Merry Christmas

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and I hope that you enjoy the time spent with family this holiday season. Tomorrow I'll be celebrating with my children, husband and a few of my extended family members which I'm looking forward to. I'm praying that GOD blesses us all tomorrow with cooler weather and that in the coming year he'll bless each and everyone of you.

I thought I'd share a few of our treasured Christmas memories from this year and I'll hopefully see you in 2014. This holiday season I'm looking forward to spending more time with these little people because they grow up so quickly. My eldest daughter is off to school next year and my other daughter is starting kindergarten. This means that after nine years of been a mummy I'm going to have my baby boy all to myself two days a week while everyone else is off learning. I'm going to have to get organised and plan some fun things because before you know it he'll be off to school and I'll before you know it I'll be all alone.\

Thank you for all your comments this year and all the support you have shown me I really appreciate it and I'm grateful for your continued support. I'm taking the time over Christmas to think what my family's needs are for next year and that might mean that my blog takes a backseat for a while. However, I will let you all know whats going on in the New Year.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Stay safe this holiday season.

Megan

A Crafty Christmas - Christmas Tree

I'm participating in a fun crafty challenge with Emily from Nap-Time Creations today. She's hosting different bloggers who are sharing things that they've crafted, sewn or cooked to help celebrate the meaning of Christmas. I signed up for Decorations from the recipe category. If you've visited here before you'll know I ENJOY cooking so I thought I'd challenge myself by making a decoration.

I can't believe it'll be Christmas soon and I've still got a heap of work to get done before the big day. This year I was planning on spending the day at home celebrating with the children instead of cooking up a family treat to drive for over an hour to meet up with our extended family. Now don't get me wrong I love that the kids get to see their grandparents and cousins but with the amount of traffic and the fact I don't get time to relax. So this year when I found out my parents were travelling to visit my sister and her family I knew that staying home would work perfectly for us, that was until this morning.

My youngest sister is moving out of home just before Christmas so I invited her over for lunch, easy right. I'd planned a simple menu of fruit, turkey, salad followed by Pavlova and maybe a drink especially if it was an extremely hot day. Well I'm now having to change my plans up a bit because my sister has told me that she's asked my brother and his girlfriend to come too. Now don't get my wrong, I'm not upset I have just realised that I'm going to have to be more organised as he's having to travel back home to his girlfriends place that afternoon for her families celebration. So I'm now thinking a light lunch with cold turkey and salad followed by a Shortbread Christmas Tree which will also be a table decoration. Thank you Pinterest.

To make the shortbread biscuits I used the same recipe from here but you could also use this recipe that I made last Christmas. Now to make it a little bit more special I added about a quarter cup of crushed candy canes which were leftover from the Candy Cane Bark earlier this month. So after making the shortbread dough I rolled it out and I shaped into star's. Now because I'm creating a tree I used three different sized cookie cutters to get the three star shapes.

Construction

There are few things that you can do with your shortbread biscuits to make them stick together but I wanted the bits of candy cane to be visible so I went with a minimal approach in order for the little bits of red to stand out. you could use a simple cake icing and spread it over each biscuit, place on top of each other and press down so they glue together. The method I used was to melt a small amount of white chocolate, place a small amount on your largest star, place another large star on top and press down gently so that it sticks. Keep building with the various sized stars.

When it's the way you want it place it somewhere safe so that the chocolate can harden completely. I made this while the kids were at home and I found it somewhat difficult because they stood on top of me so close that it was squashy. When I put the tree together, I had four sets of eyes watching closely this also caused a few issues when taking photographs but I finally bribed them with leftover shortbread and I got a few good pictures.

As you can see from the looks on their faces they really like the look of the table decoration so I'm sure that when I make these again on Christmas Eve the children will probably eat these first before they eat the food from their plates. My two year old loves shortbread so much that he asks for more every time I give them some for morning tea. Now that I'm having nine people for Christmas lunch I'm thinking I'll make two tree's and make them the centre pieces on Christmas Day. So do you use food to decorate your table or do you use a beautiful tablecloth and other traditional items to decorate your table?

