Seasons Greetings

Dear HML readers, did you have a good Christmas? We certainly did! It feels like it's been Christmas for months so it's a bit odd having just the remnants about - mince tarts, ham, holiday paperbacks, paper bunting etc. We are going to take the rest of the week off to rest up and spend as much time offline as possible. This strange week, between the two big days is perfect for list makers and lazy bones alike and right now we are a bit of both. We'll be back next Monday with the Show of the Week (and no it won't be Mission Impossible 5) and news of our 365 projects for 2012. Have a lovely week, get outdoors away from your computers and spend time with really lovely people (or on your own which can be a real luxury)
See you on the flip side

Ramona &  Beck x

Last projects of the week

Take note

Friday already! The intern has done her usual last minute flash of handmade inspiration and has made everyone personals notebooks. This is in between cooking gingerbread,eating pizza, watching the Ricky Gervais Show and just generally having a cheery day. I'll need a bit of a nap before writing my finely tuned market list for our 6am trip tomorrow (crab meat! Prawns! Duck!) and it's fish and chips for dinner so I can do the final marathon push to finish Beck's latch hook (not likely of course, always leave my hml co host and BFF until the last minute because I know shell forgive me! Ramona x

Hml gifts of the week

The kids are alright

Above is the train caddy I made for Max. No I didn't jigsaw all that wood, it came all precut. I did however work until the wee hours watching very bad tv with my glue brush and scissors in a decoupage frenzy! We're going to fill it with stationery supplies, hope he likes it.

The Intern is getting a ludicrous amount of gifts this year. She did an amazing job at school and has been a treasure at home so we've all wanted to spoil her. I did get one little handmade element in there - a summer scarf made from old dress remnants. Actually the blue was bought especially to bind baby Finns quilt on the right but I couldn't find the energy to make bias binding so he's getting a far simpler version. Tis festive to say the least! Ramona xx

It's the week!!

Some more handmade gifts

Ok so I've gone a little glitter crazy this year (sue me). The duck, a favourite handmade gift this year resulted in a crazy glitter cloud in the kitchen. The reindeer - very chic colour blocking yes? Now the little place names on easels are for my gorgeous neighbors who are both very artistic (she paints, he makes wooden toys for his grandchildren). More presents tomorrow! Sorry for the lack of posts, we hope you are doing more real life stuff like us. Beck has dubbed it 'Overcommitmas' and she's right! Ramona xx

chips off the old block

After an initial bout of argy bargy with the archigtect on exactly when you put up the tree to maximise christmas day freshness a compromise was wrought - decorations last weekend, tree this weekend. Regular readers know I impose a strict DIY deocration policy at ours which has seen some ridiculously labour intensive and back breaking efforts over the years. So give what a bugger of a year it's been I decided to give us all a break and go to Ikea. Unfortunately this seems to be the only year that they've not come up with the goods, so it was back to the drawing board (literally) and off to the paper chain station for us all because this years decorating theme is going to be PAPER.

Having an added deadline of getting my half of the christmas present done for the lovely ladies of the RRR's Grapevine I got to work on Sunday. Lucky, because Donna and Kulja presented us with biscotti SO delicious I managed to inhale them over coffee in about three minutes. But I digress.

                            

Thankfully i've spent a little time collecting paint chips over the last few months so was able to put my oversize circle punches to work for an hour or so and squeeze out as many circles as I could in readiness for sewing.

There is definately an art to sewing paper without you're bobbin going bananas, so i've learnt (the hard way) it's best to keep the tension low and the stich size at medium and just keep feeding the paper through gently and evenly. Oh and don't do what I did and forget to fill the bobbin before you get started. And if you don't want your tree, mantle or christmas spread to look like it's sponsored by Dulux and Taubmans feed through two circles at at time with the colour facing out. Another hot tip discovered in hindsight.

The result couldnt be cheerier or cheaper. An just think if you too become possesed by the spirit of Tonia Todman you can even colour co-ordinate your garland to match your napery, accent cushions or special Christmas outfit. Way-Hay! Next stop, cut out snowflakes. BECK