Nothing new under the sun!

Well, we finally remembered where we'd stashed the Christmas decorations! How difficult can it be I ask myself? It's the same every year. It's a long, long time since Twelfth night and somehow the box always finds itself somewhere different. The first thing I do is to plug the lights in to see if they still work and then hold my breath to see if they still work once they are festooned across the branches. Next the box gets upended and emptied out on the floor. In a desperate attempt to keep to a colour scheme we've got a number of bought baubles but mostly we've made Christmas decorations ever since the children were small and no matter how battered they may look it's a family tradition that every single one has to go on the tree. So, now the tree is up and dressed to thrill and even the Father Christmas that our Bengal cat Toby savaged last year is there for all to see despite the gaping hole in his wadding beard. I have to say Amelie was no help at all this year. Seems she can take the baubles off just as fast as we can put them on. Most of the ones on the lower branches are made of fabric so no harm done!

If you watched The Great British Sewing Bee on TV this week you'll have seen Stuart make a pod shaped fabric bauble. I hope no one thought it was a new idea - mine have to be the best part of 25 years old. Laura tells me you can now buy a kit to make them - I can't believe it! We made ours at the young quilters' group I used to run with scraps of fabric, cereal box packaging and a smidge of glue!

We have the leaf shaped ones which open to hold a special treasure or chocolate and are decorated with couched gold thread and a dangly bell.

And pyramid shaped versions which have 3 triangular sides set onto a triangular base.

As well as Baby Block cubes which are just 6 little squares.

All of them have been made by covering cornflake packet cardboard shapes with Christmas prints. The fabric was cut a bit bigger than the card and the excess fabric glued to the wrong side of the card shape before the right sides were oversewn together. The ones meant to hold a treasure had a similar but slightly smaller fabric covered shape attached to the inside as a lining. They've survived many Christmases and will no doubt come out again for many years to come. That's what family tradition is about isn't it - simple things with happy memories.

Hope you are enjoying your preparations as much as we are. Thanks for dropping by - Linda