Megan

Christmas Ornament Exchange

Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in two Christmas Ornament Exchanges and boy did I have fun organising my ornaments. The first exchange was been ran by Kelly, Kristi and Claire and I was really excited to get started on my ornament.

I spent a bit of time thinking about what I could do especially as I had a $5 budget and I wanted something that would last a while and that wouldn't break while been mailed especially as it was going all the way to Canada. I knew a little bit about my exchange partner Elizabeth especially as we'd emailed each other a few times prior to getting started.

I hope Elizabeth likes what I've done for her and that it goes well with her other decorations. Thanks you to the hosts for organising this exchange.

Now for the second exchange I signed up through Amy at One Artsy Mama to participate again with her ornament exchange. I did Amy's exchange last year and although I had a few issues with the posting due to our posties taking holiday's over the Christmas holiday period my ornaments arrived in early January. This year I'm hoping that Geri from Mount Vernon likes what I did for her.

Geri told me that she had eleven trees so I felt pretty safe when getting her an ornament however the one thing I wanted to do was give her something Australian for her International Tree but unfortunately we don't have Christmasy (is that even a word)  Australia Ornaments. So here is what I created for Geri.

Geri told me that she loved PINK and as soon as I saw these I knew what I had to do. This is the same pink spray paint that I painted my pantry storage containers last month. I also sprayed a bit of the paint onto the string so that if the reindeer hung down from the tree a bit you'd also get to see the pint.

So what do you think? I'm really happy with both my ornaments and I hope my exchange partners like what I've done for them. Now here's hoping that they both arrive in time to make it on the Christmas Tree this year especially as I know the postal service is working overtime at this time of the year.

Megan

Christmas Tree: Ribbon Wrapped Tree

I've had a few polyfoam cones lying around the house since last Christmas season and I got to thinking that I probably should get around to using them otherwise they'll still be sad looking Christmas Trees next year. After searching Pinterest I found a few different trees that I liked the look of and with these images pinned to my Christmas board I got to thinking about what I wanted to achieve.

Last year I attempted a ribbon tree and it just didn't work out very well as the ribbon I'd used had an elastic band made it difficult to attach to the polyfoam cone. My mother loved it so I gifted it to her and she ended up using it on her Christmas mantel. So this year I was looking for something similar when I stumbled across some fabric wrapped trees at Landee See Landee Do. Her simple instructions are easy and that was what I was looking for.

Supplies Needed:

polyfoam cone

ribbon

sewing pins

1. Take two pieces of ribbon and pin them over the point the of the cone so that it creates a cross. Push the pins down on a 45 degree angle so they don't stick out the sides.

2. Tuck the start of the ribbon under one of the pieces of ribbon that formed the cross. If it's too lose undo one of the pins and place the ribbon under the cross and secure it with the pin again.

3. Begin wrapping ribbon around the cone as you make your way down the cone. Pin every once in while to secure it. Just a tip, place the pin near the bottom of the ribbon so the next layer covers the pin.

4. As you get to the bottom, try pinning the ribbon under the the cone. If your ribbon isn't wide enough work your down the bottom of the cone and then fold it on a 45 degree angle, securing the ribbon under the bottom of the cone.

5. I also placed a pin inside the fold so that the ribbon didn't  become unfolded. Now if you are worried that the pin might damage the surface its going to sit on you could try gluing a piece of felt on the bottom of the cone.

I've got a few more polyfoam cones in different sizes plus some silver ribbon so I'm going to wrap a few with silver ribbon to create a small little Ribbon Wrapped Christmas Tree community. I'll just have to find a safe place to put them so that four sets of little fingers don't get them before the big day.

