Pine Cone Christmas Crafts For Children

Last year our kindergarten made these cute little pine cone angels and Christmas trees with the children and hung them in the windows. The are so simple that toddlers can make them and are fun to decorate.

You will need:

Pine cones (obviously!)

Paint

Beads

Glue

Glitter in silver, gold or red

Ribbon or coloured string

Small wooden or polystyrene balls

Gold doilies

For the Christmas Trees:

Paint the pine cones with green paint. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle the tips with glitter. 

Leave to dry then glue coloured beads onto the tips as the baubles. 

Finish by glueing or tying a lenth of coloured string or ribbon to the top so that you can hang your decoration.

For the Angels:

Holding the pine cone flat side up, dab the tips with coloured glitter glue or with glue and sprinkle with glitter. You may want to balance the pine cone in a small cup to keep it steady and allow you to use both hands.

Draw a face onto the wooden or polystyrene ball and glue it to the centre of the flat surface, as in the photo. Next cut some lengths of wool, string or ribbon for the hair and glue it in place. 

Fold the doilie into quarters and then cut out two quarters. Glue them to the back of the angel, gold side facing outwards. 

Finish by glueing or tying a lenth of coloured string or ribbon to the angel so that you can hang your decoration.

A Festive Jar Of Walnuts

This is a simple but very effective way to brighten up a shelf, ledge, mantelpiece or windowsill for the festive season. 

Just fill a kilner jar with walnuts (pine cones or chesttnuts would work either), tie a gingham ribbon round the neck of the jar and place it on a surface with a backdrop of holly, ivy and other greenery of your choice.

Homemade Christmas Food and Drink Gifts - Part Two

I am spectacularly late on this. Seriously. The production time on this post would rival that spent on any Hollywood blockbuster. The budget was ever so slightly lower though. 

On the 14th November, on the spur of the moment, I decided I would film the making of my homemade foodie gifts. What I neglected to take into account was the amount of editing a spur of the moment vlog needs. Especially when there are countless star appearances by Number Three. He even attempted a few stunts, but I literally caught him in time. 

But anyway, back to the matter at hand - making a few cheap and cheerful, quick and easy food gifts.

Are you in need of some last minute gifts? Does your creativity need a culinary outlet? Or do you just need a way to get rid of all the bottles and jars you've been hoarding all year? 

Whatever the answer, you have come to the right place. Take a look at my short vlog and see the gorgeous, tasty edible gifts you can make in no time, with very little effort, no cooking and very few ingredients. 

In this vlog you'll learn how to make:

 - Candy Sugar in Grand Marnier, for pepping up punch, mulled wine black tea or coffee

 - Homemade Vanilla Sugar, for adding an extra depth of flavour to baking

 - Layered Seasonings in a Jar or Grinder

 - Homemade Seeded Brown Bread Mix, just add buttermilk before baking (get the full recipe here)

You'll be amazed how much you can make in five minutes!

Your shopping list:
Caster sugar
Vanilla pods
Orange liqueur
Candy sugar
Sea salt (coarse)
Black pepper
Oregano
Chili flakes
Brown flour
White plain flour
Bicarbonate of soda (bread soda)
Fine salt
A selection of seeds (linseed, poppy, pumpkin)

P.S. In an ideal world (or on a better organised blog) you would find here at the end of the post some lovely printables to pin, print or download. But this is the real world, my real world to  be exact, so maybe there'll be printables next year. If I think of it on time.

The Arrival Of Advent With Its Wreaths, Calendars and Cookies

By now I have made a fair few mentions of Advent and the traditions that go with it here. Since last week I have been busy as a beaver with all sorts of crafts projects as well general making and baking, with the result that the house looks great and smells delicious. 

My Husarenkrapfen - jam-filledhazelnut biscuits

I'm quite content in myself knowing that, come what may before Christmas, the house has a basic level of festive appearance and there is always something tasty to be eaten with a cuppa. The nearer we get to Christmas, the more the scent of a cinnamon and clove candle will fill the house and the flicker of my real-log-fire dvd in the will be noticable in the background. (Oh, how I miss a real fire in Winter!). The Christmas decorations and the tree will be put up, visitors will begin to arrive and those cups of coffee will be replaced with mulled wine. 

But back to the here and now - last week I wrote about my salvaged shutters and how I hoped to turn them into some form of decoration for the house throughout Advent. I was sure, as I am with every project I begin, that I would find the time to decorate in leisure. By Saturday one of the shutters had been dusted, scrubbed and freed from as much dead ivy as possible. Then came the hard part - how to decorate it. 

My head was buzzing with ideas of my own as well as with inspiration from my Pinterest boards. And so Sunday morning saw me sat on the living room floor surrounded by ribbons, wreaths, stars and snowmen, candles, jars and pine cones. I spent a happy hour or so fiddlling about and trying to bring my ideas to life. My original plan to go with a green and silver theme just didn't look right in our red and white living room. The end result is more cosy chalet than sleek elegance, but I like it. It works here. 

The following day, Monday, Operaton Advent Calendar kicked off. Since moving into our house five years ago, we have built up a lovely Advent calendar tradition. I decorate the stairs in ribbons, fairy lights and a garland and, once the children are in bed, on the eve of December 1st I hang the homemade Advent calendar. 

This year the calendar is filled with a mixum-gatherum of toffees, chocolates, Christmas tree shaped pasta, mini bath salts and a few tiny little toys. Other years it has been filled with Playmobil figures and their tiny accessories or with collectable stickers. 

Seeing the boys go to bed excited and wake the next morning even more excited about something so simple is wonderful. It gives me a lovely warm, motherly feeling to know that they love this tradition of ours as much as I do. It is a little like a rehersal for Christmas Eve. 

Making A Naughty or Nice Behaviour Chart With Your Child

A few years ago during a trip home to Ireland I spotted some behaviour charts in Marks & Spencer. They covered the six weeks till Christmas and came with cute little elf stickers - smiling elves for the good days, sad elves for the naughty days. I bought one each for Number One and Number Two. They reacted really well to them, behaving really well in the run up to Christmas. 

Since we don't have M&S here in Germany, we have made our own naughty or nice behavious charts the last couple of years. We had a lot of fun planning the design and colours to use and the charts worked just as well as the bought originals.

To make your own chart you will need:

Card in various colours

Glue

Scissors

Ruler

Felt tip pen

Optional extras:

Stickers

Stamps and ink

Washi tape

Cutting board

Scalpel

1. As the basis for your chart you need a rectangular piece of card. We use card approx. 20 x 40 cm. Allow the top third of the card for the picture and the bottom two thirds for the grid of days and weeks.

2. Mark the division of the picture area from the grid area. Last year we used a strip of card and cut a pattern into it. This year we used strips of washi tape.

3. Design your picture, cut out the pieces you needa and glue them into place. Last year I went for an elaborate scene with Santa, Christmas trees, presents, snow and stars wich the boys stuck in place while I instructed them. This year we simplified it and I let the boys design their own pictures.

 4. Draw the grid for the days and weeks. You will need 8 columns (one for each day of the week plus a column on the left for the dates). Depending on how many weeks are left till Christmas, you can decide on how many rows you need. Last year we tracked the boys' behavious over 6 weeks. This year we're doing it over 7 weeks.

5. Write the names of the days in the top row of your grid and the dates of each week in the column on the far left. Now your chart is finished. 

6. At the end of each day mark the square on the grid which corresponds to that day with a smiley sticker, a gold star, an ink stamp or a black mark, depending on the child's behaviour.