Friday 18 December 2009

Five Friday Faves

*Love this fluffy Christmas garland.
*I'm off to steal some ivy from the common so I can copy this wrapping idea.
*Simple but effective - this bright orange and kumquat arrangement.
*Prettily packaged button magnets.
*Reviews of Kirstie's Homemade Christmas here and here - what did you think? I enjoyed it, but I can't remember much except for the gold-leafed pears (which I did think were lovely) and the slightly scary red lipstick.

Have a great weekend! I have now done my Christmas shopping (courtesy of Amazon wish-lists, I'm afraid), and I'm going to try and and take some photos of my Christmas decorations over the weekend. I have heat and hot water again, so I'm happy. Notes from the Frugal Trenches (a blog I love) would not be happy to know that I did not even realise that £15.99 was coming out of my bank account each month for boiler insurance - but in this case it all worked out! By the way, my mum says that all she wants for Christmas is a knitting pattern for a sheep with loopy stitches for its coat - does anyone know where to get such a thing?

Photo Decor8, spotted on Marvelous Kiddo.

20 comments:

Karen Cheung said...

I think it's funny how most people who saw Kirstie Allsop's show have remarked on the terrifying mature of her make-up. What was going on there? She looked like a clown :-)

Good luck searching for ivy - everything here in Essex is under three inches of snow!

sas said...

i thoroughly enjoyed Kirstie's christmas show - she is completely mad (agree the make up was a little terrifying) but who can resist her enthusiasm?
also: fabulous chutney reciepe.

Conversation Pieces said...

Yes the makeup was a bit scary... but I was loving the mince pie recipe and now the other half wants to make soap sometime (is this a good thing?)!

And yay to heat and hot water! You need those!!

Lynne said...

Sas - you are so right. She is very passionate and that's great.

the notebook doodles said...

the photo is super lovely :p have a great weekend!

Unknown said...

Loving the garlands. A lot of people have put the KLirsty show down, but I what they don't realise is you don't need to copy all her ideas at that cost, take snippets of ideas and turn them into your own, with things you have at hand. After all no design is totally original, everybody is infuenced by something or somebody else they see. Kx

Unknown said...

Hi Joy,

There is a georgous woolly loopy sheep pattern in a book called The Knitters Bible by Claire Compton.Published by David&Charles.

Amazon are selling it on sale now.

Very cute. Trust me. I am from New Zealand. We know cute Sheep.

Regards, Vicki

Unknown said...

P.S She also has a website www.clairecrompton.co.uk or her designs are on Ravelry

Rebecca said...

I loved the kirsty show, if nothing else, its gets you in the mood, and set my brain whirring with festive possibilities. I might say though, that I work in the shop that makes the bunting that was strung all round her house, and its quite ironic to see how many people were 'inspired' to go and BUY decorations after watching a proramme with 'homemade' in the title. and yes, that makeup, what on earth?!
also, I love thatpicture, although I just know if I attempted that wrapping it would not work.

*donna* said...

i really enjoyed kirstie's show - although she did appear to be particularly useless at most activities :0)

i adore the wrapping in this picture. i think i may actually use it for some of my xmas pressies!

really lovely blog by the way!

Anonymous said...

Ravelry under "sheep", a free pattern...

Clare said...

That packaging is yummy! My wrapping will definitely involve doilies this year!
I have a crochet pattern for loopy sheep. It's in a Japanese magazine, but there are pictoral diagrams.

automatism said...

Happy weekend — glad you've got heat and hot water again! Thanks so much for the link love, too!

Lori
:-)

saradowle said...

I'm a big fan of Kirstie's shows! The crafts she explores are so interesting, and especially for Christmas!

Anonymous said...

lol don't worry we can all make that mistake. Beautiful photo!

kristina - no penny for them said...

have been stopping by often but never left a note. but today: really just to say how much i love the top 50 design blogs list you compiled for the times. i knew most of them but there are some new-to-me gems that will be bliss to discover.

...now back to christmas gift wrapping. this year, i'm doing white/silver paper and ribbons with mistletoe. still piles to wrap...

happy sunday!

Courtney said...

Love the wrapping in the top photo -- and so glad I found your blog. So many lovely things!

Eadaoin said...

gorgeous links you have here :) such a lovely way to spend sunday afternoon, following link after link! i love that photo too.

i missed kirsties homemade christmas, i don't have tv (we decided to get rid of it this year, we still watch movies and shows online sometimes) and soooo many people have mentioned it to me & asked did i see it that it's getting frustrating lol.

skirts and wellies said...

I liked some parts of it, which is saying something as they turned us down for Series 2 of Kirstie's Homemade Home. Harumph to Kirstie! We decided to spend the money we promised to spend on the show anyway and bought some lovely reclaimed doors, a new (to us) desk, a new sofa - really new and so lovely, some nice accessories and we're doing up our little spare room with the money too. I'll blog about it all in the new year. Best wishes for a lovely Christmas.

Miss B said...

Pretty, pretty I am sad Christmas is over:)