So what do you think? The possibilities for these trees are endless, you could use fabric, burlap, a jumper, sequins. See I told you, endless possibilities.

Megan

Edible Christmas Gifts

Over the weekend I was invited to a birthday party and I wasn't sure what to get the birthday girl so I opted for a Edible Gift. Now with it been so close to Christmas you could also use these as gifts for unexpected guests, neighbours or even as a Secret Santa gift. Now this little project only took a couple of hours to do because I had to wait for my cookies to cool down but you could make them the night before and decorate them the following morning if you wanted to.

 

The best thing about this gift is you can make your their favourite cookie because you know they'll end up eating them. I went with a Shortbread biscuit because it was simple and I always have success with Shortbread. I also used a cookie cutter to get a star shape but you can simply save yourself time by forming cookies out of your dough. This is the recipe I used for my Shortbread.

 

 

Shortbread

Ingredients:

250g butter, softened

1 cup Castor sugar

1 cup cornflour

2 cups plain flour

 

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 150°C and grease a baking tray.

2. Cream butter and sugar until its light, fluffy and it looks white.

3. Sift cornflour and flour together. Mix on a slow speed until your mixture forms a ball.

4. On a lightly floured surface knead well and roll out to a thickness of about 0.5cm.

5. Using your cookie cutter, cut out your shapes or just cut into pieces.

6. Place on your greased tray and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

7. Leave on the baking tray to harden slightly once they have come out of the oven, then place on a wire cooling rack.

 

Now with this simple recipe I was able to present three in three different ways, thus making them ideal for gift giving. I could use the as Christmas Presents, Birthday Presents or as a House warming present. You are only limited by your imagination. So with this in mind here is what I came up with.

 

 

Now because I wanted to give these as a birthday gift I decided to dress them up a little to make them prettier. If I was giving these as Christmas gifts I would have crushed a few candy cane and sprinkled them over the top of the chocolate just to add a bit of colour. Once decorated I placed each biscuit into a small clear cake bag however, next time I would put them on a pretty plate to give out. The plate would also be included in the gift.

 

 

On the day of the birthday party my father was there so I also gave him some Shortbread as a house warming present. This way he would have something sweet and nice to eat while having a cup of tea after spending hours unpacking boxes. Next time I have to find a house warming gift I'm going to package up some yummy cookies, tea and coffee so that the new home owners will have a nice treat at the end of a long day unpacking.

 

 

So what do you think are edible gifts a good idea or do you like to give personal gifts? I'm happy with these as I know that both the birthday girl and my father will enjoy eating the cookies and I've saved them from having to find a place for their gifts.

 

Megan

Ombre Christmas Ornament

Christmas is getting closer and I've been madly pinning things to my Pinterest board in the hope of actually getting some Christmas ornaments made this year. Last week I showed you my Bell Wreath Christmas Ornament which you can find here and that little baby is going off to my daughter's Kindy teacher. Now giving gift to teacher's is great but our tree really needs some ornaments too, especially this year as I've decided to go with a colour theme. I've decided to use purple and silver as I really love those two colours together and it's somewhat regal.

 

My daughter's are super excited as purple is their FIRST favourite colour closely followed by every other colour of the rainbow. So when I found this DIY Ombre Ornament I just knew I had to make it straight away. I quickly glanced at the materials needed and off to the shops I went. That was my first mistake as I hadn't read the instructions properly and I hadn't looked at the pictures correctly either. I purchased a bag of polystyrene balls instead of using the plastic baubles that Heather used. My second mistake was I didn't grab enough paint samples from the hardware store so I had to punch my 1 inch circles out and I have the name of the paint showing.

Source

Now the rule generally is that you'll usually make three mistakes before your 'bad luck' has finished and this is true to form for me. So I had one more mistake to make. In my defence I've been on my own with the children for the last three days as my husband is away on business so I'm extremely tired because the children haven't been sleeping like they usually do. I knew I was tired and impatient as I really wanted to get one of these baubles finished so I could show it off to the girls.

