A little early christmas planning

Its no secret that I love everything about Christmas. I just cant seem to help myself, I love everything about it and just thinking about it makes me seriously happy. Whilst all year long  I have been madly stitching up  my 180 ornaments, it keeps Christmas right at the front of my thoughts and I have been dreaming up a tonne of fun crafty projects to make. In fact I have been working on them for some time now, I have a long list written on my kitchen window with a white board marker. And I am so glad that I have because there is no possible way that I could complete all this fun craftiness in the weeks leading up to Christmas and quite honestly I don't want to be trying to do everything at that time of year, it is busy enough then as it is!

Last year I wanted to have everything done by late November (see it here) it really made a huge difference that I had most stuff done but his year I would like to be done  little earlier. Really I know you are thinking that it is too early but seriously it is mid August already and its gone so fast!!! (129 days left!) There are a few things that I have been organizing already so that the end of year is a lovely enjoyable time and not a time when I am pulling my hair out. Here is a list of the first four things to think about that will help you get organised. I'm going to suggest that it is time to find a little note book or a spot in your planner where you can write a few things down, but first:

1. Decide on a Theme or Colour Scheme.

Ok so this is the fun part, may be you love to have a mish mash of christmas' gone by and that is totally fine, I think this is pretty typical for most Australians, we are a pretty laid back bunch but even if you are the kind of person that puts up a mixture of ornaments from years gone by, use that as your theme and put funky cut up cards on your pressies and add to your collection this year. If your more like me I LOVE to have a theme, my theme doesn't cover the entire house, yes I love to cover as much of my house as possible in christmassy goodness but I like to go with the flow in each room. Deciding on a theme or colour scheme can really help you. It really narrows down what to look for, what to buy, what not to buy and gives your Christmas a unique feel.

Of course the best place to find lots of inspiration is pinterest and you can see my list of Christmas themes here.

2. Make a list of Christmas gifts.

This is kind of obvious but its a really great way to reduce the stress! I hate shopping a Christmas time especially when you don't know what to get someone- I do love Christmas shopping when I have all my gifts done and I can enjoy the atmosphere and stay away from Christmas lines!  Its also such a money saver when you are not at the shops in a panic trying to madly find something special for someone special! So get started on that list and pop some gifts away, you'll be so happy you did!

3. Make a list of any handmade items you would like to make.

This year I am making a few small hand made gifts for friends and even these take time. If you leave it too late you just wont do it! Now is the time to get going on hand made gifts. I am also making lots of hand made decorations this year as well as my 180 ornaments I am also making some glitter houses to decorate my tree.

4. Organize your Advent Calendar.

Over the past few years my boys have enjoyed an activity and a chocolate on each day of advent, it makes the entire Christmas period so special and so fun!  They have requested to have the same again this year and they have also requested that there be more crafty activities in the mix this year. There are so so many amazing advent ideas out there you can see my advent pin board here. It pays to get this one out of the way early if you want to try something different or new because it can take a little time to plan and create. And really there is only just over 100 days until Advent begins :-)

I've bee so inspired by so many advent calendars so  made these advent bag houses for my boys. Each one contains a Project life card with an instruction to their activity and a chocolate each. Any crafty materials  or activity materials will be placed in the Advent house that I made last year (it's had an update!). My over all theme this year is winter wonderland. I'm creating lots of little houses for a village feel in my family room. And of course I am making lots of other bits and bobs I'll share here along the way. Hope this list helped you!

Snail Mail Outgoing

I recently created this snail mail for my pen pal. As I said in my last post I have been super inspired by all this cold weather here in Australia. And the theme for this Christmas is a winter wonderland. I am going to have lots of houses around the place. My pen pal asked me how my Christmas planning was going and well I just couldn't help but tell her all about it in this mail.

  I simply used some pens to draw on the box and wrote her address on the right hand side.

It opened up to have a little winter village inside. A little view of my Christmas plans :-)

 I created a pocket pouch to hold the letter by sticking two pieces of  white card together and cutting slits in the top piece to crate the pocket and then added a flower to the front that I had cut with my silhouette. 

 I put my letter in the left pocket, the plan in the middle and a pattern in the right. I also added in a photo copy of a pattern that I thought she might like.

I had really wished that I could have made something useful, my pen pal Sara makes me the most wonderful things that I can actually use, so I felt a little guilty sending something that is purely pretty, but it is also nice to have something pretty in the mail, I guess.

Of course it was lots of fun to make and I always love to sit down and read a letter from my pen pal- its such a lovely thing to do. So different from our more modern forms of communication!