A bit of a ponder

If you read the same blogs as I do, you may well have read accounts of a lovely get together that happened last weekend at Tracy's house. She very kindly hosted a meeting of like minded bloggers, and it was, as ever, a treat and a privilege to spend time in the company of Tracy, Monica, Ali, Alice, Emma (special thanks for driving this country bumpkin down the the Big City), Nancy and Julie. We missed Kristina - but we all promised a repeat at some time. It was a truly magical day - huge hugs and thank yous to all of you.

At one point the conversation turned to "How long do you think you'll keep blogging for? Will you know when there's an end point?" As we pondered, someone very fairly commented that really, I have already stopped blogging, and I suppose to all intents and purposes that's true. I seem to have got out of the habit of responding to those of you kind enough to comment here, and I leave fewer and fewer comments on other blogs, neither of which are habits I'm proud of. I didn't even have a camera with me on Saturday, for goodness' sake.

But here's the rub - I still think of myself as a blogger. This space has given me so much pleasure, and brought so many friendships both real life and virtual that I would feel lost without it. It's been a place where I have recorded important parts of my life - admittedly not the grotty bits, but I doubt they'd make for interesting reading. I started Dottycookie in 2007 when I was still working and when my children were really tiny. Now they're older and my blogging time is stolen by homework and after school activities and cooking (they actually eat these days, which is a blessed relief). I think I actually spend more time making "stuff" but less time photographing it. Through this blog and the people I've "met" I found the courage to finally sell things I'd made, and while it's a small turnover, it is steady and that brings me great joy.

I think perhaps I haven't stopped blogging, just slowed down. Maybe this year I'll post more, maybe  I won't but I think for me that feels fine - your blog is what you want it to be and the people who like it and connect with it are more than likely people you'll want to spend time with, whether that's online or in someone's kitchen eating salad and cake. And those people are the ones who do get to see the messy bits behind the sparkly colourful photos - just like in "real life".

Scrappy colour bursts

I hope this qualifies as being cosy and comforting enough to be part of ThriftyHousehold and Silverpebble's Making Winter series!

I don't know about where you are, but here it is grey and soggy and VERY January. Bleurgh.

So when I saw some brightly coloured scrap cushions on AmandaJean's blog, I could do nothing else until I had made them for my girls. Ignore all the other things I have on the go and the parcels I STILL haven't posted (sorry ladies!), I actually managed to start and finish a project in one afternoon. Wheeee!

 I am faintly ashamed that I didn't need to buy anything at all to complete this - please tell me I'm not the only one who has unused cushion pads kicking around - but then that means I'm stash busting, which is a Good Thing. Right?

And lest you should think I live in a twinkly, colourful, fairy lit interiors magazine home, here's the reality only 2 feet away.

Argh!

I think I've peaked

Was your Christmas a good one? Was it? Ours was. Really, really lovely - and we get to do it all over again this weekend when we see both our families, hurrah!

One of the reasons for my excitement and my early morning wakefulness on Christmas Day was that I knew I had spent a lot of time making an extra special present for the girls and I could barely wait for them to open it.

You may remember they are huuuuge Harry Potter fans? For Tiny Small's seventh birthday we had an (unblogged) HP party, at which the highlight was a Potions class - lots of mixtures that smell good, or are sparkly, or fizz, or bubble, or pop, or change colour - or all of them in sequence. Anyway, as a result my two have been hankering for potions kits since October, and how could I refuse?

It started with tiny weeny pestles and mortars, and quickly escalated. I found papier mache tea bag boxes and miniature bottles at my local craft shop, and with a bit of paint, some saved small jam jars and bottles, and some ingredients from the kitchen cupboards they were transformed into ingredients chests.

I downloaded a spell book here, and was inspired to make my very own potion book - you would be amazed at what you can find on the  Harry Potter Wiki in the way of ingredients lists and recipes.

Some of the potions I made up recipes for, others are straight out of the books, but the one thing I did do was have a long hard think about all of the ingredients so that the potions ended up the right colour, or fizzed, or shone.

Of course, once I'd gone that far I had to make it look "authentic" so I used brown paper, string and sealing wax to package it all up and left two big boxes inside the front door for them to find.

It took far more time than money to create (the priciest part was the pestles and they are far from essential), but I will not soon forget the cries and squeals of delight, or the fact that for the last three mornings they have woken up asking to do "potioneering". They've tried all my recipes, and started writing their own. I need to think up some more ingredients for them.

  
I think this is the the best thing I've ever made. And I am thrilled that my children do too.

PS I'm happy to converse with you if you want to make something similar. Especially ideas for potion ingredients for whizzing and fizzing and kitchen chemistry-ing ...

Days 21-24

Ooops, slipped a bit here, haven't I?

The truth is, we've gone off piste, and it always happens - the activity advent is fantastic in the first half of the month when it's early enough to be excited but not yet completely busy with preparation. It gets us in the spirit without being prescriptive. But by the week of Christmas we're all ready to be a little more spontaneous - we don't actually need the prompts any more.

So, we have been to see Arthur Christmas, we've made and sprinkled reindeer food, we've played board games, we've wrapped and cooked, we've hung our stockings, we've been carol singing, we've been to the annual Christmas Eve service next door, we've baked our glorious ham ...

And now it is Christmas morning and I am slowly pottering about before the little ones get up. I reckon I've got about 10 more minutes so if you'll excuse me, there are birds to be fed and coffee to be drunk and then merriment to be made.

Have a lovely Christmas if you celebrate it; otherwise I wish you a very happy day anyway!

Days 19 and 20

The calendar said we ought to be making gingerbread houses yesterday, but what with work parties and present making we ran out of time. So instead, we saved it for today when we had a visit from Emma and her tiny pebbles and went a bit mad with the sugar.

This is the pebble cottage. Note the exuberant use of colourful sweeties, and twin chimneys, no less:

For some reason there is a jelly baby stranded on the roof of the Dottycookie cottage, and his ladder is broken. Oh no!

But at least he can be reassured that there is a colourful path waiting to break his fall if he ever gets onto the roof:

We used the leftover gingerbread to make tiny bears, and drew on them with a food safe marker, an extravagant delight if ever there was one.

And we even made tasteful angels from a glorious Allsorts printout - Jenny's blog is a constant source of joyous inspiration and she's generously produced a whole slew of free Christmas projects over the years.

And now I am sugared out. Weeks of very limited sugar intake have had me feeling well and healthy, and this afternoon's excesses have made me crave intensely savoury foods. Bring on the Marmite!

Day 18 - Dress up for dinner

Our activity last night was to dress up for dinner, which we did, having returned from joining in an attempt to break the world record for the largest number of people simultaneously singing Christmas carols. It looks like we (with 17000 others nationwide) did it, though it has yet to be confirmed. It was fun!

Anyway, there are no pictures of us in our finery so instead I shall give you a photo of some of the cakes decorated by children we had round for a party yesterday afternoon. I had planned a bit of white rose and snowman elegance, a sprinkle of glitter and a squirt of lustre spray. They had other ideas. Get your sunglasses!

(This new blogger interface is ... interesting. I'm not convinced yet.)

Day 17 - Popcorn and a Christmas movie

Stuff the popcorn, we're watching Strictly.

Go Harry!