Doe a deer a Christmas deer

I have lots of wonderful Christmas things around my house and some don't go away during the year as I love to see them all year round.

One of these is the sweetest bunny made by my ever-so-talented dear blogging friend Vivienne of Green rabbit designs. Vivienne and I got back to my very first blog posts 8 years ago and we have become very close friend, despite her living in Northern Ireland. On my wish list is that we will one day meet up in the flesh.

I bought Holly the Christmas bunny some years ago

 and she sits on my piano along with the sweetest pig called Priscilla. Vivienne made me her some years back for my birthday. (Yes Vivienne knows of my life long love of pigs)

When Vivienne lists her bunnies and animals on Etsy you have to be very quick as they hang about for about 30 seconds after being listed. I had spotted a rather wonderful soul she had made on her IG page and decided that I would try to buy her as a present for me when she went up for sale on Etsy. The day came last week I was just thrilled to be successful.

My parcel arrived...all beautifully wrapped

I carefully unwrapped her....just look at the darling cardi and dress..

Say hello to Doe a deer a Christmas deer!

She was a little shy at first..
but Holly took her by the hand and asked her to pose for a photo.

They have become the best of festive friends
and now all 3 sit together on my piano. They are so delightful.

So my card today had to feature deer didn't it.
This is another newbie up for sale at Dotty's Teahouse in Carshalton High Street, SM5 2AE

The hillscape die is by STAMPlorations, I used it to cut some lovely festive DP from my stash. The tree is a part of a memory box die, the snowflakes are Cheery Lynn, the sleigh is Marianne. The deer are Noor and The Works. I stamped some snowflakes on one of the deer in silver. The stamped sentiment is ancient form my stash but one I love to use.

 Here are a couple of close ups of the Wintry scene I created.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Crafty catz 2/3 anything goes
Fussy and fancy 2/3 Winter/Christmas
Crafty Calendar 2/3 It's Christmas time
Ribbon girl 2/3 anything goes
Simon says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Card Mania 1/5 Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas  anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut's patterned paper  anything goes
The paper girls 1/3 die cuts
Double D 1/3 run run Rudolph
Alphabet challenge  1/3 r is for reindeer

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope your preparations are going well? Remember to take the time to look at the little things too at this time of the year which makes it so magical. I hope that for you too, "All hearts come home for Christmas".

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Winter Wonderland

Last weekend we spent 4 days at Centre Parcs, Longleat celebrating my SIL's 30th birthday. It really was such a fun time. We had never visited a Centre Parcs before although my daughter has a few times. The special thing at this time of the year is that it has a Winter Wonderland in the Village Square complete with Santa's Workshop and real reindeer. Well I was just in Christmas heaven.

 There was a postbox to post letters to Father Christmas. Everything was so well done, even the fake snow was really realistic,

 I love this photo, yes this is a real reindeer, he looks like a Disney one!

The trees were lit up with lights

 and there was a fun snowmans' sofa ;0)

Even the land train was decked in festive finery.

Daisy saw Santa.......so sweet, she had her little letter all ready. I was as excited as she was.

and this was her wonderful present, isn't he cute. Daisy loves giraffes, like her Uncle M

The forest surroundings are all so beautiful, the morning mist over the lake was spectacular.

I also enjoyed 2 sessions of pottery painting, I will hopefully share some photos of that soon. The tropical swimming dome was great fun with a slide which went outside...yes seriously! I also
hope to make a Moment of our wonderful break.

My card today has to have a really festive feel to it. It features a Father Christmas just as I think he should be. This lovely image is by Nicecrane and is available here. There are several others in the set which are perfect for vintage style Christmas cards.

My photo is not the clearest as like everyone else I am really struggling with the lack of light at this time of the year. Here are a couple of close ups

The round sentiment is Lili of the Valley. The naughty or nice are Whimsy stamps. The candle die is Marianne to which I added some distress ink and some glamour dust for a touch of sparkle. The snow flakes and the icicle border (I just love this die) are both Cheery Lynn. . The backing papers are ancient from my stash.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Frilly and funkie A vintage holiday
Country View Crafts nostalgic Christmas
Noor! Design UK Merry Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Santa is on his way
Emerald Faeries red and green
Whimsy Inspirations anything goes
Simon says stamp Monday  Holiday cards
Simon says stamp Wednesday Christmas/ holidays
We do doobadoo get festive

I would really like to stop time now...there are just 22 days until Father Christmas will be on his rounds...I wonder who has been naughty or nice...?
We hope to buy our tree at the weekend and I am also working on my Funkie Junkie #10 project as well as shopping, card writing, cracker making and working. Fun, fun fun!

