Advent swap 6-12

this is easily the best advent calender i ever had! for starters there's no fighting with my sister over who turn it is (though claud is trying to stake a claim she is fob off-able with the number stickers). no tasteless chocolate or 15 varieties of pictures of christmas crackers. just pure, tasteful cool stuff!  i'm so excited that the cat woman is thinking of making this an annual swap-yahoo-i don't think i could go back to a calender-less advent after this!

so, without further ado, here are this weeks surprises from christmassy super-blogger stella...

6. a wee diy camping scene. words fail me. i love mini's, i love things made of paper. i love tee-pees. present perfection! 
7. argyle pattern washi tape. i'm sure i have never mentioned on this blog my love for the argyle pattern?  suffice to say i wore out my last pair of burlington argyle socks (of the stash i've had since i moved here from england a long time ago) just a couple of months ago. sniff! you clearly have ESP stella?!!
8. weleda hand cream. i heart weleda. so do my 'rugged' gardener-hands now!
9. a giant bar of dairy milk. my fave. reduced to crumbs in an embarrassingly short time. burp! (actually thats a lie. i don't leave crumbs when it comes to chocolate)
10.a beautiful handmade card and bookmark-my stationary stash is starting to look very healthy indeed, thank you.
11. marigold seeds. i need all the help i can get defending the vegges and have just turned the last of the vegges seedlings out from some cute little terracotta pots, so these are going straight in-with clauds assistance.
12. the coolest, teeny-tiniest diy ivy and hyacinth plants for the doll house. ace, ace, ace! i have a project for the christmas hols now!

Thank You!



and i did send to stella...

6. homemade lavender bath cubes. 7. a printing kit. 8.elf-sized fairy lights. 9. op-shopped make your own paper stars kit. 10. a homemade 'stella' snowglobe tea towel. 11. an op-shopped book on DIY boats in bottles (she collects them, but frustratingly i just couldn't lay my hand on one). 12. a giant licorice allsort (her fave lolly) made of soap. 

 last week gifts

pin the pom pom on the bunny and a link up your second hand finds here

free printable invites from belle and boo

i really, really wanted to make a mason jar snow scene, but cant find any mini brush christmas trees ANYWHERE. so i satisfied my urge for mini makings instead with these little rabbit scenes which will find a spot on clauds birthday tea party table. hurrah for finally using up the last of the fake-grass that's been shedding continuously in my craft room and attaching itself to anything vaguely sticky since (taped things, glued things, claud). the toasdstools are florists decos i found down the oppy for 50, the bunnies from clauds extensive collection.
pin the tail on the donkey has morphed into pin the pom-pom on the bunny. printed on a tea towel mainly cause, in the manner of previous lollystick overstocking, i have a million of them to use up. luckily the real life bunny, a netherland dwarf, white with pink ears as specified after a little negotiation (from pink-all-over) who is living secretly in our back yard until the big day, is not as misshapen as my representation. in fact she is cute, white furry perfection; super-friendly and cuddly; and does tidy poos in one corner of her cage (i'm hoping she can teach claud, the cats and the hedgehogs whom are all going everywhere in some bizarre spring madness, a thing or two).
pass-the-parcel wrappings courtesy of a month of clauds playcentre paintings. party dress staining iceblocks from wild cherries and blackboy peaches picked last summer and discovered in the depths of the freezer this week.

here are some of the other party preparations


anyway enough about rabbits and poo. are you missing her library adventures fleamarket finds? i am. so i thought i'd have a crack at my own. i mean i buy enough second hand stuff to keep a linky afloat single-handedly, so, let see if it loads/anyone wants to play along etc, etc... if your keen, grab the button!

<a href="http://www.blackbirdhasspoken.blogspot.co.nz" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlmcIq8aMxdYhAJfQCoTkl49C4ID0iW579fvEA-i6L_dcj0JOnh4i-bR6doMM7O6Gfa9i9uAEfaMdqYoMEehKxogPeoH20sZY8mwEfsChsB65QEdTBFR9_nmgga2lHdi2iP1z2_MpG-U7y/s128/op-shop%20show-off%20(6)%20final%20edit.jpg" /></a>

play along with us

a cracker is not just for christmas

they are for birthdays too! scrap paper printed with this christmas cracker template, odds and ends of ribbon, pull-popping cracker whatsits, all from the stash; containing hand made hair ties with vintage buttons (idea from my vintage vow), elastic pom pom bracelets and wee lollies. the unfinished grey one on the end is for the boy. racking my brain for an easy, cheap, diy boy thing to slip in there. any suggestions?

advent swap 2012 days 1-5

as kids, once our presents were wrapped and on display, as opposed to not-so-secretly stashed in or behind or on top of mums wardrobe, we were allowed, under supervision, to feel them up. squeezing, shaking, sniffing, holding up to the light and guessing were all permissible. our guesses were neither confirmed nor denied. interfering in any way shape of form with tape or paper was banned. it was a very clever way of helping us cope with the wait...

Cat's advent swap has induced the wait-iest feeling in me since back in those days, and so i coped in the age old way. heres what i got given, and what i thought i got, so far...

1. Kiwi-xmas postcards. 2. crochet ribbon tape. 3. chocolate soap. 4. mini picture frames. 5. mini envelopes 

       (christmas card)            (washi tape)            (dairy milk bar)     (doll house books)  (mini advent calender)

i am so impressed with stellas attention to detail, not just in the beautiful things she illustrates (1. & 5.) but also in how carefully she has chosen things that are very, very me. brilliant fun! thanks hun x

righto, i'm going to try not to be naughty and feel up any more of them now i am in the midst of opening...

A PRESENT EVERY DAY FOR 25 DAYS!!!!

and what did i send stella thus far?...

1. cutlery customised by moi 2. jurianne matter paper angel decoration 3. a pomegranate 4.snowflake gift tags made by moi  5. a vintage copy of Dickens a christmas carol

...bit useless on the taking photos of what i sent front!

scandinavian christmas mobiles

flensted

vintage danish mobile made for export to the usa

flenstead

man i love mobiles (but crikey they're hard to photograph!). claud has a flensted butterfly, and the cutest vintage easter bunny mobile that comes out each year. i'm slowly building a collection of christmas mobiles. i'm very particular. the ones i like and buy always turn out to be of scandinavian origin. this years birds-with-festive-bellies mobile i have made myself-from instructions over at the house that lars built (she's running a 24 days of scandinavian christmas feature with beautiful and easy DIY projects, and a scandinavian christmas giveaway). 

Linky-ing with our creative spaces and ta-dah! tuesday and christmas traditions

"on the first day of advent stella gave to me..."

...a bunch of her AMAZING kiwi-christmas postcards. pohutakawa, kowai, homesick birdies-a hint of brambly hedge, i LOVE them stella, thanks so much!

I love advent swap!

claud wanted to show you what she got in her advent calender too. brung by "jimmy" the elf who helps father christmas to make toys on the night shift and then comes to our place in the morning to bring claud her advent gift and get a bit of kip...

claudina ballerina

her love for an ungainly green dinosaur called Dorothy was the pathway we think into clauds first genuine, independent of parental influence interest, ballet. hence only 5 weeks after starting classes she performed in her first show with an astonishing seriousness, concentration and quietness. the lady in the shop where we bought her ballet gear told us it was traditional to give ballerinas a present and flowers after the performance. we felt a little over the top being the ONLY parents treating their wee one like a prima ballerina post show. but she is to us.