Last day in london....On hold... Here is some advent craft instead :-)

I will get around to recording the last day in London.... The Laptop - with the pics stored - was away being fixed so I kind of lost momentum.

Don't have the time tonight so will tell you what we have been up to today... 

I started the morning with a mediation in bed.

 I know the benefits of doing it but so often the day gets away with me and I forget or just feel I don't have time. I am trying to get into the habit of doing a five minute one. If I go into it knowing it is only for five minutes it very often lasts longer ;-)

After breakfast and a browse I began to put together an advent calendar for Milly.

 For years we have bought Polly pocket or Playmobile sets. Obviously a little bit past that stage now so I was on the lookout for alternatives.

I am not a crafty person - I have little patience and want everything to happen immediately. However I became hooked on Pinterst and found this

I loved the look of it and decided to use it as inspiration for making my own for Milly.

I bought the brown paper and as I was looking for wooden pegs decided that it would be far too fiddly and time consuming for me to paint and decorate them. I had initially thought I would keep it quite natural and thought about using some kind of coloured string. However I found a lovely strand of Tinsel in Asda and knew that would suit Milly more, she is definitely a bling kinda gal :-)

In Wilkos I found some lovely gingham stars that I thought would go and some divine prancing reindeer...

I had searched high and low for some gingham ribbon in town last week. Eventually I found a little shop that could order me some in. Problem being that the car is now in the garage and I couldn't get to pick it up :-/

So I had to improvise. I had bought some red and white raffia ribbon so I set about twisting it to make a candy cane effect to attach the little envelopes I had made for each day.

As I was working I did what usually ends up happening - three things on the go at once :-) Leek and potato soup was made for lunch and a sausage casserole was put in the slow cooker for tea.

Milly came down very late.

She is recovering from a three day sleepover with El.

She has a wonderful time and ice skated for the first time ever - she loved it and is now keen to go to the temporary rink that comes to a nearby town over the holidays :-) The late nights and fun and games was taking it's toll though and she was in a very grouchy mood.
Gave us an opportunity to talk about choices we make and how they can impact on us and others and then impact on our relationships. She watched some TV and then came through and I sat with her whilst she put together an advert to put in the village noticeboards. She has some DS games she no longer plays so is going to try and sell them. She sold her guitar last week in the same way so fingers crossed she will get herself some more money for her great passion.... Monster high dolls and music downloads.

 I got back to the advent calendar and stuck the raffia ribbons inside the envelopes I had created out of brown paper. I had wanted a snowflake stamp to decorate the front but as I was stuck at home and unable to get to the shops I had to find something in the craft things we had and luckily found something - it wasn't exactly a snowflake but it would do the job;-)

Inside each envelope is a small piece of card with either a C or a P on it .

I have bought some of Milly's favourite chocolate truffles and a selection of small low value gifts, so each day will either be a Chocolate or on eight mornings she will get to choose a Present.

I did also want to have a daily activity to pick but as yet haven't got them printed out...May get round to it this year if not it will last for next year too so I will add them in then :-))

It has become the first decoration to go up this year and I will get some more tinsel and we can create some decorations to add to this in the sunroom. I have an urge to get twinkly fairy lights for this room too.....