Take care and keep warm everyone. Some of my American buddies are under feet of snow and over here in the UK it turned very cold today. Brrrrrrrrrrrr

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

15 days til.....................

The days are flying by and this is my 7th Countdown to Christmas post. Today I would like to share our Christmas tree traditions. Since I was a little girl we have always had a real tree at home. When my Hb and I married even for our 1st Christmas we had a real tree in our little flat which almost filled our tiny front room, but it was so important to us to have one!
Last  weekend was the traditional weekend that we buy our Christmas tree, usually the 1st Saturday in December. We have a local nursery which always sells top quality trees and ours lasts perfectly right until its taking down on 12th night. This was our tree in 2007......

My Hb and I took a trip up to the nursery and it was delivered on Monday.  Usually we have 2 trees, one in the dining room and a "chocolate" tree in the hall. However this year we are still decorating the dining room and our bookcase is in the hall where that tree would normally stand. So this year we have just bought the one for the dining room. We will hang our chocs from the stairs banisters instead I think where we have our Christmas cards displayed.

We always chose a Nordmann Fir for the tree in the dining room as its leaf retention is fantastic. We first bought this variety in the early 1980s before it really caught on in the UK. Everyone traditionally bought the Norway spruce and indeed as a little girl this is the tree we always had and by the new year it was usually quite bald! Our chocolate tree is often a rooted spruce.

This year all the trees up at the nursery were nestled among the snow!

We tend to buy a 7 feet tall tree as that fits our room perfectly. The lads in the nursery are always so helpful and get as many trees out of their sacking as you want to look at. We chose a lovely bushy one with plenty of room to hang all my ornaments on.

We also decided to go into the Garden Centre as rumour had it that there were some real live reindeer visiting...we were not disappointed and found these sweet creatures...

One little girl standing next to us ask her Daddy which one was Rudolph....

I think this must have been him as he stood up to say hello. Their antlers are fascinating, they look so furry.













After admiring the reindeer I decided I would like to buy a small poinsettia for the house. Unlike one of my blogging friends Vivienne I am not usually one for houseplants, unless they survive on neglect, but I do like to have a Christmas plant in the house.

There were lots of unusual colours

But I decided I would like the traditional red colour.








 
 
So we completed our purchases and headed back to the warm. Usually we would be decorating our tree on the Sunday but as it could not be delivered until Monday it will have to wait until tomorrow. I can't wait to get the ornaments out of their boxes from the loft and will be back with another post very soon to share them with you. Some of my ornaments were owned by my grandfather and go back to the 1930/40s. I also still have the very first ornament my Hb and I bought for our 1st tree back in 1981! I hope you are all thinking about decorating your tree soon.....
 
Finally today I wanted to share with you this most romantic Christmas poem, it appears in my Christmas compendium book and I love to read it at this time of year.....enjoy....

♥ Mistletoe ♥

Sitting under the mistletoe
(Pale green fairy mistletoe)
One last candle burning low,
All the sleepy dancers gone,
Just one candle burning on,
Shadows lurking everywhere:
Some one came, and kissed me there.


Tired I was; my head would go
Nodding under the mistletoe
(Pale green, fairy mistletoe)
No footsteps came, no voice, but only,
Just as I sat there, sleepy, lonely,
Stooped in the still and shadowy air
Lips unseen - and kissed me there.

Walter De La Mare, 1873-1956

Bye for now,
 
Jane x

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(I am adding an edit here on Saturday afternoon as I have just heard the most wonderful news that dear Tom proposed to our darling daughter whilst at the summit of Kinder Scout in the Peak District today....I dedicate the above poem to them and send them SO much love and congratulations. What a wonderful Christmas present this is for us all xx)

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