 

Now Heather has great instructions and she also took part in a craft video that'll show you each step and how it should look. I didn't watch the video and I just skimmed the instructions because I thought how hard can it be? It was hard, the first step of sticking down the one inch circle on the bottom of the bauble was by far the easiest.

 



 

As you can see I have no structure to my ornament. I think that my bauble was smaller than Heather's and my one inch circle punch is too big. I did achieve the Ombre effect but it's not your prettiest ornament and I now if these were hanging in the shop this Christmas season I would walk right past them as they don't appeal to me.

 

I'm going to keep this ornament and hang it on the Christmas Tree but I'm now on the look out for something else I can do with the other eleven silver baubles as we have too much silver for our tree and not enough purple ornaments. I'd love to hear about any problems you've had and what did you do with the ornament? Tell me I'm not the only DIYer on the planet who's ever had a fail.

 

Megan

Bell Wreath Christmas Ornament

With Christmas only 47 days away so I've decided to get started on a few DIY Christmas ornaments that we'll be giving to the teacher's this year. Mackenna loves her Kindy teacher. This can mean we'll spend ages at the shops looking for the 'perfect gift' and this busy end of year school mum ain't no body got time for that. So with this mindset I knew we had to start putting our thinking caps on now or else I'd be running around like a headless chook trying to find a gift that none of the other mother's would have gotten. 

 

I search Pinterest for some inspiration and I was able to find a few things that I thought Mackenna would like to give Karen as a gift. One of the ornaments that she really liked was Martha Stewart's button wreath ornament and it seemed really easy to make, so we took a trip to the local $2 dollar store to see what we could find. Now Martha's version requires 72 buttons, there was only one packet that contained 24 buttons so this meant I'd have to purchase three packets but as the store only had one packet left I needed more buttons. When I added up the costs involved for all the materials as I only had scissors it just didn't seem like a quick and inexpensive present. So while we were searching for additional buttons I found a packet of gold Sleigh Bells. So I grabbed this packet with Mackenna's blessing and we then popped over to Lincraft to get some ribbon.

I've written up a tutorial on how I made the Bell Wreath but I did get Mackenna to help a few times were it was possible.

 

Materials Needed

• Needle nose pliers
• Pipe cleaners
• Sleigh Bells
• Scissors
• Satin ribbon
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Steps

1. Using pliers, make a small loop at one end of the pipe cleaner. I trimmed some of the fibres off both ends just so that I could see what I was working with.

2. Thread the bells onto the pipe cleaner until you have enough to form the size of the wreath you want. My packet of sleigh bells came in three different sizes so I just threaded a small, medium and large bell on repeating this pattern until it would make a wreath.

 

3. Using the pliers, bend the plain end of the pipe cleaners around the looped end. This will form the wreath. If you have too much of the pipe cleaner left cut off any excess.

4. Cut a piece of ribbon to make a loop for hanging the wreath, tie the ribbon in a knot about three inches above the wreath. My piece of ribbon was nine inches long.

5. Tie a bow that you're happy with and glue it to the bottom of your loop just above the bells.

 

I had Mackenna help thread the bells onto the pipe cleaner and I made sure I asked her if she was happy with the way it looked while I moved through the steps. I'm really happy with the way the wreath turned out and this little Christmas ornament ended up costing me $1.00 which means we can now purchase a few small chocolates to accompany the Christmas ornament.

 

Giving Karen her gift at the end of November will allow her to add it to her Christmas tree this year and she can eat the chocolates during lunch time while at kindy. I have a few additional tasks for Mackenna as I want her to have more of a connection to the gift she is giving Karen. I'm going to get Mackenna to choose a few mini chocolate bars for Karen, I'm going to get her to wrap the present and Mackenna will practise her writing skills by writing a special note of thanks to Karen.

