Best Presents Ever!

I always get very excited at Christmas. I love the traditions, the food, the terrible films and seeing as many people as possible whilst indulging in lots of alcoholic beverages. Mmmmm.

Well on top of this, I got incredibly excited as I got some amazing presents this year. Whilst others were comparing fancy jewellery, watches etc, I got 2 absolutely incredible, if slightly unusual presents.

The first - dinosaur cake moulds! What can possibly be cooler than these! I love baking and I love dinosaurs so what can be better than dinosaur shaped cakes! Once I've made my way through all of the Christmas cakes my Mum sent me home with, I will definitely be baking some. 

The second - knit your own zoo! I love knitting and I love zoo animals so I can't think of a cooler combination of knitting zoo animals. This is my first attempt (obviously not finished yet) at one of my favourite animals. Can you guess what it is?

Hot Christmas?

I've just got back from a week in Cape Town and did not feel Christmassy at all. Once. The whole time I was there, which was strange as I've been feeling Christmassy since mid October! There were Christmas decorations everywhere, so it wasn't that, it was purely because Christmas should be cold, and so to me it felt like July or August so ages away from Christmas.

This was the Christmas tree at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. Beautiful, and very traditional, but it's not right that the people standing next to it are in sundresses and shorts and T-shirts!!

I've only spent one Christmas away from home, and that was when I was in Namibia in 2009. We went to the beach, we drank cider, and Father Christmas skydived into the bar on the beach, It was weird. It didn't feel the slightest bit like Christmas, more that we were just acting out Christmas. 

Christmas in Swakopmund

So although I was sad when I got back yesterday, and it was drizzly and horrible, I am now very much back in the wrapped up warm mulled wine Christmas spirit! Yay!

I Love To Wear...

I'm quite fussy about my clothes. Not that anyone would think it given the bright, colourful array of bright patterns that I do wear, but I am definitely not a shopaholic, and often when I do go out shopping, I come home with nothing, as everything I find is just not quite right.

My two main things I focus on when shopping are: I don't want to be wearing the same thing as anyone else, and also I hate clothes which look cheap, so am very fussy about the sort of fabrics I buy.

My one exception to the first rule is that I have loved some of the recent collections by Designers for H&M. So whilst this often means I see someone else wearing the same outfit, it does mean I get some beautifully designed clothes, from some of my favourite designers, at a price I can afford.

I remember lovingly looking at the entire Isabel Marant Etoile collection in Liberty's when I first moved to London, wondering if I'd ever get a job that was well paid enough to afford even just one item, and had the same feeling in the Marni outlet shop in Bicester Village.

So I was very, very excited to finally get my hands on a pair of Isabel Marant quilted sneakers. They are beautiful, so beautiful I can't take them off! And very festive at the same time. And hopefully as they were in the Kids Boys range not quite so many people will have them....?

Double Pointed Knitting = Argh

This is not my knitting. This is what I though of double pointed knitting. Even though I really wanted to learn, and the concept seemed quite simple, I was terrified of the thought of Double Pointed Knitting. 

As someone who is only a fairly recent knitter, grasping increasing and decreasing seemed like a massive achievement to me, enabling me to follow more difficult patterns and make shapes. So I've been happily knitting away, knitting hats, elephants, anything I take my fancy to really. But all the time aware of the fact that I have a beautiful set of shiny new unwrapped bamboo double pointed knitting needles sitting next to me on the shelf in my living room. Which given the size of my living room (2.25m wide) means that they are never very far away from me. 

So last night I took a deep breath, I googled, I got out my fabulous retro 'Good Housekeeping Guide to Knitting', I you-tubed and went for it. I tried to knit a flat circle on my double points. The first attempt was awful. I didn't even have a change to take a photo of my congealed mess before it fell from the needles. Fail. But I tried a different wool and started again, and after a few slipped stitches (the middle is quite messy) I got there. Below is my attempt. Not bad. I'll see how I get on with an actual pattern. So watch this space. 

Love Elephant

I love elephants! I love how wise they look, how gentle they are, even though they're so large, how they always look like they've got a twinkle in their eye, and especially how they set an example for ageing gracefully - I mean you're never going to have more wrinkles than an elephant, and they're still beautiful!

So after the success of my elephant mobiles, and my love heart mobiles, I decided to make a mini love elephant mobile. Using an array of soft cream, peachy pinks and a vivid red felt, mixed with some dainty prints, here is my new Love Elephant Mobile:

Chunky Knitted Cushions & Other Wool Based Creations

Earlier in the summer I was involved in a lot of knitting and creating for the Baby Boden Autumn Catalogue. A bit late, as Winter has always been launched, but here are some images of in the making and final images.

Firstly my chunky knitted cushions. Sumptuous, rich and textured, these look fabulous against cute squishy babies.

I also got busy with some textured wool felt making a stuffed foxes head. Like he'd been killed and stuffed only cute looking and fuzzy. I completely made up the pattern, snipping and stitching as I went, but now I'm sad that I didn't make a pattern as I won't be able to make a similar one again!

Lastly, I bought layers of yellow, green and blue felt cut out some roof tile shapes to layer up to make a wonderful, colourful roof for my playhouse. This was made out of a farmyard scene fabric, with navy tape to make the windows, and so the roof matches the colours of the ducks and background in the fabric! Fabulous!

As our house is so small, it was pretty difficult to find a good space to make this, and so my bed was the only option.This meant a clever feat of hanging it from the ceiling whilst sleeping as again, there was nowhere else to put it, but it all worked out very well in the end!

49 Days Till Christmas...That Makes It Christmas Shoebox Time!

So after a few weeks of hunting for the perfect shoebox sized presents, and a little bit of knitting my boxes are finished and ready to drop off! Handily there is a drop off point in Westfield so it's just an excuse to visit and do some more of my non shoebox Christmas shopping while I'm there.

Here are the finished boxes, all festive looking. I can't wait to imagine the smiles these will hopefully bring someone on Christmas Day!