It is lovely to be back with Amy at Love Made My Home after a short break for Five on Friday.
My Five this week are rather an eclectic group as it has been difficult to decide what to share. The elves elf has been busy making Christmas gifts so they will have to stay under wraps for a little while longer - no peeking allowed. That includes most of my recent makes so forgive me for this rather odd five.
1. December 1st and the countdown begins
The Autumn wreath was replaced yesterday with this one.
I have a growing collection of wreaths and several different Christmas ones that will be coming out soon. I saw this wreath on a stall selling traditional baskets at a Craft Fair recently and fell in love. The baskets were amazing too and I could have happily brought several of them home. The wreath was tucked in a corner and bare of any adornment and I could imagine decorating it in lots of different ways for different seasons.
Simple lights and a ribbon to welcome the month of December. The fairy lights have a warm and cosy feel and cheer up a dull day.
2. Winter has arrived
The garden turned into a winter wonderland on Tuesday and by Wednesday the frost had frost on it! Although my garden faces south and is lovely and warm during the summer months, it remains in shade during the winter because of the angle of the land. This creates some spectacular frosty scenes if there are several days of low temperatures. This year, for one reason and another, I have not cut back the plants and shrubs, which have left it looking untidy. So the pretty frosty leaves definitely improved the overall appearance. There have been lots of little birds foraging amongst the old leaves, so perhaps they prefer the untidyness.
3. Felt angels
These little angels are for JETS (Junior embroiderers group). The adult helpers volunteered to help make a Christmas decoration as a gift for each of the girls. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else has made as we all decided to do our own thing. The angels were a combination of several ideas from Pintrest. I can loose hours looking at Pintrest imagining all the things I would like to create rather than getting on and actually making.
4. Felt scarf
This was an experiment following on from the felt vessels. I had seen examples of felting onto fabrics at craft shows, so while the felting equipment was still out I decided to have a try. After some research in craft books and good old google, it looked fairly straight forward. The wool fibres need to be able to work into the fabric so a piece of chiffon seemed ideal. I cut a length of the fabric and gently felted fine layers of merino wool tops into the edges. It is not perfect but I was amazed at how sturdy the felted area was, despite being quite fine, once it was dry. The chiffon feels very flimsy in the centre and it would be interesting to see how other fabrics work.
5. On my knitting needles
This delicious hank of wool from Truly Hooked has been in my stash for a while. There have been many occasions when I was tempted to wind it into a ball but Christmas gifts had to come first. Although all the Christmas cards are not quite finished and a few other things need to be completed with the sewing machine, all the knitting and crochet projects are done.
Finally the hank is wound and a Couthie shawl is on my needles......
.......and this one is for me!
Well there is no law that says you cannot give yourself a Christmas gift is there?
I hope your week has gone well and all your preparations for the festive season are progressing smoothly. I am looking forward to catching up with everyone else at Five on Friday.
