoured the hand soap aisle in Asda for a clear hand soap and came across one scented with bergamot and lime. The tube inside was a little too short for my vodka bottle which means I'll have to refill the bottle before it comes to an end, or I could switch the tube for a longer one, but the finished article looks great in the downstairs toilet, ready for guests to wonder why I have a bottle of vodka on the sink!

Gifts for Teachers - Tin Can Flowerpots

It might be cutting it a bit fine to make gifts for the teachers but there could still be time to make these cut little pots. I got the inspiration a few months back from the lovely Annie, and made a few for our seedlings. Unfortunately I'm not too green fingered & they died a miserable death. I've decided to try again but this time we will be giving the young plants away in the hope of a better life elsewhere.

We did have a bit better luck with the flower seeds that we planted a few weeks ago and they're thriving so I thought it would be a nice idea to give some to the Preschool staff along with a copy of Red Ted Art (a book full of crafts for kids) that I was lucky enough to get signed by Maggy herself at BritMums Live.

First of all I cut strips of paper to cover the cans with - a sheet of A4 cut lengthways was just the right width. 

The husband drilled a few holes in the base of each can and 3 spaced around the sides near the top edge for the twine.

We stamped the paper with the names of each member of staff and whilst I cooked dinner Jack decorated them with stickers. I was very impressed with the stickering, he made them look amazing.

The labels were taped in place on the cans.

We then carefully filled the cans halfway up and potted our small plants into the cans and topped them up with compost.

3 equal lengths of twine were cut for each can and threaded through the holes around the edge of the can with a knot tied at each end and tied together at the top.

A very cheap, and cute,  gift for teachers.

If you're looking for alternative ideas take a look at some of those below, as well as this list of 25 handmade gifts for grown ups, written by Lucy, who is currently living the good life in New Zealand where she regularly writes about attachment parenting, baby wearing and extended breastfeeding.

Gifts for teachers - chocolate truffles

Gifts for teachers - Hot Chocolate Spoons

Gifts for teachers - Make ahead Cookies

How to Make a Nappy Cake with Boots {#cbias}

On Saturday mornings I take my 10 year old Hanna to swimming club for 7am, meaning that we need to leave the house around 6.30. This week it was -3 degrees when we got in the car and cleared the windscreen of frost. I dropped her at swimming before going to the nearby supermarket to do the weekly shop, and then back to the leisure centre to watch the last half an hour of swimming.

We then headed off to Boots so I could carry out my Shoppertunity™ for Social Fabric. I was firstly required to browse for products that I wanted to buy using the Boots.com mobile site before going in store to shop. If you have a QR reader it's simple to access the mobile site by scanning the QR code displayed on the laptop/pc screen, alternatively the mobile site can be accessed directly by entering boots.com into your mobile phone browser, without having to download an app beforehand. 

I browsed using my mobile phone the previous evening and located the items that I needed to make a Nappy Cake for the arrival of my stepdaughter's baby, due next month. Two of the items that I needed were out of stock online so I had my fingers crossed that they would be available in store. I wasn't too impressed by the advertising banner at the bottom of the screen as it was easily clicked by mistake as I scrolled down the page. Apart from that, it was easy to navigate around the various departments or search for specific items using the search box.

As it was still early on Saturday morning I used the mobile site to check the store opening times before we arrived. Thankfully it opened at 8.30 and we arrived shortly afterwards, around 8.45am. By this time the weather had warmed up a few degrees, the sun was shining and the sky was the bluest I have seen it in a long time.

You can see how we got on with our shop by visiting my Boots Shopping Experience Google+ Album

How to make a Nappy Cake

you will need from Boots :

1 pack of 25 Newborn (size 1) Nappies

3 Muslin squares

1 300ml Bottle of baby wash

3 pairs of baby socks

In addition you will need :

Elastic bands

Ribbon

Cake board (optional)

Cellophane wrap

Roll each nappy loosely and secure with an elastic band

Position 6 rolled nappies around a bottle of baby wash and secure with a larger elastic band 

Position 12 more rolled nappies around the first 6 and secure with a larger elastic band, or ribbon or string, and stand on a cake board if you're using one

For the second layer secure the remaining 7 nappies in the same way that you did with the first 6, around the bottle and then remove the nappies carefully

Open one of the muslin squares out and refold it lengthways to fit around the outside of the bottom layer of nappies, tucking it underneath and folding over the top

Loosely roll a second muslin square around the top of the bottle

Sit the second layer of nappies on the first and wrap the third muslin square around in the same way as you did with the first

Roll each sock up individually, with the roll over top on the outside and position around the rolled up muslin



Secure each layer with ribbon and a strip of tape

Finish off by wrapping in cellophane - you can find out how to make a cellophane gift bag in a previous post of mine here.

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® #CBias #SocialFabric.

How to Make a Silicone LEGO Brick Mould

After posting a picture of my Lego cake I was asked a few times about the silicone that I used to make the mould for the bricks, so here's my best attempt at a tutorial.

The Silicone Plastique can be bought from online retailers as well as Amazon & Ebay. I bought a 200g tub for £14.95 from The Cake Decorating Company, and whilst it doesn't seem much 200g would make approx 25 of these small Lego brick moulds.

