Snow.... almost

It snowed for about an hour yesterday.  I was so excited, I really hoped we'd get about 1-2 inches, just enough to blanket the garden & roof of the house so I could get some photos.  Sadly, it didn't do that and the snow melted away as soon as it stopped falling.

Don't know if you can make out the snowflakes falling.  It all melted away pretty quickly.

I decided to have a go at making a Christmas wreath today, thanks to a home decorating series called Kirstie's Home Made Christmas.  I didn't have any of the materials she had so I made do with some string and very flexible branches.

My first attempt at a (rather rubbish) Christmas wreath.  Cost me absolutely nothing so I'm happy!

Fireplace again with some berries and evergreen foliage along the mantle.

I've been going crazy with candle making again.  Andrew & I are giving candles as Christmas gifts to a few of our closest friend this year, so I have had fun making a mess in the kitchen.

The finished candles.  Some of the wicks need trimming before they are wrapped and packed into gift bags.

The next batch of various colours and shapes.  These candles will be used around our house.

The two large jars at the back are recycled salsa jars, the three small clear tealight holders are from Tesco (50p each! Bargain!!) and the purple and red tealight holders at the front are from Homebase (99p each!  Also a bargain!!).  Rather than put tealights in the tealight holders, I made wicks and stuck them inside the holders so I can pour the wax straight in.

It's beginning to look a bit like Christmas

Andrew & I decided to pick up some Chinese takeaway for dinner on our way home from visiting his Gran tonight. Neither of us goes through the high street of Shaftesbury unless it's during daylight hours when the shops are open, so it was a pleasant surprise to drive into town last night and find the street ablaze with lights and colour for Christmas.

The photo doesn't do it justice, I'll have to go back again tomorrow night and take more pics.

Take-away food in hand, we are just about to jump in the car and head home.
Andrew reminds me of Blackboard (from Mr Squiggle) in this photo - "Hu-rrry uuuup..."

Can you see the similarity??

Our fireplace with a little bit of Christmas cheer

For the last 4 years I haven't felt very festive because of the terrible things we've endured and the sadness it has left in my heart.  It certainly took the "Merry" out of Christmas.

This year I am feeling a little more relaxed about it so, rather than buy a tree, I have decided to invest in some Christmas lights just to brighten up the fireplace (the foliage you can see inside the pit is just some cuttings I took from a tree outside).  These are teensy tiny LED lights that have about 7 different flashing functions.  Tomorrow I will add some more green foliage and berries to the mantlepiece so it looks even more Christmassy.

Mosaic

I had this idea ages ago for prettying up the front of the fireplace but I keep forgetting!

I've never done mosaic work before but I'm willing to give it a go. Why not do a pretty mosaic feature to cover up the slate?

Because the Tree of Life is so symbolic for Andrew & I, that might be a nice pattern to use for the fireplace.

Here are some inspiring "tree of life" mosaic pictures I found on Google.

Or I could just make my own Tree of Life by repeating the style of our wall art?

And the awesome thing is that I have just found an online mosaic design website so I can start experimenting!