My Busy Craft Life

Hello again everyone! It has been a while (I really dont want to say that work is mad busy but it is. On the other hand, in two days I will have a few days off so I am counting every second!). I am super busy with Christmas preparations also, even though I have actually finished my shopping for over three weeks now. If only I wouldnt want to make so much myself... And speaking of which: this week I made my very own Christmas crackers! They look wicked, are completely frugal, and I have the chance to put in some proper prizes. Ok the prize thing didnt really work as I ran out of time to make cool stuff so I just used the prizes we got at the crackers from the Christmas parties at work (more on that in a later post). I'm not sure if Christmas crackers are well-known outside of the UK. On the continent it's not really a thing to do but here is it a must on Christmas. A Christmas cracker is a contraption that looks like a large sweet, made out of cardboard and with a treat inside. ...

Hi all! OMG the days are flying... as always, work is mad and as usual my crafting is being pushed back a bit... There are still some things to do before Friday night (we do presents on Christmas eve, very unDutch of me but it's what we have always done) so I really need to get cracking! Speaking of Christmas, I was amazed that there were no comments at all for my giveaway! Now I realise that it is way too close to Christmas and the snow might have had something to do with it, so I will check with Lauren and see if we can maybe do another one after the holidays. Last Friday, our Christmas tree arrived :) Having no car and nowhere close to buy a tree to take it home, we ordered ours online as usual. They actually called me to check if they could deliver the tree early due to snow forecasts but as I missed the call, I could only hope that it would still arrive... But luckily it did and on Friday evening I came home to a lovely tree that the bf had already placed in the stand :) So af...

Hi everyone! I have some great last-minute news for you! My friend Lauren from Bookworm Eats Flower has offered some of her wonderful creations for a last minute Christmas giveaway :) Check out some the wonderful items from her store: Some lovely gift tags Arent they gorgeous? Green Christmas tree ornament White lace ornaments Smooth fan ornaments For more items, check out her store here . The giveaway is for any three ornaments and a set of gift tags. How cool is that!! In order to enter, just leave a comment for each (or several) of the following: become a follower and leave a comment saying that you're a new follower (current followers please also leave a comment to get your entry) become a follower of Bookworm Eats Flower and leave a comment here check out Lauren's store and let me know what your favourite item is blog about this giveaway on your own blog and leave a comment linking back to it Twitter or Facebook will also give you one entry each (please leave separate...

Ok, I've found the solution to my too-tired-to-blog problem. Blog while the food is getting ready and make sure to keep it short to avoid burning (my specialty these days, burning food that is LOL) Today has been an amusing day as I had many hilarious experiences that were silly but I really wanted to share to give you an idea of life in London. First of all I went to Tesco (one of the big supermarkets here) to spend some vouchers I had received in the mail. It was one of those vouchers that give you a discount if you spend an x amount. My amount was £20 (and get £2 off. Cheap yes but sadly this is not the US where you get the supermarket to pay for your shopping if you're good enough with vouchers as so many of you are). So anyway, I am walking in Tesco, spending my entire lunch break lugging my heavy basket around the store trying to get everything I need when I see conditioner on offer. Now I'm not into brands but this brand has this fab conditioner... so anyway, I load ...

More than one week without posting anything???!!! So sorry!!! Work has been disastrous busy and I have spent most of the evening vegging out on the sofa trying to recover from it... I tell you, I have a new-found respect fr all mothers out there who work a full week and then still have to entertain the kids afterwards. Really, overtime every night is not my thing... Unpaid even which is the worst... anyway, over to happier topics as I'm sure slagging work on my blog will be frowned upon if discovered ;) Last Saturday it was that time of year again, the annual SantaCon! It is a huge event of a few hundred (nearly 1000 at times) Santas in all shapes and sizes gathering in various London locations spreading Christmas cheer. This year was my third and to my disappointment they had split the routes again (something they did in my first year but not last year which was my second and it was so much more fun!) meaning that most of my friends were on different routes. On top of that, due to...

This post is a little late, especially since it's already the 6th of December today, but I wanted to share it with you anyway. Every year I buy an advent calendar. I usually dont find the one I want and end up with something that is ok-ish. Or one that I really had to wrestly someone at Tesco's for LOL... So this year I really wanted to make my own. I actually went out weeks ago to get the contents for it and everything was done. Then... work was mental yet again and my motivation plummeted. So instead of a lovely design base with lots of extremely detailed pockets, I ended up with a plain piece of cotton and relatively simple pockets. Nevertheless, I quite like it... I had so much felt left from other projects and combined with my lovely glitter glue that I bought a few weeks ago, it worked out quite well: The whole picture... The chocolates on 23 will be swapped with 24 but I couldnt put the tall chocolates in the 24 pocket yet as it would block the 15 pocket. Small error on ...

The holiday season has started.... Today, 5 December, is the traditional 'pakjesavond' :) Let me explain. Well, let wikipedia explain... HERE . In all non-Dutch countries, as far as I know anyway, Sinterklaas is celebrated on the 6th. In Holland, we celebrate on the eve of the 5th. Sinterklaas walks his white horse across our roofs together with his helper Zwarte Piet whom he sends down the chimney to leave presents. If you're good you get a present, if you're bad you will be put into his sack and taken to Spain as punishment. LOL these days I dont think anyone would mind a free holiday to Spain, but it is a really scary thought for a five-year old! So.... Pakjesavond has arrived. I made sure that we had plenty of Dutch food around (with some huuuuge help from my best friend Nancy who kindly went shopping on my behalf with a massive list), and I scored some presents as well. It was fun! Me pretending to be 'zwarte piet' (minus the make-up) with my large sack of ...