Advent calendar 1

Ladies and gentlemen,

'Tis the season... they tell me...

I feel I have neglected you, dear blog readers, as my time has been 

demanded elsewhere for quite some time now...

So, I think 'tis the season for an Advent Calendar especially for you.

Behind the different doors in this calendar, 

you will find small Christmas ideas that are either recycled, 

inspired by nature or simply 'on a shoestring'...

Most of the photos will be new, but some "recycled" photos of previous 

years' favourites might appear as blog stocking fillers too...

First up are more "lollipops", as they seem to be my theme tune at the moment. This time I made mini trees (lollipop-shaped) out of moss and small twigs, stuck them in recycled sweet corn tins clad with decoupaged napkins, made sure they stayed in place by adding gravel from our drive, and finally covered the gravel with a layer of rice. I thought these might be used when laying the table for Christmas, perhaps with one tree by each plate...

As I am a big fan of carrying a particular theme a little further if possible, I made a star cushion to go with the red star theme, using an old inner cushion I already had, some white sheet fabric, and made the star and the piping from my old maternity trousers that were just the 'right' red. 

So, there we are. First door opened and more to come. Some doors may be small, some seen before, but I hope that somewhere along the way, behind one of the calendar flaps, you will find that one little idea that might inspire you this December. Welcome back tomorrow, to peer behind door number two!

All the best,

Helena

Ps. Please remember that all images look better (and not so strangely cropped) if you click on them.