Christmas is coming... but went very quickly

I have decided to do a series of 'reflections over Christmas' blogs... It all kind of follows on and links up all my Christmas blogs.

You may or may not remember that back in September I wanted to try a new craft every week.... well that did and didn't happen, although it did help me build up my 'Christmas Crafts' selections, I didn't exactly stick to it. As I was putting the decorations away last night Mr O and I had a little discussion on how sad it is that we work up to Christmas for so many months, weeks or days (depending on how organised you are!) but yet it all seems to go very quickly.

So in this new series of posts, I will be looking back on Christmas, my Christmasy crafts and my Christmas 'things' and re-living the sparkle and love of Christmas!

If you follow me on twitter or Facebook, or even other people's blogs then you will of seen, heard and smelt all about the beautiful Yankee Candle Advent Calendar that they released this year. I got mine from the Ideal Home Show at Christmas (gosh, big mouthful!) at a reduced rate of £20 but you could buy it online for slightly more.

Now, for me this was this year's perfect advent calendar as it meant no extra chocolates that were eaten but I got a new candle to burn every day. Although I loved it the one main problem for me was that you didn't know what candle you were burning! Yes, there was list of the candles on the back of the calendar, but I think it might have been handy to know what the one was that you opened that day as some days I really liked the smell and I would have gone out and bought it but I obviously couldn't as I DIDIN'T KNOW WHAT I WAS BURNING!!!

Did any of you buy this advent calendar? What did you think of it?...

 

Love, Mrs O x

Thank you!

Thanks to you all I have now reached over 3,000 page views!

 

(I will add a photo here tonight as my phone has died!)

 

I have decided that once I reach my next goal of 5,000 views I will create a give away!

 

I thought that this would also be the best time to ask for some of your comments and feedback.

 

Who out there reads this blog? Let me know who you are...

 

What do you like to read about....

 

What would you like to see more of?

 

What would you like to see less of?...

 

Just drop me a comment on here by writing in the box at the side...

 

Remember you can also subscribe to my blog! :)

 

Love and thanks!

Mrs O xxx

Crissy Crossy Crosstitching

If you all didn't know by now, I love to cross stitch! It is one of my many hobbies and was introduced to me by one of my dear friends, Louisa. When she introduced it to me, she had only recently been introduced it herself by her grandmother. So, we kind of stepped on our Cross stitching adventure together although I was a few paces behind her to start with. We both share the love for all things crafty and are always updating each other on our new little creative tasks. We have also to have been known to sit down together, completely blanking our hubbies, while we are crafting and chatting away!

 

Last Christmas I made an advent calendar for Mr O as a 'Our First Christmas' present and each day it had different surprises in each pocket. It took me ages but it was so worth the time and effort - I was even bringing them into work to do on my lunch break! In the end I was sewing right up to the last minute of the last day of November! It looked a bit like this:

 

The great thing is, is that it can be used time and time again and will hopefully be able to be kept in our little family for years.

 

Back in February I decided to set myself a new creative Cross Stitch task - create a picture for the kitchen to go with the red theme. So, in that month's issue of CrossStitcher magazine (a magazine that I am subscribed to)I took one of their templates and used it in my own way. Their idea was for it to be used on valentines day cards, but I decided to do them in my own colours (different shades of reds) to then be put in a frame. So that day I went to Hobby Craft and bought some threads and some aida (the material that is used for cross stitching) and I set off on my new task.

 

As time went on I managed to get less and less of these done till it had to halt as I had run out of thread. However, I was still determined to get these done so I bought some frames, from good old Wilkos that were in the sale and only cost me a couple of squids, and I also bought some more thread the when I went to Hobby Craft the other week. So, they are now complete!! Well one is as I need to go back to Hobby Craft and buy some more thread that is actually of the same code as the one I had already used!

 

Here is the first one and hopefully by Monday night the other one will be finished too. My plan for Monday is to go Charity Shop hunting along with going to Hobby Craft (both could be a big spell for disaster!)

 

Have any of you ventured into the world of Cross Stitching?....

 

Have you anything that you would like me to try and make/craft?...

 

Happy stitching!

Love, Mrs O x

 

Boys are back in town!

When I got home from work last night I was greeted by Mr O with my 2 baby boys back at home. Massive :) 

Of course, in no time they were upto their usual tricks of nosing around everywhere and sniffing down plastic then attempting to eat it!

Here's the lovely Jerry having cuddles with Mummy. 

Isn't nice to have more than one surprise on a Tuesday evening?....

Not only did the boys coming home surprise me but I also had a lovely delivery of my monthly magazine that my Aunt subscribed for me at Christmas. As you all know I love to do anything crafty and cross stitching is one of them. So to get my lovely magazine in the post was brilliant. I love looking through it for ideas and I sometimes use their designs to add my own tweaks to it. I will post up another time about the magazine. 

And my final surprise was when I opened up the freezer - after being on a fast day all day - to find another one of my loves: ice cream. 

So of course I had to have some! 

Smiles all around. Oh and I've finally got a tan for the first time this year! Whoooopppiieeeeee!

Have a lovely day

Love, Mrs O xxx