All Things Lovely

I Love Christmas

I am so excited about Christmas this year. I've been planning my gifts, making my cards, and organising my wrapping which I'm still changing my mind on! This weekend though with the lovely Josh Groban serenading me Christmas carols, I put up my tree and decked my halls.

My tree. Gosh, i need to scour Pinterest for how to take good photos of my tree but my lounge is so cozy it's hard!

Anf some close ups of my ornaments. The birds are probably my favourite.

What's your favourite album to play when you're decorating your home for Christmas?

Sydney Finders Keepers Market

I was fortunate enough to get to go to the Finders Keepers markets on Friday night, held only twice a year in The Carriageworks, in Sydney's Eveleigh. This two day event is truly food for the soul.

I didn't go too crazy, this is my small stash of shopping. Fortunately most stalls are cash only which helps reign it in. :)

Owl card from Nikki Catalano. I have lusted over this picture forever and i had no idea the artist was Australian!

Christmas tags by Maya Muse Textiles. They also have divine screen printed fabric wares.

My love of letterpress runs deep. These letterpressed bookmarks and card, as well as the card below are both from Bespoke Letterpress Boutique. I stayed at their stall for a long time, there was just way too many beautiful card, tags, envelopes and other eye candy.

If you're in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane do try and make it along. They really are just amazing.

Christmas Ornaments

I thought I would quickly show you how I made the clay ornaments that I'm hanging on my twisted willow tree. I'm not fully happy with these which is why they're not going out as gifts. But I'm happy enough to keep them for my home.

I started out with some Fimo air clay, lace and some Christmas themed biscuit cutters.

I rolled out the clay on a plastic bag. Warning, this stuff sticks to everything! Plastic or foil is recommended.

I wanted the ornaments to have a slightly textured feel, so I used some old lace curtains. I laid them over the clay and just went over it lightly with a rolling pin.

Once I'd done that, I chose my shape and wet it thoroughly. I feel like it made it slightly easier to get the clay out of the cutter. The heart and bell shape seemed to be the easiest.

I just used a skewer to pop  hole in the top. If I was doing it again, I'd probably use a straw instead as it would sort of take out the clay, rather than just press it through if that makes sense? Not to mention it would have been good to have a slightly larger hole.

Anyway, after a good 48 hours of dry time, including turning them all over half way through, my ornaments were dry. You could always lightly sand off the rough edges but I actually left them very 'natural' ie I was too lazy to do that! Just threaded a bit of twine through and voila! Done.

Christmas Craft

I've been busy making some Christmas crafts, which I can finally show you. I've wanted to do this for a couple of years and finally got around to it.

I used some twisted willow I've had sitting in the garage for about 5 years (!) and put it in a tall vase which I'd added some silver baubles to the bottom of. I needed to use floristry oasis but didn't want it right at the bottom. The baubls were a good filler. I then wrapped some hessian which I've frayed slightly, and some pink twine.

I'd originally made the little porcelain ornaments as gifts for Christmas, but I really wasn't happy enough with them to give away so used them on my little tree here. I'll show you later how I made them. What a shame when gifts don't work out and you just have to keep them for yourself... :)