Archive for December, 2008

Mr C made the Christmas tree as the credit crunch meant we couldn’t afford a real one. Only joking hah.

I used Martha Stewart’s pdf and stuck it onto thick card. It’s stuck together with fabric glue and a bit of sellotape which worked amazingly well. I painted the house and church with acrylic paints that Mr C had in his artbox. I covered them in fabric glue again and liberally applied clear german glass glitter (bought from etsy). I guess you could use cheap generic glitter but I don’t think it’d look as nice. I also bought the bottle-brush tree off etsy; they seem rather popular in America. The wreaths are made from sparkly pipe cleaners wrapped around a pencil. Next year I shall put them on bases and maybe build a little picket fence, I think it would be nice to add to the village each year.

A Mr C original.

* Eddie Ross has the fantastic bauble wreath tutorial. Looks stunning but surprisingly simple to make. I think I’m going to hit the sales for cheap baubles and make it next Christmas.

* One Pretty Thing has a handmade holiday gift guide. My favourite pages are the bath and beauty and edible crafts

* 30 pampering beauty and spa gifts to make from tipnut

* Creature comforts has a tutorial for a pretty eco happy pom pom gift topper

* Canon has this seriously nice calendar to print and assemble. Seen at Zakka Life. I think this would make a lovely present.

We are finally going on our honeymoony to Cuba in January. We are booked on “Hemingway’s Cuba” tour with Voyages Jules Verne. The tour comprises of 14 nights’ exploration of western Cuba’s most important cities and stunning landscapes taking in Havana, Trinidad, Viñales Valley and Varadero. It’s rather a bit more than we were originally paying but we get more tour and less resort stay (which suits us better) and hopefully hurricane season is well and truly over in January.

I hope we see a cigar smoking Cuban lady like this one taken by somebody_

I placed an order with play.com as it offered the cheapest products I wanted for Christmas presents with free delivery. Without informing me “my account was declined” which I only found out by logging in. I entered another card to see if that was the problem, no change. Then I rang up their helpline and spent a “delightful” few minutes on the phone in a queue listening to musak. An Indian man finally answered and said I needed to save the security code (something I’d already entered). I went off the phone and and re-entered the security code and the account remained declined.

I solved the problem by cancelling the order with them, I just can’t be bothered.