...getting creative for Christmas-part one.

I always intend to be really creative at Christmas and try to make lots of decorations and gifts myself. Somehow, it never happens in the way I want it to; the hectic pace of everyday life seems to get in the way. This year I am determined to make time and enjoy the build up to Christmas Day by getting creative. I am having lots of fun so far!

Yesterday the boy and I customised our own wrapping paper. It was very easy and very messy. I got red paint, brown wrapping paper and cut out a star shape from a potato. Yes indeed, we did some good old-fashioned potato printing! 

The boy got a bit carried away, and ended up just smearing red paint around the paper, the table, his arms, his face... I think he enjoyed himself!

I carried on printing, and hung them up to dry. All ready for wrapping now-hooray! 

Next, the husband and I decided to start a new Christmas tradition now that we are in our very own home together. I got the idea from A Beautiful Mess-we think it's brilliant. It's called 'The Twelve Dates of Christmas'. It goes like this. Each of us gets 6 'dates' (we made a little rule that they had to be less than £5). We write them on bits of paper and put them in envelopes. Then we write on the numbers 1 to 12 and hang them up on a line on our blackboard. We are going to open a few a week from now until Christmas. We opened number 1 today; make hotdogs. We are going to do this tomorrow night (we already had sausages for lunch!), and are quite excited (we don't get out much). It's really good for the soul to start new traditions-I totally recommend it!

Maria x