 

I'm really happy with my attempt at this bell wreath and I'm glad I tried something that I could find a tutorial for. So tell me will you be making your own ornaments this year, using the ornaments you already have, will you be purchasing new ones or will you be doing a combination of some of these options? I'm doing a combination of making some ornaments and using what we already have.

 

Megan

 

Sequined Baubles and Flower Bauble.

Welcome to the 12.12.12 and our fourth day in the 12 Days of Christmas. Today I want to show you some ornaments that I made with the children. I started off by asking the girls what colours they wanted to see on the Christmas tree and then we went to the shops to see what types of ornaments we could purchase. During our talk the girls had gotten really excited about having lots of balls (baubles) on the tree so I started looking for decorative baubles that were either purple, silver, glittery, shiny or just plain beautiful.

It was during this trip to the shops that I realised that I wanted to make a few baubles with the children so that we had something handmade on the Christmas tree. I went off to the craft store and I purchased a few supplies as I'd used up all my polystyrene balls last year, I also needed purple and silver sequins and last but not least I needed sewing pins and lots of them. When we arrived home I looked through some of my scrapbooking embellishments to see if there was anything else I might be able to use.

While Quinlan and Viveca were down for a sleep I sat down with Mackenna so that we could have a play with our craft items. The idea was to make a few baubles in both silver and purple for the Christmas tree BUT when crafting with Mackenna you should know that everything needs to be purple because according to her it's the best colour in the world.

 

As there are a heap of tutorials available, so I'll show you in pictures how I went about constructing both of the baubles.

 

I wanted to have the purple showing through the little
flowers. I used both purple and silver sequins for this bauble.

We thought that putting the purple over the silver would
make the bauble look less like a DISCO BALL.

 

So these are the two baubles that Mackenna and I made. I must admit it took a lot longer than what I'd planned and Mackenna didn't like pushing the pins into the ball. So I had Mackenna put the flowers and sequins on each pin and stock pill them so that I could place the sequins and flowers in the correct position. At the end of the day we both loved the time we spent together and the pretty decorations that we made for the tree.

 

Megan

Try Something New Tuesday # 7

 

Christmas Balls

 

Welcome to another instalment of Try Something New Tuesday. Last Friday I started my 12 days of Christmas series and because I didn't want you guys to miss out I've decided to share a Christmas classic with you. So today's recipe is a variation on one of my all time favourite Christmas foods Rum Balls. Now the variations I made are - I didn't use rum, no condensed milk and instead of using only coconut I also used Christmas sprinkles. The best thing about this is that you can give these away as gifts and you can also taste them as you make them. Whats even better you can always do a double batch, pop them in a air tight container and put them in your freezer to use when unexpected guests drop by.

 

 

Christmas Balls

Ingredients:

450g of Madeira cake

1 cup soft icing sugar, sifted

½ cup cocoa

orange juice - enough to make a moist mixture (can use rum)

coconut, sprinkles etc to coat

 

Directions:

1. Slice of the brown edges of your cake and then crumble the entire cake into a large bowl. You can let the kids eat the brown bits if they are hanging around.

2. Sift in cocoa and icing sugar, stirring well so that its evenly distributed. Break up any piece of cake that maybe too large. 

3. Pour in the orange juice until you have the right consistency and your mixture is coming together. Mix well.

4. Roll tablespoon full of mixture into balls and coat in your desired covering. Don't worry if you can see little bits of cake as it all comes together and they turn chocolately over time.

5. Keep them in an air tight container and freeze. You could also place them in a decorative jar and keep in the refrigerator until needed.

6. Enjoy.

 

The other great thing about this recipe is that with a couple of simple changes you can make them gluten free (just use a gluten free butter cake) or you could add honey comb, chocolate bar or crushed up candy canes to introduce a little surprise that the recipient won't be expecting. I hope that you enjoy them as much as my kids do.



Gluten Free Christmas Balls just for Mummy.

