Our kindness elf and a crazy busy week

Why is it that as you get older time just whizzes past? I'm sure that as a child the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas went so, so slowly - it took forever to get to Christmas Eve.  As an adult, I'm sat wondering where all the hours in the day are going!

This week has been crazily busy. We had a bit of a party at toddler group on Monday which was lovely and then posted the last few Christmas cards. I know that more and more people are stopping sending cards at Christmas and while I understand their reasons I still like to send them to close friends and family where I can. It probably stems from growing up receiving them and remembering how much I enjoyed getting those cards. With the ones the Makepeace clan receive now I display them on strings over the season and then cut them up to make labels for the following year. I then try and recycle any excess parts where I can.

Tuesday was MOT day for the car which meant lots of walking, getting soaked in the rain and a repair bill which was not ideal just before Christmas but these things are sent to try us. Wednesday morning was a trip into town to take my new glasses back to the opticians as I felt that something wasn't quite right. I've been wearing glasses for 32 years and any long time wearers of specs will understand when I say that my eyes were just not adjusting to the new prescription. Turns out I was right and it would appear that one of the lens may have slipped whilst being cut and so it was incorrectly positioned meaning things were somewhat blurry. Now its a case of waiting for the lens to be re-cut, sent back to the shop and then I can pick them up again. Frustrating, but at least I'll be able to see properly again, at least I hope so!

Crafting wise, I've been cracking on with the Lake Baikal cross stitch, although I'm not as far along as I would like. Partly because I've been reduced to only stitching on an evening and partly because a couple of the evenings I've been too tired or been struggling with my glasses. I've been thinking about what project I can start after Christmas and have a couple of ideas, so watch this space. It has to be said that watching Kirstie's Handmade Christmas has been helping to give me some ideas, but I'm not sure that my husband will appreciate me having a go at all of them... The kids also got in on the crafting act this week as one of their 'kindness challenges' set for them by our elf, Jingles.


Jingles first came to stay with us about 3 years ago after some poor behaviour from the boys but instead of the more well known 'Elf on a shelf', Jingles is a kindness elf who appears with a letter each morning with a challenge to encourage kindness from the boys. This year he's been with us since the 1st December (previously he's only done 12 days if visits) and we've had a range of challenges for the children, including leaving happy notes in books at the library, making someone else's bed, talking to someone new at school and making a gift for someone. We decided to go down the salt dough route for their homemade gifts using the ratio 2:1:1 for the flour, salt and water which worked but wasn't as pliable as I would have liked. All 3 kids had a go at rolling out their dough and cutting out shapes, which we then baked and painted. I haven't varnished them, but may seal them with PVA glue so they last a bit longer. Sweetly, L gave his to me, his dad and baby sister - he can be cute sometimes.

That's it from me today. The boys break up from school this afternoon for the Christmas holidays which means I can FINALLY open all the treats I bought the other week.  Chocolates, biscuits and peanuts - I've been dying to crack them open and now I can 😊. A lovely bit of family time for a few days will be just the ticket.

Have a very Merry Christmas if you celebrate it and I'll see you on the other side.

M x

Mincemeat and cross stitch

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas...
I was asked the other day whilst discussing what I was picking up from the supermarket for Christmas nibbles if I was going to get some mince pies. It was a resounding no from me. I am quite partial to the humble mince pie, but I have been thoroughly spoilt in recent years and my husband makes his own (and not just the pastry either). He lovingly prepares a new batch of mincemeat every year (OK I nag, beg and cajole him to) and they are quite simply divine. Trouble is that now I can't enjoy the shop bought ones or even the jars of mincemeat. The house smells amazing while he's making them too. He uses a recipe from a Gary Rhodes recipe book that's about 17 years old.

 So last week, after I uploaded the blog post and shortly before the school run, my new cross stitch arrived. I was itching to get started and I've made reasonable progress I think, despite having to wait until the munchkins were tucked up in bed before making a start. Considering there is around 36,400 cross stitches to complete I've stitched maybe an eighth of the pattern but it still doesn't actually look like anything.

I've also helped the boys to finish off their felt Christmas tree decorations that we bought from Aldi a few weeks ago and they are now happily adorning our tree. They've come out pretty well and the boys are really pleased with them. I think for next year I'm going to attach them to a length of ribbon and make a garland with them (mean mummy that I am I have a thing about everything on my tree matching!)

Only one week left at school now for the boys and only one toddler group for me and A. I'm hoping that means I can get some more stitching done but I'm also super conscious that this kit was expensive (for me) and I really shouldn't get through it too quickly - I'm just really enjoying it.

Until next time,

M x

Lake Baikal cross stitch

First of all I have to admit that there hasn’t been an abundance of crafting going on here at Makepeace Made. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to, just that I haven’t had the materials to work with and with Christmas just around the corner the finances are being focused elsewhere. When I got pregnant with little miss A, I had a big clear out of my crafting materials as I just didn’t have space for it all what with turning our spare room into her bedroom. I still have some bits and pieces, just not as much as I used to have. Add in to that the fact that I really fancy getting my teeth stuck into a big cross stitching project (thanks for that Floss tube!), and I just haven’t had the motivation to do much of anything.

Top pic is a section of my brother's card.
Bottom pic is one of the teacher's presents - a craft box filled with
sweets. Apparently Mt T is "going to love it!"

I have cobbled together the Christmas gifts for the boys’ teachers and I’ve also hand drawn a card for my baby brother - OK, he’s 29 this week and I’m sure he would hate to be still referred to as the baby of the family but to me he will always be that cute little curly haired boy even if he is married with his own home and a proper grown up job.

As the title of this post suggests, I have also found my big cross stitch project and I am so excited for it to arrive. It’s a counted cross stitch on 11 count Aida which is slightly different to what I have worked with in the past but it is so stunning I thought I’d attempt the challenge. It’s the Riolis ‘Lake Baikal’ which having bought the kit I then had a good old Google about the lake itself and now really fancy a trip around the Russian region of Siberia where this lake is situated. I ordered the kit online after numerous hours spent searching various websites and a couple of fruitless searches in my local town centre.

I was actually incredibly disappointed in my town centre as I couldn’t find one single cross stitch kit. Now I was either looking in completely the wrong places or it’s deemed to not be overly popular around here. Never mind, it worked out for the best as both me and the hubby are loving the Lake Baikal kit and I’m itching to start. It will be the biggest project I have undertaken in cross stitch I believe and will be quite the labour of love. I’m contemplating doing a couple of ‘Stitch with me’ videos for Flosstube, but we’ll see how that pans out as I’m not a fan of my voice on recordings.

You can just about see this year's addition - my little crochet
snowman

On a more personal note, our Christmas decorations have gone up and things are looking decidedly more festive. We've also had the arrival of our Kindness Elf and the boys are enjoying taking part in their kindness challenges.

It’s been a quiet week group wise as A hasn’t been particularly well. I was excited to realise that 'Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas' is on Monday to Friday for 3 weeks so no doubt I will have a lovely long list of crafts I want to do ready for Christmas 2019. I have to be realistic and accept that it simply won’t happen for this year.

I’ll leave it there and catch up with you next week, hopefully with some crafting to share with you,

M x