The Angel Told Mary...

I found Jan Pienkowski's "First Noel" on the Charity Book Table in Aldi. The book has just 10 pages, which open up and have a ribbon which ties up to make the pentagonal prism.

It has five pictures of the Christmas story - glorious paper cut-outs, and verses from the King James version. We are away at Steph's, so I may not get the chance to blog, so I am sharing a picture each day. 

I hope you enjoy them ...

I did not know that Mary had a cat!

Mancunian Monday

We had a really smooth journey on Sunday - although it got quite foggy at the end. Gaz and Steph's new home is lovely. Having a bedroom with ensuite feels like staying in a hotel! The boys were as enthusiastic and affectionate as ever. Jacob came in to see us first thing, and enjoyed storyline with Big Grandad Bob. 

After breakfast, Steph took me to Booth's in Knutsford. I can see why Sue and others in the North West like this supermarket chain! Not as cheap as Aldi/Lidl, but way more atmosphere.

 The displays were lovely, staff helpful and friendly - my only reservation the sinister Santa dummy in the Coffee Shop.what a dreadful beard! The top Julian gave me matches my jacket beautifully. 

Then home again, to find Bob had been busy with odd jobs [always lots to fix when you move house] I finished decorating the Christmas Cake with the boys. George tells me it's only 3 sleeps till The Day!

How is your week going?

An Entertaining Evening

 Lots of practice and setting up beforehand - and the evening went very well

I got my "cocktail waitress" outfit sorted out, as we had an alco-free bar.  Clare gave me a little Christmas clip which lit up and looked very pretty [she wore hers in her hair]

The hot chocolate proved the most popular, closely followed by the green [ spice]d apple fizz] Fewer people wanted the red [berry] or blue [orange and lemon] Rosie was happy to take home the leftover bottle of berry drink. 

About three dozen people turned up, quite a few children.  

Rosie, a budding magician herself, was delighted to help Nick with one trick.

I'm not sure how much was raised for FRIN.* One of the trustees explained that Foulsham has the oldest "relief in need" charity in the country. Amazing, for a small village.

Just realised, my lighted pin makes it look as if I'm on fire! 🔥*An amazing £775 raised!

Advent 4 - LOVE

I have a beautiful wreath by my front door. Handmade by volunteers at Priscilla Bacon Lodge, crafted with greenery from the Hospice Gardens. For me, the Christmas wreath symbolises God’s love
It is circular, there is no end to his love
It is evergreen, always fresh – the book of Lamentations reminds us, his mercies are new every morning
It contains rosemary, the herb of remembrance – to remind us of God’s continuing faithfulness. In Isaiah 49 it says “a mother may even forget her child, but I will not forget you”
It contains holly – the baby in the manger grew up and died on the cross for us, the holly leaves represent the crown of thorns, the berries his lifeblood shed for us.
It contains ivy, a symbol of fidelity and lasting love. Romans 8;39 – nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ our Lord.

An Advent Prayer...
We thank you for your unending, unfailing love which is new every morning
For the certainty that nothing in earth or heaven can separate us from it
We thank you for your faithfulness to us down the years
Lord, help us to never take your love for granted
We pray for those around us who do not know your love – help us to share it with them. Not simply with words, but with deeds of lovingkindness. As we have been so blessed, help us to bless others
Lord, help us to never take your love for granted
Help us to remember that our salvation came at a cost
This amazing grace didn’t come cheaply, but your Son suffered and died for us
Lord, help us to never take your love for granted AMEN

Music And Magic

Busy day today, as we have an event over at the chapel. Bob's doing the PA, and I am providing the drinks. More importantly, Nick, our minister, is the Magician and Graeme and Clare are making the music. He's an accomplished keyboard player, she plays lots of instruments, and is also a composer [winning the BBC Radio Carol writing competition a few years back]

 

It is a free, family event for the village - we hope it will be well attended! FRIN is the local charity which supports those in the village who are in some sort of need. They work all year round, not just at Christmas. 

The Silent Stars Go By

Often I will make a special tree decoration to mark the year - the year of lockdown, the year of the Raised Bed, etc. This has been The Year Of The Kitchen. I had a whole stack of IKEA instruction booklets - every item comes with its own A4 manual, about 8 pages long with pictures of how to assemble the flatpack furniture. I had a crazy idea about some sort of paper sculpture decoration.

Using my die cut machine, I produced lots of 3" circles, and carefully folded and glued a 'honeycomb' ball. But although it was suitably round, the honeycomb turned out very uneven and I was unhappy with it. I found a pattern for folding a 5 pointed star. This proved much better.

I found an excellent online TUTORIAL , offering both words, diagrams and a video - so you could choose which instructions suited you best. You begin with some very clever folding of a square of paper, and then make one cut, which gives you a perfect pentagon. This is then folded into a pretty star. 

Whilst watching University Challenge, I folded my stars. I've given them a thin coat of PVA solution to protect and stiffen them, and help them stay folded. I have chosen the best one to hang on the tree. On some you can read the different languages, on this one you can see screwdrivers and hammers!

I may add this line to my 'reworked carol lyrics' collection

"Westward leading, still proceeding
Folding the Kitchen Star"

One Potato, Two Potato...

Wednesday dawned bright but very cold. Bob was organising the Shed Christmas Mardle [A 'mardle' is an informal get together to chat - it is an old Norfolk term] So out early, to put up the big gazebo, and another bring-and-share event. Bob had his little gas BBQ stove, and was warming up mulled wine, Another guy had an extension cable and an airfryer- and was heating up sausages, arancini and cheese balls in the back of his SUV!  I was too cold to take any pictures. Louise invited me to the farmhouse to show me her front door.

She'd been to a workshop and made a decoration with foraged greenery [holly, ivy, rosemary, bay etc] Years ago, people got moss and wired it to a frame, or wrapped a wire hoop with straw, to make the basis for a wreath. Then everybody bought 'oasis' floral foam and it was easier. Then this plastic, non-bio degradable product rightly fell out of favour

I was intrigued to discover that this decoration is made with a potato at the centre. It was placed with its flattest side down on the table and then holes were made [with a bbq skewer] and gradually more and more greenery was added. What a clever, moneysaving idea- and it can all go straight into the compost bin after Christmas! Here's a video showing you how to do it. Louise's daughter had also used a spud as the base for a lovely table centre [ easy to bore a hole for a candle if you wanted to]

Wreath Lecture

For reasons beyond my control I arrived rather late at my Craft Group Christmas Social. Everyone else was well into making their cinnamon stick trees. I was giving slightly misleading instructions and there seemed to be a limited number of fabric strips available. So my tree doesn't really look as it should.
I was told 'tie your strips all round to make a tree shape'  but you are supposed to put all the knots at the front so it is a flat tree - like this one

I will know next time! But there wasn't time to retie everything, because we were onto the second craft. Janet, our host, has this brilliant idea for repurposing the IKEA scarf hanger from her wardrobe. She only ever uses a few of the rings, so she cut off the bottom 16 rings. They were natural string colour, she dyed them brown with ox gall.

We were each given a ring, and selected greenery and trimmings from the baskets on the table to make mini wreaths. Our trees and wreaths were all hung at the window to make a pleasing display whilst we ate our bring&share lunch. We had a really good time together and lots of laughs

I was much happier with my mini wreath and that is now hanging up in the hall under my Mum's picture! I was glad I took my tin of little bells - quite a few friends used one for their wreaths.

I really should tidy up my scarf hanger. I am afraid I pull out a scarf and wear it, then just push it back in later. They look so much tidier when hung properly.

Have you made any new decorations this year?