So with 14 sleeps left until Christmas these simply Christmas Balls are quick, tasty and really yummy to eat. See you back here tomorrow for day four of our 12 Days of Christmas series. I'm going to be sharing another Christmas ornament that you could incorporate into your Christmas Décor. Thanks for stopping by, I hope that you have an enjoyable day.

 

Megan

Charity starts at home... teaching your children to give.

 

 

 

With only 15 sleeps until Christmas Day I am spending time with the children trying to get them to see past the monetary and commercial aspects of Christmas Day and instead look more at the CHARITABLE side of Christmas. This year I'm going to have the children help me with my annual charitable event and maybe as the kids get older they will want to make this their 'family tradition'. For the last 18 years I have been participating in the Kmart Wishing Tree Appeal and this year The Salvation Army and Kmart are celebrating their 25 year anniversary.

 

 

I started my 'tradition of giving' the year after I'd finished high school way back in December 1994, I was working casually that a supermarket and I knew as soon as I saw the tree that I wanted to be part of The Salvation Army's event. Every year I've participated I have looked at what I can afford and I've bought gifts according to my budget. It's amazing the feelings that you experience during the whole process of looking for a present, wrapping the gift, placing your tag on the gift and then putting it under the Christmas Tree at your local store.

 

So this year I am taking the children to the shops, they will have a $15 budget and we are going to buy a gift for a child or adult of their choosing. As the shopping centres are busy and school officially finishes on Friday I am aiming to take Caelan and Viveca to the shops for a few hours on Friday while Mackenna finishes Kindy. Then on Saturday I will take Mackenna and Quinlan to our local shopping centre so that they can pick their gifts.

 

This then allows me the weekend to wrap the presents before sending them off with daddy on Monday so that he can place the presents under the Wishing Tree at Chermside. I have talked to the children about why we are doing this, explaining to them that there are people who are less fortunate than ourselves and I've answered their questions. I'm pretty sure that Caelan and Mackenna understand what we are doing and why BUT I'm sure that Viveca may protest somewhat when she realises that the pretty doll she has just paid for isn't for her.

 

So do you do anything charitable at Christmas? Do you do other things during the year? Leave a comment and share with me the things you and your family do to help others at Christmas time. I'll be back tomorrow with more Christmas cheer and a great recipe!

 

 

Megan

 

 



12 Days of Christmas

There are 18 sleeps until Christmas Day and like so many, my children are super excited that they will be receiving lots of presents. It's easy to see why we have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas, we spend hours shopping for gifts, preparing for celebrations leading up to the B I G day, planning the meal and ripping into the presents under the tree at lightning speed.

This year I want my children to see Christmas as a time of sharing and traditions - sharing gifts of course, but also sharing stories, laughter, good times as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus and with Quinlan been older I want a tradition that will be special to us. The simple things like decorating the tree and helping prepare for visiting family and friends are wonderful opportunities to remind ourselves and our children how important it is to bond with others. But Christmas shouldn't be the only time when we pause to celebrate Jesus and everything that he's done for us. I want the children to see past the presents, food and Christmas lights, I want them to understand the meaning behind the story, to realise the importance of the occasion while also taking the time to think about other people who are less fortunate than us.

So during the next 12 day's I'm going to create a few activities that help me and the kids share time together. We will make a few decorations together, create some Christmas inspired food and look at a few kid friendly religious activities. This year I'm going to have the children help me with my annual charitable event and maybe as the kids get older they will want to make this their 'family tradition'.
 

 

Caelan and Mackenna have noticed in the last few weeks that many of the Christmas pictures, cards and movies always have snow and Christmas trees that are covered in white stuff. Living in sunny Queensland there is no hope of experiencing a white Christmas so I set about trying to explain to them why some people have snow while other people have a hot Christmas.