The Silicone Plastique comes in 2 parts which need to be mixed together to work with. My advice would be to only mix as much as you need as you can't re-use it once it has cured.

It really is that simple. You can then use the mould for chocolate, sugarpaste or clay to make cake decorations, keyrings or pieces of jewellery - the possibilites are endless.

Simple Home-made place card holders & sweetie trees

We've got 11 for Christmas dinner this year so instead of paying out for 11 place card holders that I probably wouldn't use again for a long time, I decided to make some. They're very simple and all you need is some binder clips and spray paint.

I used silver spray paint to match our Christmas table and sprayed the black part of the clip whilst holding onto the other end, and then hanging them on a skewer held between 2 surfaces whilst they dried.

You can then use the clips to hold a name card, or an envelope containing a scratch card as I've done here.

If my colour scheme changes the next time I have 11 for dinner I can just re-spray them...simple.

I have also been inspired by a friend who has been making sweetie trees on the lead up to Christmas and selling them at her local school Christmas Fair. Whilst I was in Hobbycraft a couple of weeks ago I had a look to see what I could use to make one or two for our Christmas dinner table. I picked up some floral oasis balls, a block of oasis, some cinnamon sticks and small buckets.

I covered the oasis ball with foil, stuck one end of the cinnamon stick into it and the other end into a piece of the oasis in the bucket. I inserted one end of a cocktail stick into a sweet (Quality Street) and the other end into the ball, and repeated this until the ball was completely covered. I covered over the oasis in the bucket with a piece of coloured card cut to size, which also helped steady the ball as it was quite top heavy once covered in sweets.

I'll be placing two of these on the dinner table for guests to graze on.

Home-made Christmas Wreath

After being inspired by Mum in the Madhouse to try drying my own orange slices I thought I would have a go at making a Christmas wreath like hers too. It wasn't until I'd hacked a few branches off the Blue Spruce in the back garden and checked the post for instructions how to make the branches into a wreath that I realised Jen had used a pre-made wreath, whoops. 

Determined that somehow I was going to make the wreath I turned to Google, and the legendary Martha Stewart for help. Unfortunately the advice there was to buy a frame to attach the foliage. I then remembered that there was a hideous wire coat hanger in our bedroom that the husband had acquired when he recently had his suit dry cleaned. I'd kept the coat hanger even though I can't stand the things as you just never know when something like this will come in handy. I shaped it into a circular shape and located some wire and pliers, along with cinnamon sticks and ribbon.

I bent strips of wire into hairpin shapes and used them to attach the foliage to the coat hanger by twisting the ends together tightly, and then did the same with the dried orange slices and cinnamon sticks. I used needle & thread to attach the ribbon bows.

 

As the coat hanger already had a ready made hook I used that to hook over a wreath hanger.

I was really pleased with the result and hope that it survives the next couple of weeks with the wind and rain battering it against the front door.

Pumpkin Carving - How to Impress Your Friends

I first discovered the art of Pumpkin carving when we lived in the US and I bought a pumpkin carving kit that came with a booklet of templates. Prior to this I just hacked out a face with a bread knife and the result wasn't pretty.

There are lots of free templates that you can find online and here are a few websites where you can download them :

pumpkinpile

orangeandblackpumpkin

Disney

Pumpkin Masters

You can buy the carving kits from Supermarkets or online and they usually consist of a knife/saw, scoop and a poker for pricking holes through your template. There are also more advanced tools for some of the more complicated designs but for for the simpler designs you'll just need these 3 items.

First of all you need to slice the top of your pumpkin, it's easier to draw a line where you want it before cutting.

Then scoop out all of the seeds and some of the flesh, leaving the pumpkin around an inch thick - don't throw the seeds away as they can be roasted to make a snack.

 

Next you will need to choose a template - make sure you choose one that's not too large for your pumpkin - some of them show the best shape pumpkins for that template.

Attach the template to the outside of the pumpkin.

 

Using the poker punch holes around the edges of the parts that you need to cut out

Once the complete template has been traced then take it off the pumpkin & you will be left with a pin prick design of your template

 

Now it's time to carve the pieces out - careful if some of the lines are close together. You should be able to take the unwanted piece out or press it through into the pumpkin.

When all the pieces have been carved out place a tea light inside, light it, replace the lid and sit back and enjoy your handiwork before putting outside to impress your neighbours.

Homemade Crayons

I've seen various homemade crayons on Pinterest so when, after our Sylvanian Families party earlier in the week, we had lots of broken crayons I decided, instead of throwing them away, to keep them. I was helped by Hanna and a friend to peel that paper off the crayons and sort them into colours.

I bought a jigsaw piece silicone mould off Ebay and then myself and Jack filled the cavities with broken pieces of crayon.

 

We then baked them in the oven at 140°C for 10-15 minutes until the crayons had melted.

Once the crayons had set (with the help of a few minutes in the freezer because we're impatient) I turned them out and Jack tried them out

We made some single coloured crayons and mixed others to make multicoloured crayons. They would be great as party bag fillers and you can get silicone moulds in lots of different designs - I particularly like the Lego men crayons.