Louis and His Girlfriend Make Themselves at Home

The long journey from the North Pole tired Louis and his girlfriend out and they took things easy last night.  They kicked off their shoes and relaxed reading, painting and colouring in front of a roaring fire.

 As you can see, they have a lovely portrait of Father Christmas hanging above their fire with a beautiful carriage clock and a table light on the mantelpiece.

The table lamp even works, giving off a lovely warm and homely glow.

The girl elf got out her new glasses to read her Harry Potter book.  Did you spot her little pet?  I have managed to find out that his name is Pom - can you guess why?

Unfortunately naughty Louis spilt some of his painting water on his girlfriend's book.  He spoilt the cover but the inside is still fine.

Louis loves puzzles and colouring books, as you can see he has a lot.

My niece spent a lot of time making this room for their guests, with all of the tiny books and the amazing mantelpiece with the lamp.  But I think that my favourite thing are these tiny little pencils made from cocktail sticks.

I believe that their change of clothes came as a surprize but I am amazed her son even noticed with all of the other things going on here.

Dionne

Bah Humbug - Day 2

Here I am back with Day 2 of my 'Little Cotton Rabbit' Advent Calender.  Given the weather we are having this week this little dress seems very appropriate for today.

I struggle to show these little knitted toys off to their best advantage so I have been experimenting with stands.  Unfortunately, it looks like the stand is strangling the rabbit, I hope you are not feeling traumatised.  Sorry!

But it does give you a good view of the dress.  The pattern in called 'Love Ewe Snow Much' and it was designed by Suzie Marie, who very generously shared the pattern on Instagram.

The dress is knitted in 4 ply cotton.  I am afraid that my pink is very pale and it is difficult to make out the tiny pink hearts.

Back tomorrow, have a great day.

Dionne 

The Adventures of Two Little Elves

Many of you will recall that back in the summer I knitted several Christmas dresses and matching jumpers for my niece's Christmas Elves.  At the time I was asked by several people to share their adventures - I am not sure whether you wanted to see their new wardrobes in action or if you wanted to tap into all of the fun going on in my niece's house.

Well the elves arrived in their sleigh last night, talk about arriving in style ...

They carried a change of clothes in their bindle, which apparently my niece's little boy really loved.

A door magically appeared in one of their walls and the elves came through from the North Pole.  After they arrived the door vanished but it will reapear whenever the elves need to report back to HQ.

After arriving the two of them took time to put up a few decorations in her little boy's room, mind you they made a right mess on the floor ......

It looks like the two of them are right at home and loving their new clothes.  I think they may have bought a pet with them, I will try to find something out about him.

I cannot wait to see what the two of them get up to tonight.

Dionne

Santa is on His Way

Back again, two posts in one day.  Well I did warn you that I have a lot of photos to share!

Do you remember Donovan?  I made him for my oldest and dearest friend.  A few days ago my friend mentioned how much she wished she had a Santa hat for Donovan as she intended to make him part of her Christmas decorations.

I made her this hat for Donovan, I hope it is what my friend had in mind., especially as it is the first present in her Advent Calender.  The hat is made in 4 ply cotton.

Back tomorrow.

Dionne

Counting Down to 2018 - Day 1

First I should like to say 'A pinch and a punch, it's the first of the month' to my very dear friend Lisette, know to most of you as Mrs Beez.

We had a fluttering of snow here yesterday, which has caused something of a sensation around here as we hardly ever get snow before Christmas.  The temperatures have plummeted so there could be more snow on it's way.

Yesterday I shared a special Advent Calender I have made for one of my friends, it contained 31 envelopes and I am back this morning to show you what was in the first one.

It was this little white rabbit wearing a Christmas dress.  She is so sweet and very soft and cuddly.

The reason she is so soft is because I used super soft alpaca wool.  The pattern is 'Bunny Girl' by Julie Williams.

The features are stitched on, with French knots for eyes.

I used a pom pom making to make her massive fluffy tail.

The dress is made of 4 ply cotton and the pattern can be found on Ravelry in the Seasonal Dresses bundle.  This design is called 'Running Reindeer'.

I hope you have a great day and keep warm.

Dionne

And the Countdown Begins

As promised, here I am with my second post of the day.

I would like to share a second Advent Calender with you.  Clearly I did not make this box, I bought this gorgeous cardboard suitcase from ebay.  It is by Jessie Steele and this design is called Pink Roses and Polka Dots.

Whilst I did not make the container I did make all of the little envelopes in the suitcase, one for each day, using my envelope maker.  I have had my envelope maker a long time but, before this, I had only used it to make one envelope.

You can see why the suitcase design is called Pink Roses and Polka Dots.  I love the shape of this case, it reminds me of an hat box.

The case is very sturdy and has a neat faux leather handle.  It is one of a pair, I wonder what I shall use the other one for?

Once they are tidied up, all the envelopes fitted snugly inside the case.  Each envelope has a number on it, this represents the date it should be opened.

Ow, the envelopes are not the only things I made, I also made their contents and I hope to be back tomorrow, and the day after, to show you what each one contains.

Would you like to see the beautiful Advent Calender I received a few days ago?

It is a wonderfully knitted bag with a cuddly Santa attached to the side with red sleigh bells which jingle every time I go near it.

And here is a sneaky peek at all of the fabulous gifts it contains.

It also came with a more traditional Advent Calender featuring Raymond Briggs' Father Christmas, which just happens to be my favourite Christmas film - I try to watch it every Christmas Eve.

I have opened the first little door, it is Father Christmas asleep in bed on Christmas Eve, with his alarm clock about to go off

I have just realised that it is the first tomorrow and I still have my husband's Advent gifts to wrap, I guess I know what I am doing this evening.

Happy Advent.

Dionne

The Holidays are Coming

I know, I know, it has been sooooo long since I last posted anything.

There are several reasons for this, I have been busy knitting Christmas presents for friends and family and I do not think it would be right to post them before the person has received them.  But the main reason I have not been sharing my work with you is because I am still having laptop problems.  The latest in a long line of problems is that the media card reader stopped working so I have been unable to load any of the photographs from my camera.  However, I have treated myself to an early Christmas present and bought a new laptop.  I have not quite worked out all of the functions yet but I have worked out enough to be able to load and edit photographs.

I have a considerable backlog of photographs and, as all crafters know, this is a very busy time of year, but I shall try to write at least one post a day for the next month and to start this roller coaster, this is the first of two posts today.

Regular visitors will recall that every year  I exchange Advent Calenders with my best friend, we have been doing this for many years now and our calenders have become a little out of the ordinary, for instance they contain a small gift for every day for the whole of the month of December and, because I can never find very small items, none of those calendars with tiny drawers for me, my container has to be a little larger than the norm.

For the last couple of years I have made a padded box to put my gifts in.  (You can find the 2015 box by clicking here and the 2016 box by clicking here.)  I have made each box slightly smaller than the previous one so they can be ether stacked or nested.

The boxes are hand stitched around thick card.  In places the fabric can be kept in place with glue, I use Pritt for this, but I only glue around the back where it cannot be seen or where another layer of fabric will cover it.

The lid of the box is padded and the white paper poinsettias are from Wild Orchid Crafts.  These are tacked in place and can easily be removed with a few snips of the scissors.

The outer fabric has a festive theme of holly leaves, it also has metallic elements, (sadly you cannot see this in the photographs), whilst the lining fabric is a plain green in contrast with the outer one.

As you can see, each gift is wrapped and there is a number on each tag, this indicates the day the gift should be opened.

To make things a little more mysterious, the box is topped with a layer of pretty cream shred from Lakeland.

I shall be back later today with my next post.

Dionne