I took Caelan out to Lincraft and we purchased a few items so that we could create a snow covered tree. Caelan lost interest in this little project really quickly so I ended up making most of the tree myself BUT I did get to explain the difference between our Christmas and a white Christmas. This project was easy and quick to complete. While in Lincraft,  I found some decorative elastic ribbon which I thought would be perfect for my little tree.

Because I used a polystyrene cone I wasn't able to use my hot glue gun so I just cut lengths of the elastic and I went about pinning it to the cone. I placed a purple glass bead on a sewing pin and then I inserted it through the elastic and into the cone, I placed a glass pin at the front and one at the back. As I worked my way around the cone I'd add a sewing pin in places that I thought needed it.

The elastic did slip but it's easily fixed so I just left it as it was. I folded some purple ribbon so that it looked like a star and I pinned it in place on top of the tree. I was really happy with the way it turned out and at night with the lights on it gives off a pearl shimmer effect.

The kids may have lost the message of what I was trying to create with them but there was a lesson behind our tree. My mother loved my tree so much that I gave it to her to use on her Christmas shelf and I then had the opportunity to talk to the children about how we shared the tree with Oomie (my mum's name for herself instead of Grandma). See you on Monday when I'll be trying out a kid's activity, fingers crossed that I can hold their interest. Enjoy your weekend.
 

Megan

Christmas Ornament Exchange

Early last month I put my name down to participated in Amy from One Artsy Mama's Ornament Exchange and because I live in Australia I knew that I had to post my ornament off before the 30th November due to the fact that it wouldn't arrive in time for Christmas. So I waited for Amy's email to arrive, I was like a kid in a candy store, I couldn't wait to find out who I was making an ornament for.

 

Amy contacted me with my partners details, the lovely Jessica from Cox's Corner was going to be my partner. Like me Jessica likes traditional ornaments and she also like traditional coloured ones. Jessica also has a girly, crafty and elegant side to her so I was fairly confident that making something for her was going to be simple. Unfortunately, when purchasing my craft supplies I wasn't able to follow a traditional colour scheme to the full extent however I went with a red and silver theme as I had difficulty finding gold sewing pins. It's always a little difficult finding craft supplies because we don't have the huge range of items over here and if we won't to buy overseas then we have to content with the price, postage and the wait for the items to arrive.

 

So taking the time I had available to make my ornament I decided to make Jessica two slightly different red baubles for her Christmas tree. I don't have any photo's of me making each bauble because I worked on them during the evening after the kids had gone to bed or during nap time and I either forgot to take pictures or the lighting would have been too bad to show you what I was doing. I am hoping that both my baubles fit in with the ornaments that Jessica already uses to decorate her Christmas tree.

 

 

The first bauble I made Jessica was a sequin bauble. To make this I used a polystyrene ball, sewing pins, a silver ribbon, large and small red sequins. All you do is put your pin through the hole in the small sequin and then thread it through the large sequin, this will help keep the large sequin in place. Then all you do is pin them into your polystyrene ball making sure to cover all the white of the ball. When you have a small section left (just enough for one sequin) put your sequins together, then push it through the ribbon and push it into the polystyrene ball.

 

 

The second bauble is a mixture of sequins and ribbon. I got the idea of creating a shape with the ribbon really late one night and I spent hours working on it. I had to play around with it and I would have to say that I probably spent more time working on that small quarter section of ribbon that what it took me to thread the sequins and position them in the correct place.

 

The silver section is a mixture of small and large sequins 
with clear beads to hold them into place.

 

So I'm hoping that Jessica gets my two baubles in time for Christmas and I hope that she likes them. I'm a little nervous that they will be too big, too small, the wrong shade of red, too silver......... I can't wait to hear what Jessica thinks of my effort and to see if it goes well with her decorations.

 

So what do you think? I'm really happy with the way they turned out and I'm thinking that I might make a few silver and purple sequined baubles for our Christmas tree. I hope Jessica enjoys them and she gets them in time....

 



Megan